19six Architects Cuts 40+ Hours of Monthly Reporting Time with the Informer Blackbox Connector for Deltek Vantagepoint

When rapid growth meets legacy systems, even the best-run firms can find themselves facing process bottlenecks. That was the case for 19six Architects—a century-old, award-winning architecture firm that expanded from a small, two-office operation to a multidisciplinary powerhouse with nine offices and 140 employees across California.

As their footprint grew, so did the complexity of their internal operations—especially when it came to monthly project reporting. What was once a manageable manual process became a time-consuming, error-prone task that pulled project managers away from billable work.

That’s when 19six turned to Full Sail Partners and the Blackbox Connector for Entrinsik Informer—unlocking a smarter, faster, and more accurate way to generate project insights directly from Deltek Vantagepoint.

The Situation—What Worked Then Wasn’t Working Now

Per Jon Ornellas, Director of Finance, over the past decade 19six grew from a single discipline firm with 20 employees in two offices to a multi-discipline one with 140 employees in nine offices throughout California. That significant growth led the firm to revisit how many of the existing processes and practices were being performed and to look for ways to not only make them more efficient but also improve upon their accuracy and timeliness.

Moreover, beyond this growth, there was specifically some monthly reporting their PMs were being asked to do which involved downloading a Deltek Vantagepoint report and manually entering data into an Excel workbook to convert it to a more visually digestible format/graph.  

The Challenge—Manual Reporting Using Excel Was Slowing Everyone Down

When there were 20 employees, this wasn’t overly time-consuming or burdensome for the firm, but as they grew, they realized this was not the highest and best use of their staff’s time, nor was it consistently being done with any level of certainty as to the accuracy.

Prior to being introduced to the Blackbox Connector, each PM would have to download an Office Earnings report each month and drop in the “current”, “YTD”, and “JTD” revenue and profitability figures into an Excel workbook. The workbook would then be linked in such a way that it would pull prior months reporting into a graph showing the history of how the project(s) performed individually and as a whole.

This process was time-consuming with upwards of 30 minutes to 1 hour per PM each month, prone to errors when transcribing numbers from Deltek’s report to Excel, and inaccurate in that if there were changes to prior months they were never captured once those months were dropped into the Excel workbook.

The Solution—Blackbox Connector Transforms Reporting from Hours to Seconds

Using the Blackbox Connector and integrating with Entrinsik Informer, 19six Architects was able to handle these challenges. Jon stated, “Once we worked through the mechanics of just setting up the database and linking it to Deltek Vantagepoint, then working with a Full Sail Partners’ consultant, the process was straightforward and simple enough to provide them with our “wish list” and see how Entrinsik Informer could accommodate those items.”

19six Architects is now able to provide its staff with a powerful, custom tool that is both approachable in the simplicity of its user interface, as well as visually informative in ways that Deltek or Excel were never able to be for them. What may have taken 30-40 hours firmwide to accomplish each month is now available to everyone at the press of a button.

Jon raves about this Blackbox Connector success, “Therefore, the savings in time, and therein money, have been material and well worth any resources spent up front to launch the software. Besides the obvious financial benefit to 19six Architects, because Informer is “talking” directly to Deltek Vantagepoint each day, there is no question about the accuracy and timeliness of the reporting.”

Discover What Blackbox + Informer Can Do for Your Firm

By implementing the Blackbox Connector for Entrinsik Informer and Deltek Vantagepoint, 19six Architects transformed their monthly reporting from a manual, time-intensive task into a seamless, automated process. The result? Time savings, improved accuracy, and actionable insights delivered with the click of a button.

What once took project managers hours each month now happens instantly—freeing up valuable time, reducing errors, and giving firm leaders the confidence to make smarter decisions backed by real-time data.

Ready to Modernize your Reporting?

Learn how the Blackbox Connector can help your firm gain efficiency, clarity, and control. Contact us today or visit our website to explore the possibilities with Blackbox Connector + Informer + Vantagepoint.