Laurel and Dayshape have partnered to address revenue leakage in professional services firms by linking resource planning data with automated work tracking.

The partnership combines Dayshape’s resource planning platform with Laurel’s work intelligence software to give firms a clearer view of how work is scheduled, carried out and billed. The aim is to reduce reliance on incomplete timesheet data and disconnected planning systems.

Profit pressure

Professional services firms are under growing pressure to improve profitability as leaders try to protect margins and raise productivity. Research cited by Dayshape found that 42% of firms missed revenue targets over the past year, while 38% lacked clear visibility into team capacity and availability, and 37% lacked real-time insight into profitability by team or project.

The joint offering is designed to help firms identify operational blind spots, improve utilisation, strengthen forecasting and recover billable time that might otherwise go unrecorded. Laurel’s software captures work activity across meetings, emails, documents and digital workflows, while Dayshape uses scheduling and project financial data to support staffing and planning decisions.

Time capture

The issue is significant for firms that still rely on manual time entry to measure work and support billing. In sectors such as accounting, consulting and legal services, gaps in time recording can affect revenue recognition, project profitability and the ability to assess whether teams are being deployed effectively.

Dayshape said customers using its platform typically see a 5% increase in utilisation. Laurel said its users capture an average of 28 additional minutes a day. Both companies said their customers report profit increases of 11%.

The partnership also gives each company access to a broader set of data. Scheduling information from Dayshape can provide context for Laurel’s system when matching recorded time to the right matters and engagements, while Laurel’s time records can improve the accuracy of Dayshape’s plan-versus-actual reporting.

Partner networks

Both companies sell to large professional services organisations. They are also part of the Microsoft and Workday partner networks, which could simplify deployment for joint customers.

Matt Cockett, Chief Executive Officer of Dayshape, said the partnership combines forward-looking planning with more accurate time capture.

“What Dayshape does so well is provide a forward-looking view of a business enabling companies to plan optimally and course correct as they go. Laurel ensures every minute of work is captured accurately, without adding any extra effort for teams. We know that time data in professional services has historically been difficult to manage. Laurel’s technology means that it doesn’t need to be, which is exactly why this partnership makes sense,” said Matt Cockett, Chief Executive Officer of Dayshape.

Ryan Alshak, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Laurel, said firms often underestimate the scale of missing or poor-quality operational data.

Planning layer

“Most firms know they have a data problem. They just don’t know how bad it is until they fix it. Laurel gives firms an accurate picture of how time is actually being spent and what it’s producing. Connecting it with Dayshape’s scheduling and revenue engine means customers finally have the planning layer and the execution layer talking to each other,” said Ryan Alshak, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Laurel.

The partnership is positioned as a response to a persistent industry problem: firms may plan work in one system, log time in another and review profitability only after a project has gone off course. By linking planning data with recorded work activity, firms should be able to compare expected and actual delivery more closely and identify where margin is being lost.

That matters at a time when only 25% of leaders surveyed by Dayshape said they were confident in their organisation’s ability to plan for the long term. For firms whose revenues depend on billable hours and efficient staffing, visibility into capacity, utilisation and project economics remains a basic commercial concern.

 

JOSEPH GABRIEL LAGONSIN

News Editor

Amthal has won a planned maintenance contract for security and life safety systems at Barnet and Southgate College, covering the college’s three main sites.

Barnet and Southgate College operates campuses in Barnet, Southgate and Colindale, serving students across academic, vocational and technical courses. Its estate includes teaching buildings, workshops, specialist learning spaces and communal areas with heavy daily footfall.

Under the contract, Amthal will maintain intruder alarms, fire alarms, Paxton access control and IP CCTV systems across the college. The work also includes system monitoring and technical support, aimed at keeping the systems compliant and operational across the estate.

College managers said bringing several systems under one provider should improve consistency across sites and reduce fragmentation in maintenance management.

“Managing life safety and security systems across three busy campuses requires a joined-up approach. We consolidated maintenance under a single provider to ensure consistent performance, improved visibility and reduced fragmentation across systems and sites. At this scale, reliability, fast fault response and coordinated maintenance planning are essential to minimise disruption to teaching and campus activity. Having Amthal in place gives us confidence that fire, intruder, access control and CCTV systems are managed within a consistent framework, supporting safeguarding and operational continuity across the college,” said Pritesh Dattani, Soft Facilities Manager, Barnet and Southgate College.

The scale of the college’s installed systems illustrates the operational demands of the contract. The intruder alarm estate includes 800 circuits linked to 10 monitored panels across multiple buildings and departments.

Its fire alarm network comprises 1,569 devices connected through 15 networked panels. Access control is managed through 483 Paxton-controlled doors, while 452 IP CCTV cameras monitor key internal and external locations.

