Adding client feedback results to your project evaluation plan provides an incredible return on investment. Conversely, by failing to identify key satisfaction metrics, your projects are less efficient, and you have less insight in to the mindset of your clients. Ask yourself, in the modern competitive business environment, can your firm afford to overlook anything -- let alone the satisfaction of your clients?

Our easy to use client satisfaction solution, The Client Feedback Tool, allows clients to quickly and easily provide insightful data that will ensure that projects stay on course, and meet or exceed expectations. Utilizing our tool, asking your clients how your processes work takes them only two minutes to complete - but the information provided gives both parties valuable data to assure effective, successful projects.

Based on our research, including 100K pieces of data from our clients, we've listed 4 ways that feedback will add to your bottom line.

• Identify your top 10% most loyal clients. Do you have a way to identify which clients value you most?  Using the information provided using the Client Feedback Tool, our clients have identified their top 10% most loyal clients and converted this knowledge into increased billings, increasing fees by 3% to their top-rating clients.  For a $10 million firm, this translates into roughly $30k in additional profit each year.
   
• Retain one client on the "bubble." One-third of our subscribers came to us after losing a major client.  In every case, these firms were surprised by the defection and realized they were blind to a pattern of problems the client never brought to light.  Frequent feedback greatly reduces the chances of this happening.
  
  According to PSMJ Resources: 
  
  
  • AEC firms spend four times more money replacing a client than the costs of retaining one.  
  • Even if you replace the lost revenue of a departed client, the added cost of winning a new client typically exceeds $22k.
   
• Increase marketing efficiency by 3%. The average AEC firm spends 11% of their revenue marketing, while seeing only 25% of pursued work turns into billable work.  Adding client feedback informs you of your market successes and identifies where your firm’s strengths are.  By marketing your strengths to your best market sectors, you’ll not only target the markets that are most satisfying (and profitable), you will also reduce wasted effort pursuing work that doesn't match your firm's core services.  Even a 3% increase in efficiency will save a $10 million firm over $33k a year.
• Reduce key staff departure by 5%. PSMJ Resources again reports that replacing your best staff costs in excess of $100k per departure.  Most key staff don’t leave for better salary. They leave because they feel unappreciated, unvalued, and because they feel their growth is not supported.  Quantitative feedback gives you the tools and information to recognize performance.  In fact, your clients will be directly recognizing your staff’s efforts as they provide feedback.  Research based on nearly 10 years of helping our clients collect feedback indicates that their clients rate staff performance as "Exceptional" 22% of the time.  This satisfying work environment will help retain (and identify) your best people, saving an average of $67k each year.

It’s simple, regardless of firm size, incorporating feedback in to your project evaluation plan can increase profits 13% or more just by applying these tools and strategies.

Garnering the client feedback metrics needed for your project evaluation plan is easy with a simple and powerful system like The Client Feedback Tool.  

Business communication continues to change with each generation. The quantity and speed of information has exploded and firms are seeking new ways to handle the pressure of information overload. Are business collaboration tools the answer? We predict that these 5 reasons demonstrate why collaboration tools are the way of the future.   

1. Reduce Dependency on Email | Imagine a world of no email. I know it sounds crazy, right? However, if you had a designated space that colleagues, sub-consultants, vendors, and clients used to collaborate about specific initiatives, projects, or marketing efforts, wouldn’t it be nice to capture all of those thoughts in an organized fashion in one area? When you think about some of the biggest challenges with email and the fact that colleagues are not always down the hall anymore, it makes sense that businesses are looking beyond email. Here are some of the things that can be improved through business collaboration tools where email consistently fails:
   
   
   • Eliminate forgotten or missed requests
   • Categorizing comments, notes, files, tasks, and requests
   • Capturing ideas, competitive intelligence, or ways to improve your business that are easily searchable
2. Personal Meets Business | The line of business and personal continues to blur. When was the last time you worked 9-5? People are working at all times of the night and answering questions while watching their favorite TV show. Business colleagues and clients are now connected to us on Facebook and personal activities and responsibilities need to be accomplished sometimes during the work day. Social collaboration and business collaboration tend to have the same needs: to share files, ideas, assignments, calendar of events, etc. Wouldn’t it be nice to organize both business and personal in one tool? Collaboration tools like Kona are making this possible.
   
