RaceRocks improves quality assurance and financial predictability

The RaceRocks story

RaceRocks 3D Inc. provides big data analytics, virtual training and Technology Enabled Learning (TEL) services to multinational aerospace, military and defense sectors.

A high-tech company based in Victoria, BC, RaceRocks specializes in utilizing immersive game engines, virtual reality, augmented reality, appropriate pedagogical approaches and machine learning to consistently advance the state of training. With this approach, RaceRocks develops innovative learning experiences and software tools that enable and empower key decision-making from conception. Clientele include Canada’s Department of National Defence, the Royal Canadian Navy, Boeing and Babcock International.

In order to continue providing specialized services to high-security entities, RaceRocks holds itself to meticulous standards. The stakes are high, and the Quote-to-Cash process must be seamless.

The challenge: making key metrics visible and project management simple

Before VOGSY, RaceRocks was using a host of tools to support Quote-to-Cash service delivery, including Google Sheets, Dropbox, Xero, Dovico and HubSpot. But a lack of interconnectivity between these tools created a struggle to accurately plan resources, track billability and monitor project progress and profitability.

Resourcing blind spots

Project managers had trouble understanding how busy their teams were. Because there was no digestible way to see when resources were booked, for which projects and for how many hours, project planning was painstaking. Moreover, problems like overbooking and poor utilization were constant.

“Compared to other vendors out there, VOGSY provides an enormous bang for our buck.”

– Craig White, Project Management Office Director of RaceRocks 3D Inc.

Understanding employee billability

A growing company, RaceRocks needed to consolidate its visibility of employees’ billable and non-billable hours.

Project managers needed an easier way to make sure their teams were reaching targets as representation of this metric was not readily available in RaceRocks’ systems. As a result, project managers had to resort to performing manual calculations.

Cumbersome project tracking

Project Management Office Director Craig White and his project managers were juggling timesheets, Excel sheets and budget sheets. The only way to see projects as a whole was to create dashboards by hand and copy and paste data from the various sheets into the dashboard.

To eliminate this time-consuming process and help project managers update leadership on project progress in a timely manner, RaceRocks needed a sophisticated software solution to deliver the project insights automatically in one cohesive view.

Why VOGSY? The Quote-to-Cash solution

Mavenlink, Monday, VOGSY and Dovico were on RaceRocks short list of software tools. But only VOGSY delivered what RaceRocks was looking for: a Quote-to-Cash solution.

As teams already used Google Workspace, VOGSY’s native Google Workspace integration made sense for their workflows. However, what was unequivocally vital to the services firm was VOGSY’s presentation of the real-time data it needed in a clear user interface.

“VOGSY looked much easier to use, and much more visually appetizing,” White said. “Compared to other vendors out there, VOGSY provides an enormous bang for our buck in terms of license cost, but also onboarding and ongoing costs. And there are no compromises on functionality or support.”

The fix

To resolve its systemic issues, the company needed an entirely new system, one that would support several simple but make-or-break goals:

Find a Quote-to-Cash solution that would tie all business operations together and eliminate the use of multiple spreadsheets, tools and repositories

Streamline invoicing as well as key project finance metrics such as budget burn and profit margin

Make employee utilization, billability and margin data transparent to meet financial goals

Ensure correct resourcing to meet future project requirements

The results: connected Quote-to-Cash workflows

Easy project tracking

With a centralized system that connects every piece of the Quote-to-Cash process together, White and his teams have a clear picture of project schedules, budgets and margins instantly in the VOGSY project dashboard with zero manual effort and spreadsheets.

Thanks to simplified project management, White and his project managers can keep a close eye on project progress in conjunction with profitability and step in at the right time if either goes off-track.

Accurate resourcing

Project managers are easily forecasting resources and optimizing their hours. Whereas employees’ workloads and available hours were previously hard to see, VOGSY provides a heatmap of their planned projects, availability, overplanning and hours left to plan against a visual timeline. For White, the ability to quickly see clog-ups highlighted in red and start reassigning resources is valuable in terms of both time savings and quality assurance.

With VOGSY, better resourcing begins at the opportunity stage. Reviewing VOGSY’s sales pipeline and progress charts, teams can see when opportunities are at a certain probability percentage and begin planning resourcing earlier, increasing predictability and improving resource and revenue forecasts.

Quicker invoicing

VOGSY provides a swift approval process for invoices, creating less administrative burden and more streamlined accounting.

VOGSY’s automated invoicing system is built on invoice templates that auto-populate based on data from time tracking, project costs, expenses and project information within VOGSY’s Quote-to-Cash system. When deliverables are ready to be invoiced, all project managers need to do is approve or reject.

This means less rechecking—as automation increases invoice accuracy—as well as faster billing and steadier cash flow.

Financial predictability

VOGSY’s billability charts are shining a light on whether teams are hitting financial targets—and what to do if they’re not.

Being able to see whether billability is over- or under-target helps White identify issues on both the sales and project delivery sides that impact the business’s bottom line.

Issues like:

Is the Business Development team bringing in enough work to support the Project team?

Are there too many, or not enough team members on hand?

Should project managers be checking where and when resources can be reallocated to improve utilization and billability?

This information is helping RaceRocks to better support its teams and its Quote-to-Cash process from the financial perspective that the organization requires for measurable growth.