Full Sail Partners Blog (26)

“What gets measured gets done” is a common phrase heard in the business world. This thought process relies on business metrics that can be tracked and focused on within an organization. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are the critical measurements which business leaders pay close attention to consistently. There are many leading and lagging indicators that can be analyzed to gauge a company’s health and employee productivity. So, what are KPIs that leaders and employees use to determine if their firm is operating effectively?  

Leading Indicators Look Forward

Firm leaders must always be looking to the future. New business is crucial to maintain a successful operation of a company. Likewise, appropriate staffing is necessary to ensure employee productivity.

New Business Pipeline – This measures the opportunities in the pipeline throughout the business development or sales process. The process typically covers efforts to attract clients, engage clients, then secure clients. How is a pipeline goal determined? Look at the firm’s hit rate – the ratio of wins to the number of projects pursued – and work backwards to determine the number of calls, meetings, and proposals needed to meet pipeline goals. Other metrics include client touch points, new leads, web visits, blog views, and dollar of proposals submitted, which all feed into the new business pipeline.

Full-Time Equivalent – This number shows if a firm is properly staffed for current and future work. The concept includes hours worked by part-time employees and full-time employees to determine the full-time equivalent (FTE). A firm can look at the total number of hours worked by all staff combined for a given time period and divide it by the number of working hours in that same time period. The FTE metric could trigger human resources to ramp up recruiting efforts or signal to business developers to target work for a specific time to keep utilization where it should be.  

Lagging Indicators Evaluate the Past

To keep a firm running successfully, business leaders must constantly measure results against goals. Were the goals met? Why or why not? There are a number of factors leaders analyze here.

Utilization Rate – Many firms use utilization goals as the benchmark for employee productivity. These goals are usually set by team managers and consider billable time, employee development, and administrative time. Employees can bring their highest value to the firm when they are operating at their optimal billable utilization goal. This metric is widely used at the individual employee level and group level.

Overhead Rate – This measures a firm’s non-billable costs compared to billable costs. Overhead expenses can be monitored and adjusted if this number is higher than desired. Examples of non-billable, or overhead, costs include leases, supplies, and non-billable professional hours, to name a few.

Revenue – This popular metric is the number that sits at the top of the income statement and measures the income a firm generates before subtracting expenses. This can be measured against revenue goals to determine how the company is performing. This number is important, but it should not be the only source of motivation.

Gross Profit Margin – This metric tells the firm’s process efficiency. The higher the number, the more efficiently the work is being completed. This can be measured overall for the firm as well as at the project level.

Revenue Growth – Is your firm on the desired growth path? This comprehensive view shows leaders the growth trajectory year-over-year. If it’s not on the desired path, course corrections can be made to get back on track.

Ongoing Pulse Checks Monitor the Present

It is also important to keep abreast of the general attitude towards your firm by both clients and employees. Both clients and employees contribute to the ultimate success of your firm. Thus, both should be assessed for current satisfaction levels.

Client retention and satisfaction – Repeat clients are vital to a firm’s success and can be tracked against new clients. Keeping clients satisfied helps ensure they will continue using the firm’s services. Tools such as the Client Feedback Tool can be used to gauge how satisfied clients are with the firm’s work and communication. The Client Feedback Tool can also be used to the employee’s advantage, learning where improvements can be made, or assistance requested.  

Employee satisfaction – The employee experience is just as important as the client experience. Satisfied employees are typically more productive, resulting in a stronger bottom line. It is best to keep lines of communication open and engage with, survey, and collaborate with employees regularly.

Using Metrics Ensures Firm Success

There are hundreds of metrics that can be tracked on a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual basis. It is key to find the proper balance of metrics that works for your firm type and structure. Knowing how to get the right data is also important. Solutions such as Deltek Vision, Vantagepoint, and Informer can provide business intelligence showing real-time KPIs, giving leadership teams the data necessary for effective decision making and business management. Clear data can be used to identify the most successful areas as well as those that need attention and improvement. This is the most effective way to regularly stay on top of your firm’s performance.

COVID-19 has impacted everyone’s lives quite dramatically and suddenly. For many, working from home, also known as working virtually has become a way of life indefinitely. This new concept of full-time remote working presents unique challenges. Even more, for those of us who have worked at home for years are now dealing with distractions we were not previously exposed to such as sharing workspace with family members all the time. With COVID-19 introducing a plethora of daily hurdles to our once normal lives, here are some ideas to help you stay positive and make the most of this quarantine time.

