Technology Innovation Customer Experience

Technology, Innovation and the Triumph of the Human Spirit: 5 Key Learnings from Deltek Project Nation Live in London

May 02, 2023
Deltek, Inc
Deltek
5 Key Learnings from Deltek Project Nation Live in London

Deltek Project Nation finally reconnected in person after a three-year break at Deltek’s annual customer conference in London, Deltek Project Nation Live. During the one-day event, attendees heard from our leadership team, including President and CEO, Mike Corkery, who gave an update on Deltek’s strategy and continued commitment to customer success, and took the opportunity to connect with customers throughout the day.

Attendees also heard from Deltek’s product experts, took a death-defying journey with mountaineer Joe Simpson and learned how their peers have navigated a turbulent few years.

Overall, it was a fantastic day for Deltek customers, partners, and prospects. Below are five key learnings customers took away from the event.

1. Success is About Choice, Not Chance

Joe Simpson, mountaineer, speaker, author and subject of the BAFTA award-winning film Touching the Void, captivated Deltek Project Nation Live attendees as he recounted his death-defying climb in the Peruvian Andes.

With his amusing and matter-of-fact style, Joe took attendees on a journey that had the audience on the edge of their seats. With one setback after another, including a broken leg, a fall into a crevasse and running out of food and water, Joe’s story is the epitome of “will to live”. Through his experience, Joe demonstrated some key principles for success, whether you are climbing a mountain or looking to succeed in your day-to-day life:

  • Make decisions and move forward, even when it seems overwhelming
  • Break big goals down into smaller ones then focus wholly on taking that next step
  • Trust and commitment to a goal are key to operating successfully as a team – without trust, teams fail
  • Don’t forget to focus on the positives – no matter how bad you think the situation is!

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2. Deltek Demonstrates Unwavering Commitment to Purposeful Innovation

Deltek’s Vice President of Product, Bret Tushaus, demonstrated how Deltek drives purposeful innovation by incorporating emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP), into our solutions. He also gave the audience further insight into our cloud-first approach, how we are responding to changes in the way that we work and what employees expect from their technology, the role of automation and enabling your organization with Data as a Service (DaaS).

Bret commented “Deltek’s strategy is focused on purposeful innovation…that is, innovation that provides tangible and practical value, versus innovation just for the sake of innovation. We look at it as driven by both leveraging emerging technology and by reimagining business processes.  Everything Deltek does in the context of innovation is about driving valuable outcomes for organizations using our solutions.  Bottom line, purposeful innovation powers our customer’s project success.”

For Deltek Maconomy customers, automation was the topic of the day with Bret introducing various initiatives for users to be able to eliminate unnecessarily manual and time-consuming business processes, improve accuracy and free up valuable resources.

UX/UI is top of the list for Deltek’s Agency Management solution, WorkBook, and Bret demonstrated how we plan to provide a new user experience which will include access via mobile devices. Deltek Vantagepoint users can also look forward to a refreshing new user experience, and they will also be able to take advantage of increased efficiency across their CRM, invoicing and scheduling processes.

Deltek PIM’s document management capabilities are about to become even more extensive with the ability to work with other file sources, such as OneDrive and Dropbox, and the addition of broader search capabilities. For firms that work with external suppliers and contractors, PIM Teamwork will allow companies to invite team members from outside the organization to collaborate in PIM.

 

“Bottom line, purposeful innovation powers our customer’s project success.”

– Bret Tushaus, Vice President of Product Management, Deltek

 

The addition of the Archisnapper the leading field app was welcomed by Deltek’s architecture and engineering customers who are always looking for ways to increase efficiency on-site – in this case, by making the creation of site reports easier. An important upcoming development in the app will enable broader collaboration capabilities, further extending the benefits across project teams.

Users of Deltek’s Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Solutions were excited to hear about the new unified experience across products, including the proposed integrated budget change request (BCR) capabilities to support the project management process even more effectively.

3. Deltek Supports Project-Based Businesses with System Integration

A great example of Deltek’s commitment to purposeful innovation is our new iPaaS solution, Unionpoint, which Bret also introduced at the conference.

With Gartner predicting that at least 65% of organizations will justify integration capabilities expenditure as a strategic investment by 2024, Unionpoint is a welcome addition to Deltek’s product suite.

Powered by the “best of breed” integration platform, Workato, Unionpoint offers a powerful yet simple solution using product connectors to simplify and accelerate the integration process.

Bret explained how the solution enables customers, partners and Deltek’s global consulting team to build integrations using a code-less and/or code-light approach that leverages the community of prebuilt content and employs a drag-and-drop interface.

4. Technology Drives Growth and Opportunity in the New World of Work

Deltek’s Vice President of Product Marketing, Michelle Cipollone, spoke with a panel of Deltek customers. They discussed several key topics, from digital transformation and technology to talent management and positioning their businesses for growth.

When asked how they feel about navigating this period of rapid change, the consensus from the panel was that change is a good thing. Mike Carden, Programme Manager at global engineering firm Mott MacDonald believes that if change is handled correctly, it can offer as many opportunities as it does challenges.

Technology in particular was seen as a driver of opportunity, especially as the business landscape has changed rapidly since 2020.

Environmental consulting firm SLR Group’s Global Systems Manager, David Creighton believes that with more companies focusing on growth via merger and acquisition (M&A), the right technology is crucial. Companies need to leverage technology strategically to bring their data and business processes together for a smoother acquisition.

Michael Ibbeson, Principal at consulting engineering firm Structa LLP agreed. As engineers, data wasn’t something that they previously leveraged so starting to work more with data has been an interesting journey for the company, and the technology that they use has been the enabler.

Talent management is a hot topic for most industries and our panelists discussed their experiences of attracting and retaining talent in the new world of work. Mike Carden that technology offers an opportunity here and that using automation frees up your talent to focus on what they do best. He believes that if you can free up your smart people to work on the “right stuff”, you not only benefit the business but also enable your talent’s career development making them more likely to stay.

There was a collective feeling that the switch to remote and hybrid working is negatively affecting younger generations of employees. Without exposure to office life, they are missing out on some key benefits such as impromptu conversations, being able to get support from others in the office, learning to communicate and build relationships effectively.

Following the discussion Michelle shared her thoughts, commenting “It was a great conversation with our valued customers around technology innovation, business process automation, and the state of the industry.”

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5. Connecting Face-to-Face Facilitates Knowledge Sharing

We couldn’t talk about our annual customer event without mentioning how good it was to get together in person after a three-year break. Conference attendees relished the opportunity to share knowledge, catch-up on what’s happening in their businesses and industries, and connect on what they have planned for 2023 and beyond.

Until Next Year

Thank you to all our wonderful customers who made Deltek Project Nation Live one to remember! Special thanks to our partner sponsors: Todis, Smart Software, Prophix, the Virtu Group, and Pagero for helping make the event a success. We hope every who attended walked away with new ideas, actionable takeaways, and a better understanding of how Deltek is committed to meeting the needs of your business.

And to all of Deltek Project Nation members across Europe, we hope to see you at next year’s conference! Stay tuned for more details.


 

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Deltek, Inc
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