With all the hot topics of last year, we thought it would be interesting to see which ones were valued the most by Deltek Users. To figure this out, we compiled a list of the top 10 read Full Sail Partners’ blogs of 2017. From finance, to marketing, to HR, to project managers, it seems that we offered a little something for everyone. Let’s check them out:

1. The Unknown Features of Timesheets in Deltek Vision

It is a mystery why we deal with time management so badly. This is our commodity which we sell to our clients. However, we treat it like a curse, as if it’s an evil process that accounting forces on us. It somehow escapes us that this is the lifeblood of our business, and without it, we are out of business. So why don’t we manage this better and how can we improve our firm’s practices? Find out now! 

2. Maximizing Organizational Breakdown Structure and Work Breakdown Structure in Deltek Vision

As Deltek Vision systems are implemented and processes are written, the common denominator is most often the connection between the Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS) and the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). Whether it be the uniqueness of each or the relationship between the two, the attention paid to these early stages of development is instrumental in the flow and reporting of information in your Vision database. Click here to explore some areas to consider when designing the structure of your database. 

3. Is This the End of Deltek Vision's Revenue Method B?

Revenue Method B is the most widely used revenue method in Deltek Vision. In fairness, this is Vision’s default method for projects whose charge type is Regular. As a result, most firms use it since it’s easy to deploy and seems to work, or so we think. Learn more about Revenue Method B here. 

4. The Truth Behind Why Your CRM System Sucks!

The main reason why CRM implementations usually fail isn’t because of the system, it’s because of you. I told you this was going to be hard to swallow. A CRM system is meant to provide a place to house all of the important information about your clients and opportunities. However, many firms purchase a CRM system thinking it will miraculously do the work for them with no effort required. Find out what your firm needs to know to have a successful CRM system. 

5. 6 Key Statistics that Fuel the Competition for Talent Management

Organizations with antiquated talent management philosophies will struggle to attract, nurture and retain top talent in 2017. Many HR teams make the common mistake of having decentralized or ineffective systems and processes. Check out six key statistics that demonstrate why HR teams can no longer be reactionary and should evaluate their talent management processes and systems. 

6. Using Multi-Company in Deltek Vision: The When, Why and How

Within Deltek Vision lies a very handy tool which enables a firm to have multi-company functionality. However, the benefits of this multi-company functionality feature seem to elude many firms that would greatly appreciate its capabilities. So, let’s talk in detail about multi-company functionality and the why, when and how firms should use this fantastic feature. 

7. Ten Firm Initiatives to Improve Deltek Vision

Although it is easy to accept the status quo, there is always room for improvement. Once improvements are made, it is hard to believe that we operated the way we did before. So, there it is, the continuous cycle of breaking the status quo to improve our firm processes which ultimately ensures future success. As Deltek Vision users, we should focus on initiatives which enhance our Vision systems and allow us to remain efficient and effective in business. Find out which initiatives your firm can take on in 2018. 

8. Why You Should Be Using Deltek Dashboards

Are you maximizing your time by taking advantage of a dashboard? Dashboards are one of the most beneficial and functional parts of a system and yet are often the most underutilized. Dashboards are comprised of dashparts, or widgets, which are used as a portal into your Deltek database. For firms using Deltek Vision or Deltek Talent, the dashparts are extensive and include reports, metrics, links, alerts, tips and more. Find out why your firm should be using dashboards. 

9. Understanding and Effectively Using Cross Charge in Deltek Vision

Cross charge capabilities in Vision are based on similar theories as multi-company but are focused on the interaction within a company and its organizational breakdown structure (OBS). It is important to understand that cross charging is a financial tool and is based on the general ledger. It is not an attribute of project reporting since time charged to a project remains on the project for billing and reporting purposes. Cross charge is labor focused and occurs after the timesheet is posted. Still confused? Learn what you need to know to effectively use cross charge. 

