10 Things you need to know about PSOs

1. The global PSA software market will hit a staggering $7.63 billion by the year 2017, according to new research from Global Industry Analysts, Inc. The news is surprising, considering the hit this market took during the recent global economic dip, as those companies purchasing such products opted to hold back their purse in infrastructure-enhancing purchases.

2. The tide is turning on this front in a significant way. Indeed, PSA software suites are increasingly emerging as bona-fide recession-proofers for corporate IT department principals inside professional services organizations anxious not to suffer the same shortfalls again.

3. Professional Service Automation is enterprise software that’s particularly designed for companies engaged in the delivery of accounting, management consulting, engineering, and agency and PR services, among others. With it, companies enjoy increased productivity and efficiencies across their operations, along with a much-enhanced view of what’s actually going on within them.

4. Up until fairly recently, PSA was regarded in terms of its individual components only. But its usefulness increases manifold with recent developments that link the software’s various disparate modules in a way that reveals the full breadth of available integrated solutions.

5. Not surprisingly, the omnipresent Cloud hovers above this aspect of operational efficiency, too. As more and more companies adopt the off-site approach to their data-management efforts, the opportunity to bundle all of their corporate activities—from sales to service to finance—under a single umbrella is too appealing to pass by. It’s why a muscular movement is afoot to blend the worlds of CRM and PSA.

6. A recent study conducted by consulting firm Service Performance Insight demonstrates that Salesforce CRM users who shift their interests to the Cloud are rewarded for the choice with higher bid-to-win ratios, greater average revenues per project and deal pipelines that are vastly superior to those of their less forward-thinking counterparts

7. The Service Performance Insight research also shows that PSOs simply cannot realize all the powers of their CRM systems unless they’re well integrated with their PSAs.

8. An integrated CRM-PSA application offers users the ability to track the gamut of their business activity—from fingers-crossed leads through in-the-bag deals—on a single platform, with a single interface, employing a single data repository.

9. By amalgamating their CRM and PSA platforms into one, goes the news, professional services firms benefit from larger project backlogs, improved executive visibility, better success with winning bids, higher billable utilization, an enhanced percentage of billable employees, more revenue from new clients and a greater proportion of projects that are completed on time.

10. Just the same, another burst of research from the same organization, this exploring the challenges of Salesforce CRM customers in the professional services industry, reveals that precious few of them have taken the steps to see through such a profitable integration. The news, still in the pipeline, is clearly yet to be fully put into profitable play.

A recent article in industry trade journal CRM Buyer got us thinking. In it, the author tackles the surprisingly complicated subject of CRM systems. He wisely argues in favour of a comprehensive approach that acknowledges the importance of treating this business essential with kid gloves.

We couldn’t agree more.

The decision-making process that provides the steep and rocky path to CRM certainty is rife with potential for error. Its careful navigation is critical to success because, notes the article intro, “The errors you make early on will reverberate through the entire lifecycle of the CRM application.”

To help readers avoid such a fate, the blog offers “3 early errors that can kill CRM in the cradle.”

Being dishonest about what’s not working.

Sometimes, says the article, ego and fear inhibit business owners from being straight about the lay of their lands. They would sooner lay claim to a well-oiled machine than pause to highlight the cogs holding them back. But such rose-coloured glasses do nobody any favours.

“Honesty at the start of the project is critical,” the piece points out. “If your team is unable to handle this, or if the process causes too much internal tension, then look to a third party who can help you get to the painful truth.”

Enter 360 and its IT Health Check

Here, your business is the subject of a wide-ranging appraisal that:

• identifies areas of risk;
• recognizes inefficiencies;
• provides a benchmark of industry best practices.

The report we produce amounts to a thorough snapshot of your IT infrastructure, offering details on its every aspect, from power protection to disaster recovery.

Rushing to a technology solution.

Before barreling into an expensive purchase, a company needs to first evaluate how it actually works — its processes, and how its people use them. Only with these data in hand can you reliably understand what software might address your problems — and solve them.

360’s Needs Analysis recognizes the need for every company to make clever choices with respect to which technology will best serve their business interests and requirements, present and future. And this kind of stuff, remember, is unique to every firm. Recognizing that the stakes are high and the risks considerable, 360 can step in and help an organization determine what CRM solution makes the most sense for its very individual needs.

Failing to lock down your own goals.

“The initial phases of examining your business should result in a list of goals” that provide business owners with something to aim for, says the story. Getting them wrong, no surprise, could prove fatal.

The massive undertaking that is the signing-on of a new CRM system is a scary, exciting thing. If the whole notion overwhelms you, as this piece sagely mentions, you’re human. But help is at hand.

Bring on the kid gloves.

After much terrestrial dithering, Microsoft has at last elected to put its head in the clouds.

Such was the announcement delivered last week at Convergence 2011, a big-ass annual event in Atlanta where the Microsoft Dynamics customer and partner business communities share the rarified air of a common convention centre.

Dynamics ERP Programs Coming to Azure in 2012

There, the host company gave voice to its plans to offer its Dynamics ERP solution in a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) format. Accordingly, the next major releases of its Dynamics AX, GP, NAV and SL ERP products will be available on Windows Azure, Microsoft’s cloud-development platform that’s been available for a year.

