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Progressus PSA:A New Model for Professional Services Automation

The Story of Progressus PSAAs a small-to-midsize professional services firm or other project-based business, you are continuously striving to maximize utilization, deliver your projects on time and on budget, and optimize your project portfolio. To improve performance in these areas, you invest in professional services automation (PSA) technology to improve employee productivity, streamline operations, improve sales, marketing, and customer engagement – all to get better insights into the business to drive continued improvements.

But do you have the right PSA technology for your business?

At Progressus, we believe a PSA system must provide the power to act as THE central business application for a project-based business. It should provide productivity tools and process automation capabilities, plus the visibility and business insights to improve the performance of staff, leaders, and the organization as whole.

There are certainly other PSA solutions on the market, but Progressus PSA is the only one that combines PSA, CRM, ERP, analytics, collaboration,

and productivity in one completely cloud-based tool. Built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and native to the Microsoft Intelligent Cloud, it is the most cost-effective platform for small and medium businesses. Easy to deploy, simple to configure and manage, and unique in how it can virtually eliminate the cost and complexity of deployment and integration, Progressus PSA – simply put – is the right PSA technology for your business.

What Should You Be Looking for in a PSA?There are hundreds of PSA solutions on the market, with a huge variance in breadth and depth of their capabilities. When investigating and evaluating PSA solutions, you’ll want to look for the ability to deliver on the promise of the following:

1. Scalability

2. Build for the Cloud

3. End-to-End Business Process Support

4. Simple Integration

5. Visibility and Insight

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The most popular PSA solutions are the classic legacy software packages. Many of these solutions do provide strong functionality, but are expensive and require significant up-front, capital investment. These legacy solutions were designed in the pre-cloud era and often contain older code, configuration, customization, and remote access – meaning you are not getting the latest and greatest that technology can offer your firm. Integration of these systems is costly and complex, and ongoing support costs tend to run high, as well.

The market is trending toward “true cloud” solutions and cutting-edge firms are quickly adopting this approach. The term “true cloud” refers to modern PSA solutions architected ground-up for the cloud. This means that these solutions are built in the cloud, made to be used in the cloud, and integrated with your other cloud solutions such as Microsoft Office 365. Don’t be fooled – many legacy software providers offer what they refer to as cloud solutions, which are, in reality, the same base software hosted in a dedicated cloud and billed monthly as software-as-a-service. True cloud solutions leverage modern cloud architecture to be faster and easier to deploy, configure, integrate and scale.

There generally are four different categories of true cloud PSA solutions:

1. Pure PSA – This class of solutions provides robust tools for project management and project accounting, with the promise of simple integration to other CRM and GL accounting systems.

2. More PSA – These solutions add general ledger accounting to the project capabilities offered by Pure PSA players and can be a fit for firms with limited GL requirements and a willingness to integrate to a CRM system.

3. End-to-End Professional Services – This approach gives you all the capabilities needed for pure professional services firms, like management consulting, public relations, or accounting, where all revenue comes from services.

4. End-to-End PSA with Full ERP – These solutions provide the end-to-end PSA tools needed for a professional services firm while also being able to manage products or materials. Solutions like this integrate professional services tools with financial management, project management and accounting, CRM, and manufacturing and supply chain.

The Progressus PSA SolutionIn designing Progressus PSA, our goal was to arrive as one of the few true, modern solutions that deliver on scalability, native cloud architecture, end-to-end support, simple integration, and visibility and insights…and then go further.

Progressus PSA gives firms the power to maximize utilization, deliver great projects on time and on budget, and optimize the project portfolio. Beyond projects, Progressus PSA provides the tools and insights needed to drive excellence in strategic planning, sales and marketing, operations, finance, and administration and deliver the best customer experience possible.

Built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and native to the Microsoft Intelligent Cloud, Progressus PSA is the most cost-effective platform for small and medium businesses. It is easy to deploy, simple to configure and manage, and unique in how it can virtually eliminate the cost and complexity of deployment and integration.

