The Hidden Cost of Growing in GovCon: Document Chaos
If you work in government contracting long enough, you start to notice patterns.
For example:
The more your business grows, the more documents you have.
Like… a lot more documents.
Invoices. Receipts. Subcontractor files. HR paperwork. Contract mods. Audit support. Emails that turn into PDFs because “we should probably save that somewhere.”
And all of this content has to connect back to Deltek Costpoint somehow, which is usually where things start to fall apart.
Over the past few months, we’ve seen a big spike in questions from companies asking how to “clean up the chaos.” And almost every conversation leads to the same solution:
Costpoint CMI.
And yes, it’s worth paying attention to.
So… what is CMI, in normal-person terms?
CMI is simply the connector that lets Costpoint talk to your content management system: SharePoint, OnBase, or anything that uses CMIS standards.
But the “integration” part is the simple explanation.
The real value is what teams can stop doing once CMI is set up well:
- Stop hunting for PDFs saved in random folders
- Stop uploading the same invoice to three different places
- Stop emailing documents around for approvals
- Stop scrambling during audits
- Stop re‑keying information into Costpoint “just to get it in the system.”
Instead, your docs live where they should.
They flow the way they should.
And they show up in Costpoint automatically.
Feels almost luxurious, doesn’t it?
Where CMI actually makes a difference (based on real conversations)
Procurement teams
Ask yourself: how many hours have been lost to the mystery of the missing packing slip?
With CMI + SharePoint workflows, receiving documents land exactly where they belong in Costpoint, automatically. No more scavenger hunts.
AP teams
This one’s huge.
Invoices come in → get scanned → data gets extracted → Costpoint pre-populates.
It’s not sci-fi. It’s CMI with ICR.
And it removes the single biggest bottleneck in AP.
HR teams
Employee records stop living in “the spreadsheet”, “the shared drive” or “Tracy’s folder because she said she’d organize it.”
Everything becomes consistent, secure, and easy to retrieve.
Contracts
Versioning chaos is real.
With CMI, every SOW, mod, NDA, and subcontract attachment lands where it should, in the contract record, instead of getting lost in email purgatory.
Finance & auditors
Audit prep goes from weeks of “can you send me that document?”
to minutes.
When everything is attached correctly inside Costpoint, you don’t have to scramble.
Here’s the part most people miss: CMI is only as good as the person implementing it.
This is where organizations get burned.
CMI is powerful, but it’s not plug‑and‑play. A basic setup gives you basic results.
What actually moves the needle is when CMI is:
- Tuned to how your modules are configured
- Aligned with your workflows (the real ones, not the ideal ones)
- Designed for your cloud or on-prem environment
- Automated thoughtfully (not just connected and left alone)
That’s why so many companies come to us after trying a generic implementation.
They want it to actually work - across Finance, Procurement, HR, Contracts, Projects… everywhere.
And when it works, it’s a game-changer.
Why CMI matters right now
GovCon is moving fast:
- Remote teams are the norm
- Digital audits are increasing
- Document volume keeps climbing
- Customers expect more transparency
- Compliance is getting tighter
If your content and your Costpoint environment don’t talk to each other cleanly, you’re going to feel the pain more and more over the next few years.
CMI is becoming less of a “nice-to-have” and more of a foundation for staying competitive.
If you’re exploring CMI, here’s the truth:
- It can absolutely make your life easier.
- It can reduce manual work.
- It can make audits smoother.
- It can eliminate missing documents.
- It can give your teams time back.
- It can help your business scale without adding headcount.
You just need someone who knows how to make it fit your environment, not just “install it.”
And that’s where we come in.
If you’re getting serious about CMI, or wondering whether your current setup is costing you time and money, we’re happy to take a look and point you in the right direction.