Deltek Workbook

The API Integration Process

Written by: Sandy Froonjian

In my previous article, I provided a general overview of what the API team at PCI does. In this article, I’m going to get more technical and explain the details of how we work with our clients to accomplish that integration. To begin integrating, the client must be set-up within both software programs. We typically integrate Deltek’s Costpoint and WorkBook products, but we can connect to various other software programs as needed. For the sake of simplicity, I will reference Costpoint in this article.

Once Costpoint is implemented, the customer will contact a PCI Sales Representative and describe the integration they require. For example, what third-party software are they using? Which module within Deltek/Costpoint do they want connected? Which fields within the module do they want populated? Which way(s) do they want the data to flow? Once the PCI Sales Rep has a good understanding of what the client needs, a proposal is created for them. The proposal will contain all the answers to the above questions, as well as the final cost of the integration.

After the proposal is signed, the API team jumps in! The API team consists of a Project Manager, a Principal Consultant, and Software Engineer(s). Once the team is assigned, we first meet for a kick-off call, where we introduce ourselves, outline the steps of your integration, and give you a timeframe for each part of process. We will also schedule a weekly meeting series so that both parties can stay up to date on the progress.

The first order of business for the API team is obtaining access to both your third-party system and Costpoint. Depending on the type of third-party software, we might need to get credentials to connect to its API’s, SFTP site, and/or SSL certificates. If we do not have access to your Costpoint system at this stage, we will connect through a VPN. The team then creates a WIC (Web Integration Console) environment for the client, which is an exact copy of their Costpoint system that is only used for testing purposes.

Once we have all the access components we need, the next step is to complete a mapping document with the client. This is where customization comes into play. Because we are working with two completely different systems, the fields found in each system don’t align perfectly. Therefore, we need to discuss with the client how they want data in one system to flow into the other. This often involves creating crosswalks because the two systems might contain data of the same field in different formats. For instance, the field “Organization” in system 1 might be a text format such as “Premier Consulting and Integration”, while in system 2 it might be a numerical format such as “1.01.01.02”.

After the API team and the client complete the mapping for every field, the Software Engineer can then code the function. The mapping file acts as the blueprints for the coder to create the API. Once they are done coding, we move into the testing phase. During this phase, we have the client make any possible test changes they see fit, so we can account for all possible scenarios while we are still pointed at the client’s WIC environment. Also, during this phase, the function is automated to run on whatever schedule the client asks for.

Finally, once both parties are confident that all testing scenarios have been accounted for and that the API is working as intended, the engineer then points the function at the client’s production environment. At this point, the API is officially live! The API team provides one last meeting for the client called the “Dashboard Review.” During this review, we provide access to our Astrata dashboard site where the client can monitor all the logs/run of the function moving forward. They also have the ability on this site to submit support tickets directly to the API team if they run into issues or concerns.

The amount of time that the entire integration process takes varies. If it’s an integration that we have done before, it can be as quick as 5-6 weeks, but if it’s a brand-new integration, it can take 7-8 weeks.

The diagram below summarizes the entire integration process:

8 Ways Project-Based Business Can Be More Successful In 2023

From mitigating the challenges of attracting and retaining top talent to aiding customers on their digital transformation journey, enterprise resource planning (ERP), human capital management (HCM), project management and project execution solutions are front and center within project-based businesses.

Now more than ever, firms in every industry are recognizing the pervasiveness of technology and how it can drive profitability, competitive differentiation, operational optimization and new revenue streams.

How to Get Ahead

As we kick off this year and focus on future success, here are eight ways business applications and technology can benefit your project-based businesses in 2023 and beyond:

1. STAY COMPETITIVE FOR TOP TALENT

The modern project-based workforce’s attributes have continued to evolve, and employers who have not evolved with them are finding it quite challenging to compete for talent and grow their businesses. Part of that evolution is leveraging the right tools and systems to recruit, onboard, develop and manage the people within an organization and provide the right technology to those people so they can most efficiently, effectively and intuitively perform their job.

2. CONNECT DISPARATE SYSTEMS TOGETHER  

As organizations continue to identify point solutions to meet their specific company or industry needs, the necessity to connect those solutions to other operational business applications is imperative. It’s essential for those systems to continue to offer expansive integration capabilities for key players and businesses to communicate with each other effectively.

3. .TRANSITION ON-PREMISES SOLUTIONS TO THE CLOUD

While this is a perennial trend that the pandemic has further fueled, it remains very relevant across every industry, regardless of size. Businesses continue their transition from on-premises to primarily cloud-based solutions and ERP products to save money and increase their accessibility, security and business continuity posture.

