|
|
|
|
| Case Studies
|
|
|
|
|
|
New York City Housing Authority/Oracle (July 2008)
|
|
|
|
|
|
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) oversees North America’s largest public housing programme. In addition to
managing more than 2,700 residential buildings, NYCHA administers a city-wide Section 8 rent subsidy programme and a
broad range of educational, recreational and job-training initiatives. The authority’s funding comes from a combination of
government subsidies and grants, rent from tenants and other sources. About 420,000 people – 5.2% of the city’s population –
live in NYCHA housing developments in five boroughs.
In 2002, NYCHA launched a broad-based initiative to upgrade its business systems to support cost-saving improvements such
as more sophisticated budgeting and financial management, a more efficient procurement programme, and a streamlined
materials management system, among other capabilities. Called Project BEST (for Business Enterprise Systems
Transformation), the investment replaced NYCHA’s ageing IT infrastructure – a fragmented and expensive-to-maintain mix of
software applications and vendors – with a consolidated platform running a single-instance of Oracle E-Business Suite.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Buro Four/Deltek – exclusive interview (May 2008)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Buro Four is an independent project management and consultancy company with over 140 people. It provides project
direction and management, plus a range of consultancy services for business, property and construction clients.
Over the past 22 years, the projects it has managed include the Young Vic Theatre, new headquarters for the National Trust
and Vodafone, private houses, a centre of excellence for the Lawn Tennis Association, a new arts and media facility for
Goldsmiths College and 15 new city academy schools. Buro Four was using a 1990s accounting system supported by an ever-increasing number of spreadsheets, rather than a
specific project management system, to run the business. It needed a system that would grow with its needs and deal with the whole business, not just the accounts aspect or the
resource management side. An evaluation team was put together that represented the whole business. It looked at a significant number of products and eventually came across Deltek Vision at a trade show.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Trust/PLI-SofTools (May 2008)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Trust results from the amalgamation of three existing trusts: Surrey Oaklands NHS Trust,
Surrey Hampshire Borders Partnership NHS Trust and North West Surrey Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust. The
integration aims to deliver greater economies of scale and to transform mental health care in line with both local and national
needs and expectations. The organisation is the third largest mental health and learning disability trust in the country and the
biggest outside London, employing approximately 5,000 staff. The board and executive team needed to implement a best-practice approach to change and programme management
with tools that would provide both visibility and control of programme status for key stakeholders across the organisation. Project Leaders International (PLI) was chosen for the project because it was uniquely positioned in offering a PRINCE2-
compliant but pragmatic approach that helps to ensure successful programme outcomes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
UK Atomic Energy Authority/Deltek (December 2007)
|
|
|
|
|
|
The UK Atomic Energy Authority's (UKAEA) core business is nuclear clean-up. It is Europe’s most experienced decommissioning
company, with a proven record of restoring sites and regenerating them to leave a positive legacy. It manages the clean-up
of former civil research sites at Dounreay, Harwell, Windscale and Winfrith in the UK, and provides technical consultancy
services to customers around the world. To ensure the stringent control and measurement of the clean-up of the UK’s 20 civil nuclear sites, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has specified that all contractors working on
the project use Earned Value Management (EVM). As a means of enforcing the use of Earned Value guidelines and processes, the NDA and its main contractors, which include UKAEA, have chosen to use Deltek’s costing and EVM system, COBRA.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Beardsley Design Associates/Deltek & kpi-insight consulting (August 2007)
|
|
|
|
|
|
With the hype-inflated dotcom boom long gone and the recession continuing to eliminate firms with anaemic business models,
many companies founded in the 1990s have failed to reach the milestone of being one decade old. This is not a problem for
Beardsley Design, which not only survived the 1990s but also the 10 preceding decades. Founded in 1898 and now in its
second century of success, the Auburn, New York-based architecture, engineering and landscape architecture firm continues
to grow professionally and economically. Among the company’s more prominent recent accomplishments, it has opened two
new offices in Syracuse and Malone, New York and received design awards for Excellence in Educational Design and in
Geothermal Design. Beardsley saw the need to incorporate all of its front and back-office processes into a single fully integrated professional
services automation solution. Having been a Deltek client since the mid-1980s, Beardsley had been aware of the development
plans for such a solution, to be called Deltek Vision.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
HOK/Deltek – exclusive interview (May 2007)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Founded in 1955 in St Louis, Missouri, HOK (Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum) has grown significantly on the basis of its aim
to be ‘the world leader in innovation for the built environment’. In its first year, the company grossed fees of $750,000. It
passed the $1 million mark seven years later and topped $15 million in 1976. Its latest results show fees of more than
$400 million. Today, HOK has over 2,100 employees worldwide and is a global provider of design and project delivery
services. Its expertise includes architecture, engineering, interiors, planning, lighting, graphics, facilities planning and
assessment, and construction services.
