- June 16, 2021
- John Belden
- Reading Time: 2 minutes
This month, UpperEdge’s project staffing database will bring the total value of all projects completed over the last 5 years to just over $20B in value. To commemorate this milestone, we will share some insights to support your projects which may be counterintuitive to your thinking. These valuable and provocative learnings will be shared in a webinar.
About the Benchmarking Database
As part of every engagement, UpperEdge captures data provided by the SIs that are bidding on our client’s projects. We capture the estimates in the form of staffing models that represent each resource proposed from the SI as well as the client. These staffing models break down the staffing level, the geographic location, the services provided, and the rate cards for both the SIs and the clients.
As each staffing model is loaded, the data is normalized and mapped to UpperEdge’s standard categories while retaining the specific nomenclature provided by the SIs. Along with capturing the initial proposals, UpperEdge also captures revisions to the estimate throughout the RFP process as well as the actuals during project execution.
UpperEdge integrates this database into a number of our delivery processes including:
- Supporting our benchmarking of vendor estimates
- Tuning APEX, our Monte Carlo simulation tool, that provides benchmarks on sole source engagements and Phase 0 estimates
- Providing a foundation of real data to support the quantitative risk models used to recommend project contingency levels.
The database represents $20B in project value with projects covering all of the major SI vendors, software platforms, and development methodologies. More than half of the data has been loaded in the last two years, making it extremely current and reflective of today’s projects.
Most Asked About Benchmarks
Over the past few weeks, we have surveyed our clients to identify what they are interested in from our data. We have cataloged their input and will report out on the following:
- Trends over the last five years:
- How has the race to the cloud changed the way that SIs staff projects?
- What was the impact of the pandemic? Will any of these trends continue?
- Off-shoring started more than 20 years ago. Is the trend continuing or regressing?
- Estimates/actual costs over the lifecycle:
- What range should you expect on the first set of proposals?
- Where did the final RFP estimate end up compared to the initial proposals?
- How did the project’s actual costs compare to the winning bid?
- Key Comparisons
- How do estimates from Accenture, Deloitte, IBM, PWC, and others compare?
- Is there a difference between agile and waterfall methods?
- Do platforms (SAP, Oracle, Workday etc.) reflect a variation?
If you would like additional topics covered, please email me at jbelden@upperedge.com.
Comment below, follow me on Twitter @jmbelden98 find my other UpperEdge blogs and follow UpperEdge on Twitter and LinkedIn. Learn more about our Project Execution Advisory Services.
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