Full Sail Partners' VP of Sales and Marketing, Sarah Gonnella, spoke with Cathy Cushing, Office Manager; Malcolm Whyte, Executive Vice President; and Saul Macias, Vice President of Professional Services from SharedHR to discuss the human resources consulting services they provide to small- to medium-sized business and how having a project-based ERP system is critical to their success. 

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SharedHR is an experienced management consulting and human resource services firm. They believe the essence of an organization’s success rests with attracting, developing, and retaining the right talent. SharedHR takes the time to learn about your company and its culture in order to provide customized, service-orient- ed support to foster your success. SharedHR can supplement your payroll, benefits, and HR team or fully outsource your HR function. The SharedHR methodology streamlines your administrative processes using our cloud-based HR platform. Their approach offers flexible solutions to match the needs of your small to mid-sized business. They pair each client with a dedicated and experienced associate who offers access to the combined knowledge and resources of our entire knowledge base and senior team. SharedHR leverages paperless, cloud-based technology to integrate and optimize your HR and administrative processes so you can focus on high-value business priorities. 

 

Successful professional services business development professionals often view themselves as hunters. Much like the cavemen or nomads, this group of professionals is responsible for learning how to navigate the dangers of the world to bring food back to the pack. This overly simplified analogy challenges us to view business development tools and efforts on a visceral level.

However, today’s competitive business environment requires business developers to be both hunters and farmers. Technology has drastically changed the way that relationships are cultivated. Our world is now more connected than ever before, therefore the ‘entry for admission’ to being a known entity is significantly higher than it has ever been before.

So what are the most essential hunter-farmer business development tools? Let’s take a look!

The Business Development Tools for Success

1. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) | CRM tools make it possible for everyone in your organization to work together to meet your clients’ needs by putting your clients at the center of your business. Real-time, holistic, competitive intelligence can provide you with everything needed to gain the competitive edge, win more business and increase customer satisfaction.
    
2. Mobile Technology | For years BD professionals went out in to the field, gathered information, and brought the newly found information back to their firm. In today’s competitive business market we cannot afford the lag-time from collecting business intelligence, to acting upon it. Mobile technology has bridged this gap and allows professionals the full functionality of working from the office via a remote or mobile device.
    
3. Social Collaboration Platform | Businesses that have more collaborative and engaged employees experience a higher rate of success. Social collaboration spaces are the virtual equivalent of an open office environment for your organization. Connect your out-of-office and internal staff through a platform that encourages employees to stay connected and share ideas more freely. Simplify file sharing, keep the entire project team informed and engage staff.
    
4. Engagement Through Feedback | We are all familiar with the saying ‘it doesn’t hurt to ask.’ This concept is often overlooked in the business world. Don’t be afraid to ask clients if the processes you are using works for them. Utilize feedback to validate successes and identify areas of improvement. Foster long and meaningful relationships by asking, listening and responding to feedback.

Operate Like the Company You Desire to Be

As mentioned earlier, these business development tools are really the basics for being competitive in today’s market. Ultimately what differentiates your firm in the eyes of the client is how you utilize these technologies. Perception is often reality -- Clarissa the Client doesn’t know the intimate details about your firm, but she is aware of the image your firm presents. Firms that effectively deploy and manage the above tools are able to establish a brand within their market as top tier business partner.

 

 

Deltek Vision CRM is uniquely designed for scalability within your organization. Whether you are a novice user, or a tenured pro, Deltek Vision CRM is designed to allow you quick and easy access to the relationship data that will separate your firm from the rest of the pack! However, regardless of the capabilities of the software, the success of your firm’s rollout is affected heavily by your past experiences with services management platforms, the firm’s overall culture and philosophies of client management, and your users’ level of buy-in. Maximizing the value that the system brings to your firm requires careful planning and strong commitments to the implementation. 

Initially, you really need to have your act together regarding the overall objectives for improving the firm’s information management. It requires a core group of people to roll up their sleeves and connect the dots between business process and software tools. Once you have these important objectives defined, you can move forward with tailoring the system to support them.

In this discussion, we’ll focus on the following basic elements of handling critical information: collection, accessibility, management and lifecycle.

Collection

One of the most important, and obvious, things we must do with any successful information system is, oddly enough, collect information. When you consider all the data in your miscellaneous spreadsheets, business card piles, Outlook shared folders and “head knowledge” that you DON’T currently have in Vision, the task can be a little overwhelming. Develop capture processes that are efficient, consistent, and make the best use of the people resources you have available. Find any way possible to help unify your team around the belief that Vision is the firm’s single source of truth for the information it’s designed to collect.

Accessibility

It regularly boggles my mind that some users of an information tool as powerful as Deltek Vision take ten minutes or more to get logged in. There are plenty of reasons – I forgot my ID/password, lost the shortcut, can’t remember the URL, have to be at the office for it to work, and so on. Make Vision more accessible by:

• Creating Start Menu or Desktop shortcuts with Vision’s URL
• Using the Microsoft Office Desktop Integration utility (included with Deltek Vision CRM license
• Getting mobile with Touch CRM – Vision contact information literally at your fingertips!

As you gather tips and tricks from your power users, build internal training content and SHARE them. Do whatever you can to make “hard to get in” an unacceptable excuse for staying OUT of Vision. 

Management

Once you’ve paved the path into Vision, teach users how to quickly navigate, find what they’re looking for, and simplify the presentation of information that’s most critical. Mastering the art of searching in Vision is VERY important. The good news is that once you’ve figured it out, you can leverage the skill in any area. Remember that Standard Searches lookup records based on Vision’s basic individual fields. Advanced Searches allow you to construct multi-layered “AND/OR” parameters, search based on custom fields AND (Boolean pun intended) search across info centers! Help your users practice stating their searches out loud before building them in Vision. For those searches you seem to do over again every other week, set them up as Global Favorites. This will make your efforts to find all projects in the states of Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota, for which William Apple was Principal-in-Charge, the fee was greater than $100,000, and whose Long Name started with the letter Z, much more efficient. 

After creating a team of Search Gurus around your office, you can then help each become “Master of His/Her Dashboard.” Again, state out loud what lists, reports, or resources would be awesome to have available each time you log-in to Vision. Figure out which of these items can be displayed on Vision’s dashboard (unique to each Vision user account), choose some cool border colors, and off you go! 

Lifecycle

Typing information over again that already exists in a database is for people who have too much time on their hands. Once you have created a Lead named Bob Smith, who works for XYZ Company, which will soon build a New Headquarters Expansion, located in Nashville, Tennessee, wouldn’t you like Vision to simply pass this information forward through your phases of identifying, pursuing, winning and delivering the project? If so, your next “back to basics” move is to help your firm use Vision’s “Create From…” functionality. Vision can take data you already have and use it in new records in the following ways:

• Lead > “Convert” to Contact/Client/Opportunity
• Promotional and Regular Projects “Created from” < Opportunities
• Project Plans “Created from” < OpportunProject Plans “Created from” < Existing Promotional and Regular Projects
• Promotional and Regular Projects “Created from” < Project Plans

Before you go cross-eyed figuring out all this movement, understand that you need to first identify and sketch out your firm’s project lifecycle before effectively using Vision’s “Create From…” functionality. Think about the following questions:

• When do we want a prospective project to be "on the list" or counted in the sales forecast?
• When do we want to start tracking time and expense directly associated with a pursuit?
• When do we need to start planning and allocating staff resources to a likely project win?

Your answers will help determine points in your cycle where Vision can take much of the information already collected and continue using it in subsequent stages. This feature can be an incredible bridge-builder for interdepartmental relationships amongst the marketing, business development, accounting, and operations areas of your firm. 

It’s never too late to get Back to the Basics in your Deltek Vision CRM system. Remember that the system should support the successful business processes you’ve determined work best for your firm, not vice versa. Whether you’ve just been asked to join an internal discussion that started with “I think we need to get one of those CRM things,” or you’re a Deltek Vision CRM veteran looking to step it up a notch, revisit some of these concepts and help your firm ride into the sunset toward a more informed future.
 

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Deltek Vision CRM is uniquely designed for scalability within your organization. Whether you are a novice user, or a tenured pro, Deltek Vision CRM is designed to allow you quick and easy access to the relationship data that will separate your firm from the rest of the pack! However, regardless of the capabilities of the software, the success of your firm’s rollout is affected heavily by your past experiences with services management platforms, the firm’s overall culture and philosophies of client management, and your users’ level of buy-in. Maximizing the value that the system brings to your firm requires careful planning and strong commitments to the implementation.

Have you ever thought about all the information a firm collects on a daily basis? Think about it, every department is collecting information all the time. More importantly, information collected impacts your firm’s strategy and directly correlates to how successful you are at winning and retaining business. So what should your firm be doing with all of this information? The following five concepts answer this question and are the future of marketing for professional services firms. 

1.    Multiple Marketer Personality (MMP) – I disagree with the philosophy that being a jack of all trades is a bad thing. In today's world of marketing, your career depends on the fact that you must juggle multiple tasks at one time and that you can quickly grasp concepts that you may know nothing about. This complex role of the marketer requires us to have a disease called Multiple Marketer Personality (MMP).

How can you tell if you have MMP? One way to tell is your role requires you to understand, decipher and extract data. One of our past articles talks more about this specific requirement that identifies someone who is equally passionate about marketing and savvy with technology to become the Marketing Technologist. Other key symptoms indicative of MMP are understanding how HR, finance and operations impact marketing. Understanding strength and weakness of employee talents, how communication occurs between client and employee, and the ROI of marketing are critical to establishing a firm’s growth plan. A marketing strategy becomes a pipe dream, instead of a realistic strategy, without a good grasp of these areas.

2.    ‘Necessity is the Mother of Invention’ Says Your iPhone – Mobile is no longer what will happen, it is happening. Having mobile access will no longer be a nice to have, but a necessity. We actually collect and share an infinite amount of information on mobile devices and the cloud is changing the way we conduct business. Can you submit expense receipts or document a new opportunity with a client in real-time on your phone? More and more of our life is on a mobile device and computers are not always available. If your firm is not able to access information on-the-go, you will fall behind your competition. To learn more about mobile CRM, read “Mobile CRM: A Day in the Life of a Business Developer.”

3.    Fusion of Data Tools – What do you get when you have visibility into your entire organization? Inquiring professional service minds would wish to know. Marketing data is so spread out between Client Relationship Management (CRM) systems, website forms, email systems, accounting systems, project management system, etc. that having one place to report is nearly impossible. Moving into the future, firms need to make a conscious effort to connect these autonomous information systems. Marketing automation + ERP integration is the future. Marketing automation tools connect inbound marketing, outbound marketing emails, social scheduling, SEO and lead nurturing. Where ERP connects all business functions, from your Finance, Management Accounting, Project Management, Client Relationship Management (CRM), Human Resources, Inventory and Purchasing. Each can be very powerful alone, but together they become a powerhouse.

4.    Gathering Feedback that Impact Your Client – 65% of a company's business is from existing customers. This means that a happy client equals future revenue, but do you really know what your clients think of your firm? You should and you can. Client feedback tools are changing the way professional services firms manage their clients. Other industries have called them, Voice of the Customer (VOC), Client Experience Management (CEM), and Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM). But professional services firms have different needs and research has found that only 5% of them utilize a customer/client feedback system. Firms no longer have to wait until the end of a project to know that their client is unsatisfied. With client feedback tools, quick two-minute surveys are sent to clients during the life-cycle of the project. This allows your firm to proactively manage your client's expectations by knowing what makes the client happy and also identify things they would like to see changed. As addressed in this blog, “Using Project Feedback to Increase Profitability,” feedback is the key to stopping profitability loss during a project. 

5.    Sharing Firm Knowledge with Social Collaboration Tools – Are you working with a team and still sending out group emails? Stop! Social media changed how we communicate in our private life and it has changed how we communicate in business. Business collaboration tools are designed to ensure that teams work more effectively. No longer do you need to send a group email and worry that you left someone off. Business collaboration tools allow team members to share project related information on one site. They can also be integrated with other business tools, such as ERP and CRM systems, and Outlook. Since business collaboration tools are designed to be user-friendly, they are easy to implement and people are more likely use them. Additionally, business collaboration tools are not just for internal communication, but can also be shared with the client. Interested in how your firm can start utilizing social collaboration, this blog further highlighting the “5 Key Reasons Why Business Collaboration Tools are the Future.”
 
The future of marketing for professional services firms is based on the way we collect, share and use information. Is your firm taking the right steps to get ahead of the competition? Connect with us to discuss more about the future of your firm. 
 
*photo credit: http://www.business2community.com/  

 

The digital age has revolutionized every aspect of our lives. If you want to know something, simply search for the answer on the internet. Email and social media are now prevalent ways to communicate, and are becoming increasingly effective marketing channels. This revolution has changed how we conduct business. More importantly, the way we market our business evolves daily and has created a new role called the marketing technologist. 

The Impact of More Data

A Forrester Research study found that 96% of CMOs surveyed agreed that the pace of change in technology and marketing will continue to accelerate. As a result, firms cannot rely on mass marketing techniques that provide little return on investment. A wealth of information about your prospects and their level of interest is readily available with the right tools and knowledge. This modern marketing world is becoming more strategic and performance-driven. So with the rise of performance-driven marketing, marketing decisions are based on extremely accurate data. This new era of marketing has given birth to a new breed of marketing professionals known as marketing technologist.

What is Required of a Marketing Technologist?

A marketing technologist is a unique individual that is characterized as analytic and creative. They have a background that is a blend between information technology and marketing. Furthermore, a marketing technologist is the secret to staying ahead the technology curve and your competition. They know how to analyze the data collected from marketing campaigns to gain a deeper understanding of your customers. In fact, they can use this data to determine the level of interest of a potential lead to create a nurturing campaign that guides the lead through the business development process. In addition to creating content and evaluating campaign performance, marketing technologist are tech savvy and understand how new marketing technologies work. This increased ability to collect accurate data in near real-time is the direct result of the digital age and the advent of new technologies.

Why the Growing Demand of the Marketing Technologist

The marketing technology software industry is booming. International Data Corporation (IDC) recently reported that organizations worldwide will spend over $130 billion on software over the next five years for marketing departments alone. Today, having a website and a few social media accounts is the norm for business. Now there is a never ending sea of content management and marketing automation platforms that allows for all types of new creative ways to engage customers. More importantly, these platforms can be integrated with internal CRM solutions to increase marketing effectiveness by:

• Enabling lead nurturing before the sales team gets involved in the sales process.
• Gathering data about potential leads by tracking their web activities, browsing habits, and responses to marketing efforts.
• Prioritizing leads by scoring them based on their recorded activities and recognizing when a lead is ready to be engaged by the sales team.

As more technologies enter the marketplace, the demand for marketing technologist will grow.

The Future of the Marketing Technologist

Even though SHRM, the leading organization for human resources professionals, does not recognize “Marketing Technologist” as a job title, there are job postings on employment websites with similar job descriptions across the country. According to a recent study by Gartner analyst Laura McLellan, CMOs will be spend more on information technology than their counterpart CIOs by 2017. Marketing departments are spending more on technology than information technology departments - that is saying a lot about the future of marketing and is indicative of the future growth of the marketing technologist role. As companies invest more into their marketing technology, having a qualified individuals will be a requirement.

A current trend in many organizations is to closely align the marketing and technology departments to work together as a team. Not because they do not want to hire a marketing technologist, but rather the result of having a limited amount of people to choose from with experience in both marketing and information technology. The title of a recent article posted on Forbes, “The Rise of the Unicorns – Why Marketing Technologists will Rule Modern Marketing” supports this assertion and supports the real growth in the marketing technologist role.

 

 

 

You may have already asked the question or may be wondering, what will happen to Deltek Vision with the new announcement of Spartan?  For those that don’t know, Microsoft announced that the Windows 10 operating system will debut an entirely new web browser, code-named Spartan. Many IT savvy clients have already been asking the question, what does this mean for Deltek Vision? Will Deltek Vision still work? The short answer is, “Yes.” 

