How AlphaPlus Achieved Transparent Project and Financial Management with Deltek Maconomy

An interview with 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 Sarah Hetherington, Board member and Director of Legal and Finance, to find out why AlphaPlus chose Deltek, how the platform works within the organization, and what advice she has 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 needs to make a financial contribution to the organization, requiring completely attributable tracking and cost counting of all time and subcontract costs on a per-project basis. Previously, the company had relied on a huge tower of spreadsheets, as many small organizations do, but this approach is only suitable up to a certain size.

The company needed a platform that could provide more than simple accounting capabilities and offer an in-depth approach to project management. However, almost every accounting system they evaluated made it hard to track what's going on at both the business and project levels.

Deltek Maconomy stood out as having the opposite approach. It tightly integrated accounting and project management and focused on ensuring projects were done well – and done profitably. The projects side of the platform enables detailed analysis of the differences across projects and helps the team understand where all costs are allocated.

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

ERP That Meets Education Sector Compliance

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. The company handles time and materials work, overseas projects and operates in different currencies. Adding to the challenge, the education sector has some of the most difficult VAT rules encountered in any industry. Deltek Maconomy is built to handle all these issues and grow and expand with the business, ensuring AlphaPlus wouldn't outgrow its platform choice five or ten years down the line.

Deltek Maconomy also helps the team maintain a comprehensive audit trail throughout the business – something that's essential in a sector as tightly regulated as education. The platform's document storage capabilities are particularly valuable, allowing the team to upload contracts or purchase orders as documents and give everybody access. This functionality goes beyond just figures and time sheets – having those master documents is ideal for keeping a clear audit trail.

"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."

Cloud-Based ERP for Seamless Integration

A crucial point for AlphaPlus is that Deltek Maconomy works well alongside its existing infrastructure and cloud-based approach to working. As an organization that has always been very cloud-based, having a single environment to work in was a huge advantage. The company is a dynamic business with pressures always changing, so being able to easily extract data and match it with other sources in the 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. AlphaPlus centers its business on a relatively small number of integrated platforms. For example, they use a standalone CRM system, but when a project becomes a real job, they can easily drop it into Deltek with an effective integration that just works.

Moving forward, the team is exploring how they can start automating more tasks with Deltek. Integrating workload forecasting tools will be the next step, and while they can handle this on a manual timestamp basis in the meantime, they really want to start automating that process through APIs. The possibilities for future automation are particularly exciting for the growing organization.

Recommendations for a Successful ERP Implementation

Drawing from their experience, the AlphaPlus team has identified several critical factors that contribute to a successful ERP implementation. First, organizations should designate a dedicated expert who understands the platform well or is willing to become that expert, someone who can serve as the go-to resource for questions and challenges that arise. "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," says Sarah. This internal champion becomes invaluable for maintaining momentum and ensuring the system is used effectively across the organization.

Second, companies shouldn't be afraid to experiment with the platform's extensive capabilities. With so many features available in comprehensive ERP solutions, it's important to try different functionalities and abandon those that don't work for your specific needs. This iterative approach helps organizations discover the most valuable aspects of their investment while avoiding feature bloat that can overwhelm users.

Finally, creating segmented user groups based on usage needs is essential for success. Not everyone needs to live in the system, but users should engage with it based on their job roles and requirements. For example, project managers might serve as super-users who analyze and communicate information to team members who use the platform less regularly. This approach prevents casual users from bouncing off the platform while ensuring that those who need deep functionality can access it effectively.

Evolve Your Project & Financial 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.