Customer Success Story
Kennedy Ragsdale and Associates, Inc.

The Challenge

When engineering and architecture firm Kennedy Ragsdale and Associates, Inc. first opened its doors in February 2006, it managed all financial and project accounting using a series of Excel spreadsheets and word documents. Within their first month of business, however, they quickly realized the lack of data integration and various manual processes were staging the firm for imminent failure. The firm needed to find a way to recover project expenses from the initial concept to the final construction and development, and then use the process as a foundation upon which to grow the business.

The Solution

In March 2006, Kennedy Ragsdale purchased Deltek Vision Small Business, a special package of Deltek Vision and a suite of services designed to help smaller professional services firms reduce the time and expense of implementation. Vision Small Business was successfully implemented at Kennedy Ragsdale within three weeks.

The Benefits

Vision Small Business has made it possible for Kennedy Ragsdale to win more business and retain it, as well as identify which clients are profitable and which ones are not, said Jessica Friday, Director of Administration. With up to 16 projects going on at any given time, the ability to locate and view project information easily and efficiently also allows the firm to stay closer to their clients.

“With Vision Small Business, I can pull a report of exactly what I need,” she said.” This is also a timesaver because I don’t have to weed thru what I don’t need.

“There is also no more duplication,” said Friday. “All of our data is now in one location, so we don’t have to remember to change certain information in more than one place. This helps us to track what work our employees are doing and know exactly what they are working on at any given time,” she said. “We can also track the progress of our projects and see where money is being lost.”

In addition to time savings, Vision Small Business has allowed Kennedy Ragsdale to save hundreds of dollars in making copies for clients, and even more in mailing expenses, said Friday. “I estimate that if we had spent the next 5 years without software, we would have lost thousands of dollars with this kind of expense alone,” she said.

Kennedy Ragsdale also benefits from the individual customer support it receives from Deltek, Friday said. “I would definitely recommend the software because of the unparalleled customer service we have received. It has been immeasurable,” said Friday.

About Kennedy Ragsdale and Asociates, Inc.

A rapidly growing engineering and landscape architecture firm located in Savannah, Georgia, Kennedy Ragsdale and Associates, Inc. first opened its doors for business in February 2006 with a mere four employees. Several months and eight employees later, the firm was averaging an amazing growth rate of five to ten percent each month. With a year-end estimate of $700,000, Kennedy Ragsdale is a prime example of how to successfully grow one’s business.