Today, many professional service enterprises are dealing with diverse challenges. Price war, highly competitive market, low-profit margins, shortage of skilled and experienced professionals, spin-offs from mergers and acquisitions etc. are some of the crucial challenges which are affecting the overall operational efficiency, productivity and profitability of an enterprise. At the same time, think tank and top managements are increasingly aware of the benefits of PSA (Professional service automation) solutions and its role in making companies more competitive and profitable.
Expected Growth of PSA software Industry
According to one leading research firm named, Grand View Research, the professional service automation (PSA) software market is estimated to reach USD 14.39 billion by 2024. PSA software is used to regulate business processes and provide reports, insights, and control for resources and projects. The importance of such systems is to empower critical information to be analyzed and shared across establishments for more insightful and timely decision-making. Increasing advancements in functionalities of the solution are estimated to boost industry growth over the next seven years.
The market for professional service automation is projected to gain a major share in revenues from developed regions such as North America and Europe over the next 7 years. Demand for PSA solutions in Asia Pacific region is also expected to rise at a stable pace over the next 7 years owing to the rising adoption of PSA by SMB (Small and Medium) enterprises in the region.
From all across the globe, many technology giants have invested heavily on PSA. Some of the major firms operating in the global PSA market are Microsoft Corporation, NetSuite OpenAir, Oracle, Autotask Corporation, FinancialForce PSA, Appirio, Inc., Deltek, Harmany PSA, Autotask Corporation and Projector PSA. Products and services of these giants are innovative and fuelling greater competition among its peers with each passing year.
Technologies Fuelling PSA
Cloud Computing: Cloud computing is becoming popular among cost-sensitive consumers and small & medium enterprises. Increasing abundant computing owing to smartphone penetration and better internet infrastructure is expected to drive the PSA mobile application over the next seven years. Cloud-based software offer benefits such as economies of scale, disaster recovery, effective monitoring of projects, and reduced technology infrastructure cost to its clients.
Artificial Intelligence: According to one leading firm, IDC, AI market will grow from $8 billion in 2016 to more than $47 billion in 2020. The market of AI is flourishing and numerous startups and internet giants want to reap the benefits of AI into their business processes. There are numerous AI technologies, on which different enterprises are working and researching. One of such eminent AI technology is RPA i.e. Robotics Process Automation.
RPA is gaining popularity for developing Professional service automation software. All those tasks of repetitive nature & low skilled are supposed to get automated using powerful scripts. Those tasks which are expensive and inefficient for humans to execute will directly get into the fold of RPA.
Eminent Reasons prompting increase usage of PSA software
- Better project planning, execution, management & supervision.
- To track project cost at very granular level during all stages of project development.
- PSA software has the capability to integrate other important software which further streamlines business process.
- Improved resource productivity; PSA solution is used to understand when resources with key skill sets are available and will allow for real-time optimization of resource productivity.
- Helpful in taking a big decision in real time due to the availability of consolidated view of a business process.
Benefits of PSA software in Professional arena
Various PSA software are used to bring transparency to the processes of a project, including time tracking, expense management, billing, invoicing, and resource and labor allocation. PSA software helps professionals in project and resource management. It can be integrated with accounting, CRM, and payroll, billing, talent management systems etc. for better work efficiency.
PSA software’s/These PSA software provide eminent assistance to varied professionals. Lawyers, auditors, IT Consultants, HR managers and other professionals are reaping the benefits of productivity, efficiency and profitability by streamlining their business process with PSA software. Many people compare PSA with traditional ERP solution, but in reality, PSA software (there is no plural form of software, hence the word needs to be treated differently) are different than ERP and are tailored for the professional service industry.
Key Deployment trends in PSA
There are two types of PSA deployment solution available in today’s market for the enterprises. One is cloud based deployment and other is on-premise deployment. Cloud based deployments are gaining popularity among small and medium enterprises due to the enormous benefits it gives to its clients. Flexibility, disaster recovery, increased collaboration and reduced infrastructure development price are some of the main factors behind the growing popularity of the cloud hosting module.
Sectors attracted towards PSA
Insurance, media & entertainment, retail, telecom, IT, Banking and finance, healthcare, financial markets, business consultants, higher educational authority, different government agency are utilizing PSA solutions for better efficiency, productivity & profitability.
According to a research firm named SPI Research, organizations that used PSA software tend to have a higher rate of on-time project delivery, more accurate project estimates and increased personnel productivity through more efficient scheduling and communication. All these benefits and advantages will further motivate small and medium enterprises towards PSA software and PSA software industry will boom further.