   
3. Make Life Easier | Employees are looking at ways to balance their work and personal life, as well as, have more flexibility with their schedule. Not all tasks need to be done during work hours or even at their desk. Virtualization is becoming more common, requested, and needed in corporate America. Disasters or state emergencies have made that even more apparent. Collaboration tools are designed with mobility and accessibility in mind. Additionally, they allow people to access information and other individuals anywhere and anytime with the comfort that the information is readily available in the cloud.
    
4. Instant Access | Business collaboration is not just for internal communication, but is also being requested by clients. Clients are looking for a better way to communicate and a better client experience. No more excuses of lost emails. Clients can instantly ping you with a question and you can immediately respond with an answer through the use of collaboration tools. What client wouldn’t like to immediately IM or video chat with their consultant to resolve issues? Setting expectations of this instant access is important. Alternatively, you could set a schedule that you are available for client questions at a particular time each day and quickly answer those pending questions in one collaboration tool.
    
5. Integration | Collaboration tools are becoming more and more integrated with other business tools. Not only are they now integrated with our ERP, CRM and Outlook, but collaboration tools integrate with other sharing tools like Dropbox, Box, Google docs, Skype, and the list goes on. The ease of use and social familiarity increases the likelihood of usability. Integration makes it even easier for users to access data in one place through connectors.  

Business collaboration tools are all about working more effectively as a team. Let us know what you think. Has your firm been contemplating collaboration tools? See what others are saying: 

For years marketing professionals have been clamoring for a way to directly merge information from their Deltek Vision system to an InDesign template. For firms with Deltek Vision version 7.1 and higher, the wait is over! Creating InDesign Templates and merging information directly from Deltek Vision is simple, and is very similar to merging from Word, with some usability enhancement.  

Before we begin, you might be asking yourself, ‘What kind of functionality will InDesign merging include?’ To answer your question, we have highlighted some of the major areas below:

• Add fields and grids (including user defined!) to an InDesign template
• Format number, currency (projects only), and date fields in a template
• Merge data directly from an info center record into InDesign
• New ‘Select Projects’ function for Employee Resumes allows for more precise formatting of project examples on resumes within InDesign

So as you can see by the functionality, the ability to merge data directly from your Deltek Vision system to Adobe InDesign is going to allow your firm to easily deliver accurate, more consistent proposals through the industry standard desktop publishing software.

What exactly will we be able to merge?

If your information is in Vision, you can now export it out allowing your firm to merge the following documents from Deltek Vision to Adobe InDesign:

• Resumes
• Cover letters
• Project cut sheets
• References
• and much more from your Vision system 

Merge functionality includes the ability to pull information from tables, grids, custom Info Centers, and user defined fields.

What technical requirements are required?

In order to run a Deltek Vision merge to Adobe InDesign, you will need to be running a copy of Adobe InDesign CS5.5 or newer, installed on your local user directory. You will also need to be running a copy of Deltek Vision 7.1 or newer, with TDM enabled.

So what are the steps?

Setting up Deltek Vision to Adobe InDesign merge capabilities is surprisingly easy! The process requires five major steps, highlighted below.

1. Access the ‘Merge Templates’ section in Deltek Vision (Configuration>General>Merge Templates), this step may require you requesting additional privileges from your Vision administrator
2. Select the Info Center you would like this template to be associated to
3. Create or upload a new template. If creating a new template, please be aware that you will need to insert merge codes from the Vision Merge Code window
4. Open the ‘Custom Proposals’ Info Center, select the proposal you want to merge information out of, and link the new template to the merge function
5. Merge your information out of Vision!

So now that you know the basics of what Deltek Vision Adobe InDesign merge integration offers, we encourage you to get started. Should you or your team need further information, reach out to our team of CRM experts to assist. 

