Customer Success Story
FKP Architects, Inc.
Leading A&E Firm Moves from Sema4 to Vision to Unify Their Organization
The Challenge
At what level of efficiency does a hospital run to provide the most value to a community? As emerging technologies interface with patient care, how does the environment support health and wellness? These are the real issues the design and planning staff at FKP are challenged to address. So they didn't need their own in-house resources and technologies to be a challenge too. To run their business, and provide the kind of just-in-time data that creates value, they chose to implement Deltek Vision.
With over 200 employees across three U.S. locations, FKP was a long-time Sema4 customer, which was a product acquired by Deltek in 2000. As a financial and project management system, Sema4 worked well for FKP. However, as their organization expanded, it was not robust enough to unify FKP's organization. For example, Sema4 was unable to unite, in one system, the functions of various teams and departments, including human resources and marketing.
FKP wanted a system that would not only integrate distinct departments and databases, but also ensure a smooth migration of the legacy Sema4 data to the new solution. In addition, they needed a solution with real-time reporting capabilities, and one that offered web and mobile access for remote employees. These requirements led FKP to Vision.
The Solution
Based on a strong relationship with Deltek as long-time Sema4 users, FKP decided that moving to Vision was the perfect strategic choice for their organization. "We had enjoyed a very positive experience service-wise with Deltek, and knew with Vision that we'd continue to get an extraordinarily high level of support," said Nann Pearce, FKP's Chief Financial Officer. The ability to customize Vision to meet their unique needs was an important driver of moving to this integrated solution. "What many people don't realize is that within this powerful tool are even more powerful utilities to customize almost every aspect of your business," Pearce continued.
FKP implemented a full suite of Vision modules, opting to install the time and expense, budgeting, accounting, CRM, proposal management, resource and project management, and mobilization modules. FKP turned to Deltek partner PSTC to assist with the implementation. "PSTC was great to work with through the implementation because they took the time to understand how I wanted to use Vision - what I wanted out of it based on how I used Sema4 - and that was a huge benefit," Pearce said.
In just six months, FKP was able to seamlessly migrate data to Vision, implement key modules of the software, and train staff on how to use the new solution. FKP also took full advantage of Vision's customization features to meet their specific needs. "For our back-office and front-office operations, we want Vision running the show," Pearce added.
The Benefit
Vision's benefits are already being felt enterprise-wide. Today, project managers can budget by task, and see project fees, billing rates, and costs in real-time without having to wait for time-consuming reports to be run. Contracts and approved purchase orders are now "live" within individual projects, reducing the amount of paper used for reporting. Employee information is entered once and accessible by HR, accounting, and marketing teams. "Vision is so robust that you can start with what you want to do and customize it to get exactly what you need out of it," Pearce stated.
In addition to gaining real-time, up-to-date information for time and expense tracking, the accounting team now has the ability to manage an engagement through the entire project lifecycle and move it from a promotional project to a regular project, which included converting its costs to a regular project to recover the marketing investment.
Today, with accessible dashboard reporting across the entire organization unified by a single, centralized database for all internal operations, Deltek Vision helps FKP effectively manage 470+ projects across their multiple offices.
FKP Architects, Inc. At A Glance
Company Name: FKP Architects, Inc.
Headquarters: Houston, Texas
Business Summary: FKP Architects, Inc. is a 70-year-old, Texas-based, full-service architecture and consulting firm with offices in Houston and Dallas. The firm provides design, planning and consulting services to healthcare institutions, research facilities and higher education campuses.
URL: www.fkp.com
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The implementation of Deltek Vision enabled FKP to:
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