How to win the service game

As a professional services firm, there are an array of indicators that you can use to measure your performance. Current challenges such as rising attrition, the fight for talent, remote working, and high demand for services mean that tracking KPIs is essential.

Here, we examine the key factors that define professional services success.

5 essential areas your firm should focus on

5 areas of focus to realize service delivery excellence

^{1. Strategy}

Strategic decisions set the direction and tone for the entire firm. They determine everything from goals and objectives to the types of clients your firm wants to win, the services offered, and even the types of employees who will thrive within the business.

How Unit4 can help

✓	Our ERP suite enables continuous planning, forecasting, and strategizing, which are key for leadership oversight and informing strategy, especially during periods of transformation, such as mergers and acquisitions.
✓	Up-to-the-minute reporting for real-time insights into everything from profit to employee engagement, helping firms remain agile in dynamic market conditions.
✓	Real-time visibility and management control in a virtual office environment, supporting operational continuity and strategic realignment.
✓	Talent Management capabilities that nurture people, track skills, and promote personal development, which is critical for integration and cultural alignment during change.
✓	Creation of a continuous feedback loop between managers and employees to maintain engagement and responsiveness as business strategies change.
✓	A two-way data stream that empowers both managers and employees, enhancing adaptability and clarity throughout strategic transitions.

^{2. Client relationships}

The highest performers in the market focus on fewer, high-value accounts, generating significantly more revenue per client and demonstrating deeper, more strategic relationships. Their sales and marketing teams define target markets and solutions by understanding core client challenges.

How Unit4 can help

✓	Eliminate silos and unite departments across the business, creating a cohesive client experience from beginning to end.
✓	Automate low-value tasks so your people can focus on client relationships, not tasks.
✓	Integrate your key applications and data sources, which builds upon that value by providing customers with accurate data, as well as internally leveraging this data for strategy.

^{3. Talent}

Organizations are embracing technology to reinvent the workplace, with a focus on continuous learning, transparency, and team building at its core. Supporting a virtual workforce requires the right technologies to enable seamless collaboration and effective knowledge transfer.

How Unit4 can help

✓	Anonymous pulse surveys that are a safe space for people to share their thoughts and help leaders understand their people.
✓	Human Capital Management (HCM) tools that track skills, identify career development and succession planning opportunities, spot trends, and forecast employee turnover.
✓	Compensation planning that streamlines processes so managers can make better pay decisions and improve employee engagement and communications.
✓	Succession planning that enables you to identify and prepare your future leaders and ensure smooth transitions when employees leave, retire, or become unavailable.

^{4. Service execution}

Successful service execution depends on the alignment of sales, service, and finance, the capturing and accurate analysis of all project data, and the implementation of effective resource and project management. Technology, and the emergence of Cloud-based tools, can improve project management, collaboration, resource management, time capture, and billing.

Unit4 recommendations for your software

✓	Effective resource and project management that allows visibility and management control.
✓	Collaborative Cloud-based tools, like Ava, Unit4’s Advanced Virtual Agent, streamline tasks and foster collaboration by aligning stakeholders within Team channels, all while leveraging the latest AI-driven features.
✓	Integrated tools that provide a single source of data truth and reduce work siloes.
✓	Automated workflows that improve flexibility and accuracy.
✓	Integration with third-party software and datasets to enhance client insights, streamline workflows, improve forecasting, and strengthen relationships for exceptional service delivery.

^{5. Finance and project management}

Several metrics show how well a firm is operating – from annual revenue, EBITDA, DSO (Days Sales Outstanding), revenue leakage, and percentage of rejected invoices.

Firms who achieve their revenue targets have lower attrition rates, reflecting financial stability and an ability to both reward good performances and reinvest in their business.

With a financial and project management solution, firms can leverage their data for continuous optimization of internal finances and service delivery, ensuring that clients get the best service.

How Unit4 can help

✓	Bill with precision and accurately forecast.
✓	Have real-time visibility so financial performance trends can be monitored.
✓	Remove the admin burden from staff and boost productivity.
✓	Integrate finance and HR.
✓	Track income from billable hours.
✓	Instantly trace all people-related costs so they can accurately plan and budget for programs and projects.
✓	Have a single source of truth for instant and accurate reporting.