Coen+Partners

Summary

Coen+Partners say they went from lacking functionality, data and reporting to a greater visibility of "all aspects of projects" and a "smoother and smarter" running of the firm.

Situation

Founded by Shane Coen in 1991, Coen+Partners is a renowned landscape architecture practice based in Minneapolis, MN.

The senior team at Coen+Partners felt that project managers did not engage with Deltek Vision, their previous system, as their perception was that it lacked functionality, data and reporting, and was complicated to use.

The core aim was to achieve strong system adoption, engaging their project managers and enabling the practice to manage projects proactively.

The key criteria was that the architectural project management software should have an appealing and intuitive user interface that considers the functional requirements of users in operations and not just finance users, as was the perception with Deltek Vision.

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Solution

The solution was to implement a best-of-breed project management system and integrate it with a best-of-breed accounting package.

CMap was identified as the ideal project management solution due to its modern, intuitive user interface, and its highly targeted functionality for operational users to manage their projects, including industry leading job costing and resourcing tools.

Sage Intacct was identified as the ideal accounting package due to its feature-rich functionality and the fact it can be integrated with CMap to transfer key financial transactions in a secure and stable way.

Results

Project managers are fully engaged with managing their projects proactively in CMap.

Sara Czerwinski, Managing Partner, says: "CMap enables project managers to take a step back and think about their projects in different ways, like how does this change in resource impact our end profit number? And they can see the impact immediately for themselves, as they're actually engaged and making changes for themselves live in the system. It's great."

Jen Fahler, Finance & Systems Manager, adds; "Project managers are blown away with what they can do and how much the system can handle versus what they previously struggled with. I'm getting comments at the end of emails like P.S. CMap is amazing! They're happy, and it's given them a whole new level of responsibility."

Coen+Partners now feel their project managers are more commercially minded and accountable. Since project managers are now engaging with the project management software, the firm feels they are on the front foot to make the right calls at the right time.

According to Jen: "Visibility is so much greater into all aspects of projects, so the quality of questions and discussions amongst the team has skyrocketed. Thanks to CMap's reporting capabilities, project managers are hungry for more and more information. It's helping the company run smoother, smarter, and it's making us grow."

Sara Czerwinski concludes: "Everyone we've worked with at CMap has been incredibly helpful, their responsiveness and how they've handled our queries has been fantastic. Everyone's happy."

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All content in this case study has been approved by the client. The views and opinions expressed are the client's alone.