Not all PSAs are the same. Some work better for SME’s while others can support the scale and commercial complexity of Enterprises. There are even some which claim to be PSAs but aren’t.

The Product landscape continues to evolve fast – some established solutions have massive functional depth and breadth – but with that bring complexity. There are also new market entrants which are rapidly emerging as credible challengers. With so many options to choose from, it can be difficult to select the right PSA for your consultancy.

Having worked with Professional Services businesses for many years, we’ve seen many companies end up choosing something that’s just wrong for their business. Either the PSA is too complicated and expensive for their needs, or they’ve chosen one that looks good but is missing key functionality that’s crucial to support their business operations or does not integrate well with their other platforms.

Many clients can often over-engineer their requirements, or base it on how their business works today, rather than how it could run better in the future, making best use of what the PSA can do. Often it’s not understood what’s really important to their business until after they’ve implemented a PSA.

In our experience getting to a short, simple, well-informed view of what’s defining or ‘mission critical’ to your business is the best starting point for conversations with potential software providers.

To make sure you’re choosing the right solution for your business, there are a number of important considerations you need to keep in mind.

How to choose the right PSA for your business

Functional fit – what do you need your PSA to do?

  • Make sure you are selecting a real Professional Services Automation system. As we touched upon, there are a number of different options on the market – in fact, there are currently well over 40-50 software products that are classified as a PSA software. In reality, they can be very different and some perhaps aren’t really PSAs at all; they could actually be a general Project Management or collaboration platform.

  • Most suppliers will say they can meet all your requirements in one way or another, but first you need to have a good understanding of what is ‘mission critical’ to your business. Consider your desired ‘To Be’ processes and check how the solution will support and fit with the way you work and your ‘defining’ business requirements.

  • Each PSA has a history and different ‘Centricities’. Some might be ‘Project’ centric, others may be more structured around Customers and Opportunities. Check this with your potential supplier and determine what fits best with your business and your own ways of working.

  • Some PSAs have been designed to support different sectors, service lines and commercial models – for example Advertising and Media Agencies; Consultancies; Tech Services companies etc. Each product will fit and enable those sectors better.

Adoption and the User Interface – how easy is it to use?

  • A common mistake is seeing a PSA as just an admin or Backoffice tool – it isn’t. A PSA is designed to efficiently consolidate, connect and automate your business processes, focusing on optimising your delivery execution, providing valuable insights, and improving business agility and overall profitability.

  • It’s critical that a PSA is used and adopted fully by all your Consultants, Project Managers and business leaders. It needs to be fully embedded into your day-to-day processes to add maximum value.

  • To get the best adoption by your team, your chosen PSA needs to be intuitive and easy to use. It should fit naturally with your own business terminology and the way you see and do things.

IT Ecosystem – boundaries, interfacing & process alignment

  • You need to consider how easily the PSA can connect and integrate with your other business systems, i.e. Finance, CRM, HR, Project Management, Document Management. Many PSAs claim to interface with other common platforms ‘Out of the Box’. In our experience this is only sometimes the case, so it’s vital that you challenge and test this prior to adoption, and determine what skills may be needed in reality to do the integration.

  • Investigate how the system handles key data and business process flows to ensure it is fit for purpose in your company. E.g. is it suitable for invoicing A/R, handling new opportunities from sales to delivery, or sourcing accurate Resource information?

  • Consider which processes should be transferred to the PSA system and which may be best to continue on your existing systems. Are there any functional overlaps?

  • Some PSAs are built on existing well-known platforms, for example, Salesforce. This can bring some potential advantages if you’re already using the Sales Cloud CRM or other apps native to Salesforce. However, if you aren’t, there are some important integration and support challenges you may come across. All technical and business processes, skills and costs will need properly thinking through.

The Software Provider – do you want to work with them?

There are a range of factors you should also consider about the Software company itself, to make sure you have the best possible working relationship for your investment. Questions you should ask include:

  • What’s their Deployment approach and support arrangement?

  • What’s their ongoing support service like – are they responsive, do they have people who really know the product, do they have people that understand your type of business?

  • How is the configuration changed and administered?

  • What is the stability and trajectory of the company?

Should your business invest in a PSA?

At the risk of stating the obvious, a PSA can help you achieve things you can’t do now. Or it can significantly improve the way you do things now.

One thing that is certain: a PSA will change the way your business works. If it doesn’t, you’ve got a problem, it’ll just become an admin overhead and you won’t be getting much value from it. That’s why it is vital that you choose the right one for your business so you receive the best possible ROI.  It’s crucial you plan and implement the corresponding business change and drive business adoption to the fullest extent.  Make sure your business is ready for this.

Our team at Garwood are serial purchasers, adopters and users of many different PSAs over many years. We’ve helped dozens of clients successfully procure, deploy, adopt and drive their businesses using PSAs.  We keep our understanding of all the key PSA solutions up to date and work closely with many of their product teams, in order to provide independent and objective advice on which solutions could work best for you.

If you’re considering investing in a PSA solution for your business and aren’t sure where to start, reach out to our team who will be more than happy to help.

Read more about some of the businesses we’ve helped to implement and utilise a PSA system: