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Service Performance Insight

Service Performance Insight (SPI Research) is a global research, consulting and training organization dedicated to helping professional service organizations (PSOs) make quantum improvements in productivity and profit. In 2007, SPI Research developed the PS Maturity Model™ as a strategic planning and management framework. It is now the industry-leading performance improvement tool used by over 10,000 service and project-oriented organizations to chart their course to service excellence.

The core tenet of the PS Maturity Model™ is service organizations achieve success through the optimization of five Service Performance Pillars™:

Leadership – Vision, Strategy and Culture

Client Relationships

Human Capital Alignment

Service Execution

Finance and Operations

The SPI Advantage – Research

Service Performance Insight provides an informed and actionable independent third-party perspective for

clients and industry audiences. Our market research and reporting form the context in which both buyers

and sellers of information technology-based solutions maximize the effectiveness of solution development,

selection, deployment and use.

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Service Performance Insight brings years of technology service leadership and experience to every consulting

project. SPI Research helps clients ignite performance by objectively assessing strengths and weaknesses to

develop a full-engagement improvement plan with measurable, time-bound objectives. SPI Research offers

configurable programs proven to accelerate behavioral change and improve bottom line results for our

clients.

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© 2014 Service Performance Insight, Liberty Township, Ohio

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Service Performance Insight trademarks “Professional Services Maturity Model™”,

“Professional Services Maturity™ Benchmark Report”, “Service Performance Pillars™”,

“Service Lifecycle Management Maturity Model™”, and “SLM3™”.

The information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources Service

Performance Insight believes to be reliable, but is not guaranteed by SPI Research.

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are the property of their respective holders.

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written consent.

Service Performance Insight (SPI Research) is a global research, consulting and training organization dedicated to helping professional service

organizations (PSOs) make quantum improvements in productivity and profit. In 2007, SPI Research developed the PS Maturity Model™ as a

strategic planning and management framework. It is now the industry-leading performance improvement tool used by over 10,000 service and project-

oriented organizations to chart their course to service excellence.

SPI Research provides a unique depth of operating experience combined with unsurpassed analytic capability. We not only diagnose areas for

improvement but also provide the business value of change. We then work collaboratively with our clients to create new management processes to

transform and ignite performance.

Visit www.SPIresearch.com for more information on Service Performance Insight, LLC.

© 2014 Service Performance Insight

© 2014 Service Performance Insight i

Table of Contents

1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1

What makes Project-Based ERP different? ......................................................................................... 1

Project-Based ERP Defined.................................................................................................................. 2

2. Market Trends ................................................................................................................. 3

Strategic Considerations ..................................................................................................................... 3

Technology Trends .............................................................................................................................. 4

3. Project-based ERP Solutions .......................................................................................... 5

4. Project-Based ERP Benefits ........................................................................................... 8

Departmental versus integrated? ....................................................................................................... 9

Do you need an integrated ERP solution? ........................................................................................ 10

5. Core Business Processes.............................................................................................. 11

Quote-to-cash business processes .................................................................................................... 12

Recruit-to-retire business processes ................................................................................................. 12

6. Project-Based ERP Vendor Overview ........................................................................... 13

Primary Project-based ERP Application Providers ............................................................................ 14

Project-Based ERP Differentiators .................................................................................................... 16

7. Selection Process .......................................................................................................... 18

Important Considerations ................................................................................................................. 19

8. Conclusions and Recommendations ........................................................................... 20

About Service Performance Insight ................................................................................................... 21

Figures

Figure 1: Project-based ERP Solutions Dashboard ....................................................................................... 2

Figure 2: Success depends on inter-departmental cooperation .................................................................. 3

Figure 3: Operating in Silos .......................................................................................................................... 9

Figure 4: Suite vs. Best-of-breed Preference ............................................................................................... 9

Figure 5: Primary Business Processes Cross Multiple Departments .......................................................... 11

Figure 6: Quote-to-Cash Process ................................................................................................................ 12

Figure 7: Recruit-to-Retire Workforce Processes ...................................................................................... 12

Figure 8: ERP Selection Process ................................................................................................................. 18

© 2014 Service Performance Insight ii

Tables

Table 1: The Value of Integrated Client Relationship Management (CRM) ................................................. 5

Table 2: The Value of Integrated Professional Services Automation (PSA) ................................................. 6

Table 3: The Value of Integrated Human Capital Management (HCM) ....................................................... 7

Table 4: The Value of Integrated Business Intelligence (BI) ......................................................................... 7

Table 5: The Benefit of an Integrated ERP Solution ..................................................................................... 8

Table 6: Departmental Requirements and Primary Applications .............................................................. 10

Table 7: Integrated ERP Checklist .............................................................................................................. 10

Table 8: Project-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Solution Providers ....................................... 14

Table 9: ERP Solution Providers for Project-Based Organizations ............................................................. 16

Table 10: Project-based ERP Solution Differentiators ............................................................................... 16

Table 11: Selection Process ........................................................................................................................ 18

Table 12: ERP Deployment Considerations ................................................................................................ 19

2014 Project-based ERP Buyer’s Guide

© 2014 Service Performance Insight 1

1. INTRODUCTION

The growth engine of the world’s economy has shifted from manufacturing to project-based, people-

centric services businesses. These businesses rely on project-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP),

also known as Services Resource Planning (SRP), applications to manage the financial aspects of the firm.

These solutions automate core business processes such as quote-to-cash, resource and talent

management, time capture and billing, and provide the real-time visibility necessary to improve

organizational efficiency and effectiveness.

Globalization, centralization, modernization and regulatory compliance are the key drivers for continued

ERP investment among large project-based organizations. But the service industry is dominated by

small and midsize firms; their growth has consistently outpaced the overall market. According to SPI’s

extensive service economy research, merely 5% of more than 1,500 organizations surveyed have not yet

invested in an enterprise financial management system. Only the smallest organizations still rely on

spreadsheets to manage finance and accounting. Small and mid-size service-oriented firms are buying

new project-based ERP systems to replace legacy, on-premise solutions and to consolidate a hodge-

podge of point solutions and spreadsheets onto a single platform.

This project-based ERP Buyer’s Guide provides an overview of important trends, business processes and

selection criteria to help project-based businesses evaluate and choose ERP applications, which will

provide the level of insight, management and control needed to improve productivity and profitability.

What makes Project-Based ERP different?

Services firms are uniquely people-driven organizations. They depend on the knowledge and skills of a

talented workforce to sell, staff and deliver a range of services typically on a project or contract basis.

