Full Sail Partners Blog (48)

Debunking Myths about Deltek Vision

Posted by Sarah Gonnella on June 30, 2016

Deltek Vision Myths Are you thinking about needing a new accounting system or ERP? If your firm is still on Deltek Advantage, Sema4, or FMS or even on Quickbooks, Protrax or another system, you might be evaluating options to figure out which solution is right for you. We receive questions from prospects asking about the differences between Deltek Vision and some other product. Additionally, during our conversations over the years, we have heard many myths about Deltek Vision and we thought it was time to set the record straight, as we see it.

To start, what we have found is some software providers say they have a feature, but the quality and capabilities are completely different. Some people might say we are biased. You know what, we probably are, but for good reason:

  1. We use the product we sell. We know Deltek Vision inside and out. Can our competitors say that? Ask them.
  2. We aren’t just sales people. We care about the success of our clients and that’s not just rhetoric. We’d rather turn a sale away then have an unhappy client.
  3. We have done extensive migrations of all kinds of software. What we have found is many of our competitor’s software are done on the cheap or just completely leave out industry standard capabilities.

Below are the top 4 Deltek Vision myths:

Myth #1 - Deltek Vision is only for large firms.

Fact #1 – The numbers don’t support this claim. As a Deltek Premier Partner, the majority of the firms we serve are under 50 employees. Of those firms on Deltek Vision, 57% are under 50 employees; 33% are 25 employees or under; and 17% are 15 employees and under. Most importantly, the size of your firm should have no bearing on the solution you choose. What is more important is choosing a solution that fits your staff’s needs, the information you need to make business decisions and your firm’s growth plans. Deltek Vision fits firms of any size. Additionally, in 2012, Deltek came out with a cloud option (SaaS) for Deltek Vision that made Vision simpler to deploy at a lower entry price for any size firm. Check out this 10-person firm’s story.

Myth #2 – Deltek Vision is so expensive. 

Fact #2 - A recent 20-person firm looking at another AE ERP product was surprised to find that Deltek Vision’s cloud software option was less expensive. In fact, Deltek Vision has had a very comparable software pricing for small firms ever since the SaaS option became available. Additionally, the basic package of Deltek Vision’s SaaS offering includes 5 users of CRM for marketing and business developers and 5 users of Resource Planning for operations. The choice for us seems simple. For about the same price you get a much more robust system with Deltek Vision. Where the differences in pricing may come is with the services that are provided. Here are some key items to keep in mind when receiving an implementation quote to ensure you are getting the same level of service: 

  1. Does the quote include migration? Our experts have been doing migrations for almost 30 years and we are proud to say we probably have some of the best in the business. When it comes to migrating your data, we highly recommend importing your historical data. The level of import can vary, but it’s important to make sure you are comparing apples to apples. Will bringing over the beginning balances be enough? This is only a question you can answer, but our experience has been firms rarely want this option unless that is their only option. Do you really want to lose all of your historical information?  
  2. This is more than a transaction. You are not just buying software, you are buying a solution that needs to address the specific capabilities your firm’s needs. More importantly, you are buying into a relationship. From our perspective, we aim to make sure the software is the right fit. If it isn’t Deltek Vision, then we will raise our hand and tell you. That is why we take a consultative sales approach and conduct a discovery to uncover what is working well and identify if there are bottlenecks or inefficiencies that could help you improve your business. The discovery process should identify the output needed. More specifically, what data (reports, alerts, dashboards, etc.) is needed to make business decisions? These specific capabilities should drive what you are looking for. Make sure you are talking to a consultant during the process, not just a sales person and take time to establish a relationship. We are here to help you today and tomorrow as your firm grows. 

Myth #3 - Vision is complicated. 

