CAGE Engineering Improves Project Visibility with Deltek Vantagepoint

Deltek recently spoke with Gina Brancher, Controller for CAGE, a full-service consulting civil engineering firm that was established in 2016. The firm offers services in engineering, land surveying and construction management. Gina joined CAGE in January of 2022 and is leading the firm in an upgrade to Deltek Vantagepoint.

Where is CAGE located and how many employees work at the firm?

Our headquarters is in Lisle, Illinois with additional offices in Lakewood, Colorado; Asheville, North Carolina; and Chandler, Arizona. We currently have 38 employees and plan to add more staff throughout the rest of the year.

What is unique about CAGE?

At CAGE, we understand that our ability to service clients to the highest standard is predicated on having the best people on our team and providing them with all the necessary tools to excel at, and most importantly, enjoy their job. We continually strive to provide an environment where each member of our team can achieve both their professional and personal goals, and that mission allows us to hire and retain some of the best talent in the industry. CAGE is committed to the continuous personal and professional development of every team member.

We strive to generate success and advancement for all CAGE stakeholders. This includes team members, clients, vendors, strategic partners, and charitable organizations. We value being cost conscious designers, and we can’t help but approach each project as if it is being funded with our own capital. Customer satisfaction is key, and our team works hard to deliver all projects on time, within budget, without design issues or errors, while meeting all jurisdictional requirements.

What types of projects does CAGE typically work on?

Our current client base covers commercial, mixed use, industrial, residential, institutional, and commercial market sectors. We offer engineering solutions for a wide variety of projects, with services ranging from planning and conceptual design through final engineering design and construction management.

You recently implemented Deltek Vantagepoint. Why were you looking for a solution and why did you choose Vantagepoint?

When I joined Cage in January 2022, we were outsourcing financial services and payroll as well as HR and benefits. As we continued to grow and move our administrative business functions in-house, I quickly realized that we needed a new ERP. I had successfully used Deltek Vision (for financial management) at another firm and was confident in the products Deltek offered. After evaluating a few other ERP solutions, and given our continued rapid growth, I felt Deltek Vantagepoint was the only system that was scalable and would be able to grow with us.

How are you using Deltek Vantagepoint?

We started phase 1 of the implementation in the fall of 2022 and utilized Deltek Professional Services' Launch Care implementation program. We have the full Vantagepoint suite but, are not using all the features yet. We are currently using the software for timesheets, expense reports and project set-up. We recently hired Stambaugh Ness, a Deltek Premier Partner, that works with Deltek, to help speed up our phase 2 implementation. We anticipate starting to use more of Vantagepoint soon.

What are some of the early benefits you are seeing?

By implementing Deltek Vantagepoint we are now able to track our own time on projects, how many labor hours have been spent, and how many expenses we have incurred on each project. I am also able to pull PTO balances.

Vantagepoint gives us more visibility to see the cost of each project and determine profitability, which is essential to running an engineering firm. Our team has more information available to them in real-time to make better, more informed decisions.

What’s the next step in your firm’s technology journey?

The next phase of our implementation will utilize Vantagepoint CRM and the resource planning features. We anticipate these will have a positive impact on our project management capabilities with the added support of resource allocation. Our team is eager to get into the CRM and I am eager to show them all the features of Vantagepoint and how they can support our business.