How Zutari Manages 2,000+ Active Projects with Deltek Vantagepoint

The Challenge: Fragmented Systems, Limited Visibility

Zutari is an infrastructure advisory and engineering firm operating across Africa and the Middle East, delivering projects that change lives—from connecting farmers to markets, to providing communities with access to clean water and healthcare. With over 2,500 employees across 35 companies, 32 offices spread across Africa and the Middle East, and 36 countries with project involvement, the firm manages more than 2,000 active projects at any given time.

As the firm set an ambitious five-year growth agenda, it recognized a critical barrier – its existing systems weren't built for scale. "Our previous systems were very fragmented. We were using a mix of standalone systems and in-house tools," explains Celia Behr, Finance Lead, and Willem Botha, Head of Projects. "It created a lot of challenges with efficiency and data visibility."

The legacy setup was finance-focused, lacking the project planning, resource scheduling, and real-time visibility needed to manage complex, multi-country operations. "We realized that if we do not have the right digital, unified system to actually sustain our growth, we will not succeed," says Willem. This realization, along with the successful implementation of a unified ERP platform, ultimately earned Zutari a Deltek ProjectCon MVP Award for its exemplary transformation.

The Solution: One Platform for Every Project Stage

Zutari selected Deltek Vantagepoint and Talent Management as their ERP application, working with Deltek Platinum Partner, Silversoft, to deploy a, unified system designed for how their project-based business works.

"We were very excited about Vantagepoint because the need was for a single integrated system that's project-focused," says Celia. "Vantagepoint was the first system we implemented that includes CRM, project planning, project management, and resource scheduling in a single tool—so that was quite new to Zutari."

Celia and Willem knew that technology alone wouldn't drive success. Change management became a cornerstone of their approach. They identified early adopters who could champion the application and encourage colleagues to embrace the new way of working. "We measured and tracked the progress we made on adopting the system," Celia notes. "We identified early adopters and got them to bring their colleagues on board."

Working closely with Silversoft and the Deltek team, Zutari achieved a seamless implementation across the entire organization. "Right from the beginning, there was a great synergy and a co-creative process," says Willem. "It comes down to a great partnership between our implementation partner, Deltek, and ourselves."

Immediate Results, Zero Disruption

In October 2022, Zutari went live with Vantagepoint—and never looked back. "We can proudly say we went into the system from day one and started running our projects fully live," says Willem.

The platform delivered the single source of truth the organization needed. "When we moved to Vantagepoint, we had a single, unified system that delivered reliable data for decision-making. It fundamentally changed how we run the business," explains Celia.

As users experienced the benefits firsthand, adoption accelerated. "When people started to see the benefits—how much easier it is to manage projects, how much faster they can make decisions, and how much better we can manage the business—it really gained traction," Celia adds.

Vantagepoint's automation capabilities freed up capacity across teams. "Vantagepoint enables automated workflows, and that freed up the capacity of our teams so they can focus on managing projects better, making quicker decisions, and growing revenue," says Celia.

Scaling Across Borders with Confidence

With Vantagepoint as its foundation, Zutari has the platform it needs to operate seamlessly across 36 countries.

Vantagepoint delivers built-in control—not bolted on—giving Zutari confidence to move fast when managing high-stakes, complex projects across multiple jurisdictions. With automated workflows and intelligence at every step, the firm can focus on delivering impactful projects that connect communities and change lives. "The scalability of Vantagepoint allows us to work seamlessly across teams, no matter where they're located," says Willem. "People can see in real time what's planned for them, and project managers can draw on resources from across the business and choose the right legal entities."

This flexibility is particularly valuable in high-growth markets like Saudi Arabia, where the country's Vision 2030 agenda is driving significant infrastructure investment. "We can align very closely to our clients' needs and set ourselves up in a very scalable and flexible way," Willem explains.