Microsoft made the following statement, “Project Spartan is Microsoft’s next generation browser, built just for Windows 10. We will continue to make Internet Explorer available with Windows 10 for enterprises and other customers who require legacy browser support.” Additionally, Kyle Pflug, program manager for Spartan, wrote in a blog post, “Based on strong feedback from our Windows Insiders and customers, today we're announcing that on Windows 10, Project Spartan will host our new engine exclusively. Internet Explorer 11 will remain fundamentally unchanged from Windows 8.1, continuing to host the legacy engine exclusively." He added, “Enterprises that adopt Windows 10 will be able to set IE11 as the OS's default browser using group policy settings”. 

Internet Explorer is a staple performer and Microsoft will continue to support it for years. Microsoft has promised to support the browser with security updates for at least the next eight years or through January 2023. So rest assured that Internet Explorer will still exist and therefore Deltek Vision will still work. 

With that being said, Deltek has already been looking at ways for firms to connect to Vision without Internet Explorer to become more system agnostic. New features that can run on any web browser include, the new project manager portal (Navigator) and an upcoming CRM portal. Additionally, Deltek product developers are looking at ways to further minimalize reliance on Internet Explorer with future releases. 

For those firms that need to connect to Deltek Vision from a MAC or any tablet or phone today, there is Vision Unleashed. This solution allows your firm to access your Deltek Vision data anywhere with almost any device. Additionally, a 30-day FREE provisional test period is available. 

Bottom line: 

1. Firms already have options already available to you to access your Deltek Vision data without Internet Explorer
2. Internet Explorer isn’t going away any time soon
3. Deltek is committed to the Vision product 

Should you have any questions regarding this or any other technical questions, we encourage you to reach out to your Deltek Partner.

 

Full Sail Partners, a Deltek Premier Partner, is excited to announce the addition of Ryan Felkel as a Marketing and Communication Specialist. In this role, Ryan will join the marketing and business development team to identify new market verticals outside of the architectural and engineering industry. With the addition of Ryan, Full Sail Partners is prepared to expand their offering to a broader range of customers who may not have realized how our products can streamline their processes and increase their profitability.

“I am honored to be a member of the Full Sail Partners team,” Ryan said. “Full Sail Partners has a world class set of products and services to assist project-based firms with managing their complex and growing needs. Their strong focus on customer satisfaction coupled with their great mix of products and services will assure that Full Sail Partners remains a valued and trusted partner to their customers well into the future.”

Ryan has nearly five years of experience in energy markets. During this time, he was an accomplished proposal manager and marketing professional working for a company that provided demand side management services for electric and gas utilities across North America. It is his goal to utilize this experience to provide a fresh perspective and new ideas to foster relationships with these new market verticals.

“As a Deltek Premier Partner, our firm has led the charge in expanding and servicing new market verticals beyond the architectural and engineering industry.” stated Sarah Gonnella, VP of Marketing and Sales. “Ryan’s self-starter attitude and marketing acumen will help our firm continue to position our existing products and services into new markets. I’m excited to have Ryan join our marketing team to focus exclusively on targeting new project-focused professional service firms. We recognize the need to continue to service our existing clients, and therefore have split our existing marketing role into two. This allows our firm to have a dedicated marketing resource that will focus on customer satisfaction and ensure our existing clients know about new features, products and services, while Ryan focuses on these new market verticals.”

Want to learn more about the Full Sail Partners' Team? Check out our crew!

 

 

 

Our modern day culture is often obsessed with perfection. Magazine covers are graced by photoshopped professional models and our TV screens are filled with successful eclectics whose wealth is their biggest problem.

Fortunately, perfection is not an attainable goal; the real goal is the path we follow as we strive for peak performance which is the essence of a 'perfect employee'.

It was Vince Lombardi that said, “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” Considering that the NFL Super Bowl trophy is named after Vince Lombardi, you could say he knew a thing or two about peak performance…

So, what qualities help us along this path to being the ‘perfect employee’? 

What are the 11 P's of Peak Performance?

If obtaining peak performance is our professional goal, then, what exactly are the attributes that we need to be the 'perfect employee'?  Following is the list of benchmark qualities you should strive for on your path:

1. Proficient. Sure, you can’t have all the answers but you know how to dive in or connect with the right people to figure them out. You come to the table with suggestions - not more problems. You are constantly looking at how to improve the process.

