and the Opportunity of Next Generation Digital Solutions and Automation.
This whitepaper explores the risks of using legacy systems for people planning in the professional services industry and highlights the benefits of adopting next generation digital solutions and automation. In a nutshell: planning has no value; the value is in the Best Plan.
Executive summary
In the professional services industry, people are the most important source of value. The industry relies heavily on human capital to deliver services and generate revenue. Effective people planning is essential to ensure that the right people with the right skills are in place at the right time to meet business needs and to drive talent and customer satisfaction. However, many organizations still rely on legacy systems for people planning, which can lead to a range of risks and challenges. Why is this the case? In essence the concepts of manual paper-based planning and planning-boards have been moved to the computer rebuilding the planning-board on the screen. The immense compute power available today is not used to create the plan. Consequently, long planning cycles, inefficient processes, human error, limited visibility, compliance risks, and a lack of agility are among the challenges that organizations face.
Next generation digital solutions and automation use the compute power available and automation to calculate billions of alternatives in seconds to create the Best Plan. These offers several benefits, including speed, greater efficiency, accuracy, visibility, compliance, and agility. By adopting digital solutions and automation, organizations can mitigate the risks associated with legacy systems in people planning and gain a competitive advantage in a demanding and competitive industry.
Comparison of Risks using Legacy Systems and the opportunity of Digital Solutions and Automation for People Planning
Dimension | Legacy Systems | Digital Solutions and Automation |
Efficiency | Time-consuming and labour-intensive, leading to inefficiency in workforce management. Organizations often struggle to keep track of employee schedules, availability, and skill sets, which can result in staff shortages, missed deadlines, and reduced productivity. | Automate many of the manual processes associated with people planning, freeing up staff time for more value-added activities. This leads to greater efficiency in workforce management. |
Agility | Not agile by design. Making it difficult to respond quickly to changing business needs, unexpected events, and emerging opportunities. This can result in missed opportunities, lost revenue, and reduced market share. | Enable organizations to respond quickly to changing business needs, unexpected events, and emerging opportunities. This leads to greater agility, improved competitiveness, and increased market share. |
Human Error | Prone to human error. This can result in staffing imbalances, such as overstaffing or understaffing, which can negatively impact employee morale, productivity, and customer satisfaction. Human error can also lead to inaccurate forecasting, budgeting, and scheduling, resulting in wasted resources and increased costs. | Reduced risk of human error, providing accurate forecasting, budgeting, and scheduling. This helps to optimize resource allocation, reduce costs, and improve productivity. |
Visibility | Limited visibility into the workforce, making it difficult to identify trends, anticipate future staffing needs, and optimize resource allocation. This can lead to missed opportunities for growth, reduced profitability, and competitive disadvantage. | Real-time visibility into the workforce, allowing organizations to identify trends, anticipate future staffing needs, and optimize resource allocation. This leads to better decision-making and improved business outcomes. |
Compliance | Legacy processes can make it difficult to ensure compliance with labour laws and regulations, leading to legal and financial risks. | Ensures compliance with all labour laws and regulations. This reduces the risk of legal and financial penalties. |
Conclusion
The target of planning is not planning but to create the Best Plan for the organisation balancing company, customer, and talent preferences. Legacy systems for people planning, are inefficient, prone to human error, and offer limited visibility into the workforce. This can lead to a range of risks and challenges in the professional services industry. Adopting state of the art digital solutions and automation mitigate these risks and offer benefits, including greater efficiency, accuracy, visibility, compliance, and agility. As the industry becomes increasingly competitive and complex, organizations that adopt digital solutions and automation to create the Best Plan will have a significant advantage over those that continue to rely on legacy systems for planning not using the available compute power and AI.
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