What Is Professional Services Automation (PSA)?

Professional Services Automation (PSA) is a project management and resource management software rolled into one easy-to-use platform.

If you’re running a service business, PSA is the most efficient way to organize both your sales efforts and the delivery of your client services, all in one place.

Who Is Professional Services Automation For?

PSA is for businesses of any kind that deliver client-facing projects.  Examples include: Professional Services Teams, Consulting Firms, IT Contractors, Creative Agencies, Construction/Engineering Firms, Lawyers, Accountants, really anyone focused on client-facing service delivery.

What Makes PSA Different than CRM or Project Management Tools?

By now you might be wondering: how is PSA different than all the other project management or CRM platforms out there?

5 Benefits of PSA Software

Here are five key benefits for users of PSA software:

1. Specifically Designed for Services Companies

If you run a service business, you probably know the frustration of trying to “hack” certain software to make it work for a service business. Most sales and marketing software is designed around selling products. But to run a successful services business, you need more than that. You need a system that can track sales and the fulfillment of those sales, all in one system. What makes PSA unique is that it houses both your sales data and all your project related data including time entry, expenses, resource planning, invoicing and more all in one system.

That saves you from having to transfer information back and forth between your CRM system and your project management tool.

2. PSA Tracks Profitability, Not Just Revenue

CRM systems track a dizzying array of financials, but they’re usually only focused on revenue and sales. In a services business, profitability is more important than revenue numbers. CRM systems typically can’t see how much it cost to fulfill a sale. PSA software changes this, allowing you to see pipeline, revenue, and profitability.

That gives you a much better view of your business as a whole, not just the revenue perspective.

3. Data to Help Leadership Make Better Decisions

Leaders are always looking for good data. But sometimes that can be a challenge. There seems to be no shortage of data available, but only a small percentage of that data is meaningful or actionable for business owners or executives.

PSA software is designed specifically for service businesses, so the standard reports from PSA software are usually much more helpful to the leadership at service businesses.

4. Better for Repeat Business

For most businesses, it’s significantly cheaper to get previous customers to buy again than it is to acquire brand new customers. That makes sense when you think about it, but many businesses still focus almost entirely on new client acquisition. CRM software is fundamentally designed to support the “go get a new customer” approach. It’s all about getting new people into the sales funnel. PSA software takes a different approach. Because it so closely ties to fulfillment, PSA software makes it easier to remember that former customers would probably make good future customers too, if you only spent a little time trying to reach them.

5. Breaks Down Internal Silos

In most companies, the only team that logs into a CRM tool is the sales force. But when a company adopts PSA software, things change. The fulfillment team is now working out of the same tool as the sales team.   Now the Sales team can instantly see the status of customer projects.  The Services team can seen what the service pipeline looks like and plan resources accordingly.

By its very nature, this begins to break down the wall that sometimes exists between sales and everyone else in the company.

Is A Professional Services Automation (PSA) Good For Your Business?

Most CRM systems are built for teams that sell products. But as we wrote in a previous article, selling services is not like selling products. PSA is a better choice for companies that sell services. If you’re a Salesforce user, you can have the best of both worlds by simply adding PSA to your existing Salesforce CRM service. Salesforce is rapidly growing in popularity and has huge benefits for businesses.

We’d love to tell you more about how our product helps you do just that. Get in touch, or check out our product page if you’d like to learn more.

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