It’s not so much that firms don’t already know they aren’t taking advantage of their Deltek Vision system as much as they sometimes just don’t know where to start. I hear it almost every time I’m at a conference talking to clients. “We aren’t utilizing the system to its full potential”. Knowing you aren’t is half the battle. The harder part is figuring out what to focus on and getting the buy-in to do something about it. Below are five tips on how to get the most out of your Deltek Vision system. 

1. Make it a Priority – We see it every day, firms deal with inefficiencies causing them to lose money each day they are not addressed. If you don’t make it a priority, who will?  Make a list of all of the things keeping you from focusing on your job, i.e. inefficiencies, duplication, lack of report, insight on trends, etc.  Then go to each role within the firm and make the same list from them. This is where you start. By applying the 80/20 rule you can reduce that list down to your priority list.
    
2. Take Advantage of New Technology – Is your firm guilty of ignoring technological enhancements? Businesses that stay with the “old way” of doing things fall behind their competition. But change is so hard!  You know what they say, the only thing constant is change. New tools like mobile access to timesheets, expense reports, and CRM are available. Not to mention InDesign integration, expense receipt attachments and so many more enhancements of Deltek Vision. Yet, has your firm taken advantage of these new features? Fear of change, lack of understanding what’s available, inadequate IT support are some of the reasons we tend to hear despite their employees saying they need these new features. To learn about the latest enhancements and take advantage of them. Check out our What’s New in Vision webinar and be sure to read our monthly newsletter. Not receiving it? Contact us.
    
3. Collaborate as a Team – Do you have teammates or are you dealing with the isolation effect? The modern business world is reliant on teams. Ultimately the success of your business is impacted by your teams ability to be productive together.  There is no “I” in team. You have to rely on others while they rely on you and that includes providing accessibility throughout the company. Collaboration can only happen with trust. So identifying where the trust issue sits and resolving it is key. Seek out new and innovative ways to work as team. Contact our collaboration queen for more information. 
    
4. Improve Employee Skills – How can someone learn if you don’t edumacate ‘em? Through Osmosis! Employees typically want to do the right thing, but without the right tools or training, it makes it hard and sometimes impossible. Does your staff have access to the right metrics or information to make quick decisions? Do you know what is included and have you been trained on the latest enhancements? Full Sail Partners can help you train your employees by utilizing the priority list identified in item #1. You don’t know what you don’t know and that sometimes it is a firm’s worst enemy. To learn on demand, view our past archive section or contact us.
    
5. Push the Envelope – Wish there was a feature or way to do something in Vision? You might just find that it’s been tackled before. Your consultant can provide great insight on the possibilities as they have worked with hundreds of firms. It seems every day I run into a client that discovers the awesome power of workflows to accomplish there challenge. Workflows can save time to free you up for more productive activities. They can automate repetitive tasks, alert users of record changes, and enable your firm to streamline process through automation. When something isn’t possible with stored procedures or workflows, there is still an option. In Customer Care, you can also submit a “new idea”. The more people that submit on a topic, the higher up on the priority list is goes.

Put on your walking shoes and “just do it”. Just like you do with a project or a marketing plan, you have to plan out what is needed and the results you expect to see. You don’t have to do it alone. Full Sail Partners is here to help guide you so your firm can get the most out of your Deltek Vision system. 

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions." This saying could never be truer than when talking about collaboration. We as humans have an intrinsic need to work together. Unfortunately it seems that at times as humans we also have a  need to butt heads! More often than not in the business world, this butting of heads is a result of how we communicate. Luckily, Deltek has recognized these faults with collaboration and has introduced a solution that you may or may not of heard of by now – Deltek Kona!

Since the release of Kona there have been many upgrades to the platform. If you are a long time user, you have probably recognized some of these changes. Well, now it is time to identify some of the most important changes made to Kona spaces, and how these changes impact your professional services firm:

Organizing Deltek Kona Spaces

If you’re reading this, chances are you are using Deltek Kona frequently and have been added to a number of Kona spaces. 

