Smart Capacity Planning for Consultancy
Context
Our client is a consulting company where consultants are assigned across multiple projects. They work on both Time & Material and Fixed Price projects. In addition, retainers are used for ad hoc work, and their budgets need to be closely monitored.
Planning resource allocation, understanding the impact of schedule changes on revenue, tracking budgets, and keeping everyone aligned with the latest version of the planning was a highly manual process. Despite a project manager spending several days per week updating the planning, the data remained inconsistent, error-prone, and lacking transparency.
As the client is a publicly listed company, accurate figures are crucial, and the impact of planning changes must be immediately reflected in forecasts for the current and upcoming quarters.
What did we achieve?
Together with the client, we mapped out the ideal setup within a complex and specific environment. A key requirement was to avoid overlap with existing systems while bridging the gap in operational processes and their translation into quarterly figures.
The result is a centralized web application accessible to different roles within the team. The platform is designed to support multiple departments, allowing them to work within the same system without accessing each other’s data. At the same time, consultants can still be allocated across departments.
Managers use the tool to easily create projects and link them to SAP. Budgets are defined, and retainer budgets are distributed over the contract duration. Project roles and rates are centrally managed, and resources are set up and connected to Office 365 for authentication.
Project managers then plan projects using a visual overview that immediately highlights potential overbooking of both resources and project budgets. Based on the planning, they can instantly access a KPI dashboard showing allocation details, budget impact (depending on contract type), and how the planning affects quarterly figures.
Consultants receive notifications about changes to their schedules, can view their colleagues’ planning, and easily see who they will collaborate with on upcoming projects and in which role.
Added value
This new platform provides clear benefits for planning and forecasting: