The Focal Point Blog // Resource Management // Team Parallax // January 6, 2023

Top 5 Replicon Alternatives & Competitors To Consider

Are you a digital services leader looking for a solution that can better serve your teams, yourself, and your business? We know there are a lot of tools and technologies to choose from today — and that assessing all options can quickly become overwhelming. 

We see you, we hear you — and we’re here to let you know why services companies and agencies are choosing Parallax, the solution that provides teams with fewer disruptions to current workflows as well as accurate insights and reliable forecasts that increase confidence and accelerate growth. Let’s go! 

Table of Contents: Best Replicon Alternatives & Competitors 

Why do you need an alternative to Replicon (Polaris PSA)? 

Key Features For A Viable Replicon (Polaris PSA) Alternative

Top 5 Replicon (Polaris PSA) Alternatives

Which Replicon (Polaris PSA) Alternative will work for your organization?

Why do you need an alternative to Replicon (Polaris PSA)?

You want more personalization

People who work for digital services companies are under a lot of pressure, as there’s an expectation that everyone can and should move fast and move smart — but some solutions are built with personalization as a priority. Others are designed to work for you, no matter what your role is. Parallax users, for example, have features available to them that weed out excess information and zero in on the details that make it easier to do their specific job – in fewer clicks and with way less hassle. 

You need more robust planning capabilities 

Whether a resource manager, project manager, or practice lead, the people responsible for making sure resource plans are reasonable based on project goals and tasked with balancing workloads to maximize utilization need accurate data to get it right — but not all tools are able to provide accurate, real-time views into capacity and utilization. With Parallax, users can improve their resource planning process through automatic integration with sales pipeline and backlog data that helps to inform resourcing decisions as well as access to a more accurate, intuitive capacity and utilization view that automatically accounts for critical information, such as holidays and paid time off.

You want to avoid hidden fees

If you’re a services company looking for sustainable growth, you want simple, straightforward pricing from your platform – one that doesn’t come with any surprises. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for some solutions to promote one, reasonable price, but in order to get the real value out of the platform, it requires additional features that usually come at a significant cost. Other platforms today have fixed pricing with no hidden fees and provide access to all features from the get-go so there’s speed to value (yup, we’re talking about Parallax 😇).

You need efficient, reliable reporting capabilities you can actually trust 

Some platforms don’t have intuitive reporting features, and it ends up taking teams a long time and/or several tries to pull the information and reports they need to 1) do their jobs and 2) make smart decisions. In some cases, by the time they get to the data weeks later, the opportunity is lost. Fortunately, there are platforms with reporting and insights capabilities built specifically to help services companies drive smarter operations, unlock better forecasting, and improve business performance. 

Key Features For A Viable Replicon (Polaris PSA) Alternative

Reliable forecasting

Forecasts help leaders make smart, proactive decisions in support of their business and people. Without reliable, real-time insights, however, forecasts fall apart, and the business can suffer. Some solutions enable both smarter resource planning so that leaders can see how they’re performing on a variety of financial and operational metrics and real-time forecasting that allows them to project future performance and make proactive decisions. 

Rapid implementation 

Leaders today are looking for a platform that allows their teams to get actual value from it, quickly and with less friction. They want a combination of fast implementation AND speed to value. Watch out for tools that don’t have straightforward implementation and adoption timelines, as this uncertainty can cause unnecessary stress and disruption amongst teams. 

Predictable pricing 

From the beginning, leaders need to have an understanding of a platform’s pricing structure — no one wants to be surprised by hidden fees that are required to experience value. Some platforms provide approachable, predictable pricing and don’t charge for freelancers or non-billable users to use the tool. 

Designed for agencies  

Some tools and technologies take a one-size-fits-all approach, which tends to require extensive customization down the road in order to get value out of the tool. Digital agencies and software development shops should consider platforms designed for them, built with their unique needs and wants in mind. Their platform needs to be just as flexible, fast, and future-forward as they are. 

Top 5 Replicon (Polaris PSA) Alternatives

1. Parallax

Parallax is a solution leveraging a different approach than other platforms on the market. A purpose-built platform for digital services companies, Parallax leverages native integrations for the best-in-class tools that are already in use. This provides fewer disruptions to current workflows AND a forward-looking view into the business that enables better resource management, tighter operations, and stronger performance. 

