Five Directors named to guide consulting, training, technology, and automation services for clients nationwide

Full Sail Partners, a Deltek Platinum Partner providing consulting, training, and technology solutions for project-based firms, today announced the formalization of its leadership team as part of the firm’s continued growth and long-term strategic evolution.

As demand continues to grow for integrated systems, automation, and deeper operational visibility across project-based organizations, Full Sail Partners has established a dedicated leadership structure comprised of five Directors with clearly defined areas of responsibility. This structure strengthens alignment across the organization and reinforces the firm’s commitment to innovation, service excellence, and client success.

The leadership team includes:

• Heath Harris – Director of Support and Technology
• Joel Slater – Director of Sales, Marketing, and Business Development
• Pete Nuffer – Director of Process Automation
• Rana Blair – Director of Training and Staff Development
• Scott Gailhouse – Director of Consulting

“One of the things I’m most proud of is the strength of our team,” said Wendy Gustafson, Partner and General Manager at Full Sail Partners. “Each of these people has consistently stepped up, solved problems, and helped move the firm forward. Recognizing and empowering them in their new roles reflects both the work they’ve already done and the leadership we know they’ll continue to bring.”

Together, these leaders oversee the core service areas that support Full Sail Partners’ clients, ensuring continued collaboration across consulting, implementation, training, and technology initiatives.

“This structure allows us to stay focused on what matters most — helping our clients succeed,” said Scott Seal, Partner and Vice President of Consulting at Full Sail Partners. “With dedicated leadership across consulting, technology, training, and automation, we’re better positioned to evolve our services and deliver the expertise our clients rely on.”

Technology and automation continue to play an increasingly important role in how project-based firms operate, connect their systems, and make decisions. Full Sail Partners has long been focused on helping clients navigate that evolving landscape through thoughtful consulting and integrated technology solutions.

“I spend a lot of time thinking about automation, integrations, and the systems that power modern firms,” said Wes Renfroe, Partner and Vice President of Technology at Full Sail Partners. “But the most important system in any organization is still its people. This group of Directors represents some of the strongest problem-solvers and collaborators we have, and their leadership will help ensure we continue staying ahead of the curve as technology evolves and new opportunities emerge for our clients.”

As part of this leadership evolution, Sarah Gonnella has stepped down as a partner after nearly 18 years with the firm. Full Sail Partners is grateful for her leadership and the lasting contributions she made to the firm’s development and its client community.

With this strengthened leadership foundation in place, Full Sail Partners remains focused on helping project-based firms maximize the value of their technology investments through thoughtful consulting, innovative solutions, and deep expertise in Deltek Vision and Vantagepoint.

For more information, please contact Full Sail Partners’ Marketing and Communications Department.    

Jake’s focus on exploring new ideas and emerging technologies helps streamline consultant communications to improve project delivery

Full Sail Partners, a Deltek Platinum Partner, is happy to announce the promotion of former intern, Jake Seal. He is now a full-time Knowledge Management Technician working with our consulting team. During his time as an intern at Full Sail Partners, Jake focused on building and organizing a SharePoint-based internal knowledge hub to improve access to training materials and critical documentation for consultants. His work emphasized structure, usability, and long-term scalability to support efficient knowledge sharing across the firm. 

As a Knowledge Management Technician, he continues to develop and maintain the internal knowledge platform. His new role was created to strengthen how we build, protect, and use knowledge across the organization. Rather than relying on the traditional approach of storing static documents, the consulting team is adopting AI, Microsoft technologies, and other modern tools to organize information in more flexible, efficient ways. Centralizing this work ensures that insights from individual consultants are captured, maintained, and easily accessible. This improves how quickly the team can find the information they need, supports more consistent workflows, and helps them deliver work that reflects the full expertise of the organization.

“Jake is an innovative problem solver who thrives on exploring new ideas and emerging technologies. He actively captures and refreshes our internal knowledge, turning complex processes and technical concepts into clear, usable insights that energize and empower the team,” noted Rana Blair, Principal Consultant and the Consulting Training and Development lead.

