To both the people who work in the professional service sector and the broader economy, insights into the performance, technology, productivity and profitability of the professional service sector are extremely valuable.
To help understand this, Accelo surveyed client-facing professionals who manage projects on a daily basis, asking questions about the length of projects, common challenges and use of technology. The survey revealed that projects are overwhelmingly mismanaged due to an inability to accurately track employee time and a failure to use tools to plan properly, track and execute these projects. While these problems most often plagued shorter-term projects, if these issues are not addressed, the professional service industry is likely to miss out on its full potential.
Below are the most striking finding from Accelo’s report, Blind Sweat & Tears: A Study into Client Project Management Practices Across the Professional Services Sector:
- The vast majority (more than 80 percent) of projects run for less than 6 months, 60 percent of projects run less than 3 months and the most common projects running for an average of 2 months.
- For these most common projects, only between a quarter and a third of respondents used project planning, tracking or collaboration software and in the second most common category of projects up to one month, 3 in 4 respondents used no project management technology at all.
- Two thirds of project managers are “running blind” when it comes to tracking budgets & they’re even worse off when it comes to managing schedules with more than 3 in 4 professionals either using manual techniques or none at all.
- Communication was cited as the most critical element to a successfully managed project, but 90% of respondents nominated email as the most important method of communication - with 'collaboration' technology ranked near the bottom of most important methods of communication.
To read the full report and all of its findings, fill out the download form for instant access.