Have you struggled to fulfill multiple project resource requirements simultaneously or scrambled to accommodate rolled-off resources to suitable opportunities to avoid bench?

Indeed, it’s an arduous task. In a multi-project scenario, managers often face these challenges for several reasons. One, they receive resource requests in a staggered manner. Two, they often fail to stay forewarned of projects approaching the initiation or closure stage. As a result, staying abreast of the roll-ons and roll-offs of resources becomes difficult.

Thus, failing to stay on top of all the projects’ and resources’ schedules leads to unmanaged ramp-up and ramp-down, which directly affects the organization’s bottom line.

Therefore, resource managers must create effective strategies to manage frequently changing resource demands and accomplish optimal fill rates.

This blog elaborates on the repercussions of unmanaged ramp-up and ramp-down activities and how to tackle them effectively with a few proven strategies.

But before that, let’s first understand.

1. What are resource ramp-up and ramp-down?

Resource ramp-up is a sudden increase in resource demands which generally occurs during the project’s execution stage when additional resources are required to complete different tasks. The resource manager looks for suitably skilled resources and allocates them to the project to fulfill the demand requests.

For instance, an IT project may need multiple resources with varied skills in its development phase, leading to a resource ramp-up.

Resource ramp-down happens when a large number of resources are released from a project once it has passed through its “execution” phase and attains “control” or “closure”. As only limited resources are required to handle operational activities during ramp-down, the project manager rolls off other resources in a phased manner.

For instance, after the final delivery of an IT project, its “maintenance” phase begins. This phase may need only a few developers to add new functionalities or testers to fix bugs. The project manager, thus, can release other resources, causing resource ramp-down.

Given the basics of ramp-up and ramp-down activities, let’s understand their impact on the project delivery.

2. How sudden ramp-up and ramp-down of resources can affect an organization?

Despite ramp-up and ramp-down being inherent to every project, they can have a negative influence on the organizational efficiency and resource health index if not managed well.

For one, the absence of visibility into projects and resources’ schedules can cause a failure to identify the projects approaching ramp-down. Resultantly, resources released from various projects hit the bench, causing an increase in bench size and affecting the bottom line.

For two, as these benched resources don’t have enough work to utilize their skills effectively, it lowers their morale and productivity. In the long run, they lose a sense of purpose and belonging and start looking for better opportunities outside, which causes unplanned attrition.

Third, failing to fulfill the resource requests across multiple projects during ramp-ups before the due date leads to billing loss, delays in timelines, sub-optimal deliverable quality, budget overruns, etc. This also results in a loss of marketing opportunities and a gradual decline in the company’s revenue.

Given the impact of sudden resource ramp-up and ramp-down activities, the following section explains how advanced resource management software can help manage them.

3. Ways resource management software can help balance ramp-up and ramp-down

One should be adept at managing ramp-up and ramp-down activities across multiple projects to ensure successful project execution. SAVIOM’s resource management solution provides advanced forecasting and scheduling capabilities, business intelligence reports, etc., that enable managers to tackle these activities efficiently.

Here’s how.

3.1 Provides 360-degree visibility into resources and projects’ schedules

A resource management solution provides enterprise-wide visibility into resources, their allocations or schedules, and other related attributes, including skills, competency levels, location, experience, etc. So, while carrying out fulfillment activities, resource managers can get a unified view of upcoming project demands. It helps them take proactive resourcing measures to fill those vacancies and handle the ramp-up effectively.

Similarly, resource managers can also foresee which resources will be released from projects by looking at their current and future bookings and schedules. Accordingly, they can find suitable projects and book the resources in advance. This will assist in reducing the resources’ bench time between two projects, ensuring an effectively managed ramp-down.

3.2 Ensures seamless alignment between sales and delivery

A company should ensure to involve the delivery team at the early stage of the sales process. For this, the sales team must coordinate with the delivery team once a sales opportunity approaches a certain probability of closure. This coordination can make it easy to determine the project’s feasibility and accept or reject it accordingly.

In case the project is viable, the resource manager can initiate the right resourcing measures to fulfill upcoming demands in advance. With full visibility into the resource pool, they can easily identify the best-fit resources or hire them as appropriate. It not only helps ensure on-time fulfillment of resource requests but also avoids last-minute firefighting arising due to inefficient ramp-up management.

