Full Sail Partners Blog | Technology Solutions (3)

Across the US, many parents have elected for their kids to do schooling at home, while others are only given the option of digital learning. Since working from a computer is not something many adults and kids are prepared to do, we decided to help out by starting a blog series on technology tips and tricks to adapt to this new environment. Our firm has been working remotely for more than two decades and the hope is that this series provides value to kids and adults alike. Please note that all of the tools mentioned in this first blog are geared towards a PC and Windows applications.

Must Know Keyboard Shortcuts

1. Create Browser Shortcuts – First things first. Create a bookmark for the applications that need to be accessed daily by navigating to the page you want to save and click Ctrl+D or click the “Star” next to the website address. Name the bookmark with a clear title. Now you have a quick link to access, so you don’t have to remember where to go each morning. 
2. Copy, Cut & Paste – Some of the most commonly used keyboard shortcuts are copy, cut and paste. They can save tons of typing time. To copy text, highlight the text and press the Ctrl+C buttons simultaneously. To paste the text, put your cursor where you want the text to go and press the Ctrl+V buttons simultaneously. To cut text, highlight the text you want to remove and press the Ctrl+X keys simultaneously. Pro trick: If you want to remove the style and paste as plain text, add the Shift button: Ctrl+Alt+V.
3. Select All, Undo & Redo – If you want to highlight an entire section of text, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+A and it will highlight the entire section of text. This is commonly used in combination with cutting or copying text. If you want to undo an action, press the Ctrl+Z to quickly reverse the previous action. This is commonly used when you accidentally remove text you want back or apply a style that you no longer want. If you would like to redo an action, press the Ctrl+Y keys. This is commonly used to apply a style again or insert an action you just did like a new column or row. These tricks can help you save mouse clicks.
4. Minimize All Windows – If you quickly want to view the desktop and minimize all windows, you can click on the Windows button + D. This is a helpful trick to minimize it all. Another quick way to minimize is to go to the bottom right hand on the task bar. To the far right there is a bar next to the time. When you click on it, all windows will minimize.
5. Moving Between Programs – When your work requires multiple applications to be open, it can sometimes be difficult to minimize and reopen the right application. One easy way to find your document or application is to use the Alt+Tab key. It will open all of your applications and allow you to tab over to the one you want with ease. Pro Tip: Add Shift to move to the previous tab (Alt+Shift+Tab).
6. Finding Information – Many times it is difficult to find the information you are wanting on a page. As long as the page is not an image, you can search for words on a webpage, pdf, etc. by clicking Ctrl+F. Then type in the word you are searching.
7. Revisit a Browser Tab That Was Accidentally Closed– If you accidentally closed out of a browser tab, there is a simple keyboard shortcut that can quickly bring it back open. Simply click Ctrl+Shift+T.
8. Format Painter – The format painter applies all attributions. Think of it as copying and pasting for formatting styles. Highlight the text, row, column, or graphic you want to apply to another object and click on the Format Painter icon under the Clipboard. From there, highlight the object you would like to apply the format to. Pro Tip: You can also click Ctrl+Shift+C to copy all formatting and Ctrl+Shift+V to apply the formatting.
9. Screenshot – To take a screenshot of the entire screen, click the Ctrl+PrtSc. If you only want to take a screenshot of the application or dialogue box that is up, click on that application or dialogue box and click the Alt+PrtSc. Chromebook Tip: Many schools are providing Chromebooks. It is important to note the instructions are different. Here is an article for Chromebook users: https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/14/21065295/chromebook-screenshots-how-to-take-keyboard-keys.
10. Screen Freeze – Many times when your computer is not responding, one program is causing an issue. A keyboard shortcut that all users should learn about is Ctrl+Shift+Esc. Many of you may have used Ctrl+Alt+Delete in the past and it still works, but Ctrl+Shift+Esc is a quicker way to pull up the Task Manager and see what programs are using CPU memory or which programs are not responding. Once you determine which program, you can close just that program down.
11. Dictation Tool - It isn’t a keyboard shortcut, but this button is a life saver for kids that don’t know how to type and struggle with spelling. In each Office product, there is a Dictation tool. An important reminder is to make sure they go back and re-read what they wrote. It might be good to have an adult review before an assignment is submitted, too.

