In the News

Full Sail Partners, a Deltek Premier Partner, announces that Matt McCauley EA, MS has joined the firm as a Principal Consultant. Mr. McCauley’s hire expands the Full Sail Partners’ team to more than 30 professionals focused on technology solutions. His extensive knowledge of the Deltek product set and proven consulting expertise are an ideal match to help clients streamline business processes and achieve greater efficiency from their Deltek Vision ERP system.

With more than 20 years in the professional services industry, Matt has the insight that will allow him to identify the unique requirements of our clients. He specializes in Deltek Vision’s Core Applications, Resource Planning, VPM, and most recently, Fixed Assets.

“My prior experience as a CFO and a Deltek Vision client will help me bring a client-based end user approach to Vision consulting,” said Matt. “I’m excited to work closely with clients to implement Vision in a way that complements their business processes and to improve operational efficiencies.” 

Throughout his career, Matt has worked as both a client and a consultant, providing a unique perspective during client implementations. As a CFO and Deltek Vision user, Matt led the Vision conversion effort for his firm and managed Vision prior to becoming a consultant. Additionally, Matt has completed the PSMJ Project Manager and Financial Manager Boot Camps, and is an Internal Revenue Service Special Enrolled Agent, a Federally Licensed Tax Practitioner.

“We are excited to have Matt join the Full Sail Partners’ team,” said Scott Seal, Vice President of Consulting. “Matt’s background in Accounting and Project Management, both as a Deltek Vision Power User and Vision Consultant, provides more depth and expertise to our collaborative consulting team. Matt’s extensive 20+ years’ of experience in the professional services industry allows him to provide unique insight that will help our clients to better leverage their Deltek Vision systems.”

For more information, please contact Full Sail Partners’ Marketing Communications Department. Interested in learning more about the Full Sail Partners' team? Check out our crew!

Full Sail Partners, a Deltek Premier Partner, announces that Matt McCauley EA, MS has joined the firm as a Principal Consultant. Mr. McCauley’s hire expands the Full Sail Partners’ team to more than 30 professionals focused on technology solutions. His extensive knowledge of the Deltek product set and proven consulting expertise are an ideal match to help clients streamline business processes and achieve greater efficiency from their Deltek Vision ERP system.

With more than 20 years in the professional services industry, Matt has the insight that will allow him to identify the unique requirements of our clients. He specializes in Deltek Vision’s Core Applications, Resource Planning, VPM, and most recently, Fixed Assets.

“My prior experience as a CFO and a Deltek Vision client will help me bring a client-based end user approach to Vision consulting,” said Matt. “I’m excited to work closely with clients to implement Vision in a way that complements their business processes and to improve operational efficiencies.” 

Throughout his career, Matt has worked as both a client and a consultant, providing a unique perspective during client implementations. As a CFO and Deltek Vision user, Matt led the Vision conversion effort for his firm and managed Vision prior to becoming a consultant. Additionally, Matt has completed the PSMJ Project Manager and Financial Manager Boot Camps, and is an Internal Revenue Service Special Enrolled Agent, a Federally Licensed Tax Practitioner.

“We are excited to have Matt join the Full Sail Partners’ team,” said Scott Seal, Vice President of Consulting. “Matt’s background in Accounting and Project Management, both as a Deltek Vision Power User and Vision Consultant, provides more depth and expertise to our collaborative consulting team. Matt’s extensive 20+ years’ of experience in the professional services industry allows him to provide unique insight that will help our clients to better leverage their Deltek Vision systems.”

For more information, please contact Full Sail Partners’ Marketing Communications Department. Interested in learning more about the Full Sail Partners' team? Check out our crew!

Full Sail Partners, a Deltek Vision Premier Partner, has released the Deltek Vision Connector for Constant Contact, an integration of Deltek Vision and Constant Contact.

