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Transforming the
Services-Centric
Tech Stack
Achieving Agility and Operational Excellence
in a Connected World
1
INTRODUCTION
Thriving in the Digital Age
2
CHAPTER 1
The Problem with Today’s Tech Stacks
6
CHAPTER 2
Realities of a Hairball Infrastructure
10
CHAPTER 3
Digital Strategy for Modern Services Organizations
16
CHAPTER 4
Benefits of the Operational System of Record
18
CHAPTER 5
Key Tech in the Stack
22
CHAPTER 6
Integration: Critical Layer in a Cloud Connected World
What makes this moment in time especially
unique is the speed with which change is
occurring. Today, business agility is more
important than ever. A startup can emerge
tomorrow that will transform an industry
and take down companies that have led a
market for decades. This profound shift has
the potential to transform every business
model and every industry.
Leaders looking to thrive in this digital
era must be flexible, prepared for
change, and in a constant state of inno-
vation. It requires a look to the future
and an understanding of the existing,
and coming impediments to growth.
A critical starting point is understanding
the technology underpinnings of a
business. Digital transformation is the
quickest way for organizations to mod-
ernize operations. However, digitizing a
business means more than just introduc-
ing new technologies—it fundamentally
changes the way a firm thinks and does
work. Most businesses have approached
application architecture haphazardly
and don’t have an explicit digital per-
spective or strategy that drives technol-
ogy priorities. This often results in a
tangled web of systems, which decreases
productivity, increases the cost of work,
and ultimately makes it very difficult for
management to oversee the day-to-day
work at a services firm.
We have created the following whitepaper
to serve as a manifesto for change. We will
review trends driving the growth and
transformation of services industries,
assess the limitations of the current tech-
nology landscape, and put forward an
emerging model that’s enabling today’s
progressive professional and marketing
services organizations to operate with
greater agility, predictability, and precision.
Welcome to the digital age, where technology is the central
axis of our world and applications allow us to do things that
were previously unimaginable. This new era has moved the
pace of innovation forward at a blistering rate.
INTRODUCTION
TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 1
The Problem with
Today’s Tech Stacks
CHAPTER 1
2 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
The cloud has been incredibly
transformative in both our personal lives
and the way business is conducted. It
has allowed organizations to be more
agile, leading to numerous new models
and practices. Businesses in every
industry are pursuing the promise of
digital transformation.
However, adoption of new technology
alone does not usher in necessary change.
In the services industry, it has actually
hindered progress. A sea of applications
have been deployed in an attempt to sim-
plify, streamline, and propel business,
and in the process created many gaps in
process and systems.
Therefore to understand the opportunity
for the rapidly growing $3 trillion services
sector in adopting a modern technology
environment, one must first understand
how technology has underserved these
industries to date.
The Promise of ERP
Even just one decade ago, Enterprise
Resource Management (ERP) solutions
were acting as the procedural backbone
for most mid to large sized enterprises.
Names like Oracle and SAP dominated the
business software discussion. Although
known as complex, expensive, and inflex-
ible, ERP solutions were routinely selected
due to their broad capabilities.
TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 3
ERP was initially designed for manufactur-
ing companies, which relied on producing
and distributing products for revenue. As
a result, the operational capabilities were
designed to support a myriad of depart-
ments and functions not relevant to critical
services operations; for example, materials
and inventory control, distribution, order
management, and production. Services-
centric organizations, on the other hand,
are often project-based and require
complex coordination of people. These
businesses have unique needs around
facilitating collaboration, project planning
and execution, resource utilization, and
managing project costs—which ERP was
not designed for.
The Emergence of PSA
To meet the needs of an increasingly ser-
vices-driven economy, some ERP vendors
began offering integrated services modules,
also known as Professional Services
Automation (PSA) solutions. Additionally,
independent PSA applications also began to
emerge. These tools incorporate function-
ality such as project and resource planning,
time tracking, expense management, and
invoicing. Service Performance Insight
(SPI), a global research, consulting and
training organization dedicated to helping
professional service organizations, found
that using PSA software leads to higher
rates of on-time project delivery and more
accurate project estimates—so, PSA apps
have provided value beyond ERP.1
Yet, there have been significant limita-
tions. PSA solutions were designed pri-
marily with top-down planning and
management in mind, and the reality is
that a majority of non-management
workers in a services organization access
it only to enter time and expenses on a
weekly or infrequent basis. A majority of
the actual work happening in a services
business—project management, task
management, communication, team col-
laboration, and working with clients and
subcontractors—is happening outside of
the PSA solution.
1	
Urich, Jeanne. “Revenue and Jobs Soar for 2017 Best-of-the-
Best Professional Services Organizations.” SPI Research. Service
Performance Insight, 2017. 5 May 2017.
4 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
Collaborative Work
Management (CWM) tools
bridge project management,
task management and
collaboration to enable
distributed teams and drive
business productivity.
“
The Introduction of
Collaborative Work
Management Tools
The most significant weakness with PSA
tools is that they do not facilitate the
collaboration that is required today.
Collaboration is key across teams, and cli-
ent collaboration is even more important
in services. To fill some of the gaps and
help with day-to-day operations, workers
have incorporated additional productivity
tools, often referred to as Collaborative
Work Management software.
Collaborative Work Management (CWM)
tools bridge project management, task
management and collaboration to enable
distributed teams and drive business pro-
ductivity. Now, companies are using both
PSA as well as CWM tools, and continue to
pile on more and more applications to the
technology infrastructure one at a time.
Today the average worker uses 5-8 addi-
tional niche solutions that support the
major areas of communication and collab-
oration needs across the business.2
Without
the adoption of these applications, services
operations would come to a halt.
2	
“Cloud Adoption & Risk Report.” Skyhigh Networks. Gartner,
2016. Web. 20 June 2017.
TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 5
CHAPTER 2
Realities of a Hairball
Infrastructure
6 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
There is no doubt that
with the growth of the
services economy, adoption
of technology to more
effectively run services-
centric businesses is on
the rise.3
Even with an abundance of innovative ERP, PSA, and other project
management, resource management, collaboration, and produc-
tivity tools in place—or perhaps because of these—there are gaps
that exist. These gaps are often filled with manual procedures
and spreadsheets, creating significant operating challenges.
Running a business
with spreadsheets is limiting
Existing ERP solutions and PSA solutions do not have the breadth
of operational functionality required to effectively manage a
services business. As a result, services organizations have been
forced to turn to other systems to manage core parts of their
business—namely resource planning and management, collab-
oration, and project execution. Thus, the data that is actually
driving the business lives in disparate systems. In order to gain
insights from this data, organizations have the option to either:
layer an intelligence system on top of multiple, disparate sys-
tems (which gets tremendously complex and costly), or to take
the more common solution and resort to spreadsheets to extract
and tie data together.
