BNFL Inc. Managing $1.2 Billion Project with Enterprise Solutions from Deltek
A longtime Deltek client and a nationally-recognized environmental design firm, BNFL Inc. is managing the extreme complexities and challenges of this 17-year nuclear waste cleanup and disposal contract using components of Deltek's Enterprise software suite, including Deltek Costpoint®, an integrated back-office solution for large project-based firms with complex business requirements, and Deltek Time CollectionÔ, a Web-based, employee timekeeping solution driving payroll, billing and job costing functions.
The contract for the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project, the largest privatized contract in the DOE was awarded to BNFL in 1996. The contract includes the construction and operation of a $400 million waste treatment facility near Idaho Falls, Idaho, that will prepare 65,000 cubic meters of plutonium-contaminated waste. The waste will then be shipped from the facility, which was constructed by Deltek client Washington Group International, to a permanent repository in New Mexico. BNFL will be reimbursed on a fixed price basis for each cubic meter of waste processed.
"We have more than a billion dollars coming through this project, and the accounting standards that we need to follow are very rigorous," says Steve Hammon, Project Controller for BNFL Inc. "You need to have a strong and credible financial system to be an environmental firm in the DOE complex, and since the very beginning Deltek Costpoint and Deltek Time Collection have provided us with a flexible solution that has met our specific needs."
BNFL purchased and implemented Deltek Costpoint in 1998. The company had been managing its accounting needs with Deltek System1 since 1993, but switched to Deltek Costpoint after winning several new contracts. The company has deployed many of the modules within the system, including general ledger, procurement, fixed assets, accounts payable, projects, purchasing and accounts receivable.
In addition to the large size and long life of the project—which allotted two years just for obtaining the necessary permits—BNFL faces the additional challenge of being subject to the rigid accounting regulations of the Defense Contractors Audit Agency (DCAA.) Deltek Costpoint has proved to be invaluable in helping the project to pass each of the three DCAA audits it has faced to date. "If the DCAA is happy with the accounting software you use, that eliminates a lot of roadblocks for DOE contractors," says Hammon. "The auditors have been very pleased with Costpoint. They like it, and they've told us so. The system has greatly helped us to pass our DCAA audits with flying colors."
Deltek Time Collection was purchased and implemented in 2001, simplifying payroll processes for a project employee population that had grown from just a few in 1996 to nearly 300 employees working at three different locations today. "We had increased our staff dramatically, and there was no way that we could process the growing volume of information with our previous manual, paper-based system" says Hammon. "Deltek Time Collection has really simplified our processes, whether for payroll, completing and submitting time sheets, or sending e-mail notifications to people about late time sheets. It's quick, user-friendly and we have all been very happy with the system."
Adds Hammon, "Even though we've tripled our number of employees during the last year and a half, Deltek Time Collection has allowed us to keep payroll processing staff at the same level as it had been when we only had one hundred employees working on the project."
With 14 years left in the life of the contract, BNFL plans on continuing to utilize its Deltek solution and potentially adding additional programs. The company has recently purchased the employee expense application for Deltek Costpoint, and is considering purchasing other Deltek enterprise products in the near future.
About Deltek
With more than 8,000 customers, Herndon, VA-based Deltek is the number-five ranked provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions and the leader for professional services and project-based businesses. Founded in 1983, Deltek enables companies to maximize profitability and productivity, integrating all aspects of their businesses. Maintaining a focus on the architecture and engineering, IT services, management consulting, construction, systems integration and government contracting markets, Deltek clients include Bechtel, CACI, Centex, Computer Sciences Corporation, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Verizon.
Deltek's family of products - including Deltek Enterprise™, Deltek Vision™ and Deltek GCS Premier™ - power a myriad of front- and back-office applications including accounting, billing, resource planning, budgeting and control, business intelligence, client relationship management and proposal automation, employee time and expense, HR management, pocurement and materials management and project management.