Guide to selecting software to manage your service business
A definitive document to select the most appropriate software to manage your company
11 min.What will this guide offer you?
The selection of a management system is one of the most relevant decisions you will have to make regarding
to the address of your company. This is due to all the implications that this decision entails in relation to work culture, operational processes and communication between team members.
- Work culture: Either the work culture accompanies the management system, or the management system accompanies the work culture (they must be amalgamated and never excepted).
- Operational Processes: The management system must be consistent with its internal circuits, processes or flows and thus achieve procedural economy.
- Communication between team members: The management system must be the oil that lubricates the relationship between the different areas. Not only by allowing assertive communication from the application itself but also by generating alerts/notifications in critical business scenarios.
Project management software offers clarity of information (reports, reports and dashboards), positions the business at a higher level (global view) and places the power in the right hands: those of the project teams (information consistent for decision making).
For this reason we have created this guide, which will give you an overview of the options currently available and recommending criteria to help you select the best solution for your current and future needs for your service company.
How to use this guide?
Use this free guide to learn about different technology options so you can:
• inform you
• assess
• compare
• select
This includes:
• Tips so you can identify your needs
• Functional aspects that you should consider at the time of your evaluation
• What tools and features to look for
Service Management
What is a service?
It is a set of activities that are basically provided to satisfy the needs of another person (a person or company generates a certain or determinable obligation to do with a defined result, in favor of another person for an economic valuation consideration).
It is due to the variety of activities that are included in the service sector that has been growing non-stop in recent years. Some companies provide project-based services, that is, tasks linked to planning, control and execution; others, however, are related to repairs, outsourcing, construction, logistics, services at the client’s home, education, transportation or health.
What kind of software do you need to manage your service business?
This guide will give you an overview of the different categories of services and the differentiating characteristics that each one has, with a list of the essential functionalities that each sector needs to correctly manage its business.
Service Categories
There are 5 categories of services:
- Professionals: technology, architecture, business services, consulting firms.
- Service providers (outsourcing): BPO, Logistics, Transportation.
- At home: (Field Services), maintenance and repair services.
- Construction and Engineering.
- Personal (medical and educational)
1. Professional services
They are the companies that invoice their work against the projects. Professional services are common in the technology, architecture, engineering, and construction industries, and business services (accounting, advertising, and consulting).
2. . Service providers (outsourcing)
They are common in computing and some business services, such as accounting, supply chain management, marketing, and transportation and logistics.
3. Home services, maintenance and repairs
The home service agenda is scheduled according to the contracts or as requested by the client. Home service is typical in pest control, security, cleaning, construction and other service industries.
4. Construction and engineering
They manage the post-project execution process.
It includes the work carried out on the site, combining labor, materials, subcontracts and expenses.
5. Personal services
They cover a wide category of services provided to people.
They include medical, social, educational and other services. Service companies often provide a hybrid of professional and in-home services.
Service categories
Professional Services
These companies normally manage tasks or projects (which are groupings of tasks or work folders) to meet their objective and to do so, they mainly manage human resources.
There may be unique projects that are started, managed and resolved, or there may also be tasks that can be repeated every month. We will call these recurring services (fee fees, etc.)
What is a project for a service company?
Simply put, a project is a series of tasks that must be completed (sometimes sequentially) to achieve a specific result. Projects can range from simple to complex and can be managed by one person or a hundred (individual or multiple participation).
Sometimes deadlines or a time limitation may be given. For good project productivity, some teams divide the project into individual tasks in order to manage responsibility and leverage the team’s strengths.
What is project management?
Project management is the use of information, skills, technical tools, and organizational techniques to diagram activities or tasks in order to plan, initiate, execute, control, and complete a project.
The main difference with regular management is that project management has deliverables that depend on a time, a budget and the scope of work. There are many types of project management techniques or methodologies, but whether it is the traditional way, the waterfall model, agile or lean, there are some structures in this discipline that are guaranteed.
What is project management software?
