H2M Improves the Project Pursuit Process with Vantagepoint CRM and GovWin IQ

H2M, a leading architecture and engineering (A&E) firm in New York, implemented Deltek’s Vantagepoint CRM and GovWin IQ market intelligence platform to improve project pursuit and proposal processes. The integration of the solutions and improved staff productivity allowed the firm to find and win more business, aligning with their growth goals. Deltek recently sat down with Andrea Sobocinski, Senior Product Systems Specialist at the firm.

What types of projects does H2M work on and what is your role?

H2M works on a variety of projects including architecture, engineering, civil, wastewater and planning to name a few. We have almost 550 employees with a headquarters in New York and additional offices in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Florida.

I am a Senior Project Systems Specialist and work in one of our corporate centers called The Core, where we focus on operational processes across our business lines. I moved over to The Core to help drive software and processes from a more corporate level, not just a marketing-centric or account-centric function. I specifically oversee our Vantagepoint Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution, in addition to working with other corporate software.

Prior to using Deltek Vantagepoint CRM and GovWin IQ, were you using a different CRM or market intelligence tool?

From a business development standpoint, we began using Onvia for monitoring leads in the state and local markets. In 2018, Onvia was purchased by Deltek and merged with GovWin IQ. Before implementing Vantagepoint CRM, we were using spreadsheets and Microsoft Word documents until 2014 when we switched to another industry solution. Unfortunately, we experienced a lot of technical issues with that platform’s automation and were finding inconsistent data being returned and we could no longer trust our reports. Since switching to Vantagepoint CRM we have gained confidence in our reporting analytics. In addition, we were able to leverage the integration between the platforms for a quick transference of data from GovWin to Vantagepoint.

How has using Deltek’s GovWin IQ platform helped your proposal process?

Before using GovWin IQ, the team had to do in-depth research to find opportunities or rely on word of mouth. With the GovWin IQ market intelligence platform, state and local government opportunities are listed from thousands of agencies nationwide in a centralized location. Now we are aware of more opportunities sooner, which gives us the ability to bid on more projects and that turns into more wins.

How does the information gained from GovWin IQ and managed in Deltek Vantagepoint CRM work together for your overall business growth?

About 80% of our major proposals come from GovWin IQ and the team was manually entering those opportunities into Vantagepoint CRM. Once we integrated our Deltek solutions it was life-changing for the team. It used to take around 10 minutes to enter each record and now it takes about three and a half minutes, which adds up considering we have a couple thousand proposals each year. Now the team can import those automatically in less than half the time.

By spending less time on administrative tasks, the proposal team can now concentrate on creating better proposals leading to more business growth. By having an integrated solution we have also been able to limit manual errors as opportunities are migrated automatically. Additionally, Vantagepoint CRM flags proposal deadlines, so we don’t miss responses to opportunities.

What are some other ways you are using Vantagepoint CRM to support your business?

The team recently built out a workflow for contract management so that our risk management team can get items routed for legal review. Vantagepoint CRM triggers a notice when legal review is needed. We also built an area to track different types of sub-consultants along with their minority and/or women-owned business enterprise (MWBE)/Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOB) qualifications; as well as a user-defined hub that tracks corporate licensure, which is essential since we are licensed as different companies in different states. In addition, workflows were built off our employee tables so that people can follow up on different state licenses, especially as we keep expanding and growing. While all these achievements are significant, one of our greatest accomplishments is that our entire lifecycle of the proposal process is built into these workflows including an automated go/no go process.

Before Vantagepoint CRM, choosing which projects to pursue wasn’t really a documented process. Now someone goes in and must determine whether the project is worth pursuing. They can’t just leave it alone. The person receives a notification if they have not completed the go/no go process. If they receive the notification and still don’t complete it, the proposal is closed out and is not scheduled to be worked on. As we keep using the solution, we're hoping to build analytics of opportunities pursued and won and then determine a best practice to make sure we are choosing the right work for our firm.

How are you planning to use Deltek’s Vantagepoint CRM and GovWin IQ in the future?

For Vantagepoint CRM, we are looking to further our engagement with Vantagepoint Connect for Outlook and activity/lead tracking, thereby increasing the lead time and relationship building prior to RFPs and in conjunction with RFP responses. With GovWin IQ, we are using it for market research to gauge market size beyond our current portfolio. We are thinking about pursuing work in other states, but before committing to entering a new market, we are using GovWin IQ to see how many opportunities are out there and how many proposals we could expect.