BigTime Software has announced the acquisition of WorkRails to extend the capabilities of its PSA solutions with CPQ, SoW, and workflow capabilities. WorkRails is a leading CPQ and Workflow vendor that supports professional services organisations. Its solution is widely used by brands such as Aderant, Dayforce, Gainsight, Namely, Nutanix, PTC, and UiPath.
The strategic acquisition aligns with BigTime’s strategy of “Core plus More.” It follows the acquisition of Primetric, a resource management vendor, last year. The acquisition will further extend the capabilities of BigTime solutions. Which will empower professional services firms to streamline operations, optimize workflows, and accelerate growth.
Many professional services firms do not use CRM solutions and use spreadsheets and word documents to track statements of work and the CPQ process. This leaves a disconnect to their more robust operational systems, such as project management or PSA solutions.
WorkRails provides a light CRM solution and a robust CPQ capability that was built for professional services firms. Through integrations with the BigTime PSA solutions, it will extend the capabilities further across the customer lifecycle.
Combined, the solutions will span sales quoting, project initiation, project planning, resource management, financial forecasting, and sales automation.
Brian Saunders, Founder and CEO of BigTime Software, commented, “The addition of WorkRails’ CPQ and workflow automation tools is a natural extension of our platform. As more of our customers require streamlined processes to manage increasingly complex project lifecycles, this acquisition allows us to meet their evolving needs.
“WorkRails’ scalable, customer-centric solutions, combined with our existing capabilities, will help our clients achieve even greater success. We are excited about the possibilities that lie ahead as we integrate our teams and technologies.”
What the WorkRails brings to BigTime
When acquisitions are made, they are often looked at as tech tuck-ins or market-driven acquisitions. The WorkRails acquisition is more of an add-on. It is very complementary to the BigTime PSA solutions.
The WorkRails CPQ solution addresses the critical need for professional services firms to create what are often complex statements of work with complex pricing for products and service lines. Customers often want rapid changes to these quotes, which can be time-consuming. WorkRails provides a solution that will make the whole sales process more efficient. And, importantly, feed into the operations function with little rekeying.
BigTime highlights four key benefits the combined solution will deliver:
- Streamlined Sales Processes: WorkRails’ CPQ functionality ensures that sales teams can configure, price, and quote services accurately, reducing the time from proposal to project start.
- Enhanced Workflow Automation: Automation across the sales and delivery cycle minimizes manual tasks and ensures operational consistency, reducing errors and increasing efficiency.
- Improved Resource and Financial Planning: Combining CPQ, project management, and financial forecasting gives businesses clear visibility into project margins, resources, and timelines—ensuring projects are delivered on time and within budget.
- Increased Profitability: Integrating sales automation with project execution capabilities maximizes operational efficiency, helping businesses prevent cost overruns and improve profitability.
Steven Schneider, CEO of WorkRails, commented, “We are thrilled to join BigTime and bring our CPQ and automation solutions to an even wider audience. Together, we’re building a powerful solution that addresses the end-to-end needs of professional services firms—from the first interaction with a client to the final project hand-off. By combining forces, we’re empowering our clients to improve their speed to market and their bottom line. We look forward to achieving great things as part of BigTime.”
What is Happening and When
Enterprise Times also spoke to Peter Dedes, BigTime Software’s CFO and COO, about the acquisition. We asked him about integrations between the Projector PSA (acquired in 2022) and BigTime Software solutions.
The initial integration is likely to be one way, enabling customers to ingest details from the SoW to automatically create the project schedule. In time, clients, project costing information and more will be shared between the solutions.
Dedes confirmed that it will work on a lighter integration with Projector PSA, as the demand has mainly come from those customers. For the BigTime customers, the integrations should be ready by H2 2025, that will be a full integration. It will also work on an integration with Foresight, the resource management solution it bought last year as Primetric.
Dedes summarised the benefits of these combinations, saying, “First, on the management side of the house, CPQ allows us to help the front-end sales cycle. So think SoWs, order forms, change orders, and being able to understand pricing and margin control before (projects). It’s just been a big product that our customers have been asking for.”
I asked Dedes what it means for existing WorkRails customers. He confirmed, “No change to them. There is an opportunity for them to use BigTime as their PSA, but they’re generally pretty happy with what they like. The nice thing about the WorkRails product and ours is it’s going to be the exact same product. All the investments that enhance the WorkRails product, the existing WorkRails customers get the benefit of that too.
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
In January 2022, Vista Equity Partners invested $100 million in BigTime Software. WorkRails is the third acquisition that it has completed on its growth strategy. This is not as quick an expansion as some Vista portfolio firms have done. What it does show is that the leadership is focused on both organic and inorganic growth. They are executing on a clear strategy to only acquire firms that add value.
WorkRails is carefully extending the capabilities of its platform. As a result, it will also hope to evolve to support larger customers. It will not, as Dedes discussed, mean that it will leave smaller customers behind. Merely that it has the capabilities that they will require as they grow. First with resource management and now with the WorkRails CPQ solution.
BigTime Software is not the first PSA firm to make such an acquisition. Workday acquired Zimit in 2021 to strengthen its PSA solution, and Certinia (then FinancialForce) added its own CPQ solution to its PSA product. Neither party disclosed the terms of the acquisition deal for WorkRails.