Fact #3 – This fact is easily debatable. Driving a stick shift is difficult for some people, but for others it is simple. So the word itself is relative. We argue that Vision is not complicated, but rather it’s scalable. What can’t be debated is that Deltek Vision is great for growing businesses. Businesses are constantly changing and no one has a magic ball to predict when these changes will occur. Here are some key points to keep in mind if you are a growing firm looking for a new solution: 

  1. Firm Evolution - Should your firm have different contract work types; need to expand your business; or face evolutionary life cycle challenges, like ownership transition and retirement scenarios, Deltek Vision can easily accommodate growing firms. It has all the utilities, under the hood to handle these contingencies.
  2. Acquisitions – Should you acquire a new firm, all of the data can be accommodated in Deltek Vision. The same cannot be said about our AE ERP competitors. In fact, in addition to a push button conversion for Advantage users, Full Sail Partners has created push button conversion tool for Ajera. Additionally, we have a very streamlined process and economical migration price for Quickbooks. The same cannot be said of our AE ERP competitors. Because Deltek Vision has the ability to create custom fields, tabs, grids, and User Defined Info Centers (UDIC), all data can be represented. To put it simply, Deltek Vision can represent all data from other databases. However, if a firm was on Deltek Vision and tried to migrate to our competitor’s software, you would in fact lose data.

Myth #4 – Other AE ERP Solutions have the same capabilities as Deltek Vision.

Fact #4 – The differences between Deltek Vision and other AE ERP software are vast and go beyond just multi-currency capabilities. Here is a breakdown of some of those differences: 

  1. Audit Trail - Deltek Vision has an audit trail. When changes are made in Deltek Vision, all changes are tracked and you know who made the change and when. This is not only important from an accounting perspective, but very important for firms that have government compliance requirements.
  2. Multi-Company - If this capability is needed, Deltek Vision allows the set-up of multiple companies including reporting with a single sign-in. One financial report can be run to see how each company is doing. Other solutions have tried to resolve this issue on the cheap by creating separate database instances requiring multiple logins. Keep in mind, you will not be able to share financial reporting for all companies and there is no automated Inter-company billing process, therefore, each company reporting is separate.
  3. CRM - If this capability is needed, Deltek Vision has an integrated, seamless CRM and proposal automation module that has a single sign-in. Additionally, Deltek Vision integrates into other marketing tools, including Constant Contact, MailChimp and Hubspot. Other AE ERP solutions may integrate with other CRM solutions. Because of that you will have a separate system that requires two separate logins. The process is far from seamless and none of them integrate with other marketing tools.
  4. Security – Deltek Vision provides the ability to lock down any field in the system and make it read only. Unfortunately, security in other AE ERP solutions are not as robust as Deltek Vision.
  5. Built-in Capabilities – Deltek Vision contains tools that provide flexibility and allows users to streamline processes and clean up data on the fly without any programming knowledge. Because of the open architecture, the system is built to grow with your firm. Here are some examples of some of the built-in capabilities that can be utilized:
    • Custom Fields – Deltek Vision provides the ability to create user defined fields, tabs, grids and info centers as your firm sees fit. As your firm grows, you may need to track further information.
    • Workflows – Deltek Vision provides the ability to streamline processes through workflows. For example, sometimes data needs to be represented in two locations. However, you never want to a have dual entry process. In Vision, you can have data entered into one location and the data flows to the other location. View this webinar, to learn more about the power of workflows.
    • Utilities – Vision has built-in utilities to handle contingencies to easily clean-up and move data without a migration or custom expert.  
      • Need to move billed time to a new phase? There’s a button for that.
      • Need to combine two clients together? There’s a simple to use conversion tool to do that in seconds.
      • Need to move data from one location to another? There’s search and replace utility that is simple to use.
      • Have more than 999 projects and need to add another digit to your project number structure? There’s key formats for that.

Choosing the Right ERP 

Finding the right ERP solution for your business is not an easy process and is full of misguided information. Therefore, asking the right questions is imperative to get clear answers. Formulate your questions based on the needs of your firm. Then find out and compare how each ERP solution manages these requirements. Make sure there is substance. Those shiny features might just be an illusion to distract you from the lack of robust capabilities. Some AE ERP solutions try to act like Vision, but they don’t perform like Deltek Vision.  