The fundamental financial requirements of service-based businesses are very different from classic

manufacturing and supply-chain focused ERP applications as they must include functionality for

managing resources (people) and projects (tasks). Increasingly, project-based ERP application providers

also add rich talent management capabilities to support recruiting, on-boarding, compensating and

rewarding the employees who are the core asset of service-based businesses.

Project- and service-based extensions to enterprise ERP applications started to appear in the late 1990’s

at the same time as stand-alone Professional Service Automation (PSA) solutions supporting resource

scheduling and time capture and billing became available. Over the past fifteen years project

accounting, resource management and time capture and billing modules have been added to many ERP

applications. Now most project-based ERP providers also add Human Capital Management (HCM) or

talent management extensions to accentuate the important role that recruitment and engagement of a

talented workforce has in today’s economy. Support for specialized billing methods and complex

revenue recognition rules for time and materials, work-in-process, deliverables-based or percentage

completion are also important project-based ERP extensions.



Client Relationship Management

(CRM) has come to the fore to

improve sales and marketing

effectiveness so the capability of

the vendor’s own CRM

application, or its ability to easily

integrate with stand-alone CRM

applications, is an increasingly

important consideration. Project

accounting and resource capacity

planning are also important

extensions which few classic

manufacturing-oriented ERP

applications do well. The key

performance driver is “out-of-the-

box” integration for greater visibility. Modern systems provide consistent, powerful dashboards giving

team members the information they need to make informed decisions.

Project-Based ERP Defined

A project-based ERP system is an integrated information management system that manages the capture

and flow of information across departments and functions. It includes a common enterprise-wide

database and various application modules to support fundamental business activities, such as

accounting, finance, sales, marketing, resource and project management and human resources. An ERP

system is used to standardize business processes and provide reports, insight and control for both

revenue and costs. The value of such a system is to enable critical information to be analyzed and

shared across the organization for more insightful and timely decision-making. For purposes of this

Buyer’s Guide, SPI Research considers Project-Based ERP solutions to have several modules that include:

Financial Management: The fundamental solution required to accurately collect and report financial transactions.

Client Relationship Management (CRM): The automation of client relationship processes to improve sales and marketing efficiency and effectiveness.

Professional Services Automation (PSA): The initiation, planning, execution, close and control of projects and services through the management and scheduling of resources that include people (both internal and partners), materials and equipment.

Human Capital Management (HCM): Talent management solutions for recruiting, hiring, compensation, goal-setting and career and performance management which rely on integration with and extracts from the employee database.

Business Intelligence (BI): The assembly and use of information to improve decision-making.

Figure 1: Project-based ERP Solutions Dashboard



2. MARKET TRENDS

The selection of a project-based ERP application is one of the most important investment decisions most

organizations will make. Not to be taken lightly, the evaluation should include both current and future

business requirements along with an understanding of market conditions and technology trends.

Strategic Considerations

Within project-based businesses,

the core work is accomplished by

self-managing work teams that

quickly come together to

accomplish specific tasks. Staffing,

managing and collecting time and

expense and billing for projects is

the principal ERP functionality

required by project-centric

organizations. Project-based ERP

solutions must provide visibility

into project accounting with

budget-to-actual comparisons for

both costs and revenue. These organizations also require powerful tools for planning, reporting and

budgeting which support trend analysis and “what if” scenario and resource capacity planning.

Choosing a new ERP solution is a major decision. Clearly defining requirements and fundamental

business processes helps prioritize “required” versus “nice-to-have” functionality. Strategic

considerations driving project-based ERP decisions include:

Strategy: Leaders in project-based organizations must constantly refine their strategies to remain

competitive and to attract the “best and brightest” talent. Leading performers in SPI Research’s

annual benchmark studies tend to be focused on high-growth niche areas, industries or particular

business processes. This specialization enables them to focus on building differentiation and depth

in their portfolio.

Marketing and Sales: Marketing and Sales is, and always will be critical to success in any type of

organization. The need to offer greater repeatability in service offerings has given rise to

productized (packaged) services. This emphasis enables project-based organizations to sell services

more like products, with less variability in the time and cost necessary to deliver the service, along

with higher levels of differentiation and quality.

Talent: Project-based organizations have reported it has become increasingly difficult to find, hire

and retain qualified personnel, especially those with critical skills in science, technology,

Figure 2: Success depends on inter-departmental cooperation



engineering and math (STEM). The emerging “Talent Cliff” has caused project-based organizations

to concentrate more heavily on employee-related issues.

Service Delivery: Limited resources, higher employee costs, more demanding clients and shorter

project durations have forced project-based organizations to improve project and service delivery.

The importance of building repeatable project and quality processes has become paramount.

Financial: Project-based organizations have become more complex. Now, geographic expansion,

increased numbers of mergers and acquisitions, accompanied by greater regulatory scrutiny dictate

the need for greater operational visibility and control. This additional level of control mandates the

need for a global information infrastructure.

Technology Trends

SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics and big data, and Cloud) is a new acronym for the technology trends

dominating the services landscape in 2014. SMAC and its underlying technologies have caused a seismic

shift in technology buying. Power and control have shifted to employees and business executives, away

from the IT domination of the past. Social media-fueled buying behaviors and perceptions have eclipsed

IT-centric product and feature selling. These new technologies have ushered in a wave of employee and

line of business buying power.

Social: Buyers expect new applications to be socially aware, with Facebook-like functionality for

crowdsourcing, instant messaging and telling a friend. Built-in connection and integration with the

major social channels is becoming mandatory.

Mobile: Support for a variety of mobile devices is no longer a “nice to have,” but a “gotta have,”

meaning vendors must offer out-of-the-box integration and support for iOS and Android devices

while supporting emerging mobile standards.

Analytics and Big Data: Much has been said and written about Big Data, especially as a means for

legacy enterprise application providers to remain relevant. The answer lies not only in access to

massive, virtual storage, but also in developing a workforce that can understand and use statistics

to power business decisions. Analytic engines and technology often surpass the analytic skills and

competencies of business users who have to make sense of it all. Graphical reporting, dashboards

and availability of out-of-the box management reports have become mandatory.

Cloud: The debate over cloud-based applications is over. The market has accepted and embraced

the new software as a service model. Every leading provider of enterprise applications is now

focused squarely on the cloud. Although typically smaller, and less expensive, today five cloud-

based solutions are sold for every one on-premise solution.