Spreadsheet based ‘solutions’ pose many critical problems. It
takes constant diligence and countless hours to cobble together
the information needed to grasp the levers and measures that are
impacting the business. They also only reveal what has occurred
(e.g. historical utilization), and by the time the information is
consolidated and analyzed, it’s often too late to make a change
that will improve the result of a project. Therefore the entire
operation slows as it waits for information to come together from
the past, in order to make important decisions for the future.
Existing business systems
struggle with unique projects
Services businesses vary hugely in terms of what they deliver to
their customers and the scale on which they operate. The issue
is that traditional business solutions have been specifically
designed to create a consistent, standard pace of production. In
services industries, clients are constantly presenting new,
unique, and challenging projects. Existing tools are often not
flexible enough to deliver on these custom projects at the rate
the business must move.
3	
Leinwand, Allan. “What The Rise Of Cloud Computing Means For IT
Pros.” Forbes. Forbes Media, 28 February 2017. 7 June 2017.
TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 7
The plethora of stitched
together tools has
created chaos
By integrating resource planning with time
and expense tracking, PSA was designed to
provide management visibility into
resources and financials. However, the
reality is, these apps offer shallow func-
tionality and the bulk of the organization is
executing and managing their work in other
systems. Employees have been forced to
organically adopt cloud-based tools to drive
critical project management, collaboration,
and communication activities. Each of these
point solutions can serve a role, however
too many of these systems in a stack creates
chaos. It’s now more challenging to find and
track critical correspondence, feedback,
change orders, budgets, and more.
Furthermore, jumping in and out of all of
these systems is reducing productivity in
the workplace. Citing research from the
American Psychological Association, the
Forrester Enterprise Collaborative Work
Management Wave Report points out that
the mental block created by this constant
switching from app to app is reducing
worker productivity by 40 percent.4
4	
Visitacion, Margo. “The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise
Collaborative Work Management, Q4 2016.” Project Place.
Forrester, 17 October 2016. 10 May 2017.
TIME TRACKING
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
SOFTWARE
ACCOUNTING
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
SOFTWARE
TEAM COLLABORATION
PSA
ERP
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Chat
Resource Planning
File Sharing Video Conferencing
Resource Scheduling
Email
Spreadsheets 
 Resource Allocation 
Job Costing
Expense Tracking
Reports
Task Managment
Subcontractor Management
Client Portal
Challenges of a
Hairball Infrastructure
8 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
With the speed and complexity of work today,
it is increasingly challenging to operate within
fragmented business environments.
The emerging issue that services teams face is that not all
project delivery related data is tracked in a single 'system
of record'. Getting out of siloed systems is critical: services
organizations must move beyond spreadsheets if they
are to thrive in the fast-paced, hyper-connected, hyper
specialized world of the Service Level Economy.
Poor adoption of PSA and time
tracking tools is costing money
Another result of the work being conducted
outside of PSA, or point time tracking tools, is
the accuracy and timelines of submitted
timesheets. Both issues are costing services
organizations a lot of money. Because the time
tracking system is not where the work is hap-
pening, often employees bulk enter time at the
end of the week, or the end of the month. It’s
almost impossible to remember the particu-
lars of where time was spent on activities that
far in the past. As a result, employees are in
the habit of entering what was assigned, even
if in reality they spent 20 percent more time
(or less) on a billable project than was allo-
cated. Harvard Business Review reported that
inaccurate time sheets are costing businesses
billions of dollars every day.5
Resources are not
being fully utilized
The typical PSA user relies on outside time
tracking procedures to record resource allo-
cation, hours, and project assignments. This
makes it difficult to truly know who is on the
bench and who is available to be assigned to
work at any given time. Even sophisticated
services businesses often manage resource
allocation via spreadsheets and homegrown
solutions. This disconnectedness has had a
significant negative impact on utilization in
services firms, which hampers margins.
Project financials
handled separately from
project execution results
in margin leakage
Housing project financials in one system, and
project tasks and execution details in another,
poses significant risks to the performance of
any services organization. When project man-
agement and task management is managed in
apps or systems separate from the tracking of
time, costs, and bill rates, visibility is difficult.
Adjustments that could impact project finan-
cials are delayed or never made, and as a result,
margins suffer. Every single project in a
services business has the potential to leak
profits. Minimizing this leakage begins with
the identification of the problem at the project
level. With project work disconnected from
project financials, by the time a problem is
identified, it is often too late to rectify.
Margins suffer.
5	
Gavvet, Gretchen. “Workers Are Bad at Filling Out Timesheets, and
It Costs Billions a Day.” Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business
Publishing, 12 January 2015. 14 May 2017.
TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 9
CHAPTER 3
The Digital Strategy
for Modern Services
Organizations
10 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
Forward-thinking services
leaders are actively seeking
operating models that allow
them to better connect,
orchestrate, and optimize
their businesses and resources.
As more systems are required to compete in today’s
environment, more data is being spread across
siloed systems, causing major challenges for service
operations. It is becoming a requirement for business
leaders to understand the implications of a dispa-
rate technology architecture. The first place to start
is in identifying the key systems of record. A system
of record can be understood as the authoritative data
source for an organization.
There are four key systems of record that enable a suc-
cessful services ecosystem: Operational System of
Record, Customer System of Record, Financial System of
Record and People System of Record. The following will
focus on the components that make up the operational
system of record first, and then take a deeper dive into
the other systems that make up the modern services
tech stack.
There are four key systems
of record that enable a
successful services ecosystem:
1 	 Operational System of Record
2
	
Customer System of Record
3
	
Financial System of Record
4
	
People System of Record
TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 11
Project
Management
Team
Collaboration
Project
Accounting
Business
Intelligence
Operational
SYSTEM OF RECORD
Resource
Planning
Introducing the
Operational System of Record
alizes all the actual work and communication being
done across the delivery team, including contractors
and clients. CWM allows the key communication
around projects to exist on one platform, creating a
strategic hub for services operations. Integrating these
tools into your operational system of record facilitates
rapid communication with contractors and clients, and
allows workers to have a one stop shop for all their col-
laborative needs.
The Operational System of Record
Enables the Following Functionality:
•	Resource Management
•	Project Management
•	Contextualized Collaboration
•	Project Accounting
•	Real-Time Business Intelligence
Undoubtedly, the single biggest systems opportunity for
services organizations today is to build their technology
environment around an operational system of record.
By bridging core planning, executional, project
accounting, and analysis systems in a single operating
environment, organizations are able to experience
dramatically better visibility, predictability, and agil-
ity. This digital infrastructure also becomes the heart
of the organization, and can improve processes by
packaging up best practices into frameworks, guide-
lines, analytics, and insights required to successfully
operate a fast-moving services firm today.
Another key component of this operational system of
record is that it incorporates Collaborative Work
Management (CWM) functionality, in addition to hav-
ing traditional PSA components like resource planning,
time and expense and project accounting. It is the
introduction of these collaborative tools that contextu-
12 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
Percentage of Capabilities: Operational System of Record Vs.