2. Proud. You are proud of your work because your efforts are always well thought out, tested and reviewed. You don't rely on others to finish your assignments but ask others to quality check your work to make sure it is always correct.

3. Persistent. We all know to learn from mistakes, but the 'perfect employee' personifies this concept. You admit when you are wrong sooner than later. If you don't know how to do something, you find out how … with no excuses.

4. Passionate. You LOVE what you do and radiate emotion when you talk about your work!  You learn on your own, offer improvements, and share with others what you know.

5. Productive. Your willingness to push up your sleeves and work overtime while not jeopardizing other commitments is renowned. While we all have parts of our jobs that are not favorable, 'perfect employees' realize the goal of those less desirable tasks and get them done.

6. Positive. You exemplify “Can Do!” by accepting that you can always improve, you see challenges as opportunities, and you think about how things can be done instead of complaining about what you can't change (including the past).

7. Professional. You understand that while comradery is important with co-workers and clients, there is a fine line between “fun” and unprofessional “fooling around.” You make sure your work is top notch and your comments will not ever be construed as childish or offensive.

8. Able to keep Promises. You are always thinking about priorities and when the job will be completed in order to deliver in order to keep your promise. You communicate when a conflict arises but still look to deliver on time. You are faithful about deadlines and rarely provide excuses.

9. Punctual. You understand the value of time, yours as well as others. People think “punctual” is your middle name.

10. Able to Promote … others and yourself. You promote great deeds and great work regardless of who completed it. You are always thinking and talking about ways to make the workplace a better environment for your colleagues and services better for clients.

11. Purposeful. Each day has a purpose. You take each day and every action seriously; constantly thinking about what needs to be accomplished and how to generate purposeful results.

HOW to be “perfect” (or close)?

 

My momma was always full of advice. Some I took with great results, but others … well let’s just say I had to learn the lesson the hard way. At this stage in our lives, we’ve all moved on from those tender years where momma was our greatest guide, but we are all still attuned to receiving advice from those more experienced. Or at least we should be. Take for example, the ERP Implementation process:

Most savvy business professionals know the ERP acronym, but not all have taken the advice.  But why?  What’s keeping some companies from “pulling the trigger” and bringing this all important piece to their success puzzle – especially when their competitors are?  In my years talking and working with a variety of firms, I have gathered the top five fears why companies, like yours, haven’t completed an ERP Implementation. 

1)      You say: “It’s going to cost too much.”

We hear:  Fear of Being Out of Control

We solve: An ERP system will address this fear by managing costs and stopping       financial leaks.

Problem:  The industry says that ERP implementation can be expensive and many companies wonder where the money is coming from. Many function under the notion that it’s easier to just do the quick fix and move on.

Solution:  The right ERP system, implemented correctly with the aid of the right consultants, will fix those expensive leaks in processes. Furthermore, with a detailed IT growth plan and the information from the new ERP, the initial costs will be recouped and you’ll be well on your way to a better financial and technologically focused picture.

2)      You say: “I don’t have the time to research an ERP.”

We hear:  Fear of Where to Start

We solve:  Taking the first step with an ERP and controlling your future will eliminate this fear.

Problem:  It can be daunting to think about the work it will require to research and discover the right consulting firm who will help find and implement the right ERP. But, in this scenario, consumers are being reactive rather than proactive - spending days living those old clichés “with your head in the sand putting out fires.” 

Solution:  It’s time to take action - focus on goals and the future. An ERP is a planning, forward-looking mechanism designed to give control over an organization’s future. If the research and work is done at the beginning of the ERP implementation, energy will be focused on the future. 

3)      You say:  “It’s going to take too long to implement.”

We hear:  Fear of Failure

We solve:  An ERP system helps you succeed by pulling together all your information for a clear picture of your newly improved organization.

Problem:  When you run a lean organization, all internal resources are at full capacity unable to see the big picture which makes for silo’d company data inhibiting the ability to see the big picture. Not having a clear picture serves only to stunt a firm’s growth:  it’s this lack of encompassing visibility which keeps a firm from being able to make intelligent decisions or to understand trends, because they are lacking departments and systems that are connected to each other.

