Team Deltek’s Todd Walker: Celebrating our Customers, Culture & Costpoint 8

In this month’s #TeamDeltek spotlight, we had the opportunity to connect with Todd Walker, VP of Product Management. A member of the product team responsible for Deltek’s Costpoint and Human Capital Management solutions, Todd and his colleagues are counting down the days until the launch of Costpoint 8, the first major Costpoint product release in eight years!

During our conversation, Todd shared with us how Deltek’s workplace culture, corporate values and customer community are really special, making it an honor for him to be a part of Deltek Project Nation.  

Congratulations on the upcoming launch of Costpoint 8 ─ we appreciate you chatting with us during this hectic time! To start things off, can you share a little about your role at Deltek and some of your professional affiliations?

Thanks, happy to! I joined Deltek in the Fall of 2012, making this November eight years with the company. As part of the Product Strategy team, I am responsible for partnering with our customers and other Deltek teams to set the vision and direction for Deltek’s Costpoint and Human Capital Management products across the entire customer experience. 

I am also a member of several product management, pragmatic marketing, innovation and technology-related groups on LinkedIn to help me stay current on industry trends, continue my personal development and apply my learnings to Deltek. And as of recently, I have started becoming more involved with the Northern Virginia Technology Council to expand my professional network and follow technology trends around the area.

As we count down the days until launch, what are you most excited about and what does Costpoint 8 mean for Deltek customers?

Deltek’s Costpoint product has been supporting the unique requirements of the government contracting industry for more than 30 years. With the launch of Costpoint 8, we further strengthen our position as the leading project-based ERP solution in the government contracting market for large, mid-sized and small businesses.

This latest release will be on the same platform our customers have come to know and trust, with more purposeful innovation and intelligence than ever. We are introducing a ton of great customer driven enhancements in Costpoint 8. In this release, customers can expect to see new capabilities that digitally transform their source-to-pay, time & expense, customer resource management (CRM), manufacturing, and professional services automation (PSA) processes. 

Customers will also have more innovative features than ever to improve their user experience, including: artificial intelligence, natural language processing, optical character recognition with machine learning (we refer to this as Intelligent Character Recognition or ICR), digital signatures and progressive web apps (PWA). In addition, Costpoint 8 will be the foundation for a new cloud offering we are releasing later this year to help customers meet new and emerging cybersecurity related compliance requirements.

I’m really looking forward to sharing all these product enhancements at our official launch at Deltek Insight 2020, taking place next month!

Speaking of Deltek Insight 2020, we understand the event is going to be a virtual experience. What can attendees expect from this new format?

Deltek Insight, our annual customer conference, is an event that our team looks forward to participating in every year. This year will be my seventh year attending, and it has always been a unique opportunity to engage with our customers, and share all of the great things we are doing to enhance their Costpoint experience.

It will definitely be a different type of event, not being together in-person. #DeltekProjectNation will still have all of the same opportunities to hear about our roadmap, investments in purposeful innovation, customer case studies, product tips and tricks and be able to engage with our product experts. I’m especially excited that the virtual format provides more project-based professionals the opportunity to participate than ever; with no travel requirements or registration fees.

Those are great points. When you’re not focused on launching new products that support the government contracting industry, how do you like to spend your time?

I am a big sports fan! Before quarantine started, I spent much of my free time following and watching our Washington area teams, including the Nationals, Capitals and the newly renamed Washington Football Team. Not to mention, cheering on my alma mater; the Virginia Tech Hokies! This past October, I had an amazing opportunity to take my son to a Washington National’s World Series baseball game in D.C. ─ it was a really special occasion for both of us.

Right now, while we are all social distancing, it’s all about my kids. We are spending quality time together playing games, going for walks and getting exercise. Our family even started playing tennis this summer, which has been a lot of fun.

My family and I are also extremely passionate about supporting animal rescue and adoption. We recently adopted a rescue dog we named Banks in September of 2019, and he is our second wonderful adopted member of our family. 

How exciting! You have spent a good portion of your career at Deltek. What is it about our culture that makes this such a great place to work?

I’ve had an opportunity to work with so many great people over the years, but I am especially proud to work with the entire Costpoint and Human Capital Management teams at Deltek. The quarantine has really brought this to light for me. So many people have been dealing with extraordinary personal and professional circumstances; yet they have still found creative ways to persevere and continue to support Deltek’s mission and customers. This is truly the best team I’ve worked with in my career.

In addition, Deltek’s culture of learning is something that I really value and is a clear priority for our company. As part of our annual commitment, everyone on the Costpoint product team, including myself, have spent 40+ hours of dedicated learning time on agile, scrum and user story training with the goal of delivering the best product features that are easy to adopt, learn and use.

What a great way for your team to come together. If you could only share one piece of career advice with #TeamDeltek, what would it be?

Early in my career, I had an opportunity to participate in GE’s leadership program and something that the program taught and has always stuck with me is: As a leader, if you are always trying to make everyone happy you aren’t going to be successful. 

The point being, as a leader, you are constantly faced with difficult decisions. Every decision has a consequence. You have to use your experience and judgment to make decisions that best supports the goals of our customers as a whole, and confidently and comfortably stand behind that decision without trying to make everyone happy.

Last question ─ This is one we ask each of our #TeamDeltek spotlights. Of our nine Deltek corporate values, which one resonates most with you and why?

Since I can’t narrow it down to just one value, the two values I feel resonate most with me are passionate and innovate. I am truly passionate about Deltek Project Nation and powering the success of our customers and our employees. We do this by investing in purposeful and positive outcomes for our customers with project-based solutions and investing in our employees’ development and satisfaction.

Equally important to me is how Deltek innovates to find solutions that drive progress and add value. We know better software means better projects and by incorporating emerging technologies into our Deltek products makes them easier to use. Innovation also allows us to foster creativity and to bring greater business efficiency and productivity to our customers. That is why I can’t wait for our customers to take advantage of what we have in store for Costpoint 8!