Case Study: Planning Systems Incorporated (PSI)

May 2004

Organizational Profile:

Planning Systems Incorporated (PSI) is a diversified high technology company, founded in 1972 and headquartered in Reston VA, with more than 300 technical staff in multiple locations nationwide. PSI provides applied science & systems engineering expertise, Information Technology (IT) applications & solutions, and custom products to the Federal Government and commercial clients. Fiscal year 2003 revenue was $40.8 million. PSI has successfully performed on more than 400 government contracts and has won numerous repeat awards with over a dozen Federal agencies. PSI is an employee-owned company, with a wealth of scientific and engineering expertise within its staff, fully half of which have advanced technical degrees. They provide systems level experience in multiple high technology disciplines, with the responsiveness of a small company.

Applied Science & Systems Engineering
PSI has unique technical expertise in multiple sensor disciplines associated with acoustics, radar, seismic, electro-optics, and noise & vibration control. Analytical expertise includes remote sensing, image processing, advanced sensor data processing algorithms, meteorology, oceanography, and terrain propagation. Specialty skills include: high fidelity modeling & simulation, sensor stimulation, mapping, charting, geodesy, and field test & evaluation.

IT Applications & Solutions
PSI provides software systems engineering for middleware brokered architecture design, air traffic control, geographic information systems (GIS), 3-D visualization, and data warehouse integration. Key skills include: relational database design, data modeling, network systems design, client server systems, and website development.

Custom Products
PSI has the facilities for prototype design, fabrication, assembly, and test of sensor systems, unique processors & circuitry, and specialized electronic components. Major products have included: multi-channel data acquisition systems, ground penetrating radar, sonar systems, ocean deployable instrumentation, vibration control systems, and low power ATM electronics.

PSI is at the forefront in transferring sensor systems, signal processing, and information analysis technology to critical emerging programs. PSI has been a successful participant in the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program, since its inception, and has won numerous Phase I concept definition awards, multiple Phase II concept demonstration contracts, and several Phase III technology insertion programs. Our research has supported the Departments of Defense, Transportation, Commerce, NASA, and the National Institute of Health (NIH).

Challenges:

For years, PSI had been relying on paper timesheets to support invoicing and payroll systems. As the company grew over the years, many dispersed locations added to the complexity of collecting the paper timesheets. The wasted time to collect all the timesheets was exacerbated by collecting faxed timesheets from the dispersed locations. Priding itself as an advanced technology organization, management did not like complaints regarding the use of outdated, paper timesheets from engineers, who built advanced technology systems. As a DOD contractor, PSI believed they needed to take the next step to improve productivity by extending automated systems to include electronic timesheets. Goals for improvements in time collection included improvements in overall process, reductions in errors, and timely reporting. The electronic timesheet needed to integrate with the operational accounting systems.

Solution:

PSI chose the Unanet web-based software for their electronic timesheet system. Selecting two electronic timesheet products for evaluation (Unanet and one offered by their accounting system vendor), a PSI Committee conducted a very thorough review. The review included product demonstrations to confirm functionality and references. The committee believed that Unanet was the best choice because of the immediate visibility of the labor hours, the security, the ease of use, and the reference information. The references reported that Unanet’s customer support exceeded that of any competitor. The references also reported that Unanet was the more reliable system and that they had never had a problem with Unanet. This was key to PSI, as the company could not afford to be down a day or two.

Implementation:

Working with the Unanet consultants, PSI installed, implemented, and rolled out Unanet to the first set of users within two or three weeks. PSI decided on a slow rollout converting one or two locations at a time. After three months, the entire company was using Unanet electronic timesheets.

Unanet is fully integrated with the existing accounting system. Project, people, and workforce data are pulled from the accounting system to Unanet as needed. At the end of the accounting period, the time is quickly entered into the payroll and invoicing systems.

Benefits:

Today, 320 employees from over 15 states enter time daily and submit their timesheet on a semi-monthly basis no later than close of business on the pay period ending date usually the 15th and last day of the month.. The supervisors review and approve by 10 AM the next day. The benefits were:

• Visibility into the work before the end of the period
• Reduction in the time collection process from 2days to 1 days
• Reduction in the time to run payroll from 1.5 days to approximately .5 days
• Improvement in the accuracy of revenue recognition and billings to the correct accounts
• Faster publishing of the invoices to provide better cash flow
• Ease of managers and project managers to approve timesheets at their computer, anywhere and anytime
• Ease of notifying people who are late
• No need to keep files of paper copies
• Quick access to printing of supporting documentation for invoices
• Easier internal audits

Future Enhancements:

PSI is evaluating the expense reporting and the resource management capabilities of Unanet as a next step to automating the business management of the technology services and product development.