Top Professional Service Automation Trends

Compared to other sectors, such as manufacturing, the project management failure rates and the time and cost overruns in the professional service world are staggering. As technology develops and competitive pressure grows, this kind of costly, erratic performance will become increasingly less acceptable.

Manfredi Bargioni of eTask Technologies believes the industry will experience a quantum leap in the medium-term, the seeds of which will be planted this year, and so has put his thinking cap on and predicted the five major trends that will rock professional services.

1) This is the year when Cloud Computing really starts going mainstream. Old news, we hear you say, this has been topping everyone's list for the last five years or so. But the consensus is that we finally have all the right pieces in place for the Cloud to leave adolescence behind and enter the full maturity stage.

2) Quality standards like ISO will move forcefully into the service world, bringing in their wake similar changes to those that upturned manufacturing 15-20 years ago.  Since the early '80s, the manufacturing world has embraced concepts like Total Quality Management (TQM) and SixSigmas, which helped kickstart the productivity revolution of the last 20 years. We are convinced the professional service industry will do the same.

3) Professional service automation will lead the way. Companies with a higher level of process maturity will increase their lead from the pack as delivery efficiency will allow them to conquer clients and improve margins. Outsourcing, Offshoring, Near-shoring, tech changes, vertical integration, horizontal expansion are all having a huge impact on the competitive landscape of Professional Services. Companies will have to adapt (and automate) or die.

4) Customers will expect bang for their bucks. As proven by the success of the Apple App store and Open Source, downward pressure on software costs is increasing massively. Companies will look for opportunities to reduce aggressively the total cost of ownership for software while increasing efficiency and functionality.

5) 2011 has marked the beginning of the end for 'one-off' projects. "Do it, improve it, and repeat it" will be the new mantra for professional services. The ability to reuse intellectual assets to deliver high quality projects continually and consistently even with different teams and in different environments will be crucial to achieve operational and financial success.

www.etask.it