SAWTST Switches to the “Gold Standard” in Project-Based ERP

Supporting the Us Federal and Defense Community

Founded in 2006 and owned by service-disabled veterans, SAWTST, LLC, is a government contracting firm headquartered in Tyrone, Georgia, with 28+ locations across 17 states. SAWTST is verified by the Department of Veterans Affairs and its 600-strong workforce includes military veterans and technology experts with vast experience in the defense sector.

SAWTST enables the U.S. federal and defense community to be more successful in its mission through modernization, integration and training. Today, the firm provides customized support for enterprise logistics—including warehouse and maintenance operations, transportation services and supply chain management—alongside technology services ranging from software engineering to database development and management.

“We provide enterprise logistic services and IT services to the Federal Government,” says Roshawnda “Ro” Allen, Chief Operating Officer at SAWTST. “And part of our experience with providing them support is to give them quality people and quality services. That's the impact that we make with our customers so that they can meet the needs of our nation’s service members and veterans.”

And that work has paid off. By helping to make its clients more successful, and by capitalizing on opportunities in information technology and enterprise logistics, the company has experienced dramatic growth, more than doubling its workforce in just four years.

Improving Productivity, Communication and Financial Visibility

Rapid growth has been a positive for SAWTST, but expansion presents its own set of challenges. In recent years, SAWTST’s workforce has experienced some challenges with manual, labor-intensive tasks and siloed processes resulting from the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system it deployed in 2020.

SAWTST powers its business development processes through Deltek’s comprehensive market intelligence platform, GovWin IQ. But, with its current ERP, these systems were disparate and siloed, which hindered effective communication and transparency of information across the company.

Staff has found it hard to extract information from the system requiring a lot of manipulation within Excel to get what data is needed. And the system was difficult to navigate—for those who didn't use it on a regular basis, they often became frustrated and required a lot of support.

“Unanet has been a good software for SAWTST, but not a comprehensive software,” explains Debra Hadley, Chief Financial Officer at SAWTST. “It lacks comprehensive reporting; it lacks business development; it lacks opportunities. As we continue to grow, we need a software that really can handle everything that we need, including those items.”

To overcome these limitations and inefficiencies, the organization sought an industry-specific solution that would improve productivity, communication and visibility across the business.

In Search of The Best Erp For Government Contractors

The leadership team knew the time had come for the business to upgrade its ERP system and streamline its processes to support its long-term growth plans. Its goal was to make it easier for end users to automate processes and connect the entire company to project data as a single source of truth—improving efficiency, effectiveness and profitability.

So, SAWTST went in search of a new ERP partner that could deliver the innovation and intelligence it needed to achieve its goals.

Roshawnda explains: “Having seen us grow from 250 employees four years ago to 600 employees, I was looking at something that was scalable. Something that would help us operate, moving from a small business to one that can’t necessarily play in the small business world anymore.”

The government contractor needed a single solution that could support a range of functional areas, including opportunity and contracts management and procurement. Due to complex and rapidly changing industry legislation, the leadership team also wanted better out-of-the-box reporting, with modern and automated functionality.

In short, SAWTST needed an all-in-one, industry-specific system that could help the business modernize its entire project lifecycle in a heavily legislated industry.

Supporting The Compliance Requirements of Government Contractors

SAWTST chose Deltek Costpoint, a project-based ERP solution that’s purpose-built for government contractors. It centralizes the management of projects, people, and finances, and scales seamlessly as needs grow, enabling small- to enterprise-sized businesses to win new clients, manage project profitability and improve delivery at every stage.

Additionally, the integrated cloud offering enables the secure storage of data and is consistently enhanced to meet the most up-to-date cybersecurity compliance standards.

Deltek Costpoint delivers more innovation and greater intelligence at every stage of the project lifecycle. And, crucially, it supports the compliance requirements of government contractors—from bid to invoice.

Deltek Erp Is “Miles Ahead Of The Competition”

Being a CFO at a government contractor requires special skills and an understanding of the unique government requirements for finance and accounting.

“How we handle our project information—and our accounting, finances and reporting—requires the right partnerships with those that know how the government thinks,” says Debra. “We need software that makes it easy for us to be efficient and connects the entire company to our project data for a single source of the truth.”

“And we have found that with Deltek. After demoing the software and doing our research, it’s clear that Deltek is miles ahead of the competition and the gold standard for government contractors.”

SAWTST chose Deltek Costpoint for two reasons. First, because it’s a government contracting solution. And second, because SAWTST needed an all-compassing solution that can be used by everyone in the company—from the CEO down.

The organization now expects its new project-based ERP system to drive time savings and become its one-stop-shop for mission-critical data. It's not hard to see why Debra and the rest of the leadership team are looking forward to getting started.

“Deltek Costpoint is miles ahead of Unanet, and it’s going to cut down greatly on the amount of manual intervention we have to do,” Debra says. “We are new Deltek customers. We are very excited about that. The entire organization is excited about that. We can't wait to get started.”

SAWTST LLC selects Deltek to power its project success and long-term growth strategy

Government Contractor Switches to Deltek Costpoint to Better Meet Company Goals

Nucleus Research finds government contractors who use Costpoint win more deals over competitors