Clients will benefit from a more consistent and efficient consulting experience. With the support of AI and Microsoft-based knowledge tools, consultants can locate accurate information quickly and spend more time applying it to client needs rather than searching through documents. The role also helps teams stay aligned by ensuring everyone uses reliable, validated processes and up to date guidance. As a result, clients receive solutions that draw on the organization’s collective knowledge, leading to clearer recommendations, stronger outcomes, and smoother project delivery.

Prior to and alongside his work at Full Sail Partners, Jake has been involved in developing original intellectual property for a creative digital brand, a role he continues to support today. His work focuses on integrating IP into games and interactive experiences, while helping establish frameworks that allow asset owners to leverage the IP for personal branding or independent business initiatives. Jake recently graduated from California State University, Northridge with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, concentrating in Marketing. 

For more information, please contact Full Sail Partners’ Marketing and Communications Department.    

Katie Manning, CPSM steps into Marketing Manager role with goal of enhancing market awareness 

Full Sail Partners, a Deltek Platinum Partner, is excited to announce the appointment of Katie Manning, CPSM as Marketing Manager. In her new role, Katie will be instrumental in enhancing market awareness and driving sales across all products offered under the Full Sail Partners’ umbrella. Katie's responsibilities will encompass strategic positioning, messaging, and content creation. She will also develop sales enablement materials and competitive positioning strategies for Full Sail Partners' websites, fullsailpartners.com and blackboxconnector.com.  

“We are thrilled to welcome Katie to our team as Marketing Manager," said Sarah Gonnella, Partner and VP of Marketing & Sales at Full Sail Partners. "Her extensive experience in the ad agency world will be invaluable in targeting new business opportunities, while her deep expertise in the AEC industry will ensure we effectively educate our existing clients on the latest features and benefits of Deltek Vantagepoint’s powerful ERP solutions. We look forward to seeing her innovative strategies in action!” 

With her extensive AEC and advertising expertise, Katie is well-equipped to propel the company's marketing initiatives and contribute to the growth of our product offerings. She brings nearly 15 years of marketing experience to Full Sail Partners, including eight years supporting architecture, engineering, and construction firms. Throughout her career, she has led content strategy, built integrated campaigns, and translated complex technical offerings into clear, compelling narratives that drive business outcomes. With firsthand experience working within Deltek systems and alongside technical and creative teams, Katie brings a practical, execution-minded approach to positioning, messaging, and sales enablement—focused on helping teams communicate value clearly and supporting clients at every stage of their journey. 

“I’m grateful to join Full Sail Partners and work alongside such a thoughtful, collaborative team,” noted Katie Manning. “I’m excited to build on the great foundation already established and contribute a holistic perspective to support the team, our clients and the work ahead.” 

Katie holds a degree in Journalism with an emphasis in magazine editing from the University of Missouri and earned her CPSM certification in 2022. She is actively involved with the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS), currently serving as President-Elect of SMPS North Texas and slated to serve as Chapter President in 2027. She also served on the SMPS SRC 2026 Programming Committee and has participated in the SMPS North Texas Mentor/Protégé Program for three years, supporting professional development within the AEC marketing community.  

For more information, please contact Full Sail Partners’ Marketing and Communications Department.    

Jason’s technical capabilities, understanding of clients’ reporting needs combined with his accounting background make him the perfect fit for our data analytics and BI team 

Full Sail Partners, a Deltek Premier Partner, is thrilled to announce the promotion of former intern, Jason Kelly. He is now a full-time BI/SQL Developer with our Technology team. In his new role, he develops and maintains SQL-based solutions that support analytics and reporting in Deltek Vantagepoint and Entrinsik Informer. 

Jason's promotion from intern to full-time BI/SQL Developer addresses Full Sail Partners’ growing need for data analytics and business intelligence support. During his internship, he demonstrated strong technical capabilities and a solid understanding of our clients' reporting needs. Converting this role to full-time allows us to expand our data services and maintain expected turnaround times on client analytics requests. 

