Often you’ll know the kinds of Skills and Positions that might be involved in an Opportunity before you have absolute certainty of the Resources you would commit to the resultant Project. To help you juggle multiple resource allocation scenarios, Timewize is designed around first establishing Positions to which you can assign potential Employees, Subcontractors, and Contacts. This allows you to assign or “soft book” Resources against Opportunity Positions, including Contacts outside of your organisation who may only join your workforce if and when the opportunity is won.
Adding a Position #
Tip: To set up Positions, ensure you have defined the Estimated Start Date and End Date for the Opportunity in the Edit Opportunity pop up.
You can access the Positions page in two ways:
- 1. From the main Opportunities list using the Options icon:
- 2. From the Opportunities Information screen using the Options button in the top right corner
In the Positions page, click the Add Position button which will open the Add Position pop up.
Complete all fields in the Add Position pop up and click Save:
- Position Title: Provide a name to describe the role or position.
- Skill: Select the relevant Skill. The Skills will correspond to the chosen Panel.
- Skill Level: Select the Skill Level. The Level will correspond to the available levels for the Panel Skill chosen.
- Total Billable Hours: Estimate the total number of hours for which the Position may bill for services provided.
- Start Date: Estimate the date from which the Position would commence providing services.
- End Date: Estimate the date by which the Position would finish providing services.
You may edit or delete the Position by clicking on the Settings icon in the righthand column of the Position row and clicking Edit Position or Delete.
To add a Resource to the Position, click on the Settings icon in the righthand column of the Position row and then Add Resource. The Add Resource pop up will open.
Complete all fields in the Add Resource pop up and click Save:
Resource: Select the desired Resource from the drop down.
- The Resources listed will have the Skill and at least the Skill Level specified when creating the Position.
Rate of Effort: Specify the Resource’s intended Rate of Effort against the Position.
- For example, a 0.5 FTE will have a 50% Rate of Effort.
Buy Rate (Hourly): Specify the hourly total rate that it costs business to hire the Resource or Contact.
- For Employees and Subcontractors, Timewize will calculate the Hourly Buy Rate using the contract information entered in their personal information and display this figure above the Buy Rate field. Copy this figure in the Buy Rate field.
- For Contacts, “No Active Contract” will appear above the Buy Rate field.
Sell Rate (Hourly): Specify the hourly rate for which you intend to bill for the Resource’s services.
- Above the Sell Rate field, Timewize will calculate minimum the Hourly Sell Rate required to make the Contribution Margin percentage specified in the Opportunity Information on top of the Resource’s Hourly Buy Rate.
- For Contacts, “No Active Contract” will appear above the Sell Rate field.
- Below the Sell Rate field, Timewize will display the Short-term (ST) and Long-term (LT) Ceiling Rates mandated by the Panel Skill and Panel Level specified in the Position set up.
- Tip: Use the information provided by Timewize about the Resource and Panel Rates to determine whether the Resource is a financially viable option to meet the desired Contribution Margin percentage whilst complying with Panel limits.
You may edit or delete the Resource rate information by clicking the Settings button in the righthand column of the Resource row and clicking Edit Resource or Delete.
To test Resource allocation scenarios, add additional Resources to the Position by clicking the Settings button in the righthand column of the Position row and repeating the steps.
Where multiple Resources are added, use the toggle on the left of the Resource name to nominate the primary Resourcing choice. The information about the selected Resource’s rates will be used to calculate the Opportunity Estimated value and thereby inform the Opportunity’s financial contribution to the Forecast. More about this in Updating the Opportunity Estimated Value (coming soon).
Repeat for all known Positions associated with the Opportunity.
To return to the Opportunity Information page, click the Back button on your browser.