Streamlining Project Management And Enhancing Visibility
Benefits
NuTekk Ltd., a business and marketing company, specializes in taking technology to market. Working with a highly experienced team of consultants, NuTekk delivers a comprehensive range of services, including business analysis, marketing, planning, channel strategy, new business development, marketing engagement, and mergers and acquisitions. Established in November 2002 and headquartered in New Zealand, NuTekk has representation in Australia, and strong affiliations with the United States, Asia Pacific, and the United Kingdom.
Challenge
NuTekk knows that their success comes directly from the success of their clients, which is why the company strives to deliver the highest quality of service, while maintaining complete transparency with their clients. However, NuTekk lacked the necessary time and project tracking tools to meet this requirement.
Before implementing Web TimeSheet, NuTekk had little, if any, visibility into their projects. NuTekk’s project managers had no way of identifying the level at which their teams were performing because consultants were not accountable for their hours. They sporadically entered their hours into Excel spreadsheets, which were, at best, only an estimate of where they spent their time. In addition, consultants often entered their time only once a month, which led to inaccuracies. In addition, consultants were not tracking time towards specific tasks, making client billing reports merely estimates of their billable time. As a result, NuTekk’s clients were not getting the top quality service that the company promised.
“We knew the level of professionalism we wanted to maintain could not be achieved with the current system,” said Paul Speary, Managing Director at NuTekk. “We needed a time and project tracking tool that could provide visibility into our projects, for both our managers and our clients.”
In addition, NuTekk was losing money because consultants were not being billed for all of their hours. With the current time tracking system, consultants could not track time towards specific tasks. Project managers were also spending an inordinate amount of time manually entering the same information in multiple spreadsheets or requesting information from consultants, and then manually generating reports. With inaccurate project tracking and costing, efficient resource scheduling for NuTekk was impossible.
This manual system was not only time consuming, but ineffective, because project managers did not have the visibility into where consultants were actually spending their time.
“We knew the level of professionalism we wanted to maintain could not be achieved with the current system. We needed a time and project tracking tool that could provide visibility into our projects, for both our managers and our clients. ”
Solution
To provide effective and top-notch service to their clients, NuTekk needed a new way of managing its projects and tracking billable and non-billable hours and tasks. NuTekk also wanted to automate the time entry and approval process by sending e-mail notifications to consultants rather than chasing them down to complete their time.
NuTekk’s selection process for a time tracking tool took about 2 months. During this time, they considered developing a home-grown solution. The decision to purchase a solution rather than create an in-house system was easy: “Why reinvent the wheel?”
What stood out about Web TimeSheet was the attractive price, the fact that it was web-based (NuTekk’s consultants all work remotely), it integrated with their current accounting and payroll system (QuickBooks), and it met all of their functionality requirements.
NuTekk’s experience implementing Web TimeSheet was extremely positive. Like most companies that select Web TimeSheet, the software deployment was simple. No costly training or consulting services were required from Replicon. The entire deployment took less than three hours, with a few additional hours spent on training consultants.
Although it’s almost always a struggle for a company to adopt a new technology, the transition to Web TimeSheet was smooth, thanks to its intuitive, easy-to-use design.
Effective and Accurate Time and Expense Tracking
With Web TimeSheet, NuTekk can effortlessly manage their consultants, since consultants must enter the number of hours spent on each task, making them 100% accountable for their time. This accurate time tracking also reduces the number of lost hours, and ensures that client billing reports are both detailed and accurate.
Thanks to Web TimeSheet’s automatic e-mail notifications and simple approval process, timesheets are completed timely and accurately. Since NuTekk’s consultants work remotely, the web-based tool is invaluable for ensuring that everyone has easy, convenient access to their timesheets. As a result, NuTekk has saved valuable data entry time with Web TimeSheet.
Accurate Client Billing and a Shortened Billing Cycle
Since implementing Web TimeSheet, NuTekk has saved significant invoicing time and sped up their billing cycle. [Replicon] has also eliminated client confusion regarding invoicing time, since all tasks within a project plan map to specific service categories, such as training, consulting, project management, etc. As a result, time entered against those tasks accurately reflects contracted services. Now, clients are able to take their invoices and match them to their contracts. Project managers have the visibility and data to explain and justify each charge.
Increased Employee Efficiency
Consultant and employee productivity levels have also increased since implementing Web TimeSheet. NuTekk can quickly determine which consultants aren’t performing and increase resource utilization appropriately to better deliver on their projects.
“Using Web TimeSheet, we are able to see in real time what work has been completed and what work is behind schedule. That is feedback that we never had before,” said Speary.
Better Project Tracking = Increased Project Profitability
By managing and tracking their projects through Web TimeSheet, NuTekk can keep track of project costs and see where their consultants’ time is really being spent. When consultants enter their time, it is fool-proof because they cannot enter time towards a task that has not been assigned to them, thus, eliminating errors.
By saving time with Web TimeSheet, NuTekk has improved customer service. Project managers can shift the focus to their clients, because they are spending less time on administrative tasks. “By having a standard place and format for reporting our project information, we have significantly improved the quality of our processes and deliverables,” stated Speary.
“Now, clients are able to take their invoices and match them to their contracts. Project managers have the visibility and data to explain and justify each charge. ”
The Results
- Eliminated client confusion regarding invoiced time
- Dramatically reduced billing preparation times
- Visibility into projects has reduced project risks
"Using Web TimeSheet, we are able to see in real time what work has been completed and what work is behind schedule. That is feedback that we never had before...By having a standard place and format for reporting our project information, we have significantly improved the quality of our processes and deliverables."
Paul Speary
Managing Director, NuTekk
