The Benefits of Outsourcing Project Scheduling
You want to bid for a contract but you need to show that you can create a top-grade integrated schedule… and you don’t know where to start.
Well, don’t let a lack of in-house project schedulers stop you from bidding for contracts you know you can deliver. If your business is the right fit for the work, schedule analysis, design and creation is the easy part!
You could recruit an experienced, competent Primavera P6 scheduler to sit alongside your team. But it can be tough to find skilled resources willing to take temporary roles for an individual contract.
You could train someone from your existing staff. But then you’d have to recruit to replace them, and you might not have anyone willing to shift from their role into the team’s scheduling expert anyway.
A better solution is to work with a professional partner that can build and maintain your project schedule for you. Yes, did you know you can outsource the whole of your project schedule? Expert contractors can even maintain the schedule when things change and create the reports for you, so you don’t need to worry about anything.
Not convinced yet? We think you will be! Here are 5 benefits of outsourcing project scheduling that could help your team win that contract.
1. Focus on what you are good at
You know how to deliver a great service to clients. If spending time wrangling with Primavera isn’t top of your team’s core competencies, then let them get on with excelling in other areas. They can focus on working on the project while we work our magic in the scheduling software.
Use your resources in the most appropriate way: there’s no need to train up staff when you only have a few projects a year that require this detailed level of project scheduling to assure compliance.
And speaking of compliance…
2. Achieve compliance easily
Does the contract require a compliant earned value management system? Don’t let that put you off moving forward with the bid. You can outsource creating a schedule to experts who can get it finished quickly and efficiently.
You’ll tick every box and meet every requirement because our experienced schedulers know exactly how to deliver compliant project controls using industry best practice techniques.
All the reports you need are created for you to forward on to the relevant parties, and we’ll maintain the schedule so it’s always up to date.
3. Improve project success rates
OK, let’s be realistic for a moment. Simply having a great schedule isn’t going to improve your project success rates. A schedule is just a list of tasks and dates, with people’s names written against them. At its most basic, it’s a guide for what work needs to happen. You then have to do the work that is documented in the schedule, and manage the activities appropriately.
However, managing the work, tracking progress and ensuring everything continues to plan is a lot easier when your schedule gives you the exact path to take. A quality schedule is more than a roadmap; it’s a detailed GPS that guides you every step of the way and highlights when you are off track.
Detailed schedule risk analysis also helps you achieve your goals, because you can predict problems before they happen and fix the root cause.
When your schedule is that good, you’ll be able to make better decisions because you’ll always have access to robust and professional scheduling information. Rather than spend a lot of time at the keyboard, let your experienced team get out and do their jobs while our schedulers create a plan that will let everyone hit the important dates.
4. Boost customer satisfaction
Your clients expect you to be able to keep control of the work and evidence that things are moving in the right direction. The questions we get asked the most are:
- How much will it cost?
and
- When will it be done?
That’s what customers really want to know, and a robust schedule will tell them that.
When you add expertise to your team in the form of professional scheduling partners, you can show clients you are using best-in-class scheduling techniques for better outcomes.
Trust us, they’ll be happy! And we all know it’s easier to work with supportive, engaged clients who are confident in your ability to get the project done.
5. Lower project costs
Your part in the project may only represent a single workstream or work package, but you can bet the overall program is an expensive business. Government contracts, for example, can reach into the billions of dollars. Every dollar needs to be earned and wasteful is discouraged.
A professionally-built and executed schedule can help lower project costs because you will be allocating resources efficiently. Plus, your in-house costs are lowered because there is no overhead for training your staff when you outsource scheduling to the experts. Scheduling goes from being a time-consuming overhead to something fast and accurate.
A turnkey scheduling solution gives you Primavera P6 experts on hand when you need them, without having to worry about recruitment fees, retention or maintaining expensive software.
Our highly skilled team has real world scheduling expertise and a thorough knowledge of both Primavera P6 Professional and Primavera P6 EPPM. We are available to join your project team at the planning stage to help turn your scope and other project documentation into WBS Dictionaries and a well thought-out Primavera P6 schedule.
Whether you need a construction schedule, a plan for a defense project, other federal departments, utilities, engineering or R&D schedules, we’ve worked with many of the top firms nationally so we know what compliance requirements to hit.
Are you ready to give outsourced project scheduling a go?