What’s the Business Value of Professional Services Automation Software? A New Study Quantifies the Impact

What would it mean for your organization if on-time project delivery increased by 33%? Or if the number of projects running over budget decreased by 61%?

For many professional services leaders, improvements like these would fundamentally change how their organizations operate — from how projects are planned and staffed to how teams collaborate and deliver value to clients.

Yet many firms still run their services operations across spreadsheets, disconnected tools, and manual processes, keeping improvements of that scale out of reach. Project plans live in one system, resource plans in another, and financial data somewhere else entirely. The result is a constant struggle to answer basic questions:

• Are our projects on track?
• Do we have the right people available for upcoming work?
• Are we actually delivering engagements profitably?

To better understand the real impact of solving these challenges, Kantata sponsored a Business Value study conducted by IDC. The research focused specifically on organizations that adopted Kantata’s Professional Services Automation (PSA) platform and examined the operational and financial outcomes that followed. Importantly, the organizations interviewed for the study were not previously using a PSA platform. In other words, the research captured the impact of moving from fragmented tools and manual coordination to a unified services operations platform for the first time.

IDC found that organizations realized an average of $17 million in annual benefits, driven by improvements in staff productivity and business enablement. Just as importantly, those gains came not from reducing headcount, but from reclaiming time previously lost to manual coordination, fragmented reporting, and reactive planning.

One of the clearest impacts of PSA adoption was more consistent and predictable project execution. According to IDC, organizations experienced:

• 33% more projects delivered on time
• 61% decrease in projects running over budget
• 12% shorter average project duration

The impact wasn’t just felt on a project-by-project level, but across portfolios — Kantata customers also reported a 78% improvement in portfolio-level reporting accuracy. These improvements were driven by Kantata’s integrated planning tools, including Gantt charts, task tracking, and real-time burn analysis. Organizations also experienced a 40% improvement in resource planning accuracy and made staffing decisions 60% faster.

Operational improvements translated into measurable workforce and client impact. IDC found a 32% increase in employee satisfaction and a 60% decrease in projects receiving complaints or escalations.

As one interviewed organization noted, “We’re now able to catch issues early, reducing overruns and eliminating surprises. Before, we’d reach the end of a project and wonder where the overages came from. Now with weekly metric reviews and proactive alerts, we have far more control over our project portfolio.”

Finance teams also realized significant gains. IDC reported a 61% reduction in month-end close time, from 11.5 days to 4.5 days, along with a 51.5% efficiency gain for finance teams. Organizations increased billable hours per consultant by 16.7% and reduced revenue and cost leakage by 1%, representing $3.7 million in business value annually across the interviewed firms.

IDC concluded that Kantata delivers measurable value across project delivery, resource management, and financial operations, enabling proactive planning, stronger cross-functional collaboration, and more confident decision-making.

No matter which way you slice it, improvements like these would be transformational for any services organization. But today’s environment raises the stakes even further. As professional services firms face increasing margin pressure, rising client expectations, and more complex delivery models, predictability has become a strategic advantage.

When projects and staffing are unpredictable, it doesn’t just impact the bottom line — it impacts people and clients. What I believe IDC’s research makes clear is that when firms connect scoping, resourcing, delivery, and financial management in our intelligent platform, they can reduce volatility, strengthen employee engagement, and consistently deliver amazing outcomes for their customers.

IDC conducted five in-depth interviews with Kantata customers across industries including IT consulting, web development, managed services, digital strategy, and healthcare technology. The organizations had a median of 250 employees and managed up to 12,000 projects annually using Kantata. IDC’s Business Value methodology uses a before-and-after assessment model to quantify benefits related to staff productivity, operational efficiency, and financial performance.

For additional insights and to download a full copy of The Business Value of Kantata, visit www.kantata.com/resource/business-value-of-kantata

IDC Business Value Solution Brief, sponsored by Kantata, The Business Value of Kantata, # EUR253817925, October 2025