3. PROJECT-BASED ERP SOLUTIONS

ERP vendors segment their products into application modules that emphasize the management of costs,

clients and resources. Service Performance Insight highlights the five primary application modules that

an ERP solution should have to support project-based businesses in the following sections.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or Financial Management

Financial Management or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the

primary accounting solution required to accurately collect, bill, and

report financial transactions. ERP provides the master general ledger

database for accounts payable, billing, revenue and cash management.

It provides the foundation for budgeting, revenue planning and

forecasting by collecting and managing both revenue and cost

information. The ERP system provisions Professional Service Automation

(PSA) and Human Capital Management (HCM) applications with client,

employee and cost information. Billing can occur either within the PSA

or the ERP application but once bills are generated collection and

revenue accounting occurs within the ERP application.

Client Relationship Management (CRM)

Client Relationship

Management (CRM)

supports the management

of client relationships to

improve sales and

marketing effectiveness.

CRM is based on a master client database, which records and manages the client opportunity lifecycle.

CRM automates lead, contact and campaign management, sales pipeline forecasting and territory

management. Opportunities are tracked through sales stages in which leads are converted into closed

Table 1: The Value of Integrated Client Relationship Management (CRM)

KPI No

CRM

Stand-alone CRM

Integrated CRM

Year-over-year increase in PS revenue 7.4% 12.3% 12.4%

% of total revenue from new clients 29.9% 33.5% 37.4%

Deal pipeline relative to quarterly bookings forecast

154% 208% 217%

Annual revenue per billable consultant (k) $197 $203 $211

EBITDA % 13.9% 12.8% 16.5%

Source: Service Performance Insight, September 2014



deals. CRM may include marketing automation software to capture and automate customer touch

points from both inbound marketing activities and outbound lead generation campaigns. CRM allows

organizations to track clients throughout the sales lifecycle, and to specifically target customer segments

by understanding details of the relationship. Table 1 demonstrates that the value of a CRM investment

is multiplied when the CRM application is integrated with the core ERP application.

Professional Services Automation (PSA)

Professional Service Automation (PSA) provides the systems basis for

initiation, planning, resource management, scheduling, execution, close

and control of projects and services. PSA provides a resource and project

dashboard and demand forecast. It helps manage service delivery by

overseeing opportunities, staffing, project management, and

collaboration, combined with accurate and timely expense and time

capture. PSA manages all

aspects of service and project

delivery and resource

management based on

project data. Table 2 shows

the value of a PSA

investment is amplified when

it is integrated with the core

ERP application.

Human Capital Management (HCM)

Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions (also known as talent

management) give employers the tools to effectively recruit, manage,

evaluate and compensate employees. By tracking performance, skills

and career progression, HCM helps companies develop and maintain a

high-performance workforce. Software modules may include the

employee database or employee database extract, payroll, benefits,

recruiting, employee learning, skills, compensation, performance

management, career and succession planning — each of which help

organizations manage personnel growth and development.

Table 2: The Value of Integrated Professional Services Automation (PSA)

KPI No PSA Stand-alone PSA

Integrated PSA

% of employees billable or chargeable 73.0% 75.5% 75.7%

Average project duration (man-months) 17.75 18.85 24.85

Projects canceled 2.1% 2.0% 1.9%

A standardized delivery methodology is used 64.4% 65.2% 67.5%

Annual revenue per billable consultant (k) $189 $203 $216

Annual revenue per employee (k) $156 $166 $181




Table 3 shows the value of

HCM solutions burgeons

when the HCM solution is

part of an integrated ERP

solution. Management span

of control expands while the

time it takes to staff projects

decreases due to better

visibility to in-demand skills,

allowing firms to synchronize

their recruiting with demand.

Business Intelligence (BI)

Business Intelligence also known as reporting and analysis aggregates

information from primary business applications to improve reporting

and analysis, demand and capacity planning, budgeting, forecasting

and financial planning. Adoption of BI solutions continues to increase

with the advent of powerful graphical reporting and analysis tools. As

organizations mature, BI

becomes a more critical tool to

provide real-time visibility to all

aspects of the operation —

allowing executives to spot

trends and take corrective action

early. Trend and what-if

analysis, and scenario and

capacity planning are used to

support accurate forecasting,

planning and budgeting.

Other Modules

There are many other integrated modules sold by ERP vendors. Recruiting and knowledge management

modules along with social collaboration and anytime access from mobile devices are becoming essential

requirements. Take the time to understand which modules your organization needs as well as how the

vendor supports integration with your current legacy and planned future applications.

Table 3: The Value of Integrated Human Capital Management (HCM)

KPI No HCM Stand-alone HCM

Integrated HCM

Year-over-year change in PS headcount 8.2% 10.0% 10.1%

% of PS revenue delivered by 3rd-parties 11.9% 12.6% 15.1%

Employee to management ratio 9.44 9.61 11.07

Average project staffing time (days) 12.02 11.68 9.96

Average project staff (people) 3.34 4.25 4.85

EBITDA 13.3% 13.6% 17.3%


Table 4: The Value of Integrated Business Intelligence (BI)

KPI No BI Stand-

alone BI Integrated

BI

Size of PS organization (employees) 113 375 416

Annual company revenue (mm) $74.4 $231.2 $264.1

Quarterly revenue target in backlog 43.1% 45.3% 50.0%

% of annual revenue target achieved 91.0% 92.7% 95.3%

% of annual margin target achieved 87.6% 90.9% 93.3%

EBITDA 13.1% 16.4% 16.0%




4. PROJECT-BASED ERP BENEFITS

Each year SPI Research’s Professional Services Maturity™ benchmark quantifies the benefits achieved

by services organizations with solutions that integrate Client Relationship Management and financial

processes, Human Capital Management and financial processes, and Professional Services Automation

and financial processes. Of course, the systems themselves are only part of a broader firm-wide

commitment to behavioral change that fosters collaboration and enhanced communication,

coordination and quality management.

When it comes to financial software, project-based organizations now have a range of attractive choices

– systems that are designed to support the needs of the always-on, virtual, mobile service economy by

providing a number of key benefits:

project revenue and cost data

is contained in a central

database;

the user interface is consistent

across all applications;

costs and deliverables reside

in the same place so

productivity can be measured,

analyzed and improved at the

territory, account, project and

individual resource level;

reporting and analytics are

embedded within the

application, alerting decision-

makers to issues before they

become problems;

a more seamless audit trail is provided to better identify success and failure points;

enhanced support for global operations with multicurrency, multilingual applications, which

conform to local regulations and taxes;

new multi-tier project-based ERP applications support both the needs of corporate and subsidiary

organizations with global control and visibility combined with cost-effective local extensions and

management;

improved cash management based on improved billing and faster financial period close;

lower administration costs due to fewer manual, error-prone spreadsheets and costly data re-

entry; and,

One-source of the truth – real-time information visibility, constantly updated.