For a wide spectrum of this business, project management software is a tool that makes task planning easier.
Now, for our conception, we understand project management software as the vehicle designed by a group of people to articulate the economic-social function of cooperation between the different parts that make up a project and whose mediate purpose is the satisfaction of the interest of the project. applicant.
Project management software is necessary for all companies of:
- Professional services
- Professional offices
- Construction and engineering
- Advertising agencies
- Education, transportation and health
- Professional services
- Professional offices
- Construction and engineering
- Advertising agencies
- Education, transportation and health
What are the fundamental components in this type of tool?
A project management software allows for organizational centralization, project planning, cost control, budgeting, and real-time communication and collaboration of teams on a specific project.
Other components:
- Instantaneousness: information and data for decision-making or corrective/preventive measures instantly.
- Weighting: reports, reports that allow you to view progress, profits, etc.
- Abstraction: Project software lacks biases or prejudices. It gives us a sample of reality (the difference between what was planned and what was carried out). Tied to results without subjectivities.
What are the main functions of a project management software?
Project management software is used in different industries and market segments and there are many options to choose from. Although there are differences and different formats, the constant and main objective is the following: to allow planning and control of the tasks and objectives of a project while taking time and resources into account.
However, today management software has evolved so much that it not only helps in the planning and execution of tasks to ensure their correct execution, but also allows you to keep track of project costs and achieve more accurate estimates. These are the three main functions that any project management software should have today:
1.Task Management
To facilitate project planning, software should offer the ability to set times, assign tasks, and describe how each individual task relates to one another. It must also facilitate the assignment of delivery times and status reports.
2.Time Tracking
It may seem obvious, but time control and management are a necessity and a fundamental part of project planning (especially when the tasks have some type of sequentiality between them).
3. Comparison of reality with budget
The comparison between what was done and what was planned is vital to take corrective actions in time.
4.Collaboration
Collaboration facilitates teamwork. This involves being able to easily share images, spreadsheets, documents and any type of file, so that their access is instantaneous and from anywhere. Messages requesting information, to do something with due dates and assigned to people, allow you to always have visibility of who must perform the tasks.
5.Project result information
Information on costs and profitability per project is extremely important as it allows us to understand whether the projects, beyond reaching deadlines and meeting the client, are or will be profitable at the time of completion. It is this type of information that will allow adjustments to be made in the prices of services and re-evaluate whether there are services that should be excluded from our offer.
Unique projects
Work with one or more tasks that must achieve a specific result is included in a concept called Project. This may contain several tasks: human resources, materials or subcontracts, and will be the entity that accumulates costs and income. In this way we can easily know the status and result of each project.
Professional services by project
- Contract
- Definition of tasks and stages
- Planning
- Resource/task assignment
- Execution
- Taking resource time on task
- Invoices for progress/milestones/fixed
Recurring task services
They are based on a contract that specifies the work requested by the client in the form of tasks, which are assigned to the company’s resources. These tasks are repeated periodically.
Resources may charge the time spent on each task and these may have maximum dates. Additionally, its status will be easily viewed.
Professional services with recurring tasks: These types of businesses can provide recurring services, with the same tasks every month. Some of them are:
- Accounting studies
- Consultants
- Advertising agencies
- Schools
- Construction/Real Estate Company (rental/rental)
Billing forms:
The ways to invoice can be:
- Fixed price per task
- Cost plus a percentage
- Costs per hour
Management: They are managed with work orders (work order/job/tasks) that are assigned to the corresponding human resources.
Personnel control: Time recording by project line and payroll settlement
Taking costs: The smallest entity that contains the project will take the cost. If it exists, it may be the task. The time taken will be assigned to the task line, as well as purchases of materials or subcontracts.
Accounting: They can account for the costs corresponding to each stage of the project.
In turn, the project can contain stages or phases, which are containers within the projects, and so on. Any of them can have tasks, materials or subcontracts.
Outsourced Services
This category of services includes supply chain management, national logistics, international logistics, customs clearance, national and international transportation.
