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Technology is a huge part of any growing business and leaders are constantly searching for emerging technology trends that can drive their businesses forward. Originally, the A&E industry strayed from embracing new technology because of the time and effort it took to learn and adopt the new trends. However, firms are now identifying technology as a strategic and innovative way to educate staff, identify key initiatives, and implement incremental changes to improve business.

Top Three Technology Trend Challenges

In this year’s Deltek Clarity Survey, firms were asked about their top technology trend challenges. The results presented in the 40^th Clarity Report showed that the top three challenges were the struggles of prioritizing trends, the cost of technology, and the lack of time to learn. Other challenges included client education, lack of leadership, and buy-in from firms.

Emerging Technology Trends

For the second year in a row, firms were asked how important nine emerging technology trends were to their businesses. Lining up with the top four from last year, The Internet of Things (loT) and Geo locations ranked in, closely followed by big data and data science.

The loT is the interconnection of devices embedded in everyday objects, enabling them to send and receive data. It is important because connected devices offer the potential to better manage certain projects. The key is being able to extract and manage actionable data from the loT devices to make informed decisions.

Geo location is more prominent now than ever. Firms can leverage geo location information to make things easier for the employees and clients. Geo locations can be used to determine an employee’s location, to track how long an employee is on a job site or deliver valuable details about the client when you arrive at a project or client office. Firms can use this information to better manage projects and improve client satisfaction giving them a competitive advantage.

Application of Technology Trends

This year, firms were also asked to which areas of their business they apply technology trends. Most firms are looking at implementing these trends into projects themselves through either project management or project execution. Futhermore, more than half of the firms want to apply technology to improve their business development and marketing.

The problem is that not enough firms are seeing the value of technology and how it can improve human capital management. Potential and existing clients are wanting businesses to be tech-savvy, and those that can deliver streamlined services that use up-to-date technology will stand out from the rest. Embracing technology today can create a clear competitive advantage, while those who are not will have to play catch up later.

Top Technology Trend Initiatives

Additionally, firms were asked to identify the top three initiatives they are employing to address technology challenges in the next three years. Two-thirds of the firms identified creating a strategic plan as one of their top three initiatives, followed by educating staff and identifying and developing technology subject matter experts. With these initiatives in mind, how can firms get this information and learn from it and eventually apply it to their work forces?

First, firms just need to know where to start. Industry associations and partners are a great resource they can use to learn more about technology. Firms should not be nervous about integrating new technology into their organization because of the fear of failure. Once they gain an understanding of the technology, developing a budget for implementing these trends will become more manageable.

Learn More From the 40^th Annual Deltek Clarity Report

This is simply a summary of technology trends from this year’s report. For more details, download a copy of the 40^th Annual Deltek Clarity Report today. You may also find other topics of interest to keep your firm ahead of the competition.

Projects are the life blood of the AEC industry. Efficiently run projects yield the most revenue and are thus essential to firm success. Fortunately for these firms, Deltek Project Information Management (PIM) provides project management and collaboration tools designed to help employees access critical project information and keep teams connected throughout the entire project lifecycle. Let’s check out what PIM can do for your firm.

Access All Project Emails in One Place

Employees spend 2-3 hours per day on average on email related activities according to a study by Dr. Michael Einstein at MESMO Inc. With Deltek PIM, project employees can easily add project related emails and communications into one central location allowing all project employees visibility into all email communications. Now hours are no longer lost managing and organizing project emails from other sources, since PIM provides a central location for the most up to date project emails. Project employees can utilize PIM to improve productivity, not impede project progress.

Simplify Document Management

Deltek PIM helps firms maintain hundreds of files across all aspects of their business in one location, giving companies the organization and intelligence to run their business smarter. All drawings, correspondence, and submittals are accessible by all team members at any time. Even more, PIM allows project teams to share large files in the office or with external team members while maintaining security and control. With PIM, there is no more worrying about setting up accounts or dated FTP sites so deadlines remain on track.

Take Information Management to the Next Level

Most importantly, Deltek PIM integrates with your Deltek ERP solution to improve how your firm manages schedules, budgets, resources and files for every project. Furthermore, PIM enables project teams to manage project documents while in the field. As a result, project employees can stay on top of everything that has been done or needs to be done at the site including uploading site photos, managing inspections, updating punch lists, and more with mobile access.

