In today’s world, data lives everywhere! Reducing duplicate data in the entry and maintenance process can be a time-consuming effort. The Blackbox Connector leverages the robust APIs available in Deltek Vantagepoint and Vision to automagically bring together data from your Deltek solutions and other best of breed 3^rd party solutions you use to help run your business. 

The Blackbox Connector vastly reduces manual, error prone, data import/exports between systems by directly speaking the language of each endpoint and making the translations between them instantly and accurately every time. As the Blackbox Connector keeps them in sync, changes made in one system just appear in the other. Let’s check out what types of Blackbox Connectors are available.

Concur Blackbox Connector

It begins with the realization that there must be a better way to manage business expense. Give your employees their own personal assistant by combining the power of Deltek Vantagepoint or Vision and Concur. Improve efficiency for employees, allowing them to focus on core business goals.

Concur reduces mistakes and fraud with built-in controls and duplication verification. Your business can lower costs by implementing company-wide policies to control expenses enabling accounting staff to better manage expense processing, from approval to payment posting. Enjoy shortened payment cycles along with improved payables and consultant accruals with invoice. Learn more about Concur here!

Constant Contact and Mailchimp Blackbox Connector

With the Constant Contact and Mailchimp Blackbox Connector for Vantagepoint or Vision, your business can utilize emails like never before. Both solutions have many different features that make things simple while still being effective. Both reduce duplication of entry while maintaining consistent and accurate marketing data.

With either, you can leverage email results to further segment and target contacts and leads. You can track performance of email campaigns and receive insight on the latest email statistics. These connectors will save you hundreds of hours each year by consolidating disparate systems. Get the facts about email marketing and why your firm should be using Constant Contact or MailChimp. 

Client Feedback Tool Blackbox Connector

Reliable feedback is essential to understanding your client’s goals. Integrating the Client Feedback Tool with Vantagepoint or Vision ensures you can gather client feedback throughout the entire lifecycle of a project. Firms can fine-tune their performance to achieve maximum benefit for their clients and ultimate satisfaction. Find out how client satisfaction can be improved!  

Informer Blackbox Connector

The most recently introduced Blackbox Connector brings business intelligence and Deltek data together. Instead of wasting time on reviewing black and white spreadsheets of data, you can now visualize it with this connector. With customized dashboards, all members of your firm will have access to graphics available in real time so you can keep your finger on the pulse of your business. Learn how a good business intelligence solution can improve your firm's performance! 

HubSpot Blackbox Connector

The next Blackbox Connector in the works is HubSpot. With Hubspot, you can track performance of inbound marketing campaigns directly in Deltek Vantagepoint or Vision. With the ability to link your HubSpot inbound marketing tool with your Vantagepoint or Vision, you can maintain consistent and accurate marketing data and reduce duplicate entry.

With the HubSpot Blackbox Connector, you will be able to create a real-time information hub in Deltek CRM with the latest customer behaviors and activities. Share marketing awareness insight on your inbound marketing efforts to your entire organization. This connector will be available in fourth quarter 2019.

Bringing it all Together

Professional services firms have faced many data challenges, but the innovative solutions developed to bring data together with Vantagepoint or Vision from Concur, Constant Contact/Mailchimp, Client Feedback Tool, Informer, and HubSpot can make a huge difference. You can automagically synchronize your data between systems without human interaction or transcription errors. You can read, write and transform data to your specifications to a variety of end-points. The Blackbox Connector is the future for connectivity for Deltek Vantagepoint and Vision users.

Business development is crucial to the future of any company. Therefore, efficiently tracking it should be a top priority. So why are so many firms still using outdated spreadsheets that require so much effort to review? Well, once they get their hands on the Informer business intelligence (BI) tool, executives, business developers and marketers alike will be asking themselves that very question. Let’s see how the Informer BI solution will add value to your firm.

Colorful Graphics Save Time

The days of having to spend hours reviewing the specifics of opportunities and the sales pipeline on black and white pieces of paper are over. With Informer, colorful graphics draw attention to the information you seek. Essentially, you can set up your graphical dashboard using whatever dash parts you feel are the most important and drill down into the details as needed. These dashboards refresh automatically to keep your data up to date.