3.3 Actively sell excess capacity to manage ramp-down

At times, it becomes difficult for the resource manager to find suitable vacancies for all the resources getting released. The reasons for it can be a shortage of projects within the organization, skill mismatches, etc. Therefore, adopting robust resource management software gives insights into resources’ schedules and can help foresee the ramp-down activities across different projects.

Accordingly, the resource manager can determine the resources they can’t deploy within the organization and sell their excess capacity to other partner firms or vendors. This way, it helps them manage ramp down and generate revenue while keeping such resources profitably utilized.

3.4 Look for multiple channels during ramp-ups

By providing clear visibility into pipeline projects, a resource management tool can help the resource manager understand future skill demands. They can then assess their existing workforce to analyze the capacity-vs-demand gaps ahead of the curve. That way, they can initiate the right resourcing measures proactively to avoid the last-minute hassle.

If there are partial skill matches, the manager can implement upskilling, cross-skilling, and training to fill the existing gaps. However, in case of complete skill mismatches where resources don’t possess the requisite skills at all, hiring a permanent/contingent workforce as appropriate can help. Additionally, the manager can also implement the out rotation-backfill strategy. In this, they can out rotate the resources from projects approaching the closure or maintenance phase and provide suitable backfills. This way, they can manage the ramp-up efficiently.

3.5 Allows data-driven decision-making with real-time BI

A robust resource management tool generates various insightful reports using business intelligence in real-time. A project vacancy report shows the future resource demands by reflecting all the resource requests sent by different project managers across an enterprise. This report gives a complete idea of upcoming ramp-ups, allowing enough lead time for the resource manager to handle them properly.

Additionally, the people-on-the-bench report gives details of the resources that will be released from their current engagements after a specific date. It helps monitor the bench size and initiate training and upskilling to prepare benched resources. This will enable them to take on future projects and align their competencies to vacancies. It, in turn, helps avoid an unwanted increase in bench size, arising from an unmanaged ramp-down.

4. Conclusion

A sudden fluctuation in resource demands in a multi-project scenario is inevitable. However, the onus is on managers to combat them efficiently and keep the current and future projects staffed with required resources.

For that, handling both ramp-up and ramp-down effectively is essential. By applying soft skills and implementing a resource management solution, you can streamline resource planning and overcome the challenges posed by ramp-up and ramp-down activities.

Listen. Learn. Grow.

It is the age-old advice that the wise give to the people to make a difference in their lives.

You would be surprised to know, but the experts and marketing pioneers give the same advice to the brands to create a mark in their industries. Listen to what your audience says about you through social listening.

Today, social media has an unmeasurable power. It was once a platform where you would catch up with your friends. Now it has transformed to be a space where one talks to or about businesses. Social media platforms have become a versatile platform where people show off about their last vacation and share their experience with a brand or product.

Social media is one of the greatest consumer research tools today. If you are not leveraging its power and listening to what users are saying about you, you are wasting time.

This article will help you understand what social listening is and how your brand can benefit from its mindful usage.

How Does Social Listening Benefit Your Business?

Social listening has been around for some time. Still, it is a fairly underused strategy in the social media world. Let us explore the ways you can use it for your brand –

1.    Helps in Lead Generation

Irrespective of the business type and nature, the goal of every brand is to be profitable. Naturally, the biggest priority for businesses is generating more leads and converting as many as possible into customers.

However, it is hard to get your message across in the cut-throat competition. There are larger brands with bigger customer acquisition budgets. While startups and small businesses cannot afford to spend a lot of money on lead generation. They need tools that have high ROIs with less expense.

This is where social media comes into the picture. While social media marketing has a bad reputation for lead generation, it can be a great tool to find loyal customers. All you need to do is find social media profiles that are talking about your industry or brand/product similar to yours. Among all those conversations, you need to search for the ones that are asking for recommendations for a product or service similar to yours. Also, target the ones that are complaining about your competitors.

The social listening tool will notify you of the required search. Your next step is to engage with those users and pitch your products or services.

Your pitch is your golden egg here. Remember that conventional sales pitches do not work anymore. Especially on social media, your brand voice should strike a balance between casual and professional tone.

According to a survey by Sales for Life, social selling results in 119% higher ROI than traditional sales strategies. Moreover, not many brands use it, which means you won’t face competition in this strategy.

