This document provides an overview of Service Performance Insight's Professional Service Performance Acceleration Program. The program uses Service Performance Insight's PS Maturity Model to assess professional service organizations across five pillars: vision/strategy/leadership/culture, client relationships, human capital alignment, service execution, and finance/operations. The assessment identifies the organization's maturity level for each pillar. Service Performance Insight then facilitates an executive workshop to develop consensus on priority improvement initiatives. The goal is to provide an objective assessment of strengths and weaknesses to guide strategic planning and accelerate performance improvement. Typical client engagements include a maturity assessment, employee survey, leadership interviews, and a benchmarking report with recommendations.

1. A Service Performance Insight
White Paper
Service Compass: Charting the Course
to Professional Service Excellence
Professional Service
Performance Acceleration™ Program
For Breakthrough Performance
September 2012
Service Performance Insight
6260 Winter Hazel Drive 25 Boroughwood Place
Liberty Township, OH 45044 USA Hillsborough, CA 94010 USA
Telephone: 513.759.5443 Telephone: 650.342.4690
David.Hofferberth@SPIresearch.com Jeanne.Urich@SPIresearch.com
www.SPIresearch.com

2. i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Professional Service Challenges................................................................................................. 1
Symptoms of Poor PS Alignment ................................................................................................ 1
Why is Benchmarking Important? ............................................................................................... 1
Professional Services Performance Acceleration Program ..................................................... 2
Goals and Benefits of the Performance Acceleration Program ............................................... 3
Representative Client Engagements ........................................................................................... 4
Proposed Engagement Approach................................................................................................ 5
Introduction to the PS Maturity Model™..................................................................................... 6
Service Maturity Levels................................................................................................................. 6
Project Overview............................................................................................................................ 8
Recommendations for the PS Maturity Model™ ........................................................................ 9
Getting Started............................................................................................................................... 9
Representative Service Performance Insight Clients.............................................................. 10
About Service Performance Insight .................................................................................... 11

3. Service Compass Professional Service Performance Acceleration Program™
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PROFESSIONAL SERVICE CHALLENGES
Professional service organizations (PSOs) provide one of the highest
leverage business models to quickly grow revenues and profits, but can
be the most difficult organizations to transform and change. Think about
the once great dot.com eBusiness integrators (the ants…Scient and
Viant) who launched new methodologies and penetrated the Fortune 50
almost overnight and then quickly succumbed as victims of the dot.com
bust. More recently the demise of Satyam and Bearing Point serve as a
grim reminder of the high price of failure caused by a lack of strategic
alignment.
Professional Service organizations are under tremendous pressure to
drive continuous improvement and achieve revenue and profit growth.
Running a PSO often feels like a balancing act between increasingly
challenging clients, constant financial pressure and a highly skilled but
demanding workforce.
SYMPTOMS OF POOR PS ALIGNMENT
∆ Unclear strategy
o Inability to capitalize on market opportunities
o Lack of alignment
o Lack of employee engagement
o Leadership and cultural issues
∆ Poor financial performance
o Revenue and margin below targets
o Poor forecasting accuracy, predictability, risk
∆ Unclear service value proposition
o No leverage to drive repeat sales
o Limited competitive differentiation
o Poor sales execution
o Unclear go-to-market strategy
∆ Immature processes
o Disparate systems, processes, tools
o Lack of project methods, quality, repeatability, IP
∆ Poor quality and customer satisfaction
o Failed projects
o Cost overruns
o Difficulty securing references
∆ Skills imbalance
o Not enough or too many people
o Excessive non-billable headcount
o Sub-par utilization, revenue per person
o Difficulty in recruiting, ramping, retaining
o Inability to quickly, easily staff projects
WHY IS BENCHMARKING IMPORTANT?
Service Performance Insight’s 2012 PS Maturity Model™ benchmark
provides a unique and quantifiable view of the profit and growth

