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TECHNOLOGY India

Software services company: delivery that scales without depending on heroes

INDUSTRY
IT and software services
LOCATION
Bangalore, India
ENGAGEMENT
5 months
FOCUS
Delivery model, resource utilisation, sales-to-delivery handover
80% of projects delivered on time and within estimate, up from 45%
77% billable utilisation, up from 62%
₹ 60 lakh of previously unbilled work now billed each year
6 weeks to the first measurable gain

The challenge

The company had grown from a tight team into one serving many clients at once. Delivery still ran the way it had at the start: a few senior people held everything together, worked late, and stepped in whenever a project slipped.

Estimates were often off, projects overran, and effort went unbilled. Sales sometimes promised what delivery could not meet, and every new client added more pressure on the same few people. The company had about 120 people working on around 35 active projects. Projects overran by an average of 30%, and unbilled effort came to around ₹ 5 lakh a month.

What we found

We reviewed recent projects from proposal to final invoice, studied timesheets and resourcing, and put a value on overruns, idle time and unbilled work.

  1. 01
    No standard way of delivering.Each project manager ran projects in their own way, so outcomes depended on who was in charge. 55% of projects overran their estimates, by an average of 30% of effort.
  2. 02
    Utilisation was a guess.Billable and non-billable effort was not tracked properly, and change requests were done for free. Actual billable utilisation was 62%, and about ₹ 5 lakh a month of change requests went unbilled.
  3. 03
    The sales-to-delivery handover was broken.Scope agreed in sales did not reach the delivery team in full, which led to disputes and rework. About 1 in 3 projects had a scope dispute in its first two months.
    4.

What we built

Across the layers of the Organise to Grow model.

01 Operating model A delivery organisation with clear roles for account manager, project manager and technical lead, and a formal handover from sales to delivery.
02 Operating backbone A standard delivery framework with stage gates, resource planning and timesheets, change-request control, a profit-and-loss view for each project, and a CRM pipeline linked to delivery capacity.
03 Daily management rhythm Daily team stand-ups, a weekly delivery review across all projects, and a monthly review for each account.
04 People and leadership Team leads coached to own estimates, delivery and client conversations, so the senior people could step back.

The results

Delivery now runs on a system rather than on a few individuals. Estimates are closer to reality, extra work is billed, and sales only commits to what the team can deliver. The senior team has time back to grow the business. On-time delivery rose from 45% to 80%, and billable utilisation from 62% to 77%. About ₹ 60 lakh a year of work that used to go unbilled is now billed.

Is your organisation ready for its next stage of growth?

Let's find out what is holding it back, and build what it takes to grow.