In April, Deltek launched the Consulting Edition of Deltek Vision, its enterprise solutions software that’s been customized for consultancies and includes functionality around human capital management and workforce optimization. Deltek CEO Kevin Parker sat down with editor-in-chief Joe Kornik to discuss the industry and the product.

Consulting: What are the biggest challenges facing consulting firms these days?
Parker: We’re finding that there are two themes that really resonate with decision makers at the consulting firms. The first is what is my team doing? Are they productive and engaged? How are they being utilized? The second is how do I make sure that I’m winning the right business? There’s probably some business that I probably don’t want to win. How do I make sure that I’m bidding on the right business for the resources that I’ve got on hand? These are the big issues that I think are on the minds of the decision makers at consulting firms.

Consulting: And that thinking led to the development of the Consulting Edition of Deltek Vision?
Parker: And my own experiences. Before I joined Deltek, I was at PeopleSoft for a number of years as a co-president and CFO. At PeopleSoft, we had a $1.2 billion consulting business, and one thing that frustrated me as CFO was the lack of data I had about that business. I never knew some of the simple things I needed to know to run the consulting practice—project profitability, utilization, bookings, backlog, etc. We never had that information. So, when I made the move to Deltek, what I brought with me was the knowledge that there is very big market out there without a solution.

Consulting: So, what’s the product all about?
Parker: This is an integrated solution that looks at the business of consulting from end to end. In most cases, it’s something [the industry’s] never even seen before. It can be very role specific. It allows the consultant out in the field to record their time correctly, the partner to make sure it’s billed correctly, and the CFO to look at the profitability of the project. There is a very strong need for the type of the functionality that we deliver out of the box. That’s why the consulting marketplace is very high on our list of strategic objectives. We understand that business, and we think we deliver a solution that is unique to this industry. We’re trying to put an end to the spreadsheet jockey, the person in a consulting organization trying to plan resources without a software solution.

Consulting: How is the software priced?
Parker: In general, we look at the size of the organization because the value we deliver relies on the fact that it’s deployed broadly, that a lot of people in the organization are touching it. Our average deal size for Deltek Vision is about $10,000 to $15,000. So, we think that’s a pretty accessible price point.

Consulting: What is the target market?
Parker: The application itself is very scalable, but our target market is probably firms with anywhere from 50 to 2,000 employees. That’s a very large segment of the marketplace. The challenge for us going after larger firms is that they’ve got an embedded solution—probably an SAP or an Oracle, and they’ve got no reason to move. In many cases, the smaller firms have created their own application and are usually struggling along with their cobbled together series of point solutions. Interestingly enough, the biggest competitor we’ve got is the legacy systems and the homegrown applications that people have built internally.

Consulting: What are some of your other challenges?
Parker: I would say a lack of awareness; people just don’t know we’re out there and this solution exists. Deltek is a new name to this industry but we’ve been in the project-oriented business for 25 years and have more than 12,000 customers.