Deltek has published a whitepaper that will help professional services organisations better understand how innovative technology will apply to their businesses. The paper is titled “Adopting Emerging Tech: How to Streamline Project Management and Boost Productivity with Generative AI” (Registration required). It draws on data from the Clarity Trends and Insights for Architecture, Engineering and Consulting Firms report. This was published earlier in the year.
What is in the report
The eight-page paper has six sections and is a mix of data points, analysis and thought leadership. As this is not based on a survey, it includes few data visualisations. There are, however, pull-out boxes that highlight the key data points from each section. The sections include:
- The Professional Services Dilemma
- How Are Professional Services Firms Using AI Today?
- Overcoming the Barriers to AI Adoption
- Establish an AI Task Force to Drive Adoption
- How Can AI Enhance the Project Lifecycle?
- Identify the Right AI Capabilities in Your ERP Solution
AI will change professional Services Firms
The authors highlight that professional services face a dilemma with the emergence of new technology. While 79% of Professional Services Firms (PSF) expect to increase investment in emerging technology, there are challenges, according to 50% of the Clarity respondents. There is a lack of understanding of what AI can do and a lack of time to train staff. The top challenges are perceived as:
- The cost of technology (54%)
- Prioritising which technologies are most applicable to the business (50%)
- Lack of employee education about trends and how they apply to their industry (30%)
The benefits are clear. Though, 74% of PSFs confident that investing in AI will expand services, 74% believe it will deliver a competitive advantage. With 41% saying successful implementation will increase profits. Also, not transforming the organisation is not an option. 67% believe that a lack of investment will lead to a loss of market share within two years.
Bret Tushaus, Vice President of Product Management at Deltek, commented, “Project management challenges have been further compounded by ongoing global socioeconomic disruption, placing greater pressure on firms to optimise cost and reduce resources to stay profitable while meeting customer demand. It’s like trying to keep a household running smoothly during tough times, making sure all needs are met while tightening the budget.”
Tushaus added, “Investing in Project ERP as a backbone, will provide insight into business metrics, optimisation of processes, and support the productivity gains needed to help firms ensure they stay on-track and demonstrate success confidently to key stakeholders. Think of it as a detailed family planner that helps you track expenses, plan meals, and manage schedules all in one place, making it easier to keep everything under control and show progress.”
Where the paper is useful
The paper suggests that firms consider creating an AI task force to drive adoption. This should be a multidisciplinary team from IT, legal and operations. Enterprise Times’ view is that it is also worth involving HR and Finance and should also have an executive sponsor.
The bulk of this paper lies in the section “How Can AI Enhance the Project Lifecycle?”. This looks across the five stages of a project lifecycle: Win, Manage, Develop, Deliver and Measure. It also provides examples of how AI can help transform the business. In total, eleven use cases of AI are clearly described. They offer a look at what AI could do for your business.
Deltek has already developed features aligning with these use cases, some of which use its AI-powered business companion, Dela. The report highlights three areas that Dela is already helping companies with:
- Generate succinct business summaries based on valuable project insights
- Predict project success by analysing resource use and historical performance
- Empower smarter decision-making with natural language digital assistant transactions
Enterprise Times: What does this mean?
This is a relatively short and easy-to-read whitepaper that provides some useful insights for PSF leaders who want to better understand how AI can be of practical use. The paper is more thought leadership than product marketing.
There are some useful insights in this white paper. The task force suggestion is one good example of the advice it gives. The paper could have been strengthened with the authors posing questions to the reader. For example, it might have added questions around each of the eleven use cases. To make the reader consider how relevant that use case was for their business. It would have tied the challenge with the use case. PSFs have limited budgets and resources to invest in AI solutions, and even if the Deltek solutions deliver all of these, it does not help PSFs determine where to start.