10. Introducing Deltek for Professional Services

Welcome to Deltek for Professional Services (DPS), the next generation solution for professional services automation (PSA). If PSA is a new term for you, think of it as a specialized system like an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution except specifically designed for the professional services industry. So, what can DPS do for your firm? Let’s see how this new cutting-edge solution will add value.

The Full Sail Partners’ team strives to provide our clients with useful resources that add value to their Vision systems. We hope that these widely read blogs from 2017 did just that. If you haven’t had the chance to review them yet, we hope you’ll do so now. Also, remember to keep an eye out for what’s coming in 2018!

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the architectural and engineering (A&E) industry are on the rise. Unfortunately, many firms are not prepared to successfully implement the M&A process. With an acquisition, it is imperative that the “buying” entity have a well-defined set of procedures to easily onboard the incoming firm. In the case of a merger, all involved firms would need a set plan which would dictate the transition to a new firm. However, first a firm must decide the direction it will take regarding the M&A process and evaluate how it will affect the current organization’s structure.

Navigating Forks in the Road for Your Firm 

There are many reasons a firm may decide to begin the M&A process. Each firm has its own vision for the future. On this path, there are 3 “forks in the road,” and a firm must choose one:

1. Absorbing the acquisition into an existing organization
2. Creating a new organization within an existing company
3. Creating a new company 

Making the Acquired Company Part of the Buying Company

Absorbing the acquisition into an existing organization is the easiest and most straight forward. This scenario is usually the result of a simple employee purchase. For example, a design engineering firm acquires a mechanical engineering firm. In this case, the incoming engineers are integrated into an existing profit center (department). They may have brought projects with them or are going to be staffed on existing projects. Since it requires no structural changes to the database, very little of any testing is needed. The focus would be more human resources related blending the culture of the acquired firm into the existing one. 

Making a New Organization within the Buying Company 

Creating a new organization within an existing company is most often the result of expanding service offerings. For example, a base building architectural firm acquires an interiors firm. If the firm’s current structure is studio based, a new studio would be required for the interior work. Under this scenario, a change to the existing structure is made that will require testing. This will include: 

• Cross Charging
• Overhead Allocation
• T&E group management 

In addition, reporting parameters need to be updated to ensure the new organization is included in all metrics and indicators. This will require reasonable lead time to do a test and final cutover. 

Making a New Company Altogether

Creating a new company by merging firms is the most common scenario, and regardless of the dynamics, is often driven by numerous outside factors such as: 

• Tax implications
• Buyout and payout provisions
• Currency requirements
• Country, state, and other municipal requirements
• Banking relationships
• Investment and or holding company requirements
• Professional licensing requirements 

In a merger situation, a change to the existing structure is made that will require testing. This will include: 

• Intercompany Billing
• Foreign currency management
• Consolidated reporting (in addition to the reporting parameter updates noted above) 

Additional factors that will need to be considered in risk mitigation are: 

• Rules defining internal pricing
• New currency being introduced into the environment 

This situation will require at least one test cutover and lead time needs to be considered during the process. 

Final Considerations for Mergers and Acquisitions   

Once you have selected which of the forks on the M&A road to take, the real work begins. Beyond the integration testing noted above, there are two other risk areas that must be considered. 

1. Data import
2. Revenue management 

Regardless of which direction your firm chooses to take in the M&A process, Full Sail Partners can offer consulting from subject matter experts. Contact us and we will be happy to help. You don’t have to walk alone. Additionally, we will be at the 2018 Southeast States M&A Symposium in Miami, Florida on January 24th and 25th. 

“Project Controls” are formidable words, ones that are necessary for successful project outcomes. Those of you who have used Deltek Vision for many years may recall that “project controls” remain at the core of the Vision system and are the datacenter for all other Vision applications such as billing, CRM, proposals, resource planning, and time and expense. Fortunately for Vision users, accessing project controls has gotten a lot easier with Deltek iAccess.

What are Project Controls? 

There is no industry jargon in the name project controls. They do exactly what the name implies. They allow you to manage and control your projects. Furthermore, a complete project control system such as Vision, allows users to: 

• Document project attributes
• Coordinate project activities
• Track employee time and expense
• Apply direct and overhead costs
• Monitor project progress
• Generate project reports
• Maintain project budgets 

Controlling projects requires understanding and making decisions based on the information collected. This can be a challenge if data is not updated in a timely fashion or there is too much information to absorb. So, how can Vision users make these processes simpler? 

Enter Deltek iAccess for Project Management 

With the addition of iAccess for Deltek Vision, visibility into and ease of digesting information has enjoyed a renaissance. The iAccess interface allows firms to proactively manage and track projects from creation through closeout. The real-time connection to Vision, graphical views, and simple interactive tools for planning and managing the budget make quick work of understanding the status of the project. As a result, users can efficiently manage project future costs and review the expected outcomes. 

Gain Better Control of Your Projects with Deltek iAccess 

The ability to drive your projects with a full understanding of the past and predictions for the future is the ultimate control. With iAccess for Deltek Vision, this becomes possible. So, what are you waiting for? Take control of your projects, and extend the capabilities of Vision project controls with iAccess.

In a previous article, we discussed the challenges with Revenue Method “B.”  In this article, we will look at several different approaches to revenue generation and how these can affect our revenue accruals. Can these methods get us closer to FASB 606 compliance?

Work in Progress Method

Work in progress (WIP) method adds unbilled items to the revenue formula. Unbilled items include labor, reimbursable expenses, and reimbursable consultants. The standard formula only includes items marked as “to be billed.” Items marked as “hold,” “write off,” or “delete” are excluded.

This method is a good candidate for unlimited time and materials projects that are not billed regularly. The WIP amount is easily tracked on the unbilled report and shows as the unbilled variable on some project reports. The WIP method is a standard Vision option.

The main disadvantages to this method are:

• This method includes billings and is subject to the issues related to using billings
• This formula has no limit and could lead to revenue overruns
• This may not comply with FASB 606 since it may not correctly measure revenue

Percent Complete Method

Percent complete method requires project compensation values and percent complete values. For best accuracy, these values should be managed at the lowest level of the work breakdown structure (WBS).

Percent complete is calculated in one of two ways:

1. Percent complete x by total compensation
2. (Percent complete x by labor compensation) + job to date direct consultants at billing + job to date reimbursable consultants at billing + reimbursable expenses billed

These methods can produce more accurate revenue, and the biggest advantage is these methods do not use billing amounts in the formula. 

The challenge with this method is obtaining accurate percent complete numbers. This requires estimates of completion which can pose a challenge. Especially if we need this measurement for multiple WBS on a project. The percent complete method is a standard Deltek Vision option.

Earned Value Method

Earned value method uses a percent complete strategy but can calculate revenue via the formula. There are several strategies that can be used to calculate the percent complete:

• Using Project Summary Tables - calculate the percent complete based on job to date spent which requires the use of workflows to calculate the values and user defined fields to display the amounts in the Project Info Center
• Using Project Budgets - calculate the percent complete based on budget amount expended which can require user intervention
• Using Project Planning Module - calculate percent complete based on estimate to complete and estimation at completion values calculated in the planning module which requires the planning module and regular updates of project plans

Time and Materials Method

Time and materials method is based on transactional inputs to the project. Revenue is earned as expenses are incurred. As a result, this is a simple and straightforward method.

This method is easy to deploy and needs no manual intervention. The formula needs to be adjusted based on what transactions we want to include in revenue such as direct expenses.

Subject to Max

The subject to max variable can be added to a formula to put a “cap” on revenue. Subject to max uses total compensation (labor + consultants + expenses) from the Project Info Center in Deltek Vision.

If you need to cap individual amounts (labor, consultant), we need to create a separate revenue method for that individual limit (labor compensation, consultant compensation, etc.) and combine these methods into a “lesser than” formula to give us the lesser of earnings or compensation.  

