Benefits of Integrated Digital Toolbox for Consultancies
Published: 19/05/2022
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Our target audience for this article is owners, managing directors, and partners of consultancies. We aim to discuss how an integrated digital toolbox can transform your business, enhance your processes, and assist you in scaling. Digital transformation is in full swing, and delaying it now risks being left behind.
The already highly competitive landscape of consultancies is becoming even more saturated as we speak. As aggressive advertising tactics are no longer effective, the new strategy is to win clients by demonstrating that you will consistently serve them quicker, better, and in a more personalised manner than your competitors. Some insist this means excluding automation, as the focus should be on relationship building - but those individuals are gravely mistaken.
Automation doesn’t mean the exclusion of human touch; in fact, it is precisely what allows you to be more human in building meaningful business relationships. Digital transformation enables consultancies to better understand their target audience, grasp their pain points and then utilise that data to tailor personalised experiences—while entrusting it to the machines where applicable. A stand-alone piece of software, however, is capable of achieving only so much. An integrated digital toolbox, on the other hand, acts as an unstoppable business generation machine. Therefore, in this article, we aim to help you build one.
As a decision-maker, you don’t want to be dazzled or fed empty promises; instead, you aim to have a clear understanding of what is actually required and the associated costs. This is why we want to begin by stating that the size of your digital stack shouldn’t exceed 5 to 6 tools. In fact, we would recommend limiting yourselves to 2 to 3 solutions, although some businesses with larger teams may require a broader range of functionalities.
Price, on the other hand, will depend entirely on the vendor you choose. Some tool creators sell their software as a package, including predetermined features for a fixed price. Others provide the entire digital suite in one go - consider companies such as Microsoft Office or Zoho. Then there’s the model we offer at Timesheet Portal - you only pay for the features you require. Essentially, we empower you to customise our software to suit your needs. You can easily upgrade and downgrade whenever you wish. Our pricing model is designed to adapt to you and is therefore the best option for consultancies looking to scale.
Consultants wear many hats and are thus exposed to a diverse range of tasks. From collecting and refining data to assembling strategies based on it, it’s a mixed bag of repetitive manual chores and impactful work. Naturally, you want to concentrate on the latter, although some dreaded tasks, such as reporting, cannot be overlooked. Having a designated digital stack of tools addresses this very dilemma by alleviating the burden of manual tasks from your shoulders.
According to the Carleton University survey, the average knowledge worker spends one-third of the workweek answering emails. Long email threads aimed at gathering required materials, setting meetings, or discussing less urgent matters are part of daily life in any consultancy. Occasionally, workflows are delayed by the need to request necessary data and then waiting for it to be sent. However, you can easily reclaim these hours by creating a digital toolbox that serves as a centralised hub for data, accessible and updatable by any authorised team member. This way, the data is always stored in the same location, and the involved parties are notified of any new changes or additions.
One of the key benefits of integrated digital solutions is the creation of seamless data transfer across all departments, allowing teams to align through visibility of one another’s progress. This minimises the risk of delayed or lost emails, which, in turn, improves overall communication and accelerates both internal and external processes. Such workflows enhance your consultancy’s efficiency and foster a teamwork-oriented environment.
The business world is finally beginning to recognise the true power of automation and the benefits it brings. As early adopters have long since mastered its art, they are far ahead of the game. This doesn’t mean you won’t be able to catch up if your company is only just starting to dip its toes into it now. What it means, however, is that the basic tools found within stand-alone solutions will keep you on the same level as other companies entering the game now. To get ahead, your approach needs to be somewhat more sophisticated.
It’s not as complicated as it sounds – an integrated digital toolbox is what you need. Simply put, when you combine several solutions that utilise automation, you unlock additional automation options that would otherwise be unavailable. The extra features depend on the software you link, the processes you run through them, and, indeed, your creativity. This is one of the key reasons why you should always question the vendor not only on the software they integrate with but also on how the integration works - is it something as simple as data transfer, or does it enable the creation of multiple workflow sequences? In other words, by adopting the right software, you position yourself to take automation to a new level - and in turn, your process efficiency will soar.
