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Enhance your Professional Services Automation team with Tempo's integrated solutions

By addressing these challenges head-on, you can be putting out fires while also future-proofing your operations.
From Team '23

Tempo Team

Professional Services Automation teams in large organizations are under enormous pressure to be nothing short of extraordinary.

Between balancing sky-high client expectations and managing a slew of complex projects, the professional services, customer support, and customer success teams of this world have it more challenging than ever. 

But don't worry; we're not here to dwell on the problems. We're here to offer solutions.

So, why should you, as a project manager, team lead, or account manager, be proactive about these challenges? Simple. By addressing these challenges head-on, you're putting out fires while also future-proofing your operations. That brings us to how Tempo can make a difference.

The combination of Timesheets, Planner, and Financial Manager in one seamlessly integrated solution within Jira ensures streamlined operations that will satisfy customer expectations, while closing projects as quickly as possible to recognize revenue and drive toward increased profitability.

Stay with us as we unpack these challenges and explore how Tempo's integrated solution can be the game-changer your client services team needs.

Professional Services Automation teams are at the forefront of customer interactions, with the daunting task of providing impeccable service. In large organizations, this responsibility comes with a unique set of challenges that can affect the entire business. Let's dig in and dissect these critical obstacles.

Five key challenges facing teams in Professional Services Automation today

1. Personnel constraints

When resources are stretched thin, the entire organization can feel the impact, from slower project completion to decreased client satisfaction.

Impact on your business: This impacts your team and hurts your revenues. Limited personnel affects productivity and can stretch client services teams too thin, risking errors and service delays. Not to mention team morale, which can lead to attrition.

With teams operating at maximum capacity you won’t have any flexibility should new business come in, or an existing customer needs more support.

A solution to consider: Investing in automated tools to handle routine tasks can free up team members to focus on more complex, value-added activities.

2. Decreased profitability

Ensuring high-quality service while maintaining profitability is a tough balancing act that affects the bottom line.

Impact on your business: Cost overruns and inefficient processes eat into margins, making profitability a constant concern.

Failing to meet project milestones on time leads to extended timelines and increased costs, reducing overall profitability.

A solution to consider: Streamlining your processes with the proper insights can help deliver in less time and with fewer resources, to increase profitability and scale your business.

By regularly reviewing capacity and costs against incoming projects, personnel demands and income, you can ensure that profit/loss is heading in the right direction.

3. Limited data and visibility

Inadequate data can handicap the decision-making process, affecting strategy and execution.

Impact on your business: Limited visibility into key metrics makes it challenging to identify areas for improvement or investment. Decisions being made on guess work lead to dissatisfied customers, wasted resources, and make staff feel misaligned.

A solution to consider: Employing robust analytics tools can provide invaluable insights for continuous improvement.

4. Poor client retention

High client churn rates can be devastating for both morale and revenue. You need to get to the root cause of your churn challenges and address them swiftly, leveraging the data and insights at your disposal.

Impact on your business: Other than the obvious revenue hit, the loss of long-term clients can have a domino effect, hurting reputation and affecting future client acquisition.

A solution to consider: By adopting real-time reporting and analytics, businesses can make timely and effective decisions that help them stay ahead of their clients’ expectations. 

Implementing regular client feedback loops and acting on the received insights can go a long way in improving retention rates.

5. Inability to predict project resourcing needs

Poor forecasting can throw a wrench in operations, affecting everything from workload management to client satisfaction.

Impact on your business: Inaccurate resource planning can lead to project delays, cost overruns, and stressed-out teams.

A solution to consider: Utilizing advanced forecasting tools can enhance the accuracy of resource planning, ensuring projects run smoothly from start to finish.

How Tempo supports Professional Services Automation teams

Jira is an excellent foundational tool for project management, but to truly see value and scale a Professional Services operation with Jira, we need to expand its capabilities with other tools to deliver insight into the business processes of project and portfolio management to improve the efficiency, productivity, and profitability of the project operations in place.

That’s where Timesheets, Planner, and Financial Manager come in. These three products have been tightly integrated to create a cyclical pattern of optimization that will enable companies to not only deliver on time and budget, but to also increase the profitability of those projects over time.

Delight, get it right, and keep it tight

When it comes to client services greatness, we feel that the right tools are a superpower. By planning, tracking, and managing your projects with Tempo you’ll feel in complete control. 

Delight: Your customers (and your boss)

With Tempo you can speed up decision-making, improve prioritization, increase reliability, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

With Tempo you can:

  • Shift focus to client satisfaction rather than arduous administrative tasks

  • Anticipate future costs and resource requirements 

  • Proactively manage their project budgets and investments with predictive analytics and project forecasting

  • Prioritize and select projects based on their financial feasibility, aligning them with organizational goals and budget constraints

  • Make informed decisions, prevent budget overruns, and ensure that investments align with business objectives

Pro tip: Plan projected vs. actual costs and revenue with Planner/Financial Manager integration

Get it right: Utilize resources effectively

Allocate resources based on roles, skills, and availability to increase billable hours and profitability – no matter what the geography.

With Tempo you can:

  • Track project expenses, allocate budgets, and ensure that resources are utilized efficiently. 

  • Allocate and optimize staff members based on budget constraints and project priorities.

  • Gain insight into if team members are regularly going over capacity to help prevent burnout

  • Easily adjust allocations to balance workload

  • Plan for staffing shortages and make informed hiring decisions to balance workload

Pro tip: With Timesheets you get AI powered intelligent suggestions, such as calendar integrations, which allows your teams to log time with just one click. No more excuses, just better data to drive your decision making.

Keep it tight: Control your costs and improve project profitability

Control costs to prevent client projects from ever going over hours or over budget.

With Tempo you can:

  • Track estimated vs actual results to make sure your projects are profitable

  • Get a real-time overview of project and portfolio progress and utilization

  • Shift focus to client satisfaction rather than arduous administrative tasks

  • Understand where the budget is being spent and identify cost-saving opportunities or areas of overspending

  • Proactively manage their project budgets and investments with predictive analytics

Pro tip: Use Financial Manager to create financial reports and dashboards that provide insights into project and portfolio costs, budget variances, and financial performance. 

See it for yourself

Work in Professional Services Automation and want to see how Tempo can help solve your challenges?