Table 5: The Benefit of an Integrated ERP Solution

KPI Integrated

ERP

Stand-alone ERP

Delta

EBITDA 16.7% 13.2% 27%

Annual revenue per billable consultant (k) $213 $203 5%

Revenue per employee (k) $269 $240 12%

Project Margin 36.8% 34.4% 7%

Concurrent projects managed by PM 6.16 5.02 23%

Average project staffing time (days) 8.47 11.55 27%

Deal pipeline relative to quarterly bookings forecast

227% 200% 14%

Executive real-time visibility (out of 5) 3.75 3.40 10%


http://www.spiresearch.com/spi-research/reports/2014psmb.html



There are many more benefits provided by integrated project-based ERP solutions. It is intuitively

obvious that with one consistent set of information, decision-makers have the visibility and control they

need to improve organizational performance.

Departmental versus integrated?

As service organizations grow in

size and scope, the needs of the

organization increase. Nowhere is

this more evident than in the

information infrastructure. Many

project-based organizations

operate in functional silos,

meaning each department uses

stand-alone applications to

improve specific departmental

processes. While the benefits to

each department might be significant, does the overall organization prosper if departments do not

communicate and collaborate?

According to SPI Research, Figure 4 shows centralized finance and IT organizations favor the purchase of

a single integrated, project-based ERP application to

ensure consistency and visibility across all aspects of

the business. Independent service organizations

require a powerful, integrated financial management

application to ensure revenue and costs are kept in

balance. Embedded service organizations within

larger product-oriented firms have traditionally

favored best-of-breed departmental PSA and CRM

applications for greater autonomy and control. But

now with the advent of powerful project-based ERP

applications, finance, IT and departmental leaders can

all have access to a central ERP application which also

provides the departmental support they need for

sales, service delivery and talent management.

Figure 3: Operating in Silos

Figure 4: Suite vs. Best-of-breed Preference




Table 6: Departmental Requirements and Primary Applications

Department Core Requirements Primary Applications

Executive & Administrative

Strategic planning, budgeting, management reporting, decision support Business Intelligence, Budgeting & Planning

Human Resources

Payroll, Benefits, Recruiting, Hiring, Training, Compensation, Performance and Career Management

HCM

Legal Patents, law suits, contract management and approvals Case Mgmt.

Finance & Accounting

Financial management, operations, planning, forecasting, budgeting. Time & expense capture, billing, collections.

ERP, Financials, Budgeting & Planning, BI

Marketing & Sales

Marketing automation, sales force automation, account, contact and territory management, pricing & proposals.

CRM

Purchasing Material, equipment and external service procurement. Procurement

Service Delivery

Estimating, Project Management, Resource management and staffing, Knowledge Management and Collaboration, Quality Management. Web 2.0 social networking tools and web and video conferencing and remote service delivery tools.

(PSA) Project Mgmt, Resource Mgmt., Knowledge Mgmt., Collaboration Remote Service Delivery

Information Technology

Project scheduling, technology evaluation, systems development and implementation

Application Lifecycle Mgmt., Project Portfolio Mgmt.

Research & Development

New service development; knowledge sharing; template, tool and methodology development

Knowledge Mgmt., Product Mgmt.

Do you need an integrated ERP solution?

The primary driver of ERP selection is real-time visibility and control of the financial aspects of the

business. If the answer is “yes” to the following questions it may be time to consider an ERP purchase.

Table 7: Integrated ERP Checklist

Y/N Question

Have you outgrown your current systems? Do you have more than 20 employees?

Are your current financial applications outdated and expensive to update and maintain?

Have you or are you planning to expand globally? Can you support multinational currencies, regulations and taxes?

Is it important to have access to information in real time? Do departments need to share information to better plan and execute?

Does it take too long to manually collect time and expense to bill clients? Are invoices inaccurate making it hard to collect?

Does it take several days to manually close the books?

Do you have visibility to the sales pipeline and project backlog to quickly and accurately forecast demand?

Do you know “most in demand” skills and can you forecast demand to begin recruiting?

Do you look to improve service sales and service delivery consistency? Are you ready to adopt consistent sales and delivery methods?



Y/N Question

Has assigning resources and managing projects by spreadsheet and email become overwhelming?

Do you have low utilization levels (or do you even know your billable utilization)?

Do you know your project margins (by client, practice, region and consultant)? Are they acceptable?

What initiatives do you plan to emphasize over the next year to improve performance, and will your underlying information infrastructure need to change?

Remember, all operations begin with financials. The financial (or core ERP) solution is the most

important solution in your organization as it supports finance, accounting and operations by recording

financial transactions, costs and revenue to ensure regulatory compliance and reporting.

5. CORE BUSINESS PROCESSES

The power of modern project-based ERP solutions is that they provide workflow, rules, alerts and

reporting, which mimic best practices in business management. Decades ago services businesses had

few viable options as they were forced to build their own, or substantially customize manufacturing-

oriented ERP applications, to handle projects and resources. Now, the project-based ERP providers

highlighted in this Buyer’s Guide provide modules which support essential business processes, which

include “Quote-to-Cash” and “Recruit-to-Retire” human capital management.

Figure 5: Primary Business Processes Cross Multiple Departments

Project-based ERP solutions are designed to integrate core business processes across the organization so

that each department has a clear understanding of their specific goals and measurements and how they

ultimately impact the organization’s ability to succeed. Success can be defined in many terms, such as

growth, profit, quality, streamlined operations or reduced administration and rework. Regardless, when

everyone works with the same set of information and is focused on the critical path to complete project-

based work, results tend to improve.

The most important reason why project-based organizations purchase integrated ERP solutions is their

ability to support and streamline business processes across the entire organization. No longer can

solutions only provide visibility into specific functions. Now, as each department adds value, the

business processes that enable success must be mirrored in the ERP solution. The following sections



highlight two of the most critical business processes within project-based organizations: 1) quote-to-

cash, and 2) recruit-to-retire.

