Grant Thornton UK now uses Dayshape, AI-powered resource management software, across its audit & assurance, advisory, and tax service lines.
After successfully leading the change management project, Laura Brierley, Project Implementation Director and Head of Agile Talent, highlights the key impacts and benefits made from centralized resource management.
For more details on the firm's change management approach, click here.
Before implementing Dayshape in 2020, Grant Thornton UK was using legacy resource management software supplemented by spreadsheets across service lines. This decentralized approach to resourcing resulted in inconsistent resourcing processes and an inability to share resources across the firm.
“We had our previous solution for around 15 years, but it hadn't been actively managed as a product; meaning it hadn't been enhanced and there were few efforts to engage with us to help us get more out of the tool."
Key objectives:
Grant Thornton UK's key objectives made it clear that the firm was looking for an advanced resource management solution with AI capabilities. After thoroughly researching the market, Dayshape was selected to deliver the firm's centralized resource management goal.
"One of the key things we wanted out of the project was a future-fit system, not just a system for now, and Dayshape offered that with advanced AI functionality."
Previously, resources were not shared regularly or efficiently between locations and service lines.
With Dayshape, Grant Thornton UK can objectively outline to teams why somebody is allocated, taking away any subjectivity. A lot of this is margin or risk related, taken from the firm's set criteria and benchmarks within Dayshape. This allows the firm to show the commercials or risk profile of the client is considered in resourcing decisions, making them challenging to dispute.
Grant Thornton UK were ahead of the curve when the pandemic triggered remote working. The firm already had the technology and processes in place and the firm's people quickly saw the benefits of working in the same way, having access to the same information in one resource management system, and sharing resources objectively across the whole of the firm.
"We wouldn't have been able to get through the pandemic the way we did if we weren't working on a national basis with Dayshape. Having everyone working in the same way allowed us to tap into our international member firm network and quickly mobilize remote support because we could see in our Dayshape overview exactly how much additional capacity we needed and for how long."
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A part of Grant Thornton UK's practice previously used a traffic light system for individuals to indicate whether they were busy using a self-assessment of red, amber, or green.
Laura noted: "One of the challenges for teams who hadn't really used a resourcing tool much previously, was an underlying sense of apprehension regarding how the data would be used and the impact on themselves and their teams."
"It was important for us to communicate that using Dayshape helps to drive positive action, not catch people out. The utilization metrics allow us to ensure fairness, provide better people experiences, and support the firm's financial performance."
With clear visibility of utilization, the firm can ensure that high performers are not overloaded by proactively redistributing work to other team members when flagged. This helps to retain the best people and provide more opportunities to those who may not be as confident to put themselves forward.
"People generally stay at Grant Thornton UK because of the culture and how much freedom people have when it comes to how and where they work. Dayshape's software has allowed us to enhance this part of our culture even more."
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Grant Thornton UK's previous resource management software was completely standalone with large administrative efforts needed to keep it updated with the latest information.
"We were previously doing a lot of double keying into multiple systems. This was highly frustrating and distracted from client delivery as well as more interesting development opportunities."
Laura notes: "One of the key reasons why teams want to move to Dayshape is that all holidays are approved in one system, automatically creating a leave booking in Dayshape to show their unavailability. Having that visibility of who's available and who isn't is a key selling point and removes the need for us to go into our HR system."
"From a user experience and therefore adoption point of view, it's been critical that we've been able to demonstrate that with Dayshape we're taking away double keying where we can and instead providing a single source of truth by integrating with other systems and bringing in information which is relevant to resourcing such as leave and study."
A key objective for Grant Thornton UK was to drive more value from engagements. Notably, this can be particularly challenging when expectations change for reasons such as adjustments to the scope during an engagement.
Grant Thornton UK's central team have access to actual timesheet data in Dayshape integrated from the firm's finance system. This enables comparisons of actual time spent to present budget as well as preset thresholds for items such as margin. This accurate, real-time data can then be highlighted to engagement leaders responsible for signing off budgets to redress issues.
"Part of the reason we picked Dayshape was the economics, being able to track actuals vs budget enables the business to have the data to hand to ensure value is obtained for our team's hard work."
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Laura shares: "Reports in our legacy solution were challenging as the tool wasn't integrated so the data quality was wholly dependent on whomever was entering the data and managing it manually."
Cautious not to transition lots of historical and potentially poor-quality data into a new tool, the firm chose to transfer only one year's worth of data into Dayshape.
Laura shares: "We wanted to ensure we started with complete and accurate data to match the quality of data we'd have with Dayshape going forward."
Previously, teams within Grant Thornton UK would request extra capacity but they would be unable to evidence the need for their request based on utilization from timesheets alone, as these didn't capture all other activities being carried out in sufficient detail.
"With Dayshape's reporting, we now have accurate and complete data from all teams which is hugely beneficial, and we can be a lot more proactive as a result."
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"I would recommend Dayshape and have done to several firms. Working in partnership with Dayshape has been great and mutually beneficial."
"From a resource management maturity point of view, we'll continue to enhance and evolve how we use Dayshape to further benefit from the solution. We'll start to leverage the next level of AI scheduling, Advise, which will take time but considering the progress already made, and Dayshape's support, we're confident that we'll get there."
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