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03.10.2020 Jordan Shlosberg
The typical consulting project involves a lot of manual, repetitive tasks. Aside from not offering the best employee experience, it means consultants have less time to add real value elsewhere.
From manually sending project briefs to multiple networks, to filtering through countless emails as experts roll in, there is a lot of wasted time left on the table.
Yet little has been done to optimize this workflow – in a world of high-tech solutions, machine learning and AI, this seems out of step.
The primary reason that this manual workflow has established itself as the de facto approach is simple: there hasn’t been a viable alternative.
But what if consultants didn’t have to spend the first two weeks of each consulting project dealing with expert networks? What if they could automate all these tedious tasks and free up hours each week to add value elsewhere?
We explore how proSapient’s all-in-one project management platform can speed up your project turnaround times and significantly reduce the legwork for your consultants.
Where are consultants losing time?
To improve a workflow, we first need to understand where consultants are losing time.
Below are the most significant drains on time:
1. Creating and sending project requests
The first step of a project is to send a request to multiple expert networks. This is a drain on time because each request has to be sent individually and there is no standardized project template.
This lack of standardization often results in networks requesting missing information so they can provide the best recommendations – an extra task for consultants to complete.
2. Collating and filtering lists of experts
As expert recommendations arrive from multiple sources, consultants have to manually collate this information. Typically, this involves copying and pasting relevant information such as the expert bios and the network they came from.
This step has to be repeated for each network and duplicates need to be manually removed from this master list. Unless you’re a fan of copying and pasting, this is incredibly time-consuming.
3. Managing communication with expert networks and colleagues
There are a couple of reasons why consulting project communication is inefficient: firstly, there is no central communication channel, meaning consultants have to switch between countless email threads or Slack channels. Requests from expert networks can quickly get lost due to inbox overload.
The other reason is the lack of context. If a consultant wants to query an expert network about an industry specialist, this is another email that has to be sent. If consultants want to confer about expert suitability, this context has to be manually included in messages to colleagues.
Taken together, this way of communicating is certainly not the most efficient.
4. Booking calls with industry specialists
In an age of ubiquitous digital communication, it seems strange the typical way to request availability is to fire off an email, wait for the response, agree a suitable time, then add this event to a calendar.
For one or two calls this workflow might work. But it doesn't scale. Consultants are hired to add meaningful value to projects, and this tedious task certainly doesn’t do that. On top of monitoring expert recommendations and information requests, manually booking calls is a task that should be automated.
5. Manually checking overall project status
For project leads, the lack of project overview means they have to manually check in to ensure that everything is on track. This extra admin hampers consultants from completing more meaningful, value-adding tasks. A dashboard overview would solve this problem.
6. Transcription
Another productivity killer is transcription. While most consultants use an automated transcription service, this is often prone to accuracy issues. If transcripts need to be stored for further use, they would have to be manually checked for errors.
7. Compliance
As transcripts are often sent to an external service provider for transcription, this makes compliance a nightmare. As compliance is not baked into this workflow, keeping an overview of all transcripts is both time-consuming and difficult.
If you add up the hours spent each week on these tasks, it becomes apparent that this workflow is the opposite of streamlined.
How proSapient speeds up the consulting workflow
The proSapient platform is built on the principles of centralization, automation and simplification.
- Centralization – using the proSapient platform, consultants are able to manage a consulting project end-to-end, without constantly changing between tools. One dashboard offers consultants all the information they need at a glance.
- Automation – if a task can be automated, then it is. From compiling the list of experts, to booking calls and creating call transcripts, proSapient makes tedious manual tasks a thing of the past.
- Simplification – from project overview dashboards to assisted compliance checks, where a task cannot be fully automated, proSapient makes it easier.
proSapient’s time-saving features
Let’s explore these time-saving features in more detail.
Send project requests to all expert networks at once
Consultants can create a new project request with a standardized template and send this to all desired networks at once. Project notification settings can be tailored to your needs.
Expert lists that just work
As expert networks send recommendations, the profiles automatically appear in the proSapient dashboard, complete with all relevant information. proSapient also automatically removes any duplicates.
One-click call scheduling
Simply click on an expert to provide or request availability. If consultants prefer, they can also integrate their calendar and use the auto-booking feature. All replies from experts appear in the platform. No more searching through email threads.
Hyper-efficient central messaging center
Whether consultants want to query a network for extra details, or expert networks are requesting information, this can all be done via proSapient’s messaging center. Messaging in context is as simple as clicking and messaging.
Automated transcripts your team can rely on
This isn’t just any automated transcription service – proSapient combines the most advanced machine learning models with expert human vetters to ensure the highest level of accuracy every time.
Never lose track with the project overview dashboard
The proSapient dashboard allows project leads to see overall project progress as well as spend at a glance. This reduces admin and frees them up to complete more important tasks.
AI-assisted compliance checks
proSapient’s integrated compliance features save your team valuable time. Compliance officers have a full overview of all transcripts as they appear, right from within the dashboard. proSapient can even scan for company name mentions to assist with checks such as MNPI. If a potential issue is discovered, this can be flagged and elevated for additional review all from the same place.
Invest in a workflow that will save your consultants hours each week
proSapient is full of innovative features that greatly reduce the levels of admin for your consultants. Invest in this enhanced workflow and start regaining those wasted hours with our industry-leading project management platform.
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