The Deltek Kona team has developed some tools that allow you to categorize your spaces.  You can then use the classifications you’ve created just for you to adjust what you see and what content is emailed to you.

Space Categories

After assessing the types of spaces you are involved in, you may find that there are multiple spaces for different objectives such as Billable projects, Internal Work Groups, or Company Initiatives. Create a category for multiple spaces so they can be grouped together and used as filters.  The categories you create are just for you and can be changed any time.   

To create categories, go to Manage under the Spaces pane and then Add Category.  To assign spaces to the new category, simply enter the space and choose edit, then assign it to the desired category.

$5 Tip:  Don’t go make categories now.  Read on to find alternative thought processes on creating categories.

Space Favorites

With or without using Space Categories, you can also use the Favorite tool to mark one or more spaces as a Favorite.  This is helpful for spaces where there is a lot of activity or information that you refer to frequently.  Like categories, the list of Favorites can be used as a filter to narrow what you see in your Deltek Kona session.

To mark a Kona space as a favorite, go to the space in the list of spaces and click the down arrow to the right of the space name and choose Favorite.

$10 Tip:  You can also hide spaces.  The only way to find the hidden spaces is to use the filter drop-down.  (See below.)

Positioning Spaces

Spaces are natively organized first by Network, then Favorites, then everything else alphabetically.  Perhaps there is a space that you don’t want to mark as a favorite, but would like to see in your space view without scrolling or you have spaces that are at the top of the list but don’t need to be seen immediately.  This is often helpful for personal or reference spaces that don’t have a lot of new conversation content but need to be easily accessed

To reposition a space, simply click in the middle of the space name and drag it to its new position

Filtering Space Views

Once you’ve assigned spaces to categories or have marked them as favorites, you can begin to use the Space Filter tool in a more advanced way.  To access the filters, look for the down arrow just below the space search box and above the first space.  The dropdown will reveal the standard categories, favorites, and categories you’ve created. 

$25 Tip:  The filter selection remains even after you log out of Deltek Kona.  If upon logging in again, you cannot find the space you’re looking for, go to the filters and reset to All.

Using Categories and Favorites in Email Settings

Once you’ve organized your Deltek Kona spaces on a more granular level, you might want to revisit the Notifications area in your profile.  One of the most exciting features in Deltek Kona this summer, is the ability to turn on the Conversation Digest for only one category or only for Favorites.  Furthermore, you can choose to mark the conversations as read once they are emailed in the Digest.

$1,000 Tip:  If you are not inclined to choose just one category for your Deltek Kona spaces, considering creating a category for spaces that you just don’t care that much about.  Then, tell Kona that you’d like to receive a periodic Conversation Digest for that category and that you’d like to mark the conversations as read.  This will still let you know what you’ve missed in a compact format, but will also keep your Kona view cleaner for all that you do wish to digest from within the application. 

If the ability to filter your Deltek Kona spaces doesn’t seem useful to you, then you have not been properly introduced to the “Kona Life”, let us help you discover how Kona can make yours and the lives of your group members easier:
 

If you are intrigued by the mention of Billable Projects as a space filter, ask about Kona business and integration with Deltek Vision Projects and Opportunities, and with Project Navigator

Here in the United States, our sports zealots perform crazy antics like going shirtless in freezing weather or painting their faces in support of their teams.  But it’s more than the individual antics; the real difference is in the scale of extremism that soccer fans exhibit – a literal global exuberance all in support of their beloved sport.  But wait, isn’t this an article on ERP Consulting? 

Well, believe it or not, soccer and ERP consulting have quite a lot in common: 

• They both strive to achieve a very specific GOAL.
• They require coordination among the various efforts of serious talent to make it all happen.
• True fans are enthusiastic about the team winning.

Breaking it down: Are Soccer and ERP Consulting that Similar?

