Maturing Professional Services: Time Management
Professional Services is broken down into 6 key components: Time Management, Project Management, Selling Services, Resource Management, Skills Management and Services Billing. In this blog, we address the maturity curve of time management. The maturity curve consists of: Initial, Repeatable, Controlled, Optimized, and Continuous Improvement. Time management is a critical component of services organizations whether your services packages are Fixed Fee, T&E, Milestone or hybrid structures. We provide both process and Certinia PSA product focus areas for identification and improvement. Let’s dive right in!
Maturity Level 1: Initial
Characteristics: Resources not submitting their own time cards in the system
Primary Output: Billable Timecards
Process Focus Areas:
No Approval Process (auto-approval or self-approval)
No data validations
Focused on capturing Billable time only, for Time & Expense Projects
Product Focus Areas:
Centralized Time Entry (on behalf of Resources)
Loading Timecard data from external system
Maturity Level 2: Repeatable
Characteristics: Inconsistent Time Tracking & Time Card Approval without a defined process. Often find timecard data issues during Billing and need to go back to edit approved time cards
Primary Output: Timecard reports
Process Focus Areas:
Focused on capturing all billable time
Defined Time Tracking process and policy
No approval process or manager approves all time
Consistent setup of Projects & Assignments with the correct attributes to categorize time
Product Focus Areas:
Project & Assignment Creation
Time Entry
Maturity Level 3: Controlled
Characteristics: Standard processes defined for Time Entry & Time Card Approvals with weekly deadlines. Starting to monitor & reinforce process weekly
Primary Output: Historical Utilization
Process Focus Areas:
Focused on capturing all time (Billable, Non-billable, PTO)
Time entry level of detail (Milestone vs Task) aligns with Planning and billing
Procedures and schedule for Time Entry and Time Card Approvals
Reducing Missing Time Cards and late Approvals
Product Focus Areas:
Missing Timecards
Reports for Time Card Compliance
Time Card Approvals
Services Delivery Workspace for Resources
Utilization
Maturity Level 4: Optimized
Characteristics: Standard processes defined for Time Entry & Time Card Approvals with weekly deadlines. Starting to monitor & reinforce process weekly
Primary Output: Historical Utilization
Process Focus Areas:
Focused on capturing all time (Billable, Non-billable, PTO)
Time entry level of detail (Milestone vs Task) aligns with Planning and billing
Procedures and schedule for Time Entry and Time Card Approvals
Reducing Missing TIme Cards and late Approvals
Product Focus Areas:
Missing Timecards
Reports for Time Card Compliance
Time Card Approvals
Services Delivery Workspace for Resources
Utilization
Maturity Level 5: Continuous Improvement
Characteristics: Automation to support accurate and consistent Time Entry and Approvals to reduce intervention from Operations
Primary Output: Predictive Utilization
Process Focus Areas:
Automated data validation during time entry and/or approvals
Predict utilization based on combination of historical trends and scheduled time
Increasing efficiency of Time Entry and Approvals through PSA features and reporting
Product Focus Areas:
‘Project Schedule Risk’ Analytics Dashboard
Automation for Timecard Data Validation
We all strive for continuous improvement. However, identifying current and ideal maturity is critical to achieving continuous improvement. Enjoy this blog, check out the other 5 professional services maturity blogs. Ready to dive into your professional services maturity journey? Take the next right step and reach out to our team!
