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298 PM AND PSA

The PSOs are also called ESPs (External Service Providers). These are busi-
nesses that are involved in consulting, advertising, system integration, and so on.
They will benefit from automated support to help them manage activities, ac-
count for time and expenses, and forecast possible sell time. They are primarily
concerned with:

• Opportunity management.
• Resource management.
• Program/Project management.
• Time and Expense management (T&E).
• Document management.
• Knowledge/Practice management.
• Invoicing and Billing (Financials).
• Reporting and analysis.
• Customer Relations management (CRM)—Contact Management—Client

Management.

The ISOs are not that different. They will be managing similar work as the
PSOs, except that they are not involved in selling their skilled resources to the ex-
ternal market. Consequently, they are primarily concerned with:

• Resource management.
• Program/Project management.
• Time and Expense management (T&E).
• Document management.
• Knowledge/Practice management.
• Project Accounting and Chargebacks (Financials).
• Reporting and analysis.

In addition to PSA, you will find similar services being offered under different
names, such as:

• Service Chain Automation (SCA).
• Enterprise Service Automation (ESA).
• Enterprise Workforce management.
• Workforce Automation Solutions.
• Service Delivery Management Solutions.
• Services Process Optimization (SPO).

In this section on Professional Services Automation, we first define the PSA
market (Chapter 11.1). We then look into what kind of solutions are being offered
and where they are coming from (Chapter 11.2).