Supernova Award Category
Data to Decisions
The Problem
As the Technology Solutions division took on more business, it was struggling to remain agile due to technology shortcomings. Its cloud-based Professional Services Automation (PSA) solution was not connected to the parent company’s on-premise ERP system. The result was duplicate efforts and inaccurate data. To support tremendous growth – both in the US and abroad – and gain more flexibility, JLL Technology Solutions needed to connect its PSA and finance solution. King’s priority was finding a cloud-based PSA solution that integrated seamlessly with the company’s ERP system and the division’s Salesforce CRM deployment.
The Solution
With FinancialForce PSA, the division can anticipate project pipeline spikes, intelligently allocate resources, and efficiently and profitably keep over 1,000 projects on track at any given time. Because all project-related information flows into the company’s financial system, JLL gets a complete picture of each customer lifecycle. In one place, the company sees all account opportunities, projects, and invoices. JLL Technology Solutions takes advantage of FinancialForce’s extended ecosystem of partners via the App Exchange to support new business needs on the fly, for the utmost in agility.
The results
King loves the fact that FinancialForce makes it possible to connect all employees for tracking, management, and communications. “The integration between FinancialForce and Salesforce provides us a hub to navigate all the information needed to deliver services to our customers,” explains King.
He’s also impressed with the striking impact of using FinancialForce PSA. “From both a financial and project perspective, we were able to launch and scale to support a more complex business model,” King continues. Specifically, the division went from operating under a single currency to nine currencies while supporting a nearly 4-fold increase in users. Moreover, FinancialForce PSA enabled JLL Technology Solutions to optimize its resource utilization by 12% while increasing billings 7%.
Looking forward, this IT visionary anticipates using AI-powered analytics to forecast pipeline and revenues. “We want to exceed our goals every quarter, every year. That's where we're going next,” he says.
Metrics
After shifting to FinancialForce, we went from a single currency to nine currencies, and from a single company to thirteen business units while supporting a 3.8X increase in user headcount. The platform scaled with us every step of the way in this transition towards a far more complex business model. We were able to see incredible ROI in terms of both our global project and financial health. With FinancialForce Professional Services Automation, we saw a dramatic 12% increase in resource utilization driven by the transparency and reporting functionalities the platform offers. Using FinancialForce Accounting, we were also able to drive a dramatic 7% increase in billing rates. Across the board, FinancialForce has enabled us to paint a complete picture of the customer lifecycle, from opportunities to projects to invoices—all in one place.
The Technology
FinancialForce Professional Services Automation
FinancialForce Accounting
Salesforce Sales Cloud
Disruptive Factor
My goal as an IT leader is to constantly disrupt the status quo and find new and innovative ways to successfully drive JLL forward as a business. I’m always on the hunt for platforms that fit our cloud-first philosophy, platforms that enable my team to expand into new revenue streams, new product lines, and new geographies with ease. At our core, JLL is a technology company that operates in the real estate space, and we’re constantly spinning up innovative new practices. One example is our IoT practice which started in December 2018 and is now already fourth in revenue out of our 8 business units. The reason we were able to spin up a new branch of the business so quickly was because we had already built a foundation of scalable platforms like FinancialForce that enable infinite growth and flexibility.
Shining Moment
One of the moments I’m incredibly proud of was when JLL was recognized as a 2018 FinancialForce Innovator at the annual thought leadership conference, Community Live. We were honored with the Business Model Innovation award, because of the incredible ROI we’ve seen from utilizing FinancialForce to drive a highly sophisticated global business. This recognition only fuels our desire to continue to be disruptors in our space.