Digital transformation appears to some as a just a buzzword. However, it's fast becoming an essential business priority for the C-suite in all sizes of government contractors in the drive for sustainable competitive advantage. What is the significance of digital transformation for government contractors, and what outcomes are being reported?

C-suite executives are finding enormous value in automating time-consuming and inefficient tasks by integrating project management, accounting, and finance. This eliminates time wasted in reconciling transactions between systems and thereby freeing up time and resources to focus on strategic priorities. This is the foundation for digital transformation.

Small and mid-sized GovCons have reported the following startling improvements:

• We have been able to grow topline revenue by almost 40% without having to add $1 of G&A support”
• "We reduced our invoicing process from 20 to 7 days, we can complete all month close procedures in 5 –7 days and improved our DSOs from 60 to 50. Additionally, we grew top line revenue by 25% in one year with no additional accounting staff.
• “Since implementing Unanet, invoicing takes between five to ten days, a reduction of more than 20 days from before. While major clients are demanding credit terms to 60 days, DSOs are reduced in 2014 from 160 to 70 days.”
• “We reduced invoice processing time by 65%. All invoices are now delivered with 48 hours of period end.”
• “We eliminated all off-system accounting, shortening the time to ‘close the books’ by 60%”
• “Our profit margin improved by 4% since Unanet went live.”
• “We increased the revenue dollars processed per $1 of accounting department salary by more than 300%”

Unanet Customers Share Their Experience with Digital Transformation for Government Contractors

At the 2019 Unanet Champions Conference in San Diego, four GovCon Financial Executives shared their perspectives on how their businesses have been transformed with Unanet, driven by both quantitative and qualitative improvements:

• Mark Rothman, CFO, NETE
• Shilpa Amato, Executive VP, Nalas Engineering Services
• Thomas Batty, Corporate Staff Operations, Frontier Technology
• Lisa Martin, Contracts/Accounting, Trevet

"What was life like before Unanet?"

Mark: Information was not timely, it was hard to get the data out, and we needed technical experts to write custom reports.

Shilpa: We had disparate systems; our accounting system couldn’t provide Project Managers with information on project cost and project health. Billing was a nightmare. We couldn’t do Cost Plus billing directly from the system and had to resort to complex workarounds in Excel.

Thomas: Before Unanet, data was always behind the times. We needed multiple spreadsheets to track everything. To make it worse, we received very poor response/support from our legacy vendor (Deltek) who was always focused on upselling. It was a bad time and lasted 10 years!

Lisa: We were using a legacy product (Deltek GCS) which was being sunset and we were not happy with the idea of Deltek and Costpoint as a future solution due to the poor service we experienced, and the complexity of Costpoint. With Deltek GCS we leaned heavily on Excel to fill the gaps in the reporting we needed. We also relied on custom reporting which required Impromptu expertise. The relevant project information in the financial system was not accessible to Project Managers. Unanet’s one system solved all our problems. And in Deltek GCS the ability to only have two periods open was a major limitation.

"What was the most significant benefit of moving to Unanet?"

Lisa: Simply a more up-to-date integrated system where we did not need to import and export data; a huge improvement was the accessibility of data to Project Managers and executives.

Thomas: The real-time availability daily of labor information was a game-changer. Project Managers know their status and backlog now rather than in 45 days. With all the information in one place wasting time reconciling data is eliminated.

Shilpa: I can get any answer to any question at any time in minutes. Accounting is happy, Project Managers are happy, leadership is happy. I love depth of standard reports. Billing is shortened from a week to a day.

Mark: The real-time visibility for Project Managers without resorting to home-grown spreadsheets (which very likely had errors) is now critical to how we manage our business. We slice and dice data in different ways and in whatever periods are required; daily, weekly, semimonthly, quarterly etc. Immediate visibility of timesheet status helps with accuracy and efficiency too.

Learn How Unanet Can Provide Digital Transformation for Government Contractors

Unanet is now the clear market leader for small and medium-sized GovCons. Not just an alternative to Deltek, but as a clearly superior choice for organizations who want to transform their business. To schedule your personal consultation, contact us.