How J. Wyndham Prince improved efficiency for itself – and its customers – with Deltek ERP

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An interview with Peter Mehl, Project Director at J. Wyndham Prince

Your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution or project and financial management system should eliminate many manual administrative tasks. But often, homegrown solutions don’t – and companies are wasting valuable time taking care of these tasks, detracting from more value-adding work. This was a frustration that J. Wyndham Prince decided they needed to address.

J. Wyndham Prince is a consulting, civil engineering and project management company. The company has been operating in Western Sydney since 1982, growing its team to 68 employees. It primarily works on greenfield land development projects in the greater Sydney region and delivers public infrastructure projects for private developers and local and state government agencies.

Although the company had a home-grown solution in place, there were several problems that needed addressing. So, it turned to Deltek for a new ERP solution that could do just that.

We spoke to Peter Mehl, Project Director at J. Wyndham Prince, to understand why his company chose Deltek Vantagepoint as its new ERP solution, and what benefits he has seen since making the switch.

An ERP solution that goes beyond meeting requirements

“The main reasons we ended up choosing Deltek Vantagepoint were that it was a web-based solution with a good user interface,” says Mehl. “And it would allow our staff to work remotely just as effectively – and that’s proven to be a really important decision given the move to remote and hybrid working practices over the past couple of years.”

That’s not to say user experience was the only reason for choosing Deltek. J. Wyndham Prince had a long list of ERP requirements based on its most pressing operational challenges. “Deltek Vantagepoint meets all of our central requirements and also some of our desirables,” Mehl explains. “It was an opportunity to replace several manual processes like timesheets, revenue forecasting, and project resource planning – which we were previously doing in spreadsheets.

“It also provides great insight into future costings of projects and the revenue leakage that might happen around those,” Mehl adds. “We estimated the overall time savings would easily offset the cost.”

Once J. Wyndham Prince had decided on Deltek Vantagepoint, it began the implementation process.

“Deltek led the process from the start and guided us to make the right configuration decisions,” says Mehl. “All in all, we were very impressed with how Deltek organized us and got the system operational really effectively and efficiently.”

Making life easier for J. Wyndham Prince – and its customers

“Seven and a half months since going live with Vantagepoint, we’ve started to notice how easy it is to get the key information we need quickly,” explains Mehl. “And as we’ve ended up implementing this new and significant business system during the extended COVID lockdown – a time when we’ve been busier than ever – the benefits are still evolving.”

“The web-based and efficient nature of the product has allowed us to deal with project financing and our company accounts more broadly, and completely remotely,” Mehl adds. “So, the timing of the implementation during the COVID lockdown was very fortuitous.”

And it’s not just J. Wyndham Prince that’s seeing the benefits of Deltek Vantagepoint – its customers are, too.

“Deltek Vantagepoint brings value to our customers by allowing more time to focus on the quality of the professional services we bring rather than management of the administration of those services,” says Mehl. “We have already built confidence in the system to know we can quickly get to the crux of the project or the corporate finances and not have to sift through emails and maintain spreadsheets to achieve that.”

Deltek Vantagepoint: the three biggest benefits so far

Since going live with Deltek Vantagepoint, J. Wyndham Prince has experienced several benefits. But we were curious to find out what the highlights were. Mehl gave us his top three:

1. Improved efficiency

“It has improved our efficiencies significantly. With our old systems, we had to burrow into various reports to get information. Now we’re finding that core information can be extracted quickly. And most key information is readily available on project review screens.”

2. A clearer financial view

“Our accountant loves the new system. It gives her better information and more control over the company’s finances than the previous system, which did not have any revenue forecasting tools. Instead, we used to rely on separate spreadsheets and data transfers or guesswork.”

3. Mitigating disruption

“Vantagepoint’s usability during COVID lockdown has allowed the business to continue to function effectively and efficiently, which was crucial. I would hate to contemplate the alternative.”

A more efficient way to work with Deltek Vantagepoint

For architecture and engineering firms, project success drives business success. That's why your firm needs a solution that keeps your projects right where they belong—at the center of your business. Deltek Vantagepoint is a leader in project and financial management solutions for A&E firms around the world. As J. Wyndham Prince saw for themselves, Vantagepoint empowers users with an intuitive experience that reduces time spent on manual tasks and improves team and business efficiency.

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