Project-industry software

progress delivered at

Deltek Insight 2012

© 2012 Iyno Advisors www.iyno.com

Iyno Advisors

By Jeffrey Hill, Iyno Advisors

I recently attended the Deltek Insight 2012 Conference which was held from October 15th

through the 18th in Nashville at the Gaylord Opryland Resort. There were about 3,000

attendees, including Deltek people, and Deltek put on a good show, even though there

wasn’t a major release of their flagship project-based ERP product, Costpoint 7. This is not

to say that there weren’t plenty of product announcements and demonstrations of products

that connect with Costpoint. There were three products that caught my interest: Deltek

Touch, Kona, and Costpoint MES.

Touch: Deltek is clearly making a major commitment to mobility with Deltek Touch, a

remote window into Costpoint running on an iPhone, iPad, Android smartphone or tablet.

The first application announced for Deltek Touch is project time entry and reporting, which

is a familiar use of Costpoint for the many government contractors who use it for project

management, project time entry and reporting. As you might guess, time reporting is the

tip of the iceberg. Deltek’s goal is to use Deltek Touch as a way to access Costpoint

functionality without needing to be at desktop or a laptop with a web browser. Using a

mobile device for these tasks will make it much easier to enter time on contract or project

work at any time of the day which might have the effect of increasing the accuracy of

project accounting. Many conference attendees kept their conference schedules on their

smartphones and tablets using Deltek’s conference app, and given the pervasive use of

mobile devices throughout the enterprise, I am quite sure that Deltek is headed in a the

right direction with this approach. Deltek is offering Deltek Touch to Costpoint customers on

a per-user, subscription basis.

Kona: The second product of note was Kona, which is still in development. Kona has had

extensive use within Deltek, but this conference was the first time customers had a chance

to try it out. Kona is a collaboration web space that is free -- you don’t have to be a Deltek

customer to use it. One you’ve set up an account and created a space, you and anyone you

invite into the space can access Kona from a web browser or a mobile device running an

iPhone or Android app. Kona’s features right now are centered on collaboration, such as

sharing documents and holding informal conversations with other people. There are also

task management and calendar features, so that a task could be assigned to people in your

space.

To be clear, Kona is a standalone application with no integration with Costpoint at this time.

The Kona marketing people insisted that there will always be a free version of Kona, but

they also suggested that there may be a “pro” version of Kona that features integration with

other Deltek products on a subscription basis someday. If this sounds a bit vague, it’s

because Kona isn’t fully formed yet – the product is still in beta form. So, the question is:

whither Kona? Kona’s idea of simple, ad hoc collaboration gets to the heart of the problem

of collaboration – applications like SharePoint can be difficult for casual users and certainly

A Better Way to Manage Change and Transitions in Project Manufacturing

© 2012 Iyno Advisors 2 www.iyno.com

require committed IT and programming resources for enterprise deployment and use. So,

open an account at kona.com, try Kona out, and keep an eye on Deltek for future

developments.

SaaS & Cloud: Deltek also talked about SaaS and cloud-based applications centered on

Costpoint. This is an obvious direction for Deltek to take, as corporate acceptance and use

of cloud services is rising rapidly. From my perspective, it also raises the possibility of a

cafeteria-style offering of Deltek’s software without the necessity of owning and maintaining

an infrastructure, which would, I believe, be attractive to many more potential customers

from a cost and resource standpoint.

Costpoint MES: I’ve saved the best for last. Deltek took the wraps off Costpoint MES, a

product designed to bring Deltek’s signature project and financial management capabilities

to project manufacturing. MES is not a standalone application because data is stored in

Costpoint. The MES product is aimed at complex project manufacturing environments and

provides features essential to reducing manual paperwork such as online documentation,

work instructions, revision control and routing information. Two additional modules, Shop

Floor and bar coding, further extend the benefits of MES to the shop floor environment,

especially in the areas of reducing paperwork and providing up-to-date assembly and part

information, all of which support lean manufacturing goals. According to Deltek, they

weren’t originally planning to publicize MES at the conference, but there was considerable

interest in the product from users, so they went ahead with it. Judging by the attendance at

the exposition booth and at the sessions presenting MES features and functionality, there

was serious interest from users in evaluating the product for their companies.

The interest in MES is not surprising; my colleague Julie Fraser’s work over many years

demonstrates its value. Manufacturing is often managed by spreadsheets today, so having

a truly consistent central view helps – and this MES also helps enforce standard processes

and the sign-offs required by customers and regulators. Project manufacturing is inherently

uncertain, but MES provides visibility into the actual status. By integrating the plant wide

MES functions in with the Costpoint project management, accounting, human capital

management, sales, supply chain planning and government reporting, all disciplines in a

company can stay synchronized to serve customers more effectively.

Company Conclusion: I had the opportunity to talk to a number of conference attendees

and most of them seemed happy with the overall product roadmap Deltek presented at the

keynote session. Deltek reassured their customers that their recent acquisition by private

equity company Thoma Bravo would signal no changes in product direction or company

management, but would help fund the future development of Deltek products. Underneath

the lighting pyrotechnics and insistent rock backbeat, which has become a required part of

computer conferences, is a company which is enthusiastic about its future direction which

seems to please both current and potential customers.

Iyno Advisors Iyno Advisors combines experience, intuition, intellect, and research to focuses on how manufacturing and

production companies and their network of partners can best benefit from software applications and services.

www.iyno.com +1 508.362.3480 PO Box 463 Cummaquid, MA 02637 USA