Customer Success Story
R.J. Burnside & Associates, Ltd.

Deltek Vision^® Helped Canadian Civil Engineering Firm Build a Planning and Accounting Solution That Can Grow as
They Do

The Challenge

Founded in Ontario, Canada in 1970, R.J. Burnside & Associates spent over 40 years building a global reputation for its wealth of civil engineering expertise. From structural and mechanical engineering to water infrastructure and solid waste services, this dynamic firm's continued growth to over 300 employees in nine offices is a testament to its success. So what could possibly slow this company down? Its old accounting system.

At over 15 years old and overlaid with clunky project management capabilities, R.J. Burnside's legacy accounting system had run its course – it was cumbersome, sometimes involving days of manual work, and even then the reports were difficult to decipher. The legacy system had neither the capability nor support to grow with the firm, which had doubled in size in the past decade, and seen its best annual results in 2009. Administration and operations agreed – it was time for a change. Automation, consolidation, customized reporting, flexibility, and native planning and resource management were the important capabilities that R.J. Burnside needed in a new solution.

The Solution

Previous staff experience with an integrated accounting and project management solution drove the R.J. Burnside team to include Deltek Vision in its RFP process. “Compared to the other solutions we considered, Deltek Vision was head and shoulders above the rest, from feature set to future roadmap,” said David Christiansen, Corporate Business Manager. “We knew Vision would give us what we needed today while offering the flexibility and functionality we needed to grow tomorrow.”

Specifically designed for professional services firms, Deltek Vision is a modular solution that automates and integrates the planning, tracking, and administration of both resources and projects. R.J. Burnside chose Vision based on its project management, cross-functional management capabilities and custom dashboards that provide instant access to the status of any current projects. They were also drawn to Vision's ability to easily produce reader-friendly reports for management, clients and stakeholders.

Working closely with award-winning Deltek partner Kennedy Vomberg, the R.J. Burnside team completed phase one of the implementation in just six months, and went live on time and expense, project metrics, reporting, and role-based dashboards throughout the company. In addition, an in-house knowledge base was created, as well as strategy and tactics for training current and future staff. Phase two of the implementation is under way in 2010, and includes proposal management, performance management, and project and resource planning.

The Benefit

Even in the early stages of the implementation, R.J. Burnside saw a positive impact from Deltek Vision. “We're already seeing non-specific ROI, in terms of efficiency, how people are working,” said Christiansen. “Things are moving faster and smarter.”

Vision has also eliminated redundant processes. “We're coming up with ways to use Vision's capabilities to change the way we do business,” Christiansen continued.

With Deltek Vision, the focus for R.J. Burnside isn't on managing transactions, but on successfully executing projects. Departments and teams can readily share project information to make smarter business decisions. The sheer volume of paper circulated within the billing process is being reduced dramatically. Earnings and status reports no longer take weeks to produce – they can be generated in as little as 20 minutes. Customizable dashboards enable staff to focus on their core tasks with the specific information they need at their fingertips. And with easily-added modules for other functions, Deltek Vision is poised to grow as the firm does.

“From support to functionality, it's a scalable, adaptable system that we can build off of for a decade or more,” Christiansen said. “And that's the plan. I want our company to be using Vision until I retire.”

R.J. Burnside At A Glance

Company Name: R.J. Burnside & Associates, Ltd.
Headquarters: Ontario, Canada
Primary Business: R.J. Burnside is a privately held engineering consultancy based in Orangeville, Ontario, Canada providing a wide variety of services including drainage, transportation infrastructure, ground-water and solid waste engineering, hydro-geology, building and structural design, environmental sciences and advanced GIS programming.
URL: www.rjburnside.com

Implementation Partner

Kennedy Vomberg

Kennedy Vomberg Inc. is based in Toronto, Canada and provides business advisory and software consulting services to the professional services industry throughout Ontario and beyond. In partnership with Deltek, Kennedy Vomberg markets and implements the Vision line of business management solutions to organizations that sell and deliver formally constituted projects.