R. David Hofferberth is the Managing Director of Service Performance Insight (SPI Research), a research organisation dedicated to operational efficiency and effectiveness in services-driven organisations. The focus of SPI Research is on the use of software solutions to optimise the three main components of services-driven organisations, People, Process and Capital.
David has over 20 years of experience in the IT sector. He’s worked as an analyst and consultant at a leading firm, and as services product director at Oracle. In 1999 he coined the term Professional Services Automation (PSA), when he published what is widely considered to be the seminal report, Professional Services Automation: Increasing Efficiencies and Profitability in Professional Services Organisations, as an analyst with the Aberdeen Group in Boston.
David recently saw a demo of People Planner and we asked him to share his thoughts with us on the solution, as well as on the general trends happening within the professional services organisation (PSO) market.
What is your impression of Maconomy?
I focus on about 10 ERP providers who are market leaders in providing solutions to PSOs, and Maconomy is one of them. I have tracked the company for a number of years, and I think they are innovative, forward-looking within their scope, and an excellent global vendor that has a lot of potential to grow, for example, in the North American market.
What were your first impressions of People Planner?
I was impressed with its look and feel, innovation and user-friendly interface. For example, I like that you can group projects by different colours; it is a simple element, but it makes a difference in ease of use. You can look at the schedule and understand the information it presents. I just don’t see this from other vendors right now.
It is great that an ERP vendor can provide a focused and innovative solution such as People Planner that is fully integrated with the wider Maconomy offering. Small, best-of-breed vendors also create innovative solutions but they must often be integrated with other solutions.
People Planner sets itself apart because it includes resource planning along with project planning. This is its real strength. Most vendors are currently not strong in designing resource planning tools. It is not enough to just do project planning; without resource planning you won’t be able to see where constraints can pop up in a plan.
How can People Planner help PSOs meet the challenges in their markets today?
Maconomy is already strong in the Marketing Communications vertical, so People Planner could help them manage their marketing and sales initiatives.
People Planner can also help PSOs build their ideal work force. It can help you pinpoint the skills you will need for a particular project, or set of projects. Any firm, large or small, that has satellite offices or subsidiaries is going to have to leverage the human capital they have and balance out skills and utilisation across their organisation. People Planner can help organisations analyze their people, skills, availability and competency. Overall, you want to optimise the services delivery lifecycle, or SDL: where projects are delivered faster, with great efficiency and with better people.
What are some of the elements that have to be in place for a firm to successfully use a solution such as People Planner?
There has to be executive commitment from the start. The CEO has to understand the value proposition and champion the solution. He or she has to provide information and justification to their staff for why they are implementing a capacity and resource planning (CRP) solution and provide an ongoing plan of action for its adoption and use.
A solution such as People Planner needs to be used globally; it is not enough if only two departments for offices use it.
As well, I would say that a CRP solution needs to be an integrated part of an overall ERP solution. The leaders of PSOs I talk to today want integration between their processes and across their product portfolio. You want one solution that encompasses Financials, CRM, HR, Invoicing, Planning and Analysis.
What are some of the general trends you see today in the market?
There is a lot more competition; a lot of mergers; more corporate governance, and high employee turnover and dissatisfaction, especially in the U.S., where people are often expected to work very long hours.
Executives now see that high employee turnover does not do their companies any good. They need to look more at how they sell, why they win sales, who are the best customers, and so on.
A great number of PSOs utilise external partners now as a matter of routine. This could be a positive trend, as it can allow a PSO to focus on their core competencies and outsource the rest.
Overall, it is a more complex world, and therefore, standardisation and structure are needed.
What role can IT play in this increasingly complex market?
I think IT is leading PSOs to process maturity. Ten years ago I saw PSOs that had a set of best practices in one office and another set in a different office. Or, different subsidiaries of one company would employ their own financial solutions, so that reconciliation was really difficult. I saw business managers plan for their businesses in spreadsheets – or even with pen and paper!
As I said earlier, I hear PSOs want more integration. Maconomy’s customers understand project management. People Planner can help them better sell themselves to their own clients and customers. For example, wouldn’t it be great if, at the start of a project, a firm could say to its client or customer exactly which resources will be assigned to the project? It would give the customer greater assurance that the project will be done on time and within budget. It gives them the information they need, and overall, it shows that the PSO are serious professionals.
Read more about the expertise David offers at www.spiresearch.com