Overview

Every year SPI Research performs it's Professional Services (PS) Benchmark survey to get an understanding of the current state of the professional services industry. SPI Research's survey is different than many other PS benchmarks in that it collects extensive quantitative and qualitative information from the organizations that participate in the survey. As a result, SPI Research's benchmark contains perspectives that few other PS benchmarks are able to provide. From useful industry metrics like bill rates by title, expense ratios, profit margins, and other useful KPIs to macro trends affecting the PS industry, SPI Research's benchmark is a powerful planning and benchmarking tool for PS firms.

To help make it easier for organizations that use Projector to participate in this yearly benchmark we have put together a small reporting tool that is intended to expedite the process. This tool uses a series of Projector reports and Projector's reporting web services to extract and organize many of the financial and operational KPIs that the benchmark survey collects. This tool will be a great short cut for many organizations that use Projector to run their services firm. On this page we will explain how to use the tool and provide enough of an overview for you to determine if it will work well for your organization.

Step 1. Getting the SPI Benchmark Reporting Package

If you are reading this page it is likely because someone from Projector has contacted you and asked you to participate in the PS Benchmark Survey. The first step to utilizing this tool is to request a series of pre-built reports from your contact at Projector. If you're not sure who this is, please contact support@projectorpsa.com and we can get you setup with the right person.

Once the process has been started, Projector will import five pre-built reports to your installation of Projector. These reports will be hidden public reports. To run them, you will need to navigate to the reporting tab in the Management Portal, click on the "Show hidden report specs" check box in the top left corner, and look for the five reports that start with "SPI2014". Once located all you need to do is double click on each one and press run. Once they have been run they will be available for 7 days. If you plan on using the reporting package after the 7 day retention period, please run the reports again.

Step 2. Download the Reporting Package Excel Workbook

With all of the base reports run, the next step is to retrieve the Excel Workbook that is used to organize the data. The workbook can be downloaded from one of the links below (each link is configured for a different Projector server. If you don't know what server you are on, please ask your contact at Projector which one to download):

Important: Because this workbook uses relative table references, choose the "save as" option when downloading. Moving or copying the workbook will break all of the references. If you need to change where the workbook is stored on your computer, open it and choose the "save as" option and save it to the new location.

Step 3. Retrieving your Data

The Excel file you just downloaded uses Projector's reporting web services to extract information from Projector. To populate the workbook with your data, open it up, add your username, password, and account code to the login box on the first sheet and press the login button.

Once you press the login button the workbook will update it's data connections with the information you just added, import the information that is contained in the reports you ran in Projector, and then summarize and analyze the data in a series of pivot tables that are in each tab of the workbook.

Depending on the size of your organization this process could take some time. For smaller organizations it could take 2-3 minutes. For larger organizations it could be up to an hour. Make sure you are importing the data at a time when you can let Excel sit for a while as it completes its processes.

Once the data has been loaded press the log out button. This will clear your password from the login tab and remove it from all of the connections in the workbook. It is important to press the log out button before sharing this workbook with others or saving it on a file share. If you do not press the log out button your password could be saved and retrieved be others accessing the workbook.

Step 4. Using the Reporting Package to Complete the Survey

Each sheet in this reporting package is designed to give you information you can use to answer a survey question in SPI Research's PS Benchmark Survey. Keep in mind that this package is based on information from Projector. Because every organization uses Projector differently, you will need to apply some reason and analysis to this data. Each sheet will describe how to filter or analyze the data in it and have a summary of the assumptions that have been made.

When you are ready, you can start pulling information from this sheet to the PS Benchmark Survey. This workbook is intended to give you a baseline answer for most of the quantitative questions of the survey. We find that those are the questions that end to take the most effort to answer, so utilizing this reporting package should expedite the process greatly. Keep in mind that the survey asks for responses in US dollars. If your organization's currency is something other than US dollars you will need to convert financials accordingly.

Remember, feel free to complete as much, or as little of the survey as you feel comfortable.

Thank you for participating!

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