2013 Deltek / Consulting Magazine Profitability Survey

Background

Participants

The Profitability Story

Deltek teamed with Consulting Magazine to bring you a better understanding of what drives profitable projects. You’ll be surprised with what we discovered.

A diverse group of 250 respondents – whose roles ranged from Managing Partner to Senior Consultant to Manager – represented a variety of firms, with half below $50M in revenue and slightly more than 40% with 1,000+ employees.

We asked: What percentage of your firm’s projects fail to meetexpected profit margins?

We asked: What are the top 3 reasons projects aren’t asprofitable as you might expect?

Interesting…50% of firms find at least 1 in 10 engagements aren’t as profitable as they’d hoped. And 1 in 5 firms don’t know how often their projects miss expectations!The first step to becoming more profitable is knowing how often engagements aren’t meeting profit expectations. Then you can figure out why. Can you know, at any point, if an engagement is on-track for expected profitability?

Interesting… Not every firm knows which projects are unprofitable, or how often – but most have ideas about the reasons why. “Scope Creep” is by far the guilty party, but in more than 50% of all firms, Inaccurate SOW’s are a partner-in-crime.Unsurprising that nearly 75% of firms say “scope creep” is the most frequent profit drain... But could scope creep be avoided through more accurate scoping? Or with more control over new work requests before consultants could accept them? Perhaps better information would lead to more accurate scoping, and earlier alerts for when scope creep first starts.

THINK ABOUT IT.

THINK ABOUT IT.

29%

18%8%9%

36%

Not sureMore than half

31% to 50%

Less than 10%10% to 30%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Disputed charges

Non-billable rework

Staff/resource cost

Staff/resource inefficiency

Unrecorded, (lost) time

SOW inaccuracy

Scope creep (Changing requirements) 72%

56%

39%

36%

33%

24%

13%

The Profitability Story

We asked: Where would you like to see more administrative efficiency?

We asked: How many separate systems do you use?

THINK ABOUT IT.

THINK ABOUT IT.

Deltek is the leading global provider of enterprise software and information solutions for professional services firms and government contractors. For decades, we have delivered actionable insight that empowers our customers to unlock their business potential. 16,000 organizations and 2 million users in over 80 countries around the world rely on Deltek to research and identify opportunities, win new business, optimize resources, streamline operations, and deliver more profitable projects. Deltek – Know more. Do more.® deltek.com

Interesting…2 in 3 firms indicate Tracking & Reporting on Project Progress as one of their most cumbersome and time-consuming administrative tasks. Wow! Project profitability is among the most crucial success factors for consulting firms – yet from the front lines to management, all say tracking profitability is one of their most cumbersome tasks. Perhaps missing hours, outdated information, or inaccurate data is to blame. How many e-mails and phone calls – or those pesky non-billable internal meetings – does it take to figure it all out?

Interesting…1 in 2 firms have 3 or more administrative or project-management systems. So much information, in so many different places…Is yours among the 50% of firms operating in a jungle of disconnected project-management and administrative systems? You’re not alone – and perhaps struggling to connect people with the information they need. Getting on a path to consistent project profitability means planning more accurately, and responding correctly when plans need to change. Why not make this a little easier? Look to a single management system that will connect information and processes across the entire organization.

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Invoicing and billing

Collecting, submitting, approving time and expenses

Scoping work/preparing SOW and job budets

Selecting and assigning resources

Reporting/monitoring of projectprogress and profitability

66%

60%

58%

46%

38%

26%

22%

51%

1 2 3+

deltek.com/consulting • 800.456.2009