Project Silos Keep You in the Dark – Here’s How to Fix it

Do you have one system to manage your project scheduling and another to handle your financial reporting? Chances are you probably have many other applications and spreadsheets to manage your expense reporting, timesheets, costing, project management, analytics, etc.

Unfortunately, it’s not unusual for project-based companies, or project businesses to employ 10 to 15 different applications to manage their business processes. Whatever the combination of applications used, the common thread is spreadsheets.

To manage this problem, you’re probably employing controllers and data processors to export, import and consolidate all the data from these different systems. Sound familiar?

This typical application landscape for project businesses is not sustainable in the long term. By operating in these fragmented project silos, project businesses face two major problems:

1 – Lack of Visibility

It’s very common for executives and managers of project businesses to be unaware if their project is truly successful and profitable until after the project is complete. At best they may be receiving weekly status updates and monthly overviews.

If you look at other industries, operation in this way would be unacceptable. It’s not an effective way of running a business, especially when delivering these projects to your customers is how you make money. This lack of visibility into the current status of their projects has major repercussions on the success of the project and your business as a whole.  

By the time project business executives receive information about their projects, it’s already outdated, simply because of the time it takes to consolidate the data and generate these reports. Using information from so far into the past to make important business decisions for the present is like driving a car forward while you’re looking into the rearview mirror.

Operating in this disjointed fashion means many issues and risks go unnoticed or they are discovered after they have grown into a major problem that can put the project at risk. This modus operandi for project business should be considered unacceptable.

Bottom line, if you don’t know how your projects are doing at all times, you’re already behind.

2 – Lack of Control

This disparate application landscape means business processes these applications are supposed to manage are disjointed leading to a lack of control over the operations of the company.

When your work and information flows are not connected, it’s extremely difficult to standardize and gain control of project processes. This means that project and company performance rely greatly on the performance of individuals.

Without being able to rely on a systemized way of doing business, not only is failure inevitable, measuring success and how to repeat it is almost impossible.

Project Silos = Poor Performance

The combination of the lack of visibility and control mentioned above will ultimately lead to poor business performance. Small issues become major problems, projects are delayed and budgets slip. And just like a ball rolling down a hill, before you know it, margins erode and cash flow dissipates. Ultimately, when you deliver projects late and overbudget, your reputation and relationships with your customers takes a hit.

The Inevitable Solution: Project Business Automation

When delivering projects to your customers is the bread and butter of your company, it’s imperative to implement a solution that fixes all these problems. The main problem of project business is this non-integrated mode of operation. So, what’s the solution? Integrate.

This is exactly what Project Business Automation (PBA) does.

Recently, Forrester released their Now Tech: Project Business Automation Solutions report confirming a growing trend toward a new approach in solutions for project-based companies. PBA rejects this fragmented environment of organizational and application silos in favor of one integrated business system. This game-changing system includes support for all project business processes and connects them seamlessly in real time.

Download the Project Business Automation Blueprint to learn how PBA creates a streamlined, comprehensive system for project-based companies.

In essence, PBA revolutionizes how project businesses operate by eliminating standalone applications such as project management, estimating software, and spreadsheets. In addition, ERP and accounting systems are now fully integrated into PBA as well.

Why spend more money and resources trying to manage separate applications and manipulate the data between the systems when you can implement a comprehensive end-to-end solution that does it all for you? PBA is that solution to keep you out of the dark and up to date on all your projects in real time.