#deltek advantage

[doriscahill]

Road Trip: Headlights on Deltek Cloud + Software Licensing, by Doris Cahill, CPA

Hi this is Doris!

Alone the traveler gets to observe and feel unencumbered by others.  It's neat to meet colleagues born elsewhere without influence.  Those encounters bring new ideas to the table and that connection hones my thought processes. 

If you follow my writings or even know me a little, you'd know or at least have an inkling that I hit the road a lot and it's very okay to be alone.  And that's what I did just last week in NYC (i.e. pre-Sandy :-() - I attended a futuristic meeting on Deltek in the cloud and the future of product licensing.  The meeting was sponsored by Deltek and CCG Group, good food. 

As luck would have it, the meeting focus was a topic of interest for me.  From the tech and licensing side, What is going to happen next to Deltek Vision?  Having just come off Deltek Insight 2012 and my recent opinion blog on Version 7.0 (http://doriscahill.tumblr.com), it was good to find that this complementary session had some new stuff to tell me.  Deltek has honed its cloud offering for Vision so it's pretty much Vision and traditional Vision or the cloud version on a subscription only basis.  

That's a mouth full, Vision in the cloud and subscription only basis.  Hmmmm, not for nothing but one thinks must I go to the cloud?  Apparently no, not yet, it's not appropriate for everyone.  For instance if you have customs and maybe lots of ODBC calls.  Does a subscription mean I do not own the licensing?  Apparently so, one renews on term.  Those on old licensing can switch I think to subscription, but for now will not be asked to switch, that's a bit unsettling.  Your data is always yours - nice.  Owning one's data makes sense, however rather useless without software.  So one is managing licenses ever few years on a subscription basis, like an insurance policy, adding and removing pieces/parts to meet current needs 

Ok, one could see this change coming if you follow licensing in the software industry. My two cents: not outright ownership of software could stabilize revenues. Meaning when you lapse you do not own any licenses outright and thus you have no right to use the software without paying in perpetually. 

Hey, do not shoot the messenger, free markets tend to adjust themselves and my guess is that some firms will say "who cares, Deltek's solution is at a fair price," while others will walk away.  For those of you still on Deltek Advantage, you should anticipate this trend, meaning the field has narrowed for project-based accounting solutions, not widened, and it's a lot for a software company to remain in business for a buyer that swings by every 20 years to spend a few grand.  Vision and other solutions like Axium Ajera take continued R&D to develop, they just do. If the price is wrong relative to the value it provides the market flushes it out. 

This blog is just a consulting opinion and once in a while deliberately ruffles Deltek and client feathers. 

[doriscahill]

Raising the Bar: Deltek Vision Multi-Company

Raising the Bar:   Deltek Vision Multi-Company

Life is good for DMC.  Our team is increasingly sought after for both the accounting + technology solutions that we provide.  When founding DMC over 15 years ago, it took a significant amount of time and collaboration to develop our imprint on the professional services community.  Now, in 2012, our current and prospective clients understand what we offer and the value that we bring.  The result has been growth and our future looks bright.

As a service based firm DMC thinks a lot about why clients return to us and refer us. Despite the gloom and doom of economics we continue to survive, frankly pretty darn well, even in the midst of naysayers.  Why?   I’m not super sure, except I know that we are willing to push the knowledge we have and expand in areas others avoid. Case in point, this spring, in the midst of the newest solar flare scare/ world-is-coming-to-an-end reports and continued terrorism, DMC was busy working on two consecutive Multi-company upgrades from Deltek Advantage to Vision plus Vision to Multi-company for a 5.2 to 6.2 Vision user. 

We are operational accountants...we know general ledger and billing, are fearless on job cost work break down execution and are not afraid of the technical side.  We do not shy away from pushing the configuration of standard Vision reports and are willing to develop custom reports and workflows to make the Deltek investment pay off for long time users.

Multi-Company came naturally to us; our clients firms are growing and have new needs; we know general ledger and projects, all of which equals a perfect DMC fit. Configuring the multi-company needs, mapping and/or consolidating growing client databases fit naturally within in our skill set.

For any service firm, here’s some advice: just push your skill set to meet the client need. Continue to change and evolve.  No solar flare will disrupt you.

[doriscahill]

Doris Fishing Story: Making the World's favorite Sport Work for you

Fishing is the most popular sport in the world, Really? My first encounter with fishing sticks with me. Many of my  childhood memories do, yet   yesterday's events do not. It was summertime,  Ball Pond was a good mile and a half walk from my Nuna's in New Fairfield, CT and each summer I stayed at Nuna's with countless other cousins. I must have been a bit over 10 years old maybe 11 or 12 tops.  A young neighborhood boy asked me to go fishing. I said yes, sure seemed like fun, not exactly a date, more tomboy.  The next day mid morning, we met up in front of the house and began the walk.  Nuna lived on a back road through  street to Brewster NY. The  cars whizzed  by on this narrow   road. It  ran  uphill to the pond heavily lined by old pine, birch and oak trees. With  poles and can in hand we set off. 

Once we reached the top of the hill, he seamed to know the way from there and reached the pond.  There it was, the row boat. 

I can still smell the dry chalky wood planks, vision the  gray color and  the less than safe  feeling as we stepped in. Now Seated and rocking, one could see  the visible cracks in all the boards and if you sat gingerly splinters could be avoided. I was good at that, it was akin to not sticking to a school chair in a skirt, you moved carefully to never fully adhere like duck tape. No recollection of life preservers or anchor. 

Otherwise prepared we had our hardy coffee can of worms with some low cost rods. So we rowed, then rowed  some more.  We reached the middle of the pond and sat. Hours passed, noon came and the fire house whistle blew. No clouds.  Heat set in. Did anyone bring water? More time passed or maybe what seemed like more time.Then, nausea set in, more sun and heat. "take me home" I felt like passing out,  thus we rowed in and walked back to my Nuna's for yummy meatballs. Oh yes, no fish ,but great meatballs. 

I never mastered being a fisherman in the true sense. No real fish at least, no Pro-Bassman in me. What I was able to master and still try to make better is what fishing represented. I caught no fish that day, because its just not that simple.  Fishing in Mid day sun?  Not all  fish eat worms and  some fish don't hang out in the middle of the pond. 

Not knowing much about fish that day none  made my hook.  I fish in business and life every day now: I get up early, dawn usually, I spend time learning about the fish before I try and catch them.  Only try to feed them what they like, and look to where they really live, like the rich crevasses of rocks. Oh yes, I hang out with good fisherman to teach you. So we are all fisherman, Peter in the bible was and late in life it makes more sense. Thanks for listening.

Bald Eagle in action picture.

[doriscahill]

Deltek Advantage Advisory Letter

January 21, 2012

  Dear Deltek Advantage client,  

It has been a pleasure to work with your firm over many years. We think about our clients even when periods of time pass, that is, you’re actively working with us now or not. So, I am writing you out of both concern and advisement. We believe your firm needs a new project accounting software solution.  In my best estimate, our Geographic area New England, there remain hundreds of Deltek Advantage clients that have not addressed changing software. Also, as we/DMC continue to navigate Advantage support, those issues have become increasingly difficult to solve for.

DMC Accounting + Technology is a consulting firm; yes we understand software is an expense, change is hard and the economy in, what seems be, too long of recession. It’s just not making good business sense anymore given what comes across my consulting desk and to continue to encourage trusted relationships to “stay the course”. In my opinion, Deltek Advantage is not supported for new technical releases, payroll releases and technology IS changing, not on hold.

Kindly place this in your firms’ budgeting for 2012 and open discussions with us. From what I see firms have recovered with better profits for 2011, as IT departments not just the accounting departments have increased calls to us for help. Those calls increase in severity.

We work, understand, the finance/accounting, implementation, educational and technical install of two leading professional service solutions. Yes, Deltek Vision, but also Axium Ajera. Why? Our clients wanted selection and I selected Axium’s Ajera solution as great alternate when appropriate. That facts are, we have serviced over 40 Ajera clients, not just 70 Vision solution clients and there are still hundreds on Advantage, that is worrisome. We are not resellers, we are great consultants.

I too am sad Advantage is no longer developed but plenty of firms are happy and fine moving past it. Please contact us, look for our upcoming user group and seminars and for any reason you should not have received this letter just let us know, we will correct our systems. 

Truly,

Doris M. Cahill, CPA 

President

DMC Accounting + Technology

[doriscahill]

Re-Tool or Buy More Accounting Software?

What matters more? Upgrading software or fixing what doesn't work in your accounting? 2011  Budgets are not as tight  but spending patterns are still acting like it it. From our side, this year  was slow in respect to upgrades and new implementations, but large in regards to fixing what clients do not like in their software.  What I am saying, is firms are spending money, just not on software. Case in point, in all our key supported AEC service areas: Deltek Vision, Deltek Advantage and Axium Ajera our project work has been all about making it work, making it better. This year has been greatly satisfying for us. Our work efforts resulted in :  Billing templates that reduce production time, Depart and Profit Center re-work, so  financial information can be best managed, simplified core project reporting that upper management designed. All our work was NOT in excel, but inside the existing investment. (i.e. the software)  Sure, we think our clients need to address IT upgrades and replace software. However, in 2011 getting software to work is a better use of dollars.