Keep track of business and head towards higher profit
DGE went from Excel sheets to TimeLog. Now they have an overview of project finances and head towards higher profit.
Four years ago, Excel sheets helped the environment and engineer company DGE keep track of the billable time. Then they implemented the digital project and time tracking system from TimeLog, and according to CFO Hans Jørgen Nielsen, they have experienced both short and long term gains since the implementation in 2014.
”The Excel sheets were a heavy model, which provided a poor overview and challenges when it came to invoicing the employees’ work,” Hans Jørgen Nielsen says.
”When we started using TimeLog, we got a much better overview of the invoicing potential, both overall and on an ongoing basis,” he explains.
We are now more aware of how we manage the business. With our key figure reports, we always know how far we are on specific KPIs.
From low profit to profitable projects
The engineer industry typically struggles with low margins, and according to Hans Jørgen Nielsen, DGE earlier on faced a challenge in making sure time was not wasted on projects with low profit.
We now know exactly where to put our focus. The biggest gain is that we now can compete with the big players in the market, because we have exact data enabling us to avoid projects with a risk of a very low profit.
Key figures in real time
According to Hans Jørgen Nielsen, it is essential that consultancies have access to key figures in real time and a constant overview of the project finances to keep focus on the business:
”When consultancies reach a certain size, they must have a digital project management tool. We live on selling hours, and it is essential that everything is tracked. With digital project management, we have an overview of everything we earn on sub projects all the time,” Hans Jørgen Nielsens says and further explains:
”We are now more aware of how we manage the business, e.g. how many internal meetings we have and which projects we can invoice. With our key figure reports, we always know how far we are on specific KPIs.”
Integrated systems removed double work
Hans Jørgen Nielsen estimates that DHG has saved time by integrating the system with the company’s financial system, Navision.
”Before TimeLog, we often experienced double work, when we needed to enter information from Excel in a different system,” Hans Jørgen Nielsen says and adds ”The business systems have to integrate. It is a must in a modern consultancy.”
DGE are satisfied with the implementation process and are currently implementing TimeLog in the subsidiaries in Lithuania and Sweden.
DGE is an environmental and engineering consultancy with 60 employees in Denmark. They work with environmental sustainability among other things within construction. They are a part of DGE Group, who are present in Scandinavia and The Baltics with 150 employees in total.
