RATIO Design Enhances Efficiency and Accuracy with Vantagepoint

RATIO Design is not just designing buildings, it’s shaping experiences. With 210 professionals spread across six locations, the firm works on roughly 300 projects each year, spanning higher education, K-12 schools, sports venues, historic preservation and hospitality. The firm’s reach even extends internationally with multi-family developments in South Korea. Committed to transparency and collaboration, their approach fosters creativity and results in designs that are not only functional but truly meaningful.

Journey to Vantagepoint

The RATIO team saw value in the capabilities and functionality of Deltek Vantagepoint so transitioning from Deltek Vision became just a matter of when. “As soon as certain key capabilities related to labor planning were added, we were ready to switch and worked with Deltek partner Aktion for the upgrade,” said Larry George, Director of Project Performance.

The firm was particularly interested in Vantagepoint’s tighter integration between opportunities, projects and project planning, and in the product’s dashboard capabilities. Larry added, “The integration streamlined everything, eliminating a lot of redundancy. Previously, we had to create opportunities, generate project numbers and develop separate or even multiple plans. But with Vantagepoint, all of that was seamlessly integrated.” The switch to browser-based functionality in the software also made implementation and maintenance much easier.

Driving Accuracy and Insight with Vantagepoint

The firm uses Vantagepoint for time and expense, accounting and finance, project management, business development (BD) and marketing. “We use a few custom reports and an ever-expanding collection of workflows and stored procedures. Our most significant custom developments out of Vantagepoint are our revenue forecast system and our employee bonus credit system,” said Teresa Smith, Director of Accounting.

Leadership views labor planning as essential for project monitoring, workload management and revenue generation. Since most projects calculate revenue based on labor percent complete, accurate future-planned labor is crucial for determining estimate at completion (EAC) numbers and forecasting. The Vantagepoint system allocates planned labor across future months allowing RATIO to predict earnings at every project stage, which is essential to develop a well-populated plan for leadership review. “Without Vantagepoint, project managers would rely on rough estimates, leading to unreliable financial projections,” remarked Larry.

In addition, the firm values the time it is saving by using the contract management feature. “With contract management, we can earmark and set the amount of consultant fees upfront. As contracts come in, we can allocate funds accordingly. If discrepancies arise, we can quickly address them with the project manager,” Larry emphasized. This approach enables more timely project adjustments, ensuring better financial oversight and maintaining a contingency buffer.

The contract management hub and contract numbers help the team track and verify data efficiently. If discrepancies arise, they can easily reference the original contract documents. Additionally, the system provides a clear summary of labor and contract costs, ensuring better oversight and streamlined project management.

Optimizing Resource Management for Efficient Scheduling

The firm uses the resource management feature as well to get the right people on the right projects at the right time. “By planning resources effectively, we can track availability using the resource utilization tool, which highlights overbooked (red) or underutilized (blue) team members. This allows quick adjustments without excessive effort, ensuring our staff is fully scheduled for a set period,” said Larry. He added, “We also rely on generic resources to assign hours when specific employees aren't identified yet, whether for unknown assignments or future hires during growth periods and all of this is enabled by Vantagepoint.”

Streamlining Project Kickoff with Vantagepoint Automation

Vantagepoint automates the project initiation process by eliminating manual steps and ensuring efficiency. It begins with structured data entry and a go/no-go evaluation, automatically triggering notifications and stakeholder input. Automation facilitates collaboration across multiple studios, allowing for a swift decision-making process. If approved, key project details populate forecasting tools, and a project number and folder are generated for seamless tracking and document management. By automating these steps, the process reduces administrative burden, minimizes errors and accelerates project progression.

Enhancing Financial Forecasting with Deltek Marketplace Partner Prophix

The firm was also looking for a solution to help run scenario forecasting using data stored in Vantagepoint. Deltek Marketplace Partner Prophix provided the best solution for the firm’s needs.

Prior to working with Prophix, the firm’s Chief Financial Officer used Excel worksheets for scenario budgeting and forecasting. “Complicated questions and scenarios were often raised, such as ‘what if we merged with another company, or if we added staff’ and how would that change our forecast,” said Teresa. She continued, “Prophix One, a financial performance platform has made so many tasks more efficient and accurate for monthly reporting.” 

According to Teresa, Prophix One has significantly improved task efficiency and the accuracy of the firm’s monthly reporting. Previously, the team had to download data from Vantagepoint and manually process it in spreadsheets. “Every year, we faced major formula adjustments just to reset reporting, and if our CFO became unavailable, it could have been a serious issue for the firm. With Prophix, data is much easier to manage, reducing the burden on our CFO and saving the team valuable time," remarked Teresa.

For example, RATIO uses Prophix One to develop rolling forecasts. The system allows the firm to adjust for personnel changes in real-time. If someone is on parental leave, you can tag them out to remove their net revenue capacity for that period. If an employee is set to retire, you can plan accordingly and determine how to replace a person. This flexibility helps the firm react quickly to staffing changes and make informed decisions based on future projections and ROI. “We started using this last year, and our forecast for this past January was only off by less than 1%, which is really accurate,” Teresa shared.

Prophix has also had the unintended (but welcome) perk of helping the RATIO team validate payroll information compared to what is in Vantagepoint and what the 401k and payroll providers have. The synching of the information is a safety net.  By rigorously building data into forecasts like benefits, state-by-state taxes and other staff-related cost factors, and then automatically updating the data, the solution eliminates human error.

RATIO Design’s transition from Vision to Vantagepoint and integration with Prophix has significantly enhanced efficiency and accuracy across its six locations. By streamlining labor planning, resource management, contract tracking and forecasting, the firm has optimized its workflow, reduced redundancies and improved decision-making. With Vantagepoint serving as the backbone for project management and Prophix enabling precise financial forecasting, RATIO Design is well-positioned to manage its growing portfolio of projects with confidence. As the firm continues to evolve, these tools will remain critical in driving operational success and ensuring seamless project execution.