Professional services firms are always on the lookout for software solutions that can potentially transform their business, with resource allocation software being one of the most transformative investments many firms could make.

If you’re currently using Excel spreadsheets or manually juggling all of your projects, deadlines, and business obligations, it’s time to begin working the smart way and start saving time by utilizing a software application designed for resource allocation exclusively.

Your business can simplify your workflows and processes, and make life easier for all of your clients and your employees. Who doesn’t want to boost productivity and save time and money at the same time?

We’re going to cover resource allocation software in detail and explore how you can use resource allocation software suites for project management and resource management. We’re going to go over some of the best resource management software available on the market today, including the software applications provided by BigTime. The importance of resource scheduling cannot be overlooked, and by using resource scheduling software, going over a resource scheduling example, walking through the types of resource scheduling, and looking at resource management Smartsheet replacements, you'll be able to take your resource allocation to the next level.

Let’s dive in.

BigTime’s Resource Allocation Software

Whether your professional services firm is accountants, engineers, architects, contractors, or IT consultants, BigTime’s award-winning PSA software can help you amplify your productivity and increase your firm’s profitability.

In order to work most effectively, your business needs more than just a simple timesheet. If you can invest in a system that includes project management, resource management, financials, invoicing, and team communication, you can have an “all-in-one” dashboard that lets your business do every task without jumping between multiple platforms.

This is exactly what BigTime’s resource allocation software provides firms all around the world. You’ll be able to complete all of your projects with ease, see utilization reports, syndicate your budgets, and understand the availability of your staff with just the click of a button. When you have the right tools for the job, you can make your life infinitely easier.

Use the resource dashboard to assign tasks and projects to team members, customize your reports to see all of the data you wish, and organize all of your resources and data into a clear and concise system.

Resource Allocation Software Free

Is it worth getting resource allocation software free, and relying on free resources for your capacity planning software and resource planning online? We’d argue that when it comes to giving your professional services firm the best tools for the job, relying on limited free resource allocation software just won’t cut it. You can find a free resource planning template that suits your firm's needs online, but choosing to use free resource allocation software can expose your firm to some unwanted risks.

Award-winning paid resource allocation software solutions, such as BigTime’s software suite, let your business take advantage of all of the benefits without compromising on the quality and integrity of the software you use.

If you use a free solution, they often aren’t maintained or updated as frequently as paid solutions that have a team of developers working to fix bugs and make the software better. Furthermore, most free resource allocation software packages don’t have all of the features you can find in a paid software package. Having reliable resource planning software, even a cloud solution that lets you do resource planning online, cannot be overlooked. Even though you could find resource management software open source distributions, we highly recommend using a paid tool that's well maintained and bug-free.

If you want what’s best for your professional firm, take the time to look through paid solutions such as BigTime, and look at how much time and money premium resource allocation software can save you over time. When you do the math, you might be pleasantly surprised!

Resource Allocation Software Project Management

Premium resource allocation software like BigTime lets your firm keep all of your projects on track and get real, actionable insights into all of your current and future projects. We’re going to walk through several ways resource allocation software can benefit your project management, types of resource allocation in project management, resource allocation strategic management, resource allocation in project management, and why it’s worth investing in a software application that’s actively being used by firms all over the world. Efficiently performing resource allocation in project management environments can now be a simple instead of a tedious process, and seeing a resource allocation example may be beneficial.

Budget Planning

Instead of separating your budget planning from your project management, resource allocation software lets you combine both of these into one. When you use resource allocation software like BigTime for project management, you can streamline your invoicing, expenses, and time tracking. Using a proven software package like this allows you to compare your actual hours to projected budgets, set up custom tasks for every project you have, and keep track of purchase orders and budget on a granular level.

Gantt Charts

Gantt charts are the bread and butter of project management, letting you see your project’s timeline from start to finish. Quality resource allocation software lets you visualize all of your project’s timelines using Gantt charts, and understand what gaps there are in your timeline in order to optimize them further, or what a potential schedule delay can impact.

Bird’s-Eye View

When you use resource allocation software to empower your project managers, they’ll be able to have a bird's eye view of all of your project timelines and ensure that everything stays on time without any schedule delays. You can map out all of your company’s workflows, projects, and schedules and see progression in real-time. Track multiple projects simultaneously, and be more accurate in your estimates when it comes to timeframes and deliverables.

Resource Management Tools and Techniques

Resource management can be challenging when done manually, but fortunately, resource management tools can help your firm get the job done and save both time and money in the process. We’re going to explore how resource management tools can help your company, and the techniques you can use to make your day-to-day operations more efficient. The advantages of resource management are many, and we’ll walk through several of them here. Even though the resource management tools Excel provides can help some early-stage firms, using the best resource planning tools on the market can help you get the advantages of resource management quickly.

Optimal Scheduling

Over-scheduling and under-scheduling can be a real problem when it comes to juggling multiple resources and projects. Fortunately, when you use resource management tools such as BigTime, you can see which staff are available at what time, and ensure that you don’t over-allocate certain tasks or hours to one individual over another.

Your firm can prevent turnover, keep your employees happy, keep all of your staff engaged, and see all of your employee’s availability in real-time. There’s never been an easier way to optimize your resource management scheduling than there is when you use software to simplify your workflows.

Skills Matching

Each and every one of your firm’s projects requires a unique skill set for all of the roles of your team. Using BigTime’s resource management software, you can see all of your employee’s availability as well as their skills. Sort and filter your staff by their skillsets, and choose the ones that fit the project best. You’ll be able to set a rating for all of your staffers to see who is most proficient at which skill and make your resource allocation even simpler.

Real-Time Course Correction

Course correcting in real-time and making decisions based on the data your business is provided with is challenging to do in the real world. Oftentimes, businesses don’t course-correct early enough because they aren’t equipped with the data they need to make the corrections in the first place!

Resource management tools solve this problem for firms by giving detailed reporting options and data that shows you exactly where your business is at every step of the way. When you see breakdowns of data, staff utilization, and estimated resources with actuals, you can quickly make decisions that can positively impact your firm in the long run.

Best Resource Management Software

Finding the best resource management software has always been a challenge for firms that want to optimize their resource management workflows. In order to make the most out of the software you use, you have to ensure it has all of the features your business needs and matches your expectations.

BigTime has developed a resource allocation solution that lets your firm quickly perform resource scheduling and use data and reporting to make actionable decisions that can impact your business in the near term. Using software that makes your job easier is ideal, especially if your company has a significant number of projects and staffers that need to be allocated on a frequent basis. Imagine manually allocating dozens or hundreds of resources, and keeping track of all of that information on your own?

Consider using the best resource management software on the market to see all of your firm’s information on one centralized dashboard, and stop yourself from jumping between multiple platforms in order to make decisions and do your project management.

Resource management software for small businesses can also benefit smaller firms, especially if they’re currently lacking resource management tools that help them on a daily basis. We hope this guide has helped you better understand the value of resource management software, and why using premium tools can help your business make the most out of every day and empower your workers to be more productive. When you can allocate your staffers to projects and tasks that best match their skillsets and desired placements, you make everyone happy and boost morale.

Remember, resource management tools, as well as the resource management tools Excel provides, aren't nearly as effective as a professional resource management software suite.

If your firm is interested in resource allocation software that leads the industry and can simplify your day-to-day operations significantly, request a demo of BigTime’s software today and we’ll walk you through how it can help your firm.