Second principle of applications integration: in a project-centered practice, it's good practice to link the software that manages projects to the software that manages the practice.
The combination of project/financial management, client relationship management (CRM) and project staffing/sourcing is commonly known—at least in business software circles—as professional services automation, or PSA. Increasingly deployed by large accounting and law firms, technology consultancies and management advisory firms to run their own practices, PSA functionality has recently come within reach of the comparatively smaller-sized firms typical of the AEC, facilities, plant/process and infrastructure industries.

The "800-pound gorilla" in this product space is Deltek Vision. Long known as a publicly-held company selling cost and time management software for large project-based businesses, Deltek a few years ago embarked on an acquisition strategy that included the former Harper & Shuman CFMS, microCFMS and Advantage project/financial accounting systems, Harper & Shuman's former competitor Semaphore (or Sema4), and the compatible CRM product, RFP for Windows (RFP4Win). After rolling up these leading CRM or "front-office" packages and project/financial or "back-office" packages for A/E's, Deltek announced its PSA vision, refreshingly called Vision (at about the same time, Deltek took itself private through a buy-back of its publicly held shares). We last looked at Deltek Vision during a visit to the firm's 2002 user conference, reported in IssueThree of the LLetter^™.

Although implementations of different portions of Deltek's Vision are being released and upgraded on differing timetables, the overall goal is to provide the company's many thousands of customer firms an integrated suite of solutions for the entire client/project lifecycle—from initial prospecting and contact to project staffing/scheduling and closeout. The key benefit of this integration is the ability to manage all client and project information with one centralized and coordinated database strategy. Design and environmental firms that already use one of Deltek's acquired software systems should be giving Deltek Vision a serious look during 2003.

For mid-sized and larger design firms, Deltek is not the only game in town. Wind2 Software, a long-term and innovative player in project/financial management for design and consulting firms with its Financial Management System (FMS), recently acquired the former AE Award program for CRM (which Wind2 had remarketed at various times in the past) and integrated it as Wind2 Award! With the addition of document management capabilities and additional project scheduling, the Wind2 FMS + Wind2 Award! PSA bundle offers a competitive alternative, especially for firms who already rely on Wind2 FMS as their financial management solution. Not to be left behind, project/financial software vendor Axium picked up distribution rights to integrated CRM solution MarketEdge (which many users swear by as the most comprehensive system for overall monitoring and management of business development campaigns). BST Software, another long-time favorite for project/financial management among larger engineering firms, also has shown stirrings in the PSA direction, as have the semi-custom practice management solutions from SOTA Software.

Software from companies such as Deltek, Wind2, Axium, BST and SOTA is geared to the needs of firms large enough to require and afford staff time specifically dedicated to using/maintaining a full-bore PSA system. However, nearly 95% of firms that might benefit from PSA are too small—at five staff or fewer—to need or pay for very much non-billable administrative time. Two long-standing alternatives for smaller firms are Portfolio from Arch Street Software (by California architect Nina Kim McKenzie) and ArchAdministrator from PS Software Solutions (by New Jersey architect Paul Smialowicz). Both offer extensive database-driven forms and reports for cost-effective small-firm PSA.

Also likely to interest the many thousands of small design practices that rely on Intuit's QuickBooks Pro for project costing and billing is a recently released suite of PSA solution modules from Ballantine & Company, an outfit previously best known for its snappy QuickGantt project scheduler and QuickAssist personal information manager. Ballantine's new Smart Tools^® Project Manager and Smart Tools^® Contact Manager programs operate as seamless add-ons to QuickBooks Pro for a delightfully affordable and easy to use PSA solution perfectly geared to the estimated 60,000+ architecture, engineering and design firms operating with five or fewer total staff. With something on the PSA market to suit every size and type of firm, there's no excuse not to chart a road map towards PSA integration before the end of 2003.
JL