ERP

This sharing and communicating of information is all geared toward one, single purpose – achieving business goals. 

Putting them together

Next, let’s get back to one of my favorite subjects, soccer.  Soccer is a game requiring the coordination of individual players, each with their own proficiency; sometimes it involves players from different nationalities, or differences in a position focus like a goalie or halfback or a variations in specific skillsets like juggling or dribbling the ball. The players rely on the communicating and sharing of information during a game to one single, purpose – putting the ball into the net for a GOAL, a win.

So, like the soccer team with different players, ERP consulting requires synchronization of dissimilar needs, processes, and indeed functions of the software of different departments, so that the business can achieve its business GOALS, its win.

It takes the right coach to win

In soccer, while the right players, good equipment, and positive fan support are unquestionably important parts of the team’s success, the keystone to an effective soccer team is, in fact, the coach.  The coach’s job is to balance each player’s strengths against the combined team’s goal of winning.

The coach in ERP is the ERP Consultant.  Having the right individual department software is important, but the keystone to implementing a system, evaluating business processes, and bringing all that information together in a meaningful way is the ERP Consultant.  This person, like the coach, has to balance all the individual parts, i.e. departmental needs, in order to reach the business GOALS of the entire organization. 

How to find the right ERP Consultant

Choosing the right ERP Coach, er, Consultant is your important first step.  This person can help you determine the scope of your ERP project – including costs, size, structure, business process evaluation, and ERP goals as well as help you research and find the right ERP solution for your business.  Full Sail Partners, Inc., for example, specializes in identifying the critical resources to create a faster, more efficient, and cohesive business infrastructure for professional services firms looking at ERP solutions.  Ultimately, you need a consultant who

• listens to you
• knows your industry
• understands needs beyond the tool
• understands your company culture, and
• knows the ERP industry.

Don’t get a red card

Choosing the wrong ERP consultant or software solution can lead to significant issues penalizing you in dollars, time and public relations.  Following are only two examples of many instances of what happens when ERP implementations fail:

… Knight Capital, [a financial services firm,] recently lost over $400 million in a matter of minutes because of a glitch in its trading software — trading software that wasn’t fully tested and properly deployed prior to production. In addition to the immediate impact of lost cash and profits, the software failure also caused the company’s stock to drop 68-percent the day following the glitch. 

SAP and AxonCity of San DiegoThe city of San Diego, CA terminated its software implementation contract with services provider, Axon, citing “systematically deficient project management practices” and a project that was running $11 million over budget.

But be aware, an ERP Consultant cannot entirely save you from these “red card” losses.  Like the soccer coach, their real purpose is more about setting realistic expectations and sound goals, as well as offering their expertise for avoiding potential issues before they occur.   

In the end

Although analogous in many ways, the reality is that soccer is purely a game to most of us while ERP consultants help you achieve your GOAL – a more efficiently run business resulting in greater success for all your employees.  Calling Full Sail Partners as your ERP consulting expert is your first step in achieving your WIN.  

And while going shirtless in below freezing weather or being painted the colors of your favorite ERP vendor is one way to show your support, it’s not necessary.  But then again…a Full Sail Partners logo on my chest would make me stand out in the crowd. 

 

It’s time to break away from the chains of your desk, and get mobile with Deltek Touch Time & Expense, and Touch CRM 1.3. With these apps, both available in iTunes and in the Play Store, it is now easier than ever to research (and update) contact records, as well as capture expenses and track time on the go. Take advantage of the following features, and provide your staff with the most powerful remote tools and utilities to do their jobs to the fullest:

Deltek Touch Time & Expense 1.3:

• New Name, New Features, Same Reliability | In this release, expenses were added to the Touch Time application, and the application name has officially changed to ‘Touch Time and Expense’. No more waiting to manage timesheets and create expense reports. Avoid forgetting the details or losing receipts by entering as you go. Wherever your mobile device is, Touch Time & Expense follows.
  