2.    Determines the Brand Health

One of the many reasons brands fail to make an impression on social media is that they fail to connect with their audience. Understanding what your audience thinks about your brand essentially determines its public perception. If a brand ignores or fails to take the audience’s perception into account, it cannot take its branding strategy to the next level.

A peep into the positive or negative thinking associated with the brand of your audience presents a new insight in front of you. More importantly, it challenges you to rethink assumptions about your brand and its reach and leads to much more targeted marketing.

Social listening tools, such as Mentionlytics, can help you identify the general perception of your brand. You can get to know aspects, such as common customer questions, comments, complaints, demographics, and positive and negative sentiments around your brand. Once you share this social listening data with your team, you can evaluate a general assessment of your brand. You can –

• Find the most common issues your customers face.
• Identify the business areas your customers are happy with.
• Recognize the generic image of your brand amongst the public.

These insights will help you find out the strengths and weaknesses of your brand. After drawing a fair conclusion, you can pivot your strategies and resolve the existing issues.

3.    Provides Assistance in Event Monitoring

Social media has blurred the boundaries of an event’s reach. Be it any kind of event, its glimpse is not limited to just the guest list. It can reach every person who engages with social media and online content created about your event.

However, how do you track every social conversation happening around your event? There can be multiple speakers, numerous hashtags, several accounts. Enter social listening.

With a social listening tool, you can get the complete picture of your event. Here are the ways you can use the information –

• You can track whether the message your audience resonated with aligns with your goals or not.
• You can get to know about the positive feedback and use it in your marketing strategy.
• The social listening insights will also help you recognize the improvement areas or overlooked opportunities.
• The pre-event data can help you understand the audiences’ expectations. You can adjust your plans around that.
• If the pre-event perception of the audience does not align with your event’s goals, you can change the marketing message accordingly.
• With real-time social media listening, you will be able to engage in social conversations while the event is on. It will publicize your event. Moreover, you can provide real-time support to the audience.

Along with these exceptional use-cases, you can also use social listening to plan your event. The above image shows a tweet where a user expresses his wish for an event to be conducted in his city. By listening to more social conversations, a brand can decide the location or other details for the event. Social listening allows you to explore new territories while doing what customers want.

4.    Helps to Stay Ahead of the Competition

Social media is a golden goose for businesses in today’s day and age, and hence, is a competitive space. To grow in your industry, you need to beat your competitors with better products/services and customer experience. However, that is not enough. You also need to be aware of every next move of your competitor to outperform them.

With social listening, you can have the opportunity to monitor everything users are talking about your competitor. A peek into their social media audience will help you unravel the untapped market. You can also see the areas where the customers are not happy with them. It will help you to market their weaknesses as your strength. Moreover, you can see the insights of their content and analyze why the audience engages the way they do with their brand. It will help you bring effective change to your content strategy. If they roll out a new product or service, you can understand the general market sentiment about it and set a goal to outperform them.

Such insights will help you disrupt the existing leaders in the industry and take advantage of their shortcomings. Leveraging those insights to influence your campaigns and marketing strategies will grow your brand in the industry.

For example, you are launching a new product line of skincare products for your makeup and beauty brand. The skincare industry is a well-established market. Hence, before setting your foot out, you should get an insight into the audiences’ perception of the products of the big players in the industry. The more you milk the social listening data, the stronger will be your competitive strategy.

5.    Helps With Product Development

You go to a restaurant, order your meal, and didn’t like the overall experience. While paying the check, the waiter comes and asks you about your experience. How many times do you say something along the lines of ‘Everything was great, thank you’ and move on? While you can review honestly, how many times do you do so?

Most people do not bother to be honest with their reviews offline. There could be several reasons behind it. The person might not feel confident enough to criticize or simply do not have time. However, it changes when you are reviewing online. You see, there are fewer dictating factors behind the screen. The user is more likely to be specific about their opinions online. It is one of the greatest benefits of social listening.

Social listening allows you to get a peek into the customers’ feedback about your products, brand, or industry. The customers’ opinions, negative or positive, are a gold mine for you. You can use the insights and adjust your business strategies to fit the needs of the consumer.

You can use social listening in different situations with a range of different goals in your mind. It can strengthen your relationship with your customers and provide results in the form of higher growth and revenue. Start leveraging the benefits of social listening to expand your business.

