Discover the 9 favourite ERPs of successful consultancies

The reality of staffing often catches up with consultancies: 15-20% of consultants' time is wasted on administrative tasks. They can only bill for 65% to 75% of their time on average, when optimum profitability would require 80-85%.

This is the kind of inefficiency that an appropriate ERP system can detect and plug. Gaining 20 utilisation points represents an already substantial margin gain for a structure of twenty consultants! All that remains is to choose the right solution from the multitude of offerings on the market.

Here are the 9 most relevant ERP solutions for consultancies on the French market, highlighting their specific features, strengths and ideal use cases.

See all software Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Why use an ERP for your consultancy?

The central concern of consultancies is well known: the relationship between productive capacity (consultants) and revenue generated.

Put simply, a consultancy's profitability depends directly on its ability to convert consultants' working time (their main resource) into billable income.

In concrete terms, here are the three levers that a specialised ERP system can activate.

Maximise consultant utilisation rates

This is the number one issue for profitability. Consultants represent both your main cost (salaries) and your source of revenue (time billed). Every hour not billed is therefore a net loss.

A specialised ERP must give staffing managers the ability to identify the best matches in less than 5 minutes:

• instantly see which consultants will be available in the next 4-6 weeks (staffing gaps);
• quickly find out which consultants are available, and above all which ones have exactly the skills required for a particular assignment that is coming up;
• anticipate the end of current assignments, then plan how to replace these consultants on new projects.

Reliable invoicing and faster cash flow

Cash flow remains the Achilles heel of many consultancies. Even with a large number of assignments, some can run into cash flow problems if the money comes in too slowly. This is often what limits their ability to invest or recruit. On this point in particular, an effective ERP system should :

• automatically create invoices from validated hours, without manual re-entry ;
• eliminate errors that delay payment (such as incorrect rates or days forgotten);
• reduce the time spent checking and validating time before invoicing by 40%;
• reduce the average time taken to pay customers by 10-15 days.

Real-time control of assignment profitability

Many firms realise too late that an assignment is unprofitable. But at that point, it is often impossible to correct the situation.

A good ERP system provides managers with dashboards that enable them to :

• keep track each day of how much of the budget has been used up compared with the actual progress of the project;
• identify projects that are likely to go over budget before they do;
• analyse in detail why certain assignments are less profitable (too many senior staff? rates too low?);
• virtually test the impact of different decisions (such as changing the composition of the team) on the final margin.

Comparative table of the best ERP solutions for consultancies

Akuiteo

Akuiteo is one of the few to offer a fully integrated tool . From CRA to accounting, there are no interfaces with third-party software, everything is there.

With this unified architecture, you eliminate the usual friction between operational and financial systems, and speed up the execution of administrative processes.

Ideal type of firm: firms of 30 to 200 consultants in a phase of administrative professionalisation, organisations looking to strengthen their back office without increasing their workforce.

Akuiteo's concrete advantages :

• Faster monthly closings: you can reduce the closing time from 10-15 days to 3-5 days thanks to the elimination of manual reconciliations. You automate accounting entries directly from operational data.
• Native multi-entity management: you can process inter-company re-invoicing more reliably. Financial consolidation is automatic, and you can manage international tax issues with greater confidence.
• Differentiated user interfaces: Akuiteo has designed specific experiences for each profile (consultants, managers, sales people).

Akuiteo

18 reviews

SEE SOFTWARE

Comprehensive ERP Solutions for Service Industries

Learn more about Akuiteo

Axelor

Axelor comes with a low-code platform. This allows you to create and modify business applications without traditional development.

This capability fundamentally changes the relationship with the tool, as you adapt the ERP to your processes, rather than the other way round.

Ideal type of firm: innovative firms that consider their IS to be a competitive advantage, companies evolving rapidly in emerging fields, firms pushing the digital envelope.

Axelor's concrete advantages :

• Specific business applications without code: you can create modules on demand, in just a few days. A functional administrator can implement a new process in 1-2 days, compared with several weeks with a traditional ERP.
• Risk-free start-up: the publisher offers a free version for testing on a limited scope. Before upgrading to the paid versions (€35/user/month, or €55). You reduce the initial risk and validate the potential ROI before making a full commitment.
• Visual BPM for complex workflows: you can model and deploy sophisticated workflows to your business teams with little or no IT intervention.

Axelor

100 reviews

SEE SOFTWARE

ERP & BPM Open Source and Low Code

Learn more about Axelor

BoondManager

BoondManager offers comprehensive functional coverage, backed by over 15 years' experience in the market.

A true all-in-one tool, it combines project and business management, HR management and recruitment, CRM and time and attendance.

Ideal for: large firms (250 to 5,000 consultants) managing complex transformation projects, firms structured around practices.