  
• A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words | Touch Time and Expense allows you to create a new report, and then associate expense with that report. Take pictures of receipts, and upload them directly!
  
  
• Numerous User Experience and User Interface Upgrades | A number of improvements have been made to the application to improve your experience. Upgrades include:
  
  
  • A sliding menu to replace all tabs and provide quick access to Help and Log Out.
     
  • A menu button to allow you to perform specific tasks for timesheets and expense reports.
    
    
• Math is Hard, Let Your Apps Figure it Out | Touch Time & Expense allows you to select or update default transaction currency and exchange rate for an expense report. This screen, however, only displays if Multicurrency is enabled in Vision core.

Deltek Touch CRM 1.3:

• Touch Knows How to Push Your Buttons | Touch CRM now has buttons, with icons, to replace labels on certain screens. Examples of new buttons include:
  
  
  • ‘List Button’ - Tap this button to display options specific for the contacts, clients, and opportunities screens.
     
  • ‘Pen Button’ – Tapping this button allows you to edit contact, client, and opportunity information.
    
    
• No Mobile Limitations | Touch CRM allows you to search, edit, and add clients on the go. In addition, add or update Opportunities with the touch of a button.
   
• Syncing Made Easy | Touch CRM automatically syncs up with your Deltek Vision system, and allows you to create activities and calendar events on the desktop, and access them on your mobile device.
   
• Full Visibility | See user defined fields in contacts, clients, and opportunities. Additionally, Touch CRM 1.3 gives you the ability to view activities!
   
• It’s All One Touch Away | Make a phone call, send an email, or map an address with the touch of a button.
  
  
• And more | Interested in learning more about the features and functionality included in Touch 1.3? Reach out to us today for a demo, and start operating better!

Are you currently using the Touch applications? If so, respond below and let us know what your experience has been like so far.

Myth or Reality: Higher utilization yields higher revenues? Well, both actually.  But before I explain, I’m going to start with this quote from Zig Zigler,

“Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have.”

This is the perfect quote to start our discussion regarding utilization, because it specifies that success (i.e. defined by higher revenues for most companies) comes from utilization of ability and NOT from a higher utilization of time.  

The time utilization myth

Too many professional services firms looking to improve revenue and profit numbers are chasing this goal a bit myopically.  Their logic sounds reasonable but comes up against a “theory vs. reality” wall:  more money comes from higher utilization of resources, i.e. their consultants.  So they put into place incentive programs that encourage their consultants to work more.  Consequently, these consultants put in high numbers per week leading, too often, to burnout and turnover coupled with the often very ugly effect of lowering customer satisfaction, because the consultant has lower motivation for solving and higher interest in billing.  

The balance with reality

Luckily, these days, more and more professional services firms are wise to this “higher utilization brings higher dollars” fallacy.  They understand that chasing the utilization dollar by itself is a delusion.  Here are the steps of the real logic:

1. Greater financial rewards for companies come from happy, prepared, challenged and respected employees, because
2. These employees do what’s best for their customer, while still balancing the number of hours it took to solve their customer’s problem, and
3. Then, customers who have had previous problems solved, use your company’s consultants again thereby generating even more revenue.   

This brings us back to our initial quote –business success comes from utilizing employees’ abilities and not just their time. 

But how?  How does a company go from making employees focus on utilization to their being self-motivated to be happy and work more, successfully?  Here are three suggestions.

