Background

Founded in 2007, Markon is a small business government consulting firm headquartered in Falls Church, VA. With employees in seven states and overseas and with clients such as the Intelligence Community, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security, Markon has become a nationally recognized industry leader committed to advancing clients through project management and business improvement services offered in a premiere, highly personal environment. Markon exists to help organizations modernize and become more efficient. Markon’s service offerings are in the areas of facilities, financial management, acquisition management support, and security consulting.
Markon and its team of nearly 200 staff and 40 subcontractors has experienced explosive growth over the last nine years and it has been recognized by the State of Virginia’s Chamber of Commerce as one of the fifty fastest growing companies.

Situation

Markon made the decision to move from GCS Premier to Costpoint. It assessed that it had “outgrown” GCS and that converting to the more robust Costpoint solution would serve Markon well for many years to come. Costpoint would help Markon to achieve better operational efficiency.

Markon was referred to WiJiT by Deltek because of its status as a preferred partner. Although there was a competitive bidding process, Markon was most comfortable with WiJiT as it offered the clearest roadmap in terms of how the project would run. Markon was particularly impressed by the questions WiJiT posed and how WiJiT helped paint the future picture of what Markon would look like with Costpoint. WiJiT also demonstrated that it would tailor the approach to how Markon wanted to go about its implementation.

Results

The conversion has been successfully completed and Markon is now fully on Costpoint. Functionality that had been part of GCS Premier has been replicated to the new system. As Markon is becoming increasingly familiar and confident with Costpoint, it is excited about the many benefits its will be realizing over the next few years. Nearly 50 Markon team members have now been trained on Costpoint. WiJiT’s team members – with their exceptionally deep knowledge of Costpoint – have proven to be a tremendous resource for Costpoint users at Markon.

Markon recognized the value of completing its conversion well in advance of 2018 and has gained an appreciation for properly planning and budgeting the time required to achieve a successful outcome.

Solution

As with many projects, there are complexities and unanticipated challenges. Throughout the project, Markon came to increasingly trust WiJiT’s consultative direction regarding project scope, time resources and technical components and direction. There was a significant and strategic matter around the payroll solution and WiJiT provided sound rationalization for its suggested (and controversial) path of action. Markon ultimately acknowledged that WiJiT provided the “best advice possible” regarding this strategic direction.

WiJiT also operated in an agile manner when it assigned an alternate team member to spearhead the project. Markon acknowledged that WiJiT placed the “right person at the right time” who moved the project to completion with a “let’s get it done” attitude. Effective communications were core to the project success as weekly meeting and manageable task lists kept activities flowing in a proper and productive direction.

The conversion process was aided by WiJiT’s deep understanding of GCS data and files. Everybody involved in the project noted that the Markon team had been doing a solid job of maintaining the GCS data over the years.

Quote

“WiJiT’s has great resources and great people. Their team members were bright, shining stars. They gave the best advice possible. Your people did a great job. I know these projects are always going to be painful but WiJiT made it as easy as it could be and they definitely brought the expertise we needed. They were super subject matter experts.”

Ray Carney , Vice President of Operations