The IQ Business Group has recouped a R1 million investment in a new, purpose-designed time management system through increased utilisation of its 200-plus business consultants.
According to James Siegrist, operations manager, IQ Business Group, the new system, designed and developed by South African business solutions specialist nVisionIT, has improved time management significantly resulting in consultant utilisation increasing by as much as 40%.
"This was no once-off improvement. Since implementing about nine months ago, and effecting appropriate change management, these figures are now being realised on a sustainable basis. This is obviously having a big impact on the group`s profitability," he says.
The development was part of a total business solution implemented by nVisionIT, comprising Microsoft`s Great Plains Project Accounting and Financials modules and a custom-developed ASP.Net time sheet and expense recording solution.
"As a company, we`re committed to leveraging the functionality within industry-leading products such as Microsoft Great Plains to add value and competitive differentiation to our customers. This allows us to create solutions with a rapid return on investment."
In planning the IQ Business Group solution, nVisionIT identified a need for a front-end time management system to meet the group`s specific needs. Its existing time management system was not giving management the controls and reporting facilities required. Integration was also a problem with the legacy solution.
"With time management integrated with project accounting, we`re able to generate utilisation and performance reports and see profitability by project or by business project manager. We also see consulting costs in relation to projects by client product area, business unit or business user," says Siegrist.
Consultants can now log into the group`s intranet remotely to submit their time records. The time sheets are verified for accuracy and for contractual compliance by the project office and exceptions are resolved on a weekly basis. The solution has an escalation process should time sheets not be completed timeously.
The entire solution is currently providing the group with a global perspective of its projects, but this is seen as the first step to a totally integrated solution that will embrace Microsoft Enterprise Project Management and a human resource application.
"It will be a major benefit when scheduling to know precisely what skills sets and resources are available, while a totally integrated system will enable the generation of more exception reports and executive `dashboards` so that we can respond to developing problems - such as missed deadlines - before they can impact the project," he says.
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