1. Know, really know, where your consultants strengths are.  Why is that important to utilization, you ask?  For two reasons:  1) it’s not the number of consultants you use; it’s the right consultants, and 2) happy employees who are on project they are good at work harder simply because they are happy.  A circular logic that is, indeed, true.  If you know what your consultants are good at and organize projects accordingly, your happy employees will continuously work a) harder because they enjoy it and b) smarter because they are good at it. 
2. Get rid of “high utilization” numbers as the sole focus of employee incentive plans.  Sure, it’s okay to keep a facet of utilization in the verbiage of their incentive programs, but balance that with another positively motivating focus like customer satisfaction, so that employees get the message that they need to work hard to solve customer issues and not just bill high numbers.
3. Better utilization comes from better processes. Take a close look at the work your consultants are doing.  Are they overwhelmed with administrative and/or manual processes (e.g. filling out project planning forms, expense reimbursement processes, or dealing with emails/directives which constantly impact work week schedules)?  Now, take a close look at how many of these could be automated or even switched to a different employee whose job is NOT consulting with customers.

Utilization is not just about improving your professional services firm’s revenue and profit numbers; it’s really about

• Automating processes to make not only your consultants but also your entire company more efficient
• Shifting administrative work to non-utilization based employees
• Balancing utilization incentives with more employee and/or customer focused incentives
• Focusing on your consultants’ strengths

But you don’t have to do this alone.  Reach out to us to take a look at your utilization and see, first hand, how making these small changes will yield big results. 

The newest version of Deltek Vision (7.3) has been released, and along with it comes a new slew of powerful features and functionality. As always, operating on the newest version of Vision gives your firm the ability to manage better, achieve more, and improve your ability to better track your projects and efforts. Let’s take an overview glance of the new benefits.

Vision 7.3 Product Enhancement Synopsis

• Manage company paid credit cards | 7.3’s new credit card functionality streamlines cost accounting. Features include the ability to setup credit cards, import credit card charges, and reconcile credit cards.
• Expanded internationalization and localization features | New globalization functionality included in 7.3 gives your firm the tools needed to expand into new markets, and win more work!
• Improved compensation break out | Gain additional insights into fee structures with detailed compensation breakouts.
• Dashpart enhancements | Users can now choose which columns to include in info center dashparts; including user defined info center dashparts. Additionally, the dashpart can be populated with work breakdown structure level two or three record data.  Lastly, users can create an Invoice Review dashpart; providing a quick summary of outstanding receivables for chosen projects.
• Core CRM | Users can now edit activities directly in the grid. Many new text editor features have been improved; including highlighting misspelled words and the ability to add words to the spelling dictionary.  Enhancements to the Opportunity Forecast Report; including revenue allocation for fiscal years.
• And more | Interested in learning more about the features and functionality included in 7.3? Reach out to us today for a demo, and start operating better!

Is Your Firm Prepared for Deltek Vision 7.3?

Because of Microsoft’s de-support of Windows XP in April 2014, Deltek can no longer support the Windows XP client operating system beginning with Vision 7.3 and extending to future releases.

The following client operating systems will be supported for Vision 7.3:

• Windows 8 or 8.1
• Windows 7
• Windows Vista

Additionally, to use this new version you must ensure that .NET Framework 4.5 or 4.5.1 is installed. For more information on the .NET Framework and to determine how best to deploy the 4.5 or 4.5.1 release within your organization, please refer to the Microsoft web site at http://www.microsoft.com/net.

Becoming a champion of project management is as easy as solving a puzzle. The puzzle is rather complex and requires specialized training with a very specific kind of expertise, but a puzzle nonetheless.  So what does it mean to be a project based firm? What do project managers do? What do project KPI’s have to do with project management?  As with all puzzles, the best way to solve is to take the puzzle apart, piece by piece, and decode it.

Puzzle One: Am I a project based firm?

Interestingly, business theorists debate as to what determines “a project based firm”.  There is not a hard-and-fast rule for defining whether or not you’re project based and would need the services of a project manager. So let’s just stick with the basics.  The most obvious way to decide is if you have a business model where you perform “projects,” “jobs,” or “services” for external clients.  Ultimately, you are offering your expertise – NOT your goods – to an external customer.