Lesser Than/Greater Than

With these variables, we can compare two formulas and take the higher or lower amount, depending on how we want to calculate the revenue. For example, we want to take the lower of job to date billings or percent complete, or we want to take the lower of total labor spent or labor compensation. The formula will return the lowest amount as revenue.

The Matching Principal

Remember the matching principal. With any revenue method we use, we want to get the best match between calculated revenues and the associated expenses. In several formulas, we are matching labor revenue with actual labor spent, or (better) the actual earned value attained by those labor costs.

For expenses, the objective is to have a -0- effect on net revenue. Revenue is earned as expense is incurred. In this scenario, the accounts payable transaction triggers revenue. When the expense is incurred, revenue is generated. This results in -0- net revenue. Why is this important? Because now we can measure the true effectiveness of our labor.

Measuring Project Performance with Revenue Generation  

Revenue generation is a key component to measuring project performance. There are many revenue formulas we can use to accrue revenue to our projects, and there is no “one size fits all” method that will work perfectly for every firm or project. Users should develop and test methods to determine which method(s) fit best for them. Many firms use multiple methods tailored to specific projects.

The bottom line is that revenue must accurately measure earnings to be in compliance with GAAP and FASB 606. Revenue and expenses must accurately be matched to provide the best measurement of project performance.

As I travel around and work with clients implementing Vision Resource Planning, the issue of what makes a good project manager (PM) is often discussed. The PM track has always been perceived as a measurement of success in one’s career. As employees become more tenured within a firm, there seems to be a natural progression to the PM role. However, not everyone who is strong technically is able to effectively manage projects. Based on my experience, to be a good PM requires proficiency in certain key areas.

Scope Management

A good PM must be involved in defining the scope of the project and needs to play a role in the proposal process. Scope can be narrowed down to what has been promised to the client, or in other words, what is to be delivered. The various components of scope are usually defined and controlled by a project’s work breakdown structure and can include interim deliverables and milestones. 

Equally, if not more important, a good PM should be aware of what is not in the scope. Scope creep is the number one killer of profit. To avoid this, a good PM needs to be very familiar with what is in the contract and when to ask for change orders. 

Schedule Management 

Schedule is the order in which the scope needs to be delivered. This is also called a critical path which defines what and when things need to happen to ensure all interim and final scope delivery. A good PM needs to understand the concept of task dependency and how delays and disruptions can impact future delivery. Scope and schedule management work in tandem and scope creep can impact a schedule. 

Team Management 

A good PM needs to be a committed leader. While “leading by example” may seem cliché, it is a solid guideline to follow as a PM. Even more, a PM must make sure the entire team understands scope and schedule and will keep them inside the white lines to avoid scope creep. 

Financial Management 

To make prudent, yet quick decisions about the financial health of projects, a PM should be provided reliable data. A good PM should understand what indicators are needed to make this health assessment. I believe earned value is the best indicator. By comparing a project’s physical to financial percent complete, a PM and others can measure the “direction” that the project is heading. Once again, scope creep should easily be identified using this measurement.

Client Management 

The human component of project management can be challenging. A good PM should be able to make every client feel important while also filtering and prioritizing so that the scope, schedule and financial components of all projects are properly tended too. A good PM must also be effective in communicating scope creep to the client and should utilize the relationship to secure the change orders that are warranted. 

Quality Management 

Finally, a good PM must have his “hands” on the product whether it be a report, widget, skyscraper or bridge. He must have the technical knowledge to guarantee the product can pass inspections and be accepted by the client. He must also be able to trouble shoot issues, manage challenges that arise, and always be cognizant of the scope to ensure the work performed is within the contractual obligation to avoid scope creep. 

Are Your Project Managers the Right Fit? 

All the above must be considered to determine whether someone makes a good PM. A PM may not have mastered all areas, but needs to be effective in each. These key areas are interrelated and critical to one another. Strong technical knowledge does not necessarily translate to successful PM skills. How do your PMs stack up?