Quote-to-cash business processes

In today’s economy, cash flow rules. Every organization must focus on cash flow to maintain a solid

financial position and maximize profitability and liquidity. In service-oriented organizations this process

begins with a client quote and ends once payment is received and the money is in the bank. This macro

process of converting sales opportunities into paying customers is often referred to as “quote-to-cash”,

and its optimization is essential for financial well-being.

Figure 6 shows

Quote-to-cash is a

series of

interrelated

processes

supported by CRM,

PSA and ERP

modules. To

optimize these

fundamental business processes, executives rely on the integration of essential business applications to

provide visibility, transparency and control. These applications include: Client Relationship

Management (CRM), Professional Services Automation (PSA) and the primary financial solution (ERP),

with each managing aspects of the quote-to-cash process. Although each of these applications are

offered on a stand-alone basis, the true power of managing the complete quote-to-profit business cycle

is best accomplished by an integrated suite of applications, often referred to as project-based ERP or

Service Resource Planning (SRP).

Recruit-to-retire business

processes

By definition, service organizations are

judged by the quality of the people within

the firm. All service-oriented organizations

must place a premium on attracting,

retaining and motivating a superlative

workforce. Regardless of an organization’s

size and maturity level, the firm’s people are

the essence of the organization. They

determine financial viability, brand quality and client satisfaction.

Figure 6: Quote-to-Cash Process

Figure 7: Recruit-to-Retire Workforce Processes



They define the effectiveness of service delivery, sales and marketing. From inception, service

organizations must intently focus on attracting, hiring, retaining and motivating a high quality staff.

Figure 7 shows the essential elements of workforce processes – from recruiting to retirement.

6. PROJECT-BASED ERP VENDOR OVERVIEW

Rapid growth and change in the Professional Services (PS) industry and other project-based businesses

demands a comprehensive information infrastructure. SPI Research’s seven years of PS Maturity™

benchmarking has shown increasing adoption of business solutions and other analytic and collaboration

tools to improve operations, effectiveness and cash flow. Recently, greater emphasis has been placed

on “social,” enabling workers to communicate, collaborate and build their own personal brand and

communities within the information infrastructure. Both small and large project-based organizations

have embraced cloud solutions as they are a good fit for the mobile, virtual world of services.

Traditional ERP vendors like SAP, Oracle and Microsoft have extended their core business suites with

resource, project management and project accounting capabilities to meet the unique needs of the

service industry. They are transitioning their core business suites from on-premise to the cloud while

also offering hybrid and managed service deployment options. As a leading business application

provider, existing SAP enterprise business suite capabilities of quote-to-order, resource management,

mobile time entry and project accounting have been extended by Commercial Project Management

which includes bid management, planning and forecasting with enhanced front office functionality.

Oracle has extended its E-Business Suite to include resource and project accounting and now offers

cloud-based Oracle Fusion Financials, Project Portfolio Management, Human Capital Management and

Customer Relationship Management for Sales and Marketing. Microsoft leads with its Dynamics AX

service industry solution with powerful project-based functionality throughout, all accessible from its

intuitive Outlook-based user interface.

Born-in-the cloud ERP providers like Workday, NetSuite, FinancialForce and Intacct aggressively focus on

project-based businesses. Each leads with differentiating capabilities: Workday specializes in

enterprise-class businesses with a penchant for talent management; NetSuite supports complex multi-

currency and revenue accounting rules prevalent in global businesses and the technology sector;

FinancialForce is making big strides based on its tight relationship with Salesforce.com and development

on the Force platform while Intacct is a favorite of smaller organizations and accountancies. Deltek is a

leader in the AEC market and with federal government systems integrators based on its support for

complex project-completion and FASB accounting rules. UNIT4’s Agresso solution, with its roots in the

Netherlands and Norway is a strong competitor in Europe, and is one of the few mature vendors to have

successfully transitioned its line of on-premise solutions to a multi-tenant cloud solution.

Although SAP and Oracle remain the dominant suppliers for enterprise-class service firms (greater than

1,000 consultants), the fastest-growing project-based ERP suppliers focus on the mid-market. The top

mid-market project-based ERP suppliers are NetSuite, Microsoft, Deltek and UNIT4 with Intacct and

Financial Force aggressively gaining share in the mid-to-low end of the market.

http://www.spiresearch.com/psmaturitymodel/



Primary Project-based ERP Application Providers

There are scores of ERP solutions, however, very few are designed to support project-based

organizations. Table 8 highlights nine of the leading providers today. Each has strong project driven

capabilities, and may also support organizations that develop products.

Table 8: Project-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Solution Providers

Project-based ERP Solution Provider

Deltek based in Herndon, Virginia offers multiple industry-specific project-based ERP solutions that manage the complete project lifecycle. Its Vision product focuses on the unique requirements of A/E/C firms and consulting firms. It’s Maconomy product, while also a fit for A/E/C firms, has seen success inside professional services firms of all types including consulting firms, CPA firms, creative agencies, research firms, and more. It’s Costpoint product powers the businesses of government contractors and project-based manufacturers including some of the largest Fortune 500 companies. Finally, it’s Deltek First suite uses the capabilities of the products above to deliver Deltek in the Cloud to all of these markets. All of Deltek’s ERP solutions, while tailored to specific verticals, share common characteristics that manage the complete project lifecycle – including modules to help win more business (CRM), run the financial back-office, staff and deliver projects, capture time and expenses, and improve overall operational performance for firms as small as 10 employees to those with tens of thousands of employees. Deltek complements its ERP solutions with business intelligence, social collaboration, and mobile capabilities so companies can analyze business performance, collaborate on projects, and access Deltek from anywhere at any time.

Intacct founded in 1999 in San Jose, California offers a cloud-based financial system that enables customers to use Intacct’s project and resource management capabilities or integrate with nearly any PSA for deeper functionality. Natively, Intacct provides time and expense capture, resource scheduling, project management, project accounting, order management and billing, in addition to financial capabilities such as multi-ledger and multi-entity. For those requiring CRM or deeper resource and project management functionality, Intacct provides built-in integration to the Salesforce.com CRM application and partners with Clarizen and KeyedIn for project and resource management. Its affordable and flexible financial solution, endorsed by the AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants), delivers hundreds of templates for complex revenue, compliance reporting, and project metrics, such as profitability analysis by project and client. Designed for small and medium businesses, the system is affordable, easy to use and offers a wealth of standard reports.