4. CREATE A BETTER UX/UI

Broad user adoption significantly drives the value yielded from an organization’s business applications. An intuitive user experience (UX) and an engaging, modern, accessible and visually appealing user interface (UI) can go a long way to drive user adoption. In addition, a modern and fresh user interface is another means to attract and retain talent from generations entering the workforce with technology prevalent in all aspects of their lives.

5. MAKE CYBERSECURITY A TOP PRIORITY

With attacks on businesses increasing every day, it is more important than ever for all organizations to take cybersecurity seriously in business continuity and data privacy. Organizations should no longer grow complacent by the assumption that it will never happen to them; it is no longer a matter of if and is instead a matter of when and how severe.

6. ENHANCE TECHNOLOGY OFFERINGS TO CLIENTS

Growing competitive pressure, economic uncertainty and the ongoing evolution of project-focused businesses have prompted the exploration of new service offerings and revenue streams. Technology is front and center in this exploration as companies that have historically focused on vertically oriented, industry-specific services are beginning to offer technology-based products and apps or technology-based consulting. This evolution is critical for businesses to diversify and identify new growth opportunities.

7. FOCUS ON PROJECT MANAGERS & THEIR TOOLS

There is an amplified focus on project management tools and the discipline itself. The process begins with competent project managers and equipping them with the right tools and technology. Project management, project planning, and resource management tools are more and more accessible, and the combination of these tools with project management best practices leads to profitable projects and the ultimate goal of satisfying customers.

8. BUILD ESG AWARENESS

Awareness around Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) is becoming increasingly critical for all organizations. A strong ESG proposition can create value and differentiation. Companies that demonstrate corporate responsibility are more likely to be trusted and, as a result, can tap new markets and opportunities. In addition, focusing on ESG can be another way to attract and retain talent and, as mentioned previously, anything that can differentiate an organization within the war for talent is beneficial in today’s employment market. Business systems and applications can enable ESG reporting and visibility to inform organizations and identify areas of improvement.

What are APIs & What Does PCI’s API Team Do?

This blog was written by Sandy Froonjian, Software Engineer at PCI.

You may have heard the term “API” thrown around at your job here and there but have never really known what it is or what it means. APIs are ubiquitous and most software these days have API capabilities without people even realizing it. That’s because they are only found on the invisible back-end of software. But even though you can’t see them, and they aren’t talked about much, APIs can (and currently do) make your daily tasks much easier.

So, what are APIs? API is an acronym that stands for Application Program Interface. Ok, there you go! Hope this article was helpful! …just kidding. What the heck does application program interface even mean?! To put it simply, APIs are middleware software that connect two other software together. It’s a type of software that allows data to be inserted into, pulled from, updated in, or deleted from a different software. The types of actions APIs can do is often abbreviated as CRUD, which stands for Create, Read, Update, and Delete/Destroy. To get technical, there are two types of APIs – SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and REST (Representational State Transfer). SOAP and REST dictate the HTTP protocol used to interact with the data. SOAP has more rigid standards and requires a little more work for the programmer, whereas REST is simpler and more flexible to work with.

Now that you understand what an API is, let’s talk about how they are beneficial to you! (Because otherwise, what’s the point of any of this?) Whether you realize it or not, you encounter APIs every day that make your life a little bit more streamlined. For example, if you’ve ever tried logging into a website, and it asked you if you want to login using Google, META, Twitter, etc., that is all thanks to an API. Similarly, connecting to PayPal when checking out on an online store is also the work of an API.

Here are PCI, we don’t work with Google or META. Instead, we use even cooler programs… accounting software! The API team connects to whatever third-party HR/payroll/expense-reporting software our clients use by gaining access to that software’s API. We also connect to their Deltek system (Costpoint) using Deltek’s API. We then export data from either system and import it into the other. There is a lot of room for flexibility and customization here, the client can choose if they want the data to flow from the third-party software to Costpoint, from Costpoint to the third-party software, or even have it flow bi-directionally. These functions are then automated to run on whatever schedule the client asks for. By connecting your software together like this, a more efficient workflow is created, because you will no longer have to enter the same data in two sperate systems. Say good-bye to duplicate entries!

All in all, you can think of APIs as the middlemen of software. I like to use a restaurant analogy to describe them, our clients’ third-party software are like the customers at a restaurant, Costpoint is like the chefs, the API is like the server, and the data is like the food. The process goes like this:

The customer (software 1) tells the server (API) what they want.
The server takes that request and brings it (data) to the chef (software 2).
The chef gives the server what they asked for (data).
The server brings it to the customer.

