Mekko Graphics-Based Professional Services Dashboard

David GoldsteinJanuary 2013

Purpose of this Presentation

• The following slides are a sample of a weekly dashboard that a professional services firm can use to track its performance.

• The dashboard was created by extracting data from our time management and CRM systems, analyzing it using Excel PivotTables, and presenting it in PowerPoint.

• The data are disguised and are based on a company with about 50 billable consultants.

• The charts are described in several blog posts in: http://www.mekkographics.com/category/charting-strategy/

Notes on Consulting Process

• Each consultant enters timesheet information weekly.• Management forecasts hours for each consultant by project for the

upcoming four weeks.• The sales team divides opportunities into fours phases. We assign dollar

values to opportunities in the last three (need identified, pre-proposal and proposal) and track these.

• When a project is started we add its estimated hours to our backlog and deduct from this as we complete work.

• From a technical perspective, data were collected using:– Microsoft CRM to track opportunities– Edison’s Attic’s Bigtime for project and time tracking– A home grown Excel macro to extract data from CRM and Bigtime’s SQL Server

databases and populate Excel PivotTables

1,000

1,100

1,200

1,300

1,400

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85%Billable Hours

8/17

1,257

8/24

1,348

8/31

1,296

9/7

1,392

9/14

1,387

9/21

1,354

9/28

1,370

10/5

1,411

63% 68% 69% 71%67% 65% 87% 69%Utilization

Utilization

Breakeven

Target

Breakeven

Target

Utilization

Utilization and Hours Worked

actual budget

Utilization is a good indicator of profitability. We compute it by dividing billable hours by available hours. We also include billable hours in the graph to tie this graph to upcoming graphs and so that employees can see the relationship between the two variables.

Consulting Hours by Client

actual budgetWith this 100% stacked bar, you can quickly see what percentage of your business comes from your biggest clients and how this is trending over a two month period.

0

20

40

60

80

100%

8/17

1,257

8/24

1,348

8/31

1,392

9/7

1,392

9/14

1,387

9/21

1,354

9/28

1,370

10/5

1,411

Large ASP

Regional Law Firm

Global Conglomerate

National Energy

Local Hospital

Global Consumer Products

Local Bank

Regional Telecom

Private Equity

Boutique Retailer

High Tech Mfr

National Cable

Consulting Hours by Project Week of 9/7 Actual

This marimekko chart provides information on the mix of clients and projects from the previous week. It can identify if we’re spread too thin or are overly dependent on large projects of clients.

0

20

40

60

80

100%

Large CPG

KM System246.0

ProcessAutomation

65.0

Office Productivity10.0

321

Regional Telecom

FormsManagement

263.0

263

NationalEnergy

CompliancePortal187.0

187

GlobalConglomerate

BIDashboard

95.0

Intranet86.0

181

PrivateEquity

DealTracking

143.0

143

LocalHospital

BIDashboard

72.0

Extranet26.0

98

Other

Local Bank:Process

Mgmt 40.0

Boutique Retailer: Sw Eval 0.5

NationalCable:

EnterpriseSearch71.0

LargeASP:

Workflow87.0

199 Total = 1,392

Billable Hours by Project Actual Versus Budget Week of 9/7

Row Labels ACTUAL BUDGET VarianceLocal Hospital: BI Dashboard 72 24 48Local Hospital: Extranet 26 83 -57Large CPG: KM System 246 252 -6Large CPG: Process Automation 65 81 -16Large CPG: Offi ce Productivity 10 0 10Local Bank: Process MGmt 40 68 -28Regional Telecom: Forms Management 263 223 40Private Equity: Deal Tracking 143 127 16Boutique Retailer: Sw Eval 0.5 0 0.5National Cable: Enterprise Search 71 73 -2Large ASP: Workflow 87 84 3Global Conglomerate: BI Dashboard 95 109 -14Global Conglomerate: Intranet 86 62 24National Energy: Compliance Portal 187 183 4Grand Total 1391.5 1369 22.5

We use the stop lights in Excel to highlight differences between actual and budget for the previous week. This is a good check on our estimation process and it helps identify projects that could be behind or could go over budget.

Consulting Hours by Project Budgeted for Week of 9/14

Like the previous marimekko chart, this chart displays project/client mix. In this instance for the upcoming week.

0

20

40

60

80

100%

Large CPG

KM System 287

Process Automation 65

Office Productivity 46

398

RegionalTelecom

FormsManagement

201

201

Private Equity

Deal Tracking187

187

NationalEnergy

CompliancePortal 176

176

GlobalConglomerate

BIDashboard

90

Intranet20

110

Other

Local Hospital: BIDashboard 71

Local Bank: ProcessMgmt 65

Boutique Retailer: SwEval 32

National Cable:Enterprise Search 82

Large ASP: Workflow 65

315 Total = 1,387

0

20

40

60

80

100%

Backlog

Consulting Graphics1,667.5

Financial Reporting1,288.0

Tech Office Auto 218.0Pharma SharePoint 200.0

Tech Slide Tool 191.5

Bain & Company:MCM 129.0Bank Portals 94.0

Projects Under 80 Hours 325.5

4,571

Projects Under 80 Hours Backlog

Pharma Extranet 63.0

Pharma Request forPublic Disclosure 55.5

Financial MOSS Review55.0

Tech MOSS 2007Consulting 45.5

Consulting BCX 40.0

Workflow & Document Reposit 21.5

SharePoint Intranet Phase 2 17.0Portals:CBR-Treasury 16.0

326

Consulting Backlog By Project in Hours

The 100% stacked bar provides a summary of backlog by project. The second bar is an explosion of the data for our smaller projects.

Sales Pipeline as of 9/14

The Marimekko chart captures the each significant project in the pipeline, organized by stage. You can see the relative importance of both individual projects and the stage itself.

0

20

40

60

80

100%

Need Identified

BVPS $15,000

Pharma BI $10,000

Apex PartnersSharePoint Consulting

$25,000

J ames I ntl ProjectServer/ Sharepoint I ntegration

$15,000

MOSS intranet$40,000

Pine Street I nn - CompliancePortal Pilot $10,000

SDMC MOSS miscassists $14,000

Health - QDS Survey integration$6,000

WellPet SharePointportal $20,000

$155,000

Pre-Proposal

PJ 's follow up $300,000

Life Sciences - Sharepoint planning $25,000

Long River SharePoint Consulting $20,000College - custom dev web app (SQL) $12,500

MOSS architecture $10,000Vistaview -- SharePoint consulting services $7,000

$374,500

Proposal

Caprio MOSS 2007 consulting$17,500

SDPS / BVPS perf mgt 360 feedback solution $4,000

Micropower - SharePoint Work $5,000

Healthcare - - DACC ClinicianInfo Repository $100,000

ANC - - SharePoint consulting $12,000

Inventive -- WSS tuning $5,000

API Enhacements $10,000 Compliance Portal $10,000

Non-profit - SharePoint InfoArchitecture $41,500

$205,000 Total = $734,500