In the News

Yep, you read that right. I said free resources are available for Deltek users. Using these free resources, you can become more familiar with Deltek products and keep up with the newest features and how they work. Even more, Full Sail Partners and Deltek both offer these free resources for your consumption. So, what are these useful yet complimentary tools and where do you find them?

User Groups 

User groups are a great way to network with your peers, learn tips about how they utilize their systems and perhaps better ways to accomplish specific tasks. User group meetings are led by a Deltek expert and you will enjoy an interactive environment where you learn more about a feature and get questions answered in real time. Additionally, user groups provide the opportunity to talk with other users about challenges you may be having so you can discover solutions. Look for a user group in your area and check out our upcoming list of user group events.

Webinars 

Both Full Sail Partners and Deltek offer webinars on a variety of topics presented by subject matter experts. These webinars can be attended live or viewed later on demand. You can ask questions during live webinars and walk away with the answers you are seeking. Additionally, webinars can be attended from anywhere that has internet access making them extremely convenient. Check out a list of upcoming and on demand webinars here.

YouTube 

Full Sail Partners also offers short training videos and demos for Deltek Vision users. These give you the ability to learn as your schedule allows. In our YouTube videos, we show you how to complete time saving tasks so you can quickly move from novice to power user. The videos are packed with valuable information to benefit all users. Make sure to check out and subscribe to our YouTube channel. 

Blogs 

Our weekly blogs cover hot and relevant industry topics. Each blog is written to provide helpful insights and tips with the intention of keeping users up to date on all of the latest information available. You will find links to our blogs in our monthly newsletter or you can check out our blogs on our website. 

Stay Tuned for the Latest Free Resources

While you can always visit our website daily, there are other ways to keep in the loop. We use Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to spread the word about our new educational resources. Also, make sure to subscribe to our monthly newsletter where you can find lists of new blogs, webinars, and events.

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

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

Enterprise Resource Planning Versus Professional Services Automation

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

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

Benefits of Professional Services Automation

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

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

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

Moving Your Firm to a Professional Services Automation Software

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

It is interesting to note that most document management systems are designed for the Architectural and Engineering (A&E) world where document management is quite the opposite of most other industries. Whereas typical industry documents are standardized and repeatable, with templates that rarely ever change, those required of the A&E environment are not. Here, every drawing is unique, and workflows require systems specifically designed to meet the needs of the A&E space. Here are some examples of the differences for standard businesses and project-based business.

Standard businesses

• Documents are standardized and repeatable
• Minimal revision control with unidirectional workflows
• Basic transmittals
• Simple file naming

Architectural & Engineering Firms

• Every drawing is unique
• Revision control is crucial due to edit-review-rework flows
• Transmittals can include documents, drawings, xref images, specs and more
• Complex naming schemes including: Project & Client Name, Discipline, Floor or Phase of Project, Sheet Category, Drawing # and more

Do You Have More than One Version of the Truth?

Employees can spend hours or days updating a drawing. If an obsolete version is used, then that work must be repeated, costing your firm time and money. Also, using the incorrect version of an engineering document can leave your firm vulnerable to increased corporate risk, failed audits, cost overruns that can extend into the millions of dollars, not to mention significant risks to safety, schedules, and reputation.

Furthermore, manual methods of version control are difficult and prone to error. In most companies, you can find multiple versions of files, one on the server, on a user’s hard drive, in email, and even a paper copy. Using a document management system creates a central point for document access which ensures users across the organization always can obtain the latest version. Document management systems also store previous versions and maintain the historical metadata for auditing the document history.

Are Transmittals Weighing You Down?

Gathering files, ensuring the correct version, attaching xrefs, specs, and any other necessary files are all very time consuming and tedious. Because it is a manual process, there is always a high risk for missing information. Once you include creating, sending, and tracking transmittals, this process becomes a very large, time-intensive process. 

A good A&E document management system provides automatic cover sheet creation and a built-in address book for quickly adding recipients. It also automatically tracks sending, receiving, editing, and routing so you can easily maintain the relationship between the cover sheet and all the files and data you send.

