IDC research assesses the business value and operational impact of Kantata’s platform

Kantata has commissioned a Business Value study conducted by IDC. The research focused on enterprises that adopted Kantata’s Professional Services Automation (PSA) platform and examined the operational and financial outcomes that followed. Importantly, the organisations interviewed for the study were not previously using a PSA platform. In other words, the research captured the impact of moving from fragmented tools and manual coordination to a unified services operations platform for the first time.

IDC found that businesses using Kantata gained an average annual benefit of $17 million by improving project execution, resource management, financial operations, and business development. These gains came from automating manual tasks, allowing teams to focus on strategic and revenue-generating work instead of cutting headcount.

Achieving measurable value

Organisations were able to achieve measurable value in the following areas:

• Enhancing project delivery and control. This enabled teams to complete projects more efficiently, reduce delays, and proactively manage budgets and scope.
• Improving resource planning and staffing agility. Allowed organisations to align skills with demand earlier in the sales cycle and make faster, more informed staffing decisions.
• Boosting financial operations, streamlining invoicing and period-end processes. Improved forecasting accuracy, and enabling finance teams to operate with greater speed and precision.
• Increasing billable hours and revenue capture through better visibility into utilisation and more effective deployment of internal resources.
• Reducing revenue and cost leakage by enabling early detection of discrepancies and improving alignment between contracted work and actual delivery.
• Empowering business development and client engagement, with improved collaboration across sales and delivery teams. In addition to better visibility into project health and budget utilisation.
• Improved reporting and analytics efficiency by centralising data and automating dashboards. This enabled faster decision-making and more accurate insights across the organisation.

Enterprises that adopted Kantata were often grappling with fragmented systems, manual processes, and inconsistent practices across teams. Prior solutions, ranged from homegrown tools to spreadsheets, were difficult to maintain and lacked the scalability needed for growth.

Customers emphasised the importance of having a centralised solution that could standardise workflows, automate project creation, and support strategic planning.

Furthermore, they wanted these activities without relying on manual intervention. Whilst interviewees consistently cited Kantata’s integration with Salesforce as a key differentiator. One organisation described how Kantata could be embedded directly into Salesforce. Automatically linking sales opportunities to project plans, eliminating the need for manual setup, ensuring alignment between sales and delivery teams.

Impact value assessment

Enhanced Operational Efficiency: Kantata enabled a 21.3% efficiency gain for project management teams, a 29.7% improvement for resource management teams, and a 51.5% efficiency gain for finance teams. Thus reducing administrative overhead allowed staff to focus on strategic and client-facing activities.

Improved Project and Resource Management: Kantata reduced average project duration by 12%, increased on-time delivery by 33%, decreased projects running over budget by 61%. Improved resource planning accuracy by 40%.

Revenue Growth and Cost Savings: Organisations experienced a 16.7% increase in billable hours, generating $3.35 million in additional annual revenue. This led to reduced revenue and cost leakage by 1%, saving $3.71 million annually.

Employee and Client Satisfaction: Kantata increased employee satisfaction by 32%, reduced projects receiving complaints or being escalated by 60%. The study suggested improved client engagement through proactive planning, structured feedback loops, and better visibility into risks and project health.

Transformational improvements

According to Charles Gustine, Director of Customer and Market Insight at Kantata, “No matter which way you slice it, improvements like these would be transformational for any services organisation. But today’s environment raises the stakes even further. As PSOs face increasing margin pressure, rising client expectations, and more complex delivery models, predictability has become a strategic advantage.

“When projects and staffing are unpredictable, it doesn’t just impact the bottom line — it impacts people and clients. What I believe IDC’s research makes clear is that when firms connect scoping, resourcing, delivery, and financial management in our intelligent platform. They can reduce volatility, strengthen employee engagement, and consistently deliver amazing outcomes for their customers.

Methodology

IDC conducted five in-depth interviews with Kantata customers across a wide range of industries. These included IT consulting, web development, managed services, digital strategy, and healthcare technology.

The organisations had a median of 250 employees and managed up to 12,000 projects annually using Kantata. IDC’s Business Value methodology uses a before-and-after assessment model to quantify benefits related to staff productivity, operational efficiency, and financial performance.

Enterprise Times: What this means for businesses

PSOs are under pressure from multiple sides. Clients who want fixed-price, outcome-based contracts and real-time project transparency, with little patience for delays or scope changes. Challenges like skill shortages, higher salaries, and global competition are squeezing profitability. Services delivery is shifting from manual, people-heavy projects to automated, data-driven pricing, scheduling, and outcome-focused engagements.

Traditional consulting is merging with managed and tech-driven services. Providers increasingly use PSA solutions like Kantata, leverage AI for planning, and adopt hybrid delivery models.

The study suggest Kantata delivers measurable value across project delivery, resource management, and financial operations. Thus enabling enterprises to achieve significant gains in efficiency, visibility, and revenue growth.

By transitioning from fragmented systems to a unified, data-driven operating model, tools like Kantata supports tactical execution and strategic goals. Helping organisations improve margins, reduce overhead, and enhance client engagement.

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