Becoming More Efficient & Cost Effective March 24, 2009
Posted by Dan Stuchbury in : Business Process, Software , comments closedOne of the most important things to do when looking to increase efficiency in your agency is to track time carefully. Everyone, including the Managing Director sh0uld keep a daily timesheet and record what activities time is being spent on, whether billable or not. After the first couple of weeks, you will probaly be surprised just how much time is spent on non-billable activities, or activities that aren’t related to revenue generation.
It will be clear where improvements can be made in efficiency, and how much new business you can take on with current staffing levels. Good job management software will show you how busy people are, based on the work assigned to them and upcoming work in their schedules, and may even allow you to select who to allocate new work to depending on the requirements of the job and current workloads. Maximising billable time is key to developing a successful agency, and software can play an important role here if used well.
Software alone, however, is not the be all and end all of job management. It is only as good as the business processes that shape its’ development and use. Before buying off-the-shelf software or talking to a developer about bespoke or semi-bespoke software, you should be sure that your business processes are efficient and up-to-date. Rules don’t need to govern creativity, but the processes that allow creativity to happen – poject management, client liason, billing, credit control, etc.