The long-term success of a sports team cannot be determined by looking at just one factor. For a sports team to truly excel, it must triumph on many fronts. From scouting the best talent to strategizing offensive and defensive plays for cohesive team execution, the team manager must create a winning formula that, when utilized, brings continuous success for the team. This is also true for professional services firms, and finding the right formula for your team can become less of a guessing game with the tools available from Deltek. Let’s see how Deltek can help your firm knock it out of the park.

Winning the War for Talent

We all know that finding and attracting the best players for your team is a time-consuming process. Even more, tracking their training and development can be laborious. With Deltek Talent, however, professional services firms can easily overcome these challenges.

Deltek Talent provides a complete view of the entire human capital management process. From recruiting new talent to career development and employee performance management, Deltek Talent is a unified talent management solution designed to help your firm recruit and retain top talent. Using this Deltek tool, your team will be a group of all-stars.

Winning Repeat and New Business

Taking advantage of every opportunity and identifying every weakness in your opponent is how to win a game, and the same can be said for acquiring business in the professional services industry. Using Deltek CRM, your firm will gain visibility into the entire business development process, from prospect to opportunity to gaining the new business. Most importantly, presenting your winning solution in a compelling way to your key contacts is vital to setting your firm apart from the competition.

With Deltek CRM, you can access the actual past performance of similar projects you’re bidding on with the data stored within Deltek Vision and Deltek for Professional Services. This feature easily allows you to create proposals based on actual firm performance, and they are quick to produce with the proposal automation capabilities of Deltek CRM. Now, that’s a game changer.

Winning with Project Delivery

To build your game plan, you must first know who is available to play or whose injury would prevent the best performance. The same goes for project management in a professional services firm. Using Deltek Vision and Deltek for Professional Services, your firm will have the resource planning capabilities needed to ensure staff utilization is being maximized so that you are never blindsided in your projects. Even more, instant access to project metrics and performance data helps guarantee projects will stay on track.

Win with Deltek

In Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis, there is a Pete Palmer quote, “Managers tend to pick a strategy that is the least likely to fail, rather than to pick a strategy that is most efficient. The pain of looking bad is worse than the gain of making the best move.” Fortunately, professional services firms don’t need to play this guessing game when using Deltek tools. Let Deltek help your team find the right formula to win on all fronts. Wouldn’t you like to have the upper hand?

Welcome to Deltek for Professional Services (DPS), the next generation solution for professional services automation (PSA). If PSA is a new term for you, think of it as a specialized system like an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution except specifically designed for the professional services industry. Also, check out this short article to learn more about PSA.  So, what can DPS do for your firm? Let’s see how this new cutting-edge solution will add value.

What is Deltek for Professional Services?

At its core, Deltek for Professional Services is a solution to assist your professional services firm with overcoming industry challenges and give you the tools needed to gain a competitive advantage. Whether it’s winning more work, recruiting new talent, providing top-notch project delivery or accurate forecasting of final performance, DPS will help your firm stay focused on the future. As a complete and all-inclusive package, DPS will positively affect all the core areas of your business by streamlining your processes.

Intelligent Business Development

Knowing if you have enough pipeline to meet your firm’s future goals is critical to measuring the success of your business development efforts. With Deltek for Professional Services, you can eliminate business development shortcomings by providing your team with a collaborative platform to enable every team member to stay engaged and up to date. Even more, DPS is an integrated solution that allows your business development team to create proposals based on the historic performance of your firm. As a result, your firm can create actual target revenues per account and realistic revenue forecasting.

Simplified Project Management   

Using Deltek for Professional Services, building a project plan has never been easier. With an improved user interface based on iAccess for Deltek Vision, DPS allows project managers to develop plans based on the performance of similar projects. Managers can simply build key performance indicators (KPIs) and milestones into these plans which can track the success of a project. Furthermore, these KPIs and milestones can be used to develop a project management dashboard that lets project managers see all critical project information on a single screen.

