How can professional services firms survive economic uncertainty?

We explore the importance of business systems in helping professional services firms deliver value in spite of economic highs and lows.

Providing great advice and delivering projects or outputs that affect other businesses’ results (and future success) is a challenging line of work. 

Accountability is key for professional services, consulting firms, media agencies and advisory businesses. Companies turn to you for specialist knowledge and skills they don’t have and put their faith in your recommendations. 

They count on you to solve important problems. The expertise of your team and your ability to build and maintain trust are both essential. But simply having the desire and talent to do a good job will never be enough in a competitive and increasingly volatile economy. 

Long-term success in the professional services industry is also driven by your business model and the systems that underpin it. 

Systems include technology, people management, and processes—the frameworks that ensure you can:

• Back up your ideas with reliable levels of service,
• deliver projects on time and on budget, and 
• evaluate and improve your offerings and team performance over time. 

Systems also influence how well you can change or pivot in the face of risks and opportunities.

Is your professional services firm resilient enough to adapt?

Can your firm or practice withstand the impact of disruption, downturns, and dramatic shifts in market trends or demand? Robust systems improve your resilience in times of economic turmoil. 

That’s been brought sharply into focus given the recent coronavirus pandemic that’s affecting businesses globally. The virus’ spread is causing a significant economic contraction. 

Many consultancy companies have had to adapt to a new way of working – remote teams, no on-site client visits and working from home.

Of course, adapting to a mobile workforce is one of many potential disruptions that can affect your firm’s employee engagement, productivity, compliance, security, and reputation.

Consulting and advisory teams need business systems that support:

• Secure, mobile collaboration with real-time access to information
• Clear roles, responsibilities and record-keeping
• Fast, effective and data-driven decision-making

Nobody knows exactly what the future holds. For professional services companies to stand the test of time, it’s wise to establish high levels of transparency and agility.  

Do your systems drive day-to-day efficiency for long-term sustainability? 

Systems that help your team get the details right day-to-day add up to a project-based business that is more durable and versatile over the long term.

Good information flow, teamwork, and precise coordination of core business activities help you close more deals, do better work, build a loyal base of clients, and grow your revenue and scope. These outcomes are either facilitated or hampered by, the technologies and practices you employ every day.  

Using digital tools is not the whole answer.   

Many firms end up with multiple software solutions that don’t talk to each other, or different departments using different approaches that can’t easily share information or work together effectively. 

For example, you might implement a CRM solution to improve how your team captures information about prospective and current clients—especially given the importance of personal connections in the consulting industry.

But understanding clients in a way that allows you to excel at marketing and engagement means very little if your processes fall down at other steps—such as inadequate onboarding, poor communication on progress, delays and cost blowouts, confusing invoicing and billing processes, or lack of clarity about which projects contribute most to your bottom line.

You need a 360-degree view of the customer and your projects, from when you acquire a client through to analysis and evaluation of project performance and profitability.

Integrated business systems strengthen professional services teams

Gaining and keeping your clients’ trust requires an effective and agile business model—and systems that support both efficiency and transparency.

Small to mid-market professional services firms with growth ambitions need sophisticated and integrated business software, such as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution.

MYOB Acumatica (formerly MYOB Advanced) is the ideal ERP software for the professional services industry.

MYOB Acumatica allows SMEs to combine sales and customer management, project management and accounting, timesheets, payroll, financial management, billing, and business intelligence reporting all in one cloud-based platform that’s easy to customise and extend with add-on applications. 

Leverage Technologies can configure MYOB Acumatica to give your firm a single source of truth about the customer journey, what’s happening across every project, profitability by project, and your business-wide financial position. 

That delivers additional business benefits including:

• Optimised team workflows and resource allocation
• Better ability to set margins, get paid quickly and improve cash flow 
• Simplified IT systems and reduced maintenance/infrastructure costs
• Cloud-based mobility and the capacity to scale up or down as needed
• Up-to-date and accurate people and performance data for future planning

In other words, MYOB Acumatica lets you run a more purposeful and adaptable professional services business that can deliver value to clients regardless of changing business conditions.  

Our software consultancy is uniquely placed to help you take advantage of MYOB Acumatica for business success. Leverage Technologies is an experienced MYOB Acumatica Platinum Partner and reseller in the Australian market and our professional services industry knowledge is first-rate. Talk to our friendly team today about embracing MYOB Acumatica (formerly MYOB Advanced) to underpin lasting business success in the professional services industry.