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Standing Out From The Crowd: The Power of P3

There are three pillars upon which Progressus PSA stands and which lift us above other PSA products on the market: People-Centricity, Process Power, and Power of the Platform. What we call “The Power of P3” generates increased performance for your professional services firm.

People-CentricityWith almost 80% of the professional services cost structure predicated on people, it is imperative that firms utilize their employees to their fullest capacity. While PSA solutions have the greatest impact on billable resources, the effect on non-billable resources is also significant. Non-billable personnel support strategy, sales and marketing, operations, recruiting, quality management, finance, and administration. These individuals must have the tools to understand, support, and improve the delivery of high-quality services.

With that in mind, Progressus PSA is built for the people who use it every day. It is designed for Microsoft Office 365 and the tools your employees know. It allows users to work from wherever they are, whenever, and on any device and to tailor their work experience to fit their individual or team needs, including creating automated workflows to help them be more productive with their time.

Designed for Microsoft Office 365 Progressus PSA uses familiar Office 365 tools to allow employees to work together and connect with colleagues and customers. They can create professional-looking business documents using customizable Microsoft Word templates; easily export and update data in Microsoft Excel; and shorten the time from quote to cash by setting up customers or vendors, creating quotes, submitting time and expenses, and submitting invoices without leaving Outlook.

Don’t make your people learn new software – give them the power to boost productivity with familiar tools they already use.

Work from anywhere, on any device. Progressus PSA provides the same consistent and secure experience whether on a desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone. You and your team can access client information, review project and financial status, approve time and expenses, and manage project budgets—wherever business takes you.

Role-based access through Outlook, web browser, or mobile apps.Role centers provide quick access to your most important tasks and display various insights and key performance indicators (KPIs) about your work. Create new or leverage existing roles centers, including those for Project Executives, Project Managers, Line Managers, Accounting, and Time and Expense Entry.

Tailor your work experience.Not only can you choose whether to work through Outlook or the app, you also can customize, or personalize, your workspace to suit your work and preferences. You can change pages so that they display only the information you need, where you need it; you can add, move, or remove most page elements, including parts, tiles, fields, or columns in a list.

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Create your own automated workflowsImprove productivity and get more done with easy-to-create and personalized workflows, audit trails, and enterprise-level security. Built-in workflow templates can be easily modified within the application. Microsoft Flow allows you to extend your workflows through and beyond Office 365, Dynamics 365, and Azure.

Process Power: End-to-End/365Progressus PSA is the only solution with End-to-End/365 business process support. Progressus encompasses business management functionality (including core financials and CRM), business intelligence and analytics, collaboration capabilities, and productivity tools and provides you with unparalleled levels of process optimization, control, and insight across your business. You can automate any process without fear and have as much or as little visibility as you would like.

Beyond servicesProgressus PSA provides complete ERP capabilities, including enterprise-class Supply Chain,

Manufacturing, and Service Order management capabilities.

Automate any processesYour automated processes can incorporate and seamlessly flow across CRM, ERP, and PSA functionality, business intelligence and analytics, collaboration and communication capabilities, and personal productivity tools.

Optimized visibility - a true “Level 5” solutionThe highest level of business process maturity is “Level 5: Optimized,” where core applications and services are integrated to efficiently surface and report data, to enable continuous measurement and transformation of the business. Progressus PSA is the only unified system for small and mid-sized businesses that can give you the power to automate processes and provide the real-time information within and across business functions you need to achieve and maintain a Level 5 organization.

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Power of the PlatformMicrosoft tools and technology are widely used in the industry and people who work in the industry – from line staff to administrative folks, executives, and IT Teams - find these tools familiar and comfortable to use and support.

Think about the productivity tools you use every day: Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Microsoft Office 365. Microsoft is also the leader in collaboration (Skype for Business), knowledge management (SharePoint), and business intelligence (PowerBI).

