Metalab swaps PSA complexity for clarity and control with Float

Key results

• Resourcing efficiency increased by 50%, reducing costly workarounds
• Real-time visibility into margin, utilization, and contractor costs
• Replaced Certinia with a tool that protects profit from day one

Metalab is the globally distributed design agency behind some of the world’s most iconic digital experiences, from Slack to Google to Amazon. But behind the scenes, their operations team was recently hitting roadblocks with Certinia, an enterprise Professional Services Automation (PSA) system that slowed them down and obscured the numbers that mattered most. As Emma Harris, Resource Management Lead, put it:

It was too much tool for what we needed. There were so many features our team would never use; and they obscured the ones we actually needed.

At a fast-moving agency like Metalab, profitability hinges on having the right people on the right work—at the right cost. But instead of gaining control, they lost visibility with Certinia. Scheduling became a maze of clicks, and reporting took too long. Within weeks of implementing the enterprise tool, the resourcing team was back in spreadsheets trying to make sense of it all.

The challenge: an all-in-one that sold a dream but kept everyone in the dark

Like many mid-sized agencies, Metalab was sold on the idea of a single platform to rule them all: project management, billing, resource planning, time tracking, and reporting in one. But what seemed powerful in the demo environment turned out to be anything but in practice.

"We had a tool that tried to be all things to all people," explains Stephanie Ito, Chief Operating Officer at Metalab. "It tried to be a project management tool, a financial reporting tool, and a resource management tool. But when you do none of them well, or you’re only functional in each, at the end of the day, it’s just not a good tool."

Even basic scheduling required workarounds, while financial data and reporting were unreliable and slow. The resourcing team would spend hours pulling information out of the system and into a clunky spreadsheet just to make it usable. Instead of enabling smarter decisions, the platform added friction.

They [Certinia] sold us a dream that failed badly.”
— Rachael Currie, Product Director at Metalab

The solution: real-time visibility with a platform designed for agency ops

Float gave Metalab exactly what they were missing: a reliable, trusted source of truth for people, projects, and profit. "Float is so intuitive," says Emma Harris. "Anything that I'm updating on the resourcing side, everyone can see immediately. There's no lag. There's no need to refresh. It's just so easy to use."

With Float, everything is implemented either within the platform or seamlessly via the API, which Metalab's team uses to connect Float with their HR system. It means teams across the business can immediately see real-time availability, time off, working hours, and much more within Float.

For Emma, the biggest win is in monthly reporting. "The biggest thing for me in resourcing is the month-end reporting that we do for utilization and chargeability. I can see very quickly in Float how the team is being used—whether they’re on billable projects or not. I can see it across the board, or drill into specific departments." 

Float gives us a lot more information in terms of estimating projects. On the product side, they’re also using that financial data every month to see if projects are on track with the budget.
— Emma Harris, Resource Management Lead at Metalab

And perhaps most critically for profitability: "Margin’s a big one. Float gives us visibility much sooner if something is off, like if we’ve had to utilize a more senior designer for a role that was estimated for a junior. We can very quickly see the impact of that."

With a tool that makes margin, capacity, and costs visible in real-time, Metalab has replaced time-consuming workarounds with decisions that protect profit.

The results: smarter staffing, stronger margins

Since switching to Float, Metalab can easily plan, track, and adjust projects before issues impact the bottom line.

I’d say Float has increased our resourcing efficiency by at least 50%. We're way more efficient as a department.
— Emma Harris, Resource Management Lead at Metalab

Float helps Metalab stay in control of the two things that matter most: their people and their profit. With one source of truth, the team can move fast, stay on budget, and protect margins from day one.