Why Do You Keep Changing Software Systems? (And how to avoid it!)
On average, a professional services firm have two major software changes per year. Imagine the cost of the business disruption!
Despite all the technology around us today, at large, most of the professional services firms struggle to find the right business management system to run their organisation. In fact, there is a whole industry category called Professional Services Automation (PSA) that promises that one tool will solve all needs of a professional services firm, yet organisations find themselves constantly changing systems in their daily workflow.
The Pitfalls of Broad-Scope Solutions
The reason organisations keep changing their systems, is most keep attempting buying solutions that have a broad scope of capability (id est they promise to do everything or at least to cover a large chunk of business function). The reality is that professional services firms are all very different in their operation, and they also change over time. This means that such solutions, which have large and complex business processes modelled in it, is likely to be quickly outdated by the changes in the organisation over time.
Divide and Conquer with Modular Systems
The answer is to avoid large system and to divide and conquer. Well integrated, small operational systems deliver more dexterity and capability to the businesses than large ‘all-can-do’ systems. Typically, a professional services firm will have four key types of data that they need to manage:
Job/contract management
Timesheet tools
Resource planning tools
Billing tools
Provided you select the right tools, they will integrate well, and even if one of the tools becomes outdated, it is much easier to correct the issue than to replace a large PSA system. Using smaller modular solutions tend to also deliver greater user experience benefit, as they will focus on one thing and do it well, rather than try and be a master of all.
We’d love to hear about how you are overcoming this challenge, get in touch, we’d like to share ideas.