How ThirdSpace uses PSA to better forecast revenue and demand
ThirdSpace, a firm specialised in identity management, enterprise mobility and cyber security solutions, has trebled in company size with the support of Kimble Applications and its professional services automation software.
When looking for software that could help improve the management of their business, ThirdSpace’s key priority was tackling resource management. They also wanted a professional services automation (PSA) tool integrated with CRM to run a Microsoft Identity and Security business. Best-in-class integration with Salesforce was also paramount given the need to both manage existing relationships and unite resource planning with the sales pipeline.
Jeremy Wilson, Operations Director at ThirdSpace said: “We used Salesforce and we had a separate time and billing system. Going from the Salesforce view to the Time and Billing system was a big air gap. We did our scheduling on spreadsheets and we felt as we grew that was going to be unsustainable.”
Following a tool selection process, ThirdSpace adopted Kimble Applications in 2015. “We felt from the start that Kimble’s end-to-end solution was specifically designed for a business like ours,” said Wilson. According to Kimble, this is because the company focuses solely on providing professional services automation and not other ancillary enterprise software.
Better forecasting leads to better growth
Fast-forward to 2019 and now ThirdSpace is three times the size of when it started, and professional services automation has been central to enabling fast growth in a sustainable fashion. Wilson said: “We wouldn’t have been able to grow the way we have without Kimble – there would have been too much manual intervention. Previously we had effectively three different systems to do the job Kimble does on its own now.”
Being able to accurately forecast revenue and demand is business critical for consultancy and service-based organisations. Many organisations struggle with updating spreadsheets, with data being entered from different business streams, sometimes in different formats. “This means everyone has an interest in getting the information right, inputting data, following it through. It is more streamlined than it used to be, the data is more accurate.” The business is now more predictable, with much more accurate forecasts, of revenue and demand. In a growing company, it is vitally important to guide staff with the right amount of process to ensure forecasting is as accurate as possible.
Vital: integration with Salesforce
Kimble’s native integration within Salesforce was also vital to ThirdSpace capturing all its relevant sales data. “Because of the disconnect with Salesforce we would miss stuff and then find money down the back of the sofa at the end of the month – now we don’t find money we weren’t expecting. Our forecasts are much more accurate – that’s a better way to run our business,” said Wilson.
ThirdSpace also values having a single end-to-end system which is used and shared by multiple departments. Wilson said: “This means everyone has an interest in getting the information right, inputting data, following it through. It is more streamlined than it used to be, the data is more accurate.”
With a centralised system of information from across the business, ThirdSpace can reliably track, record and measure how it is performing. Tackling this challenge means employees across the business can use one system to track work and monitor revenue, ensuring a good view of where revenue might fall in the future and equipping the business to act accordingly.