FinancialForce.com, headquartered in San Francisco, California delivers ERP at Customer Speed™. Built on the Salesforce1 Platform, FinancialForce ERP equips customer-centric businesses with a unified cloud platform and all the applications necessary to grow both the top and bottom line. FinancialForce’s Financial Management, Human Capital Management (HCM), Professional Services Automation (PSA), and Supply Chain Management (SCM) applications allow businesses to increase the speed in which they operate and be more responsive along every touch point of a customer’s journey. Founded in 2009, FinancialForce.com is backed by UNIT4 and salesforce.com.

Microsoft Corporation based in Redmond, Washington offers the Dynamics line of business applications. Microsoft Dynamics CRM delivers contact, marketing, pipeline, sales and proposal management capabilities essential to practice development. Microsoft Dynamics SL delivers project-centric ERP for small to mid-sized professional services, construction, and project manufacturing firms, including government contractors. Microsoft Dynamics AX serves large enterprises and multinationals in these industries with integrated project estimation, planning, staffing, time and expense, billing and accounting (PSA components), as well as human resources, purchasing, finance, business intelligence and other essential ERP capabilities. Microsoft customers variously use Dynamics products as firm-wide end-to-end solutions and as operational front-ends to administrative SAP and Oracle systems. The Dynamics products are all highly configurable and extensible to interoperate with firm-specific applications and tools. As one would expect, the products also provide built-in integration into other Microsoft products. For example, Dynamics AX integrates with Dynamics CRM, Outlook, Word, Excel, Project and SharePoint, all operating on SQL Server within an on-premises/hosted Windows Server or an Azure cloud-based environment (IaaS model today with a SaaS model forthcoming).

http://www.financialforce.com/company/cloud-erp/about-us/

http://www.financialforce.com/products/financial-management/overview/

http://www.financialforce.com/products/human-capital-management/overview/

http://www.financialforce.com/products/human-capital-management/overview/

http://www.financialforce.com/products/professional-services-automation/overview/

http://www.financialforce.com/products/supply-chain-management/overview/



Project-based ERP Solution Provider

NetSuite founded in San Mateo, California in 1999 is one of the world's leading providers of cloud-based business management software. NetSuite has been a first-mover in cloud-based ERP applications for small to medium businesses and now supports more than 20,000 organizations including subsidiaries of large enterprises, generating $415 million in revenue and growing at 34% per year. NetSuite Service Resource Planning (SRP) is a complete bid-to-bill solution for project-based organizations. It encompasses modules for project, resource, client and expense management, project accounting, time capture and billing along with a rich set of standard reports. NetSuite’s powerful general ledger and multi-entity, multi-lingual, multi-currency revenue accounting supports the complex needs of global businesses. In addition to its industry-leading standalone OpenAir Professional Service Automation solution, NetSuite SRP, native to the NetSuite platform, provides one of the most powerfully complete Service Resource Planning solutions available today.

Oracle based in Redwood City, California provides a number of project-based ERP applications most notably its traditional on-premise E-Business Suite and now its cloud-based Fusion solutions for finance and project portfolio management. Although Oracle is the financial solution of record for many of the largest IT and consulting service providers its high cost of ownership and confusing array of overlapping modules makes it an attractive alternative only for large firms with a strong IT department. Oracle has struggled for almost a decade to consolidate and modernize its vast empire of acquired software onto the Fusion cloud platform. Fusion is Oracle's next-generation suite of open-standards-based software, available on-premise or in some "cloud" form. The Fusion suite covers financials; procurement; project portfolio management (PPM); human capital management (HCM); supply chain management (SCM) and customer relationship management for sales, marketing and partnering (CRM). Even with Fusion Oracle never makes buying simple, as there are more than 100 modules to choose from, often with overlapping functionality.

SAP headquartered in Waldorf, Germany is the market leader in ERP business applications and is credited with creating the category. Gartner pegs SAP with 24% of the overall $25 billion ERP market. SAP offers a comprehensive suite made up of financials, human capital management, enterprise resource planning, client relationship management and much more. Simple and Cloud are SAP’s 2014 themes with a focus on making SAP simpler to implement, use, enhance and operate. SAP has started fulfilling the promise of HANA by porting most of its major applications to its lightning-fast in-memory database. HANA is offered on-premise, hybrid and in the cloud as HANA Enterprise Cloud for running mission-critical applications such as SAP Business Suite. SAP continues to expand its native cloud portfolio with SuccessFactors human capital management, SAP Cloud for Customers (CRM) and SAP Jam for cloud-based social collaboration. One of SAP’s service-industry specific solutions is Commercial Project Management, which offers quote to order, resource management, mobile time entry and project accounting capabilities. Although SAP is primarily focused on enterprise service organizations with more than 1,000 employees its extensive array of Rapid Deployment Solutions (RDS) offer fixed-price, predefined software, best practices, training and templates for common business processes for sales, marketing and service, lowering the cost to deploy and operate SAP solutions.

UNIT4 is a global, cloud-focused, business software and services company aimed at helping dynamic public sector and commercial services organizations to embrace change simply, quickly and cost effectively. The UNIT4 Group incorporates a number of the world’s leading change-embracing software brands including UNIT4 Agresso, its flagship ERP suite for mid-sized and large services intensive organizations; UNIT4 Coda Financials, its best-of-class financial management software; and FinancialForce.com, the cloud application company formed with investment from salesforce.com. UNIT4 is headquartered in the Netherlands, with operations in 26 countries worldwide and over 4,000 employees. UNIT4 has 3,250 mid-sized to large ERP customers in over 100 countries.

Workday headquartered in Pleasanton, California, founded in 2005 by the legendary leaders of PeopleSoft, is now the fastest growing, cloud-based enterprise human capital management and financial management software provider having grown revenues 89% in 2013 to $274 million. Recently Workday turned its sights on building extensions to support the people-intensive service sector with Human Capital Management, Project and Resource management, time and expense tracking, revenue and cost management and reporting and analytics. Workday is targeting enterprise class organizations with more than 1,000 employees who put people at the core with support for multi-currency, multi-language, multi-practice billion dollar enterprises. Workday looks beyond conventional ERP to enable operational decision-making and flexibility, with a philosophy of providing transactions, governance and analysis all in the same system.

While there are many ERP solution providers very few focus on project-based organizations. The Table 9

lists the leading software providers by market segment.