"Jason has been an excellent addition to our team. His combination of technical skills in Power BI and SQL, along with his accounting background, allows him to understand not just the data, but what it means for our clients' businesses. We're excited to have him continue growing with us in this full-time capacity,” noted Tim Burns, Principal Consultant and SQL Developer. 

Clients greatly benefit from this new addition to the data analytics and BI team. Bringing Jason on board full-time allows for enhanced Power BI dashboard development and customization as well as continued fast turnaround on SQL queries and custom requests. Moreover, leveraging Jason’s accounting background, the team will be able to provide even more improved financial reporting for our clients. 

For more information, please contact Full Sail Partners’ Marketing and Communications Department.

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.

How Revenue Method B Works

Revenue Method B works well when we have a time & materials project that is billed frequently. In this scenario, we have a perfect match between revenue and costs and can easily measure project performance. On the other hand, when billings and costs don’t align, measuring interim project performance becomes more challenging. Milestone billings or fixed fee projects are billed on cycles that don’t always coincide with a proper revenue accrual or as the associated costs are incurred on the project. Keep in mind that we are not matching revenues and expenses, and this can lead to unreliable financial results during the project life cycle.

For example, a project has a contract provision that calls for $10,000 to be billed at the end of month two. We complete the work in month one at a cost of $3,000 (10,000 billing rate). The financial reconciliation for this project is:

In month one, the project has no income (no billings) and incurs costs of $3,000. With Revenue Method B, the project incurs a $3,000 gross margin loss.

In month two, when the project is billed, we have the reverse situation; $10,000 Revenue and no cost, which results in a $10,000 Gross Margin profit.

So…did we make money or not?

The Results of Using Revenue Method B

From month to month, it is very difficult to assess the true profitability of the project. Therefore, we must wait until a point where billings and costs align or the project is closed. In this simple example, we can look at the end of month 2 and determine our performance. However, what if this project spans over a year or more? With Revenue Method B, we may never have a point where revenue and costs align to make an informed decision on profitability.

To accurately measure performance, a proper matching of revenue and costs is mandatory. Revenue must be earned as work is completed or as the associated costs are incurred. This is the best accounting practice, and with the impending requirement of FASB 606, will now be part of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

Clearly, Revenue Method B will not work well when the earnings process does not align with the billing process. For those of us using this method, we are reporting inaccurate results to our stakeholders or making manual adjustments to accommodate for Revenue Method B’s shortcomings. Fortunately, Deltek Vision offers alternatives that will help us properly record revenue and comply with FASB 606.

FASB 606 Implications

In May 2014, FASB 606 was released and will be required by December 2018. FASB 606 will render Revenue Method B obsolete for most projects.

FASB 606 has five elements:

• Identify the contract with the client
• Identify the performance obligations in the contract
• Determine the transaction price
• Allocate the transaction price to each performance obligation
• Recognize Revenue as we satisfy the performance obligations

FASB 606 does not reference billings unless billings specifically follow the earnings process described above. Therefore, to be in compliance with this new requirement, we must abandon Revenue Method B for most of our projects.

Revenue Method B Alternatives in Deltek Vision

Stay tuned for the next chapter…User Defined Revenue Methods. We will look at how we can use Deltek Vision to create Revenue Methods that will comply with FASB 606. In the meantime, click here to learn more about FASB 606. 

We all regularly receive requests for feedback. I think I received at least 10 emails last week that were seeking my participation in a survey, most of which were post-transaction requests. For example, I received surveys after purchasing a sandwich, changing the oil in my car, and getting my hair cut. While I don’t really mind feedback requests from these businesses I use regularly, I’m just not very motivated to do surveys AFTER the transaction. The sandwich was either good or bad; the oil change was either efficient or not (preferably WiFi was provided in the waiting area). There’s very little any of these businesses can do to change my client experience after it’s over. 

