Project Management

ProjectManagement for
Consulting and
Software Companies

Consulting and software companies operate in an increasingly demanding
environment. Projects have to be processed quicker and in a more eficient and competitive way.
Customers want precise professionally formatted cost reports delivered on-time. Project managers require a quick overview of their projects to ascertain profitability and the need for intervention. These requirements are no longer satisfied in a heterogeneous software environment.
Using separate programmes to record hours, plan projects, manage customer data, create invoices and do the bookkeeping is too slow, too error-prone and too expensive! A more effective approach which more and more consulting and software companies are choosing is to use a project management solution that is integrated with an ERP system. That’s why they choose Project-Management for Consulting and Software Companies.

Eficient Project Management
with Automated Accounting

ProjectManagement is an integrated, affordable project management and accounting solution specially designed for the needs of small and midsize consulting and software companies. The project management solution caters for the entire work flow from planning and data recording to data clearance and financial analysis. The solution provides authorised users with on-demand access to all the critical information they need to make better business decisions. Project-Management is not only an easy to use and affordable solution, but also highly customisable and feature-rich. Direct access to all project data based on a complete management system for employee, material and contract data etc., the solution enables the user to plan projects, to calculate and quote on costs, to update and manage the project’s status, to invoice projects and to post the respective data to the financial system. In addition, the programme allows authorised users direct access to all critical data. ProjectManagement enables, for instance, direct access to the project contract from an invoice in order to get an overview of the costs and resources allocated to it.

Affordable solution with a short implementation time
Implementation of the solution takes only a few days. User acceptance
is very high as a result of the intuitive user interface and the familiar Windows environment. The entire system runs on one single server thus reducing initial and on-going maintenance costs. Simple, yet powerful; the solution can be easily customised to customer specified business processes by the addition of fields, data types, documents or requests.

Eficient price calculation and proposal management
During the proposal stage, a preliminary project is created. Project-Management allows the user to accurately calculate prices and costs by taking into account resource pools, employees, materials and travel expenses. Preliminary projects can be easily transformed into a quotation which can be processed within Sales Opportunities as part of CRM. For instance, the sales probability of a quotation can be assessed and quotations can be linked to activities.
Project planning with multiple versions and phase structure.
If the proposal is accepted and the order placed, the planning needs to be reviewed: ProjectManagement allows for the creation of different planning versions, such as preliminary project planning (blocked), preliminary project planning, primary planning and current planning as required, for example, for the calculation of work in progress according to international accounting standards. ProjectManagement allows users to create different process scenarios in the respective planning version, from overall planning (no particular resource is selected) to detailed day planning (resource pools or employees are selected). The project manager can also simplify large, complex projects by creating a hierarchical phase structure.

Flexible GANTT planning for resources and phases
ProjectManagement supports project planning through graphical GANTT charts. Changes can quickly and easily be made to planning through ‘drag & drop’ of planned resources to different time lines or project phases. Utilisation is perpetually evaluated and colours are used to highlight utilisation exceptions for individual employees or pools.

Precise, project-related data recording

After a project has been released for entry, the employees are able to record their project times either by the hour or by entering the exact start and end time. If they have no access to the standard system or the Web Client, administrators can be authorised to record the employees’ working times. Recording hours is easy and takes into account different work patterns, working time rules and business calendars with country specific holidays that are assigned to the respective employees. Also material costs incurred during the course of the project can be assigned to the respective project according to the agreed criteria. The feedback on required hours or the completion message per work package assists the project manager in the current planning

Precise invoicing and accounting, including travel expenses
Actual data recorded by the employees has to be approved by the project manager. When reviewing data, the project manager decides on the number of hours, materials or travel expenses to be charged to the customer. An accounting wizard assists the user with invoicing according to selected criteria, such as due date, period, milestone, at cost or at fixed price. Data is then seamlessly transferred to the financial system and an open item is generated for the customer. Additionally, employees can be reimbursed for travel expenses incurred by them.

Project Management with global reach
ProjectManagement spans the global market: The solution can be used by businesses that work at home and abroad, have foreign customers or suppliers or have international subsidiaries. Project-Management supports the use of multiple languages, multiple companies and multiple currencies. The software is available in different languages and has already been localised for numerous countries. A network of qualified business partners provides customers with local service and support.

Data exchange with MS Project
A two-way connection to MS Project enables the synchronisation phase structures, planned values and resources at any time through a defined export/import interface. In addition, actual data recorded can be transferred to MS Project.

Phase-related purchasing
ProjectManagement assists users in the phase-related purchase process– from the quote request at different suppliers to the A/P invoice. Recorded freelancer services can be reviewed when checking the A/P
invoice.

Web Client: location independent access to data
Apart from allowing the entry of services, items and travel expenses, the Web Client provides access to a variety of customer, financial and project data, such as contact/address details, quotations, delivery notes, invoices, credit notes, payments, contracts and so on. The Web Client is especially useful for sales employees or project team members if they quickly require particular information at the customer’s location or if they want to deliver service reports directly to the customer.

Support Desk for software companies
The Support Desk enables support managers to manage, for example, software products with multiple modules and versions. Customer calls or requests for improvement (so-called support or hotline tickets) are recorded in the Support Desk of the Web Client. The Support Desk also allows users to manage different priorities, to add comments to a support event and to track support tickets. The handling time of single tickets can also be recorded. As times are recorded in the same way as for projects, costs can also be assigned to them. These costs can then be accounted for per request or tickets can be accounted for according to handling time. A portal enables the customer to enter new support tickets and to track support events.