An ESN tool designed for 10–50 consultant firms, not the Big Four or solo freelancers.
Orizen is built for IT services and consulting firms that sell time and materials or fixed-price engagements and want a single tool for sales, engagements and invoicing. Working as an independent consultant? Our software for freelance consultants is designed for you.
Managing director
Sales live in a CRM, engagements in a spreadsheet, invoicing in a third tool. Every Monday, everything has to be cross-checked.
In Orizen: opportunities, quotes, engagements and invoices in the same account, with each engagement's margin against its budget.
Sales director or business manager
Your deals go through tenders and several contacts, over several weeks.
In Orizen: a pipeline by stage, follow-ups suggested by the action centre, quotes sent for e-signature.
Staffing manager
Knowing who is assigned to which engagement, and until when, without keeping a spreadsheet up to date.
In Orizen: assignments per engagement with dates, hours per week and daily rate, and an alert when a consultant goes over 35 hours a week.
Finance and administration
You invoice by cross-checking timesheets, quotes and purchase orders.
In Orizen: approved time per engagement, invoices in days or at a fixed price, Pennylane sync or an FEC export of accounting entries.
CRM for IT services firms: from tender to signed quote
An IT services CRM follows long deals, with several contacts at the client and technical proposals. In Orizen, each opportunity moves through stages (identification, qualification, proposal, negotiation, then won, lost or abandoned), linked to the client account and its contacts, and the column view shows where every deal stands.
The action centre surfaces the opportunities to chase and the quotes to follow up. Quotes are sent for e-signature from Orizen, and the signed document is attached to the quote.
What Orizen doesn't do: it doesn't manage consultant skills profiles or the tender response itself.
Time and materials or day-rate billing, and fixed price
In time and materials, you bill days: quote and invoice lines accept the "day" or "half day" unit at the negotiated daily rate. At a fixed price, you bill a project: Orizen invoices a milestone as a percentage of the quote, or schedules recurring invoices for a fixed amount.
Invoices go to Pennylane through the connector, or into an FEC export of accounting entries for your accountant. For e-invoicing, Orizen sends your invoices through an approved partner platform: it is not an approved platform itself.
What Orizen doesn't do: it doesn't yet produce the monthly invoice from logged time. Time is used to track margin; the time and materials invoice is prepared from the number of days.
Consultant timesheets
Each consultant logs hours on the engagement and, if needed, on the relevant milestone. The manager approves or rejects entries in bulk, by week or by month. An external contributor can also log time from the engagement portal.
Approved time feeds engagement tracking: hours consumed against budget, labour cost and margin, with an alert at 80% then 100% of the budget, and when margin drops below 10%.
What Orizen doesn't do: no timer, and time entry from the mobile app is limited to construction sites. On engagements, consultants log time in the web app.
Bench time and staffing: what Orizen shows
Preventing bench time means knowing who is assigned to what, and until when. In Orizen, each assignment records the consultant, their role, start and end dates, hours per week and daily rate.
The staffing view shows, week by week, each contributor's workload across engagements, flags anyone above 35 hours a week or 8 hours a day, and lets you notify the managers of the engagements concerned.
What Orizen doesn't do: it doesn't keep a list of consultants on the bench and doesn't alert before an engagement ends. End dates remain visible on each assignment.
Get started in the order an IT services firm works.
Three steps: sales, engagements, then invoicing.
Clients, contacts and deals in place.
- Import accounts and contacts from an Excel or CSV file
- Open opportunities sorted by stage
- First day-rate quote sent for signature
Engagements, assignments and time.
- One engagement per client contract, with its budget
- Consultants assigned with dates, hours per week and daily rate
- First time entries approved
Invoices and accounting.
- Time and materials invoice in days or fixed-price milestone invoice
- Pennylane connector or FEC export for your accountant
- Each engagement's margin tracked against budget
Answers to the questions we’re asked most often.
Which software can track an IT services firm's consultants?
Software that links each consultant to their engagements, their time and the engagement's margin. In Orizen, each assignment shows the engagement, role, dates, hours per week and daily rate; logged time is approved by the manager, and the staffing view flags consultants above 35 hours a week.
How do you manage an IT services firm's engagements in software?
Create one engagement per client contract, with its budget, milestones and assigned consultants. Orizen then tracks hours consumed, labour cost and margin against budget, alerts at 80% then 100% of the budget, and can open an engagement portal shared with the client.
How do you build a day-rate quote for an IT services engagement?
Add one line per profile with the "day" unit and the negotiated daily rate, or a fixed-price line. The quote is sent for e-signature from Orizen, the signed document is attached to the quote, and quotes to chase appear in the action centre.
Which invoicing software suits an IT consulting firm?
Software that handles time and materials (days at a daily rate), fixed price (milestone invoices or schedules) and hand-off to the accountant. Orizen covers these three cases, syncs invoices with Pennylane or produces an FEC export, and sends e-invoices through an approved partner platform. It doesn't yet generate the monthly invoice from logged time.
Does Orizen manage bench time?
Not as such. Assignment end dates and each consultant's weekly workload are visible, but Orizen doesn't keep a bench list and doesn't send an alert before an engagement ends.
How much does Orizen cost for an IT services firm?
À la carte, from €8.99 to €29.99 per user per month depending on modules, with no commitment. Or Trajectoire, a company plan from €150 excl. VAT per month that adds hands-on steering. The free trial lasts 14 days.
Does Orizen work with Pennylane?
Yes. The connector sends clients, invoices, credit notes and payment status to Pennylane. If your accountant uses other software, Orizen produces an FEC export of accounting entries.
Plan details are on the Orizen pricing page.