Create a Workspace

The hardest adjustment people have had to make while sheltering in place or quarantining is keeping to a routine. With COVID-19 and the rapidly changing conditions created by the pandemic, daily routines have been upended overnight. It has been easy for both parents and kids to lose track of days and of time. Therefore, to maintain a disciplined routine, it is very important to create a workspace for yourself and for the others in your household. Whether it be the kids doing schoolwork from the kitchen table or everyone working from the dining room table, choose designated workspaces with designated hours. This will help keep you and your entire family focused on getting your daily work done. 

Improve Your Professional Skills

Believe it or not, working from home during a quarantine can make you more productive. Think about it, you’re not wasting time struggling with traffic and getting kids to sports. So, with this spare time, find free resources to help improve your professional skills. Here at Full Sail Partners, we offer whitepapers, webinars, and blogs like the one you’re reading. Furthermore, Deltek and Entrinsik have similar resources that can be useful to you. Be assured that during this time of uncertainty, Full Sail Partners will continue to create and provide our content for your consumption.

Gain Academic Knowledge

Going beyond your professional skills, there are countless opportunities to increase your academic knowledge. For many, when we finish school and start a career, we quickly leave behind academia not related to our profession. Generally, this is a necessity based on our growing needs that are in line with our priorities, like families. However, there are always those courses we enjoyed as electives and wanted to take a deeper dive into, but we just couldn’t seem to find the time.  

Well, now is a perfect opportunity to revisit this as there are numerous resources available on the internet. Here are links to some example of free online academic resources:

• Khan Academy
• Coursera
• Open Culture
• Alison

Even better, if you’re a parent now having to do at-home schooling on topics with which you’re rusty, most or all these resources have you covered.  

Stay Mindful

COVID-19 has created a health scare, but it is necessary for you and your family to find control in these unprecedented times. Staying mindful of the present is a good way to gain control back. In between work activities, take the time to go outside and reflect on the peacefulness of nature. You can even find short mindfulness videos on the internet to do as a family or on your own when you take a work break. Whatever means you choose, try to stay present and productive in each day and know that this will eventually pass.

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

While the current situation is challenging, the reality is that it is our new norm for the near future. In this time of COVID-19 quarantine, we all must focus on the positive rather than the negative. Identify workspaces and be productive, learn something new professionally and otherwise, and above all, establish routine and stay present. Good luck to everyone out there! We will get through this soon!

We’ve heard a lot about the customer experience (CX) and its impact upon professional services firms. However, another experience that is just as significant to firm success is the employee experience (EX). The employee experience involves not only firm culture, but also the means used by firms to encourage employee success. Let’s take a look at what can be used to ensure an exceptional employee experience.

Exceptional Onboarding

It is important to set the stage for a positive new hire experience. Therefore, the onboarding process needs to be effective and efficient in getting employees to the point of being productive as soon as possible. In order to avoid overwhelming orientation paperwork, there should be an online onboarding portal which can capture all relevant new hire information. For example, solutions like Deltek Talent Management offer such a portal. Additionally, there should be a person assigned to each new hire to provide guidance and resources needed for a smooth transition into the workplace.

Performance Management and Career Development

Employees need not only independence to do their jobs, but also room for growth. Another key feature offered by a solution like Deltek Talent Management is continuous performance management. Employee goals should be managed constantly giving them a chance to meet goals in realistic time frames. Both employees and managers can then see when those goals are met and what the next steps to take would be. For the future, employees need to see what upskills or reskills are needed for a transition into a higher or different level position within the firm.

Frequent Internal Communication

Internal communication within a firm not only disseminates significant information, but also helps develop a culture. Employees should feel a sense of community with their firm and be connected to the corporate brand. Providing frequent updates keeps employees in the loop which encourages engagement and productivity. This is particularly true for remote workers. Frequent internal communication will additionally earn employee trust which ensures longevity.

Follow Through on Employee Feedback

Employee feedback can be gleaned in a variety of ways. It could come from a routine feedback survey or even discussions during goal review. No matter where or how employee feedback is obtained, it must be reviewed and acted upon to ensure an exceptional employee experience. Generally, feedback is given because employees want to see changes that will positively impact the firm. Following through on employee feedback thus benefits everyone.

Share Positive Client Feedback

One sure fire way to keep employees motivated is to show how they have positively contributed to their firm. After hours of dedicated work, employees want to see how their projects came to fruition or how the product they sold solved their client’s problems. When employees hear compliments, it boosts confidence and proves that hard work does pay off in the end. Positive client feedback should be shared not only with the employee but across the organization as well.