Parallax is a team of industry experts dedicated to removing friction points and solving business challenges for services companies — no really, we’re passionate about removing your roadblocks because we’ve experienced them ourselves. That’s why the solution is designed to help leaders free up their time spent in spreadsheets so they can focus on what they do best: setting vision, delivering great work, inspiring their teams, and growing the business. 

With Parallax, services businesses gain centralized insights, gathered from across the organization, to inform critical conversations on resource planning, forecasting, and much more. Everyone feels more empowered to make smarter decisions that drive measurable growth, ultimately shifting the business from an operational stage into its strategic era. ✨ 

3 reasons why Parallax is the best Replicon (Polaris PSA) alternative

  • Smart forecasting: Parallax allows leaders to step away from their outdated, often-manual approaches for collecting and uncovering business-critical insights; they gain centralized insights and a future-looking view to create forecasts that drive the business forward. 
  • Automatic integrations: Parallax allows for orchestration between best-in-class tools, providing automatic integrations for both sales pipeline data to enable deeper scenario planning for leaders and project management capabilities to enable smoother, streamlined operations. 
  • Predictable pricing: Parallax pricing is tied to value and real, metrics-driven opportunities—when our team shares pricing, we also show where we believe ROI can come from within the business. Plus, pricing is locked. There will never be any surprises, and it doesn’t charge more for new users. 

2. Metric.AI 

Source: metric.ai

Metric.AI is an all-in-one platform designed to provide a single source of truth for agencies’ financial data. The platform includes various capabilities, ranging from time tracking, resource allocation, and project budgeting, to invoicing, analytics, and forecasting. It provides real-time metrics around profit, utilization, and effective bill rates and also allows users to create custom metrics for enhanced decision-making. Metric.AI offers more predictability into the planning process, identifying potential risks and uncovering insights that can help inform business strategy.

3. Monday.com 

Source: monday.com

Monday is a comprehensive platform that’s designed to help teams manage their entire workflow within a single digital workspace. It’s a project management software that helps to increase transparency and visibility within day-to-day operations—it automates repetitive tasks, enhances team collaboration, and creates visibility in workflows. Teams can use the platform to manage all projects, but they can also use it as a CRM, to manage ad campaigns, or even to manage video production. Monday has various plans available depending on the company’s needs. 

4. Projector PSA

Source: blog.bigtime.net/consultant-time-tracking-software

BigTime Software’s Projector PSA is a cloud-based, best-of-breed professional services automation (PSA) solution for services organizations, designed to manage and optimize operations for users. The platform allows businesses to experience improved project performance, optimized resourcing, and higher profits. Its foundation accounts for various operational elements, including time and expense management, project budgeting, invoicing, subcontractor management, rate and revenue management, revenue recognition, financial reporting, and more. 

5. Wrike 

Source: wrike.com

An easy-to-use tool, Wrike streamlines the internal project management and collaboration processes across teams. The platform focuses on the accomplishment of tasks rather than entire projects, offering workflow customization for companies to make processes more company- or industry-specific. It’s built to streamline proofing and reporting for marketing campaigns, to more easily develop creative assets and have them routed through approvals quickly, and to support project managers more easily track deadlines and deliver results. Wrike offers various plans with different pricing structures depending on the company’s needs.

Which Replicon (Polaris PSA) Alternative will work for your organization?

Listen: we all know every business has its own unique needs and that every leader has their own wish-list for the technologies they adopt and implement for their teams. That’s the nature of the industry — and really, the nature of business. But there is one common theme that all companies should be striving for with the platforms they choose and use: it should be just as dynamic as the business itself is. 

Your platform should be able to flex and pivot as you flex and pivot. It should make it easier for everyone to do their jobs. It should enable leaders to create accurate, reliable forecasts that instill confidence among their teams and clients. And it should provide powerful insights that drive thoughtful, strategic growth

Parallax was built specifically for digital services companies, by a team who has walked in your shoes. We’re ready to work with you to solve your operational challenges and help you deliver better insights that create a more aligned, strategic, future-forward business. 

Ready to level up? 😎  We’re here to answer any questions you have.