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Stop Flushing Your Valuable Resources Down the Drain with Siloed Data

Posted by Full Sail Partners on June 22, 2016

siloed_data.pngThe technology and applications that power your firm are critical to the overall mission of your organization. Unfortunately many of these applications are disconnected which causes us to end up with siloed data. So what’s the big deal? Firms that end up with siloed data spend more time flushing valuable resources (time and money) down the drain than working towards their overall business objectives! Do you really want to spend more time managing your data, than managing your clients?! Stop flushing your resources down the drain by eliminating siloed applications from your organization.

But wait, what exactly is a siloed application? Siloed applications are partitions within organizations that isolate departments, teams and even people. These applications do not communicate or share data with any other system, greatly limiting your ability to leverage the data living inside of these systems.

Are You Stuck in a Data Silo, But Don’t Even Know It?

Have you ever stopped to think about how your internal systems communicate and share data? Perhaps you’re unsure about the overall connectivity of your business systems. Read the below scenarios to see if you are suffering from siloed data.

  • Your systems are slowing you down and preventing you from making real-time decisions
  • You find yourself unsure of where critical data lives. Or even worse, you find yourself locked out of accessing data because you don’t know the right username or password
  • You are unable to track campaign/project results without checking multiple systems
  • You are representing data in multiple locations, causing the need for duplicate entry

If the above scenarios describe your firm, then you are suffering from data silos. Fortunately for you, this is a common problem and there is a solution!

How Can You Get Rid of Data Silos?

There are many ways to get rid of data silos in your professional services organization. The trick is finding the right solution that fits your corporate culture. Here are some examples of ways to break free from the grips of siloed data:

  1. Take it to the cloud. As we have written about in previous blogs, there are multiple benefits to taking your organization’s data to the cloud. The benefits are clear in strict terms of breaking your data free from restrictive silos. Mainly, once your data lives in a cloud based application or system you are now able to leverage connections to this data from all over the world. Gone are the days of being tied to a desk. Employees are doing more than ever before and they are doing it from all around the world!
  2. Centralize your data storage with a master record set. Creating a master data set will introduce a method to the madness of managing disparate data. Next time you are evaluating a new piece of software or application ask yourself how it fits in with your already established master data set. Is it worth adopting this technology if it only creates additional silos? This is something that you will need to review with all key decision makers and stakeholders.
  3. If you connect it, they will come. Unfortunately we find ourselves living in a world of highly specialized technology. There is a reason the average company has 5.5 applications per employee; in today’s highly competitive market we need access to the tools that can help differentiate us from our competition. Fortunately, integration technologies are becoming widely available.

    Once seen as an option only available for major corporations, application integrations have become common place in both the business and personal world. If you have ever hooked your Instagram account up to your Facebook account – you’ve used an integration. If you’ve ever synced your email accounts to one central mailbox – you’ve used an integration.

    Integrations allow us to get the most out of current investments, while not limiting the technology available to our business teams. In fact, many firms won’t even consider purchasing new software if it does not have integration capability.

Not Sure Where to Start?

If you are ready to start breaking free of these data silos, but don’t know where to begin, we have the webinar for you. Join Pete Nuffer as he presents Dude Where’s My Data. This webinar will review best practices focused around data integrity, including the establishment of a master record set. See how new out of the box tools can be used to promote data sharing within your organization.

Eliminate Siloed Data with Integrations

Integrate Deltek Vision with Constant Contact for Superior Email Marketing

Posted by Full Sail Partners on June 21, 2016

deltekCC.pngFull Sail Partners, a Deltek Vision Premier Partner, has released the Deltek Vision Connector for Constant Contact, an integration of Deltek Vision and Constant Contact.

The Deltek Vision Connector for Constant Contact allows Deltek Vision CRM users to seamlessly create targeted Constant Contact email campaigns by leveraging real-time intelligence directly from Deltek Vision CRM. Once an email campaign is active, users are then able to analyze the results of these campaigns directly in their Deltek Vision system.

