1. Customer Testimonials
  2. Backstop Solutions Group

NetSuite Helps Professional Services Group Triple Profit Margins with Process Automation

Backstop Solutions Group

Company

Backstop Solutions Group

Location

Chicago, IL

Industry

Financial Software

Applications Replaced

Home grown software and spreadsheets

Solutions

NetSuite OpenAir

“NetSuite helped us to triple our margin by accurately capturing time and forecasting demand. We've also improved the accuracy of our estimates and reduced the amount of time spent on invoicing.” Backstop Solutions Group

Customer Success

  • Backstop's professional services profit margins have tripled, since bringing in NetSuite OpenAir.
  • Billable time per consultant has increased by an average of 100 hours per quarter over the past two years.
  • Project managers' monthly invoicing processes now take around 1.5 hours, compared to two days previously.
  • Budget reports for complex, multi-client projects now take just minutes, compared to up to two hours before NetSuite OpenAir.
  • The professional services group has changed from monthly to weekly timesheet production, so Practice Managers can now forecast the month's billings.
  • Client satisfaction has greatly improved, because project managers are now able to address budget questions on the spot, rather than hours later.

Challenges

  • Manual project management processes hindered Backstop's professional services efforts to take on larger and more complex consulting projects.
  • Lack of real-time visibility into billable time and expenses made it difficult to forecast profitability.
  • Lack of project history made estimating new work difficult.
  • Reconciling monthly timesheets with client budgets took several days per month for project managers, wasting time and risking errors.
  • Lack of up-to-date information caused slowdowns in handling customer project-status inquiries.

Solution

  • Backstop Solution's professional services group replaced its homegrown, XPTracker-based system and Excel spreadsheets with NetSuite OpenAir.
  • Managers are now able to differentiate between productive non-billable time, such as activities that improve customer retention, and non-productive time. This helps managers pinpoint where process automation can be used to increase consultant efficiency.
  • NetSuite OpenAir backlog reports let managers analyze and prioritize suspended or waiting projects to maximize profitability and optimize resource utilization.
  • NetSuite OpenAir billing rules help BSG negotiate complex projects, such as those where several clients share a project with multiple billing rates.

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