Make More Revenue Using Deltek PIM

Deltek PIM offers firms the chance to stay organized and run projects more efficiently. With PIM, team members will have access to all important documents with up to date details in one place throughout the entire project lifecycle. Therefore, project managers can ensure their projects are completed on time and on budget. How can PIM help your firm?

When you are determining what marketing techniques are going to be the best for your company, there are some important things to consider. It’s common for business owners to cast a wide net in their initial marketing plan, throwing everything they can against the wall to see what sticks. However, continuing to throw money at a marketing strategy that is not generating conversation will result in loss of revenue and time. Fortunately, there are ways that you can avoid this by tracking the success of your marketing techniques and being able to adjust the ones not yielding results.

Website Analytics

Let’s start with one of the easiest and most common methods of tracking marketing success: website analytics. Utilizing this method, you can see who is coming to your site and from what sources. This lets you know which marketing tactics are creating the most clicks and how those clicks could be converted into leads or sales. A lot of website analytic tools are easy to setup and simple to use.

Email Outreach

Email marketing is easy to track and measure. Most email marketing platforms offer a host of data that will help you gauge the efficiency of your email campaigns. Your task is to find those metrics that best suit your email marketing goals and to keep an eye on them. There are many different things that are important to look at when it comes to the success of email marketing. Deliverability, open rates, click-through rates, conversation and bounce rates. These all can give you a better idea of how your email marketing campaign is going.

Phone Tracking

Call tracking is one of the most effective ways to evaluate lead generation sources. By taking advantage of call tracking technology, you can see what marketing ventures are generating the highest number of phone calls. This gives you the opportunity to keep track of who is calling from where and gauge where your budget is best spent.

CRM Tracking

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) helps sales staff stay organized and track marketing campaign results. Using a CRM software, sales professionals create profiles for each prospect including name, company, phone number, lead source, and any other relevant information. CRM platforms not only lead the way in tracking initial marketing efforts but continue to serve in following the future of client dealings.

Save Time and Effort by Tracking Marketing Success

Tracking marketing success is quite effective when using the right techniques. You can learn what works and what doesn’t when marketing to contacts to create more business and ultimately generate more income for your firm. Using a tool like the Deltek CRM, you can easily.

In essence, a User Interface (UI) guides users – it is a chain of screens, pages, buttons, forms or any visual element that interacts with a user. It may prompt the user to seek further information, navigate the site, make a registration or purchase decision with a series of clicks. Having a good user interface can ultimately change the way you work and process information for your business. There are many different aspects that a UI can offer to make things more efficient, quicker, and easier to understand.

Clarity 

Clarity is one of the most important elements of a user interface design. The whole purpose of a UI design is to enable people to interact with your system by communicating meaning and function. Clarity throughout the application can make this easier and more efficient. One great way of simplifying an interface is to use whitespace which breaks up the content and allows the user to concentrate on the important areas.

Presentation

An interface that is poorly designed can drive incoming traffic away and leave a bad impression. Features such as attractive branding, color scheme, layout, graphics, tabs and other tools make a great design that users will want to utilize. You want the UI to look good while still having the right features to work well keeping users satisfied.

Easy-to-Decipher

Easy-to-decipher and consistent navigation that is simple to locate and browse through is the basic requirement for a good UI. If the navigation is complex for a user to work with, there is no way they will want to spend more time trying to figure it out. One way to make things better is to make buttons and options more easily recognizable by using the icons the users expect to see. A good example is the trash can as most users will understand what this does without further explanation.

Functional

In the end, it is all worthless if the UI’s functionality is not up to speed. A quality User interface focuses on making the user interactions simple and efficient. Having such a user interface can go a long way in ensuring an exceptional user experience. Every single second a user spends on the interface is directly attributable to the functionality of that UI.

Make Sure Your User Interface is Exceptional

The User experience is tantamount to business success, and the User Interface is the most significant touch point for your users. If your UI is user friendly, it will be used repeatedly increasing your business productivity. Without a quality UI, the opposite is true, and that is why having a good User Interface matters.

Most Deltek users have heard of Vision workflows but aren’t aware of the vast capabilities they offer. From managing repetitive tasks to enforcing compliances and validating data, workflows are extremely versatile and easy to set up. Whether you are a workflow rookie or a veteran, let’s take a look at some workflows that your firm should be using in Deltek Vision.