The Deltek Vision Connector for Constant Contact allows Deltek Vision CRM users to seamlessly create targeted Constant Contact email campaigns by leveraging real-time intelligence directly from Deltek Vision CRM. Once an email campaign is active, users are then able to analyze the results of these campaigns directly in their Deltek Vision system.

“We are really excited to help professional services firms maintain consistency between their Deltek Vision and Constant Contact systems,” said Peter Nuffer, Director of Solution Development at Full Sail Partners. “Users of this integration are refining their messaging and crafting more meaningful campaigns for their readers.”

Connectivity between Deltek Vision and Constant Contact gives users the ability to create more comprehensive email marketing campaigns, reduce labor intensive manual processes and better capture marketing ROI. This mutual relationship between data will allow your marketing team to save countless hours over the duration of a marketing campaign.

“As  one of the first users of the Deltek Vision Constant Contact integration, BG Buildingworks was excited to sync our contacts between our Deltek Vision CRM system and Constant Contact,” said Karen Crilly, Director of Marketing and Client Development for BG Buildingworks. “We used the integration to setup a campaign to announce our company name change. We were able to create a Constant Contact campaign directly from our Deltek Vision CRM system to notify over 4,500 contacts. The campaign went off without a hitch and we saw nearly a 30% open rate on our mailer.”

Interested in learning more about the integration of Deltek Vision and Constant Contact? Click below to learn more.

Full Sail Partners, a Premier Partner for Deltek and the Client Feedback Tool, is pleased to announce the hire of Amy Balassone in the role of Direct Marketing Associate. In this role, Amy will work with the marketing and sales team to communicate the value of Deltek Vision to the professional services industry. With more than 12 years of customer service, sales, and marketing experience, Amy will conduct market research on management consulting firms to extend the Full Sail Partners brand beyond the AE industry.

“What has impressed me most about the company is their customer service and dedication to their clients, “ says Amy Balassone, Direct Marketing Associate. “I feel privileged to be a part of a company that takes a consultative sales approach to ensure prospects are the right fit for the software. That customer focused mentality is what makes this company great and easy to work for.”

Amy will support the company’s growth goals and provides the firm with the brand awareness development experience needed for Full Sail Partners to help project-based firms develop their systems and processes.

“Amy’s tenacious, yet easy-going personality combines the right touch needed to target new verticals,” said Sarah Gonnella, Full Sail Partners’ Vice President of Marketing and Sales. “We are extremely honored to have Amy join our team. What is most impressive about Amy is her drive and resourcefulness. Her varied experience with marketing and sales along with her previous experience in the Navy as a data systems technician brought the right mix for this position.”

Full Sail Partners, a Deltek Premier Partner, announces that Jennifer Wilson has joined the firm as a SQL Developer. Ms. Wilson’s hire bolsters the Full Sail Partners’ team of solution developers. Jennifer will collaborate with clients and key stakeholders to help provide enhanced analytical insight into the information that impacts their business.

Jennifer joins Full Sail Partners with a strong background and acumen of database development and management. She brings with her the experience needed to successfully architect, design and populate business solutions that rely upon complex data sources.

“I enjoy the challenge of translating business processes and concepts into reports and visual aids in order to better assist clients with their analytical needs,” said Jennifer Wilson. “Professional services firms face unique challenges and requirements; I look forward to working with Deltek Vision users to streamline solutions.”

With a decade of experience in programming, reporting, product development and designing process automation, Jennifer’s background will provide valuable expertise to Full Sail Partners' customers in meeting their design, process and system improvement initiatives.

“We are thrilled to have Jennifer join the Full Sail Partners’ development staff,” said Peter Nuffer, Full Sail Partners’ Director of Product Development. “Jennifer brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the team. Her approach and work ethic has made the rollout of Deltek Vision custom solutions seamless, helping create a better experience for our customers.”

For more information, please contact Full Sail Partners’ Marketing Communications Department. Interested in learning more about the Full Sail Partners' team? Check out our crew!

Full Sail Partners and Planifi announced their recently formed strategic partnership. This alliance brings together Full Sail Partners’ world-class consulting services with Planifi’s industry-leading resource planning software “Project Analyzer” to provide architecture and engineering firms with a better way to manage their resources.

Project Analyzer is a visual resource planning software that enables project managers to quickly schedule, budget and staff projects. This graphic project management tool empowers firms to improve project planning by focusing on predictable and profitable delivery.

“We are excited to introduce Project Analyzer to our clients,” said Scott Seal, Full Sail Partners’ Vice President of Consulting. “We believe that Project Analyzer aligns with our core principals of helping professional services firms improve their business processes. Our clients will benefit from the increased visibility needed to make informed decisions around firm staffing, performance and revenue forecasts.”

Additionally, Michael Kessler, Principal Consultant at Full Sail Partners who successfully helps firms implement and utilize resource planning said, "I am looking forward to offering a powerful new planning solution to our customers. The reporting capabilities of Project Analyzer have been on my clients’ wish list for years."

This partnership will focus on enabling architecture and engineering firms to center their business on the project performance analytics that support better decision making by project managers and firm executives.

“This is a big day for Planifi,” said Tom Vandervort, Planifi founder. “This partnership will enable a whole new group of architecture and engineering firms to choose Planifi for their resource planning needs. Customers will benefit from the ability to select the solution that best works for them, all guided by Full Sail Partners’ expertise. Planifi customers will also benefit; as we are now able to offer enhanced consulting capabilities and solutions to our customers through Full Sail Partners.”

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.”

Full Sail Partners unveils new custom solutions and integrated offerings for Deltek Vision® ERP at Deltek Insight 2015. The Vision Connector Suite includes ready-to-go solutions focused on keeping professional services firms centered on efficient production by connecting their critical business systems.

The Full Sail Partners Vision Connector Suite allows quick connections from Deltek Vision to other API capable applications. This next generation framework allows both Deltek Vision cloud and on-premise systems to seamlessly integrate with best-in-class cloud applications like Constant Contact, MailChimp, SharePoint for Office 365, Client Feedback Tool, and more. This cutting edge technology allows firms to integrate critical business systems at a fraction of the development time and cost needed to build out similar solutions, with none of the traditional network topology restrictions. Solutions include:

Automated Feedback Process

Full Sail Partners is releasing version 2.0 for the Client Feedback Tool, a cloud solution built to help firms collect and incorporate feedback from their clients throughout the project life cycle. Leveraging the Vision Connector between these two systems was ideal for a prebuilt integration. A team of experts developed an automated process to reduce redundancy and improve efficiency while adhering to the feedback philosophy set forth by the Client Feedback Tool. Full Sail Partners integration with the Client Feedback Tool allows Deltek Vision clients to deploy surveys on-demand or through a batch process, as well as, view the survey response status directly in Vision.

Email Marketing Connectors

Deltek Vision now integrates with Constant Contact enabling firms to populate data directly to their email marketing tool from Deltek Vision CRM in a matter of minutes. The Connector maintains consistency between the two applications and eliminates manual importing and exporting of data. This mutual relationship between data will save marketing teams hundreds of hours each year. The solution provides tracking capabilities through the Deltek Vision Marketing Campaigns Info Center providing visibility that can be leveraged throughout the system. 

Deltek Vision Meets SharePoint Office 365

The SharePoint Connector is a quick and easy way to bring data in Deltek Vision and SharePoint into harmony. Beyond basic connectivity, the SharePoint Connector also integrates with Gig Werks’ ProjectReady Suite of Applications’ best in class SharePoint solutions built for the AEC industry. This bi-direction data synchronization ensures data accuracy and consistency across all of your projects.

“We look forward to expanding our investment in business productivity and integration offerings,” said Peter Nuffer, Director of Solution Development at Full Sail Partners. “We’ve effectively established a layer of functionality on top of the Vision API that will allow Deltek Vision administrators to setup easy point and click ready-to-go solutions with low costs and high tech results.”

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: