How PSA Can Help Construction, Architecture and Engineering Firms Win and Deliver Successfully

Bidding and delivering engineering and construction projects is complex and challenging. One issue is the high cost of sale. The bidding process is elaborate and can involve many professionals. The cost can be up to 0.65% of the contract value.

Delivering projects effectively is equally challenging. Construction and engineering projects depend on deploying high-performing teams with diverse skills. Resource managers have to contend with skill shortages, time-sensitivity and the need to work effectively across national or state boundaries.

In a competitive industry, having a predictable and replicable process for winning and delivering projects – one which optimizes the use of resources and keeps costs low – can drive revenue growth. Here are three ways that implementing Kantata can help architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) organizations to do this more effectively.

1. Take a forward-looking view

Professional services automation (PSA) solutions provides a single source of data bringing information about pipeline, bids, existing projects, bid resourcing, delivery resourcing, and billing into one system. This allows managers to easily see the big picture of what is happening across the business in real time, and helps to join up the sales and the delivery sides of the organization.

Bringing demand from new projects and from existing customers together allows for more accurate forecasts, creating the opportunity to focus more effectively on the most appropriate opportunities. Making the business more predictable allows business leaders to make better decisions and to steer the business towards the most profitable projects.

2. Optimize resource management

A major cost in construction, architecture and engineering is the highly-skilled resources involved in delivering services. If their time is not carefully managed, they could be under-utilized, resulting in low productivity. Or projects and bids might be impacted by not having the right skills available at the right time.

Using Kantata for resource management, enables managers visibility into the availability of a wide resource pool, perhaps one that spans across international borders. They can search the pool by locations, availability, and also find people with related skills. This is helpful in putting together the best and most appropriate teams.

Being able to schedule time down to the hour means expensive experts can be fully utilized – one specialist may only be required for a few hours to input into scoping or costing one aspect of the project. The team manager can go into their calendar, check availability and select a suitable window to soft-book them for a forthcoming project. They can also more easily ensure that the organization complies with the appropriate regulations. While working on the bid, the resources can enter time and expenses easily, using a range of devices. They can see ahead of time what projects they are assigned to, and indicate availability.

3. Ensure projects stay on track – and react quickly if they start to vary from the plan

Using Kantata, the likely margin of a project can be estimated at an early stage, modeling the cost and revenue using milestones and the standard cost and revenue of the proposed resource team. The shape of a project, including changes in scope and resources, can be updated and monitored in real-time throughout the bid process and throughout project delivery. It is better to know sooner than later if the margin of a project is being negatively impacted. If, for instance, the amount of work involved was wrongly estimated, or more expensive contractors than originally planned have to be used, the margin may start to slip from what was predicted. Finding out immediately that the cost is creeping up puts more levers in the hands of business leaders.

Additionally, Kantata provides a 360-degree view of customers, including all their engagements – past and present – enabling a closer relationship and the ability to draw on all relevant information.

Learn More About Kantata

The Kantata Professional Services Cloud is purpose-built to streamline the entire bidding and delivery process and take your business to the next level.