Trident Research Case Study

Trident Research is an engineering solutions company with headquarters located in Austin, Texas. Their mission is to create world class instrumentation systems and technologies that push the boundaries of innovation.

Founded in 2001, Trident benefits from the close proximity to the University of Texas at Austin and leverages the creative engineering talent of the University and the energetic high tech Austin environment to staff innovative research engineers and scientists to meet the most demanding needs of its Department of Defense (DOD) clients. Their emphasis on creative but disciplined systems engineering has been their strength for decades.

The Challenge

Trident has developed a strong relationship with the US Navy and other DOD clients. Many of Trident’s contracts require operations and sustainment of Government Furnished Property (GFP) across multiple sites in the United States and overseas in support of DOD flight test operations. The challenge for Trident was establishing a single multi-user, multilocation real-time GFP tracking environment that facilitates logistics and overseas operations.

Based on their rapid growth, the Trident leadership team knew that they needed to make improvements to both their Accounting and their Government Property Management systems. With contract obligations to DFARS 252.242-7005 Trident was required to maintain both of these business systems and without them could be vulnerable to DCAA
(Accounting) and DCMA (Government Property Management) audits and corrective actions.

The Solution

Trident worked with A2B Tracking and Deltek Costpoint to implement a complete Accounting ERP and Government Property Management solution to meet these strict contract obligations. The integration between A2B Tracking and Deltek Costpoint meant that all of the Government Furnished Property (GFP) and Contract Acquired Property (CAP) data could be shared across both platforms and to any employee in any location.

Integration of A2B Tracking and Costpoint provides a superior solution to automate the process of receiving in government property using Costpoint’s Receiving Module which allows key contract, asset and inventory data to instantly flow to Costpoint’s Fixed Asset Management module.

Once the assets are received into Costpoint the inventory data automatically flows to A2B Tracking’s Government Property Management system. The A2B Tracking platform enables Trident to easily manage their inventory data from cradle to grave creating a robust audit history.

Furthermore, the A2B Tracking platform provides Trident with a direct data exchange to government systems (like PIEE, WAWF, IUID Registry, GFP Module and PCARSS). Automated reporting is expected to save an enormous amount of time and labor, and also improve report accuracy with built-in compliance checks to ensure that only accurate information is submitted to government systems.

The Results

The combination of the Deltek Costpoint and A2B Tracking integration enables a complete end-to-end solution for Trident to achieve sustained audit readiness to both DCAA and DCMA obligations. This proactive approach provides the organization with the tools needed to survive their frequent visits from auditors and positions them to win more contracts in the future.

Trident benefits from their single point of receipt in Costpoint that works in conjunction with A2B Tracking’s technology to capture and manage all life cycle events and transactions in order to maintain full compliance to their contracts. Trident is preparing to take full advantage of the automation provided by A2B Tracking’s UC! Web platform for automated data exchange to directly report to PIEE, WAWF, GFP Module and the IUID Registry and expects to save hundreds of hours in reporting time.

As an organization, Trident is reducing time spent on manual data entry which has provided the team with valuable time to do more impactful tasks. Trident is also benefitting from a significant improvement in communication where the Costpoint ERP and the A2B Tracking integration allows everyone in the organization to access the same information in real time, facilitating material tracking and logistics required for critical mission support. At the end of the day, the implementation of Deltek Costpoint and A2B Tracking has enabled Trident to achieve sustained audit readiness and a much stronger compliance posture to pass both DCAA and DCMA audits.