How AlphaPlus Achieved Transparent Project and Financial Management with Deltek Maconomy

An interview with Board members Gavin Busuttil-Reynaud, Director of Operations, and Sarah Hetherington, Director of Legal and Finance

AlphaPlus is a leading UK consultancy specializing in planning, developing, delivering, and evaluating assessments for all levels of education – covering everything from school-level certifications to qualifications for professional trades. For over two decades, its team of sector experts has helped hundreds of organizations redesign their approach to assessments using innovative technologies.

The company started as a small collaboration between consultants in the sector, relying on complex spreadsheets to track every project. But when AlphaPlus started to grow rapidly, its team needed a more comprehensive approach to project management and accounting.

Today, AlphaPlus uses Deltek Maconomy as its core enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution to combine project accounting and project management – and get a complete view of its operations.

We spoke to Board members Gavin Busuttil-Reynaud, Director of Operations, and Sarah Hetherington, Director of Legal and Finance, to find out why their team chose Deltek, how the platform works within the organization, and what advice they have for other leaders looking for the right ERP solution.

The Evolution from Spreadsheets to Accurate Project Management

When looking for an ERP solution, AlphaPlus wanted to find a platform that could offer clear, accurate tracking of every job that came in.

"Each project has to make a financial contribution to the organization. We need completely attributable tracking and cost counting of all our time – as well as subcontract costs – on a per-project basis," explains Gavin. "Previously, I set up a huge tower of spreadsheets, as most small organizations do, but that's only suitable up to a certain size."

The company needed a platform that could provide more than just simple accounting capabilities and, instead, offer an in-depth approach to project management.

"Accounting for me is entirely a means to an end, but almost every accounting system we looked at started with the assumption that accounting is the end unto itself. They made it really hard to track what's going on with your business," says Gavin. “Deltek Maconomy was the opposite. It stood out because it tightly integrated accounting and project management and focused on ensuring projects were done well – and done profitably."

"I love the projects side of the platform," adds Sarah. "We can do a detailed analysis of the differences across our projects and understand where all our costs are."

Creating Accountability in a Highly Regulated Sector

AlphaPlus wanted to ensure the platform it chose would be able to handle the complexities of education – and be able to scale as the business and sector evolve.

"We do time and materials work, projects overseas, and operate in different currencies. And to add to the challenge, the education sector has some of the most difficult VAT rules you'll ever encounter," says Gavin. "Deltek Maconomy is built to handle all these issues and grow and expand with the business. I didn't want to make a big choice only to outgrow it five or ten years down the line."

Deltek Maconomy also helps Gavin and Sarah's teams maintain a comprehensive audit trail throughout the business – something that's essential in a sector as tightly regulated as education.

"One of the things we find particularly valuable is the document storage capabilities on the platform. The fact that you can upload contracts or purchase orders as documents and give everybody access is really useful," says Sarah. "It's not just figures and time sheets – having those master documents is ideal for keeping a clear audit trail."

A Flexible, Cloud-Based Approach to Project Management

A crucial point for AlphaPlus is that Deltek Maconomy works well alongside its existing infrastructure and cloud-based approach to working.

"We've always been a very cloud-based organization, so the fact that Deltek could offer us a single cloud-based environment to work in was a huge plus," says Gavin. "We're also a dynamic business with pressures always changing. Being able to easily rip data out and match it with other sources in our organization is really helpful."

The team has also adapted the platform to meet its specific needs – choosing individual components that work well with the rest of the organization's technology stack.

"We center our business on a relatively small number of critical platforms and work out how to integrate them together and share data between them," explains Gavin. "For example, we use a standalone CRM system, but when a project becomes a real job for us, we can easily drop it into Deltek, and it works – the integration is really effective."

Moving forward, Gavin and Sarah are exploring how their team can start automating more tasks with Deltek.

"Integrating our workload forecasting tools will be the next step for us," says Gavin. "It's good to know we can do that on a manual timestamp basis in the meantime, but once we know what we're doing, we really want to start automating that process through APIs. We're really excited by what's possible."

Three Recommendations for a Successful ERP Implementation

Gavin and Sarah also shared their advice for any companies looking to implement a comprehensive ERP solution.

1. Have a dedicated expert in your organization

"One of my recommendations would be that you definitely need someone in your business who understands the platform well and/or is willing to become that expert," says Sarah. "It's a standing joke at AlphaPlus that I'm the empress of Deltek – whenever someone has a question, I'm the person they come to."

2. Don't be afraid to experiment

"There's so much in Deltek Maconomy, so don't be afraid to try different bits and abandon them if they don't work for you," says Sarah.

"It's also really easy to get data out after you've put it in," adds Gavin. "It allows for a lot more experimentation."

3. Create segmented and targeted user groups

"I think creating segmented groups by usage needs is a recipe for success. You don't want people bouncing off the platform because it doesn't reward casual users," says Gavin. "We don't expect everyone to live in the system but to use it based on their job roles and requirements. For example, our project managers are super-users, so they analyze and communicate information to the rest of the team who might not be using Maconomy regularly."

Evolve Your Approach to Project Management

AlphaPlus offers just one example of what's possible with Deltek's ERP solutions. With the ability to deploy quickly and adapt to meet your organization's needs, Deltek Maconomy – and Deltek's other ERP solutions – can help you transform your approach to project and financial management.

To discover how you can use Deltek Maconomy to power project success with complete transparency of your projects, people, and finances, click here.