Employee Experience Affects Employee Engagement

It is a fact that employee engagement directly impacts firm revenue. With an exceptional employee experience, many more employees will stay engaged meaning more success for your firm. Furthermore, those same employees will continue to grow with your firm eventually moving into higher level positions. This will avoid the cost of future top talent recruitment and save your firm money. Start working on improving your employee experience today and let Full Sail Partners know how we can help.

With the recent health crisis of COVID-19 and the need for social distancing, we’ve noticed an uptick in companies’ interest in working from home. Therefore, important questions remain: What departments are feasible to work remotely? What services should be made available? How do you secure such an environment?

Setting up a Home Environment

The first thing you need to consider is if your employees are prepared to work from home? Do they have the necessary resources? Critical gear such adequate hardware and peripherals like full-sized keyboards and local printers may need to be provisioned and adequate internet connectivity both at home sites and the office should be evaluated.

Connecting to Work from Home

How will employees connect to work resources? If you are already using Office 365 or other software as a service then a good bit of the heavy lifting for email, files (SharePoint) as well as availability and collaboration (Teams) is already in place. Deltek Vision is a web based application and making it available remotely is a straightforward evolution our IT consultants can assist with or it can be moved to our Hosting environment. A virtual private network solution whereby each employee creates a connection back to his home office may be required for accessing large CAD or Engineering projects.

A new approach that Full Sail Partners and some of our clients are now using is Server and Desktops as a Service provided by Desktops2go. In this scenario, local desktops and file/licensing servers are hosted in the cloud and remote users simply connect to their workstation from wherever they are, and all workload/file access behaves as if the entire company is working from the same office. This solution also removes a remarkable load from company IT by reducing the need for purchasing high end servers and workstations for staff and provides a predictable monthly IT cost.

Other Considerations

Wide format drawings from a plotter are unlikely to work well from home. However, for drafts, we’ve seen some clients print to PDF, then use Adobe Reader’s ability to print out posterboard tiles until access to the plotters or print shop become available again. Office phones should be forwarded to cellphones or voice mail messages should be checked frequently to stay in contact with critical clients.

Keep Communication Going

From a managerial standpoint, we recommend frequent team and individual staff stand up meetings. Working from home can be disconcerting and isolating for some so additional consideration and contact may help keep morale and productivity up during challenging times. Full Sail Partners has been a virtual company since its inception with everyone working remotely. Please feel free to reach out to us to assist with your work from home needs!

It is well known that clients hire professional services firms because they have a certain expertise and knowledge base. Therefore, it is crucial that employees of professional services firms are able to jump in and immediately handle the requirements of each project brought to the firm. One of the best ways to ensure that firm employees are ready for each new challenge is to have effective training programs. Trainings can range from bringing new hires quickly up to speed on firm expectations to teaching more seasoned employees a new set of skills to fit changing roles. The important piece is to ensure the trainability of these employees. How can firms accomplish this?

Have Strategic Training Process

Each training program should have specific objectives with measurable goals. The audience of the training impacts the approach used as well. Onboarding new hires is of course going to be different than teaching new skills to experienced staff. It is necessary to evaluate which training tools or platforms will be most effective with the varying learners. Also, what means will you use to measure learner knowledge? It is necessary for the firm to get a return on investment from these trainings as they are costly.

Effective Training Content

In order to meet the goals of each training, a structure must be determined. Start by focusing on what is to be accomplished in the training. For new hires, they must be able to digest the overall company policies and requirements plus their individual position responsibilities. Experienced employees are looking to learn new skills in a manner that makes sense and can be easily applied to meet their new expectations. At the end of the training, will these employees have what they need to efficiently do their jobs?

Optimize Engagement

Trainability of employees increases when they are engaged. First of all, choosing the most attractive content encourages engagement such as mixing it up with a variety of media options. Chunking material is a good way to ensure information processing without overwhelming the audience. Finally, offering incentives to learn such as prizes or fun swag during the training will promote engagement. Appealing to the audience improves their trainability.

Ask for Feedback  

When the training sessions are over, it is important to gauge effectiveness. One way could be through reporting features of the training platform used. Another option is to use feedback surveys. Through these methods, employees can show that they got value out of the trainings. Hopefully, they did, but if not, improvements can be made for the future to encourage the best learning environment possible.

Track Employee Training

Being able to quickly see what training a certain employee has received can also improve trainability. For many firms, this is done using a system that doesn’t allow for the employee or their boss to see what trainings have been accomplished. Instead, employers should invest into a HR solution that can track completed training programs and also provide a list of future programs an employee is expected to complete. As a result, employees will more likely be enthusiastic about their future growth at the firm.

