Jeffrey Hill visited Deltek's Insight 2012 Customer event and describes the big news: Touch, Kona, Cloud and Costpoint MES.

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Iyno Deltek Insight 2012
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By Jeffrey Hill, Iyno Advisors
I recently attended the Deltek Insight 2012 Conference which was held from October 15 th
through the 18th in Nashville at the Gaylord Opryland Resort. There were about 3,000
attendees, including Deltek people, and Deltek put on a good show, even though there
wasn’t a major release of their flagship project-based ERP product, Costpoint 7. This is not
to say that there weren’t plenty of product announcements and demonstrations of products
that connect with Costpoint. There were three products that caught my interest: Deltek
Touch, Kona, and Costpoint MES.
Touch: Deltek is clearly making a major commitment to mobility with Deltek Touch, a
remote window into Costpoint running on an iPhone, iPad, Android smartphone or tablet.
The first application announced for Deltek Touch is project time entry and reporting, which
is a familiar use of Costpoint for the many government contractors who use it for project
management, project time entry and reporting. As you might guess, time reporting is the
tip of the iceberg. Deltek’s goal is to use Deltek Touch as a way to access Costpoint
functionality without needing to be at desktop or a laptop with a web browser. Using a
mobile device for these tasks will make it much easier to enter time on contract or project
work at any time of the day which might have the effect of increasing the accuracy of
project accounting. Many conference attendees kept their conference schedules on their
smartphones and tablets using Deltek’s conference app, and given the pervasive use of
mobile devices throughout the enterprise, I am quite sure that Deltek is headed in a the
right direction with this approach. Deltek is offering Deltek Touch to Costpoint customers on
a per-user, subscription basis.
Kona: The second product of note was Kona, which is still in development. Kona has had
extensive use within Deltek, but this conference was the first time customers had a chance
to try it out. Kona is a collaboration web space that is free -- you don’t have to be a Deltek
customer to use it. One you’ve set up an account and created a space, you and anyone you
invite into the space can access Kona from a web browser or a mobile device running an
iPhone or Android app. Kona’s features right now are centered on collaboration, such as
sharing documents and holding informal conversations with other people. There are also
task management and calendar features, so that a task could be assigned to people in your
space.
To be clear, Kona is a standalone application with no integration with Costpoint at this time.
The Kona marketing people insisted that there will always be a free version of Kona, but
they also suggested that there may be a “pro” version of Kona that features integration with
other Deltek products on a subscription basis someday. If this sounds a bit vague, it’s
because Kona isn’t fully formed yet – the product is still in beta form. So, the question is:
whither Kona? Kona’s idea of simple, ad hoc collaboration gets to the heart of the problem
of collaboration – applications like SharePoint can be difficult for casual users and certainly
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require committed IT and programming resources for enterprise deployment and use. So,
open an account at kona.com, try Kona out, and keep an eye on Deltek for future
developments.
SaaS & Cloud: Deltek also talked about SaaS and cloud-based applications centered on
Costpoint. This is an obvious direction for Deltek to take, as corporate acceptance and use
of cloud services is rising rapidly. From my perspective, it also raises the possibility of a
cafeteria-style offering of Deltek’s software without the necessity of owning and maintaining
an infrastructure, which would, I believe, be attractive to many more potential customers
from a cost and resource standpoint.
Costpoint MES: I’ve saved the best for last. Deltek took the wraps off Costpoint MES, a
product designed to bring Deltek’s signature project and financial management capabilities
to project manufacturing. MES is not a standalone application because data is stored in
Costpoint. The MES product is aimed at complex project manufacturing environments and
provides features essential to reducing manual paperwork such as online documentation,
work instructions, revision control and routing information. Two additional modules, Shop
Floor and bar coding, further extend the benefits of MES to the shop floor environment,
especially in the areas of reducing paperwork and providing up-to-date assembly and part
information, all of which support lean manufacturing goals. According to Deltek, they
weren’t originally planning to publicize MES at the conference, but there was considerable
interest in the product from users, so they went ahead with it. Judging by the attendance at
the exposition booth and at the sessions presenting MES features and functionality, there
was serious interest from users in evaluating the product for their companies.
The interest in MES is not surprising; my colleague Julie Fraser’s work over many years
demonstrates its value. Manufacturing is often managed by spreadsheets today, so having
a truly consistent central view helps – and this MES also helps enforce standard processes
and the sign-offs required by customers and regulators. Project manufacturing is inherently
uncertain, but MES provides visibility into the actual status. By integrating the plant wide
MES functions in with the Costpoint project management, accounting, human capital
management, sales, supply chain planning and government reporting, all disciplines in a
company can stay synchronized to serve customers more effectively.
Company Conclusion: I had the opportunity to talk to a number of conference attendees
and most of them seemed happy with the overall product roadmap Deltek presented at the
keynote session. Deltek reassured their customers that their recent acquisition by private
equity company Thoma Bravo would signal no changes in product direction or company
management, but would help fund the future development of Deltek products. Underneath
the lighting pyrotechnics and insistent rock backbeat, which has become a required part of
computer conferences, is a company which is enthusiastic about its future direction which
seems to please both current and potential customers.
Iyno Advisors
Iyno Advisors combines experience, intuition, intellect, and research to focuses on how manufacturing and
production companies and their network of partners can best benefit from software applications and services.
www.iyno.com +1 508.362.3480 PO Box 463 Cummaquid, MA 02637 USA
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