Deltek Vision (legacy product) vs. Viewpoint Spectrum

It is very well suited for Project Accounting - we have thousands of Project codes in the system. I wish it were easier to make changes to data already entered. You have to jump through hoops to make any changes or corrections and timing is everything.

Incentivized

The Installation team is amazing. They provide clear guidance at the beginning of the process regarding what is expected and what needs to be done. The implementation manager follows up monthly with you to make sure you are on track and if you need additional help. They are very helpful and responsive in resolving issues.

Incentivized

• Deltek is a very integrated system for accounting purposes. It stores documents as support for postings (e.g. AP invoices) so you can easily access the source information.
• Time tracking for our consultants is a must and Deltek has a good platform for tracking time and for accounting for time.
• Deltek has the ability to run almost any kind of report that you could possibly think of! There are fields for almost everything and if there aren't specific fields you can add them.

Incentivized

• Job Costing - Viewpoint Spectrum handles job costing per project, per work order, per site, and gives us an up to date analysis of the project.
• HR - helps to keep all of the training certifications and HR incidents in a consistent and manageable order for all Managers to use.

Incentivized

• Deltek Vision's use of the desktop browser interfaces could use some major upgrades. It's not very user-friendly. When a field is left blank it would prevent the user from saving the timesheet but would not clearly inform the user where the error has occurred.
• Deltek Vision should provide a simple method to print summaries like have its own built-in pdf export program instead of relying on a 3rd party program like Adobe.

Incentivized

• Support isn't readily available. You can submit a ticket and wait days before it's picked up. Even critical issues (system outages) can wait an hour or two before someone responds.
• Large companies will feel limited. This product wasn't designed to handle large amounts of data, and performance seems to slow when there are more than 80 concurrent users.
• The new developments are limited. HR Management is less robust than a third-party product specializing in HR Management. Viewpoint Analytics is nowhere near as robust as Power BI or Tableau.

Incentivized

Because we are looking to upgrade to the next software level of Deltek.

Incentivized

The product is working for us and the cost to implement a new system does not warrant the expense.

Incentivized

It's on the verge of being awesome. Right now it's a matter of money -- if you have the money to hire consultants round the clock, yeah this is awesome.

Incentivized

There's a little bit of a learning curve, but once you've been working in the system for a while, it becomes second nature. I would say that out of all of the other software that I've personally used, Spectrum has been the easiest one to pick up and learn quickly

Incentivized

I've never seen Spectrum down

For the most part the product is very reliable. Since we are hosted we sometimes have connectivity issues but I would say that is more our ISP than Spectrum.

Incentivized

99% of the customer service specialists and technicians that I've encountered are quite awesome!

Incentivized

The support has recently changed. Last year, you could call in and get an immediate response. Now that doesn't seem possible unless you have an urgent situation with access to the software, payroll or payables. I have found that using chat or e-mail works nicely for the most part, but sometimes I feel it would be easier if someone from support would jump on our site and take a first-hand look rather than going back and forth

Incentivized

Our trainer was excellent and navigated the time zone differences expertly. She gave us test assignments to complete and was available for questions at any time.

Incentivized

My only insight would be to take time in your implementation and training process; ours was six weeks from start to finish.

Incentivized

We have used Deltek Vision and previous versions (names) of the product since the early 1990's. We are engaged in the system and are committed to the continued use of the product. I have long supported the value added to our company and benefits realized by our users.

I have previously used Sage Masterbuilder, another construction industry software. This has been a number of years ago. The company I am working for already had Spectrum and have been using it for as long as it has been around when it was known as Forefront. Based on conversations I've had with the personnel that were here at the time of purchase, Spectrum clicked off all the boxes they were looking for.

Incentivized

You can grant user specific access which is nice. Project managers do not need all the same modules as Accounting. But Accounting does need access to PM modules as well

• We went from using a DOS-based accounting system that all the management had to go to Accounting for a weekly printout of status reports, and there wasn't much visibility into the network. Deltek Vision gave our PMs and management information at their fingertips, without having to wait on someone else to get the info.
• A lot of quality control was handled outside of an electronic system through Microsoft Excel forms. With Deltek Vision's user-defined functions, we were able to bring those functions into a system that could then be reported on, send automatic reminders, and create dashboards. This has been hugely beneficial in not losing sight of action items etc.

Incentivized

• [In my opinion,] it takes at LEAST twice as long to do our jobs now.
• [I feel like] we are paranoid about something not being printed correctly because of [what I believe are] buggy text fields.
• [In my experience,] we still have to refer to a physical file cabinet with paper, even though a main point of switching was to go paperless.
• [In our experience,] screens can now be "locked", so we can't see something if our coworker is also looking at it.
• [I believe that] the financial hit our company took from this switch was astronomical. [In my opinion:] Beware!