The key to success for any managed service provider (MSP) lies in their ability to effectively manage projects and maximize IT expertise across multiple accounts. However, a survey of over 130 CEOs and senior business leaders finds there is much room for improvement when it comes to project management fundamentals.
Conducted by The Channel Company on behalf of Moovila, the survey of MSP executives finds half of the respondents acknowledged that current project management practices impair profitability.
Inaccurate project timelines result from shifting schedules and tasks, along with inefficient scheduling of shared resources across projects and tickets. Inefficient scoping of projects rounds out the top three challenges MSPs regularly encounter.
More troubling still, only 30 percent said their organizations currently use the project management module within their professional services automation (PSA) platform as the primary method for managing projects. A total of 29 percent rely on spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel, while 20 percent use Microsoft Project.
Data entry tops the list of challenges
Even though 62 percent of respondents recognize that project management is a critical component of their operations, nearly 70 percent face challenges with resource management. This highlights a key area for improvement within their processes.
More than 65 percent also reported difficulties in managing project timelines and meeting client expectations, indicating a strong need for better project visibility and proactive risk management. More than 80 percent are eager to apply artificial intelligence (AI) and other automation technologies to improve project management, which is no surprise.
Arguably, the biggest challenge when it comes to project management is simple data entry. The probability that data will be entered incorrectly when, for example, using spreadsheets to manage a project is exceedingly high. As a result, it should not come as a surprise that some data is simply flat-out wrong. Additionally, spreadsheets don’t surface any potential conflicts or dependencies that might exist between projects.
In theory, a project management application will surface those issues. This assumes that the right data has been shared with the teams managing these applications on behalf of the organization.
AI and automation to the rescue
Fortunately, there will soon be a day when advances in automation and AI will make project management a lot easier. MSPs are already using a plethora of tools and platforms to manage IT services. Each of those tools and platforms should expose an application programming interface (API) that makes it easier to pull accurate data into a project management application. Once that’s accomplished, it then becomes feasible to apply machine learning algorithms and generative AI to identify, for example, the cascading impacts a delay in one project is likely to have across the entire organization.
It’s only a matter of time before MSPs improve their management, which will lead to higher profitability. The challenge lies in finding a way to aggregate all the relevant data. This is essential to achieve the required level of automation. The first step in the process is ensuring that all the tools and platforms in use expose an API. This API must be robust enough to pull data from.
From there, it’s only a matter of selecting a project management application that has AI capabilities built in. After all, the best way for any MSP to enjoy the benefits of any form of AI is to leverage the investments someone else was willing to make.
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