Professional Services Automation & Collaborative Work Management Tools
RESOURCE
PLANNING
PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
TEAM
COLLABORATION
PROJECT
ACCOUNTING
BUSINESS
INTELLIGENCE
100%
60%
80%
40%
20%
Services Automation ToolsWork Automation Tools
100%
System of Record
100%
60%
80%
40%
20%
Percentage of Capabilities: Operational System of Record Vs.
Professional Services Automation & Collaborative Work Management Tools
RESOURCE
PLANNING
PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
TEAM
COLLABORATION
PROJECT
ACCOUNTING
BUSINESS
INTELLIGENCE
100%
60%
80%
40%
20%
Services Automation ToolsWork Automation Tools
100%
System of Record
100%
60%
80%
40%
20%
Percentage of Capabilities: Operational System of Record Vs.
Professional Services Automation & Collaborative Work Management Tools
RESOURCE
PLANNING
PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
TEAM
COLLABORATION
PROJECT
ACCOUNTING
BUSINESS
INTELLIGENCE
100%
60%
80%
40%
20%
Services Automation ToolsWork Automation Tools
100%
System of Record
100%
60%
80%
40%
20%
Percentage of Capabilities: Operational System of Record Vs.
Professional Services Automation & Collaborative Work Management Tools
RESOURCE
PLANNING
PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
TEAM
COLLABORATION
PROJECT
ACCOUNTING
BUSINESS
INTELLIGENCE
100%
60%
80%
40%
20%
Services Automation ToolsWork Automation Tools
100%
System of Record
100%
60%
80%
40%
20%
Resource Management
In services, it’s the people who
make or break the business.
Profitability, project success, and
client satisfaction all rely on
effective management and staff-
ing of resources. It may sound
easy, but it’s actually the most
complicated component of any
services business.
The operational system of record
must provide real-time resource
availability to improve forecasting,
planning, and scheduling. The sys-
tem should include details about
current and future availability to
better understand who is available
to take on project work at the task
level. It should also track skills and
proficiencies to improve the
matching of consultants to projects
and key financial data related to
resources (e.g. cost and bill rates)
that will impact the profitability of
projects. The primary benefit of
managing resources in the same
system that also tracks project
tasks and project accounting is that
organizations can more nimbly
react to the challenges that surface
during project execution and
swiftly address needs to better
execute and increase profitability.
This is the most critical factor in
creating more predictable project
outcomes.
Project Management
Projects today are more complex
than ever. There are a lot of people
involved with specialized skills
and a lot of dependencies to get-
ting work done.
The operational system of record
should enable project managers to
build detailed project plans within
the system. Critically it must sup-
port a multi-level work breakdown
structure, so the project can be
defined by a series of granular
tasks and subtasks, with multiple
levels between the top and the
lowest level of the project. Each
task includes important informa-
tion such as burn rate, percent
complete, status, and other infor-
mation that rolls up to the parent
tasks, so it is quick and easy to see
Specific functionality of the
system includes: Real-time
information on resource availabil-
ity, resource forecasting, skills
management, scenario planning,
role-based planning, and project
and task level resource scheduling.
Digital Strategy for Modern
Services Organizations
Current Capabilities: Professional Services Automation
& Collaborative Work Management Tools vs an ideal
Operational System of Record
Professional Services
Automation
Collaborative Work
Management
Operational System
of Record
TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 13
where problems may be occurring.
It must also allow for dependencies
between tasks. Furthermore, one
of the benefits of the project man-
agement system being a core part
of the operational system of record
is that it serves as the central hub
for all critical resource and finan-
cial data at the project level. This
empowers and unifies the entire
project delivery team in a common
execution environment.
task takes longer than it should,
or a client changes the scope),
water begins to leak out. The goal
is to plug as many of the holes as
early as possible to carry the
maximum amount of water over
the finish line.
To combat leaky margins, the
core operational system of record
must provide key project
accounting details, for example
real-time utilization and mar-
gins, at the project and even task
level. Now resources can plan,
track, and optimize work to pro-
duce desired financial outcomes.
In essence, every project becomes
its own Profit and Loss (P&L) center.
At a glance, all stakeholders can see
how well the team is utilizing
resources, the burn down rate,
project margins at completion, etc.
The team can also immediately
identify problems at the project
level, so they can in turn make
informed decisions and adjust-
ments on the fly that lead to pre-
dictable and profitable project
delivery. This is the true foundation
of business success and growth.
Specific functionality of the
system includes: Gantt chart-
based project plan capabilities,
schedule management, multi-
level WBS, task assignment and
scheduling, critical path and
variance analysis.
Collaboration
Today, employees are processing
more information than ever. They
need faster and more transparent
ways to see what other team mem-
bers are doing in order to keep
pace with the speed of business.
The core operational system of
record bridges project communi-
cation and task management in a
unified, cloud-based project work-
space. Also, it should enable con-
textualized collaboration through
project and task-specific activity
feeds, around project objects such
as plans, timelines, budgets, files,
proofs, timesheets, expenses,
change orders, and more.
Furthermore, as service organi-
zations continue to expand their
Specific functionality of the
system needs to include:
Cloud-based access, collaborative
workspaces, project-specific
activity feeds, project object
collaboration, and public and
private messages.
Project Accounting
Best practice dictates that services
organizations run a margin-driven
business. Yet, many projects in a
services business are leaking prof-
its. An appropriate analogy is that
project work is like a leaky bucket.
When a project starts, the bucket
is full of water. As the project con-
tinues and changes (for example a
Specific functionality of the
system includes: Time and
expense tracking and approval,
project costing, project and task
budget management, real-time
utilization and margin tracking,
invoicing, rate cards, and robust
integrations into back-end
financial systems.
breadth of services offerings and
take on more complex work, project
teams increasingly consist of
internal talent, external service
providers, and specialists, all who
need access to a central collabora-
tion and communication tool
around the work at hand. Services
organizations also require a
collaboration strategy to engage
clients. Sharing things including
Gantt charts, tasks, and mile-
stones provides clients greater
insight into how the budget is
being utilized, fostering trans-
parency and trust as both sides
collaborate. Therefore the opera-
tional system of record must
enable subcontractor and client
collaboration. This drives unprec-
edented levels of connection and
communication across business
and geographic boundaries.
14 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
It has become a requirement
for business leaders to
understand the implications of
their technology architecture.
“
Business Intelligence
Services organizations are incredi-
bly challenging to manage. There
are many dynamics to these busi-
nesses that change daily. Projects
are made up of different shapes and
sizes; and with the coordination
of people, things rarely go exactly
as planned.