4. Service Compass Professional Service Performance Acceleration Program™
Service Performance Insight Page 2
potential that exists within every PSO, given the ability to confront
market realities, focus strategic efforts, align the full organization and
follow through with operational excellence.
Organizations begin a service transformation because they want to:
∆ Accelerate revenue and margin growth either through mergers
and acquisitions or internal process improvements;
∆ Drive alignment between the service organization and other
departments, or improve internal service organization alignment;
∆ Assimilate new groups, companies or functions;
∆ Capitalize on new markets and create new solution offers;
∆ Implement new systems and processes to improve effectiveness
and efficiency;
∆ Improve quality and client satisfaction; and
∆ Optimize sales and marketing effectiveness.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES PERFORMANCE ACCELERATION
PROGRAM
Objective Business Planning for Breakthrough Results — in
Just Six Weeks
Service Performance Insight’s Professional Service Maturity™
acceleration program will help your company align around a common
view of the highest impact areas for the PS business by helping your
executive team prioritize and focus on the most critical improvements to
drive immediate and sustained productivity and profit growth.
The PS Maturity Model™ is a strategic planning and management
framework that is used by over 6,000 service and project-oriented
organizations worldwide to align business activities to the vision and
strategy of the organization, improve internal and external
communication, and monitor service organization performance against
key performance measurements and benchmarks.
SPI’s “outside-in” industry-standard assessment helps organizations
create a strategic plan to lay the foundation for sustained productivity
and profit improvement in the years to come. SPI Research brings more
than 100 years of combined experience transforming service, sales and
marketing organizations—we are confident we can help you accelerate
your organization’s business success.
Our senior consultants will work with your leadership team to provide a
quantitative and qualitative assessment of overall service organizational
maturity. The performance acceleration program will include
recommendations for improvement and an executive workshop to
identify your company’s highest impact initiatives and establish
leadership alignment around how to get started implementing them.

5. Service Compass Professional Service Performance Acceleration Program™
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GOALS AND BENEFITS OF THE PERFORMANCE ACCELERATION
PROGRAM
Given the importance of developing a high quality growing, profitable
service business, your company needs an unbiased industry-recognized
Maturity Assessment™ to give an accurate view of your company’s
service strengths and weaknesses.
∆ Provide a comprehensive assessment of your company’s service
business, using the objective PS Maturity Model™ and 2012
benchmark to diagnose areas of strength and weakness
∆ Conduct an employee engagement survey to gauge the level of
employee engagement and satisfaction while uncovering Talent
Management issues and improvement areas
∆ Use insights gleaned from confidential leadership and
stakeholder interviews to surface hidden issues and disconnects
to facilitate alignment around a shared view of PS priorities
∆ Provide recommendations for priority improvement initiatives,
based on experienced third party insight and analysis
o Quick-Start initiatives to begin immediately
o Create a short-list of strategic priorities
∆ Ensure executive support and alignment around the PS charter
and strategic business plan
∆ Facilitate executive alignment and commitment to recommended
improvements