The concrete benefits of BoondManager :

• Advanced project management: effectively manage all project phases centrally. Identify risks before they become critical, thanks to advanced indicators (burn rate evolution, plan/actual variances, charging anomalies, etc.).
• Reliable revenue prediction: draw up accurate revenue forecasts three months in advance, using historical analysis of conversions by type of opportunity.
• Hierarchical dashboards: the ERP displays specific visualisations by level (partners, practice directors, operational managers), significantly reducing preparation time for management committees with KPIs calculated in real time.

BoondManager

96 reviews

SEE SOFTWARE

ERP for IT services company, consulting & engineering firms

Learn more about BoondManager

Everwin

Everwin is certainly the easiest to integrate with software on the market. At the same time, it offers an attractive level of customisation, without the need for heavy development.

This "best-of-breed" approach means you can build a tailor-made information system for a wide variety of practices.

Ideal type of practice: all of them! Firms with specific business processes, organisations looking to preserve their existing software, firms focused on excellence in recruitment and talent management, etc.

Everwin's concrete advantages :

• Business customisation without technical constraints: specific processes (e.g. audit methodologies, specific validation cycles, etc.) can be configured in great detail, without recourse to development.
• Ecosystem of pre-configured integrations: Everwin has a native connector with any leading service (Qlik for BI, Universign for electronic signatures, Mailchimp for email marketing, etc.).
• Excellence in HR management and recruitment: the HR module is the most interesting of the 9 solutions presented. It covers the entire recruitment cycle and provides a detailed skills map.

Everwin CXM

SEE SOFTWARE

CRM for service companies

Learn more about Everwin CXM

Fitnet Manager

Fitnet Manager adopts a modular approach. Over 40 extensions that can be activated on demand! This is clearly the ERP that offers the smoothest progression from initial simplicity to functional sophistication.

Ideal type of practice: practices of all sizes that prefer to adopt functionalities gradually, organisations that are reluctant to use traditional ERP systems, organisations with non-technical teams.

Fitnet Manager's concrete benefits:

• A la carte extensions with no functional redundancy: you can activate advanced functionalities (Gantt, variable pay, multi-currency) on demand as your needs change. In short, a firm can start with the core solution and then activate the advanced modules at its own pace.
• Exceptional user adoption: the interface is uncluttered. It's one of the ERPs that requires the least training for consultants.
• Real-time decision-making reporting: a number of dashboards are already pre-configured.

Fitnet Manager

14 reviews

SEE SOFTWARE

The ERP Designed for Consulting and Services Companies

Learn more about Fitnet Manager

Karanext

Karanext achieves a rare level of automation for administrative processes.

It is the most interesting ERP for firms looking to drastically minimise their back-office costs.

Ideal type of firm: firms looking to minimise their administrative costs, fast-growing structures with no desire to increase their back office proportionately, firms operating with small administrative teams.

Karanext's concrete advantages :

• Full automation of the back office: you can invoice automatically based on validated times, manage contracts with electronic signatures, automatically letter payments, etc. It's clearly the champion for back-office work!
• Complete digitisation: you manage all documents (contracts, invoices, expense claims, receipts) with electronic signature and archiving with probative value. Powerful document search.
• Advanced financial forecasting: it calculates sales projections based on confirmed projects and the weighted pipeline. The same applies to cash flow forecasts, incorporating historical payment periods.

Kicklox Platform

Kicklox Platform software is designed primarily to solve staffing problems. In this niche, it is clearly the best, producing an ultra-precise mapping of skills. A sophisticated algorithm takes care of the matching.

In an unusual format, this platform is sold as a white label. In other words, it is customised to your image (logo, colours, text, matching, domain name).

Ideal type of firm: large firms with complex matrix organisations, structures operating in regulated sectors (defence, health, finance), firms managing a wide range of highly technical profiles.

The concrete advantages of Kicklox Platform :

• Multi-dimensional expertise mapping: it's the only ERP to reference skills that go well beyond a simple skills inventory, with an assessment of the level of mastery, history of use and mapping of areas of collective expertise. A global vision of intellectual capital that is quite unique.
• Staffing algorithms based on multiple criteria: their matching system simultaneously analyses technical skills, sector experience, soft skills, individual preferences and availability constraints. This approach increases both the quality of the teams put together and the utilisation rate.
• Secure architecture for sensitive environments: the infrastructure is designed for demanding contexts with access rights and encryption. These features enable firms working on sensitive projects to guarantee confidentiality.

Kicklox Platform

SEE SOFTWARE

Innovative Project Management for Tech Talent

Learn more about Kicklox Platform

Stafiz

Like Kicklox, Stafiz excels at optimising consultant staffing and utilisation rates.

But it is more comprehensive. We appreciate its ability to precisely visualise the costs associated with projects and to break down profitability finely at all hierarchical levels.

Ideal type of firm: firms whose business model is based on a mix of fee-based and fixed-price contracts, organisations seeking to maximise their utilisation rate, organisations with a large number of consultants to allocate, firms in the process of improving their profitability.

