Consulting utilization software

That is why one of our primary goals at EVX is to make measuring utilization and other consulting KPIs simple and easy. What obstacles have you come across in your journey to measure utilization?

Why EVX? Conrado Vina. So what is utilization? Some work obviously belongs — billed hours on a time and materials project should definitely go in there and is relatively easy to pull together.

But what about the work on that fixed-fee project that is over-budget? What about useful but non-billable work? Quoting and proposal-preparation work on won projects?

There is a lot to consider regarding the activities that your employees undertake in your firm. Depending on the organization, utilization calculation could be performed:. Of billable employees Of non-billable or internal employees Of all team members With included time off With excluded time off Based on total tracked hours billable and internal Based on capacity employee availability, like full-time vs.

Utilization calculation example. This represents 1, hours billed. Assuming 52 working weeks and 10 holidays in 1 year 2, hours the annual employee utilization in this case is This metric measures the amount of money a consulting firm makes from a specific consulting project.

This metric is measured by taking the revenue made from a project and subtracting by the cost to deliver the project. If a project costs more than the revenue made from a project, than the consulting company needs to reconsider the amount of money that has been charged or billed for a project or possibly may need to manage projects more efficiently to be able to return a profit from the project.

Customer Satisfaction What is this metric? Customer satisfaction surveys may specifically dive into questions regarding quality of service, quality of work completed, timely completion of work, responsiveness to inquiries and other areas. Calculation This metric may be measured by conducting a formal satisfaction survey or may be measured by less formal feedback methods including emails, conversations, etc.

Customer satisfaction is important because it provides actionable data on how management consulting firms can improve their services. If customer satisfaction is high, clients may recommend the consulting firm to others in the business world. Share this Post.

By tracking your metrics, you will dramatically improve your business results. For each metric, we will answer the following questions: — What is the metric? Improving Application Utilization First and foremost a detailed assessment of the current state of application utilization has to be undertaken. A current assessment should include the following: Is the data being collected in a timely, accurate, relevant, objective, comprehensive and actionable fashion?

What is the time gap between the time information is collected in the field to the time it reaches in-house personnel and management?

Are the time gaps acceptable for the various applications and situations? Is the information reliable as to provide management with information that can be acted upon immediately, or is the data stale and only useful for historical and statistical reporting?

Are report approval processes seamless and adequate to move reports quickly from CAD to mobile to RMS to dashboards, so that management can act on the information proactively? Are there any manual processes or workflows that have not been automated? Action Plan Once a current assessment has been completed, then an action plan can be developed to improve processes and workflows. Assessment of all the technical aspects of the work environment, including workstations and mobile devices having the latest operating and application software installed, with the latest map updates.

Conducting an assessment with department leads to review the current operational environment and identify process and workflow improvements that can be immediately implemented as well as ones that will need additional training or application change orders to accomplish.

Developing a plan that includes a gap analysis of the current system utilization and compares it to existing features and functions of the applications to determine what changes can be implemented Identifying application functions that will improve agency operations and effectiveness, based on the gap analysis requirements verses features and functions not available through current applications.

Creating operational plan that includes immediate, medium term and long-term initiatives. Develop an annual assessment document that provides recommendations and remedial actions to be taken to improve any deficiencies uncovered. Determine what application features and functions have not been implemented and determine their applicability to the agency, then develop a plan to remedy the situation.

Maintain user proficiency in the use of the various applications: Develop new and ongoing application software training curriculums with video training courses. After the initial training curriculums are developed, they should be revisited annually to make any relevant changes based on new processes and workflows or new features and functions released by the application vendors.

Annual refresher training with proficiency exams and remedial training could be implemented. Monitor application utilization and adherence to policies and procedures, assuming policies and procedures are up-to-date including an annual review of application utilization with an assessment and recommendations on how to improve processes and workflows.

Develop internal department-centric user manuals and make them available online from a web portal or through the application itself.