We have already created several types of API integrations at PCI with dozens of different software, and we are always open to creating brand new ones. Stay tuned for a separate article where we go into detail about the types we have done so far!

If you are interested in learning more about PCI’s ASTRATA API integrations check them out here!

Introducing ConceptShare: Deliver 10x Content, Reduce Costs & Bolster Client Relationships

Whether you’re working at a marketing agency, advertising agency, or creative consultancy, clients are probably constantly asking you to deliver more, at faster speeds with less budget. What if one tool could eliminate the pain points around these asks, and actually help you drive more profit, productivity, and value for your clients?

Enter ConceptShare.

Built for agency leaders by agency veterans, ConceptShare is an online communication, project management, and proofing tool all in one. ConceptShare streamlines the creative process by accelerating reviews and approvals (between teams and clients), so your agency can deliver content faster and at less cost, all while reducing time on those pesky unbillable hours.

Day in and day out, agencies deliver on some of the most innovative campaigns for the world’s most iconic brands. But in a fast-paced digital world, deadlines and speed are a constant battle-which makes it critical to deliver efficiently. Any delay or bottleneck in the review and approval phase can mean missed deadlines, unexpected costs, and even lost revenue. With ConceptShare you can actually speed up the review cycle by consolidating communication and version-control into one tool, so your team can get clear, actionable feedback and deliver more at faster rates.

With ConceptShare the facts speak for themselves: deliver 10x more content to your clients, reduce unbillable hours by 34%, and accelerate creative reviews by 76%. Doesn’t that sound nice?

But don’t take our word for it, here’s what a few ConceptShare clients had to say:

“Our Designers used to spend a lot of time trying to consolidate feedback and figure out what was relevant. When they discovered ConceptShare, it was a game changer. All of a sudden, all the information was consolidated into one area. So not only did our review times get faster, but the amount of work that our teams could handle at one time, also increased.”
– CREIGHTON KING | VP CREATIVE EXECUTION | KNOCK INC.

“For clients that used to run a lot of versions, up to version 6 or 10, we’ve been able to get that down to version 2 or 4 now that we don’t have to manually [translate] all their feedback each time they send a new request.”
– DANIEL LOVIC | GROUP OPERATIONS DIRECTOR | MOTOR BRAND DESIGN

Learn more about ConceptShare here: https://play.vidyard.com/qX69vZdcfi92ARggVVLVfd

Make Better Decisions With WorkBook Intelligence Dashboards

Being the decision maker for your business isn’t always the most comfortable role. But for agencies who want to grow or mature as a business, whether that be for acquisition or not, the kinds of decisions that need to be made are of greater importance and have a significant impact. For these agencies, it is crucial they take their business intelligence (BI) reporting to the next level. To accomplish this enhanced level of analytics, decision makers sometimes turn to out-of-the-box BI tools to translate large volumes of data into generic insights, but too often they must spend additional effort translating that into what works for their agency’s specific needs.

But with Deltek WorkBook Intelligence, decision makers can improve reporting with customizable dashboards that fit their agency’s specific needs without the hassle of gathering and translating gobs of data into something useable. WorkBook Intelligence makes it easier to discover actionable insights that lead to better decisions for growth.

As part of the total agency management solution, WorkBook Intelligence includes several standard dashboards that provide valuable analysis of agency KPIs.

Client Analysis Dashboard

The Client Analysis dashboard is useful for comparing the relative performance of clients and the margin that each client is delivering.

This dashboard provides an overview of the sales and profit attributed to clients based on the jobs contained within that client record. The available filters allow you to refine the specific client or group of clients on which you want to get analysis. The analysis provided shows the sales values of costs incurred and the associated profit of those costs.

Jobs Analysis Dashboard

The Jobs Analysis dashboard is best used to compare the relative performance of multiple jobs to identify anomalies or outliers and, once identified, to drill down into the specific detail of those jobs to the transaction level to pinpoint potential problems or issues that require action.

This dashboard provides an overview of the sales and profit attributed to jobs and enables you to compare the performance of jobs relative to each other, either across the entire Company or within a selected client or clients, depending on the filters that you apply. The available filters allow you to further refine the nature of data to analyze, based on the status of the jobs or the approval status of the transactions within them. The widgets on the dashboard show the sales values of costs incurred and the associated profit of those costs.

Finance – All Years Dashboard

The Finance – All Years dashboard is useful for agencies that are part of a network with different offices or companies sharing the same WorkBook solution. It shows an overview of the financial results of a single selected Company across all finance years in your WorkBook system, as it enables you to filter one Company at a time. It displays numeric data in the Company currency of that selected Company.