“We are really excited to help professional services firms maintain consistency between their Deltek Vision and Constant Contact systems,” said Peter Nuffer, Director of Solution Development at Full Sail Partners. “Users of this integration are refining their messaging and crafting more meaningful campaigns for their readers.”

Connectivity between Deltek Vision and Constant Contact gives users the ability to create more comprehensive email marketing campaigns, reduce labor intensive manual processes and better capture marketing ROI. This mutual relationship between data will allow your marketing team to save countless hours over the duration of a marketing campaign.

“As  one of the first users of the Deltek Vision Constant Contact integration, BG Buildingworks was excited to sync our contacts between our Deltek Vision CRM system and Constant Contact,” said Karen Crilly, Director of Marketing and Client Development for BG Buildingworks. “We used the integration to setup a campaign to announce our company name change. We were able to create a Constant Contact campaign directly from our Deltek Vision CRM system to notify over 4,500 contacts. The campaign went off without a hitch and we saw nearly a 30% open rate on our mailer.”

Interested in learning more about the integration of Deltek Vision and Constant Contact? Click below to learn more.

Deltek Vision Constant Contact Integration

Hiring Smarter in a Competitive Workforce Market

Posted by Rana Blair on June 17, 2016

Hiring SmarterFinding and hiring the right talent is a lengthy and administratively burdensome process. The amount of time and money spent announcing job openings and qualifying applicants is barely quantifiable, but we all understand that the price is high. Add in the tasks created by legal requirements and corporate responsibility, and the process becomes crushing for even the most seasoned and organized recruiter. Therefore, hiring smarter in a competitive workforce market is critical to lowering costs of recruiting the top talent.

The Hiring Team

Businesses of all sizes use teams to conduct the hiring cycle. The decision makers on the teams are often professional staff whose primary role is to produce. The cost of time spent by these members can be massive and results in reduced attention to mentorship, production, or development. Having a portal that allows managers to see the progress of the hiring cycle and quickly identify their own action items is an integral to saving time.

The Job

Even if the job announcements are fully standardized, they must still be posted to each site of choice. Each site has its own format and requirements, forcing recruiters to take the same actions multiple times.

Using a tool that allows for automated posting to multiple sites and tracking of non-automated postings is an important time saving device. Having visibility into the applicant pipeline and notification alerts that action is needed helps streamline the requisition process.

The Applicants

There is a shortage of talent. There is no shortage of applicants.

Qualifying applicants and moving them through the hiring process is a time-intensive effort often plagued by manual processes. The mechanics of receiving an application, reviewing the data, and ranking the applicants are most often conducted via email or paper and creates risk legal risks without clear and objective criteria and measurement.

The ability to build a database of applicants who do, may, or do not meet the hiring criteria is highly valuable for this and the next hiring cycle. Hiring smarter requires retaining past applicants’ information so your firm has a deep pool of possible talent for future positions.

The Communications

The hiring process is full of action items for the recruiter. Traditional tools used to communicate with applicants and candidates often force recruiters to create a physical paper trail and allows important communications to slip through the cracks. Scheduling interviews and tracking the stage of candidates as well as memorializing the results, can become overwhelming in a multiple interview process. Leveraging the use of the database, automation, and tacking abilities, including bulk letter submissions, allows recruiters to save time and provides a reference for later use.

Hiring Smarter With the Right Tool

Every role in a firm is best served by having the right tools in place. Hiring smarter requires investing in a tool designed for the recruiting function that allows for not only time savings, but also optimization of the process, risk reduction, and increased satisfaction by hiring team members and applicants alike.

AE Firm

 

 

Topics:  
HR

Fascinating Facts about Timesheets in Deltek Vision

Posted by Michael Kessler, PMP on June 08, 2016

Timesheets, Timeclock For project-based firms, timesheets are essential to ensure that an employee’s time is reflected to a specific project. I’m sure you already knew this, but do you manage timesheets correctly in Deltek Vision? Here are some facts and best practices for different scenarios to help you better manage timesheets in Deltek Vision.

Intro to Timesheets in Deltek Vision

Hopefully, one of the first things your Deltek Vision Consultant explained to you about timekeeping is that timesheets create payroll cost not payroll. As a “nuts and bolts” accountant, at least one side of our brain struggles with processing this information. So let’s break it down: 

  1. The employee’s job cost rate on the accounting tab of their info center should represent their rate of pay. If they are true hourly, this is quite easy to determine. On the other hand, if they are salaried the hourly rate should reflect their annual salary divided by 2080 hours.
  2. If adjusted salary job costing is used, the amount should reflect their salary based on the configured interval. For example, weekly, biweekly or a set number of days.

How Timesheets Work

When a timesheet is posted an amount based on the hourly rate multiplied by the hours charged is applied to the selected projects. Thereby creating direct or indirect (overhead) labor/payroll cost in the General Ledger. The credit created by the timesheet can go to either one of two places: 

  1. The Income Statement as job cost or payroll variance - This account is an overhead line item used to adjust the total of the timesheet posting to the actual payroll distributed. Furthermore, amounts that remain in this account after the payroll journal entry has been entered reflect a net of uncompensated overtime (OT) for salary staff (negative amounts), and based on this process, the premium portion of OT for hourly staff (positive amounts).
  2. The Balance Sheet as a payroll liability - After the payroll journal entry has been entered, the remaining amount needs to be reclassified to the Income Statement as stated above.

Accounting Tip for Paid Time Off

Have you ever noticed your Paid Time Off (PTO) balance not being relieved even during peak vacation periods? You might want to consider booking PTO taken to the Balance Sheet. To do this, you need to configure timesheet postings for PTO to go to a PTO liability account. Then when time off is taken and posted, the debit entry reduces the liability. Based on a true computed liability, an entry can be made on a pre-determined interval to accrue additional PTO and book the expense. If you are using benefit accruals in Vision, the entry can be taken from that report.

Handling Leave without Pay

Many firms fail to account for leave without pay (LWOP) properly. Sure, there is a need to track hours for statutory purposes when employees are on leave, however, no payroll cost should be recorded. The simple fix is to enable cost rate tables and attach one to LWOP projects. The table should contain either a labor code(s) or a list of employees with a ZERO job cost rate. This will override the employees default job cost rate and avoid any recording of payroll costs.

Punch the Clock

Some of this might seem complicated at first, but these best practices should help keep your books in order. I hope that this has taken the mystery out of Deltek Vision timesheets. Now punch the clock and update your timesheets.

Deltek Vision

 

 

3 Critical Connections for Project-Based Firms

Posted by Sarah Gonnella on June 06, 2016

Three Critical Connections Let’s admit it, running a business has plenty of challenges. Why create more by overlooking the critical connections that support your business? Throughout my tenure as a business owner and entrepreneur, I have found three connections a business must have to reduce the challenges. These are connections with employees, clients, and technology. Let’s take a look at the importance of these three connections.

Connections with Employees

For starters, firms need to create a workforce that are driven to work hard and are enthusiastic about their jobs. To achieve this, employers must find ways to create connections with employees that shows them you see them as people, not just employees.

The easiest way to show an employees you see them as people is to engage them. For example, use meetings as a time to let everyone express their ideas. Ask for their opinions, and ask them to think critically about things. At the end of the meeting, people walk away feeling as if they contributed to the better good of the organization. For more about connecting employees, check out the “9 Ways to Connect with Employees” blog.       

Connections with Clients

For project-based firms, it’s important to connect with clients throughout the entire project lifecycle. Ponder this question. Have you ever completed a project for a client and you believe they are completely satisfied with your services, but find out later that they were not happy? Sometimes even a client you know may feel uncomfortable telling you something is bothering them. So how do you identify there is an issue?  

First, work with the client to setup expectations before a project starts. Secondly, continuously check-in with a client on a regular basis during the project lifecycle to manage expectations of the entire team. One of the best ways to do this is through an automated feedback process. Watch this vlog, “Client Connections – Create Unique Client Experiences” for more ideas about connecting with clients. 