Are Your Naming Conventions Working?

Many companies try to impose naming standards, but without a way to enforce or automate these standards, all it takes is one person choosing to name a document in a way that makes sense to them, and an important file could be irretrievable. When more than one department or branch is involved, or new businesses are acquired, chaos can ensue!

An A&E focused document management system will auto-generate number sequences, include fixed width text place holders for user entered text, predefined data from drop down lists, user entered free texts, and delimiters. In addition, file names would not be the only way to search for files…using metadata either manually tagged to the document or found within it, would be a key part of your file storing and searchability. 

Where Are Your Critical Communication Documents?

Are your firms’ critical communications being housed in email boxes and scattered throughout your organization? What happens when someone is out of the office, or leaves the company? Do you or your staff spend hours trying to locate that critical communication?

A document management system allows you to save emails from Outlook to your projects, contacts and organizations, including version controls, with very few steps. It also saves just one copy of an email and eliminates duplicates to reduce storage and communication that must be sorted through and searched. These emails would then be stored centrally and permanently for audit and legal purposes, essentially preventing them from ever being deleted or lost, especially if a team member leaves the practice.

Why an A&E Document Management System?

A great document management system will provide documentation that is:

• Accurate, current, and trusted
• Easily found, even without knowing specific identifying information
• Under control, using predetermined workflows
• Easily communicated
• Fully audited for changes

If users can bypass procedures to access and change files without proper auditing, you aren’t truly managing your documents. Document management software uses database tables to store both data and files and ensure compliance.

Document management systems cut costs. The time needed to locate a document using easy searches and metadata should drop to seconds. No walking, telephoning or emailing is required - just a connected computer. Errors from using incorrect documentation virtually disappear. Only the latest, approved and published versions are used.

Time spent manually moving files and attaching to emails is eliminated with file sharing. Instead, documents are displayed to the user as soon as they are found. Audit reports can be automatically generated. Knowledge recorded in markup is stored in the system, visible to all who need to know, and your staff are more productive when they know information is reliable.

Calculating the Costs of Disorganized Documentation…Are You Scared to Know the Truth?

Do you know how much time your staff spends naming, organizing, and then trying to find documents? Are you, like many, scared to really find out?

• How much time is spent by users looking for drawings or other documentation?
• How much time your staff spends helping others find what they need?
• How much downtime is also a consequence of these delays?
• How many occasions production has been lost and/or re-working was required due to use of incorrect or outdated documentation?

Multiply these hours by burdened rates and estimate the costs of incidents caused by inaccurate data to extrapolate a typical yearly cost. It appears to be very expensive. Without a good document management system in place, these situations put a true financial strain on your firm.

Are You Ready for a Document Management System?

Using a proper document management system will not only save time, which we know equates to money, but will also prevent the unnecessary headaches of having to constantly forage through numerous files trying to find needed documents. We all know that the A&E industry is a unique and specialized industry which requires organization for project management. It doesn’t need to be so challenging to manage your documents.

Here you are, sitting at your computer, reviewing a list of leads and opportunities stored within your client relationship management (CRM) system. As you scroll through the list, you might begin to wonder how these became leads and opportunities. This is an important thing to know. When thinking about the client engagement lifecycle, it’s easiest to mentally picture a series of funnels. New prospects fall into the funnel and trickle down into opportunities.

Here’s a look at how this happens:

Attract

The client engagement lifecycle begins when you bring in new prospects. You can think of this as the top of the funnel. During this stage, it’s important to identify your target markets and personas such as project managers, accountants, and executives that will be interested in your services and/or products. Content can then be created that resonates with these key people to attract them into the funnel.

The content can be varied. It could range from written blogs to videos, webinars and podcasts. Just make sure the content is relevant to your target markets and personas and helps them solve common obstacles within their industry.

Nurture

Now that the funnel is open, it’s important to maintain prospect interest so they stay in the funnel. Knowing what content has sparked and sustained this interest is important so you can produce new content to continue to drive awareness. Additionally, the original content that brought them into the funnel should leave them with unanswered questions.

