The road to greatness for Professional Services Firms.

1. White Paper
By Hugo Dorph, EVP
and General Manager,
Deltek
Flawless project execution
The road to greatness for Professional Services firms
Table of contents Every business and every industry have their Best practices must be integrated
1 More value for less own unique set of best practices. This also A recently released study by the Aberdeen
money applies to Professional Services companies, Group shows that efficient project execution
1 Best practices must be including agencies, consulting firms, law firms is a key driver in differentiating the best
integrated and accounting firms. One of the most essential Professional Services companies from their
2 Increased competition success criteria for these companies is to competitors.
and lower business consistently deliver projects on time and under Aberdeen Group found that best-in-class
volumes budget. Professional Services companies deliver 91
2 The elimination race has To do so, they must execute their projects percent of their projects early or on time and
begun with surgical precision according to their 96 percent of their projects within budget. The
2 Complex projects call particular best practices. But many companies study clearly shows that this is no coincidence.
for best practices do not have firmly established best practices for In fact, best-in-class Professional Services
3 Take full control of your project execution across their entire organization. companies are 57 percent more likely to have
business Hence, delivering projects on time and under deployed an integrated solution based on best
budget represents a vital, unexploited potential practices for their project management, project
for Professional Services companies. scheduling and project costing than their lower-
performing industry peers. This indicates that
More value for less money best practices must be deeply integrated in the
The recent profit drive in project-based project workflow to enable these companies to
Professional Services companies across the consistently deliver projects on time and within
globe appears to have left no stone unturned. budget.
Cutbacks and postponed investments have been Research shows that the investment pays
the reality of virtually all companies during the immediate dividends. Best-in-class companies
past few years. The goal of a profit drive is often achieved a staggering year-on-year improvement
to make up for lost revenue in an attempt to in project profitability of no less than 37 percent.
protect the bottom line. Accordingly, this is mere This number is particularly impressive in light of
symptom treatment that does not address the the industry benchmark of 14 percent.
real problem: Having to deliver more value to your
clients for less money.
Best 20% Industry Average
Projects delivered early or on time 91% 71%
Projects delivered within budget 96% 80%
Project profitability improvement (YoY) 37% 14%
Source: “Delivering Project Profitability”, Aberdeen Group, January 2010
1 deltek.com

2. White Paper Flawless Project Execution
Professional Increased competition and lower business companies and their lower-ranked competitors
volumes
Services Professional Services companies are adopting
is that the former will be able to deliver their
projects on time and under budget, keeping their
companies integrated project management solutions at clients happy and their bottom line healthy.
should take a rapid pace these years and there is nothing It is striking that many Professional Services
dubious about the timing of this surge. Asked by companies still have not exploited the one
this golden Aberdeen Group to identify their Top Two business source of business optimization that would make
opportunity drivers, Professional Services companies cite the greatest difference in terms of fixing their
to trim their increased competition (50 percent of surveyed
businesses) and declining business volumes
fundamentals and boosting their bottom line:
Implementing best practices for flawless project
operations (37 percent) as their main drivers. According execution across the entire enterprise. This will be
for the future. to Aberdeen Group, the surveyed companies one of the determining factors in the elimination
consider the consequences of these difficult race that will play out over the next few years.
challenges to be dire. The overriding issue is lower
profit margins caused by price cuts, cited by 48 Complex projects call for best practices
percent of the surveyed businesses as one of their The complexity of projects in the Professional
Top Two project-specific pressures. Second on Services sector has grown dramatically over the
the list is the increased need to optimize time- past few decades – especially in recent years –
to-market on projects, cited by 35 percent as an but not all businesses have adjusted their project
urgent project-specific pressure. management processes accordingly. Therefore
the project managers in these businesses will
The elimination race has begun have a hard time ensuring project delivery on time
Rather than complain about the bleak realities and under budget when the going gets tough.
of the business world, however, Professional If you decide to act now to brace your company
Services companies should take this golden for the future elimination race, there are a myriad
opportunity to trim their operations for the of different solutions on the market to address
future. Lower profit margins put great demands your need. But how can you be sure you select
on project execution – for Professional Services the right solution for your unique business? Our
companies and for their competitors as well. recommendation is that you team up with a
This is their best chance to build a long-term vendor with proven expertise when it comes to
competitive advantage over their peers as they streamlining project execution and supporting
are forced to slash prices similarly. However, business processes. In short, you should look for
the clear difference between best-in-class industry expertise.
Top Two Business Drivers
In a recent survey by the Aberdeen Group, over 300 project-based companies were asked to identify
their top two business drivers in the current business climate. The most frequently cited drivers were:
Increased competition forces us to lower or freeze prices 50%
Market and business volume are down 37%
Increasing risk exposure across project portfolios 27%
Cyclical or volatile nature of our business (feast or famine) 25%
Global environments and distributed teams introduce complexity 22%
Source: “Delivering Project Profitability”, Aberdeen Group, January 2010
2 deltek.com

3. World Headquarters: Representing a company with over two Deltek (Nasdaq: PROJ) is the leading global
United States decades of experience delivering enterprise provider of enterprise software and information
13880 Dulles Corner Ln solutions to Professional Services companies, we solutions for professional services firms,
Herndon, VA 20171 can tell you that best practices is a true playmaker government contractors, and government
800.456.2009 for our clients. Our narrow focus on Professional agencies. For decades, we have delivered
Services companies allows us to deliver maximum actionable insight that empowers our customers
Regional Offices: value to our clients rather than adopting a one- to unlock their business potential. Over 14,000
Australia size-fits-all approach. Every industry has its own organizations and 1.8 million users in 80+
Tel: +61 8 8112 1200 unique set of best practices, and these best countries around the world rely on Deltek to
practices should be standard functionality in a research and identify opportunities, win new
Belgium truly industry-specific enterprise solution. Many business, optimize resources, streamline
Tel: +32 (0) 2 709 2191 enterprise solutions vendors claim to possess operations, and deliver more profitable projects.
industry expertise within Professional Services, but Deltek – Know more. Do more.™
Denmark few can produce tangible evidence to this when deltek.com
Tel: +45 35 27 79 00 challenged. When you make an investment of this
magnitude, you should make sure your selected
Nederland vendor has a profound understanding of your
Tel: +31 (0)20 347 3080 business.
Norway Take full control of your business
Tel: +47 22 01 38 00 There is a strong global trend these years
toward business automation among
Sweden Professional Services companies. The
Tel: +46 (0)8 587 077 00 business world is starting to realize that sound
project execution is a highly efficient way to
United Kingdom boost your bottom line and take full control
1 Warwick Row of your business. Based on our experience
Tel: +44 (0)20 7518 5010 optimizing the operations of Professional
Services companies, we believe this is an
70 London Road imperative step for any company that wants
Tel: +44 (0)20 8843 7000 to be considered best-in-class. But make sure
you look for proven industry expertise. It’s not
about the system – it’s about best practices.
Adopting the right solution for flawless project
deltek.com execution will have a profound effect on two of
info@deltek.com your most vital success factors: growing your
bottom line and keeping your clients happy. And
it will enable you to take full advantage of your
untapped project execution potential and chart
your course for greatness.
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