It will debut its on-demand ERP application delivery program with its next version of Dynamics NAV 7, slated for release in 2012. The balance of the Dynamics lineup will presumably follow, and it could be several years before the lot has made its way to Azure.

Microsoft says it will deliver its ERP application via this method more cheaply than its competitors (NetSuite most prominent among them), thanks in part to a multi-tenancy architecture that will enable multiple users to share the same instance of an application. This approach is also attractive for the ease with which it can be upgraded.

About-Face About Choice

Microsoft already offers Dynamics CRM as a cloud-carried product (it’s been available in the States since 2008; it went global in February). This latest move is actually a delayed response, on the company’s part, to a prevailing trend in the ERP market. Namely, solution providers to mid-market and SMB customers are increasingly reaching for the clouds.

Until this about-face, the company sold only on-premise versions of its flagship ERP products, and made no apology for the absence of a SaaS alternative. Indeed, it had sought to cover all bases with a so-called “software + services” ERP option. Through this, its channel partners invoked their service-provider license-agreement programs to independently deliver hosted versions of Dynamics ERP products to their customers.

With this announcement comes choice. Now, said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in his keynote address at Convergence, customers will have the option of shifting their ERP application online, continuing to run it onsite or going with a hybrid deployment.

Microsoft Announcement Meets Skepticism & Optimism

Microsoft’s cloud ERP announcement, however, as posted through the IDG news service last week, has received mixed reviews. Users question the level of savings this switch actually represents to them and the degree to which they’ll lose flexibility by adopting this delivery mode.

They also express concerns about the potential for downtime if the cloud experiences a system failure. And certainly there will always be heel-diggers who reject the notion of releasing responsibilities they’ve always adequately overseen in house to a third party.

But this new option, say its most vocal proponents, is a serious step in the right direction for Microsoft, late in the game though it may be. And it’s a particularly attractive one they point out, for those Dynamics customers already using a hosting service. Adding an ERP product to the mix should be seamless, they enthuse, and the payback fairly immediate.

With major vendors added new functionality to existing products, enterprise software competition galvanizing and vendors introducing new applications that facilitate progress in this arena, it’s clear this is the spot to watch as the calendar pages flip into another decade.

Social Networking – Master the Elephant in the Room

The surging popularity of social networking—the convergence of technologies that makes it possible for individuals to communicate, share information and form funky new communities of all stripes online—is irrefutable. That many corporate entities still struggle to translate this elephant in the room into specific strategies from which they might authentically benefit is, too.

Take heed, anxious businessperson, for real help is afoot.

By acquiring tools—such as those in Microsoft’s evolving stable of customer relationship management products—that let you manage your social networking initiatives alongside traditional marketing, sales and service activities, organizations can develop relationships with customers they could never have imagined.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM – A Proven Solution

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM is currently used by some 23,000 organizations and 1.4 million individual users, in 80 countries, in more than 40 languages. The end-of-year release of the 2011 version portends even higher counts.

• With a dedicated focus on the user experience and mindful integration with familiar products—including Outlook, Office, SharePoint and Bing, as well as the iPhone and the spanking-new Windows 7 phone—Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is well poised for relevant adoption across all functions within a company. That the software is also strongly aligned with the concept of XRM (Anything Relationship Management) and its promises to users of effective management of any kind of relationship—customer, partner or supplier—is significant.

• Microsoft’s Social Networking Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM is an add-on module that allows Microsoft Dynamics CRM users to explore the possibility of identifying and engaging with influential individuals on social networking sites—to say nothing of the potential revenue that awaits their profitable tapping here.

• The announcement of new research that finds that 3.4% of global advertising spending will be on mobile marketing by 2015—a compound annual growth rate of 41%—augers well for the future adoption of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. As more organizations work to increase their revenue streams along customer relationship pathways, programs that facilitate their mobile marketing potential are poised for growth.

• Microsoft recently announced that in 2011 its Dynamics CRM will be available to be hosted locally or in the cloud--with relatively painless movement between the two environments. This option offers companies the ability to create sales forecasts and cash-flow predictions without the burden of internal hosting responsibilities.

The Wheel In The Sky Keep On Turning

It’s an extraordinary statement, but so too is the idea Microsoft is pitching. Cloud computing is nothing short of a revolution in the sky, and the company has taken it to the masses with a heavyweight of an advertising campaign designed to pique the interest of consumers and small business operators alike with its dead-simple promise of life-altering renewal.

But there is a middle step here, before the world at large can meaningfully occupy this cloud — and it’s got opportunity written all over it.

It is one thing, after all, to be intrigued by a catchy television ad in which good looking people make swift and effective use of some nifty new idea in their own edited-for-public-consumption lives. But it’s quite another to find practical application for the stuff in your own technologically beleaguered existence.

VARS are the Real Superheroes

Enter the clever VARs (Value-Added Resellers), with their hot air balloons, jet packs and telescopic ladders to bridge the gap; the knowledge and powers of explanation that will facilitate customers’ ascension to this next level of productivity and deliver to them the same ease of use their picture-perfect TV counterparts apparently enjoy.

