About PRDW

PRDW is a global consultancy group specialising in port and coastal engineering design services, operating across multiple continents with two primary design offices located in Cape Town and Santiago.As the company expanded, its legacy systems and fragmented processes made it increasingly difficult to manage operations, share global resources, and consolidate financials across international entities.

Managing timesheets, resource planning, and finance through disconnected tools created duplication, bottlenecks, and limited visibility into performance. Cross-border collaboration was challenging, and reporting required time-consuming reconciliation. As PRDW grew, they needed a unified system to bring clarity, consistency, and improve on operational efficiencies.

The Challenge: Fragmented Systems and Operational Silos

Before switching to Vantagepoint, PRDW relied on separate systems for time tracking, financial processing, and project planning. This siloed setup meant core functions like inter company billing, global resourcing, and consolidated financial visibility was time consuming, slow and prone to error.

The team struggled with:

• Duplicated data entry across finance and project system
• Lack of visibility into real-time time tracking and effort spent by distributed teams
• Fragmented financial consolidation, especially with operations in Chile and South Africa
• Manual workarounds in Excel for reporting and planning

With global operations becoming the norm, the lack of integration was increasingly unsustainable.

The Solution: A Unified System for Global Operations

PRDW selected Deltek Vantagepoint in late 2021 after evaluating several ERP systems. The deciding factors were Vantagepoint’s global cloud platform, strong financial consolidation features, and the hands-on, responsive support offered by Silversoft during the evaluation phase.

The team was especially drawn to:

• Cloud-based accessibility for global teams
• Standardised project and account structures across entities
• Detailed tracking and reporting capabilities
• A flexible data model that could evolve with their operations

Despite the implementation requiring significant effort due to initial internal process misalignment, PRDW appreciated the flexibility of the system and the hands-on support from the Silversoft team throughout the rollout.

The Results: Centralised Data, Better Planning, and Global Visibility

Since implementing Vantagepoint, PRDW has:

• Achieved real-time access to project and financial data across both regions
• Reduced the need for duplicate data entry, reducing errors and improving accuracy
• Enabled automated inter company billing and resource tracking, improving collaboration across continents
• Introduced standardised structures and terminology, enhancing consistency across entities
• Enhanced reporting and decision-making with granular, structured data now captured from the start

Although time savings haven’t necessarily resulted in less work, the team now focuses more on analysis and strategic planning instead of manual data. Reporting is faster, more flexible, and allows for new insights, such as tracking revenue by country with just a few clicks.

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‍“We’ve now got consistency, we’ve got accuracy, making for easier data analysis and reporting.  Information is available anytime, and Vantagepoint has certainly helped unify PRDW processes.”- Dawn L. Walsh, Finance, PRDW

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Business Impact: Structure, Consistency, and Strategic Insight

PRDW's implementation of Vantagepoint has not only helped unify their global team but also brought discipline to their processes. Previously used ad-hoc, Excel-based systems have given way to rule-based, centralised workflows that reduce risk and improve transparency.

Key improvements include:

• Unified project data and financial processing
• Increased ability to audit, analyse, and forecast using consistent, reliable data
• Better operational planning through integration with Excel-based forecasting
• Enhanced ability to evolve reporting and expand usage into HR and vendor management functions

A Platform That is Scalable

PRDW continues to explore new ways to use Vantagepoint - including expanding into absence accruals, timesheet approvals, and advanced dashboards.The team values the product’s evolution and responsiveness to customer feedback, noting enhancements are often rolled out even when requested by just a handful of users.

Final Thoughts

By moving to Vantagepoint, PRDW has transitioned from reactive operations to a proactive, globally aligned system. Their data is no longer spread across tools or subject to interpretation. It's unified, accessible, structured and ready to support strategic decisions as the business grows.

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‍“Implementing Vantagepoint has been a transformative step for PRDW. It has brought structure, clarity, and efficiency to our operations in ways that are both measurable and meaningful. The impact has been so positive that I’ve already recommended it to another firm - it’s made a significant difference in how we run our business.”
— Sahil R. Patel, Global Deputy CEO, PRDW