Because the operational system of
record bridges key information
about resources, plans, projects
and project financials in a single
operating environment, all the rel-
evant data to provide a complete
view into the health of projects and
the business also live in a single
system. With a BI layer in place, the
operational system of record
becomes the central source of truth
for the business. It offers past,
present, and future intelligence on
fees, margins, utilization, time and
expense, resources, clients, proj-
ects, and more. Now a services
organization can quickly answer
critical questions that are driving
business performance. For exam-
ple: what are our actual-to-date a
nd estimate-at-complete margins;
what are our current billable and
nonbillable hours by role, or by
individual resource; what skills are
we using or in need of most; what
percentage of our work is billable;
what’s our unused capacity; who’s
available now; what are our current
and projected margins?
The extent to which a services
business has a strategy and tools
to help them answer these ques-
tions in real-time will impact the
success of the company.
Specific functionality of the
system needs to include:
Built-in reports and dashboards
on fees, margins, utilization, time
and expense, resources and more,
custom reporting, trend analysis,
data visualization, data integra-
tion with other systems.
TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 15
CHAPTER 4
Benefits of the
Operational System
of Record
16 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
The quickest way to digitize a services business and increase
its strategic impact is to modernize day-to-day operations. The
emerging model enabling today’s professional and marketing services
organizations to operate with greater agility, predictability, and
precision, is to unify all critical functions of services delivery into
a core operational system of record.
Better Operational
Execution
The operational system of record
provides a platform to execute the
entire project lifecycle, from fore-
casting to invoicing. With all the
work in a single system, real-time
data is now available to empower
every person in the organization—
not just management—to make
informed decisions that will
improve the outcome of their work.
For example, a project manager can
see if a project’s budget is running
over and has options on how to cor-
rect the course: they can play out
different resourcing scenarios to
see if that will improve project
margins, or put in a change order
for the client to approve for addi-
tional scope that has crept in. This
agility is empowering and impos-
sible to achieve without a core
operational system of record that
couples detailed project planning,
execution, and project financials.
Improved Agility
A cloud-based operational system
of record ensures that every person
has access to the same information
(dependent on permissions), from
anywhere in the world. This dra-
matically improves alignment
and collaboration with remote
employees, subcontractors and
clients. Now the organization can
go anywhere.
Elevated Financial
Performance
With every project being managed
as a P&L (profit and loss statement)
and project financial information
available in real-time, an imme-
diate result is elevated financial
performance: higher margins,
optimized utilization rates, and
sharpened forecasting.
There are numerous benefits to a core operational system strategy:
Improved Client
Satisfaction
and Retention
An operational system of record
improves on-time, on-budget
delivery of projects, which is what
clients want most. Also, some buy-
ers will naturally gravitate towards
providers they see adopting this
new, more transparent, more
explicit approach, given the trust
it helps establish. Furthermore,
inviting clients to engage in this
core system also increases client
engagement, alignment, and
accountability in the overall suc-
cess of a project.
TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 17
CHAPTER 5
Key Tech in the Stack
18 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
People
SYSTEM OF RECORD
Customer
SYSTEM OF RECORD
People
SYSTEM OF RECORD
Financial
SYSTEM OF RECORD
Operational
SYSTEM OF RECORD
Add to extend
the system
Project
Management
Team
Collaboration
Project
Accounting
Business
Intelligence
Resource
Planning
A technology strategy consists of
more than specific applications to
support various business needs—
it must present a logical plan
to ensure the right information
is seamlessly delivered through
every part of the business.
While there might be different people in an organiza-
tion that primarily live in different systems, they
must be looking at the same data.
Therefore, it’s critical to think about the tech stack of
a modern services organization as a holistic platform
that is facilitating a process. As any IT consultant will
say, process first.
In addition to adopting a core operational system of
record that facilitates advanced project collaboration
needs and insights, services organizations will need to
rely on other key software applications to digitize all
aspects of the business. Integration of these essential
business applications provides the visibility, trans-
parency, and control required to effectively manage
the business.
TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 19
Add to extend
the system
People
SYSTEM OF RECORD
Customer
SYSTEM OF RECORD
Financial
SYSTEM OF RECORD
Operational
SYSTEM OF RECORD
There are four key systems of
record that enable a successful
services ecosystem:
1
2
Operational System
of Record
The operational system of record
is at the core of the modern ser-
vices tech stack. Other systems
orbit and connect through this
core system. Functionally, it must
serve all critical day-to-day opera-
tions for the majority of work that
happens in a services business,
including robust project manage-
ment, contextualized collaboration,
project accounting, long- and
short-term resource management
capabilities, and real time business
intelligence.
Customer System
of Record
This is often referred to as the
Customer Relationship Manage-
ment (CRM) system. It is designed
to help businesses manage and
analyze customer interactions and
data throughout the customer
lifecycle. By integrating with the
operational system of record,
organizations can better align
sales and delivery teams. Now the
services team can plan before a
deal is won, accelerate project kick
off, and the organization as a
whole can more accurately forecast
revenue and resource needs.
20 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
Financial System
of Record
The technology systems for the
financial system of record manage
back-end accounting and finance
processes. By connecting the
operational system of record to the
financial system of record, the
finance team gets necessary visi-
bility into projects’ details and sta-
tus to accurately manage business
accounting. The delivery team also
benefits by getting details at the
project level about invoice status
to help with managing every
aspect of the client relationship.
People System
of Record
This technology is often referred to
as the Human Capital Management
(HCM) system. Core administrative
functions include benefits admin-
istration, payroll, recruiting, a por-
tal for employees to request time
off, etc. By integrating with the
core operational system of record,
key data is shared between the two
systems; for example, employees’
cost rates (which impact pricing on
projects), planned time off for
staffing purposes, and things like
skills and geographic locations.
Other Applications in the Stack
Services firms vary widely in types of services they deliver. As
such, there are an infinite number of non-core systems and appli-
cations that may still be integral to a specific firm’s delivery strategy.
In essence, there are different tiers of applications, extending from
the core operational system of record, that form different strategic
perimeters. Examples include agile development tools such as Jira,
communication tools such as Slack, document sharing apps such as
Google Drive or Dropbox, expense management apps such as
Concur, or Expensify, and the list goes on. These may be considered
ancillary because there are fewer people in the organization that
need to live in these systems or they serve a more niche purpose. A
technology strategy therefore includes analysis of how to connect
the core systems to the operational system of record, as well as
these ancillary applications.
3
4
TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 21
CHAPTER 6
Integration:
Critical Layer in a Cloud
Connected World
22 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
Customer
SYSTEM OF RECORD
People
SYSTEM OF RECORD
Financial
SYSTEM OF RECORD
The primary benefit of a designed tech
stack is that it allows businesses to leverage
specific applications to help drive improved
performance in every functional area of
an organization.
However, this also creates a pro-
liferation of information silos,
and data may be coming from all
directions.
Critical to the success of a best-in-
class solution model is that these
systems talk to each other. For
that reason, most cloud systems
today are designed for interopera-
bility and access.
To avoid a hairball tech stack, it's
crucial that there is a thoughtful
approach to system integrations.