Get Prepared for Digital Learning

We hope you found the first blog in our series helpful. Understanding keyboard shortcuts helps expedite the learning process and makes it easier to execute homework and assignments for both students and parents. If you have a technology topic you would like to see covered to help the digital learning process, let us know.

Have you ever noticed how the proposal process tends to fly by leaving you scrambling as the deadline nears? When producing proposals, project-related information needs to be found quickly. Of course, speed is important in the search, but data accuracy is imperative. Gathering accurate project details in a timely manner is a challenge I hear of nearly every day from marketing and proposal managers at project-based firms. Fortunately, with Deltek Vantagepoint, your teams can easily capture project information and reference it quickly when it matters most– during proposal crunch time. Let’s dive a little deeper.

Identify the Key Project Information You Need for Proposals

The Deltek Vantagepoint Projects Hub will become your one source of truth for the project information you need to rely on to produce winning proposals. The image below shows a project experience page created using Deltek Vantagepoint Custom Proposals. The page was built based on information captured in the Projects Hub and includes fields such as project name, project description, client name, project manager, and square footage along with a few project images.

Capture Information While Pursuing the Project

Using Deltek Vantagepoint, capturing critical project information begins in the pursuit stage. Because Deltek Vantagepoint has one project record that is maintained from opportunity to pursuit to proposal and eventually to a regular project record, the information captured during the pursuit never gets lost or goes unused.

The image above is showing a project in a pursuit stage. We can tell this record is in a pursuit stage because the coloring in the left-hand summary pane is gold and the Stage is labeled as Pending. During this stage, there is common key project information that is typically collected as part of the proposal process.

Much of the information you will eventually need for your project cut sheets and proposals is typically known during the pursuit stage, and thus can be collected and stored inside the project record in Deltek Vantagepoint.

Examples of common key project information include:

• Project Name
• Primary Client and Contact
• Project Location
• Key Team Members, such as Principal-in-Charge, Project Manager

You can also identify other team members, both internal and external to your firm, for the project. See image below.

Over on the Dates & Costs tab, you can begin to capture the estimated project start and completion dates.

You may even have some information about the project from the RFP or client description of the project. Deltek Vantagepoint allows you to easily store an initial project description on the Proposals tab.

Move From Pursuit to Billable Project Without Losing Key Information

Now you might be thinking, why would I want to store this information into a record that is in pursuit? Well, Deltek Vantagepoint makes it seamless to move from a pursuit stage to an awarded project stage. When you make that move, all of the information captured in the pursuit stage stays with the awarded project record. This makes the process more efficient. Information is entered only once and is used throughout the project lifecycle.

Access the Data You Need When You Need It

Once you have won the project and are performing the work, you can easily continue to enter and access key project data:

Key Team Members

Over on the Team tab, Employees are automatically added to the project when they charge time to that project on their timesheet. Then, you can easily update their role on the project.

In the image above, you can also see the number of hours employees have charged to this project. Additionally on the Team tab, you can add external contacts that should be associated with the project. You can even identify who should be the project reference (for future proposals, of course).

Project Descriptions

As the project evolves, you will have more details to include in the project description. That information can quickly be added to Deltek Vantagepoint on the Proposals tab. Deltek Vantagepoint allows you to store different types of project descriptions that you may need for different uses. Examples may include short description, long description, key features, etc.

Firms often have a primary project description that is used on project cut sheets, but then may need a project description that is shorter. The shorter descriptions might be good for resumes or when page limits are tight. You can mark one description as the default by checking the default checkbox. No matter how you use your project descriptions, Deltek Vantagepoint makes it easy to store and use project descriptions for proposals.

Track Project Awards

Chances are you have some award-winning projects. Vantagepoint makes it easy to track what awards your projects win in the Awards grid as shown in the image above.

Project Photos

If you want to use project photos in your proposals, Deltek Vantagepoint allows you to store and manage images and other project related documents on the Files & Links tab.