Delivering professional services is a different kind of “transaction.” The client experience plays out over the period of time in which we are engaged with them as service providers. From the very first phone calls and kick-off meetings, our clients are experiencing what we have to offer – below, at or above their expectations. For those of us in project management roles with direct client interaction, it behooves us to keep tabs on their perceptions, especially the up or down changes as our work progresses so that we can make adjustments quickly and effectively. 

Quantitative tools are helpful, and can help pinpoint our focus on the movement of the client’s perceptions and our subsequent responses, rather than the particular “score” itself. In this context, ask yourself whether you really know whether your services are providing less than, exactly, or much more than what was expected. 

Managing a Portfolio of Client Feedback

Managing a strategic client feedback program in professional services can get pretty intense. Keeping up with many concurrent projects, all the related people who experience your firm’s work, and the needed follow-up can be daunting without some organizational tools. You should save as much time and energy as possible for feedback analysis and follow-up. Find ways to streamline the administrative part of requesting feedback. One tactic is to use as much of your existing data as possible – you have mounds of existing contact, project, and employee data that should be used to help simplify the mechanics of the program. 

A well-designed feedback program will also leverage the nuances of each major type of project you deliver. Engagements that are 100% complete in two days will obviously have different feedback patterns, or “configurations,” than will those which last three years. Look across the landscape of your projects and mentally divide them into piles. Make a separate pile for each group of projects that could use a consistent schedule of feedback events. These events might be major project milestones, billing percentages, or simply a request frequency that makes sense, like every 90 days. Organizing your program in a way that minimizes the administrative burden of getting feedback requests out the door will go a long way. Even with a response rate of 50%, you have to send 2 to get 1 back, so get busy! 

Understand Expectations to Create a Better Client Experience

You had no idea how [great/awful] your client’s perceptions are of your firm’s work. The client, up until now, had been so [negative/positive] in their interactions with your team. The important next step is to engage with your client in an appreciative way to gain clarity on their [rising/falling] perceptions. The information you gather should help you consider adjustments that will more closely align your service delivery with the client’s expectations. 

Adjustments to align with client expectations can move in either direction. Getting direct client feedback in an organized program can help project managers carry out their primary responsibilities more effectively – if you make follow-up a priority. Sometimes a less-than-stellar piece of feedback can turn out to be a simple misunderstanding – dealing with it quickly can have much more influence on the client’s perceptions than the issue itself. Conversely, when the scores are skyrocketing and the clients are saying, “Wow, you gave us so much more than what we were expecting,” it might be time to go back and review your original scope of work. Either situation can help project managers become more effective at delivering 

Feedback is About Client Experiences / Expectations. Not about YOU! 

Professional services firms who deliver great client experiences are adept at using feedback in a regular recurring fashion. The after-the-fact “How Great Are We?” isn’t sufficient anymore. Taking a strategic approach to systematically tracking the movement of your clients’ perceptions, and diligently responding to make adjustments, will keep you in the loop for good! 

So, what’s the most efficient way to gather client feedback? How often do you gather feedback? Most importantly, don’t forget the all-important final question: What do you do when you get their feedback? Check out this whitepaper for answers to these questions and more.

Full Sail Partners is proud to announce that Anderson Hallas Architects, PC was a finalist for a 2015 Deltek Project Excellence Award in the Biggest Business Impact Category. Deltek specializes in providing project-focused enterprise software and information solutions for professional services firms and government contractors.  

Deltek’s annual Project Excellence Awards recognizes firms that use Deltek products to achieve remarkable success in various categories. This year, Deltek honored selected firms for five categories, and Anderson Hallas Architects was a finalist for the Biggest Business Impact award. This award recognizes organizations who received the biggest benefits and ROI using a Deltek solution.

During 2014 and 2015, Anderson Hallas Architects migrated to Deltek Vision with the assistance of Full Sail Partners. This migration from their existing disparate systems to Deltek Vision allowed them to centralize and integrate their financial, operations, marketing and business development, project data, and human resources into one system.

