Illumiti Innovation Blog

Maximizing Resource Utilization: Transforming your workforce management with Business ByDesign

Date: February 23, 2018
By: Andrew Howell | Consulting Manager, Illumiti
Is your workforce fully utilized?

In most organizations, workforce management and employee utilization are priorities—but, given the complexities of today’s businesses, details can fall through the cracks. Important resources may not be used to their full potential, or worse, be left sitting on the bench. Over time, workforce underutilization can result in a real impact to your bottom line.

SAP Business ByDesign can help.

Business ByDesign is a cloud-based ERP system designed specifically for the needs of growing mid-market businesses. What makes Business ByDesign so powerful is that it is a fully integrated suite: from sales and procurement through to project management and finance, Business ByDesign provides full end-to-end visibility and sharing of critical data within one system. From a resourcing perspective, this means that that your project and resource managers will be empowered to better forecast resourcing requirements, improve management of overall employee utilization, and quickly identify gaps that need to be filled.

Better project resourcing in action

How does Business ByDesign support better resourcing? Let’s take a look at a business scenario from the perspective of a managed services firm.

As the sales team sells into the marketplace, they create projects within Business ByDesign that identify key elements of the proposed client work. At this stage of the sales process, there is no need to identify individual resources, only the forecasted roles and number of resources required to complete the work. This also provides visibility into what the sales team has communicated to the client with regard to expected project budget and team size.

Responsibility then passes to the resource manager. Still working within Business ByDesign, the resource manager looks at the forecast and is able to dive into the resource pool, seeking the appropriate skills for the project from internal employees and external contractors. The system not only provides them with information about each employee or consultant’s skills, but also up-to-date information on the resource’s availability, current allocation, bandwidth and other relevant factors. Resource managers can more easily identify the most suited individuals available for each client project, and effectively manage allocation across multiple concurrent engagements.

Once resources have been identified and the project has started, Business ByDesign helps with day-by-day project management, as well as providing you an ongoing look at current resource allocation. Are your resources stretched to their limits? Are certain team members not receiving as much work as was originally forecast? The system quickly highlights these gaps, allowing your project managers to reallocate resources to best meet current demand and project timelines.

The power of Business ByDesign for Human Resources

Business ByDesign offers other benefits when it comes to effectively managing your resources. HR managers love Business ByDesign because of the easy visibility it provides for managing vacation time, administrative leave, company travel, employee training, and so much more. And, since the HR components are an integrated part of Business ByDesign, there’s no need for specialized HR software.

Employees also love the visibility Business ByDesign provides, with an easy dashboard providing a heads-up view of their current allocation, upcoming projects, earned and booked vacation time, and more. Business ByDesign also handles expense reports, helping to streamline the process of reimbursing employees for expenses incurred with customers. Individuals enter their receipts into the system and are reimbursed automatically, with integrated approvals and correct expense allocation.

With the power of SAP Business ByDesign, your business can not only gain better insight into how and where your employees are working, but best allocate your resources for maximum effect. Not only can this result in faster, more efficient projects and happier customers, but you’ll also see the difference on your bottom line.

About the Author

Andrew Howell | Consulting Manager, Illumiti

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