Improved Financial Insights

Tracking project profitability can be challenging. However, Deltek for Professional Services makes this process simple by eliminating the guessing game with dashboards and alerts to let you know how a project is faring. DPS allows you to monitor the key metrics that can determine the success of a project like margins, utilization, and cash flow. With this tracking system, you can keep your finances on target.

Transitioning to Deltek for Professional Services

Ready to make the move? Deltek has a plan to transition your firm to DPS if your firm is currently on Deltek Vision. Contact us to find out more about preparing for the migration. If you’re not currently using a Deltek product, Full Sail Partners can help your firm determine if DPS is right for you!

How does your company measure up to the competition? Are you performing above the industry standards or below? Are you achieving the objectives necessary to continue to grow and operate successfully? In order to answer these questions, management must have a way to track performance. Evaluating the progress of individuals, projects, and specific departments is important, but management also needs an in depth look at the company as a whole.

The two most popular methods for measuring performance are Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Benchmarks. Both KPIs and Benchmarking are used to motivate employees by giving them measurable targets to meet. By meeting these targets, the employees help to increase the overall performance of the company. So, if they are both used to measure performance, what’s the distinction?

Key Performance Indicators

Key Performance Indicators are measures of how well a company, individual, business unit, or project is performing compared to specific strategic objectives or goals set by the company. KPIs that are well constructed provide direction leading to a clear understanding and awareness of current performance. KPIs often differ from company to company or department to department within a company based on the goals of the specific company or particular department.

A company’s desire to measure the indicators often dictates the KPIs put into practice. When developing a KPI, how that KPI relates to a specific business objective needs to be considered. Here are a few examples of KPIs that you may use for your business:

• Staff Retention
• New Customer Acquisition
• Timeliness of Projects
• Financial Growth

Planning is key when dealing with KPIs for measurement. It is important that they are significant, understandable and current. Using customized KPIs will provide great insight into your business.

Benchmark Indicators

Benchmarking compares other organizations in your industry to your own organization. Benchmarks are often measured by studying the results of other company operations that have best practices put in place to achieve exceptional results. The goal of benchmarking is to improve your processes to strengthen company performance, enhance customer satisfaction and increase revenue.

Performance benchmarking and strategic benchmarking are commonly used by firms. Performance benchmarking generally compares products and services with target companies in your industry allowing your firm to measure your economic position. Whereas strategic benchmarking involves observing and evaluating how other companies compete (which may include those outside of industry).

There is a significant amount of benchmarking data already gathered and available for companies to allow them to measure themselves against industry peers. The Deltek AE Clarity report, for example, is done annually. Sometimes there is a fee associated with acquiring benchmarking data, but it is easily recouped by the savings of resources and time in not having to do your own research.

Benefit from Key Performance Indicators and Benchmarks

Both of these methods allow management to identify areas where the company excels as well as areas that need improvement. However, to benefit from using KPIs and Benchmarks, a company needs to be willing to set objectives, make changes and follow through. Keep in mind, it is vital for company growth and success that those objectives are set both based upon internal history as well as industry standard criterion.

First off, you’re thinking what does this perplexing term, professional services automation (PSA), actually mean? Well, before we jump into the need for it, let’s first look at what determines a professional services firm. At its core, a professional services firm sells knowledge and time as opposed to an actual tangible product.

As a result, tracking revenue to product sold isn’t as simple as selling a “widget” for a predetermined amount to ensure a profit. Instead, time must be tracked to a project to ensure the professional services firm is able to make a profit from the services they provide. Therefore, the purpose of a PSA is to help streamline the delivery of those professional services.

Enterprise Resource Planning Versus Professional Services Automation

All bourbons are whiskey, but not all whiskeys are bourbon. That’s right, and not all enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools are PSA tools. This is because many ERP systems aren’t designed to meet the specific requirements of professional services firms. Instead, many firms try to piece together their own systems using a variety of generic tools such as an off the shelf accounting product and a homegrown project management solution, or in other cases, using a generic ERP and trying to customize it to meet their needs.

