Operations management: 3 words for a vast program!
To run a successful agency or ESN, whether it has 20 or 100 employees, and whether it specializes in marketing, advertising or web development, effective operations management is a matter of life and death.
While some may see agency operations management as the equivalent of project management, it’s important to understand that, in reality, it boils down to delivering services in the most efficient way possible. In other words, successful operational management must have a positive impact on your company’s profitability. If it doesn’t, you’re doing something wrong.
As an end-to-end management tool, we’ve learned a thing or two about operations management, namely thatbusiness management software can dramatically improve your sales efficiency (but not only that!).
Scroll down to discover a detailed analysis of key roles and responsibilities, best practices and biggest risks in operations management. In short, how can you best manage your business and your teams?
Find out how COOs are using the power of Furious for sales, resource planning, project management, billing and reporting.
What does an operations manager do?
Operations managers generally have a degree from a leading business, management or engineering school. University training is also possible, with specializations in management, economics, marketing, law and so on. But roles and responsibilities vary according to the sector in which you work.
For example, if you work as an operations manager in a factory that produces pasta, you’ll probably be more concerned with the efficiency of your machines. A smaller part of your job will be to balance the workload of the plant’s workers.
So what does an operations manager do in an agency or consulting firm?
The short answer: it depends.
The long answer: your main mission will be to manage resource planning and organizational work, oversee the need for high-level profiles and communicate with the general and financial departments.
COO (Chief Operating Officer) is a key element in the company’s management. He or she also plays a vital role in human resources.
If you work in a larger structure, you’ll be working closely with project managers and account managers to ensure the success of projects by balancing workloads with skills, deadlines and budgets.
“Although the COO’s primary job is to support the company’s operational elements, he or she plays a cross-functional (managing several departments), strategic role and plays a full part in the structure’s development. That’s why the COO is always present on the CODIR and/or corporate management boards.”
Thomas DAVID, Chief Operating Officer at Sarawak
Is an agency operations manager a kind of project manager?
On a day-to-day basis, the Operations Manager is responsible for managing and improving the company’s overall efficiency. Here are some of his key roles and responsibilities:
- High-level resource planning and strategic resource management decisions.
- Development, implementation and review of operating procedures
- Close collaboration with project managers or account managers to oversee budgets, resource utilization, profitability and other key business performance indicators.
- Reporting to senior management
- Ensure that all employees keep track of their time spent
- Help the human resources team recruit and promote a culture that encourages top performance.
In addition, most operations managers will need a good mix of analytical and social skills, such as :
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
- Analytical skills to turn data into the right decisions
- The ability to remain calm and focused under pressure.
Let’s take a closer look at the most important activities:
1. Resource planning
As an operations manager, you can’t do quality resource planning without understanding the project requirements. You’ll work with project managers or account managers to determine who will work on which project and when. Project managers will decide on time estimates and assess team availability, while you will be responsible for moving resources from a higher level.
2. Monitor project progress
Even if operations management is not equivalent to project management, you’ll still need to check in regularly with project managers to answer the following questions: What are the ins and outs? What deliverables are due by when? Particular customer history? etc.
Essential when colleagues take unforeseen sick leave or ask for vacations. Or when the scope of a project changes, which also happens… #agencylife
3. Time and cost tracking
You sell time for money. Time management therefore also includes monitoring costs, i.e. supervising budgets with project managers. Are the resources you’ve chosen to work on this or that project performing well? How does this affect profitability?
Meeting deadlines is – by default – non-negotiable, although we all know how that often goes. To keep customers happy and projects profitable, it’s essential to monitor how the company’s time is spent.
4. Collaborate with HR on recruitment needs and leave management.
With regular tracking of time spent on each project, it’s much easier to collaborate with human resources and make hiring decisions based on hard data, especially if some projects require a lot of overtime from your employees.
5. Management reporting
Time tracking doesn’t just make hiring easier. Real-time data from time tracked regularly on the poles, as well as having your overheads and other expenses integrated into your profitability KPI’s… All this helps management to steer and anticipate. You’ll know when you need to invoice more, increase budgets or offer discounts to customers… And you’ll use historical data to improve the management of company operations in the future.
Again, the way you manage operations varies according to the size and type of company you work for. Likewise, the main tensions and challenges differ from agency to agency. Nevertheless, we’ve covered the three most common points.
Operations management - Best practices
1. Be honest with your employees and customers.
Set clear expectations for your employees and customers, and be realistic about deadlines. Before your company commits to a new project, be sure to allow for a buffer time. This will enable your teams to deliver quality work.
2. Ask your colleagues for regular updates on workload.
Get in touch with project managers and collaborators on a daily or weekly basis to monitor progress. And understand how resource planning can be optimized.
3. Take the time to audit
When it comes to operations management, it’s important to carry out regular audits after a project has been completed. And to take the time to improve organizational processes and procedures. What went well? What went wrong? What could have been done differently? It’s essential to take the time to measure what can be improved for next time.
Manage your operations with Furious
Let’s look at some aspects of operations management with Furious :
Business
With Furious, configure your sales funnel in stages. Add the probable amount per deal, weighting and other key information related to each new project or potential client. This gives the agency’s operations manager an idea of the resources to be allocated for the weeks and months ahead. And to plan synchronization meetings with business development.
Projects and Planning
With Furious’s Projects pipe, you can create as many workflows as you like. Organize your projects accordingly. Program the events to be attached, and you’ll be able to easily automate part of your business.
Furious also offers ToDo pipe creation. You can create a pipe for technical projects, another for communication projects, another for studies and so on.
You’ll also find real-time alerts for new tasks.
The three pillars of resource management in Furious are :
- Balance employees’ workloads and see in real time who has what availability over the coming days, weeks and months. Furious automatically alerts the people concerned in the event of overbooking on the profile or over-budget workload for the project.
- Anticipate needs in terms of skills, equipment or premises.
- Managing vacations
A large part of managing teammates’ schedules involves having a system for tracking and managing leave, or even telecommuting. Automatic manager alert, one-click validation.
Once leave or teleworking requests are approved in Furious, they are automatically integrated into the work schedule.
Decision-making dashboards
Furious cross-references data from various sources: salaries, overheads, time tracking, expenses, occupancy rates, budget, available skills, etc., to extract decision-making dashboards.
For operations management, you can use a predefined dashboard with the reporting widgets we’ve deemed most relevant. Or create your own customized dashboards with the parameters you require.
These dashboards can of course be shared, downloaded and printed 🙂
Automatic, recurring alerts are also available, to take even more of the mental load off your shoulders!
Billing
With Furious, there’s no need to copy and paste data from your business management tool to your billing software.
With Furious, you can generate invoices at the click of a button, automate dispatch and reminders, and eliminate the risk of human error in monthly invoicing.
We’ve already given you our tips on how to spend less time billing for time spent!
(And if you use a fee schedule template adapted to your business, it’s even faster!)
Increasing your company’s profit margins is just one of the many benefits of good operations management. With optimized planning and a clear view of needs and risks, you lay the foundations for better decision-making and thus a brighter future for your company.
Request a demo with the Success team and find out how to get the most out of Furious!
