Category: Growth and Profitability
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Can Excel Manage Resource Allocation at Scale? The Limits of Spreadsheet Forecasting
Excel gets the job done when you’re staffing a handful of projects with a small professional services team. But scale up the project volume, the skill sets, and the schedule changes, and that same spreadsheet starts working against you. Static rows and columns can’t keep pace with a business that’s moving in real time, and…
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Professional Services Pricing Maturity Matrix: The 5 Levels (and Why Most Firms Are Stuck at Level 2)
The industry data is clear: Most PS firms have outgrown their pricing models — but do they know it? The professional services industry is at an inflection point. EBITDA — a measure of an organization’s operating profitability — has collapsed from a 5-year average of 13.8% to 9.9% (a 28% drop). That means most firms…
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How Enterprise Management Software Supports Enterprise-Scale Project Execution
TL;DR Running enterprise PS delivery on a generic ERP or standard project tool means accepting structural blind spots. Pipeline-to-capacity forecasting, skills-based staffing, and project-level margin intelligence don’t exist in those systems — and without them, scale compounds inefficiency rather than profitability. Purpose-built enterprise management software closes that gap by unifying the capabilities PS delivery actually…
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Why AI Is Finally Forcing the Conversation Services Has Been Avoiding for Years
Let me be direct: professional services has been talking about value-based and outcomes-based pricing for as long as I can remember. The conversation is not new. Skeptics will rightly say that we’ve been talking about this for nearly 15 years, and no one’s really mastered it. They’re not wrong. So why am I telling you…
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Why ASC 606 Matters to Professional Services Organizations
Does your professional services organization know exactly where it’s making its money, or just where it thinks it is? Revenue recognition is the mechanism that closes that gap, defining precisely when and how revenue is earned throughout the accrual accounting process. For professional services organizations, that distinction is everything. Revenue is rarely earned all at…
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The CFO’s Guide to Building Firms that Bend, Not Break
Professional services leaders know growth doesn’t happen without complexity. Whether expanding organically, buying another firm, or responding to market shifts, CFOs need to do more than balance books and protect margins. They must prepare their firms to adapt, innovate, and remain resilient through future change. In a recent conversation with two veteran CFOs — Dave…
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5 Ways to Turn Growth Into Sustainable Profit
Breaking through revenue plateaus is a challenge nearly every professional services (PS) firm faces. In an organization’s early years, founders often rely on personal networks to generate business, and for a while, that works. Eventually, though, those connections reach their limits. The firms that move beyond this phase and into lasting, scalable growth share one…
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The 3 P’s for Scaling Professional Services Firms
For many professional services firms, hitting $30 million in annual revenue feels like a major win. It’s proof that their model works, clients are happy, and their team is doing something right. But what catches many leaders off guard is what comes next: growth often grinds to a halt. Strategies that once delivered results begin…
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Professional Services in 2025: Five Focus Areas for Future-Ready Firms
This is an excerpt of Kantata’s introduction to SPI’s 2025 Professional Services Maturity Benchmark report. Click here to download the full report for free. The professional services industry is shifting—fast. New economic realities, rapid technological advances, and rising client expectations mean one thing: what worked yesterday won’t work tomorrow. The 2025 SPI Professional Services…
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The CFO as Chief Value Officer: Unlocking Growth and Overcoming Barriers in Professional Services
Earlier this month, Kantata hosted a CFO Forum Networking Breakfast that I had the privilege of moderating. Our goal was to bring together Chief Financial Officers in professional services organizations and give them the opportunity to share perspectives on how the role of the CFO is changing and what the most important challenges and opportunities…
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Kantata Feature Spotlight: How Talan Streamlines Financial Operations with Intercompany Accounting
Talan, a leading global consulting and technological expertise group which accelerates the transformation of its clients through data, innovation and technology, faced challenges managing internal transactions between business units across its global network. Following a strategic imperative to streamline financial operations and enhance transparency in the face of rapid expansion, Talan turned to Kantata. This…
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Breaking Free from Data Silos – The Key to Professional Services Success
Having access to real-time financial and operational data is essential for making smart, impactful decisions. However, many companies find themselves tangled in a web of different tools and software, leading to data silos that block real-time insights. Imagine data silos as giant containers on a farm—while they keep information secure, they also limit the flow…
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Building Connections: How Community Engagement Elevates User Experience
Are you a professional services software user who dreams of spending less time drowning in updates and more time doing things that spark joy? Joining a community might just be your golden ticket. Not only will you get access to peers in your industry, but you’ll also feel like part of a secret society that…