PSA systems, on the other hand, are designed to meet the unique requirements of the professional services industry. These systems come complete with all of the tools a firm needs to manage its business. More importantly, all of these systems communicate with each other. Thus, firm leaders have a 360-degree view into their business.

Benefits of Professional Services Automation

Firstly, PSA systems support new business development by integrating the client relationship management tool with the entire system that maintains your business. This integration makes it easier to take a lead to opportunity and finally create a project.

Secondly, resource planning and strategy development are based on past project performance data. The data ensures that your bid for a project is representative of how your firm delivers its services. Consequently, your firm can rest assured that, at the end of the project, the projected profit will be close to the actual profit.

Lastly, PSAs bring all of your business components together in one system. This reduces operational complexity and shortens the amount of time spent on many of your critical business processes. Not only is the time savings a benefit, but smooth operations for back office personnel are ensured which supports improving the client experience and satisfaction.

Moving Your Firm to a Professional Services Automation Software

Implementing a PSA solution can increase your firm’s productivity and ability to deliver projects on-time which guarantees accurate project planning. However, don’t go at it alone. Make sure you pick a solution that meets the majority of your firm’s needs and choose a trusted partner to assist with the implementation. Trying to force the wrong system to work for your firm will only lead to wasted money and poor usage practices from employees. 

The following account is a true story. It begins with an AE firm recognizing the need for change in order to support its growth. This firm quickly realized that bringing disparate systems to one integrated platform like Deltek Vision was the fix they needed.

Here’s the firm’s story…

Identifying the Need for Change

Initially to manage its business, this firm was using several different systems that communicated poorly. Specifically, each critical function for the firm used a separate system which had its own unique database:

• Accounts Receivable – MS Access database
• Accounts Payable – MS Access and an outdated accounting program
• Project Management – Internally developed and managed databases, spreadsheets, and online systems
• Reporting – Internally developed and supported 

Desiring the ability to make better and faster decisions, the firm opted to move to a single enterprise-wide and industry-proven software platform. The move would allow this firm to streamline operations and reduce overhead time/costs by eliminating duplicate efforts and manual operations. The software of choice for this firm was Deltek Vision. 

Implementing Deltek Vision 

The implementation began with the drafting of processes using the project life cycle as a template. It was built to engage project managers earlier and more often throughout the entire process. Additionally, the firm recognized the need to ensure a budget could be developed using Resource Planning (RP). 

Having a budget became a requirement before a project could be initiated. As a result, the contract compensation was directly tied to the budget making routine maintenance integral to the project’s life. Furthermore, time charging, invoicing, and revenue recognition were not allowed without a project budget. 

The firm also sought to embrace the automation capabilities of Deltek Vision. Automation, of course, enabled the streamlining of processes. As an example, they decided to utilize invoice review automation to allow accounting to work in tandem with operations to deliver financial results. 

Most importantly, the philosophy around reporting changed dramatically. The firm now wanted to standardize reporting practices. Originally, employees had created and used their own desired data and had determined not only individual key performance indicators, but how and what those measurements were based upon.  

The Result of Choosing Deltek Vision 

I began working with this firm three years ago, and there is so much success to share: 

• Reduction of invoicing time
• Faster and more reliable monthly closes
• More and better insight into project performance based on standardized reports 

These are just a few of the identified areas where using Deltek Vision has improved this firm’s performance. In the end, using Deltek Vision, the firm has seen its overall financial performance improve. 

Advice for Implementing Deltek Vision 

Here are some tips to help ensure successful Vision implementations:

• Engage and work closely with a Deltek consulting partner like Full Sail Partners
• Plan, design and configure based on your firm’s unique requirements
• Testing, testing and more testing - both transactional and end to end
• Make necessary changes and continue testing
• Prepare for go live including preparing your staff with training