Resource Management Evaluation

Fathom Consulting

challenge

Fathom Consulting is a business consultancy with a consistent stable of clients that helps organizations capitalize on change and how they interact with customers. They have 17 employees and do about 75 client projects a year. They have been using Oracle’s NetSuite OpenAir Professional Services Automation (PSA) software for nearly 20 years. 

In general, OpenAir is both underutilized and unpopular with all of the users we interviewed. The general consensus was that it has the capability to perform many functions, but doesn’t perform any of them well. Users felt it was clunky, slow and not intuitive. None of the users had any confidence that OpenAir would ever be able to adequately meet their needs as a project management tool.

Fathom tasked my team with researching and providing recommendations to improve the usability of OpenAir. I focused mainly on their wish list items related to employee utilization, time-tracking and possible integrations with apps and software they use outside of OpenAir, specifically TimeCamp and SmartSheet.

solution

After conducting and analyzing the user research, I recommended three options for custom integrations between OpenAir and time-tracking and spreadsheet apps that many of Fathom’s users already use and prefer over OpenAir.

1. TimeCamp to OpenAir Data Transfer Integration

TimeCamp custom API that automatically populates time-tracking data into Fathom’s OpenAir.

Goals

  • Increase ease and frequency of submitting timesheets in OpenAir for users of TimeCamp

  • Allow Admin and PMs to keep closer tabs on hours


2. OpenAir API for CSV File Import from Time-tracking Apps

OpenAir custom API to import time-tracking data via a CSV file from TimeCamp or other time-tracking apps.

Goal

  • Increase ease and frequency of submitting timesheets in OpenAir for users of TimeCamp or any other time-tracking app that supports CSV export/import

  • Allow Admin and PMs to keep closer tabs on hours

3. TimeCamp to Smartsheet Data Transfer Integration

TimeCamp custom API that automatically populates time-tracking data into a Fathom Utilization SmartSheet.

Goal

  • Increase efficiencies for Admin when using SmartSheet to manage employee utilization

methods

  • Cognitive Walkthrough

  • Remote Contextual Inquiry User Testing

  • Affinity Diagramming

  • Research Findings & Prototype Plan

  • Interactive Prototyping

tools

  • Google Docs

  • Zoom

  • Otter.ai

  • InVision Freehand

  • Sketch

  • Photoshop

  • InVision Prototype

approach

Using user videos created by one of Fathom’s lead consultants, I conducted a Cognitive Walkthrough of the main tasks performed in OpenAir. 

Next we conducted three, remote user interviews using Contextual Inquiry to get a better idea of how users used OpenAir in their respective roles. The three users were the Senior VP (admin user), the Office Administrator and Event Coordinator (employee user) and a Lead Consultant who also acts as a PM (PM). 

I synthesized the findings into a Research Findings & Prototype Plan which included key findings, user stories, user flows, scenarios, architecture diagram and low-fidelity wireframes outlining the three customized integrations with OpenAir.

Fathom_Testing.png
Fathom_ArchDiagram+Wireframes.png

Then I created an Interactive Prototype Tour using Sketch and InVision so the client could experience a walkthrough of my recommendations with annotations that explained my design intent and research rationale.

InteractiveTourScreens.png

next steps

  1. Work with TimeCamp to develop custom APIs that would allow users to easily export their time-tracking data into OpenAir and Smartsheet.

  2. Investigate current options for refining and customizing OpenAir’s timesheet interface based on the recommended changes.