Connections with Technology

Most if not all businesses use technology to support their operations. The question here is, how many different systems does a business use and how do they connect? In reality, they usually don’t seamlessly connect and share information. As a result, critical business data is stored in multiple systems, making it difficult for business leaders to make informed decisions.

For businesses to be successful, systems and applications must be in place to support all departments. Although each application is designed to support a specific function of the business, the data for these systems should start with a core ERP system and have the ability to connect to other critical systems. This allows for clear visibility throughout the entire organization. Interested to learn how you can connect to other external systems? Watch this vlog, “Systems Connections – Is Your Critical Technology Connected?” to learn more.    

Connecting It All Together

A project-based firm is so much more than the service they provide; rather, it is a network of connections that require special attention. It is important to connect and communicate with employees and clients in order to build a sturdy foundation for your business to grow from. Connecting with technology is equally as important, as doing so can maximize efficiency in operations while also providing an edge against competitors. Ensuring that these three critical connections are a priority is simultaneously ensuring your business will be successful.   Deltek 37th AE Clarity Report

 

System Connections – Is Your Critical Technology Connected?

Posted by Full Sail Partners on May 26, 2016

Can you name a single business that does not use some form of technology? From our personal lives to our professional lives, technology is engrained in everything we do. Firms are investing in technology at a rate never before seen. Yet, many of these critical system connections are siloed and do not talk to each other. Watch the video below to see how firms are connecting their critical business systems to get more out of their investment and share information between disparate systems

 

Deltek Vision UDIC: Mail Management Info Center

 

Client Connections - Create Unique Client Experiences

Posted by Jeff Robers on May 19, 2016

Is your business focused around your clients? While some readers may be quick to answer ‘yes’, and others quick to answer ‘no’, the truth likely remains somewhere in-between. Foster more meaningful client connections by understanding client expectations or concerns. Watch the video below to see how your firm can create a unique client experience to differentiate yourself from the competition.

9 Ways to Connect with Employees

Posted by Sarah Gonnella on May 17, 2016

Connect with EmployeesWhat is the lifeblood of your business? Some might say clients and others might say employees. I tend to agree with the latter. Every company needs employees that are enthusiastic about their job and care about the company. Additionally, employees need to bring excitement and drive every day they show up to work in order for companies to be competitive. But how can a boss or employer create driven workforce? Simply by connecting with their employees. Let’s take a look at ways to connect with employees so your company can thrive.

Nine Ways to Connect with Employees

  1. Create Dialogue – The act of conversation in itself is a way to stay connected with employees. Far too often though, bosses find themselves leading conversations and doing most of the talking. As a result, employees are not engaged and the conversation is one-way. This doesn’t have to be the case. Whenever you are engaged in conversation with employees, it’s important to ask open ended questions to encourage employees to express their ideas and opinions.
  2. Keep Your Ears Open – You have two ears and one mouth for a reason. This might sound cliché, but it’s still a good thought to keep in mind. In reality, many people don’t understand how to listen. A good listener remains patient, absorbs what other people are saying, and ask engaging questions for clarity. More importantly, some people express ideas better than others, but that doesn’t diminish the value of their ideas.
  3. Give Ownership to Employees – I’m not saying give them actual ownership, although that could be appropriate at times. What I mean is to allow employees to own responsibilities and tasks within the organization. Give them the power to make decisions that truly affect their job and performance.  
  4. Provide a Career Path – Words and actions are two different things. Telling an employee they are doing well and they have a promising career with the company sounds nice, but it lacks an actual roadmap or path to where they are going and how to get there. Instead, find out what the employee’s career goals are and figure out a way to get them there. Put this in writing, and include challenging responsibilities to drive their personal growth. Additionally, include clear milestones that allow the employee to see they are achieving their goals.
  5. Educate Employees – Education doesn’t stop when you leave school and start a career. Even more, the skills we learned in school might not be exactly applicable to where your career path is going. Any company can train their employees, but how many of you educate your employee beyond their job responsibilities? Spend time educating about soft skills and even topics that help employees grow as a person. Investing in employee education provides a path to connect with your workforce. It also shows you care.
  6. Provide Guidance to Employees – One of the best learning opportunities for employees come from their boss. Furthermore, bosses provide more than explicit knowledge; they also provide a great deal of tacit knowledge. Here’s the difference. Explicit knowledge is formalized and documented. Whereas, tacit knowledge is more situational based knowledge. This experienced based knowledge is hard to teach, but as a boss, you’re in the perfect place to teach this based on your past experiences by applying this knowledge to current situations. For more about knowledge sharing, check out this whitepaper.
  7. Be Flexible with Employees – Technology has changed the way we work. The good thing about this is that many professional jobs can be accomplished from nearly anywhere with an internet connection. Additionally, these roles are no longer working from to 8:00 to 5:00, Monday through Friday and some days are longer than others are. Value your employee’s time and recognize the need for positive work to personal life balance. This allows you to connect with employees through trust, and that you know they will manage their responsibilities.
  8. Honesty is the Best Policy – Honesty is a powerful personal characteristic to exemplify. In fact, honesty is a characteristic that most, if not all leadership guides list as a key characteristic of a good leader. The reason for this is employers that are honest build confidence and trust with employees.   
  9. Always Remain Calm – Keep calm and connect with your employees. In other words, overreacting to stressful situations builds a wall between bosses and employees. By remaining calm and not screaming, employees find bosses more approachable and open minded.