6. Service Compass Professional Service Performance Acceleration Program™
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REPRESENTATIVE CLIENT ENGAGEMENTS
Typical client projects start with a rapid PS Maturity Assessment™,
followed by in-depth strategic initiative consulting support.
Comprehensive Maturity Assessment and Employee Engagement Survey for large (over 1,000
consultants) embedded service organization formed from over 15 acquisitions. The goal of the
project was to assess overall and individual practice maturity to lay the foundation for efficient
integration of acquisitions. Developed a formal, prioritized PS improvement roadmap.
Increased revenue from top customers. In three years the organization has gone from maturity
level 1 in all areas to level 4 or 5 in all areas. Maturity advancement has translated into net
profit improvement from break even to 18.1% while revenues have grown from $100M to $200M
with the same size staff.
Annual Maturity Assessment of large (over 1,000 consultants) embedded service organization
within a Global Fortune 20 product company. Created initial baseline global organizational
maturity model in 2008 followed by comprehensive assessment of 21 global and regional
business units in 2010. The global service organization used the assessment to create a 10
year strategic business plan based on advancing overall maturity by at least one level every two
years. The PS Maturity Model™ forms the basis of the “balanced scorecard” for services.
Within three years the organization has dramatically improved revenue, profit and strategic
alignment and has implemented a global Professional Service Automation solution which has
improved visibility, resource management effectiveness and billable utilization.
Annual Benchmark, Assessment and Employee Satisfaction Survey for medium size (over 400
consultants) federal government consulting firm. Developed a comprehensive assessment
including an annual employee satisfaction survey to drive executive team alignment and
position the firm for growth. Laid the foundation for priority improvement areas and strategic
acquisition plan resulting in the successful acquisition and integration of several privately-held
consulting organizations. The strategic assessment was instrumental in securing on-going
investor funding.
Business Assessment to Support Venture Capital Investment in large, global 1,300 person
consulting firm. Conducted stakeholder and client interviews to uncover risks and opportunities.
Developed comprehensive global pricing study to uncover pricing and utilization issues and
opportunities. Conducted Maturity Assessment Benchmark of four geographic practice areas.
Assessment included a comprehensive technology evaluation to support IT investment.
Developed comprehensive business assessment to support Venture Capitalist financial
investment in the firm.
Comprehensive PS Maturity™ Program to support improving the consulting capabilities of a
large, global partner network. Program includes: individual custom PS Maturity™ reports for
each participating partner. Development of individualized improvement roadmaps based on PS
Maturity™ reports with web-based training on all five service performance pillars. Business
planning and direct SPI consulting support for top 10% of partners.

7. Service Compass Professional Service Performance Acceleration Program™
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PROPOSED ENGAGEMENT APPROACH
∆ Use the PS Maturity Model ™ to assess all five Service
Performance Pillars™:
o Vision, Strategy, Leadership and Culture
o Client Relationships
o Human Capital Alignment including Employee
Engagement Survey
o Service Execution
o Finance and Operations
∆ Comprehensive review and assessment using qualitative and
quantitative techniques
o PS Maturity Model™ Diagnostic Survey
o Key Leadership Interviews compiled in Leadership
Insights workbook
o Employee engagement benchmark comparison
showcasing strengths and weaknesses
o Operational and Financial Performance Data Analysis
o Review of current strategic and operating plans
∆ Facilitate an Executive Workshop to review findings and drive
alignment around Quick-Starts and key improvement initiatives
∆ Deliver a comprehensive maturity report with benchmark
comparisons and recommended priority focus areas

8. Service Compass Professional Service Performance Acceleration Program™
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INTRODUCTION TO THE PS MATURITY MODEL™
The PS Maturity Model™ benchmarks, segments and analyzes a PSO
into five distinct areas of performance that are both logical and
functional.
The five Service Performance Pillars™ which form the foundation of all
service-oriented organizations are:
1. Vision, Strategy, Leadership and Culture: (CEO) a unique
view of the future and the role the service organization will play
in shaping it.
2. Client Relationships: (Marketing and Sales) the ability to
communicate effectively with employees, partners and
customers to generate opportunities and win deals.
3. Human Capital Alignment: (Human Resources) the ability to
attract, hire, retain and motivate high quality employees and
subcontractors.
4. Service Execution: (Engagement/Delivery) the methodologies,
processes and tools to effectively schedule, deploy and measure
the quality of the service delivery process.
5. Finance and Operations: (CFO) the ability to manage services
profit and loss — to generate revenue and profit while
developing repeatable operating processes, IT applications and
management controls.
Each of these pillars defines core functions and operating processes
within a billable professional services organization. For each service
performance pillar, we have defined approximately thirty-five key
performance measurements as the basis of the PS Maturity Model™.
SERVICE MATURITY LEVELS
The PS Maturity Model™ is based on the PS industry’s leading
performance benchmark which combines financial and operations