These systems support day-to-day estate management as well as safeguarding and incident review. For a further education provider spread across several sites, maintaining continuity across interlinked security and safety infrastructure is as much a practical facilities issue as a compliance matter.

Estate support

Alongside routine maintenance, Amthal is also supporting installation work carried out by the college’s contractors. This is intended to help new systems integrate with existing infrastructure as the estate develops.

The arrangement gives Amthal a broader support role beyond scheduled servicing. In practice, this means working with the college and third-party contractors to maintain consistency across older and newly installed systems.

Amthal said the contract reflects the complexity of maintaining integrated systems in a large education setting. Its work spans life safety and physical security systems that must operate across busy campuses with different access patterns and varied building uses.

“This contract reflects the importance of maintaining fully integrated life safety and security systems across a large multi-site education environment. Our focus is on ensuring all systems are maintained in a way that supports reliability, compliance and operational continuity across the college estate. By working closely with the college and its contractors, we can help ensure both existing infrastructure and new installations continue to operate as a connected and dependable system across all three campuses,” said David Williamson, Business Development Manager, Amthal Fire & Security.

Lumera has warned that pension trustees and providers need stronger governance and controls when deploying artificial intelligence, as UK pension reforms increase demands on data use.

The insurer technology supplier said trustees and providers will need operating models that combine AI tools with clear human oversight to stay aligned with best practice, emerging guidance and standards. It said the UK’s principles-based approach to AI regulation places greater responsibility on firms to set their own frameworks rather than rely on a detailed rulebook.

The warning comes as the pensions sector faces a broader set of reforms expected to increase the volume of data schemes and providers must process and analyse. Lumera said changes linked to the Pension Schemes Act, the Targeted Support regime and possible further reforms following the Pensions Commission will add to pressure on firms to use data more effectively.

Areas likely to increase that pressure include default retirement pathways, value for money assessments and small pots consolidation. Lumera said these changes will require more automated decision-making, closer matching of records and more standardised benchmarking across larger, more complex datasets.

Governance focus

Lumera said firms should not treat AI adoption as a purely technical task, but should build clear governance frameworks around its use. Those frameworks should define where people review outputs, where intervention is required and how accountability is assigned.

Operating models will need to cover a range of methods, including clustering to identify patterns in data, classification to support consistent decisions and ongoing monitoring to detect behavioural changes, it said. Policy controls, routing decisions and guardrails will also be needed to create defined intervention points and keep AI use within agreed boundaries.

Data protection rules are another constraint. Providers will need governance models that work within existing regulations while remaining flexible enough to adapt as official guidance evolves, according to Lumera.

This could become more relevant as the pensions industry awaits further guidance on the responsible adoption of AI from the Pensions Regulator later this year. In the meantime, trustees and providers must make decisions on governance, oversight and operating design without a single prescriptive framework covering all uses.

Sami Saadaoui, Head of AI Architecture and Operations at Lumera, set out the company’s position in remarks on the effect of the reforms.

“AI is set to become a critical enabler of the next phase of pension reform as the industry digests and begins to implement the Pension Schemes Act.

“Schemes and providers will need to leverage AI to deliver more personalised member outcomes, support automated processes at greater scale and improve the consistency of decision-making across increasingly complex datasets.

“However, the real challenge is not simply adopting AI, but deploying it within a robust governance and control framework. Pension providers and trustees will need clear accountability, strong human oversight and transparent decision-making processes to ensure AI is being used responsibly and in members’ best interests.

“The UK’s principles-based approach to AI regulation means firms cannot rely on prescriptive rulebooks alone. Instead, they will need to demonstrate that their operating models, controls and governance frameworks are sufficiently robust to manage risks around bias, data quality, explainability and consumer outcomes.

“The current swathe of reforms significantly increases the volume and complexity of data that needs to be processed and analysed. Firms need the scalable technology and human expertise to ensure that AI is unleashed to its full potential within defined guardrails.

“Those that manage this best will be best placed to capitalise on a new era of pension saving and access in the UK, delivering better outcomes and maintaining trust with members,” said Saadaoui.

Industry pressure

The comments reflect a wider challenge for financial services firms as regulators take a sector-led approach to AI oversight. In practice, pension providers may face scrutiny not only over whether they use AI effectively, but also over whether they can explain how decisions are made, how risks are managed and when humans step in.

For trustees, that could bring added responsibilities around supplier oversight and governance design, especially where third-party systems are used in administration, customer service or decision support. For providers, the issue is likely to extend across product design, member communications, data analysis and internal controls.

Lumera’s intervention points to a growing expectation that AI will become embedded in UK pension administration as reforms move ahead. Its central argument is that adoption alone will not be enough and that firms will be judged on whether their controls, accountability and human oversight are strong enough to protect members’ interests.