Not all business buzzwords are created equal. For example, “collaboration” is red-hot among buzzwords today — but unlike other momentarily popular topics, the concept has been around a long time, but is now being addressed via technology designed to leverage the Internet. Collaboration apps and platforms typically take advantage of the Internet to enable the sharing of documents, ideas, calendars and more with colleagues. In fact, the more one embraces collaboration, the more implications one can find for teamwork, innovation and growth.

Here’s a quick look at the 5 best collaboration tools available today.

Kona

Kona is a cloud-based social collaboration/productivity platform for individuals and groups that enables file sharing, task/event management, and comments and conversations via Skype and instant messaging. It also integrates easily with other collaboration platforms and products, including Dropbox, iCloud, Google Docs and even SharePoint (if that’s your collaborative bag). 

In addition, Kona includes templates to expedite repeatable projects and processes, and can function as a company’s Private Social Network and shared calendar. Even better, Kona’s mobile app compliments its desktop functionalities, letting users track work from anywhere. Take it for a test drive by checking out the free trial version.

join.me

JoinMe is an elegantly simple (at least, simple to the end user) solution that allows you to share screens with anyone anywhere over an Internet connection. JoinMe can accommodate up to 10 meeting participants, and allows the meeting initiator to choose which items to share with whom, and enables chatting with one participant at a time or all at once. Keep in mind that these features are all in the free version — a fact that helped it land on our list of the 5 best collaboration tools.

Doodle

Doodle is a handy meeting scheduling/tracking tool for Android device users. Designed to integrate seamlessly with Google Calendar, Doodle makes it easy to find the right date and time for a group of people to meet. You can use the basic service for free at doodle.com, without the need to register or install software. With easy-to-use polling capabilities and real-time commenting tools, it’s also available as a low cost app for Android devices.

Dropbox

Currently in use by over 200 million people, Dropbox is a cloud-based platform for file sharing and accessing. Users designate a special folder on their computer that Dropbox synchronizes with similar folders the user creates on their other computers and devices. Any files that the user places in the Dropbox folder also are accessible through a website and mobile phone applications. Available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux desktop operating systems, Dropbox also offers apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, and BlackBerry devices. Options range from a free version to DropBox for Business ($15/user/month).

Skype

Skype enables free video and voice calling to anyone else using Skype, as well as instant messaging and file sharing. Alternatively, a modestly-priced version of Skype includes low rates on calls to mobile devices and landlines worldwide, text messaging and group video calls for up to 10 people. Users can take part in Skype calls using a wide variety of devices, from desktop computers and mobile devices to home phones, certain TVs, and even devices you might not think of as collaboration tools, such as PlayStations Vitas and iPod Touches.

Join the collaborative world

As you can see from the 5 best collaboration tools mentioned above, the world of collaboration choices and tools is exploding. But before you jump in and start rubbing virtual elbows with colleagues on the other side of the world, keep in mind two bits of advice:

1. As attractive as their price tags may be, the free versions of all of these apps and platforms have limitations. For example, you may be limited in the number of participants you can accommodate and the amount of data you can share — and you may have to endure the occasional advertisement as well.
2. Remember that integration with your existing apps (especially your calendar) as well as other collaboration apps is critical. Some of these apps, such as Kona, play well with almost all of the apps mentioned above; others, not so much. The more seamless the integration between your various collaboration apps, the bigger the impact on productivity and ease of use.

Despite those caveats, each of these tools can truly transform aspects of the way you work with colleagues. The result could be better ideas, more effective teams, and possibly even a better quality of life. Just imagine how nice it would be to cut down the time you spend setting up, going to and from, and sitting in meetings — not to mention, take part in them from the comfort of your own home, cubicle, or coffee shop! 

As a project manager you have more to do in any given day than you can possibly get done. Sound about right? And, as if you don’t have enough to do, you sit through team meetings, office meetings, and visits from the top leadership where they remind you how important it is to ensure your clients are your top priority while also achieving strong profits. Okay. Now for the big question – how do you balance both priorities?

