Driving Project Efficiency for A&E Firms with Deltek Vantagepoint

Architecture and engineering firms (A&E) that rely on spreadsheets or disconnected systems struggle to maintain visibility and scalability as project lifecycles and client demands become increasingly complex. Nucleus found through customer conversations that organizations deploying Deltek Vantagepoint achieved improved forecasting, increased operational efficiency, and stronger collaboration across departments.

On average, firms reported a 10 percentage point improvement in forecasting accuracy and a 25 percent increase in operational efficiency across accounting, invoicing, and project management processes. By consolidating financial, project, and CRM data into a single, industry-specific platform, Deltek Vantagepoint enables A&E firms to standardize processes, enhance visibility, and support data-driven decision making. The result is a more agile organization capable of scaling efficiently, delivering accurate forecasts, and achieving higher client satisfaction.

A&E firms face rising complexity as project lifecycles stretch across multiple years, client expectations expand in both scope and satisfaction requirements, and pressures from competition and supply chain disruption increase the demand for greater efficiency. Many organizations are also managing growth through expanded project scopes and mergers and acquisitions, which creates the need to unify siloed business processes, revenue recognition practices, and project tracking methods. At the same time, firms are being asked to deliver more accurate forecasts for project timelines, resource requirements, and revenue, while maintaining tighter cost controls and providing greater visibility to both clients and internal stakeholders.

Firms that continue to rely on disconnected systems or spreadsheets struggle with inefficiencies, limited reporting capabilities, and difficulty scaling as both workforce and project portfolios expand. To address these challenges, A&E firms are turning to ERP vendors that offer project-based functionality, streamlined financial management, and industry-specific capabilities that account for the unique nuances of the sector.

Nucleus has found that A&E organizations adopting ERP platforms achieve measurable ROI by improving forecasting accuracy, reducing manual workloads, and enabling proactive decision-making. Deltek, for example, is a leading provider of enterprise software for project-based businesses, with offerings that span ERP, project management, CRM, HCM, and analytics. Its industry-specific solution, Deltek Vantagepoint, is built for professional services organizations such as architecture, engineering, and consulting firms.

Deltek Vantagepoint offers functionality across project and financial management, resource planning, time and expense tracking, billing and invoicing, and an integrated CRM. The solution also includes dashboards and business intelligence capabilities that support visibility into project performance, pipeline health, and revenue forecasts. By consolidating operations onto a single platform, A&E firms using Vantagepoint can standardize processes across business units, improve project planning and execution, and reduce the inefficiencies associated with siloed systems.

Architecture & Engineering Firm

This architecture and engineering organization was formed through the merger of several affiliated companies, which expanded its workforce to more than 500 employees. Prior to the organizational consolidation, each entity maintained separate approaches to revenue recognition and resource planning, which made company forecasting difficult across long project timelines. Leadership sought an ERP platform that could unify business processes, improve visibility into revenue categories such as labor, subconsultants, and expenses, and provide accurate forecasts to inform staffing and planning.

Since all three entities were already running Deltek Vantagepoint before the merger, the combined firm selected Vantagepoint without a competitive evaluation. A brief scan of alternatives such as CMiC, Procore, and a resource planning tool was set aside in favor of platform depth, industry fit, and familiarity. The implementation proceeded on an accelerated schedule of about five months. Most design decisions happened in the final three months as leadership aligned costing, job cost structures, and revenue policies across architecture and engineering. The organization launched the unified environment in January, after targeted data migration and user readiness focused on time and expense. A third-party adviser supported data consolidation and helped the team avoid recreating legacy design choices that no longer fit the new operating model. Core functionality, such as timesheets and expenses, was in place at go-live, and the deployment of dashboards and reporting tools further enhanced project visibility.

By consolidating operations on a single ERP solution, the firm reduced overhead, improved data consistency, and gave project teams faster access to project health metrics. These capabilities have enabled the organization to transition from manual, fragmented reporting to more reliable forecasting and proactive project management.

Architecture & Design Firm

This architecture and design firm employs more than 100 staff across multiple U.S. regions and supports diverse practice areas including healthcare, higher education, and hospitality. Prior to adopting Deltek Vantagepoint, the company relied on Deltek Vision, which had become outdated and was largely avoided by staff outside of finance. Reporting, forecasting, and CRM functions were fragmented across Excel and third-party tools, making it difficult to track project burn rates, forecast monthly revenue, or maintain an integrated view of clients and opportunities.

The firm upgraded to Deltek Vantagepoint in 2020, supported by a year of preparation and Deltek-led workshops. The migration coincided with a leadership transition and broader industry disruption, making continuity and efficiency top priorities. The system cutover was planned to minimize disruption and achieved immediate timesheet compliance on the first day.

Since deploying Vantagepoint, the firm has realized measurable benefits, including better forecasting, faster month-end closings, and broad user adoption. Resource planning and project work plans are standard practice, giving managers a clear line of sight to fee viability, labor burn, and staffing needs. The CFO and team leads review forward-looking forecasts by month and into the next year, which informs hiring and marketing cadences when a future quarter appears to be thin. Dashboards are used from the executive level to team leaders, which has reduced everyday data requests. CRM is now connected to delivery, with live pipeline reviews conducted weekly across business development and project finance. The Outlook add-in enhanced contact hygiene, and Vantagepoint serves as the source for client and campaign data that feeds Mailchimp. Finance shortened the month-end close by an estimated two to three days and is expanding in system invoice approvals.

Overall, the firm replaced scattered tools with a single system of record and action, improved decision speed, and scaled governance without adding administrative headcount.