For architecture and engineering firms it is difficult to protect margins. Some expected revenue gets lost in the project planning stage, compromising the profitability of future tasks. So what can we do to improve project planning and manage margins?

Top challenges

Many firms struggle to protect their margins; some of the main reasons are:

• Lack of visibility into information: some firms end up having more than three systems to manage projects.
• Inefficient or inaccurate tracking and reporting: leads to costly mistakes and overspending in unidentified places.
• Managing delivery to meet customer expectations: this becomes especially tricky when dealing with constant project scope changes.

Top performers in architecture and engineering industries rely on a combination of technologies and improved processes to deliver projects to deadline and below budget. At the same time, they have to manage back of house processes that are very time consuming.

Achieve the profitable project

There is plenty that can be done to manage margins successfully and make projects profitable:

• Strive for better visibility: the right people should have access to the right information at the right time in order to create an accurate plan. A centralised, integrated and consolidated system helps achieve the right information flow. It also helps businesses learn from previous projects and mistakes by having old projects easily archived and accessible.
• Keep track of finances: protect your margins by, first of all, knowing them. Then stick to budgets and timescales that have been correctly planned.
• Timely project delivery: with cross-departmental visibility, all employees are more likely to get involved, so project delivery is not just the firm’s or the project manager’s responsibility.

A successful project lifecycle should connect business development, project management and bookkeeping. M4D can help you improve your visibility and automate your firm’s admin with a single and unified business system. This will avoid future costly mistakes by improving your processes and planning.