Sometimes, being spoilt for choice isn't actually beneficial! So, we're helping you navigate through the best resource utilization tools to make an informed decision.
Both under- and over-utilization of people's time can spell long-term trouble for your business. Monitoring and maintaining an optimal utilization rate is one way to keep your business on track for high productivity and a sustainable future. But where do you start? Enter resource utilization tools.
Resource utilization software tracks time employees spend at work and on projects. Utilization rates are presented in a visual heatmap, showcasing the percentage of time staff registered on billable or non-billable work during a specific time frame. Usually, resource utilization tracking doesn't exist outside of your project, resource, or time tracking software and is the result of people logging time against projects or tasks.
Service businesses oftentimes have specific utilization targets, depending on the roles and the seasonality, setting the bar for optimum utilization rates. Resource utilization tools help business leads see if the targets are met and ensure optimal workload for employees. However, there are a few more strategic benefits you can expect when using utilization tools.
Resource utilization tools can help unlock organizational productivity, meet business goals, and retain top talent. Here’s a quick rundown of how they can assist you:
New to resource utilization? Check our guides here:
Capterra rating: 4.8 out of 5.
Pricing:
Free plan/trial: Free plan and 14-day free trial available.
Runn is a powerful resource management platform ideal for IT Services teams.
It lets you plan, track, and manage resources in real time with its skills and availability-based resource allocation and scheduling. Flexible reporting options allow you to keep tabs on utilization - both on the individual resource level, and utilization on a team level.
Capacity planning, budgeting, and forecasting features are also helpful. Users appreciate its ease of use, quick implementation, and the customer support team’s responsiveness.
This user summarizes it well, “[Runn] was so simple to implement, and it’s easy to use to track what projects our resources are working on now and in the future. It gives us a good view of our cross-project metrics. I can’t say enough about how customer support is very responsive to questions, issues, and feature requests.”
In terms of shortcomings, Runn doesn’t have a mobile app. So, if an app is something you can’t live without, you might want to look at other options.
Capterra rating: 4.6 out of 5
Pricing:
Free plan/trial: 14-day free trial available.
Productive.io is a robust, all-in-one project management software for marketing agencies and professional service businesses.
It gives you a simple CRM solution to manage your business pipeline. Once a lead converts into a client, Productive.io gives you the tools to convert it into a project within the project management space, you can then plan, manage, and bill projects as well as plan and track resource utilization.
Users appreciate Productive.io’s feature set, budget-friendliness, and its customer support team.
There are, however, a handful of complaints about its UI not being easily navigable. For example, one user noted, “The CRM is a bit basic. Notes and follow-ups could be more intuitive and organized. The navigation inside the app is not always clear and I found myself often searching for the way to get to where I need.”
Capterra rating: 4.4 out of 5.
Pricing: Custom pricing available upon request.
Free plan/trial: No
Retain is a cloud-based as well as on-premise resource planning software popular with accounting and auditing teams.
It offers all essential resource planning and optimization features (think: resource scheduling and allocation tools) with users loving the different types of views (table view and plan view, for example) available.
Users also appreciate the resource utilization data the software offers.
One user writes, “the ability to have a real-time view of the workforce provides critical actionable insight at a management level, whilst also assisting our team leaders in accurately managing existing deployments and planning for upcoming peak and troughs.”
There are, however, a few users who say the tool can sometimes be slow to use.
Capterra rating: 4.7 out 5.
Pricing:
Free plan/trial: 30-day free trial available.
Resource Guru is a helpful resource planning software for simple use cases.
It packs in crucial features for tracking, managing, and optimizing resource utilization. This includes features that let you set time zones for individuals, schedule repeat work, and make tentative bookings. It also gives you clash notifications when you assign work to folks who are already booked or unavailable.
Users, however, point out there are still some features missing. For instance, the ability to save frequently used templates and available status updates.
What’s more, Resource Guru’s base plan (Grasshopper) doesn’t offer a vital feature — that of (resource) reports. This is worth factoring in to make sure the software you choose to improve resource efficiency at your organization offers all essential features at a price that suits your budget.
Capterra rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Pricing:
Free plan/trial: 14-day free trial.
This resource management tool is ideal for creative and design agencies.
It gives you features like live insights on resources’ scheduled versus available hours, time tracking for estimated and actual project costs, and skills-based project/task resource allocation.
Float also makes it quick and easy for you to review your team’s capacity and utilization rate at a glance.
Users love its simple interface, easy-to-use integrations, and quick implementation. In terms of cons, folks typically say they’d appreciate a better view of one feature or another.
For example, one user shares, “The view can get really busy when looking at team schedules. It offers a lot of filtering, but the view cannot be changed to just one day.”
Another similar complaint reads, “I do wish daily totals were a bit easier to view from the main screen as well.”
Capterra rating: 4.3 out of 5.
Pricing: Gated pricing based on your team size, and time tracking and CRM tools you use.
Free plan/trial: None.
Parallax is another resource planning and management software for small agencies.
It offers features that make it easy for agencies to take on new projects/clients based on their resource availability.
Another notable feature: auto-generated resource plans for common services you offer. There’s also predictive operations intelligence available — it alerts you of critical project issues and lets you use capacity and utilization forecasts for data-informed hiring.
In terms of what users are saying about Parallax, there are a few steep learning curve complaints with confusing navigation coming up as the chief reason behind it.
Capterra rating: 4.2 out of 5.
Pricing: Custom pricing available upon request.
Free plan/trial: No.
Kantata is a good fit for service teams and agencies looking for professional service automation features.
The software rolls in project management, resource management, financial management, and business intelligence in one platform — all while offering a solid set of team collaboration features.
One user summarizes it best, “The best feature of Kantata is that it provides a combination of Professional Services Automation (the ability to track time, assignments, tasks, project margins, etc.) along with an end-customer collaboration capability to jointly track project task progress, shared documents, and shared task progress.”
However, the same user also notes Kantata’s custom reporting isn’t an easy-to-use feature. In the same vein, others point out the platform isn’t easily navigable and there’s a steep learning curve for new users. There is a fistful of negative reviews about integrations not being seamless as well.
As you pick resource utilization tools to trial, make sure you review your needs and budget.
Make a note of where you struggle the most with resource management and optimization. Then review each tool’s case studies and features to determine which one will help you the most.
It’s also a good idea to use the free plan or take a free trial for your shortlisted tools first to get a feel of how easy to use each is.
When you’re ready, reach out to the respective team(s) to learn how they help with onboarding and implementing the tool. This way, you’ll have an action plan for not only investing in a resource planning tool but also implementing it so your organization adopts to using it sooner rather than later.
If you have any questions, feel free to book a demo to connect with us.