Progressus PSA is approved by Microsoft and directly integrates with the Microsoft tools you use every day. With a familiar user interface and extended Microsoft tools capabilities, Progressus PSA allows employees to quickly adapt and instantly become more productive.

Progressus PSA is built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and native to the Microsoft Intelligent Cloud, the most cost-effective platform for small and medium businesses. It is easy to deploy, simple to configure and manage, and unique in how it can virtually eliminate the cost and complexity of deployment and integration.

The Microsoft Intelligent CloudThe Microsoft Intelligent Cloud is built on Microsoft Azure and encompasses Microsoft Services

including Office 365, Dynamics 365, PowerBI, Flow, and PowerApps, plus AppSource, an ecosystem of approved and certified add-ons and applications.

Multi-language, multi-currencyThe platform can support your business operations locally and globally, regardless of your geography.

Secure, private, and compliantThe Microsoft Intelligent Cloud is an energy-efficient infrastructure spanning more than 100 highly secure facilities worldwide, linked by one of the largest networks on earth. Microsoft leads the industry in establishing clear security and privacy requirements and then consistently meeting these requirements. Azure meets a broad set of international and industry-specific compliance standards, such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), ISO 27001, HIPAA, FedRAMP, SOC 1 and SOC 2, as well as country-specific standards, including Australia IRAP, UK G-Cloud, and Singapore MTCS. Rigorous third-party audits, such as those done by the British Standards Institute, verify Azure’s adherence to the strict security controls these standards mandate.

Native interoperabilityNative interoperability between CRM, ERP, and PSA functionality, Microsoft PowerBI, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Office 365 plus other Dynamics 365 and Azure-hosted applications means processes and data can flow through all apps and services with no coding or complex integration. The platform’s Common Data Service is an Azure–based business application platform that does the heavy lifting of bringing together your data, so you can simply deliver insights and process automation that matter to you. Integration beyond the Microsoft Intelligent Cloud is simple through easy to use, standard technologies like Microsoft Flow, Azure Logic Apps, and RESTful Web Services.

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Modular and ExtensibleStart with what you need and grow at your own pace to run your entire business in the cloud. You can add additional Microsoft Dynamics 365 apps for more comprehensive sales, marketing, customer service, field service, or talent capabilities and leverage pre-built applications through Microsoft AppSource, Microsoft’s online marketplace for cloud business apps where the largest community of developers continues to extend the platform with new industry and business functionality. You can use Power Apps and Microsoft Flow to compose new applications and simply extend existing business processes, or leverage Extensions 2.0 to develop more specialized or advanced functionality.

Progressus PSA has one cloud, one security model, one data model, and a common user interface for all your business and productivity applications.

Progressus FunctionalityIn developing Progressus PSA, we wanted to ensure we provided technology and capabilities to help address the most common challenges faced by emerging professional service firms and project-based businesses. These include:

■■ Managing product costs and margins■■ Timely billing and timesheets■■ Resource allocation and availability■■ Aligning sales and marketing to customer

activities■■ Tracking material costs to projects■■ Visibility into performance of entire project

portfolio■■ Forecasting cash flow and other key metrics■■ Inefficient, disconnected systems

Here are the assorted ways we do so:

Project Setup:■■ Project Setup Wizard■■ Pre-activities■■ Group Projects■■ Customizable Dimensions■■ Activity Templates■■ Flexible Project and Task Structure■■ Task Dependencies■■ Pricing Discounts

Project Budgeting:■■ Budget Matrix■■ Resource and Scenario-based Budgeting with

Excel Integration■■ Flexible Forecasting■■ Integration to Quotes■■ Unlimited Budget Revisions

Billing:■■ Customize Invoices with Microsoft Word■■ Flexible Invoicing■■ Milestone Billing■■ Multiple Rate Structures

Time and Expense Tracking:■■ Multiple Levels of Approval■■ Time Entry with Overtime Tracking■■ Standard and Actual Labor Costing