Table 9: ERP Solution Providers for Project-Based Organizations

Provider Core Verticals URL

Deltek Architects, engineers, advertising, government contractors, management and IT consulting.

www.deltek.com/products/vision.aspx

Intacct Small to medium size businesses, IT Consulting, embedded service organizations and management consultancies. www.intacct.com

FinancialForce Embedded service organizations, independent IT, marketing and management consultancies. Built on the Salesforce 1 Platform with powerful out-of-the-box integration with Salesforce CRM.

www.financialforce.com

Microsoft Mid-size to larger domestic and multinational project-based organizations.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/

NetSuite

Medium to large enterprises. Especially strong in technology and professional services. Supports global businesses and complex revenue accounting. New ecommerce and social collaboration capabilities.

http://www.netsuite.com/portal/products/services-resource-planning.shtml

Oracle Large enterprises with more than 1,000 employees. http://www.oracle.com/us/industries/professional-services/overview/index.html

SAP Large enterprises with more than 1,000 employees. www.sap.com/professional-services

UNIT4

Agile ERP focused on people-centric organizations that are defined as Businesses Living IN Change (BLINC™). Strong in project-intensive industries such as Engineering, Off-shore, Research and Consulting.

http://www.unit4software.com/solutions/agresso

Workday Medium to large enterprises with a focus on people and talent. www.workday.com

Project-Based ERP Differentiators

The decision to purchase a project-based ERP solution is not an easy one. While there are many vendors

who sell ERP, many lack the focus and versatility to support project-based businesses. Also, there are a

variety of considerations which underlie vendor selection. These range from technology infrastructure,

to organization size, location and support for specific functionality. Just like no two service or project-

based organizations are alike, nor are ERP solutions. Table 10 highlights some of the most important

aspects to consider. Each organization places a different emphasis on these criteria, so it is important

the vendor you choose builds solutions to match your priorities.

Table 10: Project-based ERP Solution Differentiators

No. Differentiator Description

1 Heritage Origin of ERP solution – vertical market focus, size of organization, languages, currencies, etc.

2 Solution Depth and Breadth

There are scores of modules and applications for project-based organizations. Several ISVs offer all, while some offer a subset. Some ISVs offer in-depth functionality in one or several modules, while some offer minimal functionality.

http://www.deltek.com/products/vision.aspx

http://www.intacct.com/

http://www.financialforce.com/





http://www.oracle.com/us/industries/professional-services/overview/index.html

http://www.oracle.com/us/industries/professional-services/overview/index.html

http://www.sap.com/professional-services



http://www.workday.com/



No. Differentiator Description

3 Integration Despite the number of modules, ease of integration is an important consideration both to other enterprise applications and devices. What integration tools does the vendor provide? Whose responsibility is it to develop, implement, manage and maintain integration?

4 Organization Spectrum

Some ISVs like Deltek focus primarily on billable service organizations, while others sell to internal service departments that support both internal operations and external customers. Fast -growing cloud SRP providers like NetSuite and FinancialForce specialize in supporting embedded PSOs within technology companies with support for complex revenue recognition rules. The ability to capture time and support multiple billing models including time and materials, fixed price, work-in-process or support for US government FARSS accounting are also key decision considerations.

5 Vertical Market

Some ISVs sell to a variety of vertical markets, some are more focused on particular verticals such as AEC (Architects, Engineering and Construction) or government contracting each with complex project accounting rules.

6 Customer Size

The largest ERP suppliers focus on the largest, most complex enterprise organizations. Newer, cloud-based suppliers focus primarily on the small to mid-market. The critical consideration is cost, complexity, depth of solution and total cost of ownership.

7 Delivery

Enterprise suppliers are moving rapidly to port their ERP solutions to the cloud – they now offer on-premise, hybrid (managed service), private cloud and multi-tenant cloud-based applications. A key consideration with legacy ERP providers is their support for a true, multi-tenant cloud solution which offers economies of scale and typically lower costs of ownership and support.

8 Platform

The choice of database and development tools and platform is an important one although most of the major suppliers do offer standard integration tools. The two primary database platforms are Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle. SAP now offers its own high-performance database, HANA. Choice of database and development platform is important as Salesforce.com also offers its own development tools and platform called Force.com. Application, database and development platform interoperability are all important considerations.

9 Geography Many North American-based ISVs have significantly increased operations overseas, while a number of international ISVs have minimized their presence in the North American market. What is most important is that ISVs provide local support wherever their solut ions are sold.

10 Language /

Currency

Many organizations manage operations in multiple countries. Multi-currency, multi-language and support for country-specific accounting rules and taxes are important considerations for global organizations. Support for Asian double-byte characters may not be offered by domestic suppliers. Service organizations operating globally must carefully confirm language and currency support for the countries in which they do business.

11 Vendor Viability

New vendors come to market every day, so it is critical to analyze their long-term viability. If they appear to be acquisition targets, be wary, as the development of their solution will have an uncertain future. SAP, Oracle, Microsoft and Deltek have thrived through acquisitions with heavy investment in R&D, integration and global support. Carefully review long-term support, integration and investment before investing in an acquired solution.

12 Cost

Cost is an important factor when considering the purchase of ERP. SPI Research typically sees the total deployment cost of the solution (hardware, software, services) ranging between $500 and $1,500 per seat. It is also important to consider annual maintenance and upgrade costs. Support costs average between 18% and 25% of the initial license price. One key, but often forgotten cost consideration is the cost to make changes to the system after the initial deployment. Different architectures can make the on-going cost of system enhancements and changes many multiples of the cost of the initial deployment.



7. SELECTION PROCESS

Once you have decided your organization will move to a project-based ERP solution it is time to develop

a selection process. While cost is one of the most important considerations, there are many other

factors that should be part of the selection process. Figure 8 and Table 11 outlines a six-step selection

process.

Figure 8: ERP Selection Process

Table 11: Selection Process

Step Description Who is

involved

1.

Business Plan: Identify growth opportunities and key improvement initiatives. Assign initiative owners. Identify “organizational must haves” and success criteria. Determine ERP selection team, timelines and budget. Which executives will oversee selection and deployment? What specific benefits are planned, and how will they be measured?

Executive Team

2.

Requirements: Develop requirements including core business processes to be automated. How will business process and behavioral change be managed? Develop current state metrics and improvement targets. Develop improvement priorities and measurements. Identify operating unit subject matter experts (SMEs) who must be involved or consulted. Determine budget and ROI metrics to justify purchase. Identify priority application integration points and data to be migrated. How will the system be rolled out (entire company, by department, other)? Which features will be deployed immediately and which can be phased in over time? How will groups transition to the new system, who needs to be involved and trained? Establish selection process, decision criteria and timelines.

Core selection team including IT, Business Owners, Finance and Operations

3.