Do you remember the EASY button? Well I think Staples© was really onto something with that. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished I had one of those to handle tasks that I knew were important but that I struggled to get completed. Have you ever wished you had one to measure how things were going with your clients? Wouldn’t it be great to have a one button solution when your supervisor asks you how things are going with your clients?

Well, now you do. The answer – send your clients project surveys!

Client Feedback Tool grew out of an architectural firm so I definitely get it! As strongly as I believe that getting feedback from your clients is essential to building strong and lasting relationships, I am well aware that time is the one thing project managers in the A&E industry have in limited supply!

So you may be wondering, he just acknowledged that project managers have no time for extra steps in the project management process and yet he is suggesting that we send project surveys to our clients? Fair enough. The truth is that it takes less than 2 minutes to send your clients a survey. And, the information you get will save you so much time!

Every time one of our clients sends a survey, their clients’ responses are logged onto a scatter plot like the one in this figure. One of several reporting options, the scatter plot analyzes how well client expectations are being met. It takes less than a minute to run and you can schedule it as a weekly or monthly recurring report. Our clients see a snapshot of what their clients are saying. Are you starting to see how this will give you the information you need?

Each of our surveys consists of about 6 – 8 questions asking how well client expectations in different categories are being met. The blue dots represent individual pieces of feedback from one of those surveys. With a 4.0 indicating that the client’s expectations are being met, this one chart can be your very own EASY button!

With one quick glance you can see that overall you and your team are meeting, or exceeding, your clients’ expectations. But there’s more.

When you click on any of the blue dots, you immediately see:

• What project that piece of feedback is associated with
• What question was being asked
• Who answered the question
• Any specific comments by the respondent

It’s important to note that using project surveys does not replace the ongoing conversations you have with your clients.  However, with a strong feedback process you can, in about 5 minutes a day, get the details you need and get back to managing your projects. If there are ever any challenging responses, a simple click on the blue dot gives you the information you need to begin finding a resolution before their concerns become problems.

In addition to seeing the results for the clients you manage overall, you will have the ability to see a scatter plot for each individual client as well. Now, with your very own EASY button, the next time you are asked ‘how are things going’, you will have the information at your fingertips!

Interested in learning more about using project surveys?

Guest blog written by Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

It’s old news that technology has changed the way we interact – and that includes the way we purchase goods and services. But the professional services industry has largely lagged behind other sectors in reacting to this change, continuing to rely on traditional forms of marketing that are both more expensive and less effective. The small percentage of firms that have embraced online marketing, however, have seen marked success. In our recent study on online marketing, we learned that professional services firms employing online marketing techniques grow 4X faster, and are 2X more profitable than other firms. Why is this so? What is it about online marketing that is so effective? To understand why online marketing works, we need to understand today’s buyers. 

How Buyers Choose Professional Services Firms 

Technology has changed the way that buyers search for and evaluate professional services firms. Based on our research, we know that 71% of buyers still ask their friends and colleagues first when they search for a new professional services firm. At first glance, this seems like the old way of doing business. What’s changed is that, after receiving the referral, these buyers can now go online to do their own research on the firms that were recommended. 

The Internet has allowed buyers to take much more control of their purchasing process. In fact, in their recent study of over 1,400 B2B consumers, the Corporate Executive Board found that 57% of a typical purchasing decision occurs before the buyer ever has a conversation with a service provider. This represents a drastic break from the past. 

Even more notable, the third largest group in our study—11% of professional service buyers—said they skip the referral process altogether, going directly online to search for firms. Combined with the first group of buyers who use the Internet to check up on firms referred from their network, this means that altogether 82% of professional services buyers go online at some point in their buying process to evaluate a firm. 

The Digital Generation 

The Internet has drastically changed the marketing landscape for professional services firms, and we expect that landscape to continue changing. Consider that most workers under the age of 35 have never worked in an office without Internet access. Research shows that for this rising category of leaders, using online resources to evaluate and communicate with firms is second nature. And, as this digital generation ages and takes on increasingly senior leadership positions, they will give technology an expanding role in their buying and decision-making process. 