Trainability Ensures Productivity

Firms want a strong workforce that can meet client needs, so trainability is essential. When determining the best training programs, think about how to meet the goals of the firm while engaging the audience. The return on investment from high employee productivity is worth the effort put into the pre-planning of training programs.

What exactly is being in the cloud? Well, being in the cloud simply means running your firm’s ERP such as Deltek Vantagepoint or Vision on a remote server. Therefore, your firm does not need to concern itself with having the IT infrastructure on premises. Furthermore, being in the cloud allows your firm to focus on the more important matters of running your successful business leaving the IT responsibilities to the professionals. Let’s check out how your firm benefits from being in the cloud.

Cloud Means Lower IT Costs

Being in the cloud, your firm doesn’t have to worry about staying up to date with hardware and software. Simply stated, there is no need to buy additional servers, Windows operating systems, or SQL licenses if your ERP system is in the cloud. As a result, IT professionals managing your ERP system in the cloud will handle all of this for you so there are no additional costs incurred.

Cloud Security is Top Notch

With cloud management, your data is safe. Cloud professionals handle automatic updates and do multiple daily backups. Malware and virus scanning are also performed regularly. Most importantly, if there is a problem, business continuity is of the utmost importance. Cloud professionals work to ensure that your data is accessible as soon as possible in a disaster situation.

Reduced Burden

Being in the cloud, your firm does not have to deal with handling the setup or deployment of your ERP solution which ensures that it does what you are expecting. Cloud professionals have experience with the product you are using or are thinking of upgrading to in the cloud. Furthermore, a testing environment can be put in place for your firm to get comfortable with the ERP it wants to use. For example, you can try Vantagepoint thoroughly before committing the company to upgrade.

All Cloud Solutions Are Not the Same

Choosing the right partner to host your ERP system in the cloud is extremely important and not all cloud solution providers can be treated equally. Therefore, picking the right cloud partner is essential to ensure your ERP system is properly taken care of by the right professionals. For instance, you want to choose a partner that specializes in the ERP system you want to have hosted in the cloud. This ensures they know the ins and outs, and all the requirements to successfully maintain your ERP system.  

The Cloud Makes Running Your Business More Efficient

Leaving your IT issues to the professionals in the cloud, you can focus on the matters that really drive firm success. Moreover, with secure 24/7 access to your data from anywhere with an internet connection, you can ensure you have what you need when you need it enabling your firm to run efficiently. If your firm does choose to upgrade your ERP from Vision to Vantagepoint, being in the cloud would make it a much easier transition for your firm.

As the life blood of project-based firms, projects must be run efficiently and effectively from start to finish. Fortunately, Deltek Vantagepoint provides the functionality to give project managers more tools to run their projects. Furthermore, Vantagepoint seamlessly integrates your firm’s business processes using an impressive feature suite bringing business development, accounting, resource planning and project management together. By empowering the different roles within firms, projects are better managed and thus more successful. Let’s check out the power of Deltek Vantagepoint.

User Convenience

Deltek Vantagepoint is user-friendly with easy to understand workflows. The browser based Vantagepoint interface offers the ultimate convenience for its users. Additionally, in 2020, there will be an add-on for Outlook. Users will be able to manage Vantagepoint activities within their Outlook calendar. Synchronizing of contact records and smart scheduling will be available to make managing projects even more convenient.

Vantagepoint Project Hub

Project managers can get access to all they need to manage their projects through the project hub in Deltek Vantagepoint. In 2020, the project hub will be expanded to include more functionality. A new interactive Gantt charting tool gives project managers the chance to view their schedules plus change them via a drag and drop option. Also, a scenario planning feature and revenue forecasting tool will be added to the project hub offerings.

Data for Informed Decision Making

In Deltek Vantagepoint, there is a dashboarding framework that ensures project-based firms have proper metrics and information for informed decision making. There will be further expansion of the dashboard to include more visual dashparts in 2020. Currently, the Vantagepoint Intelligence (VI) module is available, but later in the year there will be VI Analysis Cubes which offer pre-calculated data for analysis by anyone in the firm.

Deltek Vantagepoint is Becoming More Powerful in 2020

There will be even more improvements to Deltek Vantagepoint’s functionality throughout 2020 further powering your firm projects. The 3.0 release in late January has already provided some dashboard improvements as well as the Gantt scheduling feature. With the second release, 3.5, the new revenue forecasting tool will be available, as well as the Outlook add-on and Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) to enhance the mobile time and expense app. Finally, the 4.0 release planned for Q4 will focus on resource planning features like scenario planning and more revenue forecasting. Are you new to Deltek and Vantagepoint? Time to learn more!