Information Specific to Your Firm’s Projects

If there is information that is specific to your firm’s project, Deltek Vantagepoint allows you to create custom fields, grids, and tabs. The image below is showing a custom tab called Project Information. On this, I have added custom fields like square footage or number of floors. Other popular custom fields are around tracking sustainability goals such as LEED Certifications.

Drive Success with Deltek Vantagepoint

As you can see, Deltek Vantagepoint allows you to easily track key project information through the entire project lifecycle, from initial lead to project completion. That information can then be quickly used to build winning proposals that drive success for your firm. 

Every year, Deltek collaborates with ACEC, ACEC Canada, AIA and SMPS to conduct a study to measure the health of the AE industry. The 41^st Deltek AE Clarity Report provides a comprehensive assessment of the 2019 performance of AE firms. Furthermore, the study collected responses from more than 415 firms of all sizes within the AE industry. While many of you will eventually read over the findings, here is a summary of what you will discover in detail.

Clarity on AE Technology Trends

With no surprise, technology is a leading focus for AE firms. It seems like this is a trend every year, and it is now becoming even more important for AE firms to invest in technology to be competitive. Surprisingly, augmented and virtual reality is driving a deeper interest into technology investments for AE firms. Even more, firms that have been challenged by the costs of emerging technologies are finding them more affordable as they become more mainstream. According to responses from the Deltek Clarity survey, firms have accepted that the cost of investing in technology has a significant and beneficial impact on the efficiency of their operations.

Clarity on Financial Statements

2019 proved to be another great year for the AE industry in regard to financial performance. The report explains that over the past 10 years, the financial stability of the AE industry has remained strong and has shown growth. While many of the core metrics measuring financial strength demonstrate small changes from year to year, the changes are continuously positive. A significant finding is that operating profit on net revenue and net fixed assets per employee did rise in 2019. Furthermore, the benchmarks for operating profit on net revenue and net labor both surpassed the high performer thresholds which backs the findings of financial stability in the AE industry.

Clarity on Business Development

This section has some interesting findings. Win rates were down and so was revenue from the firm’s top three clients. However, there may be some factors that can explain these results. Is it because firms are lacking a formal go/no go process to improve new business pursuits, or are firms pursuing business in new markets? Are your firm’s top three clients doing less work? Perhaps it is a combination of all these things. But one thing remains certain, that business development continues to be a challenge for AE firms.

Clarity on Project Management

What, what, what? The 41^st Deltek Clarity Report found that AE firms, which are project-based businesses, have recognized they need to improve their project management capabilities. Yes, you read that right. Many AE firms are reporting they need to better define responsibilities and processes, develop better practices, and invest in project management training. How fantastic that AE firms are recognizing that project management and delivery is hindering the overall performance of their firm and acknowledging there is a need for change.

Clarity on Human Capital Management

Human Capital Management is a not a problem unique to the AE industry, and it affects nearly every profession. For AE firms, talent acquisition is the top challenge leaders face each year. Since a firm is only as good as the people it employs, acquiring and retaining top talent is essential to staying competitive. Unfortunately, talent acquisition is going to continue to be a challenge for AE firms since the number of available experts is limited. Also, AE firms continue to fall short due to lack of succession planning. This is something AE firms should evaluate as we approach a generational change and baby boomer retirements.

Learn More with the 41^st Deltek Clarity Report

For many, the Annual Deltek AE Clarity Report is a valuable tool used to benchmark the performance of your firm. It’s important to keep in mind that using this report from 2019 to compare to your current fiscal year of 2020 may give you skewed results as the global pandemic’s effects are still unseen and predicting the impact is nearly impossible. Good news though, you can still compare your 2019 results against the report findings, and Deltek plans on releasing the 42^nd Annual Clarity Report in 2021, which will most certainly shine light on the impact of the global pandemic.

Years ago, when a firm was looking to fill a position, there were limited resources for recruiting and there was a stagnant hiring process. The old-fashioned newspaper classified ad, a placement in a trade magazine or word of mouth were the go-to options for sourcing. After many hours of reviewing hard copy candidate resumes, interviews were set up by telephone, and connections were made. Once the right candidate was discovered, there was a printed offer letter to be mailed for acceptance and miles of hiring paperwork to be filled out by hand. It was certainly a time-consuming process.  Luckily, with the rise of the internet and technological advancements, the recruiting and hiring process has dramatically changed.