Putting It All Together 

Technology has forever changed the way that consumers interact with, and purchase, professional services. Those firms that learn to embrace the advantages offered by these new technologies will continue to grow and profit, widening the gap that already exists between technology adopters and non-adopters. For professional services firms, ignoring online marketing means living in the past. 

Read more about the way professional services marketing is changing in Hinge’s new coauthored book, Professional Services Marketing 

About the Author:

Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D., is Managing Partner at Hinge, a marketing firm that specializes in branding and marketing for professional services. Hinge is a leader in rebranding firms to help them grow faster and maximize value. Lee can be reached at LFrederiksen@hingemarketing.com or 703-391-8870. 

Interested in implementing an holistic solution to help your marketing team better manage your efforts? Check out Deltek Vision CRM and get a leg up on your competition.

Activities provide a greater way to gain visibility into communication efforts across the firm about a client. They provide a detailed view of what is going on with a project/firm/opportunity and are critical for providing team backup and covering your backside.  You are probably aware of three main ways to create activities in Deltek Vision – Manually (slow), Using MODI (faster but limited), and CMO (even faster but costs more $$).  The innovation team here at Full Sail Partners has developed a fourth way, the fastest, easiest, most convenient way to create activities so far:  Just do your timesheet and let the activities be created for you! 

The way it works is quite simple, just enter your hours, as well as, a detailed comment regarding work done for a project on your timesheet and make sure the first character in the comment is a tilde symbol (~).  Save your entry and close your Deltek Vision timesheet.  Overnight all the timesheets will be scanned and those that start with the special character will have activities generated for them.  Additionally the leading character will be changed from the tilde to a carot (^) to signal that an activity has been created for this entry.  Once your Deltek Vision timesheets are closed out and before billing is run all special characters are removed. 

So just by adding one additional character to my timesheet, this: 

Becomes this:

This is a great way for you to “kill two birds with one stone” (well maim them maybe) – Keeping your timesheet up-to-date and relevant (making accounting happy) and providing the CYA and team insight into your progress on the project (making management happy). Want to learn more about this and other Full Sail Partners solutions?

Here we are ½ way through the year, and yet my ‘to-do’ list has kept growing.  In today’s economy we have all been asked to do more with less help.  This often requires us to take on more responsibility and daily tasks - which causes us more stress, longer hours and greater chances to ‘mess up’ -  so to speak.

What to do? What to do?  Through workflows, Deltek Vision offers us an opportunity to automate many of the repetitive tasks we have to do every day – that quite often fall through the cracks of our busy, busy days (and hopefully not too many nights).

What is a workflow? 

You might ask, what is a workflow? Workflows are actions that your Deltek Vision system will carry out for you based on events that occur within specific Info Centers.  An example of this is sending an email to an employee when their name is added as the Project Manager on a project.

Can I do this?

In many cases you can do a lot of the automation on your own.   Deltek's intuitive design allows “non-programmers” to create workflows and actions for many repetitive task. 

To do this, you will need to know a couple of things.  First – where are workflows found?  They are found in Configuration --> Workflows (guess that wasn’t too hard).

Next you need to understand the different options under workflows. Watch this highlight video to better understand the options under workflows, and the actions that can be performed: 

So you see that using the standard workflows in Vision can help you with many repetitive tasks that are triggered from actions taken within Vision.  Making these automated will free you and your staff up to pursue more productive workdays and more fun nights.

But wait you say, how do I actually set up these workflows? That's a great question!  If you still are asking, what is a workflow, watch the full length video on Workflows and Stored Procedures. Learn how to set up workflows in your Deltek Vision system today! 

Deltek Kona is a cloud-based social collaboration and productivity platform that empowers individuals and groups to connect, organize and get things done together. Through the use of collaborative spaces, users have the ability to coordinate, share, and schedule events or tasks with teams and groups.

Groups that use Kona vary from companies to individuals. Companies communicate with team members, internal and external, on company initiatives, proposals submissions, and the execution of projects every day.  Individuals involved in organizations and personal groups need a way to coordinate efforts among participants.  You may find yourself in both of these circles.  No matter if you are a company or individual, each find Kona brings the conversation, tasks assignments, and files needed to a centralized space.

Most companies and individuals are already accustom to viewing their calendar in Outlook (Entourage for Mac) or Google. The good news with Kona is you can integrate the Kona web calendar into other calendar applications.  For today's example we will walk you through viewing your Kona calendar in Microsoft Outlook 2013. This allows you to see the Kona calendar along with any calendars you have setup in Outlook to provide a quick visual of all of your Kona spaces. 

Step 1

Login to http://www.Kona.com

Step 2

Select the calendar by clicking on the Events tab

Step 3

Click on Calendar

Step 4

Select Share this Calendar from the drop down menu

Step 5

Select the link displayed in the window and copy it.

Step 6

Open outlook and switch to the calendar view. Notice the list of calendars displayed at the bottom left.

Step 7

Right click on Other Calendars and select Add Calendar, From Internet

Step 8

Paste the link from Kona in the New Internet Calendar Subscription box and click on OK.

Step 9

Notice the Kona Calendar is now displayed in the bottom left

Step 10

Multiple calendars can are displayed when additional calendars from the list are selected

Step 11

Click on the arrow beside a calendar to combine the view.

Step 12

Now the Calendars and all appointments are all displayed in a single calendar view

Making the Kona calendar viewable in Microsoft Outlook is a great way to boost productivity, social collaboration, and calendar management. You can use similar techniques to attach other Internet based calendars to Outlook as well. The attached calendar is read only and is not editable from Outlook. This is a slight draw back but the ability to see the Kona calendar without switching applications provides a quick and convenient planning in Outlook.

Interested in Kona? Contact us for a demo or to discuss how Kona can help you.

At the core of a project-based firm’s business is the need to monitor the progress of your projects. As Project Manager’s we are busy and we need quick, real-time information to help us steer our projects. Just as a dashboard in a boat identifies and provides feedback regarding the status of our voyage – the speed, the wind angle, the wind force, and the navigational direction – a dashboard can provide the same information about your project.

Specifically, a project KPI dashboard can examine some simple indicators that allow a project manager to gauge which project(s) need more attention.  They should be examined on a regular basis. 

What Project KPIs should I be looking at?

• Accounts Receivable - Overdue AR can be a warning sign for many problems including:  client dissatisfaction, overall project communication issues, and client insolvency (they can’t pay us if they have no money. . . should we be loaning them more money?).  Make sure your AR is in line with a Summary AR Dashboard Part and one for each individual project.  We recommend examining this Project KPI at least twice every billing cycle.

 Tip to Think About:  What is my outstanding AR?  Not only the amount, but how many days out is it? 

• Unbilled Labor – A large amount of unbilled labor is a serious risk not only to the project, but to general firm cash flow.  The company cannot get paid for it if it doesn’t get billed.  A Project Manager should monitor this Project KPI closely all the time, but especially after invoicing.  Make sure to avoid carrying large amounts of unbilled labor from billing cycle to billing cycle.

Tip to Think About:  How much labor is sitting on my project that has not been marked as billed?  In other words, have I been billing my project progress correctly?  

• Estimated to Complete (ETC) and/or Estimate at Completion (EAC) – These schedule based measures will help you determine not only if you are on budget, but if you will finish the project within the overall budget as well.  Compare the EAC to the overall budget and if it is greater, you may decide to either reduce future expenditures or accept the fact that you going to be over budget. 

 Tip to Think About:  How much more do I need to finish this Project?
 When over  budget, confirm that you didn’t forget to send out additional services  contracts. 

• Summary Key Performance Indicators - Above the project level, the measures are usually about Net Revenue, Utilization and Backlog.  By putting these Project KPIs on your Dashboard, you can improve your performance and make your boss look good too.

Tip to Think About:  What is your Boss being measured on?  How can you manage your   projects better with the use of Project KPIs to improve those Summary Key Performance   Indicators?

There may be other metrics your firm utilizes.  Share with us what you have on your project KPI dashboard.  Also, be sure to check out our past webinar: Get the Work Done.