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Why 2024 is the Year for Agency Transformation
By Brent Trimble, Vice President of Value Engineering This article was originally published in the SoDA Report on Agency Transformation which was developed in partnership with Kantata. In the fast-paced world of marketing and agency services, embracing change is non-negotiable. Transforming your agency’s business processes might seem daunting due to the sheer effort and planning it requires,…
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Professional Services Forecasting Is Stagnating. Here’s Why That’s a Bigger Problem Than Ever
Staying ahead of the competition in professional services takes more than just hard work and talent. Success hinges on anticipating future developments in your business. This is where resource forecasting makes a world of difference. In late 2022, the Resource Management Institute (RMI) unveiled their inaugural Forecasting Report, which underscored the pivotal moment that forecasting…
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Benchmarking for Success: Performance Measurement in Professional Services
In the fast-paced world of professional services, staying ahead of the competition requires not just hard work and talent but a strategic approach to performance measurement. Understanding how your organization measures up against industry standards and the highest performers in your sector is crucial. Benchmarking, particularly against well-established professional services KPIs, offers a clear, data-driven…
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The Keys to Scaling Success for Marketing Agencies
By Moira Alexander, Founder of PMWorld 360 Magazine and Lead-Her-Ship Group Marketing agencies are indispensable partners to the companies they serve, but with increasing global competition, rapid technology evolution, talent retention challenges, and expanding client demands, today’s marketing agency has to be nimble and constantly scale in order to thrive, not just survive. This blog…
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Shaping a Future of Excellence: Kantata’s Vision for the Professional Services Cloud
By Michael Speranza, CEO, Kantata In an ever-evolving professional services landscape, services organizations are grappling with business opportunities and challenges that require more effective technology solutions. I am thrilled to unveil Kantata’s vision for the Professional Services Cloud (PS Cloud), which reshapes the boundaries for what technology designed for services organizations needs to do. As…
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How to Effectively Scale a Professional Services Firm Beyond 150 People
By Moira Alexander, Founder of PMWorld 360 Magazine and Lead-Her-Ship Group In small to mid-sized professional services (PS) firms, it’s not unusual for everyone to know each other. Team members understand what role everyone plays in overall success and how to efficiently work together. But there’s a limit to how much information people can hold…
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Effective Scaling Strategies for Smaller Consulting Firms
By Moira Alexander, Founder of PMWorld 360 Magazine and Lead-Her-Ship Group Of the approximately 2.4 million professional services (PS) and consulting services (CS) businesses in the US, a whopping 96.3% employ less than 20 people. With a complex project lifecycle, massive competition, and limited resources, smaller firms face tremendous challenges when it comes to scaling…
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Optimizing the Professional Services Value Chain: How to Demonstrate Value at Every Stage of the Project Lifecycle
Powerful forces are reshaping the professional services industry, changing client expectations. Demand is volatile. Competition is fierce. And needs evolve rapidly. To win projects, meet client expectations, and build long-term relationships, professional services firms must adapt, too. Traditionally, sales conversations centered around exactly what the customer was buying. For product-based businesses, it was all about…
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Top Ten Strategies for De-Risking Projects
In recent years, project management has been marred by high-profile failures that highlight the immense costs incurred due to project delays or cancellations. While project managers have historically evaluated projects based on completion of tasks and monetary progress, the manner in which projects are managed is changing. A project may appear viable on paper but…
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10 Challenges Global Professional Services Organizations Face When Scaling
Scaling a global enterprise can be a daunting task, especially in the professional services industry. Operating multi-nationally, with numerous products or services and a global workforce managed out of multiple business units, subsidiaries, or legal entities, global professional services organizations (PSOs) are prone to many different challenges that can inhibit efficient growth across all locations…
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Infographic: Equipping Professional Services Leaders to Walk the Tightrope
Is your professional services business finding it difficult to balance profitability, customer satisfaction, and employee retention? You’re not alone. Project and resource management decisions will always have the potential to impact your company’s profitability, the loyalty of your customers, and how happy employees are to work for your business. Each of these three focus areas…
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Scaling After an Acquisition: Strategies That Guarantee Success
By Moira Alexander, Founder of PMWorld 360 Magazine and Lead-Her-Ship Group The recent acquisition of a business is certainly a cause for celebration, but there is still much work to be done to make sure both companies are integrated into one well-functioning entity in order to secure future success. In this article, we will delve…
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When Is the Right Time for Your Business To Scale?
