Find the right software

Quality service providers - whether independent or embedded in a larger company - run an office just like many other businesses. In some important respects, however, they work significantly differently than commercial enterprises, craftsmen or companies in other industries. This results in a number of special needs that should definitely be met by good project management software.

Time and activity recordingService providers perform work that is measured in time. Time tracking is therefore at the heart of the value creation process and at the same time makes every employee a user of the project management software.

Effort reporting and invoicingIn a service company, all internal and external employees record their efforts, services, expenses and external costs for the various projects. This must be done quickly, easily, securely and independent of location. At the end of the month, the customer invoices (or the internal invoices) and the corresponding activity reports must be automatically generated, printed or even emailed to the customer "at the push of a button".

Project planning and controlling: For pre- and post-calculation, the project management software must be able to structure and plan projects logically and monitor them reliably even during their implementation. Are we on track? Or are we off and if so, how much? Where will we end up if we continue like this?

Document and information managementThe work of many service providers produces documents and information of all kinds as a result. These should either be stored in the project management software or - often better - directly in a suitable, specialized document management solution (a so-called "DMS").

Relationship ManagementService providers work for and with people. A suitable project management software must therefore take the complexity of the customer relationship into account by making the business-relevant connections visible and usable for all those involved in the project.

Decentralized and mobile workingService providers are knowledge workers who no longer just work in their office, but at the customer's, in shared offices, on the road, at home or anywhere else. A good project management software for service providers must enable this anywhere and anytime, securely and reliably.

Great need for digitization among quality service providers
Many service providers still work with a hodgepodge of tools. It is not uncommon for some of them to still be made of paper, which leads to a high proportion of manual work. At the same time, the many tools are poorly integrated and hardly capable of exchanging their information with each other without further intervention by the user. This makes it difficult for service providers to cope with the increasing pressure of competition and digitization. In addition, younger employees are hardly enthusiastic about such conditions and therefore prefer to look for employers who are also up to date in terms of IT technology.

Acceptance and investment security are the keys to success
Many a software implementation project has not brought the results that those responsible envisioned, or it has even suffered complete shipwreck. One of the most common reasons for this is poor acceptance of the software by employees. What do you have to do to prevent this from happening to you?

Prioritize acceptance and turn those affected into stakeholders by involving everyone in the software selection process in an appropriate manner. The resulting purchase decision should be comprehensible and transparent for everyone. Plan and implement the subsequent introduction seriously and with realistic specifications.

Last but not least, you evaluate your project management software from a business perspective as an investment that must pay off. With the help of an investment-benefit calculation, you can determine the payback period. As a rule, this should not be more than two to three years after the introduction of the software.

The process of an efficient and secure software evaluation
Software evaluation is a classic project and must be managed as such. At the same time, you as a service provider usually have little practice in it, so that the methodology plays a match-decisive role for the success of the project. Alternatively, you can hire an experienced selection consultant, or you can look for a software provider who can also support you methodically in the selection process. This will give you greater security.

No implementation project should be started without clear, written objectives. Because only the written objectives bring the necessary clarity, structure and the desired end result into the implementation process and form the basis for the project to be a success. Furthermore, make sure that the goals are concrete and binding and, above all, that they originate individually from your own company.

A software selection without a requirements catalog is like poking in the fog. Either you are lucky and find your goal, in our case a suitable project management software, or you are less lucky and miss it, in our case a moderately or even poorly functioning software. The probability for the latter is much higher, as practice shows again and again. Of course, there is no such thing as the "egg-laying willow sow". But the requirements catalog is still the best, if not the only means to reliably match your needs with the software solutions available on the market and to guarantee your company optimal project management software in the end.

A longlist is drawn up from all the software solutions on the market. This is then shortened to a shortlist, which may only contain software solutions that are fundamentally suitable for use by a service provider in the areas of quality assurance or quality management, risk management, process and project management. Only now will the solutions on the shortlist be analyzed and evaluated in depth in a systematic process. When making a purchase decision, it is essential that you not only put the software through its paces, but also the provider. He will later make a significant contribution to the success of the introduction and secure operation of the software.

And then the time has come. The selection process is over, the winner has been chosen, and nothing stands in the way of introducing your new project management software. However, even now, be sure to maintain "project mode" and secure the critical phase of the software introduction with sufficient time and resources.