Top professional services organisations outperform by huge margins: Here’s their secret.
This article is written by Seleen McKinnies, Regional Vice President, APAC, Certinia. She leads the APAC region with a goal of empowering current and future customers to leverage their investment in the Salesforce platform. For this blog, she highlights some key data from the recent SPI PS Maturity Benchmark Report.
SPI Research has just released its annual 2024 Professional Services Maturity Benchmark Report, which gives professional services organisations a reliable basis to view their performance relative to a well-established benchmark of peers.
One of the sections I found particularly interesting in the 2024 report was looking at the performance of the top 20% of companies – “high performance organisations”, or HPOs – compared to the bottom 80%.
The top 20%:
- Are 59% more profitable
- Have 11% longer average tenure
- Deliver on-time projects 17% more often
- Experience 25% fewer project overruns
- Achieve 31% higher revenue per billable consultant
- Sell 12% more services to new clients
- Provide a 22% better understood career path for employees
Accordingly, HPOs are much more bullish in their business outlook for 2024, with 39% greater forecasted revenue growth and nearly half planning geographic expansion this year.
So what exactly is the top 20% of professional services organisations doing that makes them perform at such a high level?
Easy… they utilise a Professional Services Automation (PSA) solution.
SPI states that PSA is among the core solutions driving operational success for HPOs. Nearly 90% of HPOs have deployed a commercial PSA solution and nearly half have it integrated into the core financial management solution.
“Because the best firms deploy the best consultants and effectively use PSA solutions to exceed client expectations, every facet of their projects are more profitable. […] High performers did an excellent job of generating much more revenue per project, utilizing standard delivery methodologies, minimizing scope creep and delivering services on time, on budget at much higher margins.”
-SPI PS Maturity Benchmark Report 2024
Simply put, PSA is key to building stronger client relationships, retaining top talent, delivering services more efficiently, and generating greater profitability.
See for yourself: download the SPI Research 2024 Professional Services Maturity Benchmark Report, and get started on your PSA journey today!
