By Bernard Cini
Recent studies show that midsize businesses often use Excel for project management. Given the fact that Excel is not a project management tool then what follows is that when the number of projects which are to be managed in parallel goes up, the efficiency will decrease and the demand for new features will increase.
A special challenge in the construction industry is to procure materials at low cost and to provide these materials in a timely manner. In addition, precise cost control during the course of the entire project is essential.
The integration of the project management solution MARIProject with the ERP solution SAP Business One helps you to manage your inventory efficiently and to plan flexibly. In addition, you have up-to-date information of relevant project data always at your fingertips.
Recent studies show that midsize businesses often use Excel for project management. If the number of projects, which is to be managed in parallel, goes up, the efficiency will decrease and the demand for new features will increase.
Advantages of using an integrated project management solution;
Resource planning
Plan all your resources (employees, pools, items, equipment) while the costs are determined automatically in the background of the time planning.
Purchasing
MARIProject supports project-related purchasing transactions and compares the quoted prices on item level. The software visualizes also the current delivery status of each item in the course of the project.
Inventory Management
SAP Business One helps manage one or more warehouses. With MARIProject, you can also manage project-related warehouses.
Time tracking & travel expenses
MARIProject enables the employees to capture their project hours and travel expenses, also via mobile devices.
Mobility
You have instant access to up-to-the-minute data of business partners and projects via Internet, smartphone and tablet (iOS, Android). Manage different tasks, such as the entry of times and travel expenses, approvals or support, even if you are away on business. Request also additional materials from the warehouse via mobile devices.
Project controlling
Project data (costs, revenues, planned and performed services, items etc.) is managed in one single system. With the numerous reports, such as degree of completion, target/actual comparison of hours, project breakeven etc., you keep track of the current status of your project and have always up-to-date information at your fingertips.
Project billing
MARIProject supports all common types of billing methods: billing at fixed price, billing by milestone or by percentage of completion etc. You can also define a cost limit for the project in order to stay within budget. Documents (sales quotations, invoices, delivery notes etc.) are generated automatically based on the master data.
Evaluation of Work in Progress
A flexible calculation tool enables you to determine the value of installations under construction according to different evaluation methods (e.g. percentage of completion) and to transfer the value to the financial accounting.
Customer service
MARIProject contains a service module for maintenance and repair of installations for optimal customer service.
Global reach
Construction projects have often a global focus. To meet this need, MARIProject allows mobile access to data and supports multiple companies and multiple currencies. The software is also available in different languages.
Bernard Cini is a Solutions Consultant with Alert Solutions Ltd, local resellers of MARIProject. : www.alert-solutions.com
Tech update
In November 2014 Twitter announced that it would be launching a native video playing service in an obvious move to position itself as a media platform and challenge Youtube's dominance in the sector.
The Twitter Video Player will host videos of up to 10 minutes with no limit on file size, initially supporting mp4 and mov files. The first version of the player will not include any functionality to edit videos or schedule them within the player - although this is something that is likely to be added at a later stage.
The Twitter Video Player will not support videos hosted on YouTube or anywhere else. This is an interesting decision and points at the importance being placed on Twitter building up a unique inventory of content. Let the video battle begin!
eMarketing Update
Senior citizens in Germany are slowly but surely getting addicted to the Internet, as is revealed by a BITKOM study, "Senioren in der digitalen Welt," based on a survey of 1,000 consumers aged 65+ in November 2014. 38% of respondents are active online, which is an increase of 6% over the previous year i.e. 2013.
More than half of these older internet users (52%) confirmed that using the internet had improved their quality of life, while 60% said it helped keep them mentally fit. 81% said they had used it to read about and learn new things. In fact the recipients indicated a wide variety of activities, ranging from email (91%) and news (79%) to health guidance (68%), travel planning (65%) and online shopping (57%). 50% also said they bank online.
On average, these online senior citizens spend 51 minutes per day on the web.
For more eMarketing news go to www.alertemarketing.com