Since, as a consulting business, you’re all about enabling the right moves for firms at the right time, you’re inevitably dealing not only with multiple clients but multiple stakeholders from each client at a time. So, when you take into consideration the different clients and projects, there is naturally the need for consulting management software that can help keep each engagement streamlined and cohesive.
Consulting firms leverage management software in two ways – firstly to streamline client communications, save time in administrative activities, and improve business processes; secondly to improve service delivery and outcomes.
In this blog post, we detail some key benefits of using consulting management software. Take a read:
1. Go from offline to online
A consulting business management software helps you go digital and better manage different engagements, while improving collaboration with client firms.
What’s more, software like Simply.Coach has inbuilt features like Journey that help you create a standardized framework of your methodologies to apply across engagements/clients instead of building from scratch, and then customize each engagement as needed.
2. Enhance customer relationships
Customer relationships are the bedrock of any consulting company. Consulting management software stores all your customer data in one place and helps you manage your customer engagements and relationships on a day-to-day basis. Most of them also offer integrations with other tools, so you can make the digital consulting experience seamless for clients, bringing convenience to their lives. Most of them also offer data-rich reports, which enable you to derive insights, figure out key challenges and help clients make informed decisions.
3. Increase efficiency and productivity
Project management software for consultants comes with tools that improve efficiency and productivity, for example by helping you digitize processes such as executing contracts, client allocation or scheduling that take an unnecessary amount of time to do manually. Most importantly, by maintaining the integrity of your methodologies, software can essentially take your business entirely online and streamline it, without changing too much of your operations.
4. Invoicing and payments
Creating and keeping track of invoices month on month for each client can get tricky and extremely time-consuming, and there’s often no way around it. With consulting management software, invoices can be automatically generated (and if they need to be accompanied by reports, those reports are automatically generated too) and sent to clients in a timely way, complete with payment reminders. Most software also offer integrations for online payment, such as with Stripe or Paypal, so you can collect payments in multiple currencies.
5. Marketing and growth
Like any other organization, firms can make the most of their marketing efforts by using consulting business management software. For instance, the email integration feature offered by Simply.Coach lets you schedule promotional emails and send them out in bulk via MailChimp, Constant Contact, etc. to your potential and existing clients.
Planning to digitize your consulting business?
This blog post lists down 8 must-have consulting software for your business!
How to choose the right management software
There’s a whole range of management software available in the market. If you are not sure what exactly your consulting firm needs, choosing the right one could prove to be an uphill battle. Here’s some criteria to get you started:
- Easy to navigate, use, integrate, and track progress
- Justifies the price with its functionalities
- Offers a free trial before you make the purchase
- Offers features that align with the requirements of your consulting firm
- Helps enhance efficiency and productivity by effectively streamlining the workflow
- Enhances team collaboration
Sources: Proofhub, Nifty, COR, Heeros
FAQs
1. Why should consultants use consulting management software?
Consulting firms leverage management software for communication with clients, to outsource time-consuming activities, improve their processes, and to manage service deliveries – all aimed at reducing cost and increasing efficiency. Generally, management software:
- Helps streamline workflows
- Improves customer relationships
- Enhances efficiency and productivity
- Helps scale the business
2. Which is the best management software for consultants?
Business management software is a great way to streamline business processes, digitize functions, collaborate efficiently within the organization and with the client, and eventually scale the business. Simply.Coach is one of the leading software for consultants as it combines the functionalities of multiple tools (from project management to invoicing) and offers integrations with tools such as Google/Outlook Calendar, Zoom, and so on.
About Simply.Coach
Simply.Coach is an enterprise-grade coaching software designed to be used by individual coaches and coaching businesses. Trusted by ICF-accredited and EMCC-credentialed coaches worldwide, Simply.Coach is on a mission to elevate the experience and process of coaching with technology-led tools and solutions.
Read More:
Business Consulting Software: Everything Consultants Need from Technology
3 Ways Consulting Businesses Should Be Protecting Client Data
5 Stress-Relieving Benefits of Automation for Consulting Companies
7 Benefits of Digitizing Your Consulting Business
6 Time-Consuming Coaching Business Processes to Automate for Efficiency
Content Specialist @Simply.Coach
Jayashree Mukherjee is a content specialist by day and a content junkie (on OTT) by night. Passionate about traveling, street food and overturning the underuse of em dashes — she would have been a globe-trotter if she hadn’t been so lazy.