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,
3 ways to secure your planning
How do you keep control of customer data, personal data, and access to data? Stolen data, leaked information, or leaving a company laptop in the car. Everyone has read about it, knows of someone who experienced it, or even experienced it themselves. The security of corporate and personal data is a serious issue and is a current issue to everyone. The loss of confidential data can result in major consequences, especially now that the updated European privacy regulations have been imposed
What impact will the GDPR have on planning?
The new rules regarding privacy legislation. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into being on 25 May 2018. The GDPR defines regulations for the protection of personal data throughout the European Union. This will impact on every service provider who facilitates the planning of projects and resources and therefore makes use of personal data. In this blog post we will look at the effect this new legislation will have on the planning of your employees and what needs to
6 wastes in resource planning
Types of waste in projects according to Lean. Waste is around us everywhere, every day, including in projects. You have probably heard of the Lean method. This method was originally used only by production companies, but is now also being used in other business sectors. One of the priorities of Lean is to eradicate waste. In this blog we will look at how we can apply this in the world of project-driven service providers. Lean recognizes 7 types of waste. They are:
The truth and myth about a Gantt Chart
When to use a Gantt Chart for a project and when not to? The Gantt Chart, a type of bar chart, is a specific method to make the project comprehensible in a graphic way. The question, however, is: when does it make sense to use a Gantt Chart and when doesn't it? When speaking to organizations, I have noticed that they are not always sure about this and therefore waste time or lack certain insights. In this blog, we will provide
The 80/20 rule in project & resource planning
Achieve as many results as possible, in as few hours as possible. The 80/20 rule, also known as the "Pareto principle", asserts that 80% of all outcomes are a result of 20% of the effort. Everyone knows about the example where 80% of all sales are a result of 20% of the customer base. Thus, by giving more attention to a small group of customers this leads to disproportionate revenue. In this blog post we'll look at how to use the
A process for planning your projects
Project & resource planning as a continuous improvement process. Service providers who carry out projects for their customers generally want two things: on the one hand, a fast and satisfactory result for their customers, and profitability on the other hand. An optimal allocation of employees to the projects is crucial. Yet, we often see that project and resource planning is limited to a one-off activity at the start of the project. Shouldn't more attention be paid to this? Suppose you run multiple
Plan the big projects first
And ensure flexibility in planning. If you look at the picture, you might be thinking there are more stones and sand in the first jar than in the second jar, but nothing could be further from the truth. The second jar contains the exact same amount of sand and stones, only the content doesn't fit in the first jar. That has to do with the order of filling the jar. If you first fill the jar with the large stones, then
Do you plan your projects around margin?
The added value of cost price rates when planning projects. For many organizations, they are only able to see in hindsight what the margin was they achieved for their project, which for many, leads to disappointment. The project ended not being as profitable as they had thought. Even while remaining within the budgeted number of hours. How is that even possible? An analysis showed that they, for example, relied on freelancers instead of internal staff on which the project was budgeted.
Making up a roster for projects: can you do that?
The sense and folly of planning projects in rostering software. I have been in touch with a number of organizations lately, which had all tried to plan their projects in Workforce Management software. In other words, they tried to make up a roster of their projects in rostering software. Can this actually be done and if so, what are the limitations? In this blog we will look at this, using a practical case. In terms of planning, there are two segments: making