Solution:  A good ERP system will pull together all this disparate data giving users the clear picture they need to move forward and giving everyone the gift of time. Yes, ERP implementations require some work and time to evaluate and establish new processes, establish goals, and get everything running smoothly, but the more attention is focused on the consultants and the implementation, the faster you will reap the benefits and feel the relief.

4)      You say:  “It’s going to require too much change in my current processes.”

We hear:  Fear of Change

We solve:  An ERP consultant will guide you through change.

Problem:  Even a bad process can feel comfortable, familiar. And in the fast-paced business world, we all have to find comfort where we can. It’s understandable to want to avoid the work, unfamiliarity, and making changes to numerous business processes. But what’s more important is that your competitors are already using their ERP systems. They will be on “the latest and greatest” while you are still floundering with “this is the way we’ve always done it.”

Solution:  Here’s where the right consultant can really help. Someone who knows their way through the maze of settings; who knows the latest and most relevant business processes; and who, most of all, knows YOUR business and YOUR industry. Once the consultant tailors the ERP implementation to what are now highly efficient business processes, you’ll be able to appreciate the value of the phrase, “change is good.”

5)      You say:  “No one will use the system, anyway.”

We hear:  Fear of Unknown

We solve:  An ERP is such a supportive tool, it will quickly become a familiar part of your world.

Problem:  So after all the trouble of researching and implementing and ERP; the real fear is, “Will I really use it or just revert back to our old ways?”  Once the shine wears off of a new ERP system, there will be some effort every person will have to make to make the changes permanent. HuffPost Healthy article, “How Long Does It Actually Take to Form a New Habit? (Backed by Science)” tells us that, “On average, it takes more than two months before a new behavior becomes automatic -- 66 days to be exact.” 

Solution:  That’s great news, because in a little over two months, with a focused effort, everyone, including you, will have turned these new processes into automatic actions. What’s more, the new processes will have included regular reviews of data giving a clear picture of the entire organization allowing responsible action for your future. We also recommend understanding more about the 8 key ways to make your implementation a success. 

ERP Implementation Fears Laid To Rest!

Some (or all) of these fears may have indeed been on your mind as you contemplated your company’s future success. To learn more about ERP implementation, the benefits and the return on the financial and time investment, check out Full Sail Partners’ whitepaper, “Could Your Firm Benefit from an Enterprise Resource Planning System?”

In the end, while momma’s advice may not have included an ERP implementation, her wise words still resonate and are perfectly applicable to this journey “Nothing tried, nothing gained!” Obstacles are just opportunities waiting to be discovered!

 

Full Sail Partners, Deltek Premier Partner, is pleased to announce the addition of Gina Stamper to the client services team. Gina has joined the firm in the role of West Coast Account Manager and will provide account services for Full Sail Partners’ clients in the Mountain and Pacific regions. She will work as a liaison between Full Sail Partners and clients, helping to build an openly collaborative community.

Gina joins Full Sail Partners with 15 years of accounting and finance experience in the technology, mortgage and telecommunication industries where servicing client needs is essential to success. Gina previously spent five years as a senior account manager servicing Deltek Vision Clients.

“I’m very enthusiastic about the opportunity to continue working hand-in-hand with Deltek Vision account holders,” said Gina Stamper. “The professional services market is rapidly developing and so are the needs of our end users. I look forward to this opportunity to help customers as their companies evolve.”

Full Sail Partners’ Account Management Program is designed to serve the needs of the Deltek client base and promote greater engagement. This position will serve as an additional resource to address client questions and provide a dedicated resource for those on the West Coast. Full Sail Partners now provides account management services from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST, extending its service availability an additional three hours.

“Gina’s work ethic, experience, and passion for customer service make her the ideal candidate for this position,” said Wendy Gustafson, Full Sail Partners’ vice president / general manager. “We’re confident in Gina’s knowledge of the Deltek Vision product set and her proven ability to maintain great relationships with existing customers, while helping to develop new accounts.”

For more information, please email Full Sail Partners’ Marketing Communications Department. Interested in meeting the rest of the crew? Check out the link below!