Different Types of Workflows in Deltek Vision

User Initiated -Allows set up of automated actions in Vision that are triggered when a record is saved, and certain conditions are met.

Contact Record Verification - Provides employees further insight on the validity of contact information by creating a workflow using custom fields. Employees simply check a checkbox, and through a workflow, the modified user and the date the checkbox was checked can populate reducing the number of fields the end user has to fill in.

Scheduled -Allows you to create automated actions that run at regular intervals via the process server.

Web Services – Allows you to set up an interface between Vision and external application.

Opportunities – Makes sure the business development team is following up on opportunities by creating actions and alerts that are prompted when an opportunity is opened, a stage is changed and when the opportunity is closed.

Types of Workflow Actions in Deltek Vision

Validate Error – Creates a “check” against the data entered and returns an error message.

Validate Warning – The same as the error but provides only a warning. The user will be able to save the record.

Email Alert – Creates an email to a specified person or role or another employee linked field (for example project manager).

Stored Procedure – Executes a SQL script on the Vision database. Requires knowledge of T-SQL and stored procedures. However, this allows you great flexibility to update information across all info centers in Vision.

Function – Calls well known Vision methods to do specific tasks like create a project from an opportunity.

Invoke A Custom Method/Invoke a Web Service – Requires advanced programing knowledge and web services. 

Let Deltek Vision Workflows Work for You

These are just a few examples of things you can do with workflows in Deltek Vision. Setting these workflows up is easier than you think and will save you and your firm lots of time. Our team here at Full Sail Partners is ready to help you set up any Vision workflow you think would benefit your firm! Let us know if we can help you!

Business intelligence – or BI – is a technology-driven process aimed at collecting data and analyzing it to create actionable insight. This insight can help you and your company make better business decisions. Using a visual dashboard set up with your firm’s KPIs, BI can give you a better idea of how to move forward with strategic business planning.

Why Data Visualization is So Important

Data visualization is important for the simple reason that our brains are wired for visuals. Half of our brain is dedicated to visual functions, and 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual. We process images 60,000 times faster than text making data visualizations quite significant in the business world. Additionally, visuals improve comprehension, a key factor when it comes to interpreting data and making decisions.

Informer BI Offers Visual Options

With Informer BI, there are plenty of visual options available for any type of relevant data. Based on the data type, Informer automatically creates different visuals you can choose from to best fit your audience. You can even customize your graphics depending on what you want to see and how you want to see it - choose color, size, and type of graphic you want to display.

Why Informer?

Not only do colorful graphics draw attention to the pertinent information, but Informer is always updating your customizable dashboard to make sure your data is current. Informer can easily combine data from multiple sources and is available for cloud use. Stop wasting your time with out of date boring spreadsheets and jumbled up numbers. Instead, focus on what drives your business using Informer BI to make insightful decisions.  

In today’s world, data lives everywhere! Reducing duplicate data in the entry and maintenance process can be a time-consuming effort. The Blackbox Connector leverages the robust APIs available in Deltek Vantagepoint and Vision to automagically bring together data from your Deltek solutions and other best of breed 3^rd party solutions you use to help run your business. 

The Blackbox Connector vastly reduces manual, error prone, data import/exports between systems by directly speaking the language of each endpoint and making the translations between them instantly and accurately every time. As the Blackbox Connector keeps them in sync, changes made in one system just appear in the other. Let’s check out what types of Blackbox Connectors are available.

Concur Blackbox Connector

It begins with the realization that there must be a better way to manage business expense. Give your employees their own personal assistant by combining the power of Deltek Vantagepoint or Vision and Concur. Improve efficiency for employees, allowing them to focus on core business goals.

Concur reduces mistakes and fraud with built-in controls and duplication verification. Your business can lower costs by implementing company-wide policies to control expenses enabling accounting staff to better manage expense processing, from approval to payment posting. Enjoy shortened payment cycles along with improved payables and consultant accruals with invoice. Learn more about Concur here!

Constant Contact and Mailchimp Blackbox Connector

With the Constant Contact and Mailchimp Blackbox Connector for Vantagepoint or Vision, your business can utilize emails like never before. Both solutions have many different features that make things simple while still being effective. Both reduce duplication of entry while maintaining consistent and accurate marketing data.

