Can Cegeka and Microsoft meet all the needs of a professional service provider?

Cegeka’s Project & Services team has been working for years with the Microsoft Dynamics 365 suite to address the business needs of both consultancy and technical services organizations. By integrating sales, resource, project management, service management, and financial teams within a single platform, Cegeka aims to help these companies maximize efficiency and profitability, essential for staying competitive.

But can Cegeka and Microsoft truly meet all the business needs of these organizations? Discover the answer in this three-part blog series where we zoom in on the benefits for professional service providers, consultancy, and technical service organizations. In this first blog, we discuss the components you can combine modularly for an optimal mix.

First things first: what are ‘Business Applications’?

Cegeka talks about ‘Business Solutions’ and Microsoft talks about ‘Business Applications’. Coincidence?          I don’t think so, but what exactly are they? After all, isn’t every application or solution used in a business environment a Business Application or Solution?

According to Microsoft’s philosophy, ‘Business Applications’ are a set of integrated software applications that companies use to manage, optimize, and automate various business processes. Their strength lies in the fact that they don’t operate in isolation but rather streamline activities across different divisions and functions, such as sales, customer service, operations, financials, field service, project service automation, and marketing.

Service Performance Insight (SPI Research), the global research, advisory, and training organization for professional service organizations (PSOs), defines the following crucial application or solution needs for organizations in consultancy and technical services, among others:

Enterprise Resource Management

Enterprise Resource Management (ERP), is a term that in practice refers to the integrated approach to managing an organization’s financial activities, planning, control, and reporting.

ERP solutions offer an integrated approach to managing various business functions such as finance, human resources, supply chain management, production, and sales. European companies recognize the value of ERP systems in their ability to break down silos within the organization and provide a holistic overview of all operational aspects.

Another option is to choose specialized accounting software. However, this software has some limitations: it is often not suitable for multi-legal entities, does not always support multiple currencies (multi-currency), and can make intercompany transactions difficult. This can be problematic for companies operating internationally or with complex corporate structures.

Nevertheless, smaller companies can gain significant benefits by linking Professional Services Automation (PSA) systems to local accounting software, thereby enjoying the advantages of advanced project management while complying with local financial and regulatory requirements. This hybrid model offers a flexible and scalable solution for managing both operational and financial activities within professional service organizations.

An interesting trend within service-oriented and project-based environments is the rise of the CPQ tool (Configure, Price, Quote). This tool supports organizations in generating and managing product configurations, pricing, and quotes. At first glance, this may not seem relevant for professional service organizations, as these tools primarily focus on product configurations, but there is a growing trend to use CPQ tools to estimate services as well.

Professional Services Automation

Professional Services Automation (PSA) is a category of software specifically designed for companies that provide professional services. PSA software helps these organizations manage and automate various aspects of their operations such as project management, resource management, time and expense tracking, billing and revenue management, HRM, talent management, and CRM.

PSA software centralizes these processes into one system, increasing efficiency, improving data accuracy, and providing management with better insight into the operational and financial status of projects and the company as a whole. This enables professional service organizations to manage their projects more effectively, increase customer satisfaction, and improve profitability.

An alternative to PSA is Project Portfolio Management (PPM), which focuses on portfolio management without customer-facing functions like sales, HR, and finance processes. This makes PPM useful for internal functions such as product management but less suitable for consulting services. Another alternative is task management software, which, although similar to PPM, does not offer extensive planning capabilities. Task management software can manage tasks at a higher level of detail and remain clear, but it lacks the integrated approach of a PSA system for managing consulting services.

Customer Relationship Management

Optimally managing customer relationships is essential, and for this, we offer a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution. A CRM solution is a platform specifically designed to manage and optimize customer relationships. Typical functions within a CRM solution include a customer database, task management, activity management, sales management, and service management, as well as marketing automation and reporting with analytics.

Human Resource Management

Human Resource Management (HRM)  encompasses all processes and strategies aimed at effectively managing employees within an organization. This includes recruiting, developing, motivating, and retaining talent, as well as managing performance, compensation, and labor relations, thereby contributing to overall business goals and employee well-being.

This tool seems self-evident within professional service organizations, as personnel are one of the most important resources, for consulting firms, even the most important. Unfortunately, a comprehensive implementation of this functionality is often considered less of a priority, despite its crucial importance for the success and efficiency of the organization.

Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence (BI) offers significant benefits for professional service organizations by collecting, processing, and analyzing data to gain valuable insights. BI improves decision-making with real-time and accurate data, optimizes resource management, and increases customer satisfaction through insights into customer behavior and preferences. It also helps monitor financial performance and manage budgets, while project management is enhanced through real-time progress tracking and bottleneck analysis. Moreover, BI supports strategic planning by analyzing historical trends and assists in compliance and risk management by early detection of potential risks.

The modular Microsoft to the rescue

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is increasingly evolving into a philosophy and mindset for implementing the applications that are needed.

In the past, the term ERP was mainly used to describe large, integrated systems primarily focused on product-oriented companies. These systems were often too monolithic and required a significant upfront investment. Moreover, implementation demanded considerable effort, whereas standalone applications required less implementation effort but often brought hidden integration challenges.

Today, we see ERP more as an implementation style where each individual application is considered within the context of the whole. For example, when implementing a CRM system, the impact on financial processes is now also taken into account. This holistic approach ensures that the different applications within an organization work seamlessly together, leading to more efficient and effective business processes.

Within this philosophy, Cegeka has deliberately chosen Microsoft Dynamics 365 as the solution for its customers due to its extensive capabilities, modular architecture, and many integration possibilities.

At Cegeka, we believe that choosing one platform, like Microsoft, does not mean you have to choose all or nothing. Think of it like a menu, you still have the freedom to select the modules that best suit your business needs. For traditional business processes, we offer solutions for finance, purchase orders (PO), and sales. For a people-centered approach, there are modules for HR and resource management. If you want to focus on customer-driven processes, sales and customer service are key. And for operational excellence, you can mainly rely on modules such as service delivery and finance, for example. This way, with one platform, you can still make tailored choices that elevate your company to the next level.

Read part 2 now: Cegeka's key to success and growth with Microsoft for consulting organizations

Read part 3 'The success formula of Cegeka & Microsoft for technical services'.  

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