It has been an interesting couple of years for professional services firms of all shapes, sizes and specialties. The economy has presented challenges that haven’t been seen in decades and some that have never been seen before. At some level, we’ve all adjusted the way we do business, and the just- released results of SPI Research’s 2011 Professional Services Maturity Benchmark speak loud and clear on the results: professional services businesses are now beginning to reap the benefits of change, including:
- Increased annual revenue growth for 2010
- Improved bill rates
- Rising salaries and headcounts
- Establishing Software as a Service (SaaS) PSOs as profit centers.
Some of the above changes are a factor of regulatory changes such as EITF-0801(opens in new tab) and some are a reflection on the economy, but many are a direct reflection of the way that we’ve chosen to evolve our businesses to meet the new challenges of the 21st century.
Annual benchmarks, studies and surveys like this one from SPI Research allow us to see the trends and changes—both good and bad—so that we can adjust to change and evolve our business in the down times and celebrate the wins and improvements in the good times. We can also measure the impact of technology on professional services businesses, which for a technology vendor is priceless. It allows us to evolve our own business along with the industry.
Once again this year, we are excited to report that NetSuite and NetSuite OpenAir professional services automation (PSA) and services resource planning(opens in new tab) (SRP) customers dominated in survey participation with more than 20% of respondents driving their services business with NetSuite products, representing the largest pool of respondents leveraging PSA and SRP technology. I am also excited to report that four of the top performing PSOs from SPI’s “Best of the Best” list—Workday, TOP Step Consulting, Advent and Informatica—are NetSuite customers, illustrating the direct impact that the right technology can have on your business.
We’re proud to once again sponsor SPI’s Benchmark Survey and we thank all of those services organizations who contributed to the invaluable information it contains. As part of that sponsorship, we’re able to offer you a complimentary copy of the benchmark. Download your copy here.
We hope that this year’s findings help and inspire you to evolve and drive your services organization throughout 2011 and into the future.