With the suppliers having introduced the promise then, our job as VARs is to help the consumer realize its potential, to offer a hand up to the cloud and an introduction to the myriad possibilities that await her there.

Microsoft Has Their Head in The Cloud

Microsoft released another “To the Cloud” commercial last week, this one featuring a Christmas scenario in which a grandfather is allowed easy access to a video resident on his grandkids’ remote computer. This is the fourth such cozy, mass-media-powered assault in which Microsoft takes direct aim at a television audience that is presumably intrigued, but somewhat confused by what is apparently yet another layer of complexity requiring its mastery in this computer-driven world.

The software giant’s multipronged advertising campaign, which follows the introduction of its Office 365 service, also employs print, outdoor, online and radio initiatives. Throughout, the message sings of the triple threat that is public cloud, private cloud and cloud productivity.

VARs Take Flight to Deliver The Cloud

But the impressive and apparently expensive initiative (it’s expected to cost Microsoft several hundred million dollars), which will feature three of Microsoft’s core cloud computing technologies—Office 365, Windows Azure and Windows Server Hyper-V—hovers in a state of potential incompletion without VARs’ meaningful participation in driving the point home.

To these middle folks falls the job of exposition, explanation, erudition. Ever mindful of the kneejerk assumption of many consumers that “cloud computing” is just one more buzz phrase, VARS must take under wing these would-be customers with dedicated counsel on this notion of web-based computing that promises much to the enhancement of their lives.

In other words, without a flock of VARs taking committed flight now, on the downdraft of the advertising campaign Microsoft has so masterfully given wings, consumers will be denied full ascendency into the clouds. 

This year’s version of the event, which takes place at the New York Marriott Marquis from August 2nd to 4th, hosts CRM users, vendors, analysts and consultants, all in pursuit of intelligence on how technologies and economic forces are changing the software segment.

CRM Evolution 2010 Agenda

As in years past, it purports to cover a range of CRM-related areas over the course of its crowded agenda. This includes those that promise wisdom on streamlining business processes, those that improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, and those that leverage technologies that will forever change the engine at the centre of every successful corporation: customer relationships.

Several keynote speeches are planned, including one by Denis Pombriant of Beagle Research, a CRM analyst firm based in Massachusetts. His research touches on everything from the ascent of the global middle class, to the impact of rising costs of business travel. But he centers particularly on the role CRM software has to play in servicing changing the consumer landscape that seems—increasingly—to value experiences over things.

Social CRM

The advent of so-called “social CRM” is another key theme planned for the event. The newly proactive customer who’s more likely to seek answers from her peers via the Internet than contact the company directly will be discussed at length. As will be the notion that the CRM industry might have lost sight of that for which the customer might be expressing a desire, and instead, gotten caught up in the provision of the technology that will facilitate its expression.

Recent Acquisitions Blur Lines

451 Group’s analyst China Martens recently explained, “the 2010 convention will also make time for the subject of how the market will be affected by the sudden presence of vendors like Adobe and IBM, which are embarking on strategies that blur the category’s lines, including those demonstrated by the former’s recent acquisitions of Web analytics provider Omniture and Web content management vendor Day Software”.

CRM & DaaS

Finally, the trend of Data-as-a-Service (DaaS), or the concept of a business being able to access data wherever it resides, will find play at this year’s event. Customer Relationship Management is poised for marriage with DaaS, at least in some form. This topic will spark a spirited discussion on whether the relationship will work out, which will no doubt occupy a swath of time at CRM Evolution 2010.

I appreciate such conversation and activity around topics such as CRM. It’s only by engaging industry participants in conversation and by exposing the lot of us to the innovation that’s been unfolding in far-flung silos around the world that we can hope to lend even further improvements to a business area as promising and dynamic as this one.

You can realize the benefits from your IT solution immediately with our customized payment plans.

Finance your IT solution
Microsoft Business Solutions serve businesses of all sizes and provide financing for a range of IT needs, including software, services, third-party products and hardware. There is typically no down payment required and terms range from two to five years, making it easy to realize the benefits of the latest Microsoft technologies immediately, with no large upfront costs or hidden fees.

Optimize your long-term IT roadmap
And if you need to build on your solution at any time during the contract, you can add new products, services or upgrades with supplemental financing starting at $3,000.00. Payment plans are based on competitive, fixed interest rates, so you can choose one that is aligned to your budget.

360 Visibility is dedicated to enabling all enterprise participants to make swift, well-informed, coordinated, and above all profitable business decisions. In short, they help companies see clearly, and act faster. We provide our clients with the enterprise software, communications systems, and technology infrastructure they need to effectively pilot their businesses, capitalize on opportunities and avoid pitfalls, so they can compete and win in today’s challenging and dynamic business environment. 360’s team of highly qualified and motivated IT and consulting professionals, have over 100 years’ experience among them, in all aspects of systems analysis, design, implementation, training, and support.

By offering Microsoft Financing, 360 is able increase our offerings and provide more options for our clients. To learn more about Microsoft Financing, contact us today.

360 Visibility. See Clearly. Act Faster.