There needs to be a core operational
system of record where the major-
ity of work and transactions for a
business reside. From there, it
requires a clear understanding of
the role of integration in facilitat-
ing desired process and intelligence
throughout the organization.
As noted by Accenture, businesses
need to adopt this business-centric
approach to an integration strategy
and think about integrations
from more than merely a data
perspective. “If you only think
about integrations as a way to pass
data, then you’ll likely end up with
multiple, redundant point-to-point
integrations. On the other hand, if
you think about the business pro-
cesses that your integrations need
to support, you can likely simplify
your requirements.”
TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 23
Operational Platform for the
Modern Services Organization
In a new world where connectedness, transparency,
and performance matter more than ever, Mavenlink
helps you deliver.
24 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
Mavenlink is the uncomplicated
way to drive better results and
achieve a halo of trust with our
customers. It has completely
transformed our business. We’re
more nimble, collaborative, and
financially sound than ever.
HAIDER ALLEG, MANAGING DIRECTOR, KAINJOO
“
mavenlink.com • info@mavenlink.com • (800) 860-9544

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Transforming the services centric tech stack

  • 1. Transforming the Services-Centric Tech Stack Achieving Agility and Operational Excellence in a Connected World
  • 2. 1 INTRODUCTION Thriving in the Digital Age 2 CHAPTER 1 The Problem with Today’s Tech Stacks 6 CHAPTER 2 Realities of a Hairball Infrastructure 10 CHAPTER 3 Digital Strategy for Modern Services Organizations 16 CHAPTER 4 Benefits of the Operational System of Record 18 CHAPTER 5 Key Tech in the Stack 22 CHAPTER 6 Integration: Critical Layer in a Cloud Connected World
  • 3. What makes this moment in time especially unique is the speed with which change is occurring. Today, business agility is more important than ever. A startup can emerge tomorrow that will transform an industry and take down companies that have led a market for decades. This profound shift has the potential to transform every business model and every industry. Leaders looking to thrive in this digital era must be flexible, prepared for change, and in a constant state of inno- vation. It requires a look to the future and an understanding of the existing, and coming impediments to growth. A critical starting point is understanding the technology underpinnings of a business. Digital transformation is the quickest way for organizations to mod- ernize operations. However, digitizing a business means more than just introduc- ing new technologies—it fundamentally changes the way a firm thinks and does work. Most businesses have approached application architecture haphazardly and don’t have an explicit digital per- spective or strategy that drives technol- ogy priorities. This often results in a tangled web of systems, which decreases productivity, increases the cost of work, and ultimately makes it very difficult for management to oversee the day-to-day work at a services firm. We have created the following whitepaper to serve as a manifesto for change. We will review trends driving the growth and transformation of services industries, assess the limitations of the current tech- nology landscape, and put forward an emerging model that’s enabling today’s progressive professional and marketing services organizations to operate with greater agility, predictability, and precision. Welcome to the digital age, where technology is the central axis of our world and applications allow us to do things that were previously unimaginable. This new era has moved the pace of innovation forward at a blistering rate. INTRODUCTION TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 1
  • 4. The Problem with Today’s Tech Stacks CHAPTER 1 2 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
  • 5. The cloud has been incredibly transformative in both our personal lives and the way business is conducted. It has allowed organizations to be more agile, leading to numerous new models and practices. Businesses in every industry are pursuing the promise of digital transformation. However, adoption of new technology alone does not usher in necessary change. In the services industry, it has actually hindered progress. A sea of applications have been deployed in an attempt to sim- plify, streamline, and propel business, and in the process created many gaps in process and systems. Therefore to understand the opportunity for the rapidly growing $3 trillion services sector in adopting a modern technology environment, one must first understand how technology has underserved these industries to date. The Promise of ERP Even just one decade ago, Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) solutions were acting as the procedural backbone for most mid to large sized enterprises. Names like Oracle and SAP dominated the business software discussion. Although known as complex, expensive, and inflex- ible, ERP solutions were routinely selected due to their broad capabilities. TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 3
  • 6. ERP was initially designed for manufactur- ing companies, which relied on producing and distributing products for revenue. As a result, the operational capabilities were designed to support a myriad of depart- ments and functions not relevant to critical services operations; for example, materials and inventory control, distribution, order management, and production. Services- centric organizations, on the other hand, are often project-based and require complex coordination of people. These businesses have unique needs around facilitating collaboration, project planning and execution, resource utilization, and managing project costs—which ERP was not designed for. The Emergence of PSA To meet the needs of an increasingly ser- vices-driven economy, some ERP vendors began offering integrated services modules, also known as Professional Services Automation (PSA) solutions. Additionally, independent PSA applications also began to emerge. These tools incorporate function- ality such as project and resource planning, time tracking, expense management, and invoicing. Service Performance Insight (SPI), a global research, consulting and training organization dedicated to helping professional service organizations, found that using PSA software leads to higher rates of on-time project delivery and more accurate project estimates—so, PSA apps have provided value beyond ERP.1 Yet, there have been significant limita- tions. PSA solutions were designed pri- marily with top-down planning and management in mind, and the reality is that a majority of non-management workers in a services organization access it only to enter time and expenses on a weekly or infrequent basis. A majority of the actual work happening in a services business—project management, task management, communication, team col- laboration, and working with clients and subcontractors—is happening outside of the PSA solution. 1 Urich, Jeanne. “Revenue and Jobs Soar for 2017 Best-of-the- Best Professional Services Organizations.” SPI Research. Service Performance Insight, 2017. 5 May 2017. 4 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
  • 7. Collaborative Work Management (CWM) tools bridge project management, task management and collaboration to enable distributed teams and drive business productivity. “ The Introduction of Collaborative Work Management Tools The most significant weakness with PSA tools is that they do not facilitate the collaboration that is required today. Collaboration is key across teams, and cli- ent collaboration is even more important in services. To fill some of the gaps and help with day-to-day operations, workers have incorporated additional productivity tools, often referred to as Collaborative Work Management software. Collaborative Work Management (CWM) tools bridge project management, task management and collaboration to enable distributed teams and drive business pro- ductivity. Now, companies are using both PSA as well as CWM tools, and continue to pile on more and more applications to the technology infrastructure one at a time. Today the average worker uses 5-8 addi- tional niche solutions that support the major areas of communication and collab- oration needs across the business.2 Without the adoption of these applications, services operations would come to a halt. 2 “Cloud Adoption & Risk Report.” Skyhigh Networks. Gartner, 2016. Web. 20 June 2017. TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 5
  • 8. CHAPTER 2 Realities of a Hairball Infrastructure 6 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
