During my stint in the IT Services industry, I moved around between projects. The experience was enriching and exhilarating.
However, it came with its own baggage.
I had to constantly negotiate company bureaucracy. The interesting thing about this was the chain of blame. I blamed my organization’s officials and they blamed the system. It was not a virtuous cycle.
While collating the list of Professional Service Automation apps or PSA tools, I realized that my earlier problem was a fairly universal one faced by freelancers as well as organizations that deal with a large number of contractors or service professionals.
When it is magnified across a professional services automation organization, the problem can be a serious one. It can lead to confusion, loss of productivity and, more importantly, loss of revenue. After all, no client wants projects that are incomplete or delayed.
There are several reasons why professional service automation tools are good investments for small businesses.
The most important one relates to efficiency. They replace hand-written accounting and clunky spreadsheets. In addition, they improve productivity by providing up-to-date and an immediate snapshot of project status. For fixed bid projects, they can be an attractive and immediate source of income saving. Finally, they also provide an opportunity to dynamically manage project demand and supply of personnel.
Without further ado, then, read on for a review of five best PSA solutions available on GetApp today.
Mavenlink
Mavenlink is a project management app that is focused on collaboration. It has modules relating to time and expense management, budgeting, and file sharing to simplify workflow and increase productivity. The app also integrates with third-party solutions such as Quickbooks and Google Apps to increase efficiency and simplify operations.
Pricing: Freemium
Financialforce PSA
Financialforce PSA provides a customer-centric approach to professional services automation that aligns sales and services teams in a collaborative, cloud-based system. Because it has been integrated with Salesforce CRM, Financialforce enables easy and instant transfer of data between the two applications. The application also tracks all data to make each resource unique including cost rate, work calendars, utilization rates and dates etc.
Pricing: Subscription
ProjectorPSA
Projector PSA is a fully integrated suite of tools that helps services organizations with multiple activities. The tools are designed to work as a single system which can be used to manage projects, schedule resources, and invoice clients. The solution also has several third-party integrations with on-premise software such as Microsoft Project and Excel. This helps you import and export critical project-related data, even while keeping Projector PSA as your core system for operations.
Pricing: $15.00/month
RepliconPSM Professional Services Management
Replicon Professional Services Automation Software allows you to improve visibility into performance, increase your service margins, and deliver on-time, profitable projects with our easy-to-use cloud application. The software makes it possible to pull powerful information together quickly and in real-time.
Pricing: $48.00/month
NetSuite OpenAir
NetSuite OpenAir goes beyond the demands of traditional professional services automation suites by exposing real time data from timesheets and even data from expense reporting, It integrates with multiple third party apps so that you can import or export data based on your needs.
Pricing: $399.00/month
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