The Project Management Institute says that a project “is a temporary group activity designed to produce a unique product, service or result like building a bridge, relief after a natural disaster or expansion of sales into a new market.”  Examples of project based companies include:

• Management Consulting Firms
• Architecture, Engineering or Construction Companies
• System Integrators
• Advertising Agencies

If you’re goods oriented (you sell software or insurance) or operationally oriented (i.e. you manage clients’ IT structure), you are not naturally a project based firm.  We could expand our definition by looking at your business organizational structure – project based firms tend to organize around their projects or jobs.  In a non-project based firm, “a business may include separate departments for manufacturing, accounting, marketing, and human resources because the organization is based around functions, not projects, …” (Miranda Morley, Demand Media, “What Is the Difference Between Project Based & Non-Project Based Organizations?”)

Puzzle Two: Am I a Project Manager?           

Most of us have a general understanding of project management, but we can go to the Project Management Institute (pmi.org) for a good definition – “project management is the application of knowledge, skills and techniques to execute projects effectively and efficiently.  It’s a strategic competency for organizations, enabling them to tie project results to business goals – and thus, better compete in their markets. Project Managers Initiate, Plan, Execute, Monitor and Control, and Close their projects.”  

Many would argue that there is more to being a Project Manager. I would argue that communication and follow-up are key areas required to be a successful Project Manager. However, the basics of being a project manager revolve around the delivery of a project. 

Puzzle Three: What are Project KPI’s for Project Management?

KPI’s are Key Performance Indicators and they are quantifiable, measurable indicators of goal attainment.  They are the very backbone as to what makes projects succeed or fail – which is directly tied, in your project based firm, to your company’s success or failure.  When given a new project, Project Managers create KPI’s to:

• Initiate the project and its deliverables
• Plan project details
• Execute those details
• Monitor and control each step in the project
• Close the project upon completion of the deliverable and the project post-mortem

Some subject examples of project management KPI’s are adherence/deviation of budgets, milestones, and task times.  Here are some sample KPI’s that might be part of a project plan: 

• Determine percent of rework attributable to requirements definitions. 
• Conclude deviation of planned ROI
• Establish cost of managing processes

For more information on writing project KPI’s, refer to “KPIs | Writing, Establishing, and Measuring" by Full Sail Partners, Inc.

Bonus Round…

Although joining a game show is potentially a quick way to make some money, it’s the savvy business owner who aligns his project based firm with project KPI’s. This alignment helps ensure the firm’s bottom line is replete with positive cash flow and employees who are happy, because they know their jobs and how to be professionally successful.  No, we shouldn’t rely on a game show host to guide us to riches, but we can depend on consultants at Full Sail Partners to help guide us to metrics that matter.  And don’t worry about buying a vowel, just turn over your mouse to this webinar and see how achievable all your goals are.

In the last 200 years we’ve developed a variety of methods for communicating with one another.  We’ve taken the journey from individual letters delivered by horse to instant mass communication.  How can things get any more social than that? Deltek Kona, that's how!

Being ‘social’ involves more than just communicating and working together. Merriam-Webster defines social as “relating to or involving activities in which people spend time talking to each other or doing enjoyable things with each other”. 

The key phrases “talking to” and “doing enjoyable things with” only seem to reference something outside of the workplace.  In the 1980s, the focus was on output and productivity.  In the decades that followed, we labored to attain the ever elusive ‘work-life balance’.  In the new millennium, we strive toward contributing fully in our work and personal lives without restrictions of time and space.  We want to enjoy ALL of our life.

Deltek Kona, released in spring 2012, combines all that we know about working together with the best methods of communication.  It presents that blend to us allowing us to talk to each other AND do enjoyable things with each other across our work and personal lives.  Guided by the principles of confluence, immersion, accessibility, and digestibility; the innovators at Deltek Kona have found a way to leverage the best of all the communication tools developed in the past 50 centuries (not a typo: we still draw on walls to convey our thoughts) to help us interact in a more social and enjoyable way today. 

How does Deltek Kona help us get more social?

