ConnectWise PSA Helps Solve Resource Utilization Problems For IT Solutions Providers

Resource Utilization: Key to Success for Service-Based Companies

ConnectWise maximizes resource utilization For service-based companies, labor costs are often the highest expense category. Billable employees are revenue generators, so managing their cost is a key factor in profitability. This is why maximizing utilization is so important. The difficulty arises because it is a complex environment: work comes in at a variable rate, the length of time to complete work is variable, different tasks and activities have differing priorities. Added to this are differences in skill sets that must be matched to work, scheduling changes, and more. To top it off, your success at managing this effectively – from your client’s perspective – is essential to achieving client satisfaction, loyalty and retention.

Non-billable or administrative employees are also a significant cost. Automating to reduce manual efforts or redundant data entry and a constant refinement of process for maximum efficiency make a huge difference in this labor cost category. Finally, to the degree you can use your business automation system in lieu of managers, you will also see a large labor cost savings.

ConnectWise PSA gives you everything you need to increase utilization of billable and non-billable employees at a level that assures individual and combined profitability of your resources. In fact, the functionality in ConnectWise PSA makes it so easy to increase utilization that your project managers and service managers will go from being grumpy to being the pleasant folks they were when you hired them. The secret sauce is that we built this business automation around the needs of IT companies, so the solution is targeted and precise.

How Do You Know If You Have Resource Utilization Problem?
Take a look at the following list of questions. Answering as indicated on several of them may suggest a need to focus your attention on improving your utilization:

Do you know the utilization rates for all billable employees at any given moment? Do you know the trends?
Is your average utilization rate for billable employees greater than 72%?
Do you know how long it takes to complete each type of service ticket and each type of project task? Do you know the trend over time?
Do your billable employees know their schedules for tomorrow when they leave work today?
Do billable employees go straight to their first appointment in the morning instead of first coming to the office?
Are you able to bundle up open service tickets for clients when an on-site visit is scheduled so as to minimize the number of client site visits?
Do your service techs go prepared with the inventory to fix problems on a single visit to clients, when possible?
Do your agreements with clients include billing for drive time?
Can your field personnel, both service and project, receive schedule updates in real time via mobile devices?
Can your service techs update support tickets remotely, from the web or mobile device, to immediately report time & expenses and trigger the next client activity?
Do your billable employees know their own utilization rates and have utilization targets?

Causes & Cures For Your Low Resource Utilization Troubles
Management of your IT Solutions company can be boiled down to a need to focus on the three key areas that matter: Knowing, Doing, and Measuring. These are described in the Overview of Management & Workflow Problems. It is important for you to create long term solutions to your challenges, and not just quick fixes. ConnectWise PSA was built on industry best practices (ITIL Standards) and is continually honed to give you a business automation solution that meets your needs now and in the future. By attending to these three key areas, ConnectWise PSA helps you set up a ‘virtuous cycle’ that permits you to continually achieve success for your business.

Key Areas	Cause	Cure
Knowing	You do not know utilization rates for today and yesterday, much less what is forecasted for tomorrow You do not know until month end (or later) what percentage of billable employees time was invoiced	Real time reports that show utilization rates and historical trends, by individual, group or company Forecast utilization Report on billed and realized revenue against utilization
Doing	Dispatchers cannot easily balance utilization across resources or resource groups You do not have multiple service or project queues with unique or shared resources allocated for each Billable employees do not have field access to their schedules so cannot see changes or make updates Billable employees do not know their schedule until the day of execution Billable employees come to the office before first appt. It is difficult for the dispatcher to see all open tickets for a client when scheduling an on-site appt.	Utilization goals for each employee that are communicated to them Incentives for high utilization achievement Scheduling tools that enable real time visibility into resource schedules System tools that facilitate load balancing across multiple projects or queues and that bring attention to load balances, potential double booking, mismatches, etc. Robust mobile devices for field employees that allows 2-way updates and continual synchronization Tools by which service ticket or project task updates populate time & expenses for more complete and accurate capture of billable time Processes that put resources in the field at start times System tools that enable your scheduler to know status of all tickets and tasks throughout the day Automated escalation for tickets at risk of not meeting SLAs at any given moment
Measuring	You cannot see, in real time, the utilization rates for today You cannot see utilization over time, by employee, groups of employees or company You cannot see trends in the amount of time it takes to complete types of service or project tasks	Schedules and dashboards that emphasize utilization rates in real time Employee reports that show utilization, billing and realization against quotas Analysis reports that show COGS for various service ticket and project tasks, current and trends

ConnectWise PSA Helps You Solve Low Resource Utilization Problems
ConnectWise PSA will dramatically increase your utilization rates. Some of the major functionality that helps you accomplish this includes:

Service Ticket Dispatcher tools that provide a calendar view of scheduled activity, with drill down into service ticket details.
Service and Project Scheduler tools that enable multiple schedules and load balancing across multiple queues or projects.
One-click access to employee or group schedule with color-coded utilization forecasts.
Drag-and-drop scheduling or rescheduling, even across different projects or service boards.
Service board icons that enable Dispatchers to see the status of today’s service ticket activity, including indicators the ticket has been read, acted on or closed.
System checks to prevent resource/task mismatches, double-booking, and more.
Numerous standard reports to monitor current and historical utilization by employee, group and company.
Mobile device add-on that could, at the extreme, give a field employee all tools and information needed about tickets and project tasks, without them ever having to come to the office.
Mobile device add-on that synchronizes in real time and that allows updates to tickets or tasks, populates service boards / projects, and directly feeds both time and expense reports and client invoices.
Elimination of dual entry by all employees, billable and administrative, that decreases administrative burden and increases productivity.

This list is not exhaustive, but it is representative to give you a sense that ConnectWise PSA truly can help you more effectively manage your resources. Our solution drives higher utilization rates, faster billing cycles and higher realization of invoiced activities.

ConnectWise PSA: The Total Business Automation Solution for IT Solutions Companies
ConnectWise PSA is a complete suite of modules that automate and integrate every process in your IT business: Find & Win Opportunities; Capture, Plan & Schedule Won Deals; Manage Projects & Services; Track, Approve & Invoice; Analyze & Report; Integrate to Internal & External Applications. ConnectWise PSA is offered both as premise based or hosted (subscription based) solution.

Learn more. See all ConnectWise PSA Product Module Features.

The sole purpose of ConnectWise PSA is to give you transparency into and control over your business, a faster and higher cash flow, more revenues, greater profits and higher levels of client satisfaction.

See How ConnectWise PSA Helps You Solve Other Management Problems.
See How ConnectWise PSA Helps You Solve Your Workflow Problems.