  • 9. There is no doubt that with the growth of the services economy, adoption of technology to more effectively run services- centric businesses is on the rise.3 Even with an abundance of innovative ERP, PSA, and other project management, resource management, collaboration, and produc- tivity tools in place—or perhaps because of these—there are gaps that exist. These gaps are often filled with manual procedures and spreadsheets, creating significant operating challenges. Running a business with spreadsheets is limiting Existing ERP solutions and PSA solutions do not have the breadth of operational functionality required to effectively manage a services business. As a result, services organizations have been forced to turn to other systems to manage core parts of their business—namely resource planning and management, collab- oration, and project execution. Thus, the data that is actually driving the business lives in disparate systems. In order to gain insights from this data, organizations have the option to either: layer an intelligence system on top of multiple, disparate sys- tems (which gets tremendously complex and costly), or to take the more common solution and resort to spreadsheets to extract and tie data together. Spreadsheet based ‘solutions’ pose many critical problems. It takes constant diligence and countless hours to cobble together the information needed to grasp the levers and measures that are impacting the business. They also only reveal what has occurred (e.g. historical utilization), and by the time the information is consolidated and analyzed, it’s often too late to make a change that will improve the result of a project. Therefore the entire operation slows as it waits for information to come together from the past, in order to make important decisions for the future. Existing business systems struggle with unique projects Services businesses vary hugely in terms of what they deliver to their customers and the scale on which they operate. The issue is that traditional business solutions have been specifically designed to create a consistent, standard pace of production. In services industries, clients are constantly presenting new, unique, and challenging projects. Existing tools are often not flexible enough to deliver on these custom projects at the rate the business must move. 3 Leinwand, Allan. “What The Rise Of Cloud Computing Means For IT Pros.” Forbes. Forbes Media, 28 February 2017. 7 June 2017. TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 7
  • 10. The plethora of stitched together tools has created chaos By integrating resource planning with time and expense tracking, PSA was designed to provide management visibility into resources and financials. However, the reality is, these apps offer shallow func- tionality and the bulk of the organization is executing and managing their work in other systems. Employees have been forced to organically adopt cloud-based tools to drive critical project management, collaboration, and communication activities. Each of these point solutions can serve a role, however too many of these systems in a stack creates chaos. It’s now more challenging to find and track critical correspondence, feedback, change orders, budgets, and more. Furthermore, jumping in and out of all of these systems is reducing productivity in the workplace. Citing research from the American Psychological Association, the Forrester Enterprise Collaborative Work Management Wave Report points out that the mental block created by this constant switching from app to app is reducing worker productivity by 40 percent.4 4 Visitacion, Margo. “The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Collaborative Work Management, Q4 2016.” Project Place. Forrester, 17 October 2016. 10 May 2017. TIME TRACKING BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SOFTWARE ACCOUNTING PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE TEAM COLLABORATION PSA ERP RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Chat Resource Planning File Sharing Video Conferencing Resource Scheduling Email Spreadsheets   Resource Allocation  Job Costing Expense Tracking Reports Task Managment Subcontractor Management Client Portal Challenges of a Hairball Infrastructure 8 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
  • 11. With the speed and complexity of work today, it is increasingly challenging to operate within fragmented business environments. The emerging issue that services teams face is that not all project delivery related data is tracked in a single 'system of record'. Getting out of siloed systems is critical: services organizations must move beyond spreadsheets if they are to thrive in the fast-paced, hyper-connected, hyper specialized world of the Service Level Economy. Poor adoption of PSA and time tracking tools is costing money Another result of the work being conducted outside of PSA, or point time tracking tools, is the accuracy and timelines of submitted timesheets. Both issues are costing services organizations a lot of money. Because the time tracking system is not where the work is hap- pening, often employees bulk enter time at the end of the week, or the end of the month. It’s almost impossible to remember the particu- lars of where time was spent on activities that far in the past. As a result, employees are in the habit of entering what was assigned, even if in reality they spent 20 percent more time (or less) on a billable project than was allo- cated. Harvard Business Review reported that inaccurate time sheets are costing businesses billions of dollars every day.5 Resources are not being fully utilized The typical PSA user relies on outside time tracking procedures to record resource allo- cation, hours, and project assignments. This makes it difficult to truly know who is on the bench and who is available to be assigned to work at any given time. Even sophisticated services businesses often manage resource allocation via spreadsheets and homegrown solutions. This disconnectedness has had a significant negative impact on utilization in services firms, which hampers margins. Project financials handled separately from project execution results in margin leakage Housing project financials in one system, and project tasks and execution details in another, poses significant risks to the performance of any services organization. When project man- agement and task management is managed in apps or systems separate from the tracking of time, costs, and bill rates, visibility is difficult. Adjustments that could impact project finan- cials are delayed or never made, and as a result, margins suffer. Every single project in a services business has the potential to leak profits. Minimizing this leakage begins with the identification of the problem at the project level. With project work disconnected from project financials, by the time a problem is identified, it is often too late to rectify. Margins suffer. 5 Gavvet, Gretchen. “Workers Are Bad at Filling Out Timesheets, and It Costs Billions a Day.” Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business Publishing, 12 January 2015. 14 May 2017. TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 9
  • 12. CHAPTER 3 The Digital Strategy for Modern Services Organizations 10 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
  • 13. Forward-thinking services leaders are actively seeking operating models that allow them to better connect, orchestrate, and optimize their businesses and resources. As more systems are required to compete in today’s environment, more data is being spread across siloed systems, causing major challenges for service operations. It is becoming a requirement for business leaders to understand the implications of a dispa- rate technology architecture. The first place to start is in identifying the key systems of record. A system of record can be understood as the authoritative data source for an organization. There are four key systems of record that enable a suc- cessful services ecosystem: Operational System of Record, Customer System of Record, Financial System of Record and People System of Record. The following will focus on the components that make up the operational system of record first, and then take a deeper dive into the other systems that make up the modern services tech stack. There are four key systems of record that enable a successful services ecosystem: 1 Operational System of Record 2 Customer System of Record 3 Financial System of Record 4 People System of Record TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 11
  • 14. Project Management Team Collaboration Project Accounting Business Intelligence Operational SYSTEM OF RECORD Resource Planning Introducing the Operational System of Record alizes all the actual work and communication being done across the delivery team, including contractors and clients. CWM allows the key communication around projects to exist on one platform, creating a strategic hub for services operations. Integrating these tools into your operational system of record facilitates rapid communication with contractors and clients, and allows workers to have a one stop shop for all their col- laborative needs. The Operational System of Record Enables the Following Functionality: • Resource Management • Project Management • Contextualized Collaboration • Project Accounting • Real-Time Business Intelligence Undoubtedly, the single biggest systems opportunity for services organizations today is to build their technology environment around an operational system of record. By bridging core planning, executional, project accounting, and analysis systems in a single operating environment, organizations are able to experience dramatically better visibility, predictability, and agil- ity. This digital infrastructure also becomes the heart of the organization, and can improve processes by packaging up best practices into frameworks, guide- lines, analytics, and insights required to successfully operate a fast-moving services firm today. Another key component of this operational system of record is that it incorporates Collaborative Work Management (CWM) functionality, in addition to hav- ing traditional PSA components like resource planning, time and expense and project accounting. It is the introduction of these collaborative tools that contextu- 12 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