By Moira Alexander, Founder of PMWorld 360 Magazine and Lead-Her-Ship Group Every business naturally needs to grow to succeed, but scaling a company doesn’t just happen on its own. An estimated 80% of start-ups fail to see new products or services through to full scale-up. According to McKinsey, established businesses are no exception, with 65%…
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How to Use Kantata’s Utilization and Revenue Calculator: A Step-by-step Guide
TL;DR The biggest opportunity to increase services revenue often isn’t hiring more consultants or charging higher rates—it’s improving utilization. Kantata’s Resource Utilization and Revenue Calculator estimates how even modest utilization gains can unlock additional annual revenue using the capacity you already have. Key Takeaways Utilization rate is calculated by dividing billable hours submitted by total…
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Revolutionizing Professional Services: The Rise of the Quantified Consultant
Using data-informed metrics to optimize consulting operations In recent years, the “quantified self” concept has gained widespread popularity, as individuals use their smartphones and connected wearable devices to track and measure various aspects of their daily lives to improve their health and well-being. Using data and metrics to optimize personal performance has proven highly effective,…
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Bringing Certainty to Uncertain Times
Professional Services Organizations Use Vertical SaaS to Increase Efficiency, Maximize Revenue Opportunities and Accelerate Growth Mike Downes, the Resourcing Director at Logicalis, a global IT solutions and managed services firm, knew that he and his colleagues had the data they needed to accelerate the company’s growth and profitability. Data that reveals whether project teams are…
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Understanding the Shift in Evaluating Technology Investments
By Jared Haleck, Chief Product Officer, Kantata In the past, most technology investment decisions made by professional services organizations came down to direct financial benefits, with companies looking at the most direct return on investment possible from the software solutions they considered purchasing. However, this one-to-one financial evaluation largely discounted or excluded nonfinancial gains, such…
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3 Ways To Build Resilience and Predictability in a Challenging Economy
It’s not hard for business leaders in the professional services industry to recognize that the pace of change in the industry is accelerating, making long-term success more difficult to achieve. But what is hard is understanding those changes well enough to make impactful decisions and adjustments that increase the resilience of your business and put…
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Three Ways To Optimize Your Business During Uncertain Economic Times
By Banoo Behboodi, Vice President of Advisory Services These are uncertain and unpredictable times, something I see every day as I work with professional services businesses in my role on Kantata’s Advisory Services team. No one knows exactly what lies ahead, but business leaders are already changing their behaviors, and their plans, based on a…
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Enterprise Times Highlights the Gaps That Plague Professional Services and the Solutions to Modern Resource Problems
It can be easy for a professional services organization to be so focused on the businesses it serves that it begins to neglect its own needs and the shifting demands of both current and prospective employees. To help companies better understand their needs and improve how their already talented teams work together, Kantata has teamed…
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Introducing the 2023 Professional Services Maturity Benchmark
By Chris Scalia, Chief Customer Officer, Kantata This is an excerpt of Kantata’s introduction to SPI’s 2023 Professional Services Maturity Benchmark report. Click here to download the full report for free. I’m excited to present you with the 2023 edition of the annual SPI Professional Services Maturity Benchmark, which analyzes the performance of over 700 professional services…
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Emerging Trends & Challenges for Professional Services in 2023
The latest episode of Kantata’s Professional Services Pursuit Podcast focuses on some of the emerging trends and key challenges being faced by services organizations in 2023. Brent Trimble hosts the episode, and is joined by Dave Hofferberth, the Managing Director at Service Performance Insight (SPI). Hofferberth, known as the “Father of PSA” shares insights gleaned…
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How Globalized Competition Is Rapidly Changing Professional Services
This is an excerpt from the new Kantata ebook, “The 5 Biggest Forces of Change in Professional Services Today.” To learn more about the major currents reshaping the professional services world and how you can effectively respond, check out the full ebook here. The professional services industry has undergone significant change, driven by a wide…
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What Red Flags Show a Gap Between Your Front and Back Office Systems?
