Article

Stop crawling and start running with a Costpoint assessment

Nov. 3, 2021 · Authored by Kevin Brandt, Megan LeBrun

As with most things in life, your organization’s needs change over time and that goes for business systems as well. When you first implemented Deltek Costpoint, it probably addressed most of your business requirements. As your organization has evolved, the needs of the business changed, and it is likely that your processes and configurations have not morphed accordingly.

All of this said, your organization may benefit from a Costpoint assessment, which can help identify areas of improvement that allow you to take advantage of new functionality and configurations not previously utilized to facilitate business process changes.

Assessment triggers

The reasons to conduct an assessment vary widely, but we have identified a few common triggers.

First, major organizational change. Changes to the corporate landscape, such as a reorganization or M&A activity, can have significant implications on the organization’s business processes and systems.

If those processes and systems are not updated, you may face a lack of sufficient reporting and metrics, the inability for applications to meet business needs, or incomplete integrations and deficiencies that can hobble your operations.

Another typical trigger is an upgrade or a migration to the cloud. Both paths have inherent complexity and present an opportunity to avoid a simple “lift and shift” migration. Each can present an opportunity to take advantage of new capabilities.

That said, organizations should consider a few questions when upgrading or moving to the cloud. Does the structure of your projects, accounts and orgs accurately reflect the current business landscape? Are your reporting needs being met including your use of Costpoint Business Intelligence? Are your integrations with other data sources addressed? Lastly, the organization should consider an evaluation of new system functionality, which can eliminate unneeded customizations, as well as manual or offline processes. A Costpoint assessment can help you address all of these questions.

A final typical trigger: an antiquated or suboptimal implementation and configuration. Advancements in technical infrastructure and system integrations can reduce IT overhead and bring valuable information to end users faster. Updating system configuration and design with current industry best practices can leverage current system functionality to the fullest extent. An assessment can identify where it makes sense to leverage web services for system integrations, use Costpoint Extensibility to replace homegrown customizations or implement new functionality and features.