The Newest “Boogeyman” Clause in Professional Services Contracts has arrived … and it is about … surprise … GenAI.

On planet Saas, Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is typically treated as the ultimate metric. It’s the north star for investors, the fuel for growth, and the measure of a company’s health. But when your VCs are breathing down your neck, maximising ARR can become a dangerous trap. 

Imagine a customer embarking on a journey. Do they want an “insurance policy” and fixer in case they crash, or do they want a Seasoned Guide and a High-Performance Engine to ensure they reach their destination swiftly and successfully?

“When your consultants are not billing!” Scary title, no? But only for the professional services leaders, who see non-billable time as a problem to be solved, and bench time as something that has to be minimised at all cost. In my experience, that way of thinking is a mistake and a fundamentally flawed way of…

Utilisation is far from yet another dry business metric; it’s the heartbeat of any professional services organisation. But if you’re not careful, it can become a fluffy, meaningless number that tells you nothing about the health of your business. Many people fall into the trap of broadening the definition to include non billable ‘customer-facing’ activities.…

My post on PS attach rate triggered quite a series of LinkedIn messages and emails. One of the reasons it did is because – apart from suggesting context is required to interpret the PS attach rate metric – I did not suggest actual solutions or alternatives. My bad. So here we go, my musing on…