Logistics
Management of own and third-party
- Warehouse locations
- Multi warehouse
- Control of batches, series, expiration date
- Two-Step Separation Accuracy Verification
- Pick, pack, ship
- Invoicing for entry into the warehouse, permanence, exit, picking, volume, weight
International transport
- International land transportation management, manages both its own and outsourced fleet of vehicles.
- Proforma invoice, and invoice from the approved proforma.
- Issuance and transmission of customs documents, Bill of Cargo and International Cargo Manifest.
Management:
- Traffic: the entire loading and unloading operation.
- Fleet: all company vehicles, both owned and outsourced.
- Corrective and preventive maintenance.
- Drivers: controls their qualifications and settlements.
- Fuel consumption.
Customs clearance:
Automation of all processes, allowing us to know in detail each of the actions of each file, knowing its exact situation at all times.
Domiciliary services
The category of home services covers those that must be carried out at the client’s home, both an individual and a company. It includes the sectors of security, cleaning, maintenance, pest control, among many others.
These services require large staffing in the field that needs to be planned, assigned and controlled.
The sectors they include are:
- Cleaning services
- Surveillance and security services
- Maintenance and repairs
Ways to bill:
- Fixed contract based
- Time and materials
- For time
Construction and Engineering
This category includes works that mix:
- Labour
- Materials
- Subcontracts
- Bills
There are 5 types of construction services:
- Renovation builder
- General construction
- Subcontractor
- Special Projects and Engineering
- Developers
Normally these types of companies rely on project management to pay for their work.
Renovation builder
They are normally small companies that carry out renovations of houses and commercial premises organized with work teams of 3-5 people. They quote their jobs using Excel spreadsheets, they do not have important administration, they do not issue purchase orders, they have difficulty knowing the true cost of the jobs
General construction
They are medium or large-sized companies that carry out constructions of all types based on projects designed at the request of the owner. They can be civil works, infrastructure, buildings.
Subcontractor
They are companies that are in charge of some of the construction tasks. They can be electricity, health, painting companies, etc.
Special Projects and Engineering
Industrial, hydraulic, electrical projects normally combine many components and civil works.
Real estate developers
Companies that cover all aspects of the real estate business, from property acquisition, design, engineering, financing, construction and sale.
The usual requirements in these industries are:
- Project accounting with costs
- Budgets
- Budget Control
- Planning
- Supply management
- Work certifications
- Personnel control and salary settlement
- Making times
- Mobility to connect with workers in the field.
- Customer Portal
- Billing (supplier invoice registration and
- invoice issuance to customer).
Personal Services
Companies often provide a hybrid of professional and in-home services.
Individual Services
Services linked to the people who supply them and normally have significant investments in equipment or buildings. Your billing may be tied to a one-time or recurring service request. They are services mainly linked to health and education.e.
A general ERP or specific software with experience in my business sector?
First let’s define what a generalist or also called horizontal ERP is. It is a standard software that serves to cover the basic processes of a commercial company, industry or services. It is a single system for all types of business.
In the past, most software was generalist and required a large number of client modifications to adapt to the way companies worked.
Specific software, also called vertical, on the other hand, is adapted to the unique needs of each business area. These systems are typically not only administrative and financial, but also operational. In this way they help and facilitate the work of companies.
ERP system options
Small companies
Small businesses typically use packaged or accounting systems, using multiple spreadsheets to accomplish their daily tasks. As companies grow, they feel the need for a more robust system that makes their daily work easier, giving them more control
Medium business
Many ERP systems provide general packaged solutions, many of them limited to certain functionalities. Other ERP systems offer verticalized solutions, with deeper functionalities that allow companies to scale without the need to change their systems.
We hope that this eBook has given you the necessary tools to understand in depth the various types of ERP systems for service companies, in addition to the common and specific functionalities that you will need to manage your business efficiently. If you want to know more about how specialized software can help you manage your company, write to us.