The Salesforce-based ERP and professional services software provider has integrated generative AI to streamline the estimation process and ‘de-risk’ new projects. Credit: GaudiLab / Shutterstock Certinia has joined the growing ranks of enterprise software vendors turning to generative AI to enhance their offerings. The provider of ERP and professional services automation software based on the Salesforce platform today announced it has added AI-powered features aimed at simplifying common processes for midrange service firms to its latest update. The Spring ’24 update, released today, contains numerous enhancements to Certinia’s core offerings. The aforementioned AI integration will fuel several new functionalities, including the ability to generate professional services estimates programmatically based on the company’s own data, as well as the ability to estimate the chances of closing a deal based on a given estimate. The estimation process is notoriously complex — and lengthy — in the professional services sector. On average, it takes professional services firms more than a month from the beginning of the estimating process to actually send an estimate to a customer, said Chloe Stephenson, a senior product strategy manager at Certinia, in a press briefing held last week. One of the key reasons for that is that professional services companies need specialized information to make the most accurate estimates possible, forcing them in some cases to make trade-offs between accuracy and speed. Certinia’s latest update takes aim at that issue with a “guided scoping” tool, essentially a wizard that guides users through pre-configured questions and runs those responses through existing company data to provide accurate estimates much more quickly. “What this is going to do in the background is, depending on the answers to these scoping requirements, it’s going to automatically update our baseline implementation template in a standardized way,” Stephenson said. Certinia’s new features should also allow for “de-risking” of new projects, by identifying potential pitfalls in a given deal, accurately rating the resources available to handle it, and helping services companies make smarter adjustments to those estimates. AI will also be applied in other areas, such as adding contextual commentary to financial reports, automating the recording and approval of vendor invoices, and quickly flagging areas of ongoing projects that are beginning to lag behind schedule. Visualization is a key part of the new release, according to Certinia’s briefing. There, the company showed off a series of dashboards that enable users to perform tasks such as synchronize employee schedules in response to customer requests, track whether billable elements of a project have been sitting idle or not, and keep a running comparison of a project’s current revenue compared to earlier estimates. The company’s core offerings are designed to provide tracking, metrics, and a host of other administrative functionality to companies too large to offer services like IT contracting or marketing projects on a purely ad hoc basis, but too small to contract with global systems integrators like PwC or Accenture, according to ISG research director Stephen Hurrell. Certinia has been largely successful at that, as building its platform on top of Salesforce offered several key advantages that have helped sharpen the company’s focus. “They’ve done a good job utilizing the Salesforce capabilities,” Hurrell said. “Rather than building from scratch with a database, where you have to build all the administration capability, they can piggyback and leverage what Salesforce has built.” The considerations for providing streamlined professional software to a services-based company are very different than those involved in a more product-based company, he noted. Resource allocation is a more complicated task for service providers, and order management and supply chains are less of an issue. “If you’re selling one-time goods, then you’re taking an order and that order might have a complication, or maybe a fulfillment issue,” Hurrell said. “But that’s it, you know?” The key advantage in Certinia’s newest release, he said, is mainly its use of AI to gain a deeper understanding of a given project and avoid risk. “It’s very easy to lose money on projects,” Hurrell said. “So that ability to utilize data from past experiences to be able to indicate preemptively where issues may arise … is really attractive.” Certinia’s Spring 2024 updates and capabilities are now live and generally available, with the exception of the company’s CS Cloud offering, which is currently available on an invite-only basis until later this year. No pricing changes are in place for existing licenses. Related content news OpenAI sets up new safety body in wake of staff departures After losing a number of senior staff over disputes about oversight of its technology, OpenAI is creating new governance structures as it embarks on the development of its next-generation AI model. By Elizabeth Montalbano May 28, 2024 5 mins Generative AI IT Governance brandpost Sponsored by Randstad How CIOs can use internal mobility and redeployment for successful digital transformation The role of your people is key a factor in the success of digital transformation. Find out how redeployment and talent transition experts, Randstad RiseSmart, can help organizations at all stages of the digital transformation journey. By Neal Weinberg May 28, 2024 5 mins Digital Transformation opinion Navigating the Cybersecurity Threat Landscape in the UAE: Strategies for CISOs By Andrea Benito May 28, 2024 4 mins feature 10 most difficult-to-fill IT roles — and how to address the gap With AI, cybersecurity, and data analytics talent in short supply, IT leaders are upskilling, recruiting from the business, highlighting culture, and relying on contractors to secure the talent they need. By Stephanie Overby May 28, 2024 11 mins Hiring Staff Management PODCASTS VIDEOS RESOURCES EVENTS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe