The setting is >500 people IT services. You can think of it as a staffing agency, we only do T&M, although we hire our consultants (we have a bench). We do not really mange projects, what delivery managers focus on is making sure a client is happy and people are filling their timesheets.
We are struggling with the following:
Information about availability of people for projects is restricted to the resource management team. This includes peoples’ profiles, too (who is available, since when, skillset, etc.). This hampers planning and transparency for delivery managers, who are in charge of keeping their projects staffed, because all information is centralized and resource manager is a "global gatekeeper". He is the only person able to answer resourcing questions and provide people.
We have tried to open information on availability and profiles of people to delivery managers, but it ended up in contention, managers effectively skipping resource planning, fighting for best resources, etc.
How to address this? Is there a way to avoid contention whilst maintaining resource availability information available to managers? Any best practices?
I have ability to "influence" this process, but I feel that without strong "proof" or meritocratic approach I will not be able execute on it.