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Resource management and allocation.

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Adobe Workfront optimises resource management and allocation.

Strategically allocating and using your organisation's resources — such as people, budget and time — directly affects efficiency, productivity and profitability.

Workfront provides the visibility and actionable insights necessary to optimise resource use, mitigate potential risks and drive significant business value by ensuring the right people are assigned to the right work — all at the right time.

Resource management demands are constantly changing.

Effective resource management is a crucial business function that helps organisations meet their strategic objectives and deliver projects successfully. The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) is transforming the way projects are planned and executed. AI is now applied to tasks such as predicting project dependencies and delays, identifying resource shortages and automating routine manual tasks. Many project teams now take a hybrid approach to project management, combining Agile, Waterfall and Lean methodologies. This highlights the need for flexibility in managing increasingly diverse and complex projects.

What is resource management?

Resource management involves determining how to allocate your budget, time and team capacity effectively. It empowers team leaders to make the most of available resources to achieve the greatest organisational value. To do this, you need total visibility into everything you have to work with — from budgets and tools to team members sets.

Common resource management and project resourcing challenges.

Businesses operate in often unpredictable financial markets that face economic uncertainties. Concerns about AI-driven productivity, talent shortages, inflation, regulatory changes and global market fluctuations complicate planning and resource allocation. Identifying, attracting and retaining skilled individuals is challenging, making strategic resource management more vital than ever.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software offers the potential for significant improvements in resource management. However, implementing resource management faces numerous challenges with one of the biggest being low end-user adoption. If employees aren’t adequately informed about the rationale behind the ERP implementation and its impact on their daily tasks, they may resist adopting new resource management workflows. This can result in unnecessary time being spent on resource allocation.

Another key challenge is the potential misalignment between the ERP system and an organisation's evolving business needs. An ERP project scope that’s heavily customised based on current requirements may struggle to adapt to changing business goals, potentially requiring costly replacements or further customisations. Flawed project execution — characterised by unclear responsibilities and poor communication — can also derail ERP implementations, resulting in delays, scope deviations and budget overruns.

Integrating a new ERP system with existing legacy systems can be a complex and costly endeavour, potentially leading to data inaccuracies, redundancies or even data loss. Additionally, organisations may face IT system risks if their existing infrastructure — including hardware and software — is outdated and incompatible with a new ERP system.

Recognising these potential challenges is crucial for organisations considering or implementing an ERP. Adobe Workfront offers a specific approach to resource management.

How Adobe Workfront improves resource management.

Managing resources includes the following stages:

  • Configuration
  • Users
  • Job roles
  • Schedules
  • Project preferences
  • Resource pools
  • Resource management preferences
  • Resource allocation
  • Analysis

Workfront resource management features.

Resource planner

Support the first stage of resource management by budgeting project time for your resources according to scheduled availability. You can organise users into resource pools and assign multiple pools to a project in the planning stage.

Scenario planner

Use a high-level planning tool to help you to manage resources across multiple initiatives, which can span several years and encompass multiple projects. You can apply the best scenario to maximise resource availability and your budget. The scenario planner requires a separate licence in addition to a Workfront licence.

Workload balancer

Schedule or assign resources to tasks with the workload balancer. It supports scheduling and allocating resources within a lower-level stage of resource management. This is based on the number of hours needed to complete tasks and resource availability. Using the workload balancer, you can assign users to work that is currently unassigned or assigned to job roles.

Utilisation report

Analyse budgeted, planned and actual resource allocations across projects with the utilisation report. You can compare budgeted, planned and actual allocations for your projects and understand their impact on the project's cost and revenue.

FAQs

What are resource management techniques?
  • Resource planning: Identifying necessary resources for project completion.
  • Resource allocation: Assigning each task on your list to the best resources available.
  • Resource utilisation: Analysing your team’s capacity over time and adjusting to improve value.
  • Resource forecasting: Planning to ensure resources are balanced across future projects.

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