Kantata – Best Professional Services Automation Platform for Project Managers
Kantata (born from the merger of Mavenlink and Kimble) is a leading Professional Services Automation (PSA) platform designed for modern project managers and service-based organizations. It provides a unified system to manage the entire project lifecycle—from resource planning and project execution to financial tracking and business intelligence. By integrating operations, people, and data, Kantata empowers project managers to optimize utilization, control project budgets, and deliver greater profitability with real-time visibility.
What is Kantata?
Kantata is a cloud-based Professional Services Automation (PSA) platform built specifically for project-driven businesses and consulting firms. It consolidates the core capabilities of project management, resource scheduling, time and expense tracking, project accounting, and advanced analytics into a single source of truth. This platform goes beyond traditional project management software by deeply connecting operational project data with financial outcomes, enabling project managers to act as true business leaders. It's the operational core for services organizations looking to scale efficiently while maintaining profitability.
Key Features of Kantata
Intelligent Resource Management
Kantata's resource management provides a 360-degree view of your team's skills, availability, and current allocations. Its sophisticated scheduling engine helps you match the right person to the right project based on expertise, location, and cost. This feature prevents overutilization and bench time, maximizing billable resource utilization and improving project outcomes.
Project Accounting & Financial Management
Unlike generic tools, Kantata offers native project accounting. It tightly integrates project plans with budgets, actual costs (time & expenses), billing, and revenue recognition. Project managers can track project profitability in real-time, forecast financial performance, and manage client invoicing directly within the platform, ensuring financial health is managed alongside project delivery.
Powerful Business Intelligence & Analytics
Kantata includes robust business intelligence dashboards and reporting. It transforms operational data into actionable insights on project margins, resource utilization trends, portfolio performance, and forecast accuracy. This allows project managers and leadership to make data-driven decisions to improve service delivery and business strategy.
Unified Project Management Hub
The platform serves as a central hub for project execution, combining task management, collaboration tools, document sharing, and time tracking. This ensures all project communication, deliverables, and progress updates are tracked in context, reducing silos and keeping teams aligned from planning to completion.
Who Should Use Kantata?
Kantata is ideal for professional services organizations, IT consultancies, marketing agencies, and any business that delivers client projects as its core offering. It is particularly valuable for: Project Managers and Delivery Leaders needing to balance resources and budgets; Services Executives and Operations Directors responsible for portfolio profitability; and Finance Teams in project-based businesses requiring accurate project accounting and revenue recognition. It's built for organizations that have outgrown spreadsheets and disconnected tools and need an enterprise-grade system to scale their service operations.
Kantata Pricing and Free Tier
Kantata is a premium enterprise-grade Professional Services Automation platform. It does not offer a publicly listed free tier or a self-service pricing model. Pricing is customized based on the organization's size, required modules, and number of users. Interested parties must contact the Kantata sales team for a personalized quote and demo. This model reflects its comprehensive feature set and focus on serving the complex needs of mid-to-large-sized services businesses.
Common Use Cases
- Optimizing resource allocation and bench time for consulting firms
- Managing project profitability and financial forecasting for IT services
Key Benefits
- Increase project profitability through real-time financial visibility and control
- Improve billable resource utilization by intelligently matching skills to project demands
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Deep integration of project management with financials and accounting
- Powerful, predictive resource management and capacity planning tools
- Comprehensive business intelligence for data-driven service operations
- Enterprise-grade platform built for scaling professional services
Cons
- No free plan or transparent self-service pricing; requires sales contact
- Can have a steeper learning curve due to its comprehensive feature set
- Primarily targeted at mid-market and enterprise, may be overkill for very small teams
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Kantata free to use?
No, Kantata does not offer a free tier. It is an enterprise-level Professional Services Automation platform with pricing tailored to each organization's specific needs. You must contact their sales team for a custom quote.
Is Kantata good for project managers in consulting?
Yes, Kantata is exceptionally well-suited for project managers in consulting and professional services. It provides the specific tools needed to manage both project delivery and commercial outcomes, like resource scheduling, project accounting, and profitability tracking, which are critical in a client-services environment.
What is the difference between Kantata and generic project management software?
While tools like Asana or Trello manage tasks, Kantata is a full Professional Services Automation suite. It uniquely combines project execution with resource management, project accounting, invoicing, and business intelligence. This makes it fundamentally different by connecting project work directly to financial performance and business operations.
Conclusion
For project managers and service delivery leaders operating in a commercial environment, Kantata represents a top-tier solution. It transcends basic task management by unifying the critical pillars of resource planning, project execution, and financial control into a single, intelligent platform. If your priority is to deliver projects not just on time, but also on budget and with maximized profitability, Kantata provides the enterprise-grade tools and insights necessary to achieve that. It is a strategic investment for any growing professional services organization aiming to scale efficiently and data-consciously.