Use Deltek Kona to Create a Hometown

Kona is organized around context specific spaces or groups.  Each space is formed with a level of focus appropriate for its purpose.  There are no limits to the number of spaces an individual can belong to or the number of members in any one space.  Each space landing page is the “hometown” for the group allowing members to participate in and view interactions that are taking place.  Over time, users begin to become acquainted with each other’s concerns, thought processes, and involvements.

Enhancing Personal Interaction

Individual users may have more than one group in common across work and personal interests.  Knowing more about what you have in common with others allows you to get more social with them as individuals.  The ability to create and store one-on-one conversations with people in your Kona network allows users continuity and privacy even when time and distance are barriers to traditional communication methods.

There are times when we are having a conversation in a group but need to direct our comments to a particular person.  Deltek Kona incorporates “@mention” functionality to expand the personal contact in the context specific discussion. Nothing encourages us to communicate more than feeling like we are being listened to and understood.

Eliminating Polarization

Deltek Kona was built to be free.  Users can enhance their organizational experience with an upgraded account.  Regardless of the type of account, the experience and interaction is the same. This removes the barriers of participation across all members of the group and continues the social experience as no one is barred from participation because they must pay.  This allows us to use Kona for all sorts of purposes, from family reunions, to political organizations, to multi-firm business projects.

Deltek Kona further removes barriers by elimination of platform dependencies.  The Kona software works the same on any operating system and internet browser.  The accessibility extends to the mobile platform where users continue to get more social from wherever they are and whenever they want to. 

Increasing Personal choice

One of the favored features of the Deltek Kona product is its flexibility with the individual users’ need to digest information and connect on in his or her own time.  From the moment one opens the Kona product, it is clear which items take priority.  A user can access a conversation with 20 unviewed in-line comments and get a clear picture within minutes.  This is the first step in creating an enjoyable social experience when working with a group.

Because the Kona team recognizes that email has its merits, they’ve enabled the individual to decide how much or little Kona activity is transferred to email.  The possibilities to limit but not eliminate are almost endless for the individual user.  Being able to choose which groups to get more social with enhances the interactions that are wanted.

With much of our productivity arising from collaborative efforts conducted across vast geographic spaces, we meet and interact with more people than ever.  The Deltek Kona tool allows us to stay informed and control the inflow of information leading to a more relaxed experience.  When we remove unnecessary stressors, we naturally take time to get more social and find common ground with those around us.  Sign-up for Deltek Kona today and join the 21^st Century’s answer to communicating, socializing, and getting things done.

Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Express isn’t the only train that uses platform 9 ¾.  There are other trains, similarly magical, that take their passengers to places they’ve never been.  Take project management training, for example.  Just like at Hogwarts, project managers are trained in a kind of wizardry, i.e. transforming the business experience of their clients from nothing more than a mere idea into something special. And those lucky enough to “receive their letter” to attend, must have honed ALL their skills in order to reach their final goal – being a productive and effective project manager. 

At Hogwarts, Harry takes classes like Divination, Transfiguration and Potions.  And although the names of the classes they take are very different, the content of the classes they take is very much the same. 

• Divination is the art of “seeing.”  A good project manager must indeed learn to read signs.  Is the project moving smoothly?  Is the client happy with progress and with process?  Are the employees on the project satisfied and therefore doing a good job?  Too often, these “signs” are definitely not clearly communicated.  They are often muddied, and it takes a good project manager to see them.
• Transfiguration is really about how to transform yourself.  During project management training, attendees will transform their natural business gifts – financial acumen, business savvy, and communication expertise – into a project manager who really knows how to wield those skills to benefit their customers, their employees, and their company. 
• Potions is a class on how to take seemingly dissimilar ingredients and turn them into a concoction which is business changing.  Take, for example, a handful of employees from various areas like a programmer, a writer, a financier, an administrator, a quality controller, and an executive – put them together into a cauldron-like project plan, and you have a new business process gaining efficiency, money, and time.  A potion any business would be proud of!