With either, you can leverage email results to further segment and target contacts and leads. You can track performance of email campaigns and receive insight on the latest email statistics. These connectors will save you hundreds of hours each year by consolidating disparate systems. Get the facts about email marketing and why your firm should be using Constant Contact or MailChimp. 

Client Feedback Tool Blackbox Connector

Reliable feedback is essential to understanding your client’s goals. Integrating the Client Feedback Tool with Vantagepoint or Vision ensures you can gather client feedback throughout the entire lifecycle of a project. Firms can fine-tune their performance to achieve maximum benefit for their clients and ultimate satisfaction. Find out how client satisfaction can be improved!  

Informer Blackbox Connector

The most recently introduced Blackbox Connector brings business intelligence and Deltek data together. Instead of wasting time on reviewing black and white spreadsheets of data, you can now visualize it with this connector. With customized dashboards, all members of your firm will have access to graphics available in real time so you can keep your finger on the pulse of your business. Learn how a good business intelligence solution can improve your firm's performance! 

HubSpot Blackbox Connector

The next Blackbox Connector in the works is HubSpot. With Hubspot, you can track performance of inbound marketing campaigns directly in Deltek Vantagepoint or Vision. With the ability to link your HubSpot inbound marketing tool with your Vantagepoint or Vision, you can maintain consistent and accurate marketing data and reduce duplicate entry.

With the HubSpot Blackbox Connector, you will be able to create a real-time information hub in Deltek CRM with the latest customer behaviors and activities. Share marketing awareness insight on your inbound marketing efforts to your entire organization. This connector will be available in fourth quarter 2019.

Bringing it all Together

Professional services firms have faced many data challenges, but the innovative solutions developed to bring data together with Vantagepoint or Vision from Concur, Constant Contact/Mailchimp, Client Feedback Tool, Informer, and HubSpot can make a huge difference. You can automagically synchronize your data between systems without human interaction or transcription errors. You can read, write and transform data to your specifications to a variety of end-points. The Blackbox Connector is the future for connectivity for Deltek Vantagepoint and Vision users.

With the start of the new year, it is a perfect time to focus on areas of improvement. Along with making resolutions personally, many people see this time of year as one to revamp their workplace strategies. To support you in this process with your workplace resolutions, we have put together a list of tips and tricks.

Top Tips for the New Year

1. Make sure you reopen a new benefit year to roll over previous benefits from the past year. If you are not manually adjusting, you should be initiating a new 1099 for the payment roll over.
2. Adjust your multiplier in the beginning of the year so you can get a good look at your net profit.
3. Make sure you prepare a new year budget so the monthly reconciliation for the bank is correct at the end of each month.
4. Go through projects and vendors to make sure that the projects you have completed are set to dormant along with the vendors you no longer work with.
5. Do not leave things to the last minute. If there are any errors, make sure you get them fixed immediately so they do not pile up later in the year.
6. Make sure you log into Vision more often than just to complete timesheets. Frequently logging on to Vision is a good idea to make sure things are up to date and correct.
7. Start using iAccess for your business development/CRM activities as well as time and expense.
8. Commit to regularly updating your marketing content by spending one hour every Friday revising your projects and resumes with the information from the latest proposal. Put it on your and your marketing team’s calendar to make the time.
9. Save consulting expense by not making journal entries to AR, AP, Revenue or Cash Accounts.
10. Make sure, when billing, you resolve to post every transaction that you have and never undo posting.

Do More with Deltek Vantagepoint and Vision This New Year

With each new year comes both potential opportunities as well as challenges. Following these tips and tricks, you will get this new year off to a great start. Do more with Deltek Vantagepoint and Vision and help your firm run efficiently and effectively in 2019.

Need help reaching your goals this year? Click the link below to see how Full Sail Partners can help you achieve your goals.

Full Sail Partners is dedicated to helping businesses be the best they can be. Therefore, we consistently provide a variety of resources offering much insight to our clients. These can be found on the resources tab of our website. From webinars and webcasts to whitepapers and events, we want to ensure our clients run at maximum efficiency. Let’s check these resources out.

FSP Webinars & Webcasts

With our webinars and past webcasts, you gain insight on valuable information from leaders and industry experts. Our webinars focus on many relevant topics providing you the tools needed to move your firm forward. If you missed a webinar, we have an archive page with all our past webinars. Just request the video and a PDF of the presentation you are interested in by filling out the form to the right. Some of our most recent past webinars include; Talent Solution Speed Session: Career Paths, and What to Measure, How to Measure, and Making Sense of it All. Don’t hesitate to find a webinar that will help you! 