Finance – Single Year Dashboard

The Finance – Single Year dashboard is similar in that it is meant to show the financial data of a single company within a network of agencies. This dashboard shows an overview of the financial results of a single selected Company for a single selected financial year. Again, it displays numeric data in the Company currency of that selected Company.

CRM Dashboard

The CRM dashboard provides an overview of the value of pipelines on clients and prospects within your WorkBook system. An extensive range of filters gives you the ability to remove unwanted detail and focus on pipelines for specific clients, time periods, statuses, and levels of progression.

Data is shown both in a “full value” state and with the consideration of any probability that might have been applied, which means you can see a weighted total of pipelines, based on their respective probabilities which has an impact on expected revenue. All values are displayed in the Company currency of the selected Company.

Resourcing Dashboard

You can use the Resourcing dashboard to identify individuals, or groups of employees—for example, in departments—who have limited available capacity relative to the scheduled bookings made against them, or who have outstanding timesheets relative to their total capacity. For this dashboard, a large number of filters are available, including the ability to filter on more than a single Company, by department, or by employment type.

Create your own WorkBook Intelligence Dashboards with a Designer License

For agencies that are ready to elevate their business intelligence and need dashboards that provide insights not found in the standard offering, a Designer License allows you to create your own WorkBook Intelligence dashboards using the predefined data models provided.

With a Designer license you can:

Create a dashboard on the Analytics tab of the WorkBook Intelligence Design page.
Create and edit dashboard controls in the header ribbon when a dashboard is in Design mode.
Customize a dashboard’s layout by rearranging the widgets that are part of the dashboard.
Create nested dashboards that are suitable for drilling down into the detail of widgets on a dashboard.
Use filters to show only the data you want to be shown.
Copy, export, import, and delete dashboards.

3 Steps Toward a More Efficient Agency

If you’re in a leadership position, you’ve undoubtedly become used to being the person in the hot seat, responsible for making significant and sometimes unpopular decisions. The abrupt transition a few years ago to a work-from-home model, the challenge of offering more services, and in some cases, the burden of instituting salary freezes weren’t easy waters to navigate. With inflation increasing and whispers of a potential recession on the horizon, your decision-making responsibilities aren’t likely to get any easier anytime soon. No pressure, right?

Having spent 15+ years in agencies big and small as a Project Manager, Creative Resource Manager, and Operations Director I understand the demands facing many agency leaders. Today I want to share three steps you can take right now to become more efficient as we head into 2023 to set your agency up for future success.

1. Clean Up Your Data

This may sound like a no-brainer, but if you’re managing projects in spreadsheets – having multiple people from multiple departments manually enter estimates, budgets, and costs in Excel – how can you be confident that your reporting is accurate? Not to mention, it is inherent in manual processes that there’s always a lag. So while your data may be an accurate snapshot of a moment in time, that moment is already in the past. The manager making important decisions on outdated data won’t be a manager for long.

Similarly, if each department is managing project data in its own bubble, there are bound to be errors when it is time to bring it all together in a report. Every minute it takes to reconcile the data, track down and correct any errors, and create a report, is one more minute that makes that report out of date and less valuable.

The way to ensure that your data and reporting is accurate and up to date is to digitize and connect all the facets of your agency’s operations into a single source of truth. A system where Project Managers, Resource Managers, and Finance can manage project data that feeds all the other departments automatically can help you get better reports, so you have what you need to make better decisions.

2. Customizable & Digestible Reporting

Once you’ve got accurate operational data in real-time, the next step is to customize the output to give you precisely the information you need in the most digestible way. A spreadsheet showing late timesheets won’t be as useful to you as a visual chart showing budgeted time yet to be incurred compared to time already incurred on a project that is dangerously close to going over budget. With the first report, you’d need to gather more information from other departments to really understand its impact on performance. With the other, you have the visual information you need in one place to make a better decision regarding how to reallocate resources to avoid over servicing. When operational data from multiple departments are shared in one system in real-time, and the output is more palatable and sharable with other decision-makers, you can connect the dots much easier and take corrective action much faster.

3. Add Business Intelligence

The next step beyond reporting is to introduce some form of business intelligence analytics. BI helps you dig deeper into the data, evaluate trends, and uncover actionable insights that might not have been so obvious with simple reporting.

By adding BI into your agency’s operational ecosystem, you can take decision-making to the next level. By analyzing P&L across projects and clients for a period of time, you might see a trend in the type of projects that yield a higher profit margin. On the other hand, maybe the most profitable and impactful decision you can make for your agency’s growth would be to specialize and pass on certain types of projects. Who knows? But after taking these three steps, you can be confident that you do.

