Resource allocation plays a crucial role in the success of large enterprises. According to research from McKinsey, 83% of senior executives chose strategically shifting resources as the most important management lever for encouraging scalable and sustainable growth.
Properly allocating resources helps enterprises minimize waste, remain profitable, and improve efficiency. This blog covers common resource challenges for large enterprises and four steps your firm can take to combat them using technology.
Resource Allocation Challenges for Large Enterprises
Leadership teams at large enterprises often consider the big picture, like what the quarterly revenue should be, what impact a project will have upon completion, and when a new initiative should be launched.
While it’s important to keep the end goal in mind, taking a closer look at the enterprise’s available resources is necessary to figure out how these goals can realistically be accomplished. Some common resource allocation challenges large enterprises face include:
- Poor planning: Resources must be carefully planned, executed, and adjusted to maintain an efficient balance. Obstacles to success – such as unrealistic deadlines or too many hands on a project – can derail an initiative from the start.
- Inefficient use of resources: An enterprise may have the resources to make significant progress toward a goal, but if teams don’t know they exist, these resources won’t help much. Proper training and company organization can help make everyone aware of resources that are already available to them.
- Insufficient resource sharing: Different departments in large enterprises often collaborate to achieve a shared goal. While relevant assets such as technology, money, and human capital may be available for interdepartmental use, there isn’t always an official transition or sharing process, which can create resource silos.
Four Steps to Improve Resource Management With Technology
Improving your resource management process doesn’t have to be overwhelming, and it can often be done using existing internal resources. These four steps will help your enterprise establish a solid foundation for more effective resource utilization.
1. Plan Ahead
Before starting any projects, look into your current and future resource availability to forecast the project’s needs. Tools like project management software and professional services automation software can give you transparency into the following:
- Which employees have the heaviest and lightest workloads
- Which team members have the highest risk of burnout
- What each individual and team is currently working on
You can also view real-time progress for other projects to estimate their completion, which can help you see when additional resources might free up.
2. Automate Tasks
Automation can take mundane or routine tasks like billing and reporting off someone’s plate, which allows them to focus on other, more impactful tasks.
For example, project management software can take billable tasks and time from time cards to generate a pre-bill for review. Instead of entering all the different tasks worked on and the time spent on each for every client, the pre-bill can simply be approved and submitted. Removing these administrative tasks can help initiatives reach the finish line faster.
3. Track Time
Time is one of the most important factors to consider when allocating resources – from the number of hours a project takes to which team members have available bandwidth. Time-tracking software can help by automatically tracking:
- Progress made toward a goal: See how far along a project is at any given moment to identify areas that may require additional support to meet a deadline and better forecast future projects
- Hours worked: Stay on top of each team member’s hours worked to minimize the risk of unapproved overtime, which can be costly to both your bottom line and to the employee’s work-life balance. This can also help you avoid breaking wage and hour laws.
- Employee time off: See who has scheduled time off coming up to properly prepare tasks for hand-off when needed
4. Use Data Intelligence to Drive Decisions
Make business decisions based on real, historical data – not on guesswork or assumptions. Workforce management solutions can provide data for a vast number of metrics, including your enterprise’s current productivity cost, any trends impacting the business, and the time team members are spending on certain tasks. Use all the data available to you to make informed decisions that improve efficiency.
Improve Your Resource Allocation With Smart Business Tools
Effective resource allocation can significantly impact your enterprise’s bottom line. Certain initiatives may fail without allocating the right resources in the right place at the right time, which can negatively affect the business in areas like growth and profitability.
coAmplifi is your one-stop shop for overcoming resource allocation challenges. Our workforce management system was designed to cater to large enterprises – especially those in the professional services industry. Because of this, you can create customized measurements for reporting, gain real-time visibility into projects, effectively distribute tasks, automate processes, and more.
Make smarter resource allocation decisions. Schedule your demo now!
