Capacity planning vs. To-do planning
Which method of planning fits best? Companies sometimes report to us with the remark that they want to start planning. If we keep asking questions, it becomes clear what they actually mean by that. Some are looking for a tool for capacity planning to plan the working day of their employees. Others just want a tool to manage a to-do list. They want to be able to attach a deadline and project information to those to-dos. The time the employee performs
From accounting for hours to being the boss of your own schedule
Empower your employees In some organizations, such as architecture firms, we find that employees on long-term projects are scheduled for an average number of hours per week for the duration of the project. These independent professionals are then allowed to decide for themselves each week when and how much time they spend on each project. The result is that the hours actually spent rarely correspond to the number of average hours scheduled. This is not a problem if an employee is working
Using capacity utilization rate to gain scheduling insights
Fact-based decision making. The sales department really wants to land that one project and get it done fast, but is there room for it in the schedule? Despite regular demands made on management to hire more staff, convincing them can be more difficult than expected. After all, we always manage to get things done - just about - with current staffing levels, don't we? In this blog we discuss how you can use the capacity utilization rate to have evidence-based discussions
Integrating your planning software: 5 benefits
Link for Efficiency. Everyone gets bogged down by repetitive tasks. That's when you can't help thinking: "Surely this can be done another way?" Tasks such as copying data, preparing paper documents and processing receipts. By integrating your planning software to, for example, your HRM or CRM or financial platform, you can easily automate these tasks. in this blog we'll look at the benefits of doing that. Chances are you've been managing everything quite well thus far by introducing a single integrated system,
Planning resources based on skills
Why, when and how do you do that? You don't have to be a huge organization to have a large pool of resources, because a resource is not only a permanent employee, it can also be a freelancer or a subcontractor. From experience, we've seen from our users that when a planner has more than 25 resources at his or her disposal, it becomes a greater challenge to keep track of who is good at what. The problem is that planners
How do you organize the progress reporting of a project?
About project size, human behavior and frequency. Who determines the progress? The project manager or an employee? How to decide if one or the other should do it? How do you ensure that the progress information is in fact reliable? After all, incorrect information can result in serious consequences in terms of meeting the deadline and the budget. In this blog post we will discuss concrete tools on how best to organize progress reporting. First of all, let's take a look at
7 questions when purchasing rugged IT equipment
Working efficiently in a challenging environment. We're sometimes approached by technical service providers who ask us which mobile devices their field personnel can use in combination with our planning software. Employees work on their projects in a wide variety of places, ranging from dry, pleasant offices to wet, windy building sites and open land. The basic desire is always the same: they all want to be able to work efficiently and reliably in their working environment. We've become increasingly dependent on our
4 considerations when buying a planning board monitor
You get what you pay for. We are regularly asked by customers and associates what kind of monitor they should buy to best display our planning board. By this they don't mean a personal computer monitor, but a large monitor, so that several people can view the planning board at the same time. To answer this question, we enlisted the help of Jelle Verhage, a partner at 2Orange, and a specialist in the field of audio-visual solutions. Jelle indicated that there are
3 arguments for using temporary staff on your projects
Do you find it more expensive to use temporary workers? The Flex sector is experiencing strong growth. This growth can be seen not only in small employment agencies, but also by the big players in the industry. Temporary employment agencies are intermediaries that mediate between job seekers and companies that need people to carry out certain tasks. However, for project-based service providers, it's not always clear whether it's viable to hire temporary employees. Temporary employment agencies were created to cater to companies
Best practices for approving time sheets
Keeping an efficient grip on time tracking. For any project-based service business, the tracking and recording of time spent on projects is crucial. Time tracking is the foundation of providing services to customers, who then pay for those services accordingly. Time tracking is the fuel on which an organisation runs. It literally puts food on the table for both the company and its employees. Understanding the completeness, accuracy and promptness of time tracking is therefore essential. When employees submit their time sheets,