The practical benefits of Stafiz :

• Multi-criteria search for available consultants: you can quickly identify the right consultants for each assignment, using multi-dimensional filters (skills, availability, daily rate, location, certification).
• Granular breakdown of costs and profitability: Stafiz gives you visibility of financial parameters at every level (project, team, task, consultant), including time spent, purchasing and subcontracting.
• Digital commercial-production-invoicing continuity : a true ERP from invoicing to pre-accounting and settlement. No re-keying. Sales follow-up feeds directly into staffing, which generates timesheets, automatically producing invoices.

Stafiz

52 reviews

SEE SOFTWARE

App for consulting companies

Learn more about Stafiz

VSActivity (VSA)

VSActivity is a particularly comprehensive ERP capable of centralising the management of multiple entities within a single company.

Aware of the business challenges specific to consultancies, Veryswing offers perfectly adapted functional coverage (activity reports, assignment order management and tracking, etc.), which it developsin line with user feedback.

Ideal for firms with atypical or complex business processes or rules, or multi-entity companies.

The concrete benefits of VSActivity :

• Unlimited business parameterisation: Veryswing has designed an ERP that adapts perfectly to the most specific rules (special margin calculations, atypical validation workflows, hybrid business models, etc.), without costly development. Practices with complex fee structures are clearly part of the target.
• Enterprise portal: an integrated enterprise portal centralises communications, alerts, tasks and requests, creating a single point of entry for all interactions. For firms whose consultants are mainly on assignment with clients, this service makes it easier to find internal information.
• Guaranteed data security and sovereignty: ISO 27001 certification, 100% French hosting and strict partitioning of data by client. This secure architecture meets the requirements of sensitive sectors.

VSActivity (vsa)

11 reviews

SEE SOFTWARE

Streamline Project Management with Versatile Tools

Learn more about VSActivity (vsa)

How do you choose your ERP for consultancy firms?

Alignment with your priority field issue

Identify your major problem and choose the solution that excels in this specific area. The classic mistake is to choose an ERP for its overall functional richness, when you should instead target the one that excels on your specific "pain point".

👉 F or example:

• if your priority is to optimise staffing, choose Stafiz or Kicklox rather than a general-purpose solution;
• for the financial chain with integrated accounting, Akuiteo would be more appropriate.

Assessing the total cost over 3 years

Calculate all the costs precisely:

• licences ;
• implementation ;
• training (0.5 to 1 day per key user) ;
• integration ;
• specific developments (allow for an additional 20% budget) ;
• annual maintenance (15-20% of the initial cost).

For a firm of 50 consultants, you can reckon on a minimum of €90K, and a maximum of €200K over 3 years. This TCO approach will help you avoid budget surprises, which are common in this type of project.

The user experience with a view to adoption

Specifically test the ergonomics of the consultant interfaces.

Assess :

• the time recording processes
• the quality of the mobile application
• the simplicity of validation workflows
• the relevance of profile-based dashboards.

💡 Have your future real users test the ERP! A solution that is technically perfect, but not adopted by employees, becomes a wasted investment.

Sector relevance

Check that the ERP is tailored to the specifics of your business.

Typically, check that there is a success fee management function for strategy firms, a contract management function for ESNs, a complex planning function for auditors, and so on.

Generic functionality will not suffice most of the time.

Ability to integrate with your ecosystem

Examine the quality of the APIs.

💡 As a reminder, APIs are the native connectors with your critical tools: check the automated export/import capabilities and compatibility with your infrastructure. Ask for real demonstrations of these integrations, and don't limit yourself to promises.

Human and organisational aspects

Evaluate the cultural proximity with the publisher. Find out about the quality of support (response times, availability), the user community and the change management programme on offer. Contact references similar to your firm to check these aspects, which are absolutely crucial.

💡Our advice: to use these criteria effectively, you can adopt a three-stage approach:

• create an evaluation grid weighted according to your specific priorities ;
• get in touch and organise targeted demonstrations based on your real-life use cases, not generic presentations;
• contact and, if possible, visit similar user firms to observe the tool in real-life conditions.

See all software Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

ERP for consultancies in a nutshell

A final word: the real indicator of an ERP's success is not its technical sophistication. Rather, it's the rate at which consultants adopt it on a daily basis. Successful consultancies have understood this: they start by optimising the "consultant journey", even before looking at advanced reporting or analysis functions for management.

Consultants work under constant pressure, generally on a client basis, with high utilisation targets (80-85%). They will rarely spend more than 5 to 15 minutes a day on administrative tasks, regardless of the strategic importance of ERP for the firm. A consultant who has to spend 15 minutes entering his CRA will often put this task off... until it has accumulated over several days!

Clearly, the ERP must offer a visible personal benefit: visualisation of future planning, monitoring of usage targets, access to expense claims in the process of being processed, and so on. Or else intelligent notifications sent at the right moment (end of day, eve of end of month).