The One Change That Finally Made Our Data Make Sense

This was one of those changes that seemed small but ended up transforming how we planned and operated.

We added live, per-person daily availability to our system. That’s it. It doesn’t sound revolutionary. But once we layered that data point into our resource planning and reporting tools and updated it live, every hour, everything made more sense.

Before this, we were doing what a lot of teams do. We were forecasting using static numbers. We had FTEs. We had general allocations. We tracked logged hours. We had assumptions. But what we didn’t have was anything that accounted for the daily realities of delivery work; like PTO, internal projects, team off-sites, non-billable client support, or leadership responsibilities.

And when someone’s availability changed, when they took a half day for an internal workshop, or were pulled into non-billable scoping work, we couldn’t see that impact reflected anywhere meaningful in the system.

So what happened?

People missed deadlines. Project estimates slipped. Teams were frustrated. It felt like we were always behind and we couldn’t explain why.

But once we started tracking and feeding real-time availability into our planning tools, it clicked. We could finally see it: this person isn’t underperforming—they just didn’t have the time we thought they did. Or: this team didn’t miss the estimate—they were staffed on too much non-billable work. It wasn’t a capacity issue. It was a visibility issue.

From there, we could plan better. We started assigning based on real availability, not assumptions. We stopped overloading our strongest people. We avoided putting junior staff in over their heads. We could staff based on the right role, at the right level, at the right time.

That one operational change, live, daily availability by person rippled out across everything:

• Employee satisfaction went up

• Clients were happier

• Projects were more stable

• Forecasting was more accurate

• Utilization numbers actually made sense

It also gave our PMO and resourcing team the leverage they needed. They could spot problems early. They could build stronger teams. And most importantly, they weren’t constantly explaining misses after the fact. They were proactively solving them.

The biggest lesson here?

Daily matters.

Weekly’s not bad. Monthly is too late. And static numbers that don’t change at all? Completely misleading.

If you're using resource planning systems, forecasts, or staffing tools without real-time daily availability, you’re flying blind. That data point gave us the clarity we’d been missing and changed how we deliver, permanently.

Because at the end of the day, we all want the same thing:

Happy clients, steady teams, and a business that runs on reality.

Richard