Managing and owning professional services offerings (PS) is always a delicate balance when delivering projects, just relying on sales forecasts is fraught with danger! Having too many resources sat on the bench can become dangerously costly with but with too few, service and delivery fall behind resulting in then having to find a costly quick fix.
Imagine if you could have the perfect balance by primarily using your core PS team to maximise efficiency and then a further “on demand” virtual bench of experts you could turn on and off?? Maximum customer satisfaction and retention combined with protected margins.
At AJC we are primarily about people. By listening and helping our clients augment their own capabilities with ours, we help take away the uncertainties and risks of project delivery. Over the years we have successfully delivered many projects using this approach and become a welcome safe pair of hands for our clients.
So how do we do this?
Over the years we have built teams of all shapes and sizes. In this time some of those resources have come to work for us full time whilst others are retained or associated. This model therefore provides us with our on-demand capability.
Often, this is when a skilled resource is needed for a short period of a few days to a couple of weeks. Our retained or associates are normally required for longer term projects of 3 months plus. Aside of the smart hands and on demand resources, we then have the ability and track record to build teams from scratch quickly.
How would it work for you?
This model suits both enterprise and consulting firms. As an enterprise you want to maintain your core team for BAU but have the ability to flex up. Imagine being able to draw down the same resource to support change or growth when you need it and give them back when finished.
For the consultancy this is equally effective. No consulting firm wants a large bench when the work is not there. Being able to flex your resource capability up and down protects your margins the demand isn’t there. The best bit is we understand this model as this is how we operate too!