To make the most out of a resource management practice, you need to develop good data processes. Here's where to focus your attention to get the best results.
The right resource management software is the game-changer that’ll optimize your resource allocation, utilization, and related processes — or so you’ve heard.
But is it true?
Well, the short answer is "Yes, but...", and the long answer is "No, unless..."
The thing is: your investment in a great resource management platform won’t pay off until you feed the right data into your software. And this needs to be backed by watertight processes and good governance, to make sure that your data is top-quality and reliable.
So today, let’s look at exactly the data you need to do resource management properly. We’ll dive into the types of data and how each will help you make informed decisions, maximize resource efficiency, streamline process and operational workflows, and improve client satisfaction.
Historical data involves collecting past operational, resource, and project metrics.
It helps identify recurring patterns and trends that, in turn, assist you to:
By studying your project, budget, and resource planning trends, you can also improve budgeting and cost control.
To this end, go through your project management, HR, and time-tracking tools to gather the following data:
This data allows you to dive deep into your current and future resource requirements based on both internal and external factors.
Using it, you can also avoid under- or over-resource utilization as well as improve workforce planning.
Dig out the following data here:
The aim is to use this data to assess, optimize, and improve your business’s talent/skill pool while ensuring optimal resource allocation and utilization. In turn, capacity data helps you meet current and future project requirements — even innovate as an industry leader.
Here’s what you need to be looking at:
Yet another data type you need to do resource management is cost data spanning project and operations costs.
It’s essential information for reviewing the impact of budget planning on past project scope and risk. It also helps you identify cost-saving opportunities and optimize future budget planning, spending, and related project risks.
Here’s what comes under this type of data:
Resource utilization data reviews the type and amount of work employees are assigned.
It helps you identify overworked human resources as well as ones who haven’t taken any time off (essential for keeping workplace burnout at bay).
This data is critical for maximizing productivity, identifying inefficiencies, and encouraging optimal utilization. In short, utilization data helps you improve resource efficiency.
So you’ll want to look for:
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Lastly, this data provides up-to-the-minute information about how resources, processes, and projects are performing.
It assists you in quick, informed decision-making to prevent project delays and minimize project risks — facilitating real-time problem-solving, cost control, and resource efficiency.
By regularly tapping into real-time data to guide decisions, you can improve responsiveness to change, boost organizational agility, and enhance accountability across teams.
Keep a pulse on the following:
At Runn, we strongly believe that resource management and high-quality data are a match made in heaven. But we also realize that tracking and leveraging copious amounts of data can be challenging.
That’s why, before we wrap this up, we’re sharing three of our best tips to gather, manage, and use your project and resource data:
This takes upfront planning led by a resource or HR manager responsible for data governance. They’ll take charge of identifying which data to track across teams, how to track it (to maintain data hygiene), and who will be responsible for updating which data.
This makes gathering, accessing, and collaborating on data easy. It also facilitates data automation and real-time data sync making the information useful — even AI-ready for you to speed up data analysis.
Rather than struggling with spreadsheets or trying to hodge-podge an integrated system using different "middleware" applications to connect your platforms, nothing beats have one centralized platform for resource management. If you care about data integrity and thing not getting lost between the cracks, this is the direction you should go.
The catch though? Make sure you pick software that makes data gathering and analysis really easy for users — also don’t forget to look for data automation features that reduce manual data collection work.
Depending on your resource and data management maturity, tailor these recommendations to align with your journey:
👉 If data is siloed across teams, begin with setting data governance guidelines. Determine what data to gather, how regularly, where to capture it, and who will be responsible for it.
👉 If your data lives in spreadsheets or different platforms, start by reviewing data quality (e.g., is it consistent?). Then integrate all tools to encourage real-time data syncing that gives you up-to-date, easily accessible data.
👉 If a makeshift data integration system isn’t effortlessly supporting your goals, level up by reviewing resource management platforms to integrate and automate processes.
Take Runn, for instance. Using their browser extension, employees can automatically fill timesheets to track the hours they’ve worked. This gives you up-to-the-minute operating data.
But this is just one example of how Runn helps you centralize and automate data. It also makes data analysis and reporting easy with its easily readable reports and dashboards — showing project budget, resource utilization, employee availability, workload/capacity, and a lot more in real time.
