Hexagon US Federal Chooses Costpoint GovCon Cloud Moderate to Facilitate Digital Transformation

Digital TransformationCloud

May 31, 2023

Deltek

An interview with Becky Harris, Chief Financial Officer, Hexagon US Federal and Lisa Vaughan, Executive Director, Information Technology, Hexagon US Federal

"We've been using Deltek's Costpoint solution for 23 years," explained Becky Harris, Chief Financial Officer of Hexagon US Federal who has been with Hexagon Corporation for 27 years. "The initial implementation of Deltek Costpoint was a dream come true to all back-office staff since we were previously doing everything in old, homegrown, archaic systems. When the US entities of Hexagon went live with Costpoint in 2000 it was the first time that we had had a true commercial accounting system."

In 2021 Becky moved within the organization to Hexagon US Federal and was faced with supporting a more complex and expansive business model that focused on bringing goods and services to a variety of United States Government (USG) organizations, including the US Department of Defense (DoD). She needed to ensure Deltek Costpoint was still the best ERP solution for the business since it had been a decade since they had utilized upgrade features or even looked at other solutions.

"We needed to reevaluate a lot of our business processes and that included upgrading our accounting system. In addition, we needed to find a best-in-class ERP system to help automate our business processes and integrate business application systems. So, we looked at the premier government-approved accounting systems, including Deltek, Unanet and Microsoft Dynamics 365."

Evaluating ERP Options

Throughout the evaluation process, it didn't take long to determine that there was a clear leader. "Deltek's overall capability is above all the other systems, which were very disparate and one-tier type solutions. For example, we evaluated other solutions that were great for general ledger accounting, but when we peeled back the onion, we found there were numerous third-party partner-type products that we were going to have to integrate into it. It became a no-go for us once we realized that fact," said Becky.

She went on to share a specific example around reporting, saying, "We didn't want to do a lot of user-defined architectural system building. With Deltek a lot of the functionality was already built in. For instance, all the fields that Hexagon needs around small business reporting − they were already defined and available in Costpoint."

Ultimately, the final decision was an easy one. "Deltek Costpoint was a more robust system, and a lot of the completed background integration makes our life simpler and easier across the board." Becky also shared that compliance was a key factor. "Costpoint also has all the functionality you need from a USG compliance standpoint, with everything you need for Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) compliance." She admitted Hexagon US Federal had not taken full advantage of Costpoint over the years but once discovering its capabilities and potential, she knew it was the right choice.

Time to Make the Move to the Cloud

While Hexagon US Federal was evaluating its ERP solution, they were also undertaking an overall digital transformation effort which aided in the realization that it was time to move the internal back-office systems to the cloud. "Managing and holding on-premises IT systems is difficult with regards to security and safeguarding information. It's expensive to keep systems up, hardware up to date, and to load the latest and greatest security patches." She added, "We knew as part of our digital transformation project that we had to go down a path that a lot of the industry is, and that's moving to the cloud."

When deciding to make the move to the cloud, there were several considerations. "We evaluated upgrading our existing on-premises Costpoint setup versus migrating to the cloud with Deltek's GovCon Cloud Moderate (GCCM). We analyzed the additional costs we would've incurred with hardware, software, data center management/security, staffing and cybersecurity compliance requirements like CMMC," said Lisa Vaughan, Executive Director, Information Technology at Hexagon US Federal.

After extensive review, Costpoint delivered, and Deltek's Cloud was the clear choice. "Compliance was a significant factor in the decision. As a federal contractor, Hexagon US Federal is required to protect sensitive data and be prepared for audits of our data security practices. Deltek's GCCM cloud has implemented very stringent cybersecurity controls that will help us with achieving our DFARS (Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement) compliance requirements, including CMMC." said Lisa. Adding, "Implementing Deltek Costpoint in the cloud will also facilitate a cradle-to-grave lifecycle of core back-office business processes with all the necessary system and data integrations."

Customer Support Makes a Difference

Implementation kicked off in late December, 2022 and Becky said she couldn't be more pleased with the Deltek team. "The customer success team assigned to us is amazing. They email me personally to make sure we're happy across the board.It attests to Deltek's commitment to customer experience."

It hasn't just been customer success that has made the project run smoothly. "The sales team and the consultants assigned to our team are extremely supportive. They're very responsive, we don't go hours and hours without getting answers to the questions we have." She added "I expect every vendor to be a real partner with us instead of it being just a customer-vendor relationship. That's what we have with the Deltek team."

As for the future, Becky looks forward to wrapping implementation in January 2024 and is confident the right decisions were made, "I've had exposure to many different ERP systems, and it's clear Deltek Costpoint is the premier solution for US government contractors."

• Customer Stories
• Costpoint
• Government Contracting

Deltek