Certinia unveils Spring '25 update with advanced AI tools

Certinia has announced the details of its Spring '25 release, focusing on new features intended to improve foresight, flexibility and intelligence for services organisations.

The release introduces advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), skill management and project visibility that aim to support resource managers, project managers and customer success teams in navigating industry changes and evolving customer expectations.

According to Certinia, new AI-powered tools have been embedded throughout the platform. A notable addition is the GenAI Resource Summary, which provides resource managers with concise overviews of candidates' key skills and previous experience. Certinia stated that this feature is designed to simplify the process of matching individuals to project roles, ultimately enhancing the quality of service delivery and ensuring a more seamless customer experience from the outset.

For customer success teams, Certinia has introduced a GenAI Customer Account Summary. This draws together customer data, sentiment indicators, risk factors and suggested action points, allowing customer success managers (CSMs) to anticipate client needs and strengthen engagements.

A spokesperson for Certinia said, "Our Spring '25 release puts intelligence where it's most needed, helping services teams act faster and more confidently to meet customer expectations and unlocking the value of data hidden throughout the service delivery process."

The spokesperson continued, "These new capabilities reflect our approach to AI: practical, embedded, and focused on outcomes that matter. Certinia AI reduces friction and surfaces the right insights at the right moment, helping services teams stay focused on what they do best: delivering value to their customers."

With the growing demand for specialised skills in the marketplace, the Spring '25 release includes skills-based features such as AI-generated skill suggestions. These are derived from both existing resource pools and previous assignments, assisting managers in identifying relevant skills more rapidly, which Certinia says will reduce staffing times and improve project outcomes for clients.

The update also brings an improved smart rescheduling tool that allows project managers to view the effects of schedule changes on margins and budgets across different scenarios. According to Certinia, this functionality equips managers to make proactive decisions, such as reallocating budgets or resources based on project demands.

The Resource Request Staffer user experience has also been overhauled. Resource managers can now match and manage up to 1,000 resource requests at once, with the matching process now automated, which Certinia claims will significantly reduce manual staffing efforts.

The release provides features designed to produce more accurate service estimates. It enables organisations to offer digital services and AI-based services, with new tools to estimate potential revenue and costs through the Estimate Financial Summary. This feature presents a summary of projected cashflow and risk areas prior to initiating a project.

Additional enhancements include configurable pricing models that go beyond traditional methods, such as fixed price or time and materials, allowing organisations to tailor estimates to specific needs.

Guided scoping now features dynamic questioning, where subsequent questions adapt to earlier responses—aimed at reducing unnecessary data entry and increasing estimate precision.

Project management is bolstered by a new portfolio object, which collates data from related projects and presents consolidated reporting via the Delivery Tracker. Certinia explained that this rolled-up view helps project managers and service leaders monitor progress without manual calculation.

Time management is streamlined through user interface updates and a "Suggest My Timesheet" feature, which automatically generates timesheet drafts based on scheduled tasks and assignments. Certinia reports that this development will simplify submission and editing for resources, aiming to improve accuracy and reduce administrative overhead.

Customer journey tracking has been enhanced with tools for recording objectives early in the engagement cycle. CSMs can monitor key performance indicators and their trends, with dashboard updates providing easier access to analytics and operational insights. Enhanced pooling capabilities now allow for the automated assignment of resources based on criteria such as location, skillset, and availability, potentially helping organisations scale more efficiently.

The financial product group has undergone a rebrand, now known as Financial Management (FM) Cloud, reflecting what Certinia describes as its focus on financial management capabilities for services organisations. Automation improvements include cash matching, simultaneous bank reconciliations, and a revamped user interface for revenue recognition processes, aimed at increasing productivity for finance teams.

An official statement from Certinia read, "I am pleased to share that our financials product group has been renamed from ERP Cloud to Financial Management (FM) Cloud, which more accurately reflects the financial management capabilities Certinia provides for services organizations. While the name has changed, our commitment to helping services organizations achieve financial excellence remains consistent. Spring '25 delivers automation enhancements that will help finance teams boost work productivity, including highly requested cash matching capabilities, simultaneous bank reconciliations, and an enhanced UI for large-scale revenue recognition."