9. Service Compass Professional Service Performance Acceleration Program™
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measurements with qualitative information around the strategic vision,
strategy and alignment of the organization. It helps organizations not
only compare their current performance but also provides guidance to
move to the next level of maturity based on a balanced and focused
investment in leadership, customers, employees, processes, technology
and management controls. In order to determine the relative operational
effectiveness of each pillar, SPI Research created five maturity level
definitions:
 Level 1 — Initiated "Heroic": The PSO is in its early stages;
operating processes are ad hoc and fluid. The business
environment is chaotic and opportunistic, and the focus for the
PSO is primarily new client acquisition and reference building.
Employees wear many hats and serve many roles. The primary
goal is growth.
 Level 2 — Piloted "Functional Excellence": Core operating
processes have started to become repeatable. The company may
demonstrate best practices in separate functional areas or
geographies, but they have not yet been documented and
codified for the entire organization.
 Level 3 — Deployed "Project Excellence": The PSO has created
a set of standard processes and operating principles for all major
service performance pillars, but renegades and hold-outs may
still exist. Systems, measurements and controls are in place.
 Level 4 — Institutionalized "Portfolio Excellence": Management
uses precise measurements, metrics and controls, to effectively
manage the PSO. Each service-performance pillar is supported
by a detailed set of operating principles, tools and measurements.
 Level 5 — Optimized "Collaborative": The PSO focuses on
continual improvement of all elements of the five performance
pillars. A disciplined, controlled process is in place to measure
and optimize performance through both incremental and
innovative technological improvements. Management has
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
Initiated
Piloted
Deployed
Institutionalized
Optimized
Heroic
30%
Ad-hoc
Processes
Functional
Excellence
25%
Processes
start to
become
repeatable
Project
Excellence
25%
Set of
Standard
Processes
Created
Portfolio
Excellence
15%
Metrics &
Controls
are used
Collaborative
5%
Focus on
Continuous
Improvement

10. Service Compass Professional Service Performance Acceleration Program™
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established both quantitative and qualitative process-
improvement objectives, and continually revises them to reflect
changing business objectives.
The maturity level definitions allow PS firms to discover areas where
they are underperforming compared to their peers. In some cases this
performance may be a result of the organization’s strategy, for instance,
de-emphasizing service margin to accentuate business growth and new
market entry. Regardless of the motives, understanding each pillar’s
relative maturity can help PS executives implement an improvement
strategy to move their organization forward.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
SPI uses a proven approach to rapidly provide qualitative and
quantitative insights and effectively identify key areas of improvement.
We will work collaboratively with your leadership team to uncover
quantitative and qualitative insights. These insights lay the foundation
for a facilitated leadership workshop to develop a shared view of
strengths, weaknesses and business plan priorities.
Following are typical activities:

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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE PS MATURITY MODEL™
“We participated in the PS Maturity™ Benchmark survey and I must say this is
really fantastic material. The data is great but the insights are even more
valuable. I have been in PS for 30 years and run a 3,000 person organization
and this is the most comprehensive analysis of our business segment that I have
seen. Great work!”
David Klumb
VP Global Professional Services
Teradata
"This report is invaluable for any PS person who is responsible for either initiating
a PS business or operating one at any stage of the maturity life cycle."
Alan Waitt, CABM
Director Professional Services
ASI Consulting North America
"Great questionnaire – just filling it out gives me many things to think about and
many ideas for how to improve my business. You’re providing a great service,
and I thoroughly enjoyed your report."
David Suydam
President
Architech Solutions
“I have read and studied the PSMM and have found it to be an extremely
valuable document. I am using the 5 service performance pillars to measure our
progress along the path. For us, the PSMM is an immensely valuable tool.”
Ken Simpson
VP Services
ACI Worldwide
“This is an extremely comprehensive study of the Professional Services industry.
It provides incredible insights into the key metrics, trends and demographics of
PS practices that allow you to compare you practice against others in the
industry. This body of work is invaluable to anyone leading a Professional
Services practice.”
Chad Williams
Vice President, Services and Renewals
Advent Software
GETTING STARTED
To get started, contact jeanne.urich@spiresearch.com or call (650)
342-4690.

