Summary
IMEG, an enterprise engineering and consulting firm, partnered with Deltek Vantagepoint and strategic partner Baker Tilly to overhaul its FAR-compliant expense management process. IMEG eliminated a costly third-party expense platform and achieved full ROI in just four months. The unified system also supports IMEG's active M&A strategy by providing a single source of truth for project and financial data across the entire organization.
Project Success
- Automated Expense Reporting: The firm implemented a solution that supports FAR compliance and reduced administrative burden while generating ROI quickly.
- Seamless Integration for a Growing Firm: IMEG brings acquired companies onto a unified application, ensuring consistent reporting and reliable operations.
- Preparing for an AI-Powered Future: IMEG is ready to leverage AI innovations to elevate project management and drive greater efficiency.
IMEG is an employee-owned engineering and consulting firm with 3,000 team members across 100+ offices. As one of the top firms in the U.S., they deliver a combination of national expertise and local collaboration providing full-service engineering, planning, and consulting solutions.
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Leveraging Technology and Partnerships to Drive Success
IMEG is one of the top engineering and consulting firms in the United States, delivering a combination of national expertise and local collaboration. As an employee-owned firm with more than 100 offices and 3,000 team members, IMEG provides full-service engineering, planning, and consulting solutions. IMEG is committed to creating positive outcomes for people, communities, and the planet through high-performance design and infrastructure.
This commitment drives IMEG to continuously improve its processes and technology to better serve clients and employees. One recent initiative, Project Expense, exemplifies this approach by leveraging Deltek Vantagepoint and strategic partner Baker Tilly to transform expense management and support IMEG's rapid growth.
The Challenge: Managing Allowed versus Unallowed Expenses
As a professional services engineering consulting firm, IMEG works on numerous contracts governed by Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR). These regulations require precise calculations of allowable and unallowable costs, particularly for overhead travel expenses. Initially, IMEG relied on a third-party expense platform to manage these complexities. However, the cost and complexity of maintaining that system became prohibitive.
The ability to accurately classify allowed versus unallowed expenses is critical for compliance and profitability. IMEG needed a solution that could handle FAR requirements while integrating seamlessly with its existing financial system.
Kelly Swick, Systems Controller at IMEG, explains: "Our biggest challenge before partnering with Baker Tilly was managing the allowed versus unallowed portions of expenses. Moving expense management back into Vantagepoint simplified everything. Now, employees just provide a zip code, and the solution Baker Tilly provided does the rest."
Evan Rainey, Senior Developer and Solution Architect at Baker Tilly, added "IMEG was using a third-party provider mainly to calculate the unallowable portion of travel expenses above General Services Administration (GSA) per diem rates. We automated this process within Vantagepoint by building APIs to pull GSA rates and reclassify expenses. This allowed IMEG to use Vantagepoint for expense management going forward."
By leveraging Vantagepoint's robust API capabilities and Baker Tilly's automation expertise, IMEG achieved a fully integrated solution that eliminated manual calculations, reduced complexity, and improved compliance.
Benefits Realized: Efficiency, Accuracy, and Employee Satisfaction
The transition back to Vantagepoint for expenses delivered significant benefits across IMEG's operations. First, expense reporting became much simpler for employees. They can now submit multiple expense reports quickly and easily within Vantagepoint, which means faster reimbursements and happier employees. As Kelly Swick notes, "Entering expenses in Deltek versus a third-party provider is much simpler for our users. There's less training required because the system is intuitive, and the teams are already using it."
Second, FAR compliance no longer requires complex manual processes. The automation built by Baker Tilly ensures that expenses are classified correctly according to FAR guidelines, reducing risk and administrative burden.
Finally, the project achieved a rapid financial return on the automation investment—just four months—thanks to streamlined workflows that save time and resources.
Supporting Growth: A Single Source of Truth for M&A
IMEG's success isn't limited to expense management. As an active M&A firm acquiring 10–12 companies annually, IMEG is continuously integrating disparate systems and data. Moving all acquired firm data into Vantagepoint creates a unified application for project and financial management. This consolidation ensures consistency, improves visibility across the project lifecycle, and reduces the complexity of onboarding new firms.
Kelly Swick explains, "Once all companies are on the same system, we have seamless reporting across the organization. It's a huge advantage during acquisitions." A single system not only simplifies integration but also supports IMEG's strategic goal of delivering exceptional outcomes for clients while maintaining operational efficiency.
Once all companies are on the same system, we have seamless reporting across the organization. It's a huge advantage during acquisitions.
Looking Ahead: Innovation with Deltek
IMEG is excited about using additional features in Vantagepoint, including using Dela™, the AI orchestrator, which delivers intelligent insights. Kelly adds, "We're really looking forward to features like asking questions about contracts and getting summaries directly within Vantagepoint."
These innovations will further enhance IMEG's ability to manage projects efficiently and deliver exceptional results for clients.