“We used to track everything in separate places (timesheets, marketing, labor utilization, weekly status, personal project memories, etc.). Each category of information had its own ‘home’ – a custom program, an Excel spreadsheet, a Word document or our individual brains – there was a lot of time, effort and duplication in updating and retrieving information. Now, it’s literally the click of a button,” explained Nan Anderson, FAIA, LEED AP, Principal with Anderson Hallas Architects.

As a result, Anderson Hallas Architects now has increased visibility into firm-wide metrics, improved cost control and resource planning, and delivers more projects on time and on budget. The implementation of Deltek Vision has influenced their thinking about how to approach marketing and business development and provided a centralized and integrated business better able to serve and respond to clients. 

“For a firm their size, Anderson Hallas aimed for massive transformation in information management, and achieved it,” stated Sr. CRM Consultant, Kevin Hebblethwaite, FSMPS, CPSM. “They demonstrated what is possible with unified goals and commitment - working with them was a blast.”

When implementing or seeking a new software system, our philosophy is that the solution should get you at least 80% of the way. Of course the goal is to have a solution that completely matches all of your needs, but that sometimes just isn’t possible. Luckily Deltek Vision’s open architecture allows you to quickly add fields with a click of the button. Sometimes firms need to take it a bit further and with the addition of User Defined Info Centers (UDICs) firms can do even more. One thing to keep in mind is before any revisions are made it’s important your project is built on a foundation for success. Let’s take a look at the five critical elements when approaching software customization that will enable you to go beyond with your Deltek Vision system! 

The Five Fundamental Tips for Successful Customizations: 

Gather Key Stakeholders | Making a software customization change for your business needs can often feel like being lost in the land of the unknown. Your key project stakeholders are your ultimate end users – identify, cultivate and leverage their needs and expectations. Identify priorities early in the project to develop an actionable game plan that enables your development team to make the most impact on the organization.  

Assign a Project Owner | Identifying a primary project owner will allow you to have the eyes and ears on the ground needed to guide your project to success. Be a “Leader of Change” in your organization by identifying the right captain to steer your ship on the correct course. Although the project owner is a stakeholder by definition, this person generally acts as a representative for the overall stakeholders; giving the group visibility in to day-to-day developments. Increased visibility helps impediments to be identified & solved quickly. It also helps developers and stakeholders to understand each other's constraints & expectations. The Project Owner is a vital link between the needs of the stakeholders and the development team.   

Document User Stories | For many software customization projects, the subject matter experts do not know what information technology could and should do for them, yet the IT team needs to know what to deliver. One of the biggest challenges development efforts face is overcoming the IT - subject matter communications gap. How can you deal with these difficulties early, and not waste valuable development time and effort? A user story complements business analysis techniques that you are using and will make identifying project requirements easier and more complete without adding an extra burden of effort. 

Focus on stakeholder requirements, needs, and goals for the solution. Avoid the trap of trying to get the users to define technical specifications. Start with an approach to capture, in business language, the goals, objectives, or wants for the business system in the form of very short stories. You can then add details over time as needed to document each story. Business-driven test scenarios foster a common understanding of each requirement. 

Rough It Up | Don’t be afraid to rough things up a little bit – your end users certainly won’t be afraid to take the shine off of the new toy. Try to think outside of the box and attack your solution from every angle possible. End users do crazy things – you’ll thank yourself later for being one step ahead! 

4 Type of Tests | Before releasing development efforts, your software customization should undergo a thorough testing process to ensure that the solution is working as intended. There are four main stages of testing that need to be completed before a solution can be cleared for use: unit testing, integration testing, system testing, and acceptance testing. The breadth of these tests is just another reason why keeping your key stakeholders active and engaged is important. When a program is more thoroughly tested, a greater number of bugs will be detected; this ultimately results in higher quality software. Test it once, test it twice… and then test it some more! Eat your own dog food. Allow internal testing, on your own system, to ensure that bugs and system flaws are identified as early as possible from real-world testing. 

Is your firm considering utilizing Deltek Vision's UDICs? See how real Deltek Vision users are creating richer and more connected business environments in this on-demand webinar: