Utilization Metrics
If service delivery bookings have decreased at all for your organization, what plans do you have to keep utilization metrics in line with expectations? For example, if there are less Professional Services bookings for the remainder of the fiscal quarter/year, how are those resources being refitted for other areas that may not have been as affected (e.g., Support)? If you have no plans for a refit, has utilization focused on decreasing the backlog or other projects?
Thanks!
Answers
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Hi Chris! Great question. @George Humphrey, have you been hearing anything about the re-allocation of resources as delivery bookings decrease in some parts of an org?
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Hi Chris and Lexi, great question indeed! We absolutely are seeing members proactively reallocating resources from one service practice to another, in order to balance underutilized functions. We know transactional services business such as professional services and field services are being hit pretty hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, many of those resources are available for redeployment. We also know that both Support Services and Managed Services are seeing an increase in demand. As a result, here are some examples of resource allocation that our members have shared with us:
Professional Services technical consultants and architects are being reassigned to help with managed services solution design
Professional Services PMO and Implementation (transition) resources are being reassigned to help with new MS onboarding activities as well as major MS expansion engagements.
Professional Services technical architects are being leveraged by Support and Managed Services to augment Level 3 engineering to perform advanced problem management and root cause analysis.
Field Services engineers are being reassigned to help with the increase in demand for onsite resolution, parts replacement and outsourced tasks for both Support and Managed Services.
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Hi Chris,
this is very true - a lot of Field Service techs needed to stay at home as customers were not accepting visitors anymore. But the at the end of the logic, as they were not accepting the visitors, they needed to do more by themselves, which they don't know how. So, load to the Support Services clearly increased.
We simply enabled remote assistance technologies in our field techs home offices and brought them temporarily under support services. So far works well for us.
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Adding some experience from an Education Services view: I was in discussions around the current situation with some some of our delivery+sales Training Partners, and once we moved to 1:1 discussions I got more than once approached with the offer "Alex, we have now resources with low utilization in teaching - I can make you now a great price if you would need somebody for curriculum development". I have to say I was impressed by the thought of actively selling resources with low utilization, also adopting rates and really creating attractive offerings. Having heard this more than once I assume it happens not only in Education, but everywhere in the Service area.
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Hi Chris - We have a blend of both employees and third party in our professional services businesses, with the goal of being able to flex up/down depending on the current business situation. We have shifted delivery work over to our employees, in an attempt to maintain their utilization levels, and have reduced the amount of work we are engaging with our partners. The expectation is that when we return to (new) normal, we will mix shift back to a higher partner percentage.
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In the past I have leveraged those resources to help in Support related areas as well as in Customer Success related opportunities.
It's a very good opportunity as well to improve enablement/best practices and proactive reach out to customers and MOOC type activities.
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