Deltek has formed a strategic partnership with Cognizant to expand Deltek Maconomy ERP implementations across the UK and Europe, targeting complex enterprise organisations.
The partnership combines Deltek's Maconomy platform with Cognizant's consulting and integration capabilities, covering implementation, upgrades, cloud migration and managed services. It is intended to support organisations replacing legacy systems and running large, multi-country programmes.
ERP demand
Maconomy is Deltek's ERP system for project-based businesses, combining financial management with project oversight. Under the agreement, Cognizant will work with Deltek on deployments for customers that need a single platform across projects and finance, particularly those seeking greater consistency in data and governance across multiple markets.
The move reflects continued demand for ERP modernisation in sectors that manage complex projects, tight financial controls and cross-border operations. Many organisations in these sectors still rely on older systems that make it harder to standardise processes, consolidate information and move core workloads to the cloud.
The partnership is designed to reduce disruption during large system changes and give customers a joined-up model from initial implementation through post-deployment support. That includes upgrades to existing systems as well as migrations from on-premise software to cloud-based versions.
For Deltek, the agreement extends Maconomy's delivery reach in Europe through a large consulting and technology services group. For Cognizant, it creates a closer relationship with a specialist ERP provider serving project-led industries including consulting, construction, architecture, engineering and government-related work.
Transformation focus
Neil Davidson, Group Vice President, Deltek, outlined the rationale for broader transformation work around ERP and data.
"For project-based organisations, business transformation is no longer optional. To embed technology, including AI, effectively and realise its value, organisations must first address the fundamental barriers that limit visibility, performance, and growth. Too often, modernisation happens incrementally, without tackling these structural challenges. Overcoming this requires a more joined-up approach across finance, projects, and data, built on a modern, platform-based ERP foundation. With the right technology and experienced partners like Deltek and Cognizant, organisations can achieve meaningful transformation while maintaining continuity," said Neil Davidson, Group Vice President, Deltek.
His comments reflect a wider issue in the ERP market, where companies are trying to connect finance systems, operational data and project management workflows before adopting more advanced automation or AI tools. In practice, that often requires lengthy work on data structures, internal controls and process standardisation before newer applications can be introduced at scale.
Rohit Gupta, UK&I Managing Director, Cognizant, linked the partnership to that challenge.
"Enterprises are under pressure to move faster, serve customers better, and do more with less. But scaling AI adoption often stalls in pilots due to fundamental challenges such as legacy tech, governance, and data readiness. By combining Deltek's enterprise technology and our transformation expertise, we look to give clients a practical way to strengthen their finance and operational foundations while preparing for an AI-enabled future," said Rohit Gupta, UK&I Managing Director, Cognizant.
Customer project
The companies also pointed to work with Kantar as an example of a joint customer engagement. The project involved a finance transformation and an upgrade to the latest release of Deltek Maconomy, including testing and integration management.
According to Kantar, "Working with Cognizant and Deltek gave us the confidence and capability to deliver one of the most important finance transformations in our organisation. The combined team brought deep product expertise, delivery discipline, and a collaborative approach that made a complex upgrade feel seamless. Their partnership enabled us to validate thousands of test cases, manage integrations, and move to the latest release of Deltek Maconomy without disruption to the business. With both teams working together, we were able to move faster, reduce delivery risk, and realise value much sooner than we could have achieved alone."
Buyer priorities
The partnership comes as enterprise buyers look for fewer suppliers to manage broad transformation programmes. In ERP projects, that can mean choosing providers able to cover software deployment, systems integration, migration planning and long-term support within a single programme structure, particularly when organisations operate across multiple jurisdictions and need common financial controls.
Deltek says it serves 30,000 organisations, while Cognizant is one of the larger global IT and consulting groups. Their joint offering is aimed at companies with project-based business models that need to overhaul legacy finance and project systems without interrupting day-to-day operations.
A central part of the offer is support for data consistency, governance and operational standardisation across countries, areas that often determine whether a complex ERP rollout stays on schedule or is delayed by local variations in process and reporting. These issues are becoming more important as businesses try to build cleaner data foundations for wider use of AI in finance and operational decision-making.