Resource Planning Software: Selection Guide

Resource planning software provides critical capabilities:

Capacity visibility: See how much availability your team has across any time period.

Project scheduling: Assign people to projects with specific time allocations.

Conflict detection: Identify when someone is overbooked or when project needs exceed available capacity.

Skills tracking: Match project requirements with team member expertise.

Forecasting: Project future capacity based on confirmed and potential work.

Utilization reporting: Track how effectively resources are being used.

When selecting resource planning software, consider:

Visual scheduling: Drag-and-drop interfaces make planning intuitive and fast.

Integration with project management: Resource plans should connect to actual project work and time tracking.

Flexibility: Support for different resource types, allocation methods, and planning horizons.

What-if modeling: Ability to explore different scenarios before committing to plans.

Real-time updates: Plans should reflect actual changes as they happen.

Reporting and analytics: Insights into utilization, forecast accuracy, and trends over time.

Agencies have particular requirements for resource planning:

Multi-project environment: Team members typically work on multiple clients simultaneously.

Variable skill needs: Different projects require different skill mixes.

Contractor integration: Many agencies use freelancers who need to be planned alongside employees.

Profitability connection: Resource allocation decisions directly impact project margins.

Monton provides resource planning designed for agency workflows, with visual scheduling that shows team allocation alongside project profitability. You can see not just who's available, but what financial impact different allocation decisions have.