Make It about the Employee

What this all boils down to is that employees want to be seen as people and to know that the company is invested into them. So in order to connect with employees, your goal should be to create a culture that empowers employees and shows you value them. After all, you want them to value the company as well.  

Talent Management for Dummies, Deltek

Marketing Automation Series: 3 Tiers to Streamline Processes Using Deltek Vision CRM

Posted by Full Sail Partners on May 04, 2016

marketing_automation.pngWelcome to part two of our Marketing Automation Series. In the last blog we looked at how automation tools can impact your SMB. In part two of this series we are going to dig further and examine the Deltek Vision marketing automation tools available to you within your system.

Deltek Vision Marketing Automation: Marketing Made Easier

1) Merge Fields & Templates

If you produce a lot of proposals or documents that follow a defined format (think SF330!), you will love merge fields and templates. Use this functionality to merge data directly from your Deltek Vision system to Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Word. Not only will you greatly reduce the time dump required to create these documents but your marketing efforts will gain a level of accuracy and consistency.

Use merge templates to create:

  • Statement of qualification responses
  • Letter proposals
  • Resumes
  • Cover letters
  • Project cut sheets
  • Reference pages
  • And more!

Check out this webinar to learn more about creating proposals with Deltek Vision and Adobe InDesign.

2) Workflows

Deltek Vision workflows can greatly reduce the manual processes you manage in Deltek Vision on a daily basis. Workflows are a series of actions that your Deltek Vision system will execute based on events and triggers that occur within a specified Info Center.

For example: A workflow could be used by a proposal manager to notify a project team when a new project has been created in Vision.

Check out this webinar to learn more about Deltek Vision workflows.

3) Integrations and Connectors

Allow your marketing efforts to go further than ever before by opening your Deltek Vision system to outside software and applications. Eliminating manual processes associated with disparate systems allows your marketing team to focus their efforts on creating a quality client experience for each customer.

For example: Integrate your Deltek Vision system with your website Content Management System to capture valuable lead and customer data in your Deltek Vision CRM. Once a website contact fills out a form on your website they will be automatically added to your Deltek Vision system. Your marketing team can then implement a series of workflows to generate a personal email follow-up note a week later. Additionally you may want to consider scheduling a workflow to notify your sales team of lead activity on your website.

View this webinar to see how Deltek Vision users are creating User Defined Info Centers to create dynamic workspaces within Vision CRM.

Learn More About Deltek Vision Marketing Automation

Want to see what real users are doing automate marketing and streamline processes with their Deltek Vision CRM system? Sign up for our webinar, ‘Let’s do this!’

Streamline Proposals with Deltek Vision

Topics:  
CRM

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