The key difference between an agency and a consultancy is that while an agency specialises in a specific area, its approach to clients is often generalised. A consultancy, on the other hand, dives deep into their client’s individuality to understand their unique needs, pain points, reservations, and areas for improvement. In other words, while an agency may offer the same service package to multiple businesses, a consultancy must tailor a personalised approach for each. To achieve this, they first need to collect extensive data on the client’s current situation and the events leading to it. An integrated digital toolbox provides extra depth compared to what stand-alone software would offer.
Just as software integrations enhance your automation capabilities, they also broaden the range of data insights collected. Often, different solutions may gather data from the same source while emphasising different aspects of it. By having several tools examining the same source from various perspectives, you ultimately gain more comprehensive insights.
Furthermore, digital solution integrations provide the opportunity to review the same data in various contexts, thereby uncovering new information. For instance, when an employee completes their timesheets in a time tracking solution, you collect data on how much time they have spent on specific tasks, as well as how much money you need to pay them. If you export this data to project management software, you will see how it compares to the overall project progress and costs. In other words, while you can analyse individual performance in one software, examining the same data through another tool offers insights into the bigger picture.
The more data you have, the better you can understand your client’s needs, pain points, and objections. This can therefore allow you to tailor your processes in accordance with that information, ensuring that what you do directly aligns with what your client requires. Naturally, this encompasses automated workflows. In summary, by understanding your audience, you will recognise the extent to which communication can be automated and at what point a live person needs to step in. For example, you could have an automated chatbot on your website programmed to either answer frequently asked questions or direct the user to a relevant page.
However, if the bot is asked about something beyond its programming, the user will be transferred to a live consultant. This ensures that you will continuously collect data on the issues and questions your clients encounter, thereby constantly updating both the chatbot and the processes with which they are facing challenges.
Of course, no client is the same, and while some areas can be generalised, it’s important to remember that each company is an individual entity. We strongly recommend using a centralised CMS like HubSpot, which can be utilised by everyone across the team to exchange notes on clients, their preferred approaches, the issues they are dealing with, and the interactions that have taken place.
As we’ve mentioned earlier, it is important to limit the number of solutions in your stack to avoid counter-productivity in your approach. Furthermore, even if you are using competitively-priced tools, costs can accumulate very quickly if you onboard too many at once. The key is to distinguish between your must-haves and those that would be nice to have based on what your organisation aims to achieve and how it operates. Nevertheless, there are certain solutions that every digital stack must incorporate as a foundation.
We may be biased given that Timesheet Portal is an online time tracking software, but this is one of the apps that every consultancy needs to include in its stack. Whether you charge your clients an hourly rate or work on a retainer, it’s crucial to know how long your team spends on tasks. There are multiple reasons why you need to have such visibility, but to summarise, it can both enhance your service and improve internal processes.
First of all, time tracking is essential for billing your clients accurately. Some solutions, including ours, enable you to generate automated invoices based on the time data recorded in the timesheets. You can then easily export both the invoices and the timesheets into your accounting software via an integration. The reports generated within the software can also provide valuable insights into potential gaps in workload distribution or process efficiency within the consultancy. Tasks that consume a considerable amount of time are highlighted when analysing timesheets, and the processes involving these tasks should be reviewed for possible optimisation.
Due to their competitive nature, consultancies are one of the few industries that have been actively adopting digital transformation. However, this also means that the early adopters are now far ahead, and opting for simple stand-alone solutions results in a competitive disadvantage. This doesn’t imply that you can’t catch up; rather, it indicates that you need to build a well-thought-out, integrated digital toolbox.
While your build shouldn’t exceed 6 solutions overall and will largely depend on the unique traits and goals of your business, there are programmes that must be included as they are responsible for core operations: accounting software, a time-tracking tool, and a centralised document management platform are essential for every consultancy. Having these solutions linked together will create a bottomless pool of opportunities, as they will constantly collect data, present it in an easy-to-analyse format, and unlock further automation features to make your business increasingly efficient.
Are you prepared to begin constructing your toolbox? Begin with the fundamentals; commence with time tracking.