  • 15. Percentage of Capabilities: Operational System of Record Vs. Professional Services Automation & Collaborative Work Management Tools RESOURCE PLANNING PROJECT MANAGEMENT TEAM COLLABORATION PROJECT ACCOUNTING BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE 100% 60% 80% 40% 20% Services Automation ToolsWork Automation Tools 100% System of Record 100% 60% 80% 40% 20% Percentage of Capabilities: Operational System of Record Vs. Professional Services Automation & Collaborative Work Management Tools RESOURCE PLANNING PROJECT MANAGEMENT TEAM COLLABORATION PROJECT ACCOUNTING BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE 100% 60% 80% 40% 20% Services Automation ToolsWork Automation Tools 100% System of Record 100% 60% 80% 40% 20% Percentage of Capabilities: Operational System of Record Vs. Professional Services Automation & Collaborative Work Management Tools RESOURCE PLANNING PROJECT MANAGEMENT TEAM COLLABORATION PROJECT ACCOUNTING BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE 100% 60% 80% 40% 20% Services Automation ToolsWork Automation Tools 100% System of Record 100% 60% 80% 40% 20% Percentage of Capabilities: Operational System of Record Vs. Professional Services Automation & Collaborative Work Management Tools RESOURCE PLANNING PROJECT MANAGEMENT TEAM COLLABORATION PROJECT ACCOUNTING BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE 100% 60% 80% 40% 20% Services Automation ToolsWork Automation Tools 100% System of Record 100% 60% 80% 40% 20% Resource Management In services, it’s the people who make or break the business. Profitability, project success, and client satisfaction all rely on effective management and staff- ing of resources. It may sound easy, but it’s actually the most complicated component of any services business. The operational system of record must provide real-time resource availability to improve forecasting, planning, and scheduling. The sys- tem should include details about current and future availability to better understand who is available to take on project work at the task level. It should also track skills and proficiencies to improve the matching of consultants to projects and key financial data related to resources (e.g. cost and bill rates) that will impact the profitability of projects. The primary benefit of managing resources in the same system that also tracks project tasks and project accounting is that organizations can more nimbly react to the challenges that surface during project execution and swiftly address needs to better execute and increase profitability. This is the most critical factor in creating more predictable project outcomes. Project Management Projects today are more complex than ever. There are a lot of people involved with specialized skills and a lot of dependencies to get- ting work done. The operational system of record should enable project managers to build detailed project plans within the system. Critically it must sup- port a multi-level work breakdown structure, so the project can be defined by a series of granular tasks and subtasks, with multiple levels between the top and the lowest level of the project. Each task includes important informa- tion such as burn rate, percent complete, status, and other infor- mation that rolls up to the parent tasks, so it is quick and easy to see Specific functionality of the system includes: Real-time information on resource availabil- ity, resource forecasting, skills management, scenario planning, role-based planning, and project and task level resource scheduling. Digital Strategy for Modern Services Organizations Current Capabilities: Professional Services Automation & Collaborative Work Management Tools vs an ideal Operational System of Record Professional Services Automation Collaborative Work Management Operational System of Record TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 13
  • 16. where problems may be occurring. It must also allow for dependencies between tasks. Furthermore, one of the benefits of the project man- agement system being a core part of the operational system of record is that it serves as the central hub for all critical resource and finan- cial data at the project level. This empowers and unifies the entire project delivery team in a common execution environment. task takes longer than it should, or a client changes the scope), water begins to leak out. The goal is to plug as many of the holes as early as possible to carry the maximum amount of water over the finish line. To combat leaky margins, the core operational system of record must provide key project accounting details, for example real-time utilization and mar- gins, at the project and even task level. Now resources can plan, track, and optimize work to pro- duce desired financial outcomes. In essence, every project becomes its own Profit and Loss (P&L) center. At a glance, all stakeholders can see how well the team is utilizing resources, the burn down rate, project margins at completion, etc. The team can also immediately identify problems at the project level, so they can in turn make informed decisions and adjust- ments on the fly that lead to pre- dictable and profitable project delivery. This is the true foundation of business success and growth. Specific functionality of the system includes: Gantt chart- based project plan capabilities, schedule management, multi- level WBS, task assignment and scheduling, critical path and variance analysis. Collaboration Today, employees are processing more information than ever. They need faster and more transparent ways to see what other team mem- bers are doing in order to keep pace with the speed of business. The core operational system of record bridges project communi- cation and task management in a unified, cloud-based project work- space. Also, it should enable con- textualized collaboration through project and task-specific activity feeds, around project objects such as plans, timelines, budgets, files, proofs, timesheets, expenses, change orders, and more. Furthermore, as service organi- zations continue to expand their Specific functionality of the system needs to include: Cloud-based access, collaborative workspaces, project-specific activity feeds, project object collaboration, and public and private messages. Project Accounting Best practice dictates that services organizations run a margin-driven business. Yet, many projects in a services business are leaking prof- its. An appropriate analogy is that project work is like a leaky bucket. When a project starts, the bucket is full of water. As the project con- tinues and changes (for example a Specific functionality of the system includes: Time and expense tracking and approval, project costing, project and task budget management, real-time utilization and margin tracking, invoicing, rate cards, and robust integrations into back-end financial systems. breadth of services offerings and take on more complex work, project teams increasingly consist of internal talent, external service providers, and specialists, all who need access to a central collabora- tion and communication tool around the work at hand. Services organizations also require a collaboration strategy to engage clients. Sharing things including Gantt charts, tasks, and mile- stones provides clients greater insight into how the budget is being utilized, fostering trans- parency and trust as both sides collaborate. Therefore the opera- tional system of record must enable subcontractor and client collaboration. This drives unprec- edented levels of connection and communication across business and geographic boundaries. 14 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
  • 17. It has become a requirement for business leaders to understand the implications of their technology architecture. “ Business Intelligence Services organizations are incredi- bly challenging to manage. There are many dynamics to these busi- nesses that change daily. Projects are made up of different shapes and sizes; and with the coordination of people, things rarely go exactly as planned. Because the operational system of record bridges key information about resources, plans, projects and project financials in a single operating environment, all the rel- evant data to provide a complete view into the health of projects and the business also live in a single system. With a BI layer in place, the operational system of record becomes the central source of truth for the business. It offers past, present, and future intelligence on fees, margins, utilization, time and expense, resources, clients, proj- ects, and more. Now a services organization can quickly answer critical questions that are driving business performance. For exam- ple: what are our actual-to-date a nd estimate-at-complete margins; what are our current billable and nonbillable hours by role, or by individual resource; what skills are we using or in need of most; what percentage of our work is billable; what’s our unused capacity; who’s available now; what are our current and projected margins? The extent to which a services business has a strategy and tools to help them answer these ques- tions in real-time will impact the success of the company. Specific functionality of the system needs to include: Built-in reports and dashboards on fees, margins, utilization, time and expense, resources and more, custom reporting, trend analysis, data visualization, data integra- tion with other systems. TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 15
