Agency operations · measured
From prospect to profit.
Every firm that bills for time runs on six pillars: Prospects, Planning & Utilization, Process, Project Management, People and Profit. We help you connect them, so the work you win turns into the margin you planned.
30 years founding and leading agencies · A platform in daily use at four firms
Who we serve
Built for firms that sell their time.
- Advertising agencies
- Marketing agencies
- Design studios
- Web and digital shops
- Consultancies
- Professional services firms
The six pillars
Six pillars. One flow. From prospect to profit.
Margin rarely disappears in one place. It leaks in the handoffs: between the deal and the kickoff, the plan and the timesheet, the hours and the invoice. Connect the six pillars and each stage feeds the next, and what you learn about profit shapes the next prospect you chase.
- 01
Prospects
Turn pipeline into planned work.
Track every opportunity from first conversation to signed SOW, and see the staffing each deal will need before it lands.
- 02
Planning & Utilization
Match the work you've sold to the capacity you have.
Plan by person and role weeks ahead, and hold utilization to targets that protect both margin and people.
- 03
Process
Define how each kind of work should flow.
Different projects need different processes. Clear workflows, handoffs and trafficking mean quality doesn't depend on who happens to run the job.
- 04
Project Management
Manage each project through its process.
Budgets, milestones and burn rates update as the work happens, so overruns surface while you can still act.
- 05
People
Make it easy to do great work and report it.
Clear assignments, simple time entry and visible workloads help managers protect their teams from burnout.
- 06
Profit
See margin by client, project and person.
Know which clients and services make money, then price the next prospect on what you learned. The cycle starts again.
How can we help
How can we help?
Start with the question you're asking. One path leads to our consulting practice, the other to the software coming out of Pensum Labs.
Path 1 · Pensum Consulting
"We need to fix how we run."
Built on 30 years of founding and leading agencies, plus senior leadership in software and consulting firms. That experience lets us see quickly how your operations are structured today and where they hold you back.
- Operations assessment: structure, roles and where time and margin leak
- Trafficking and resourcing: how work is scheduled, staffed and handed off
- Process redesign from prospect to profit, across every department
- A prioritized set of recommendations, then help putting them in place
Path 2 · Pensum Labs software
"We need better software to run on."
Pensum Labs builds operations software for firms that bill for time. Its first product, Kerdion OPS, connects all six pillars in one flow, so the way you want to work becomes the everyday way.
- Pipeline, capacity planning and utilization
- Project, time and workload management
- Feeds your accounting platform for invoicing and cost accounting
Use either on its own, or together: we assess and redesign how your firm runs, and Kerdion OPS makes the new process the default.
How we work
The ACE framework.
Assess
We map how work moves through your firm today, across all six pillars, and find where time, scope and margin slip away.
Configure
We redesign roles, handoffs and trafficking, then set up your tools, including Kerdion OPS if it fits, around how you sell and deliver.
Execute
We train your team and stay close while the new way of working becomes habit, measuring the results as we go.
How we assess
Experience, backed by proven frameworks.
Decades inside agencies tell us where to look. Established operations frameworks make the findings measurable and the recommendations easy to act on.
How we assess- Services maturity benchmark How mature is each part of the firm?
- Value stream mapping Where does work wait?
- Theory of Constraints What is the one real bottleneck?
- Flow and WIP limits Is too much work in motion?
- RACI and handoffs Who owns each step?
Managing Director, Pensum Consulting
Our bona fides
Meet Mark Samber, PhD.
Mark has spent more than 30 years building and leading digital teams on every side of the table: as a management consultant, a co-founder who built and sold a web agency, a client-side digital leader at a major academic health system, and an agency executive running strategy and marketing technology.
He also designed an operations platform now used every day across four companies. Pensum is built on what all of that taught him about how firms that sell their time actually run.
Read Mark's story →30
years in agencies
4
firms on our platform
150
daily users
Insights & best practices
Field-tested thinking on running a better firm.
Practical guidance on operations, trafficking, capacity and margin. A new piece every month.
News & testimonials
What people are saying.
[CLIENT QUOTE: impact of the operations assessment]
[CLIENT QUOTE: results after rolling out Kerdion OPS]
[CLIENT QUOTE: what working with Pensum was like]
In the news
- [DATE] Pensum Labs introduces Kerdion OPS, operations software for agencies [SOURCE]
- [DATE] [SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT, PODCAST OR ARTICLE] [SOURCE]
- [DATE] [PARTNERSHIP OR CLIENT ANNOUNCEMENT] [SOURCE]
What happens in the free operations evaluation?
A conversation with your leadership about how work moves through your firm across the six pillars, a quick look at the numbers you already track, and a short written summary of the biggest opportunities we see. No cost, no obligation.
Do we have to use Kerdion OPS to work with you?
No. We fix the process first and the tools second, and we work with the tools you already have. We only recommend Kerdion OPS where it genuinely fits.
Who actually does the work?
Mark Samber, PhD, leads every engagement personally, drawing on more than 30 years of running and advising agencies and digital teams.
How much does consulting cost?
We work on fixed fees scoped to the ACE phases you choose, so you know the cost up front. You get a proposal after the free evaluation.
Let's look at how your firm runs.
Two easy ways to start. Neither comes with a pitch deck.
No cost
Free operations evaluation
A conversation about how work moves through your firm across the six pillars, followed by a short written summary of the biggest opportunities we see.
Get a free operations evaluation30 minutes
Book a 30-minute call
Questions about our consulting practice or Kerdion OPS? Talk them through directly with our managing director.
Book a 30-minute callOr reach us directly: mark@pensumllc.com · 412.659.5859