By Janel Bromberek and Tsvety Giordano

2020 has put the spotlight on inefficiencies, lack of technology, and gaps in process with virtually everyone working remotely. Gone are the days of walking over to a coworkers desk to ask if they are available for a client discovery next Thursday at 2:00 p.m. The new reality is that shared digital calendars are our lifeline and ensuring that you are using an innovative calendar that can work for every piece of your business is imperative. 

Ineffective Resource Management has always been a problem for organizations. Even as recently as 2018, 85% percent of organizations struggled to forecast capacity and skills mix needs —  while more than 60% were challenged to govern their resource management processes and manage their inventory of skilled workers. Those are big numbers. And big opportunities for improvement.

Organizations that did not address fundamental gaps in their Resource Management process like forecasting, skills management and technology support pre-pandemic are now experiencing the biggest challenges when it comes to working remotely. But there are still measures to take to get back on track when it comes to your Salesforce resource calendar.

Salesforce resource calendars to the rescue

One of the best tools for remote resource management work is the ability to view a Gantt Chart. A Gantt Chart allows a user to see information over a long period of time — but not every Gantt chart is created equal. CalendarAnything, for instance, is a step above the rest.

With CalendarAnything, you can view data in a variety of timelines with a custom mix of variables tailored to meet your Salesforce resource management needs. 

Visualize projects

CalendarAnything allows Resource Managers to see all active projects in one place. Additional grouping can be added to show the consultants on each project. Using filters, Resource Managers can drill down and see projects for a specific Service line, Geography, or any other data point from the project record.

Visualize resources

As detailed in the image below, we have a list of consultants and the projects they are allocated to for the next six months, broken down week by week. Quick filters can enable the Resource Managers to drill down to specific geographic locations, roles, and even skillset so they can easily find the consultant that has capacity and the expertise to fill in a new role. Color-coding can be used to differentiate between billable and non-billable assignments, or other criteria.

By expanding each section, Resource Managers can identify the exact number of hours per week that the consultant is allocated.

Visualize hiring needs

Another challenge that hiring managers run into is a) knowing which projects are closing soon and b) hiring resources ‘just-in-time’ to fill project roles when no internal resources are available. 

The Gantt chart below shows all resource scheduling requests for projects closing in the next six months, color-coded based on the probability that the project will close and grouped by the role of the resources that need to be hired. You can clearly see that there is high demand for Business Analysts and Engagement Managers — a tale as old as time.

The CalendarAnything advantage

These are just some of the calendar views that can be used for Resource Management, but with CalendarAnything, the possibilities are limitless. You can visualize any custom or standard field in CalendarAnything as long as that data is housed within Salesforce. Love what you see and want to learn more about CalendarAnything? Visit our AppExchange listing for a free 14 day trial.

Interested in how we can configure both CalendarAnything and Salesforce for your Resource Management needs? Check out our Managed Services solutions.