What is resourcing and why does it matter to creative agencies?
Let’s say your client asks for an exhibition stand to be designed and built. You’ve got to find, budget for and manage the team that will physically build the exhibition, the creative who will design the concept and the physical products you’re going to use (walls, floor etc.).
Resourcing and budgeting are two practices that need to be carried out in conjunction with one another to achieve your creative endeavour with the best speed efficiency and minimal cost. It is important that while you are selecting available resources, you are also assessing the impact on your budget of the resources allocated. To properly carry out this process you will need:
A resource plan that accurately predicts the resourcing requirement (which people and products are needed) for different tasks and for how long.
The ability to choose from available resources while at the same time assessing how skilled or suitable for the task a specific person is.
Information on the cost and impact on your budget of selecting your potential resources regardless of how suitable or skilled they might be.
For example, there are two creative exhibition designers in your agency.
Designer 1 is highly skilled and experienced; the job would take her 2 hours and she charges £50/hr, her total cost would be £100. She is available on Tuesday and Thursday. Designer 2 is less experienced, so the job would take him 5 hours, he charges £35/hr costing a total of £175 and is available on Monday and Tuesday. Designer 1 may be more expensive but she’s also faster making her overall cost, efficiency and speed the most optimal.
However, let’s say you’ve also got two exhibition building suppliers, you do the same calculations and find out that Builder 2 is more cost effective than Builder 1. Unfortunately, because of previous time commitments, Builder 2 needs the design by Monday evening, whereas Builder 1 would be happy to wait until Thursday evening. To get Builder 2, you would need to use Designer 2 due to the time constraint.
Scenarios like the one above can arise at creative agencies during the resourcing stage of a project. However, it’s better that these complications are caught and planned for at the beginning of the planning process, rather than during your project. Resource planning is important for creative agencies because it helps to optimise the allocation of resources increasing efficiency and control throughout the entire agency and on every project.
With the right resourcing system in place, such as event budget management software, agencies are aware of how their resources are allocated and what impact that’s having on the budget.
What does resourcing software for creative agencies look like and how does it work?
Procim provides several tools which enhance a company’s ability to effectively resource. All resourcing is rooted in the budget, so implementing Procim connects your entire work structure.
Resource Plan
The resource plan is a quick and easy way to distribute time amongst job roles and personnel. It is available from within the budget plan, making the first step towards resourcing very accessible.
Project Activity Planner
Procim pulls information from the financial budget into a project planner. You can create a detailed operational plan of each event from a system that is secure and easy to use. Managing your project timeline and breaking down a resource schedule are easy from this visual tool.
Time Board
The Project Activity Planner integrates with our mobile timesheet WebApp. When a resource (person) is assigned to a task, the booking will appear in their timesheet app. Similarly, they can submit actions as and when they complete them, so that timesheets are always up to date and costs are managed and controlled.
Personnel Availability
Procim clearly displays upon request who is available, and when. The system prevents users from making common mistakes, such as allocating a person for too many working hours in a day or booking a resource into conflicting time slots.
When building a budget, you can assign job roles to line items and allocate people to those job roles in the Project Activity Planner, an inbuilt tool that secures, simplifies and controls the process of assigning people to tasks.
The features in resourcing software for creative agencies ensure you won’t hire an external contractor when internal team members are available, this clear view of employee availability often lowers time costs. On the other hand, it will also ensure you’re aware well in advance if you do need to hire an external freelancer, so that you’re in a great position to hire the best person before their availability becomes limited.
Rate cards
Procim provides inbuilt internal and external rate cards. There are three available settings that can be applied to line items when building a budget in Procim; an internal employee, an external contractor or freelancer, or an object/item (external third party cost). Separating these three into distinct categories ensures costs are controlled and understood from pitch to reconciliation. During implementation, Procim users set up a range of rate cards for each category. This optimises resourcing because the data is readily available, so users don’t have to waste their time gathering information on how much each resource costs. All commonly used company resources, whether internal or external, will be displayed when users build a budget, along with any available pricing information.
Reporting
How is your resourcing working out? Are mistakes often made? Is money being lost? Is one freelancer turning pitches around much quicker than another? Are assumptions you previously made about the speediness of an internal employee wrong? With integrated time tracking and cost control features, resourcing software for creative agencies can create a wealth of reports that ensure each project is run more effectively than the last. Procim ensures your resourcing comes from an informed place of historic data, accurate reports and inbuilt security measures.
To find out more about the ways in which Procim controls and optimises the role of resourcing in creative agencies, book a commitment free demo.