Insights like these can have a direct impact on your bottom line. For example, Deltek’s 2022 Creative Agencies Report found that firms who were further ahead with their digital strategy initiatives, such as BI, had 12% higher profit margins than their immature peers. Unfortunately, not many agencies are currently focused on this area, with only 21% in our 2022 SoDA Survey on Talent, Culture & Operations saying they expect to invest in analytics & reporting next year.

6 Reasons to Attend Deltek ProjectCon

Deltek ProjectCon, formerly known as Deltek Insight, is the destination for project-based business professionals to gather for inspiration, education and collaboration.

This year’s Deltek ProjectCon will take place on November 15-18^th at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, TN! PCI is excited to participate as a Platinum sponsor at this year’s event!

Check out these six reasons to register for DeltekProjectCon:

Deepen your Product Knowledge – This conference offers hundreds of product educational sessions teaching new skills, tips, and tricks. PCI will be hosting three sessions, listed below. Be sure to add them to your agenda!

CPSPON-13: How to use the MS Word reporting tool in Costpoint

CPSPON-14: Offers and Decisions

CPSPON-15: Do your contracts have CLINs/SLINs/ACRNs? Do your employees complain because they have too many project codes? See how ACRN billing will fix all your problems.

Networking! – Connect with thousands of attendees, Deltek leaders and visit with the PCI team in the Xpo Hall!
Ignite Innovation – Hear how companies like yours are leveraging Deltek’s solutions!
Certifications – Be sure to take advantage of the complimentary Deltek University certification exams while on-site!
Meet 1:1 with Experts – Meet 1:1 with the PCI team, Deltek Customer Care, Solutions Engineering team and more!
Enjoy your time! – There are a ton of fun activities planned throughout the conference such as philanthropic activities, special networking events and a customer appreciation party!

We hope to see you there! Register now to attend!

Grow Your Agency in 2022

What Industry Leaders Predict

Hitting just about the mid-point of 2022, it’s a good time to reflect on how agencies have been performing through the first quarter, and what they should be prepared to face for the rest of the year. Deltek’s recently released 2022 Outlook: Marketing Agency Leadership Report amalgamated the experiences and expertise of hundreds of agency leaders worldwide, capturing their top concerns and noting the priority challenges they expect to face through the remainder of the year.

The good news is that the collective attitude of these agency leaders, including CEOs, owners, and department heads, is essentially optimistic. The market recovery means demand for agency services (and, accordingly, budgets!) continues to rebound. In many ways, the year ahead has potential for more performance and profit than pre-pandemic times. This can be ascribed to a kind of “great awakening” we all experienced during the past few years. We collectively realized that operational efficiency and internal systems improvement had big bottom-line impact.

Increase Investment in Technology

The takeaway from that realization, applied going forward by savvy agencies, is the importance of investing in project management systems, software and tools that make your staff as productive as possible. This might seem challenging at a time when the fight to attract and retain top talent is at the top of leadership priority lists of late, but survey respondents understand the long play here. These investments amplify the agency workflow process, efficiency and thus productivity of your talent. Furthermore, in the face of the inevitable talent churn impacting the industry, these systems and solutions keep intellectual property within an agency. Ultra-valuable information doesn’t walk out the door when there’s talent turnover.

2022 Outlook: Marketing Agency Leadership Report

Agency leaders reveal their predictions for 2022 including industry challenges, priorities and investments.

Download the Marketing Agency Leadership Report Now!

Focus on Professional Development

Stemming the tide of that turnover is another issue agency leadership is dialed into for 2022. This is driving a sharp focus on professional development, giving personnel access to training, education and certifications that make them increasingly valuable team members, and also build in some backup within teams themselves. Whether strengthening day-to-day abilities or introducing new skills that benefit clients, the agency can offer more competent, diverse services to clients while talent is incentivized to remain on board. It’s seen by enlightened leadership as a means to improving employee health and wellness as much as it is a way to better serve clients.

Emphasis on Profitable Growth

In terms of agency growth, the 2022 Outlook: Marketing Agency Leadership Report reflects a cautious optimism among industry leaders. More than 90 percent of respondents expect to realize more revenue in 2022. Interestingly, this won’t necessarily be the result of increased client expenditure. The report makes it clear that top-line and overall profits are growing, but not margin percentage. The reasons for this disparity include more detailed project scopes, better team/client communication, and meticulous review of current service agreements with key clients.

The 2022 Outlook: Marketing Agency Leadership Report is packed with revealing information and data on agency goals and challenges, and the strategies and tactics being deployed to address them. Give it a read and get a stronger sense of how your agency can move towards greater success in 2022.

The API Integration Process