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Table of Contents

• What is Professional Services Automation Software?
• The benefits of Professional Services Automation Software
• Typical features of Professional Services Automation Software
• The cost of Professional Services Automation Software
• Considerations when purchasing Professional Services Automation Software
• Relevant Professional Services Automation Software trends

What is Professional Services Automation Software?

Professional services automation (PSA) software enables tracking, planning, management, and billing of services provided by independent contractors and services organizations. PSA software is often used by lawyers, auditors, IT consultants, and professional project managers. It’s viewed as a small-business alternative to Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, which serves larger organizations and tends to cost more.

The benefits of professional services automation software

• Decreases the cost of project lifecycles: Allows users to track time, expenses, and progress on various projects, from conception to completion.
• Streamlines resource allocation: Distributes people, machinery, software, etc. across projects where they will each add the most value.
• Eases customer collaboration: Manages all aspects of customer relationships, including projects and contact details.

Typical features of professional services automation software

• Project management: Plan and coordinate all the resources, funds, and time needed to execute projects.
• Billing and invoicing: Create and manage monetary interactions between parties (i.e., bills and invoices).
• Time and expense tracking: Log and record hours worked and costs spent to assist with billing and invoicing.
• Collaboration tools: Share media files, communicate, and work together in a channel dedicated for team members.
• CRM: Track interactions and notes about clients and prospects with contact and lead management features.
• Resource management: Enables capacity planning per project by allocating resources (people, machinery, software, etc.) where they will be most valuable.

The cost of professional services automation software

Most products in the market are priced on a monthly basis. Pricing can be divided into three pricing tiers based on their starting price:

Price ranges*:

• $3 - $14
• $14 - $29
• $29+

*The pricing included is for the entry-level/lowest priced offering found on vendor websites on Feb. 27, 2020. These ranges correspond to the 25th, 75th, and 100th percentiles of pricing information gathered from vendor websites of sample products.

Considerations when purchasing professional services automation software

• Standalone software vs. integrated suite: The simplest PSA software offers timesheets, billing, and basic project management features. By contrast, more advanced (and often more expensive) systems also offer customer relationship management, capacity planning, knowledge management, and more. If your business already has a range of tools and just needs a system to manage projects, then it’s wise to pay less for fewer features. But if you’re looking for one software tool to manage the health of your whole business, consider an integrated suite of tools.
• Stage of business growth: PSA software covers a wide range of business needs. As such, it should be one of the first few tools that your business adopts, and any vendor you choose should provide continuous customer support.

Relevant professional services automation software trends

• Move to cloud software from on-premise. The introductory costs of cloud computing software have decreased in recent years. These lower costs have also lowered barriers to entry for small and midsize businesses that need PSA software, but couldn’t afford it in the past. Over the next few years, PSA software will move away from on-premise servers to mostly cloud-based solutions.
• PSA software growth will come from rural regions. Advances in technology like PSA software have lowered the total costs to start a business and allowed entrepreneurs to do so from anywhere. North America has historically led the world in PSA software adoption; moving forward, most future growth will come from rural areas of this market.