During this stage, familiarity with the content which first attracted the prospects will help you determine questions they might now have. Your new content should be more specific to answer these questions with fact-based information that also communicates your expertise. Email campaigns provide a great avenue to share this fresh content.

Convert

Awesome, your funnel still has prospects. Now it’s time to get them to make a conscious decision to move further. This is not to say they were not interested in your products or services before, but rather the content that you have been sharing has made them recognize you are a trusted authority and a subject matter expert.

This stage is when specific conversations need to begin, and you should convert these prospects into advocates. As a result, these advocates can arrange for meetings with other decision-makers. You can then start to create clients from prospects. 

Grow

Congratulations, you now have new clients in your funnel. This is the stage where you will foster the ability to provide additional products and services to your clients.

The tricky thing here is creating content that will be important to your clients in the future. For some businesses, this is a few months down the road, and for others, a year or more. A great tool to use is a monthly or quarterly newsletter for sharing your newly created content to create new opportunities.

Sustaining the Client Engagement Lifecycle

Remember that the client engagement lifecycle is a never-ending loop. The funnel should never close, but rather redirect to other products and services you can provide. If your clients are happy with your products and services, they are more likely to make future purchases.

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

Opportunities for Improvement with Deltek Vision 

Here are ten initiatives we recommend for your firm:

1. Learn and Train on iAccess, the Future of Vision: This simple to use interface can be used from any device or browser with an internet connection.
2. Incorporate FASB Changes: Firms need to understand how this measure requirement relates to them and how to configure Deltek Vision appropriately to accommodate it. 

3. Identify KPI & Executive Reports: The Deltek Vision Performance Management (VPM) module provides visibility into your firm’s performance and identifies metrics that help ensure success. 
4. Reevaluate the Organizational Breakdown & Work Breakdown Structure: The way firms operate changes over time, especially since their first implementation of the Vision system, resulting in inefficiencies in operations. 

5. Mergers & Acquisition Strategy: Many factors come into play when considering a merger or acquisition and effective data integration is vital to a favorable outcome.  

6. Connect Best of Breed Solutions: With a simple click of a button, firms can securely use Vision to connect other critical business systems. 

7. Focus on Client Retention: Firms can easily manage their client relationships by connecting the Client Feedback Tool with Deltek Vision. 

9. Manage Resources & Plan: Project-based firms benefit from an easy to use solutions that integrate project management data with the accounting solution. 
10. Improve Talent Acquisition & Employee Performance Process: HR professionals need a way to overcome the challenges of acquiring and maintaining talent.

10. Refine Archival & Document Management Process: Deltek Project Information Management (PIM) integrated with Deltek Vision breaks down data barriers for complete project, financial and information management needs. 

Do More with Deltek Vision

Don’t be satisfied with just the status quo. Use these ten initiatives to get more out of Deltek Vision. Putting them into place will make your firm processes better and allow you to be more effective and efficient in business. Break the cycle and start improving your Deltek Vision system now.

So many people have suggested that I write a book about my travel experiences. After all, I average about 125,000 domestic miles each year and truly believe that, if I decorated my home with cheap hotel art and bolted down my television, my “layover” in Bakersfield, CA would be quite comfortable. Not to mention the miles and miles of test driving countless models of white cars you see in most hotel parking lots. Seriously though, I do love my job, and because it does require me to travel a lot, I have learned much and will now pass some tips on to you.

Complaining Gets You Nowhere 

I always try to remember to say “please” and “thank you” while mostly keeping my composure when the inevitable stressful situation arises. Gate agents, flight attendants and front desk clerks are simply messengers often delivering news that no one wants to hear. As a result, I make an effort to: 

• Collect a business card of a manager to let him know how wonderful his team was and how well they handled even the most frustrating of situations
• Send a note to corporate acknowledging the people that delivered great customer service 

These gestures usually ensure even better real-time service. In addition, knowing the management team at the properties you frequent establishes a good rapport and allows for them to proactively prepare for your next arrival being already aware of your preferences. 

Indirect Routes May Be More Direct 

I always consider different airports and frequently know the routes better than the airline representatives. Selecting an alternate airport can often be both cost and time saving provided you don’t mind a road trip. Also, choosing to drive between two clients within 250-300 miles is a good option which gives you the opportunity to stop and see new places. 

If you find yourself with an early flight on your return trip home, staying at an airport hotel is not only convenient but can be a cost savings. You can go ahead and turn in your rental car early and use a complimentary hotel shuttle. Most rental car companies will also drive you to your hotel if you just ask. 

Make Sure to Get Reimbursed for Expenses 

I have used many different expense report tools over the years beginning with the failsafe Excel and remember the days of sending my receipts via FedEx. Fortunately, I now use Concur Expense which is integrated into the Full Sail Partners’ Vision database using the Blackbox Connector. Concur makes filing expenses easy and streamlined. Using only my smart phone, I can take a picture, upload to Concur and complete my line item in seconds. 

Enjoy Your Travels! 

I hope that these tips will make your business travel a pleasure. I do strongly suggest you monitor your rewards programs to ensure you always receive what is due. Got to go, doors are closing, and it’s time for me to fly. 

One of the main responsibilities of a project manager is managing the profitability of his projects. It is easy to look at hours charged to a project at billing rates minus the value of those hours at cost to see the gross profit of a project, but gross profit doesn’t give a true picture of profitability. Most firms prefer to look at net profit to measure the financial success of projects with net profit being hours at billing rates minus cost plus overhead.

Luckily, Deltek Vision has a utility to accomplish just that – calculating net profitability on projects.

Overhead at a Glance

What is overhead? Overhead is an accounting term that refers to ongoing general business expenses, not including direct labor or expenses that are reimbursed to firms by clients. For example, business expenses like rent, health insurance and indirect labor are types of overhead expenses.

Overhead allocation must be configured in Vision and the utility must be run on a timely basis – usually at month end. Overhead allocation can give a true understanding of a project’s profitability.

Preparing Deltek Vision for Overhead Allocation

There are several decisions that need to be made during the configuration phase of setting up overhead allocation in Deltek Vision depending on the current configuration. First, the allocation scope needs to be determined. If the firm uses profit centers, additional configuration decisions will have to be considered. For example, if the firm has a “corporate” profit center, overhead may need to be distributed from the corporate profit center to the revenue producing profit centers.

Next, Vision offers two choices for the basis of applying overhead to projects - direct labor or the proration method. The direct labor method applies a multiplier that is used to determine every dollar of direct labor spent on a project. Vision uses the total overhead expense divided by total direct labor to determine the multiplier used when overhead allocation is run.

The multiplier method remains consistent if the same multiplier is in effect. Firms generally prefer the multiplier method because of its consistency. Additionally, project managers always know how much overhead is being applied to their projects. On the other hand, the proration method uses the firm’s actual, year-to-date indirect expenses. Since this method is based on actual indirect expenses, it will change month to month.

The Benefit of Using Overhead Allocation in Deltek Vision

Once overhead allocation has been run, there are several reports, including the project progress, office earnings and project summary, that when run at cost, will display overhead. Running the overhead allocation process will return a report detailing the amount of overhead applied to projects and the actual overhead rate of the firm. Not only does overhead allocation provide a clear understanding of the profitability of the firm’s projects, it also gives an indication of the firm’s overhead costs and the tools needed to increase profits.

There is no shortage of ways for professional services firms to solicit and capture client feedback. Some firms structure their initiative as a once-a-year check-in with repeat clients while others hire outside consultants to conduct third-party client satisfaction interviews. In a previous posting, we reviewed why you might want to start a feedback program. Now let’s discuss specific tools that will help with starting one.