Another similarity between Harry Potter and those wishing to become effective project managers is natural skill.  Wizards aren’t made at Hogwarts, they are honed:  the young wizards who attend school already have the necessary abilities and project management is very much the same. 

One doesn’t become a project manager because of project management training;

one becomes a project manager because of their natural abilities refined at training.

Other than project management training, a good project manager must also have

Communication ability – exceedingly important!  Project management is not only completing and managing a Gantt chart, but effectively and efficiently communicating every portion of the project to every person involved … to their understanding.  The project manager is the translator of all things, so that each interested party is clear and satisfied.  A superhuman feat but one which good project managers achieve every day.

Business savvy – Someone who is good at business is just plain impressive.  Those who see ramifications outside of the project plan are the best at their jobs.  Project managers have an understanding beyond the project as to the impact to the surrounding business processes and how to structure a project to either improve or not negatively impact them.  It’s really knowing how to do your job in the project management box, but seeing and managing the effect outside of the box.

Experience – you just can’t teach experience!   People who have “been there, done that” and who then apply that experience to their projects are truly the most successful project managers.  And, to be clear, it’s not the same experience over and over, but broad experience garnered through years of accumulation.   

So how do you find out if your project management training was successful?  How do you know if you have what it takes to be a great project manager?  Just call our friends at Full Sail Partners (which could be considered the Hogwarts of Project Management).  Although they aren’t called that at Full Sail, you will have access to the likes of Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall – people who are sage, savvy, and just plain good at their jobs (oh, and really nice, too).  

Although project managers will probably never make the big screen success of Harry Potter.  They are, in fact, the real wizards working in our midst.  Their project management training has sharpened their skills to perform magic every day:  turning an idea into a project plan and then into something special for our businesses. 

Without the wand or robe, of course. Click your wand below to learn more. 

Payroll, the reason we drag ourselves out of bed and into the office.  Payday!!  Everyone’s favorite day – it is especially nice when it is on a Friday.  As happy as payday makes us, if you are the one stuck processing your payroll software can be a total PITA.

Utilize In-House Payroll Software vs. Out Sourced Payroll

So why process payroll in-house?  Why not just hire a service?  In many cases a service is exactly what you would use.  However, payroll services have their own set of challenges:

• Rigid deadlines that may cause you to process payroll days before your pay date (in some cases before the pay period ends)
• Inability to add non-payroll items (like expense reimbursement) to the payroll
• Can be a bit more “pricey”

When looking at a way to process payroll in-house, a system that integrates with your existing ERP system, such as Deltek’s Vision, is priceless.  You can have a one stop shop for employee set up, employees can enter their time and it is automatically available in payroll when posted.   Since everyone is already used to the system, the basic information is already there.

Some of the other benefits of having payroll in-house and integrated with your ERP are:

• Employees will have access to see their vacation and sick time remaining
• Access to see and print copies of their paychecks (Meaning you don’t have to provide their last 5 paychecks)
• Accounting can control deadlines
• Can sometimes be less expensive

What to Look for in Payroll Software

If you determine that in-house is the way to go, it’s important to make sure your payroll software is flexible and provides the features that matter.  So what type of flexibility should you look for in your payroll software? A couple features include the ability to add codes when you need it or to track your company contribution to the employee benefits.

An example of an additional code is the ability to add an after tax code to reimburse your employees for expenses.  This allows you to provide your employees one check for payroll and expenses.

An example of a contribution code would be if you offer a 401K plan, the company match is your company contribution.  If you offer health care, the portion covered by the company is the company contribution.  Tracking this information on each payroll can simplify your accounting process (getting the costs into the right “bucket”) but can also allow you to easily create a total compensation report at the end of the year showing the employee the total value of their compensation package including benefits (not every service offers this either).

Either way you go, an in-house payroll software or outside payroll service, look for the process that will provide you the most flexibility and integration with your current ERP to make your life easier!