Events & User Groups

Full Sail Partners conducts virtual user group meetings to help our clients learn more about Deltek products. We encourage you to contact your area representative to meet and network locally while viewing our virtual presentation as a group! The largest networking event for Deltek users is Deltek Insight, and this year it is November 5^th-8^th in Dallas, TX. The Full Sail Partners’ team will be presenting at Deltek Insight and topics include DPS (Vantagepoint), workflows, accounts payable process, and functional database. If you want to attend these classes at Deltek Insight 2018, you can register here. Interested in a Full Sail Partners’ speaker for one of your events? Fill out the form to the right of the Events & User Groups’ page and specify your company, topic, and how many people! 

Whitepapers

Full Sail Partners provides complimentary whitepapers as a part of an ongoing effort to provide information about the newest technology and industry standards. These resources can help your business stay ahead of the competition. There are many to choose from to learn about solutions for your project-focused business. Some of these include: Benefits of an Enterprise Resource Planning System, Growth and Transition, and Top 10 Recruiting Metrics HR Should Care About. Be sure to check out all of the amazing whitepapers we have to offer. 

eBooks by Deltek

To ensure users get the most out of their systems, Deltek has published a Dummies eBook series that addresses the importance of several tools and industry best practices. If you are interested in downloading a copy of an eBook, simply fill out the survey including your name and email. Some of the eBooks we have to offer include: Talent Management for Dummies, Resource Planning for Dummies, and Planning a Great Project for Dummies. Whatever topic you are struggling with, there is an eBook to help. 

Keep Learning! 

The more knowledge firms have, the more smoothly they will run. Full Sail Partners strives to continuously provide information to our clients that helps them achieve maximum efficiency and stay ahead of the competition. Keep an eye out for more resources as they come available!

Deltek Insight 2018 is fast approaching­! Have you thought about attending? This year it will be in Dallas, Texas from November 5^th to the 8^th at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center. If you are not sure yet about attending Deltek Insight this year, here’s a look at some reasons to make it worth your while.

Learn More at Sessions Led by Experts

Deltek products can do so much for your business. At Insight, there are multiple sessions with Deltek experts where you can learn things you might have never known. These educational sessions are provided to Deltek users, so they can utilize their Deltek products successfully.

Additionally, experts from Full Sail Partners will be on-site leading other sessions. Rick Childs along with Tim Burns will be demonstrating how to speed up your accounts payable process through automation. If you are struggling with workflows, join Kelly Duquette as she shows how you can use standard workflows to automate repetitive tasks. Check out the whole list of Full Sail Partners’ led sessions here.

There is also a great lineup of keynotes at Insight. The list includes Mike Robbins, The Four Oarsmen, and Johnny Cupcakes. These sought-after speakers will provide inspirational stories and talk about their achievements. Learn more about the educational opportunities at Insight 2018 here. 

Meet Other Deltek Users

Insight is the largest gathering of Deltek users. Attending this conference gives you the opportunity to connect with Deltek users from around the world that you would normally not be able to meet. You will be able to speak with others in your industry about common issues and how they use their Deltek products. With so many Deltek users in one spot, you can get answers to questions that you have or give feedback to those struggling with an obstacle that you have overcome.

Have Fun While You Work

Deltek Insight will kick off Monday, November 5^th with a general session where attendees can mingle while learning what will be going on throughout the four days of Insight. Then at the welcome reception, everyone will enjoy snacks and beverages provided by Deltek. Make sure to stop by our booth and see what we have been doing this year to improve our customer experience!

Finally, Celebrate Insight which is the last night of the conference will be held at the world-famous Gilley’s in downtown Dallas. Attendees will be dancing through the decades with six decade-inspired rooms including the 60’s Revolution, a 70’s disco, I Love the 80’s, Smells like 90’s Spirit, and Y2K Tech Nerds. Food and beverages will be provided in each room, and if that’s not enough, the legendary Kool & The Gang will be performing their iconic hits. This Celebrate Insight is something you’ll not want to miss.

Register Now for Deltek Insight 2018

With all these amazing events that are going on this year, you are going to want to sign up right away! From the networking, to the learning experiences, to the fun, it is worth the effort to attend. See you there!