Customer Success Story
Sierra Nevada
Defense contractor achieves instantaneous status of programs with Deltek solution
The Challenge
When the word came from the chief executives that managers needed to be accountable for every aspect of scheduling, resource utilization, and cost performance related to their programs, the Program Support Office of SNC went to work. SNC, a provider of electronic software and instruments for the defense industry, was already using Deltek Cobra™ for cost control and earned value management. To meet the executive directive, the Program Support Office needed a comprehensive scheduling and enterprise project management system that would integrate with Cobra. The office also had to find a way to make the program schedule and cost information visible throughout the enterprise.
They needed to choose new systems that would be accepted by scores of program managers who were used to their own, often manual, ways of tracking and reporting information. They also had to take scalability into account, due to the growing number of SNC subsidiaries and the potential for hundreds of projects active at any given time.
Although the challenge was significant, the potential return on investment was worth the challenge. If done right, new systems could help SNC improve accountability, enhance customer relationships, and secure its foundation for strategic company growth.
The Solution
A few years later, these hoped-for results became reality. “We chose Open Plan for scheduling because it worked so well with Cobra and it had the Web-based access via the WelcomHome portal,” says Connie Luna, Senior Program Controls Manager with SNC. “The Web portal was particularly important to us in terms of program visibility. It was critical for our executives to be able to access all program information in one place.”
“Today, thanks to the Welcom products, we're able to see exactly where we are on any program, and we're able to respond more quickly and accurately to our customers,” she adds. “This has definitely contributed to the growth we're experiencing.”
The Benefits
SNC has experienced 30 percent growth per year for the past several years due to growing demand for its products supporting air traffic control; unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems; instrumentation, test, and training systems; and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems. A privately held company, SNC is a contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense and a subcontractor for other prime defense contractors.
Deltek Cobra and Deltek Open Plan™ are used extensively in business pursuit and proposal stages as well as in the management of the resultant contracts. The process begins at the pursuit stage, where probable orders are entered into Open Plan. These pursuits are projected to include labor, materials, and Other Direct Costs (ODCs) requirements. For proposals, the Proposal/Program Manager loads the schedule into Open Plan. Basis of Estimate (BOE) data is also generated from the data loaded into Open Plan. Then the program is integrated with Cobra to provide the pricing data. When the proposal is submitted to the customer, it shows a schedule that is linked to specific tasks that are linked to specific resources.
Having the proposal established in Open Plan provides an easy transition for the Program Manager to then move to the program stage. The Program Manager reports on status and earned value and updates the Estimate to Complete (ETC), which addresses total expected costs for all work remaining on the contract. By capturing all of this information in Cobra and Open Plan, Luna says, the office can track the actual time, resources, and expenditures for a program and use those metrics to better determine schedules and costs for future proposals.
With more than 450 employees at SNC, in addition to the subsidiaries in 16 locations throughout the United States, SNC realized a Web portal providing current data from Open Plan and Cobra was crucial. As a result, geographically dispersed program managers and team members, as well as SNC's executives, access information through Deltek WelcomHome™.
“Our CEO keeps close contact with all of our customers, and he needs to know the status of programs and any potential issues before the customer brings them to his attention,” Luna says. “With visibility through WelcomHome, he can see exactly where we are on the programs. Then he can share that information with customers or show customers how they can access information through the portal.”
The CEO frequently accesses top-level program summaries, which include CPI (cost performance index) and SPI (schedule performance index). This view — (showing budgeted cost of work scheduled, budgeted cost of work performed, actual cost of work performed, and the schedule and cost indices) — gives him a snapshot of program health, including any problems. The CEO also checks summary reports by business area; in each of these, he can also drill down into schedule or cost details.
The CEO is not the only senior executive who had very specific requirements for SNC's project management solution. “The direction from our CFO was that she wanted to see project information not only specific to SNC, but also specific to each of the subsidiaries,” Luna says. “So we have Open Plan centralized at SNC's headquarters and accessed through Windows Terminal Services by program managers at the subsidiaries.” This allows SNC to have one centralized data repository for all program information across its operations, which enables all staff, regardless of location, to access the information quickly.
SNC's human resource department uses WelcomHome to stay on top of the company's labor requirements. Using a customized Resource Management Report, based on live data from Cobra, the department reviews labor usage, projected usage, and capacity to determine if any hiring requirements or underutilization issues should be addressed.
| The Challange | The Solution | The Deltek Advantage |
| They needed to choose a new system that would be accepted by scores of program managers who were used to their own, often manual, ways of tracking and reporting information. | Deltek Open Plan was chosen for scheduling because it worked so well with Cobra, and it had the Web-based access via the WelcomHome portal. |
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Luna says SNC puts “100 percent emphasis” on its programs, which are the lifeblood of SNC's defense contracts. With the help of Cobra, Open Plan, and WelcomHome, SNC staff and executives manage the programs in ways needed to ensure success. “With Welcom products, the overriding benefit is that they give our top-level management insight at a glance into where we are with every program that we have on contract,” Luna says. “We get instantaneous answers to the status of our programs. We have accurate cost and schedule information, and at any point, we can view this through the WelcomHome Web portal.”
Open Plan is an enterprise-wide project management system that substantially improves a company's ability to manage and complete multiple projects on time and within budget. Unlike less sophisticated products, Open Plan is a highly integrated, comprehensive software system that can be customized to fit specific corporate requirements. It is the most technically advanced client/server project management system on the market, using the latest in Microsoft Windows® development technology. These attributes were instrumental in PennDOT's selection of Deltek software. Open Plan comes in three editions—Open Plan Professional, Open Plan Desktop, and Open Plan Enterprise—to serve the different needs and responsibilities of project managers, team members, executives, and subcontractors.
“Because the department can have 1,000 or more design jobs underway at any one time, PennDOT needed more than a stand-alone project package,” says Jim Sideris, senior project manager for KPMG, which assisted PennDOT in the selection process. “Open Plan's ease of use, consistent interface, and ODBC compliance combined to set Welcom apart from the competition.”