Different Visual Options

With Informer BI, there are different visual options available. Based on the fields selected, Informer automatically creates different visuals and you can choose from a saved list. You can customize your chart visuals depending on what you would like to see and how you would like to see it. Chart types vary from trends to pie charts to bar graphs to scatter plots. There are even geographic heat maps that show where your core opportunities are and where your firm needs to do more business development.

Keep a Finger on the Pulse of Business Development

Business developers are concerned with the health of the sales pipeline. They, of course, want opportunities sold as fast as possible and a way to track the win rates. Another great feature of Informer BI is the option to set up alerts when opportunities are closed. When an alert comes in, you will be drawn back to your dashboard to see what has changed. Informer even allows you to set up comparison boards with side by side displays. You can track win rates from month to month, year to year or even by location.

Get Informer Now

There is no need to waste any more time with those old fashioned and dated spreadsheets. Informer BI shows you exactly what you need to know about your business development as the opportunities unfold. Even more, Informer integrates with Deltek Vantagepoint and Vision. So, what are you waiting for?

Digital marketing, which includes email marketing, is a very effective strategy to growing your business. Most significantly, email marketing and outreach allows you to gain valuable insights into what information and messaging is important to your prospective and current clients. With each email sent, marketers can see open and click rates, and who opened and clicked on a link in the email. As a result, prospects can be easily identified, and messaging modified to grab the attention of other targets.

Email Marketing is Alive and Well

For many people, mainly the non-marketing folks, understanding how email marketing is effective can be difficult. In fact, many believe that email marketing is ineffective since they get so much spam and find it to be an annoyance. However, this is not the case. Email marketing actually has a very positive impact on your business. Here some are staggering facts about email marketing:

• There are 3.7 billion email users in the world and that will increase to 4.1 billion by 2021 (Statista)
• Email marketing has a 28.5% ROI compared to snail mail which has a 7% ROI on average (Chief Marketer)
• 59% of marketers agree that email marketing generates their biggest source of ROI (Emma)
• Email marketing is 40 times more effective at acquiring new clients than Facebook or Twitter (McKinsey)
• 72% of people prefer to receive promotional information via email compared to 17% who prefer social media channels (MarketingSherpa)
• Email marketing is 6 times more likely to result in a click-through than a tweet (Campaign Monitor)
• 90% of people said they will opt-in to receive a newsletter to obtain updates about a company while 10% elected Facebook (Nielsen Norman Group)
• 70% of B2B marketers agree that increasing their email list quality is their top priority (Delivra)
• The average office employee checks their email 30 times per hour (Marketing Insider Group)
• Checking email is the number 1 activity on the internet (Marketo)
• Companies in the United States will spend more than $350 million dollars on email marketing in 2019 (Statista)
• Email marketing drives on average $44 for every $1 spent (Campaign Monitor)

Email Marketing has a Bright Future

With all of these facts about email marketing, it is evident that the strategy works. While your firm is probably using email marketing as part of your overall digital marketing strategy, are you seeing the ROI and maximizing the benefits? Learn more about tracking and measuring email marketing success rates here!

Deltek Talent Management is a powerful set of tools for firms to manage the complete employee lifecycle. It offers an extensive product line to handle acquisition, learning and development, performance and compensation. With such a robust HR system, there are many notable features - some of which are underused. Let’s check out these hidden features and see what benefits they provide.

Employee Recognition

Employees really enjoy being recognized for their accomplishments and want to feel as if they are contributing to the business. Deltek Talent Performance allows employees to submit recognition for other employees in their firm. Recognitions include specifics about each situation such as competencies that the employee has showed. Both the manager and employee can access these recognitions as part of the performance review. Such recognitions go a long way to create a positive culture within the organization.

360 Reviews

360 reviews expand the performance evaluation from just managers to others, both inside and outside of the organization, who have information about employees. Employees can recommend people that they would like to participate in the review, and managers can stay on top of the process. All completed 360s can be viewed by the employee and manager then stored in the employee’s appraisals section for future reference. Feedback from a variety of sources gives employees the chance to see how impactful their work has been.

