Customer Success Story
BAE Systems – USA DoD
Deltek Cobra™ helps BAE Systems handle EVMS reporting and more.
Deltek enhanced its ability to provide critical earned value management (EVM) offerings to its broad project-focused customer base with the acquisition of Welcom in March 2006.
Overview
BAE Systems wanted a cost management system that would satisfy government standards and rigorous internal reporting, as well as integrate with existing scheduling tools and financial systems. Deltek Cobra was chosen because it allowed the team to integrate schedules with earned value management requirements. BAE Systems’ choice of Cobra and their implementation approach gave the program team more time to analyze variance and Estimate-to-Complete on a $200 million project. Cobra also helped BAE to win award fees for meeting key milestones.
The Need
Companies in the defense and aerospace industry have always faced enormous pressure to complete projects on time and within budget.
Recently, this pressure has taken on new meaning. Concerns over global stability are at an all-time high, and all eyes are on defense.
The responsibility is palpable at BAE Systems’ Information & Electronic Warfare Systems (IEWS) business unit, which produces aircraft electronic combat and self-protection systems as well as tactical surveillance and intelligence systems for all branches of the armed forces. Other major business areas include missile and space electronics, infrared imaging, and automated mission planning systems. IEWS employs some 4,400 people in five states.
Beginning in 1998, IEWS took a hard look at its earned value management system. IEWS has held a tri-validated earned value management system through the United States Department of Defense since 1992. They were in the process of updating to the government’s latest Earned Value Management System (EVMS) from the older 5000.2 Cost/Schedule Control System, when they decided to upgrade their earned value management tool.
“We chose Cobra initially because it allowed us to integrate schedules with earned value management requirements. This was something we were unable to do with our previous tool,” remembers Mark Waks, manager of Financial Systems for BAE Systems.
The Results
Cobra satisfied the significant IEWS reporting requirements. IEWS wanted to see budget, actuals, and earned value, broken down by work, organization, control account, integrated product team, organizational function, and business area. They also needed the flexibility to see data in both hours and dollars. They wanted to be able to integrate data from their earned value system to an internal software system, which would allow a cross-sectional view of the data by function and/or major business area.
“We chose Cobra initially because it allowed us to integrate schedules with earned value management requirements. This was something we were unable to do with our previous tool,” remembers Mark Waks.
“Cobra’s flexible reporting capabilities and open architecture were key factors in our decision,” says Sheila Lessard, Cobra Project Lead, for BAE Systems.
Schedule integration was imperative, therefore IEWS schedulers were on the front lines of the implementation. Financial Systems took the unique approach of training Cobra using a hands-on implementation process.
“Most of our users came to the table with their own unique blend of understanding how the prior tool functioned,” says Sheila Lessard.
“We took the extra step to implement Cobra using an on site approach to ensure that the training process was rolled out in a standard format. Our users felt more comfortable with the tool using this personal approach and we could ensure that it was being utilized the way that the company intended.”
The Future
Deltek’s ongoing support ensured that the implementation went smoothly.
“Welcom was always responsive whenever we had a question or problem, and they were there with quick resolutions to any issues that arose,” says Mark Waks.
During the Cobra implementation, BAE had an engineering development contract valued at more than $200 million.
Recognizing that Cobra could benefit this program, Financial Systems was called in to implement Cobra only four weeks prior to an Integrated Baseline Review (IBR). The program team gave this implementation their full support.
The group transferred all key data into Cobra in a miraculously short period of time. Once the data was in Cobra, the company was able to examine the “to go” effort (the remaining half of the project), which entailed more than 10,000 activities.
| The Problem | The Solution | The Deltek Advantage |
| BAE Systems wanted a cost management system that would satisfy government standards and rigorous internal reporting, as well as integrate with existing scheduling tools and financial systems. | Deltek Cobra was chosen because it allowed the team to integrate schedules with earned value management requirements. |
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Using Cobra, IEWS members could see the impact to earned value based on schedule performance. This had been impossible to accomplish with the old software. Thirty days later, IEWS passed the IBR with no major findings. And the results did not stop there. Since that implementation, the project has been able to improve their situation and win several award fees for meeting key milestones.
“The customer is very happy with the new process,” says Lessard. “Cobra really allowed us to streamline the reporting process so that we can spend the majority of our time analyzing variances and estimates to complete. Previously, much of our time was spent producing the report instead of analyzing the data.”
The unit does not limit the software to use on large EVMS programs only. It also uses the tool for non-EVMS related purposes, such as smaller projects under $2 million and internal projects.
IEWS currently uses Cobra to handle 550+ active projects with 150+ users across ten sites. This is accomplished with only three trainers/support personnel. The company enjoys the benefits of standardized project reporting, cross-project reporting, flexible coding, integration between cost and schedule, and more in-depth analysis.
“We are now able to view performance data by business function across all projects; it gives us visibility at a functional level that we’ve never had before,” says Mark Waks.
“Cobra really allowed us to streamline the reporting process so that we can spend the majority of our time analyzing variances and estimates to complete,” says Lessard. “The customer is very happy with the new process,”