HOK’s Sport + Venue + Event subsidiary is a leading public assembly design firm. Its UK projects include The All England
Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, the Emirates Stadium for Arsenal FC, Ascot racecourse and the design for
the new Wembley Stadium. HOK installed a PSA solution, Deltek Vision, to integrate its
accounting, marketing and project management, allowing staff to share information and deliver projects seamlessly
worldwide.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hertel Services/IFS (May 2007)
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Hertel Group is a leading European provider of maintenance service support for industrial, commercial and
manufacturing industries. The UK business is growing at around 10% per annum and with annual sales of £120 million, it
accounts for nearly half of the group’s total business. Hertel (UK) Limited operates through a network of over 60 customer
site offices and 11 regional centres. Activities range from project surveys and reports, to total solutions for rectification and
ongoing monitoring. Hertel’s workforce is fairly transient, and within regions personnel can be moved between sites as projects progress. Better HR
facilities were needed for maintaining employee records. Other requirements included a more efficient means for accruing
costs against customer accounts. Since implementing IFS Applications, Hertel has seen its business become more efficient. With the elimination of paper-based
transactions, purchasing and invoicing processes have become more streamlined. Better access to accurate information also
means that accounting has improved and productivity has increased.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Carole Nash Insurance/Asta Development – exclusive interview (May 2006)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Carole Nash Insurance Consultants Ltd is the UK and Ireland’s biggest motorcycle insurance specialist, and one of the UK’s
top 30 insurance brokers, with a portfolio of insurance products covering modern, classic and vintage motorcycles, classic
cars, travel and mainstream motors. Company founder Carole Nash started the business in 1985 with a £2,500 redundancy
cheque, working from her dining-room table. Her company, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last November, has now
captured around 30% of the UK motorcycle insurance market. It employs nearly 400 staff and generates an annual income
of over £70 million. With the company changing and expanding, Carole Nash’s IT department can run up to 90 projects
simultaneously, often linked to business process improvement. The department has adopted Asta Teamplan project
management software to help in this, used by 25 IT managers and staff. The company is considering extending its use of
Teamplan to the wider business.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sherston Publishing Group/Asta Development (February 2006)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Five years ago Sherston Publishing Group took the decision to set up development operations in India. At that time, Sherston had four UK
based developers producing five software titles a year. Now, thanks to significant funding being released into the
education sector solely for the purchase of electronic curriculum content, Sherston has increased its development team
to 160 producing over 40 media rich titles per year. Asta Teamplan has enabled Sherston to overcome the problems created through distance by maintaining a much
tighter management process through the use of Asta Teamplan. Developers in India complete online timesheets that
are approved and then incorporated back into the centrally held project database in the UK.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tanzania Accountant General's Department/Epicor (October 2005)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tanzania has a population of 38 million, and so is amongst East Africa’s most populated countries. The World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund and other bilateral development partners have provided funds to help rehabilitate
Tanzania’s economic infrastructure and to alleviate poverty. The Government of Tanzania is made up of 43 ministries
with the majority based in the capital, Dar es Salaam. These in turn support governmental structures in 21 regions and
150 local authorities, as well as working closely with non-governmental agencies and external development partners. An external review of government finances in 1993 identified serious shortcomings, which
included an adverse business culture with insufficient accountability at all levels of the organisation, with over-spending
running at the equivalent of 10% of GDP, further contributing to an accumulated debt burden of nearly $10 billion. The
key challenge was to put the country’s accounting and financial management on a firmer footing by introducing control
on commitments and expenditures through an appropriate approval hierarchy and a control system specific to the public
sector. Epicor Enterprise Financials as a customisable and scalable solution was chosen as the universal
framework across all Tanzanian governmental ministries, departments and agencies.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cavotec/Epicor (October 2005)
|
|
|
|
|
|
As a multinational company, Cavotec Group relied on various different local solutions across its offices to meet
business management needs. However, as the company went through further global expansion, adopting a single
solution across all offices became imperative. The platform needed to be versatile enough to meet the local
requirements of each office, as well as easy to roll out and implement across the various Cavotec sites.
The chosen solution was Epicor iScala, offering simplified business functionality alongside rapid implementation time.
With the release of Epicor Scala 2.2, Cavotec has embarked on a project to create a regional database structure that
will allow for more timely consolidated reports. With 80% of the organisation now running the same core applications
and more business divisions upgrading on a weekly basis, Cavotec is reaping benefits in both technical support and
financial reporting.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Canon Localisation Services/Asta Development (September 2005)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Canon Localisation Services (CLS), a UK-based business unit within Canon Europe, has been localising software and
documentation relating to Canon’s business machines since 1995. Localisation is the process of adapting and
translating a software application for a local market, making it linguistically and culturally appropriate. CLS currently
carries out translation into more than 25 languages with a team of eight project managers, three resource managers, 20
software engineers and testers, and a fluctuating number of contractors. The team typically works on more than 50
projects at any one time. More recently, CLS has also been offering its services to third parties. Back in 2002, CLS needed an easy-to-use system that would provide managers with an enterprise-wide view of the
time, money and people aspects of managing multiple projects. CLS implemented Asta Teamplan in October 2002 to help combat these challenges.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Millward Brown/Maconomy (July 2005)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and with more than 60 offices across 40 countries, the Millward Brown Group
is one of the world’s 10 leading market research companies. As one of the fastest growing research companies in the world, Millward Brown needed a business management
system that was flexible enough to cope with its growth and capable of supporting its project-based operations across
geographies and legal entities. Using the Maconomy corporate hosting concept and the Maconomy enterprise portal, the Maconomy solution brings
Millward Brown online and supports its entire global organisation.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
RAMBØLL/Maconomy (July 2005)
|
|
|
|
|
|
The RAMBØLL Group is a knowledge-based group that provides consulting services and delivers system development
within the consulting engineering disciplines, information technology and management. In the winter of 1998/1999, RAMBØLL decided to implement Maconomy for project and finance management. The
corporate parent organisation went live later in the year.
The desire to decentralise the financial responsibility for projects to project managers, and to improve the standard
financial tools available to manage the corporation, led to the decision to implement a new business management
system.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gist/Innate – exclusive interview (May 2005)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gist (www.gistworld.com) is part of the BOC Group and develops tailor-made supply chain solutions for customers
including Woolworth’s, Marks & Spencer, Carlsberg and British Airways. It focuses on the food industry, fast moving
consumer and industrial goods manufacturers, major retailers and the semiconductor industries. Gist is
headquartered in Basingstoke, Hampshire. Its annual turnover in 2004 was £264.8 million. The company annually
manages the movement of over £10 billion of merchandise and has over 5,500 employees across Europe, Asia-
Pacific and Australasia. The Consulting Services team is a key component of Gist’s supply chain solution and implementation process for its
customers. As the volume of work was increasing and the team was growing in size – currently numbering some 40
people – it wanted to implement a robust and effective resource management process. Cost-effectiveness was one of its priorities, and it selected Innate Resource Manager.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Inventures/SharpOWL (February 2005)
|
|
|
|
|
|
The National Health Service (NHS) is undergoing unprecedented change, with current investment levels prompting
growing interest from private sector organisations. Traditional suppliers to the NHS, such as Inventures, face both
increasing competition and a government demand for enhanced accountability and project control.
To improve efficiency and information visibility, Inventures has implemented the SharpOWL PSA tool, with tight
integration to the current accounting solution. Since the implementation of SharpOWL in 2002, Inventures has seen an
improvement in financial performance that has reduced debtor days by 50% and increased efficiency.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Touchpaper/SharpOWL (February 2005)
|
|
|
|
|
|
The consultancy professions depends on efficiently converted people’s time into fees collected. In this area,
professional services automation (PSA) software can help companies maximise their conversion rate through more
efficient scheduling and billing. For customer relationship management (CRM) and helpdesk software author
Touchpaper, consultancy is an increasingly important business.
Touchpaper employs 220 people across the UK, Ireland, Germany and North America and last year turned over in the
region of £25 million. The company has two main product lines – IT infrastructure management software centred around
the helpdesk, and CRM software. With a 25-strong UK team working on deployment and support of its products,
consultancy activity now accounts for 25% of Touchpaper’s revenue. It was in this area that the need for PSA software was most acute – and the company has chosen SharpOWL’s PSA
package to automate the management of its consultancy team.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|