The feedback approach we like to use at Full Sail Partners includes:

• Several “milestone events” throughout the course of complex projects
• Billing thresholds for clients using a la carte services

By identifying this schedule of feedback events in advance, our clients know what to expect of the process and can effectively participate. We manage our program with The Client Feedback Tool from Client Savvy (CFT).

Surely our Existing Data is Worth Something 

When we first started our program, we strategically knew that:

• We would need to scale the volume of feedback without a proportional increase in the program’s administration time
• In Deltek Vision, we already had a system housing key data needed for the program – contact and company names, email addresses, project records, and various other meta data
• Both Deltek Vision and Client Feedback Tool were designed with available API interfaces 

Enter the Blackbox Vision Connector for Client Feedback Tool (VC4CFT) – a pre-built integration between Deltek Vision and CFT. This solution allows us to leverage the existing information in our database, improve consistency across the two platforms and decrease the amount of time needed to manage our routine client feedback program. 

How Does it Work? 

If you’re familiar with how Vision functions, you already know that all operational activity in the system is oriented around projects. Whether you’re completing a schematic design or purchasing paperclips, your work will eventually hit a project in Vision. Managing feedback is setup the same way and all information needed for the process of requesting client feedback is gathered in a project record. While this is typically a “Regular” project, if we’re seeking general feedback from a cross-section of our client base, we just gather those contacts together in an appropriate general project in Vision, either by creating it for that purpose or using one that already exists. 

VC4CFT allows our project managers to send feedback requests in one of two ways:

1. Anytime desired directly from the Project record in Vision
2. As part of the batching function that seeks out eligible projects based on pre-determined rules

For example, during our implementation projects, we first like asking for feedback after we’re about 30% complete. The Connector’s workflows know to look for projects that have recently crossed that milestone based on financial records. Usually about once per month, we have the Connector lookup all the projects that apply under all the rules we’ve put in place. With quick input from the project managers, we’re able to assemble a list of surveys that can all go out at once, driven from a single point of administration. 

Hmm…How Interesting! 

As our clients provide feedback (and we thank you for it!), general information about the feedback history is returned to Vision through the Blackbox Connector. Whether looking at aggregate response rates or figuring out why that one person always opens our requests but doesn’t complete the survey (you know who you are), the most important objective is to enhance the client experience. The combination of Deltek Vision, the Client Feedback Tool and the Blackbox Connector allows us to further leverage our core client information, turn feedback strategies into scalable routine processes, and most importantly, improve the experiences our clients have while working with us.

As a Deltek Vision user, having the ability to access the information in your system from anywhere on any device with an internet connection can change the way you work. Good news! Deltek iAccess for Vision makes this possible. Here’s a short video to give you an introduction and a demonstration of how easy iAccess is to use.

Full Sail Partners, a Deltek Vision Platinum Partner, announced that Concur^®, an SAP company and the world’s leading provider of travel, expense and invoice management solutions, has recognized the Full Sail Partners with the 2017 Rising Star Solution Provider of the Year Award at Concur Fusion 2017.

Full Sail Partners’ Blackbox Connector for Deltek Vision and Concur provides a seamless integration between Deltek Vision ERP and Concur Expense Management.

“We are honored to receive this award for our work with Concur to enable our clients to improve spend management for expenses and invoices for their professional services firms,” said Tanya Drake at Full Sail Partners. “The Blackbox Connector allows project-based firms to utilize the power of Deltek Vision and integrate it with the elegant user interface, additional controls and reporting available from Concur. This integration gives firms better visibility and control of their corporate spend for expenses and invoices.”

The Blackbox Connector is a ready-to-deploy integration suite focused on keeping professional services firms centered on efficient production by connecting their critical business systems to the outside world.

“The 2017 Concur Solution Provider of the Year awards recognize and celebrate the innovation and business value that program partners deliver to our mutual customers,“ said Sachin Vora, Senior Director, Global Business Development, Concur. “Congratulations to Full Sail Partners for being awarded the Rising Star Solution Provider of the Year. It is a clear recognition of the commitment to excellence in partnering with Concur and creating lasting value for our joint customers.”

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