The Whole World is Your Oyster

With local classified ads, regional trade magazines and literal word of mouth, the reach for hiring managers was not very expansive. Using the internet, hiring managers now have access to the whole world when posting job ads. The open positions can be advertised directly on company websites, through professional networking on LinkedIn, or even more relaxed platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. Word of mouth has also gained momentum with email and information exchange. Thanks to the internet, the chances of finding the right candidate for your open employment position are greatly enlarged.

Time Savings Using Talent Management Software

Compared to the old way, talent management software saves hiring managers, candidates, and new hires a lot of time. Once jobs are posted online, resumes in response to open positions are uploaded and can be searched for specific hiring needs. Interviews can be scheduled more efficiently, and candidates can track the recruitment process. When new hires onboard, the “paperwork” is completed in advance online, so they can jump right into learning about their roles. Additionally, any certifications or licenses required can be obtained and monitored using talent management software.

Candidate Driven Job Market

In the past, employers drove the job market. It could take months before second and third interviews were done, and candidates were left in limbo. With the current competition for talent, however, the tides have turned. Hiring managers know that to get quality talent, they need to appeal to the candidates and give them the best recruiting and hiring experience. Candidates need to be informed and moved quickly through the hiring process. Furthermore, firms need to showcase their brands online through their websites and social media to attract the attention of these candidates.

Business Intelligence Can Help with Finding the Best Candidates

Business intelligence (BI) as it exists now was not available back in the day for talent acquisition. “Informed” decisions were made based on paper resumes and involved conversations. Fortunately, in today’s modern world, BI gives hiring managers a leg up. Using certain chosen data, hiring managers can establish a process to find the right candidates for open positions. They have realized that such data can be used to visualize patterns to predict future success. Rather than guessing on the right person to fill a role, they can look at specific information to see who would make the best addition to the team.

Take Advantage of Technology

So much time was wasted back in the days of placing classified ads…even if you like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain. Nowadays, everyone involved in the talent acquisition process benefits from technology. And every time technology improves, the process is made simpler and easier. Why not take advantage of what is right at your fingertips?

Business intelligence (BI) is playing an increasingly critical role in the strategic planning of organizations. The output of established analytics can be used to track performance against business goals, identify inefficiencies, optimize processes, report and share information consistently, and identify unrealized business insights, all in real-time across a growing number of browsers and devices. The options are plentiful, and it can get overwhelming as you determine where to start.

Before you can reach these autonomous, pilot-cockpit-type dashboards, you will need a strategy. This will remain fluid and evolve as you adapt to your firm’s needs.  However, it is important to establish a roadmap to ensure that your efforts remain focused and deliver value where it is most needed. Let’s take a look at how to get there.

Identify Pain Points at a High Level

A basic first step is to summarize key pain points impacting your business. What are the questions your business is hoping to answer with its data? What are the information voids in your company? What reports are being run week after week to make decisions? Oftentimes, the pain points will evolve with your BI and shed light on areas needing attention. 

An easy and high-value place to start is exception reporting. Exception reporting highlights potential problem areas in your data based on a set of criteria you define. Examples may include:

• Executive staff need to have visibility when a branch has not met its profit goal;
• A project manager wants a consolidated dashboard to display his or her projects as he or she may be stretching the budget;
• Administrative support staff wish to easily see what project records need review and approval;
• An employee wants to view a dashboard of outstanding items (i.e. timesheet submissions, learning and development courses, annual review progress).

This proactive approach to quick-glance data can be a strong starting point to develop your BI strategy while staying focused on important metrics that require action.

Review Organization Structure

How does your organization structure support your reporting needs?  If you would like to produce reports by organization units (i.e. division, practice, group), then you will want to ensure that your system supports that structure. In the case of Deltek products, you may consider how you are utilizing organizations, teams, timesheet groups, and custom field associations. Furthermore, the firm and system structure will ultimately affect the data that is accessible by different groups.

Define Role Based KPIs

Each role in your organization has a unique business function. Frequently, these roles can share a responsibility that cascades down the business’s organization structure.

Consider the various roles in your company. How can they be grouped into subsets that could be measured together; such as, will a project manager be measured with the same standards as a project principal or supervisor?

One fundamental metric for any company is managing accounts receivable (AR) – getting paid for services or products that have been delivered. Here is an example of role based KPIs, starting at the top of the organization:

• CEO wants to ensure that the AR Aging is in a healthy position to deter cash-flow concerns. CEO is pleased as long as the AR >60 days is less than 10% of the total AR balance at a company level. If that target is not met, CEO can interrogate the data.
• Group manager ensures the total accounts receivable >60 days remains below 10% of the total AR balance for his or her entire group. Data can be summarized by project principal and prompt a discussion with any principal who is above the 10% threshold.
• Project supervisor ensures that AR >60 days is below 10% for each project he or she is responsible for. BI can prompt a discussion with any project manager who is approaching the threshold.
• Project manager is responsible for ensuring that invoices are paid per the 30-day payment terms. Invoices aging over 30 days must be chased and addressed. 

This example illustrates how a single metric is relevant to all roles. Therefore, a CEO can reference a dashboard in discussion with a group manager, who can then take it to the project supervisor, and onward down the hierarchy, directly to the project manager. Since this metric is consistently measured, each role understands the importance and relevance of his or her responsibility. This ties all roles to the financial success of the company.

Educate Team Members

It is important to educate on how defined measures are calculated. By doing so, your teams will clearly understand how their work is being measured and how their project success influences KPIs. BI tools can offer sophisticated and shiny visuals, but the end-user must understand how to use the data. Otherwise, the insights will be lost, or worse – misleading. Clean, simple data and education can provide clear definition to team members. Furthermore, it will give consistent data interpretation across all roles.

Measure the Firm’s Success

As you navigate through the BI journey, pause to measure the success of your BI strategy and the analytics you are measuring.  It is critical to gather feedback from the intended audience to understand how the BI tools are promoting productivity as well as transparency. Are the end-users interacting with the data and making smarter decisions because of it? By being agile in the BI development strategy, you can confidently deliver the most valuable analytical tools for your firm and ultimately power project success.

Last year, we conducted multiple CRM workshops throughout the US. We received such great feedback that we wanted to do it again. This year we are offering a virtual experience and it will be a "bootcamp" to get your CRM into shape. This bootcamp is focused on helping your firm discover how to better utilize your Deltek Vision CRM system. If you are considering attending but aren’t sure if the bootcamp is right for you, here are some key reasons to attend.

• Native State of CRM - Many attendees remarked that it was great to see what Deltek looked like before their firm customized it. Many of our attendees did not realize how much their system had been changed by past employees. That insight provided them a baseline of what changes had been made allowing them to rethink some of the custom fields previously added. Now is the perfect time to understand the original form of your system and reevaluate processes prior to upgrading to Deltek Vantagepoint.
• Hands-On - Although delivered in a virtual format, each session will be hands-on and interactive. Users will be given access to a Deltek Vision CRM database to follow along with the presenter during each session. Each bootcamp series is limited to only 20 people to allow for maximum participation and engagement. Each attendee will learn how to better utilize and configure a Deltek Vision CRM system and set-up useful reporting metrics for agile decision making. 
  
• Expand Your Thinking – For best results, firm attendees would include someone who is leading the CRM strategy and someone who is responsible for implementing the strategy. Although this bootcamp focuses on the fundamentals, it also will teach how to define strategies that will help you better recognize and manage client, contact, and partner touchpoints. The best CRM system works in combination with accounting.
  
• Adequate Time for Questions – With this year’s workshop split into four two-hour sessions, attendees will have even more time to play with their sample database and come back with questions. The workshop was already designed to allow plenty of time for this. With the new format, we anticipate even more in-depth and insightful discussions and questions.

What Did Past Attendees Think?

Following the 2019 workshop series, 56.5% of attendees responded to a request for their feedback. Of those that responded, ALL felt the workshop met or exceeded their expectations. Accuracy, Responsiveness, and Schedule received the highest response rate. Each of them received an average of 6.3, which means the workshop exceeded expectations, based on the Client Feedback response rate. Attendees were asked these questions:

As a professional services firm, your business exists because of the knowledge and expertise of your employees. Staying competitive requires these employees to keep up with the changing times and current industry practices. A learning management system (LMS) can set your professional services firm up for success by providing your employees training content related to their positions. However, one of the challenges with an LMS is finding or creating the relevant content. With Deltek Talent and RedVector joining forces, your firm can now leverage pre-built ample content. Let’s see the reasons why your firm should consider utilizing Deltek Talent’s Learning Management System.

Comprehensive Training Library

To start off with, Deltek Talent teamed up with RedVector which provides a comprehensive training library including courses in project management, safety, industry codes and standards, leadership development and much more. The online library contains approximately 4,000 courses authored by more than 200 subject matter experts and accredited by 100 national and state bodies. This extensive offering eliminates the need for your firm to have to create content on the fly. Here is a complete list in the AEC course catalog. 

Access Training Anywhere

Another key issue impacting employee learning is the time commitment. Many professional services firms require their employees to be flexible with their time and those employees often have to be other places during the workday besides at their desks. Conveniently, Deltek Talent is a cloud solution accessible from anywhere with internet access. Users can access content on-the-go from any device allowing employees to learn when it’s convenient for them.

Training Content in One Location

One of the main advantages of having RedVector aligned with Deltek Talent is that professional services firms have content from day one. Furthermore, firms can add additional instructor-led, online, and external courses allowing users to access courses in one location. It is easy for users to document what courses they have completed so managers have visibility into their employees’ development progress. With Deltek Talent’s LMS, there won’t be any problems with finding the appropriate content for employee enrichment.

Improve Performance & Retention

Professional services firms save a lot of time and money when their employees grow with the company and stay long term. Within Deltek Talent Learning, RedVector provides an assessment tool that helps determine the competency level of employees, new hires, or students and generates an individual training curriculum based on deficiencies in the assessment results. Thus, providing impactful learning opportunities that improves employee performance, reduces turnover and puts employees in the driver’s seat of their own careers. 

Reduce Risk

Finally, for highly regulated industries, managers need to track required training and certifications which can be done with Deltek Learning Management. Additionally, RedVector provides more than 500+ courses that address the most hazardous situations professional services firms face. Employees will learn how to recognize and prevent at-risk conditions or behavior before they lead to an incident. Having the correct employee certifications and providing safety awareness helps reduce employee and company risk. Here is a list of RedVector’s health, safety and environment library collection.

Fuel Prosperity

Deltek Talent and RedVector combined focus on providing professional services firms with skills training, continuing education, and performance support to reduce risk and promote employee success. When firms help their employees perform better and grow in their careers, they not only retain the best employees but make certain they are engaged which leads to a prosperous outcome for all.

There have likely been times where you desired to get healthier and stronger. You cannot just wake up one day, eat well, exercise, and see the results of your efforts instantaneously. You must have the desire to change, recognize the benefits of doing so, keep your WHY at the top of your mind, and identify long-term goals. Just like in your personal life, lifestyle changes are necessary on the business front to see real success, and client relationship management (CRM) is a large part of making that happen.

Professional services firms offer services, and it is all about the knowledge and expertise of a firm’s professionals and trust in the brand. The art of building relationships and earning trust takes time, thought, and coordination within your team. CRM tools keep track of these communications, and consistency is what builds the data. With this data, you can establish long-term goals that you strive to meet. The positive results from choosing to use an effective CRM make it worth your while to change your work lifestyle.  

Accomplish More

The benefits of a personal healthier lifestyle may be having more energy, feeling more confident, and accomplishing goals that have felt distant. Likewise, for businesses, process and habit improvements offer benefits such as boosting productivity, increasing communication with clients, and crushing sales goals. Implementing a CRM helps you work more effectively as a team while adding productivity time back to your schedule. If CRM data is captured timely and correctly, it takes significantly less time to “research” what the latest communications and outcomes were with clients.

Think of employee-client interactions and the information that is gathered as a firm resource. Business resources are meant to be shared efficiently, and that information should be available when others need it. Furthermore, new information is constantly coming in and a CRM tool provides your teams a platform to document and share this information, keeping everyone informed.

Use the Technology at your Fingertips

As new information comes in from various sources, real-time data is crucial. This is achievable with the mobile capabilities of a strong CRM. Therefore, documenting information after each engagement brings consistency and a positive habit. With a firm-wide CRM, you can stay on top of your communications and proactively reach out to clients.

Additionally, as there are web-based apps to track exercise stats, sleep habits, and food intake, there are also apps that streamline business matters. All data from these apps, such as email, can be incorporated and captured into your firm CRM. While technology can help guide us, we are ultimately responsible for holding ourselves accountable for the improvements. 

Use Accountability to Create Consistency 

Just like having an accountability partner in an exercise or health program, employees should be accountable for keeping their colleagues informed. When we have dated action items as a CRM may show, the transparency should drive employees to stay on top of their tasks. However, there needs to be support and enforcement from all levels of leadership to make sure this happens. Consistency is crucial to success.

Get Over the Hurdle

According to the 40^th Annual Deltek Clarity Architecture Engineering Industry Study, only 14% of firms planned to invest in marketing intel and CRM systems. Is your firm part of that 14%? CRMs have advanced greatly, and the capabilities of an effective CRM support and encourage accountability, teamwork, outreach, and relationships. After some time, your firm will not remember business without an efficient tool like a CRM. These positive habits will stick with the firm for years to come, just like a lifestyle change for a healthier you.

When employees seek reimbursement for employee-paid expenses, chances are good that far too much time is spent looking for receipts. Often, there is also the question of limits, processes, and details around submitting an expense report. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a software that could manage employee expenses with a seamless process, helping you navigate expenses like a pro? Fear not, as such automation is possible with SAP Concur. Even more, SAP Concur integrates with Deltek Vision and Vantagepoint through the Blackbox Connector to simplify your expense reporting processes.

With SAP Concur, you can see all expense data in one place, offering the big financial picture while making the process easier for your employees. Yes, it can be a win-win for all. Let us look at some of the advantages an automated and integrated expense management tool can offer.  

Makes the Process Easier for Users

While submitting an expense report can be a very frustrating task, it is a necessary business process that cannot be overlooked or eliminated. Usually, it does take administrative or overhead time for some often-extensive searching. Fortunately, SAP Concur can give employees an easier method of submitting expenses on a routine basis with the following features: 

• Mobile Tools – Users have full access to expense report functions via a mobile device, allowing employees to submit, review, and approve on the go. Having full expense functions on a mobile device makes submitting expenses quick and easy. There is no more waiting until you are back at your desk to complete expense tasks.
• Receipt Capture – SAP Concur removes the need for a scanner, and never having to use a scanner to upload receipts one by one is priceless. Simply snap a picture of a receipt using your mobile phone camera and start a report from your mobile device, saving processing time.
• E-Receipts – Transaction data from airlines, hotels, restaurants, and car companies can be automatically captured to create accurate, detailed expense reports. Receipts can be sent directly to your SAP Concur profile, allowing you to quickly add the expense details without having to organize receipts. As soon as the receipt is emailed, it appears on the home expense screen.
• Credit Card Feeds – Your corporate or travel card transactions are directly fed into SAP Concur for expense processing. This functionality is marvelous; firms no longer need to manually import charges into an ERP or expense program for users to expense or for reconciliation. When a charge is made, the bank sends the transaction to SAP Concur. From there, users will see it on their home expense screen, and it is ready for expensing.

As you can see, the expense management process can be more efficient for employees, allowing them to focus their efforts on earning new business, serving the client, or working on current business. With an easier process, employees can submit their information timelier, and accounting can invoice clients sooner on billable expenses, helping to shorten the invoicing cycle.

Even Accounting Thinks This is Snazzy

Accounting teams are often the ones tracking down the missing details or having to reject submissions for details that were overlooked. By automating expense management and integrating it with your accounting system, SAP Concur can be implemented with workflows, ultimately helping everything flow more smoothly. Here are some of the features that accounting teams can look forward to:

• Automated Travel Policy – Workflows can be set to warn or stop expenses from being submitted based on your company’s expense/travel policy. Using the audit rules takes the guess work out of policies. Workflows allow the expense audit/approval process to move quickly and efficiently. Auditors and approvers do not need to spend hours verifying every policy detail; most can be set up as a rule and not allowed.
• Reporting – SAP Concur offers simple spend monitoring, schedule reports, and customizable reporting. The software offers out-of-the-box reporting, which is quick and easy to use. Reports can also be downloaded in different formats – Excel, Word, PDF. If the report needed is not available, it can typically be created and saved for future use.
• Integration – A comprehensive financial picture and reliable reporting can be gained by connecting to your enterprise resource planning system (ERP), Deltek Vision/Vantagepoint. Integrating SAP Concur with Deltek Vision/Vantagepoint allows a constant and consistent flow of financial data. New or changed employees and projects can be pushed into SAP Concur through an automated feed. Also, expense reports that are approved/processed in SAP Concur will be fed into Deltek Vision/Vantagepoint nightly and be ready for posting. So, no more need for double entry at many levels.

Wins All Around

As you can see from the highlighted features, SAP Concur can eliminate many pain points that come with expense reporting. The right expense management software creates a smoother process for firms, which benefits the employees, supervisors, and accounting team alike. We can all agree that any process that can be automated and ultimately improve a business should be given consideration. Everyone will be pleased with timely expense reimbursement so start managing your expenses like a pro with SAP Concur.

What do you think is the most widespread office tool used amongst your peers and coworkers? If you answered email, you are correct! Employees use email throughout the day to communicate with coworkers, clients, vendors, and the list continues. In fact, a study by McKinsey found that employees spend 28% of their workweek managing their email, the equivalent of 11 hours if we assume that an employee works 40 hours a week. So, how can we help employees more effectively manage their email?

Email Management Pitfalls

Let’s start where most people do when they read and write an email - the subject line. The fact is, there is not a global standard to email subject lines, and most companies don’t establish predetermined subject lines either. As a result, searching for a specific email about a certain topic wastes a lot of time especially if the email is never found leaving some to wonder if the email ever actually existed.

For some savvy email users, they have learned to create a folder system to improve their email organization. According to a study by Microsoft Research, 30% of email users create a folder structure to organize email. However, ironically, 90% of those that create folder structures don’t actually use them.

Here, we just discovered two email mismanagement issues, but if you want to dig deeper, there are many more. There are other simple things like not using reply all so that everyone on the email chain has access to the communications and decisions made based on the email content. Also, not using convenience features such as setting reminders to follow-up or complete an assigned action item. All these examples are things that can be improved, but how does a business get everyone on board with practicing better email management?  

Put the Right Email Management Solution in Place

Email tools such as Gmail and Outlook contain intuitive features and functions that allow users to improve their email management. However, these tools by themselves are not enough to be able to improve firm-wide email management. While these email tools are great for facilitating communication especially for person to person, where they fall short is when emails contain specific details and information about a project that requires multiple people from multiple departments to know about changes and statuses as they happen.

An effective email management solution will have the ability to store uncategorized emails with important information in a database that makes these emails more searchable allowing employees to find the information they need, when they need it, with only a few clicks. Additionally, the emails should be in one centralized location for all relevant staff to be able to access and obtain the pertinent information. An effective email management solution integrates your firm’s email platform tool with the firm’s ERP solution to ensure all data is stored in one place.

Unravel the Email Management Mess

There’s a lot of confusion about email management solutions versus email tools. In layman’s terms, email tools are what you use to create and respond to emails. On the other hand, email management solutions allow you to quickly categorize an email from your email tool that will then add the email to a general database that lets others access the information. Furthermore, email management is more than an individual process and requires an email management system in conjunction with FIRM-WIDE established processes to ensure proper email management success.

Most importantly, email management solutions can change the culture of your company and open up the ways we communicate. They help eliminate inadvertent gatekeepers of information and ensure everyone within your firm has the information needed for client satisfaction. Lastly, they create time savings for your firm by providing easy access to the information your teams need to deliver a great client experience.