BearingPoint, a global provider of management and technology consulting services to commercial and public sector organizations, has reportedly streamlined its services delivery processes and consolidated multiple point solutions into one, unified business system using OpenAir’s cloud-based professional services automation (PSA) and services resource planning (SRP) software.

OpenAir is a Boston-based subsidiary of CRM solutions provider NetSuite. It has corporate offices in Canada, the UK and Australia.

According to a press release, BearingPoint, which went through a post-bankruptcy management buyout in August, now has more accurate and timely visibility of staff utilization and its “opportunity pipeline,” thanks to its deployment of OpenAir’s PSA/SRP solutions. What’s more, it has reduced its dependency on Microsoft (News - Alert) Project and Excel, and replaced its legacy timesheet application.

"Having just completed a management buyout of the Australian operation, better visibility of financial data and more effective management of the business is critical to us," said Bob Hennessy BearingPoint CEO, in the release. "Our selection of OpenAir gives us the necessary controls to effectively manage our projects and resources through flexible reporting and streamlined workflows."

"BearingPoint recently launched a major internal organizational transition which required the replacement of all infrastructure and operational systems in an extremely short timeframe," added Paul Brooke, operations manager at BearingPoint. "As the only available SaaS (News - Alert) PSA solution to provide the resource management capabilities to match our needs, we knew that OpenAir could help us achieve rapid implementation and automation with minimal infrastructure dependencies.  OpenAir exceeded expectations and our initial implementation was up and running in two months."

BearingPoint’s adoption of OpenAir’s PSA/SRP solutions fits in with the growing trend of organizations migrating to cloud-based software and solutions. “Cloud computing” tops Gartner’s (News - Alert) recently-released report, “Top 10 Strategic Technologies and Trends for 2010.” This year “cloud computing” bumped “virtualization” for the number one spot on Gartner’s top 10 strategic technologies list.

The advantages of cloud-based solutions have been well-documented: Cloud computing allows organizations to deploy advanced technologies quickly and easily, with minimal upfront investment. Because the vendor is responsible for maintaining all hardware and network infrastructure, as well as application performance, this model reduces the strain on company IT departments. In addition these solutions offer superior scalability – as well as improved integration capabilities. What’s more, organizations automatically get the latest and most advanced applications without having to perform expensive upgrades or purchasing new software licenses.

 

BearingPoint -- which is based in Europe and has offices all over the world -- is among several new customers in the APAC region which OpenAir has attracted in recent months. Other companies which are now subscribing to OpenAir’s cloud-based solutions include AIPEX (which is also a certified reseller), ClearPoint, Assurity and Fronde.

OpenAir’s PSA/SRP software suite lets project-based businesses efficiently manage their projects, resources, time and expense tracking, and billing and invoicing processes in the cloud. OpenAir claims the solution enables companies to convert more prospects into clients by allowing them to more effectively manage the prospect pipeline and utilize relevant historical data to optimize revenue and margins on future projects.

In October OpenAir announced availability of its OpenAir Mobile solution on BlackBerry (News - Alert) AppWorld.