Research: Analyze research reports, industry blogs, competitive analysis, installed base, user satisfaction ratings, vendor websites, and cost of ownership information. Review demos, webinars, case studies, product guides and specifications to determine “must haves” versus “nice to haves”. Identify deployment options including preference for cloud, hosted or on-premise solutions. How are solutions maintained and upgraded? What is the process for new releases? Support for business processes – process modeling tools, workflow, alerts and approvals. Ease of use – user interface, standard reporting and support for custom reports and analysis. Determine and prioritize decision criteria and evaluation methods.

Core selection team

4.

Develop RFI, RFP or RFQ: Determine whether you will use outside consultants to help with the selection process. Determine if you will develop a multi-step or single step requisition process. In a Request for information (RFI) a broad list of vendors are asked to provide general information, background and strengths. A Request for Proposal (RFP) includes detailed required functionality, decision criteria and weighting. Determine which vendors will be involved in the selection. Establish timelines. A Request for Quote (RFQ) is the final step in the process including detailed pricing and proposed contract terms and language.

Core selection team



Step Description Who is

involved

5.

Evaluate: Depending on your requisition process you may have already whittled down the list of potential vendors from dozens to a short list. Detailed evaluation should be limited to 5 or fewer vendors as it is time-consuming, exhausting and can be confusing. Evaluations should include in-person meetings with each vendor team to discuss requirements and how the vendor will handle them. The next meetings will be for the vendors to propose their solutions. Presentations may include detailed demos with priority target user groups to evaluate functionality, ease of use, business process change and user acceptance. How does the solution handle core business processes? Or should business processes change to mirror the solution? How much customization will be required? What services will be required? How long will it take to convert and deploy? Does the vendor provide data migration tools and services? Key to the evaluation is the level of support the vendor will provide, who will implement the system, customization required, on-going support and upgrade schedule. Make sure to evaluate the implementation team as carefully as you do software functionality as a successful implementation will determine ultimate success or failure. Cost analysis must include implementation, data migration, integration, customization, training, purchase price and on-going maintenance.

Core selection team, Target User Groups, Implement. team

6. Decide: Site visits and reference checks with the preferred supplier. Review contracts and terms. Determine implementation process, timelines and teams. Performance guarantees. Negotiate pricing.

Core team, legal team, finance

Important Considerations

Selecting a new ERP solution is only part of the journey. It is imperative your organization prepare for

the change the new solution will bring. A fundamental decision is how will the solution be deployed?

The following table highlights important aspects of cloud, hosted and on-premise solutions.

Table 12: ERP Deployment Considerations

Multi-tenant Cloud Hosted On-premise

Licensing Options

Monthly, annual or multi-year subscription-based contract.

Per user per module varies by application, tiered for SMB or enterprise.

Fees are assessed based on a Service Level Agreement (SLA), which factors in the initial cost, depreciation and operating costs of hardware, software & networks.

Term or Perpetual Options

Upfront license payment for Database, ERP and modules. Pricing tiers based on size of organization.

Support Options

On-going support and upgrades are provided by vendor. Mandatory support is included in the subscription price.

Service Level Agreement with hosting provider. Typically includes application vendor-supplied software support the same as on-premise.

Typically 18% of first year license fees for basic software maintenance which includes bug fixes, telephone support and upgrades.

Deployment Vendor hosts hardware and provides multi-tenant (one code base) software over the internet.

Applications are accessed over a network provisioned and maintained by the hosting provider.

Client owns and operates hardware, software and network. Requires dedicated IT staff.

Implementation Typically 90 to 180 days. Vendor or partner supplied consulting support.

Same as on-premise Project specific – minimum 90 days to multi-year supplied by vendor or implementation partners.

Integration Vendor-specific or partner supplied integration tools are available. Client pays for integration modules, implementation and support.

Same as on-premise. May be provided on a project-basis by hosting provider.

Vendor specific or partner supplied integration tools. Client pays for integration modules, implementation and support.



Multi-tenant Cloud Hosted On-premise

Customization Vendor-specific development tools & customization options. Customization typically limited to UI, integration & reports.

Same as on-premise. Unlimited – client responsible for customization, upgrades, migration & on-going support.

Upgrades Typically quarterly. Clients are upgraded at the same time, all run on the same version.

Same as on-premise. Typically annual or semi-annual. Upgrades & migration are optional, scheduled at client’s convenience.

8. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The decision to implement a new Enterprise Resource Planning solution is one of the biggest decisions

your organization will make. A modern project-based ERP system will improve usability, conform to best

practices in business operations, and ensure compliance with regulations and taxes. Replacing multiple

legacy systems and a mountain of error-prone spreadsheets frees up management, finance and

operations to focus on running the business, not reacting to the business. Accurate and timely

information is not only critical for regulatory reporting but also for operational performance

improvement. Real-time visibility can mean the difference between low and high profitability for

project-based organizations. The ability to anticipate and respond to changing conditions can both

make and save a lot of money.


Service Performance Insight (SPI Research) is a global research, consulting and training organization dedicated to helping professional service organizations (PSOs) make quantum improvements in productivity and profit. In 2007, SPI developed the PS Maturity Model™ as a strategic planning and management framework. It is now the industry-leading performance improvement tool used by over 10,000 service and project-oriented organizations to chart their course to service excellence. SPI provides a unique depth of operating experience combined with unsurpassed analytic capability. We not only diagnose areas for improvement but also provide the business value of change. We then work collaboratively with our clients to create new management processes to transform and ignite performance. Visit www.SPIresearch.com for more information on Service Performance Insight, LLC. © 2014 Service Performance Insight 21

About Service Performance Insight

R. David Hofferberth, PE, Service Performance Insight founder, managing director and licensed professional engineer has served as an industry analyst, market consultant and product director. He is focused on the services economy, especially productivity and technologies that help organizations perform at their highest capacity.

Dave’s background includes application and analytical tool development to support business decision-making processes. He has more than 30 years of domestic and international experience with firms including the Aberdeen Group and Oracle. Contact Hofferberth at [email protected] or 513-759-5443.

Jeanne Urich, Service Performance Insight managing director, is a management consultant specializing in improvement and transformation for project- and service-oriented organizations. She has been a corporate officer and leader of the worldwide service organizations of Vignette, Blue Martini and Clarify, responsible for leading the growth of their professional services, education, account management and alliances organizations.

Jeanne is a world-renowned thought-leader, speaker and author on all

aspects of Professional Services. Contact Urich at [email protected] or 650-342-4690.



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