This is an excerpt from the new whitepaper “Mind the Gap: How to Bridge Front & Back Office Systems for Professional Services” by Roy Edwards and Steve Brooks from Enterprise Times, in collaboration with Kantata. To learn more about the causes of major internal gaps in businesses and their solutions, check out the full whitepaper…
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Strategies Required for Services Success in 2023 and Beyond: Build a Stable Bench of Independent Contractors
Challenges, Trends & Best Practices From Our Recent Webinar With TSIA With 2023 coming in just a few weeks, business leaders are preparing for some of the unique challenges and opportunities that the new year will bring. This topic was discussed in Kantata’s most recent webinar with TSIA, where TSIA’s VP of Technology Services, John…
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5 Simple Ways to Smooth Out Your Tech Integrations
Modern professional services businesses don’t just run on one type of software solution, they thrive on an ecosystem of technology that provides support for many different daily business needs. It’s no longer enough to simply create a project within a project management solution; organizations must also manage their resources in detail, organize the financial impact…
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What Profit Margins Say About Your Company’s Biggest Challenges
This is an excerpt from the new whitepaper “How To Tell If Your Professional Services Organization Is Flagging” by Steve Brooks and Roy Edwards from Enterprise Times, in collaboration with Kantata. To learn more about the four major signals that professional services organizations (PSOs) should monitor to understand what factors are limiting performance, check out…
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Help Your Team Stay Up to Date on Projects With Accurate Project Resource Planning
Your business can find itself in trouble if, in the middle of a project, you realize that you are short on people to finish it. Many companies have found themselves in this predicament, but despite this becoming a common occurrence across the professional services industry, the only true way to prevent it is to improve…
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7 Key Components of a Change Management Strategy
Change can be intimidating for any business. Whether it’s at a professional services organization that has done things a certain way for decades or at a new startup business that’s still figuring out what works well for their nascent teams, changing processes, technology, company structure, methods of communication, and more can be intimidating and confusing.…
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The Five Customer Experience Mistakes Eroding Profits
The latest episode of Kantata’s Professional Services Pursuit Podcast, hosted by Banoo Behboodi, features Jessica Noble, Head of Strategy and Managing Partner at Magnetic Experiences. Jessica is also an author, a speaker, and an expert on customer experience. This is the second part of our conversation with Jessica -the first part focused on how to…
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The 6 Models of Change Management: Which Is Right For Your Professional Services Business?
TL;DR No single change management model works for every situation — the right choice depends on the scope and nature of the change. Models like Kotter’s suit large-scale initiatives requiring sustained momentum, while Bridges and Kubler-Ross address the emotional side of transitions. Understanding what each framework is built for is what allows professional services organizations…
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Building a Reliable PS Revenue Stream with Renewable Service Offers
This is a guest post from John Ragsdale, distinguished researcher and vice president of technology ecosystems for Technology & Services Industry Association (TSIA). According to TSIA’s 2022 Professional Services Benchmark, services account for 26% of overall B2B tech revenue, on average. Professional services (implementation, integration, customization, business and process consulting) account for 53% of services…
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Retaining and Optimizing a High-Performing Services Workforce
This is a guest post from John Ragsdale, distinguished researcher and vice president of technology ecosystems for Technology & Services Industry Association (TSIA). Professional services is a people-intensive business. Through recent years of rapid growth, tech companies have struggled to retain consultants. Hiring has also been a challenge, which has impacted project delivery and created…
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Why Services Software is Critical in Today’s Networked Economy
The latest episode of Kantata’s Professional Services Pursuit Podcast features Ray Grainger, the Executive Chairman of Kantata and co-founder of Mavenlink. This episode, hosted by Brent Trimble, is centered around the vision for Kantata and the importance of services software in today’s networked economy. Below you’ll find some highlights and key takeaways from the discussion…
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How Purpose-Built Software for Services Improves Four Key Performance Indicators
Learn how purpose-built software improves 4 key services metrics: utilization rate, profit margin, net promoter score & employee attrition.
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5 Reasons Professional Services Organizations Need The Kantata Professional Services Cloud
Running a professional services business is more challenging than ever, but with the right strategy and execution, the rewards can also be greater than they’ve ever been. The continued expansion of the professional services world, the increasing types of products and services required to keep up with client demands, and the seemingly limitless potential of…
