One of the biggest challenges for managed service providers (MSPs) as they grow their business isn't what you think -- it's not necessarily generating revenue or cybersecurity -- it's scheduling.
MSPs initially focus on support and generating monthly recurring revenue, said Ben Speca, principal and COO at Vertilocity, an R.L. Nelson and Associates company, an MSP headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As soon as the business develops a client base, new client onboardings, technology improvements and the replacement of dated infrastructure become organically generated project-driven revenue streams. This forces an organization to balance its support capacity versus using some of its capacity to deliver projects, Speca told ChannelE2E.
"The subject matter expert for a project implementation is often the leading escalation support engineer. Therefore, visually understanding planned utilization for specific individuals or roles proactively ensures that an organization appropriately prioritizes and makes the best use of its resources," he said.
Even when an MSP matures to a point when a distinct project team is created, there is still the need to understand what skill sets are available and when the delivery of project services is feasible.
"The biggest challenge is managing the work efficiently, on time and at a high-quality standard. The pressure will always be to perform the work immediately. This comes from both the client and the desire for immediate revenue," Speca said. "In turn, the 'take it as it comes approach' for projects overloads resources and sets unrealistic expectations with the client. The layered work between projects and resources will, at some point, push out expected delivery dates, frustrating the client and burning out your resources," he added.
For MSPs, project portfolios are highly changeable, making it nearly impossible for project managers to coordinate schedules manually. Incomplete or inaccurate data related to project tasks, engineer availability, and customer commitments often lead to miscommunication, missed deadlines, and margin erosion. The effort required to keep project schedules accurate and up to date is overwhelming for many MSPs. This process is prone to error and sleepless nights, which can lead to credibility issues and damaged customer relationships.
That's what AI-driven project automation platform Moovila's new Smart Schedule feature aims to solve, said Michael Psenka, president and CEO at Moovila.
"What hurts the MSP is when they have inaccurate timelines; it leads to inaccurate schedules, inaccurate financials, inaccurate communication with customers, inaccurate forecasting -- and all of that stuff is expensive," Psenka said. "Inaccurate dates means all you have scheduled is churn; then you're missing dates, you're double booking engineers -- and it's bad. So, for us, our singular value proposition is using AI and automation to radically improve the accuracy of this data pipeline all the way through to financials."
Moovila's Smart Schedule provides supervised autonomous scheduling for project teams. This innovation directly addresses the significant challenges MSPs face in managing dynamic project portfolios, enhancing operational efficiency, and protecting margins. Smart Schedule uses human-in-the-loop AI and automation to provide MSPs with a complete and accurate view of every project, task, and resource in their portfolio. This feature automatically synchronizes and optimizes schedules, ensuring engineers are assigned to the right tasks at the right times, all while allowing project managers to retain oversight and control, Psenka said.
Moovila allows an MSP to build a project plan incorporating dependencies (critical path planning) while at the same time providing a historical reference for duration and effort, Speca explained. Therefore, the plan is realistic but flexible and can re-establish schedules when a dependent task is delayed (e.g., the client puts work on hold, the main resource is ill, etc.).
"Moovila can update the schedule based on the delay. The impact on schedules can be communicated immediately. If action needs to be taken to stay within a specific timeframe, all the information required to take action is immediately available," Speca said.
Moovila also provides the capacity of identified resources or roles now and in the future, he added. This ensures that work is allocated evenly and to the right resource. If a schedule slides, as discussed, the capacity engine can be utilized to reassign tasks or tasks that are not dependent can be moved up to continue within a timeframe. In addition, the value of free capacity can assist organizations in allotting time for training and self-improvement, or the information can act as a guide for sales to fill the available time with billable work, Speca said.
"Other solutions do not provide capacity planning. There may be a schedule and the ability to create a project plan, but the upkeep and manual effort to determine and control capacity is its own project," Speca said. "In addition, many of these tools are not driven by PMP concepts. The project modules are either afterthoughts to the original software, or the concept of managing a project is based on very basic principles that focus more on the visual presentation than the complexity of project planning and delivery," he said.
Moovila was the first tool Vertilocity reviewed that had all the fundamental project management concepts a PMP would want, Speca said. Speca added that his teams also enjoy the added feature of incorporating client resources into the projects (access to a specific project at no additional cost), showing a client resource their tasks and responsibilities to further enhance the transparency of the work being performed and communicating the impact of tasks the client would be responsible for completing and the impact if it is not.
"It was designed so that we could quickly train new project managers. The system would assist them in building a solid fundamental plan. In addition, the capacity engine and scheduling tools are rarely seen, and in turn, this is helping the team make better decisions. We invested early in the product, knowing and believing in the road map presented. We couldn't be more pleased in our choice and with our counterparts at Moovila," he said.