  • 18. CHAPTER 4 Benefits of the Operational System of Record 16 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
  • 19. The quickest way to digitize a services business and increase its strategic impact is to modernize day-to-day operations. The emerging model enabling today’s professional and marketing services organizations to operate with greater agility, predictability, and precision, is to unify all critical functions of services delivery into a core operational system of record. Better Operational Execution The operational system of record provides a platform to execute the entire project lifecycle, from fore- casting to invoicing. With all the work in a single system, real-time data is now available to empower every person in the organization— not just management—to make informed decisions that will improve the outcome of their work. For example, a project manager can see if a project’s budget is running over and has options on how to cor- rect the course: they can play out different resourcing scenarios to see if that will improve project margins, or put in a change order for the client to approve for addi- tional scope that has crept in. This agility is empowering and impos- sible to achieve without a core operational system of record that couples detailed project planning, execution, and project financials. Improved Agility A cloud-based operational system of record ensures that every person has access to the same information (dependent on permissions), from anywhere in the world. This dra- matically improves alignment and collaboration with remote employees, subcontractors and clients. Now the organization can go anywhere. Elevated Financial Performance With every project being managed as a P&L (profit and loss statement) and project financial information available in real-time, an imme- diate result is elevated financial performance: higher margins, optimized utilization rates, and sharpened forecasting. There are numerous benefits to a core operational system strategy: Improved Client Satisfaction and Retention An operational system of record improves on-time, on-budget delivery of projects, which is what clients want most. Also, some buy- ers will naturally gravitate towards providers they see adopting this new, more transparent, more explicit approach, given the trust it helps establish. Furthermore, inviting clients to engage in this core system also increases client engagement, alignment, and accountability in the overall suc- cess of a project. TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 17
  • 20. CHAPTER 5 Key Tech in the Stack 18 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
  • 21. People SYSTEM OF RECORD Customer SYSTEM OF RECORD People SYSTEM OF RECORD Financial SYSTEM OF RECORD Operational SYSTEM OF RECORD Add to extend the system Project Management Team Collaboration Project Accounting Business Intelligence Resource Planning A technology strategy consists of more than specific applications to support various business needs— it must present a logical plan to ensure the right information is seamlessly delivered through every part of the business. While there might be different people in an organiza- tion that primarily live in different systems, they must be looking at the same data. Therefore, it’s critical to think about the tech stack of a modern services organization as a holistic platform that is facilitating a process. As any IT consultant will say, process first. In addition to adopting a core operational system of record that facilitates advanced project collaboration needs and insights, services organizations will need to rely on other key software applications to digitize all aspects of the business. Integration of these essential business applications provides the visibility, trans- parency, and control required to effectively manage the business. TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 19
  • 22. Add to extend the system People SYSTEM OF RECORD Customer SYSTEM OF RECORD Financial SYSTEM OF RECORD Operational SYSTEM OF RECORD There are four key systems of record that enable a successful services ecosystem: 1 2 Operational System of Record The operational system of record is at the core of the modern ser- vices tech stack. Other systems orbit and connect through this core system. Functionally, it must serve all critical day-to-day opera- tions for the majority of work that happens in a services business, including robust project manage- ment, contextualized collaboration, project accounting, long- and short-term resource management capabilities, and real time business intelligence. Customer System of Record This is often referred to as the Customer Relationship Manage- ment (CRM) system. It is designed to help businesses manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle. By integrating with the operational system of record, organizations can better align sales and delivery teams. Now the services team can plan before a deal is won, accelerate project kick off, and the organization as a whole can more accurately forecast revenue and resource needs. 20 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
  • 23. Financial System of Record The technology systems for the financial system of record manage back-end accounting and finance processes. By connecting the operational system of record to the financial system of record, the finance team gets necessary visi- bility into projects’ details and sta- tus to accurately manage business accounting. The delivery team also benefits by getting details at the project level about invoice status to help with managing every aspect of the client relationship. People System of Record This technology is often referred to as the Human Capital Management (HCM) system. Core administrative functions include benefits admin- istration, payroll, recruiting, a por- tal for employees to request time off, etc. By integrating with the core operational system of record, key data is shared between the two systems; for example, employees’ cost rates (which impact pricing on projects), planned time off for staffing purposes, and things like skills and geographic locations. Other Applications in the Stack Services firms vary widely in types of services they deliver. As such, there are an infinite number of non-core systems and appli- cations that may still be integral to a specific firm’s delivery strategy. In essence, there are different tiers of applications, extending from the core operational system of record, that form different strategic perimeters. Examples include agile development tools such as Jira, communication tools such as Slack, document sharing apps such as Google Drive or Dropbox, expense management apps such as Concur, or Expensify, and the list goes on. These may be considered ancillary because there are fewer people in the organization that need to live in these systems or they serve a more niche purpose. A technology strategy therefore includes analysis of how to connect the core systems to the operational system of record, as well as these ancillary applications. 3 4 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 21
  • 24. CHAPTER 6 Integration: Critical Layer in a Cloud Connected World 22 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
  • 25. Customer SYSTEM OF RECORD People SYSTEM OF RECORD Financial SYSTEM OF RECORD The primary benefit of a designed tech stack is that it allows businesses to leverage specific applications to help drive improved performance in every functional area of an organization. However, this also creates a pro- liferation of information silos, and data may be coming from all directions. Critical to the success of a best-in- class solution model is that these systems talk to each other. For that reason, most cloud systems today are designed for interopera- bility and access. To avoid a hairball tech stack, it's crucial that there is a thoughtful approach to system integrations. There needs to be a core operational system of record where the major- ity of work and transactions for a business reside. From there, it requires a clear understanding of the role of integration in facilitat- ing desired process and intelligence throughout the organization. As noted by Accenture, businesses need to adopt this business-centric approach to an integration strategy and think about integrations from more than merely a data perspective. “If you only think about integrations as a way to pass data, then you’ll likely end up with multiple, redundant point-to-point integrations. On the other hand, if you think about the business pro- cesses that your integrations need to support, you can likely simplify your requirements.” TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK 23
  • 26. Operational Platform for the Modern Services Organization In a new world where connectedness, transparency, and performance matter more than ever, Mavenlink helps you deliver. 24 TRANSFORMING THE SERVICES-CENTRIC TECH STACK
  • 27. Mavenlink is the uncomplicated way to drive better results and achieve a halo of trust with our customers. It has completely transformed our business. We’re more nimble, collaborative, and financially sound than ever. HAIDER ALLEG, MANAGING DIRECTOR, KAINJOO “