If you’re on a budget and looking for a diamond engagement ring but don’t want to spend more than $100 on it, you can always find a synthetic gem, like a sapphire, at a low price. These stones are often made to mimic natural gemstones, and are so similar that only a professional jeweler would be able to tell the difference between a lab-grown sapphire and a natural one. Sometimes, lab-grown gemstones have higher quality than their natural counterparts.

Blue Nile

If you’re looking for a beautiful engagement ring without breaking the bank, Blue Nile may be the right choice. Not only does Blue Nile have beautiful engagement rings under $100, but it also offers a wide selection of gemstone jewelry. The selection includes more than 20 different gemstones and ring settings in various metals. Choose from simple or elegant designs. If you’re not sure which style you want, use the website’s ‘Build a Ring’ feature to design your own.

Zales

If you’re looking for cheap engagement rings under $100, Zales is an excellent place to start. The site offers many options for a perfect ring without breaking the bank. You can also purchase a piece with free shipping and Ship to Store options. Zales also offers a 24/7 concierge service for any customer who isn’t sure where to buy a piece. Whether you’re looking for a solitaire ring or a more traditional wedding band, Zales has it.

Catbird

If you are on a budget, consider shopping for a Catbird engagement ring. They offer a wide range of styles, including traditional diamond engagement rings and nontraditional ones. In addition to offering their own designs, Catbird also sells engagement rings from other designers, like Tiffany and Co. Prices range from under $100 to over $15,000, depending on the style and material. Listed below are some of the most popular styles.

Heirloom by Doyle & Doyle

For a beautiful diamond engagement ring at a reasonable price, check out the Heirloom by Doyle & Doel collection. The company is based in New York City and curates an impressive collection of antique and vintage jewels. These pieces have timeless vintage styles that are still in style today. And because they’re under $100, anyone can afford them. The store is a gallery, so associates and customers are encouraged to tour the shop together.

Kataoka

The Japanese-owned jewelry company is well known for its stunning designs, and has received plenty of buzz in recent years, including a ring that starred Emma Stone. With diamonds and a smokey blue sapphire, this ring combines elegant elegance with a unique look. The Japanese jewelry designer also specializes in creating unique pairings, so you can expect your ring to have a unique look.

James Allen

If you are on a budget, then you can find a quality engagement ring from James Allen for less than $100. The company works with several carefully chosen partners to offer engagement rings that fit any budget. While the selection is impressive, the catalog can be overwhelming. A slightly narrowed down selection could be better for the sake of men. Women will love the catalog, while men will be baffled by the vast selection.

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How Does Gglandscapingsc Work?

The process of hiring a contractor online is as simple as it gets, and it’s exactly the reason why so many homeowners choose to hire contractors through these online marketplaces. You can search through a selection of landscaping companies, read reviews from previous clients, and receive custom quotes based on your requirements and the company’s hourly or per-project rates. If you find a contractor that you like, you simply create an account on the site and communicate with the contractor directly through the platform. You can also use the site to monitor the progress of your landscaping project and leave feedback for the contractor after the job is completed.

Find Reputable Contractors

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Why Should You Use Gglandscapingsc?

Homeowners who need help with residential landscape maintenance can use this platform to find dependable contractors at affordable rates. The site allows you to compare rates and contractor reviews to find the best option for you. Many homeowners face the challenge of finding reliable contractors, especially if they’re new to the area. With this online platform, you can easily find landscapers in your area and get custom quotes based on your requirements. You can also read reviews from previous clients to know more about the contractor and the quality of work.

GG Landscaping Review

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General Contractor Review

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Snow Removal Company Review

If you live in an area that receives a lot of snow every winter, then you probably know how difficult it can be to keep your property snow-free. This snow removal contractor offers commercial and residential snow removal services and has been in business for more than a decade. The company provides hassle-free service, and you can get a free estimate for your project. The company has a BBB rating of A+ and has more than 10,000 positive reviews on Gglandscapingsc.com.

Lawn Mowing Service Review

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Final words

Hiring a contractor to maintain your lawn and outdoor space can be a daunting task, especially if you don’t know where to start. This platform allows you to browse through a selection of contractors in your area and receive custom quotes based on your requirements. You can also read reviews from previous clients to know more about the contractor and the quality of work. With Gglandscapingsc.com, finding a reliable contractor for residential landscape maintenance is easy.