Revenue Recognition:■■ Compliant with Current Accounting Standards■■ Multiple Revenue Recognition Options

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Analytics:■■ Customizable, Role-based Dashboards■■ Advanced Forecasting■■ Project Analytics■■ Resource Analytics

Financial Management:■■ Basic General Ledger■■ Budgets■■ Deferrals■■ Basic fixed assets■■ Basic Receivables■■ Audit Trails■■ Bank account management■■ Reconciliation■■ Dimensions■■ Currencies

Customer Relationship Management:■■ Contacts■■ Campaigns■■ Opportunity management■■ Enhanced CRM with Dynamics 365 for Sales

and Service

Service Order Management:■■ Service Orders■■ Service Price Management■■ Service Contract Management■■ Planning■■ Dispatching■■ Advanced Functionality through Dynamics 365

for Field Service

Supply Chain Management:■■ Sales Order Management■■ Purchase Order Management

■■ Locations■■ Item Transfers■■ Warehouse Management■■ Assembly Management

Manufacturing:■■ Production Orders■■ Version Management■■ Agile Manufacturing■■ Supply Planning■■ Demand Forecasting■■ Capacity Planning■■ Machine Centers■■ Finite Loading■■ Subcontracting

The People Behind ProgressusProgressus PSA was created by Plumbline Consulting, the leader in developing Microsoft-based solutions for professional services firms and project-based businesses for over 20 years. Over the years, we’ve delivered thousands of business management solutions for customers in just about any industry you can think of with project management or project accounting needs. Progressus PSA was built on the wealth of knowledge that can only come from the experience of working with such a large, broad, and diverse set of industry customers.

Plumbline Consulting brings a unique mix of experience and knowledge about Microsoft Cloud and technical expertise to develop business applications for it. Our team is a mix of industry veterans, many of whom spent years working for Microsoft developing and supporting Microsoft Dynamics SL, Microsoft’s original ERP solution for project-based businesses, and a new generation of cloud-first solution architects and developers, certified by Microsoft for expertise in ERP, CRM, and Cloud.

8© 2018 Velosio, LLC. 2018CORPXXX

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Progressus was created by Plumbline Consulting, the leader in developing Microsoft-based solutions for professional services firms and project-based businesses for over 20 years. Over the years, we’ve delivered thousands of business management solutions to customers in just about any industry you can think of with project management or project accounting needs. Progressus PSA was built on the wealth of knowledge that can only come from the experience of working with such a large, broad and diverse set of industry customers.

© 2018 Velosio, LLC v1

Take the first step! We can help assess whether Progressus PSA can help you take your business from where it is now to where you want it to be. Learn more: https://progressussoftware.com

Progressus PSA and Microsoft have a special relationship, beyond the fact that many former Microsoft people are on the Progressus team. Progressus PSA was conceived and planned in conjunction with Microsoft business application leaders who recognized the need for a complete business solution to support professional services firms and project-based businesses and wanted a trusted partner to develop it. We worked in conjunction with Microsoft from conception through launch, where we were the first complete industry application for SMB customers listed on Microsoft AppSource and remain the most robust application on AppSource in our category. We’ve continued our joint innovation with Microsoft as a launch partner for Dynamics 365 Business Central and our active participation in both the “build-with” and “go-to-market” stages of partner programs.

Conclusion

The Power of P3 = PerformanceUltimately, the combination of the three Ps -- people-centricity, process, and platform -- is more than the sum of its parts. The three Ps combine to equate increased performance for professional services firms: More productive employees, better project management and tracking, increased capabilities, and happier clients, all leading to increased profits for your professional services firm. Progressus PSA’s integration with familiar Microsoft tools and being built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and native to one of the leading cloud services in the industry (Microsoft intelligent Cloud) makes this solution one-of-a-kind and unmatched in today’s market. Simply put, Progressus PSA is the perfect End-to-End PSA for people who use Microsoft Office – a powerful solution with the interface and tools people know and love.