12. Service Compass Professional Service Performance Acceleration Program™
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REPRESENTATIVE SERVICE PERFORMANCE INSIGHT CLIENTS

13. Service Compass Professional Service Performance Acceleration Program™
Service Performance Insight (SPI Research) is a global research, consulting and training organization dedicated to helping professional
service organizations (PSOs) make quantum improvements in productivity and profit. In 2007, SPI developed the PS Maturity Model™ as a
strategic planning and management framework. It is now the industry-leading performance improvement tool used by over 6,000 service and
project-oriented organizations to chart their course to service excellence.
SPI provides a unique depth of operating experience combined with unsurpassed analytic capability. We not only diagnose areas for
improvement but also provide the business value of change. We then work collaboratively with our clients to create new management
processes to transform and ignite performance. Visit www.SPIresearch.com for more information on Service Performance Insight, LLC.
© 2012 Service Performance Insight Page 11
About Service Performance Insight
Jeanne Urich, Service Performance Insight Managing Director, is a renowned author, speaker and
thought leader focused on the global service economy. She is a trusted advisor and transformative
and operational change consultant to senior executives of leading services organizations, helping
them navigate the journey from business-as-usual to business-as-exceptional.
Prior to co-founding Service Performance Insight she was a corporate officer and leader of the
worldwide service organizations of Vignette, Blue Martini and Clarify, responsible for leading the
growth of their professional services, education, account management and alliances organizations.
She is the co-author of the ground breaking Professional Service Maturity Model™ benchmark used
by over 5,000 project-oriented organizations to diagnose and improve their performance. She is a featured speaker and author
for major software solution providers and industry associations.
She has a Bachelor’s Degree (Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa) in Math and Computer Science from Vanderbilt
University. She is a contributing author of Tips from the Trenches: the Collective Wisdom of over 100 Professional Service
Leaders. Contact Jeanne at jeanne.urich@spiresearch.com Phone (650) 342-4690.
R. David Hofferberth, PE, Service Performance Insight Managing Director, has over 25 years’
experience in information technology (IT) serving as an industry analyst, product director and
consultant. Hofferberth’s research is focused on the services economy, and in particular, on white-
collar productivity issues and the technologies that help people perform at their highest capacity.
Hofferberth’s background is extensive in services performance beginning in the early 1980s, where
he conducted studies on white-collar productivity in the banking, technology, energy and construction
sectors. In 1999 he introduced to the market the solution area now known as Professional Services
Automation (PSA), when he published the seminal report: Professional Services Automation:
Increasing Efficiencies and Profitability in Professional Services Organizations.
Prior to founding Service Performance Insight he was a Senior Director at Oracle and Aberdeen Group. Hofferberth earned an
MBA from Duke University and a BS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Tennessee. He is also a licensed
Professional Engineer (PE). Contact Dave at david.hofferberth@spiresearch.com Phone: (513) 759-5443.
Carey Bettencourt, Service Performance Insight Managing Director is a management consultant who
specializes in improvement and transformation for project-driven professional service organizations.
She is an experienced change management leader, expert in helping clients develop high performing
teams that deliver increased utilization, profit and customer satisfaction. Carey also helps PS
organizations identify, clarify, and create integrated communication, marketing, and product offerings
that drive market differentiation and increased sales.
Carey has over 20 years domestic and international experience with leading software companies. She
was a corporate officer and the senior vice president of the customer solutions organization at
Accruent, the top-ranked professional services organization for three consecutive years according to the SPI Research Maturity
benchmark. Carey was also a vice president at software firms ChannelPoint and Vroom Technologies responsible for
professional services, education, support, strategic alliances, and hosting services. She previously held consulting practice,
business development, and strategic alliance leadership roles at Oracle and J.D. Edwards.
Carey earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from UC Berkeley and an MBA from Pepperdine University. Contact
carey.bettencourt@spiresearch.com Phone: (949) 521-3830.