Project-Based Appraisals

Deltek’s strong focus on projects means that project team members get project-based appraisals. Within Deltek Talent Development, project teams can be set up and team leads determined. Team leads launch the project-based appraisals which may include goals, achievements and competencies that can be later reviewed. Employees get relevant and timely feedback from project managers which can be applied to the next project. Doing project-based appraisals improves performance and drives employee engagement.                                                                                        

Job Seeker Certifications

Today, job seekers have many options, and leveraging technology is a necessity to acquire top talent. Deltek Talent Acquisition makes it easy to view job seeker professional certifications and licenses which can be uploaded during the application process. Candidates can be sorted through efficiently and those with the qualifications needed can be recruited faster. Additionally, with Deltek Talent Learning, those hired will have their certifications automatically added to their learning record which will streamline the onboarding process.

Do Even More with Deltek Talent Management

These hidden features of Deltek Talent Management provide the means to engage quality employees and ensure top project performance. Recognition for valuable work, positive feedback from many different sources, specific project appraisals and assurance of certifications all promote a productive work environment leading to well-run projects. Are you ready to experience what Deltek Talent Management has to offer?

With the shift to an employee-centric marketplace, it has never been more important to focus on talent acquisition and retention. With Deltek Talent Management, you can manage the entire employee lifecycle in one built-in platform. You can efficiently handle acquisition, performance, learning development and compensation. By managing talent, you can retain the best workers, drive employee engagement and ultimately deliver more successful projects. Let’s see how Deltek Talent Management will help your firm be a winning player in the war for talent.

Acquire Top Talent

Deltek Talent allows you to build high performance teams while reducing the time to hire and to reach productivity. There is total visibility into talent acquisition with trends to see what positions are open and how quickly they are hired and onboarded. Using this talent management solution, you can also make sure you offer the most competitive compensation packages to candidates guaranteeing that top talent will join your firm.

Retain Talent

With thoughtful performance management that matches the way project teams work, Deltek Talent offers an effective way to keep the top talent you worked so hard to acquire. Included in the solution is a comprehensive incentive system aligned with performance. This ensures employee compensation transparency and consistency. Deltek Talent additionally comes with the option to build and store unlimited staff learning and training opportunities to keep employees engaged.

Optimize Your Workforce

Deltek Talent Management helps your firm strategically analyze the workforce and predict future needs. This solution allows managers and employees to work together to develop career paths and long-term development plans. Using Deltek Talent, your firm can even create succession plans which work for each unique business.

Manage Talent More Efficiently

Deltek Talent Management provides firms with a unified HR system. This solution is both mobile and flexible and will meet the needs of any firm no matter the size. Acquiring and retaining top talent ensures superior projects are delivered. Are you ready to prevail in this competition for the best employees? Get Deltek Talent Management today.

As a small to medium business owner, IT management can be a big headache. Your real work is often disrupted by IT issues such as adding new employees, getting your staff’s machines and apps running, and updating software and support. Moving to the cloud with hosted apps and desktops is the best solution for your firm. Let’s look at the benefits of cloud hosting.

Mobilize the Workforce

With a hosted virtual desktop service, employees have access to apps, documents and other resources from anywhere. All that is necessary is an internet connection and an end point device. Employees can get work done on the go and feel like they never left their workstations.

Business Continuity

Data is safe and always available with a hosted service. If there is a power outage or natural disaster, the offsite data center provides firms with no disruption of service. Data is always secure in the virtual data center which ensures protection with built-in data encryption.

Reduced IT Costs

With a hosted solution, no IT expertise is needed by the firm. Firms will end up spending less on licensing fees and off-site data storage and backup. Anti-spam and virus management is also provided in addition to 24x7 help desk support.

Focus on Growing Your Business

Moving to the cloud with hosted apps and desktops leaves time for your firm to focus on your real work and growing your business. Using the cloud solution, the days of having to manage apps, desktops and servers are in the past. Instead, all the updates and patches are handled for you. Are you ready to move to the cloud?

Many Deltek Vision customers have been a bit confused by the announcement of Deltek Vantagepoint (formerly Deltek for Professional Services). Well, Deltek Vantagepoint is the newly branded and freshly reimagined next version of Deltek Vision specifically built for professional services organizations. The starting point for Vantagepoint was Vision 7.6 and this initiative has been about accelerating the product to a pure browser-based interface which began with iAccess. Let’s take a look at Vantagepoint and the impact on Vision users.

Reimagined Next Version

Vantagepoint is the same great product with all the power of Vision using a fresh, modern interface that will be accessible to anyone, anytime from anywhere. This next version of Vision has impressive new features, reengineered workflows and expanded functionality. All of these enhancements were created based upon years of customer feedback taking Vision to a completely new level.

User Defined Content

As part of the upgrade to Vantagepoint, user defined content and configurations within Vision come along. Some areas will need to be reviewed to make sure things continue to work and look the way you want due to the functional improvements of Vantagepoint. However, the configured content will not be lost in the upgrade which is very similar to a typical Vision upgrade.

Custom Reports

In Vantagepoint, the reporting platform is SQL Server Reporting Services just like in Vision. The architecture and database structure of Vantagepoint is the same as Vision since Vision 7.6 was the starting point. Custom reports and/or invoice templates should continue to function in Vantagepoint. If a custom report references a portion of the database schema that changed in Vantagepoint, it will need to be reviewed with minor updates just like it would have with Vision upgrades.

Upgrade on Your own Timeline

During the transitional phase between Vision and Vantagepoint, the timing of the upgrade is up to the customer. Upgrade timing depends on what functionality your firm is using in Vision today. Vision 7.6 will remain in active support mode including updates until at least the end of 2022. Moving to Vantagepoint does not require a data conversion but rather all Vision data is simply upgraded. Just like with any Vision upgrade, there may be the need to accommodate functional changes.

Upgrade to Vantagepoint

More than 200 customers are currently using Vantagepoint today. For all Vision customers, there is an existing customer portal to learn about Vantagepoint https://dsm.deltek.com/Vantagepoint. All firms using Vision are encouraged to consume the portal content in order to ensure a smooth upgrade.

Firms complain that there aren’t enough candidates when a job opening needs to be filled yet many firms aren’t taking the necessary steps to ensure they have candidates in the hopper when a position opens. Do projects just fall out of the sky? Ok, maybe on a rare occasion, but most of the time you must nurture relationships in order to be considered for a project pursuit. Recruiting should be looked at in the same way. A great way to find the best fit for your firm is to identify potential candidates before a position opens and develop these relationships.

Finding Potential Candidates

Recruiting should involve more than just your HR department and executives. Just like marketing and business development, recruiting should be something all staff members do. Some firms have found that having a referral process can be a great way to encourage employees to share the news, but even more important is letting your employees know to keep their eyes out for anyone that might fit the firm’s corporate culture and have skills needed within the company. The best recruiters leverage their staff within the company to help them do their jobs. Here are places employees can find potential new recruits: 

• Social and informal connections happen all the time and staff can use these interactions as informal recruiting sessions. Potential recruits can come from current projects, partners, vendors, neighbors, and social events. Asking the right questions can provide you with a plethora of information regarding whether any of the people you deal with would be good matches for your firm.
• Conferences and networking events are also convenient places to meet potential candidates. Conferences and association networking events are specifically geared for your industry. Sometimes individuals you meet might be great teaming partners or they might be just what you are looking for if a position comes available. Collect those business cards and ask some deeper questions about their jobs and you have a talent pool without having to officially recruit.
• Social media is another easy way to recruit for candidates. Whether you tweet or connect with others via LinkedIn, there are a variety of ways to find qualified people that fit with your company culture. Just keep in mind what skills you are looking for on a consistent basis, and you will have plenty of options in the world of social media.
• Job fairs, of course, are also appropriate places to find potential candidates. Even without an open position available at your firm, people at job fairs are looking to find where they fit in so when something does come up with your firm you have options. Simply gather names and resumes and you will get an immediate talent pool, or better yet, send them to your website to upload their information into your Talent system. 

Nurture Those Potential Candidates

In the Deltek Clarity report, project-based firms stated that their top challenge was finding qualified talent. I would beg to differ since talent is always around you and most likely available if you nurture the relationships. I suspect your challenge is just not identifying the talent when you come across it. 

Once you find potential candidates, it’s important to capture their information so you can pull from a talent pool. Using the Deltek Talent Acquisition system, recruiters and managers can quickly add resumes to talent pools allowing you to access your potential candidates by categories when a position opens. These talent pools allow you to keep lists of candidates with specific requirements or needs. 

We know great Project Managers or Marketing Coordinators are hard to find so you could tag potential candidates as you come across them. Instead of waiting until the position needs to be filled to start your search, with talent pools you can quickly send a templated email asking candidates you have met in the past, that have been pre-qualified, to submit for an opening. Imagine how much easier and quicker recruiting can be by taking a more proactive versus reactive approach.

Improve Hiring Efficiency

For project centric businesses, people are your competitive advantage. Ensuring solid talent management best practices within the business means assuring you can find the talent quicker than your competition. See how Deltek Talent can improve your employee hiring process.

The goal of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is to integrate all aspects of a business from finance to CRM to HR. To have and maintain a successful business operation, accurate and timely information must flow between all the different business functions. With an ERP in place, there is visibility into operations which provides greater control over the business. However, while all businesses benefit from an ERP system, one size does not fit all. Project-based companies are distinct and thus require ERPs suited for their needs.

Unique Financials

Unlike firms just selling products to be shipped, project-based firms have financials reflecting more specific details. Project-based financials are focused on resources, projects and clients. Project-based firms are concerned with billing and time and materials needed per project which is vastly different than a firm that simply tracks inventory. Since project-based financials are so particular, project-based firms should have ERP systems that are equally so.

Deeper Function of Resource Management

Resource management for project-based firms is also a lot more involved. Project-based firms must manage both clients and projects matching the scope of a project to delivery. More than just people, resources here mean skills needed in a project and determining when certain skills are to be used. CRM with projects is built around proposals and recurring client interaction. With the intricate nature of running projects, project-based firms require ERP systems set up to manage resources in this more complex way.

Designed for Different Roles in the Firm

Executives, accountants and project managers all have different focal points. Executives want to see that the business is financially sound and that customers are satisfied. Accounting needs to be able to make sure billing is being completed on time. Project managers must collaborate with everyone to make sure the work is getting done and that people are being utilized by tracking workers as they come off a job. Project-based ERPs are specifically built for all these key roles ensuring efficiency in operation.

Complete Visibility into Business

With project-based ERP systems, every transaction is tied to an account, organization and project. The general ledger account describes expenses, the organization describes who is doing the work and the project is the source of revenue. With these elements linked, financial reports, invoices, payroll and project status reports are all available to show the whole picture of the business providing complete visibility.

Match the ERP to Firm Needs

With a project-based ERP in place, project-based firms will be able to make proactive decisions with current, real-time data. Generic ERP solutions do not meet the needs of project-based companies. Project-based ERPs are specifically designed to ensure that all aspects of project management are tied together to provide an accurate view of project profitability and company health.

It used to be that people needed companies - employees were loyal, jobs were scarce, and everyone accepted the standard employment package offered. Today, things are very different. Companies need people – talent is hard to find, few make long term commitments, and many are demanding a lot more than before. Project-based companies are particularly impacted since without the right people in place, projects suffer, customers suffer and so does the bottom line. Therefore, having an applicant tracking system is a necessity to deal with the challenges of talent acquisition.

Expediting Talent Acquisition

These days, companies are the ones trying to convince talent to join the firm while the competition is courting them as well. It is crucial that the time it takes from sourcing candidates to interviewing to offering positions is greatly shortened. An applicant tracking system provides a clearer picture of the entire process. It shows right away if any of the steps are taking longer than necessary and allows firms to be more efficient in the hiring process. Project-based companies need the right people available at the right time to keep projects running smoothly.

Talent Pools

With people moving around as much as they do today, firms should always have a reserve of potential talent. An applicant tracking system helps with creating and maintaining these pools of talent. When resumes are entered, HR can flag those candidates who would be good fits for future opportunities. So, if a project manager leaves unexpectedly or a new project is won, a talent pool is immediately available to contact which reduces the delay in staffing. Nothing is worse for project-based firms than having to put off a project start date because of lack of appropriate personnel.

Candidate Experience

Another benefit of an applicant tracking system is that it ensures a positive candidate experience. The candidate’s experience moving through the hiring process has a huge impact on whether an offer will be taken. Firms must make candidates feel that they are valued. An applicant tracking system makes it easier to stay connected with candidates, so they feel informed and not forgotten. Project-based firms will not only have excited quality talent coming on board from this positive experience, but word of mouth will spread creating a talent pool for future projects.

Invest in an Applicant Tracking System

Project-based firms make money when projects are done on time and to customer satisfaction. Without the right personnel on the project, firms are destined for failure. An applicant tracking system expedites the hiring process by reducing inefficiencies and encouraging quality talent. Firms can easily overcome the challenges of talent acquisition by investing in one today. What is your firm waiting for?