Summary
As APEM Group expanded rapidly through acquisition, its on-premises ERP couldn't keep pace, project setup took hours, month-end close stretched beyond a week, and disconnected systems across acquired businesses made a single, trusted view of performance impossible. By moving to Deltek Vantagepoint, APEM unified project management, CRM, and financials on a single cloud-based platform, providing leadership with consistent data and a scalable foundation for continued global growth.
Project Success
- Scalable by Design: Unifies systems and data across acquired businesses, simplifying onboarding as APEM grows globally.
- Consistent Data, Confident Decisions: A single source of truth improves visibility into cashflow, WIP, and performance.
- Simpler Work, Greater Control: Automated workflows and fewer spreadsheets reduce manual effort and strengthen governance.
APEM Group is an independent environmental consultancy providing expert scientific advice across water, energy, infrastructure, power and utilities, ports and harbors, and regulators and governments worldwide.
Products
Industry
The Challenge: When Growth Outscales Core Systems
APEM Group is an independent environmental consultancy that provides expert scientific advice to a wide range of industries, including water, energy, infrastructure, power and utilities, ports and harbors, as well as to regulators and governments around the world. Having expanded rapidly through acquisition, the business now operates across the UK, Ireland, Italy, and wider Europe, Australia, and the United States—making consistency across systems increasingly complex.
Operating with an on-premises Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) created significant inefficiencies. Project setup could take up to six hours, reporting lacked timeliness and consistency, and month-end close stretched beyond a week. Data silos across acquired businesses made it difficult to establish a single, trusted view of performance.
"Our previous solution no longer met the needs of the business," says Liz Hope, ERP Manager at APEM. "When you have 50 people, manually managing installs and upgrades is manageable. When you have hundreds, it quickly becomes unworkable."
To support continued growth, APEM needed a scalable, cloud-based platform to unify data, standardize processes, and deliver real-time insight across its global operations.
The Solution: One Platform, Complete Visibility
APEM selected Deltek, the unified, intelligent platform for project-based businesses, to transform how it manages projects, financials, and operations. At the core sits Deltek Vantagepoint, bringing together project management, CRM, and financials into a single, connected environment.
"Moving to a cloud-based platform made a huge difference," says Liz. "Updates are regular, everyone is always on the same version, and it scales much better as the business grows across regions."
With Vantagepoint, APEM has eradicated data silos and gained complete visibility of business performance across all its acquisitions. The granularity of the platform's insights makes it easier to drill down into factors like resource allocation and project performance, and the software can be configured to meet the needs of the company's remote, global teams.
"Vantagepoint gives us much more flexibility and control over workflows, fields, and hubs," Liz explained. "We can configure it to suit how we work, rather than bending the business to fit the software."
A Foundation for Scalable Growth
With unified insights across all geographies and touchpoints, APEM has begun to standardize processes across its acquired firms, while also laying a robust foundation for all future acquisitions. This includes three new companies recently acquired in Australia and a fourth in the United States.
"Our objective is to bring every business onto the same system," Liz confirmed. "That gives us consistent data points where everyone understands what they're looking at. Without that, leaders end up asking one question and getting two answers because data comes from different systems. Vantagepoint removes that problem entirely."
This standardization will significantly reduce consolidation work, while consistent and trusted cashflow, WIP, and performance metrics improve confidence in leadership reporting. But it's not just about providing accurate, timely insights. Vantagepoint also simplifies day-to-day operations, reducing manual effort and formalizing key processes.
"Vantagepoint has significantly improved how things are done," says Liz. "We have fewer spreadsheets, better approvals, and clearer visibility. But it also enforces structure. That can feel restrictive at first, for smaller businesses are used to informal processes. But, over time, those benefits become clear."
Our previous system fell out of date within five years. Deltek Vantagepoint still feels modern, and it keeps pace as technology changes.
The First Steps Towards a Fully-Unified Future
With Vantagepoint, APEM has achieved better governance, greater reporting accuracy, and smoother integration of acquisitions. But its leadership teams know they've only scratched the surface of the platform's benefits.
"One of the benefits of being cloud-based is continuous improvement," Liz explained. "Functionality evolves regularly, and we can refine processes over time rather than relying on large, disruptive upgrades."
Looking ahead, APEM is exploring how Deltek's embedded Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities—powered by Dela™—can further enhance how teams interact with data and make decisions. By enabling natural-language queries, surfacing insights, and highlighting potential anomalies, these capabilities have the potential to reduce manual effort and accelerate access to critical information.
"The AI capabilities are improving all the time," says Liz. "Being able to ask broader, more complex questions across your data is incredibly powerful. It opens up new ways to uncover insights and make faster, more informed decisions. We'll continue to expand how we use AI within Vantagepoint as it evolves."
