IFS Project Solution - Overview

Today’s Design, Engineering, Contracting and Construction markets are highly competitive, and there is an ever increasing need to be able to consistently manage aggressively priced projects to budget and timescale whilst controlling project risks. The need is for integrated, best-in-class, Project Management, Project Delivery and Execution solutions that provide a competitive advantage for your operations in the field, the office, the plant and the supply chain.

More than ever the imperatives are:

• Improving the front-end estimating by re-using the best previous experiences
• Properly planning common resources across multiple projects/contracts
• Obtain early warning of project overruns and exceptions, risks, focus on what’s going wrong or may go wrong
• Improving real-time visibility into project performance
• Capturing significant variations  to specifications and scope, managing billing, and credit exposure
• Forecasting project health at completion
• Collaborating with the project teams inside and outside the business
• Being able to fully manage materials and physical deliverables in line with the project timeline
• Reducing administration burden, compressing time using workflow and eliminating tasks that do not add value
• Intelligently storing and sharing commercial documents, managing releases and versions
• Removing departmental silos, connecting all the business activities to the project, with one common data set for both operational and financial management
• Adopting common processes, without stifling flair – your most valuable corporate asset      

The stakes are high

It may only take one failed contract or project to wipe out an entire year’s profit. Project risks and reduced profitability occur when critical information is managed in departmental silos. Often, such projects involve many people with many perspectives. Yet everyone has to be on the same page. 

IFS keeps everyone in the loop constantly up to date as project data evolves over time, and with the inevitable changes that are agreed in flight. IFS Projects provides centralised, real-time access by all relevant users, both internal and external, to all project information, from management project-centric Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), to detailed work assignments and tasks for individual team members, embracing design, build and installation resources, and supplier and subcontractor deliverables.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

The IFS Project framework is presented within a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) that acts as an umbrella module connecting to all the business activities and deliverables including people, materials, procurement, physical deliverables, expenses, time and documentation. This can be used to drive all connected resources, and becomes the controller of the timeline, providing the framework needed to ensure that all participants within the project are accountable and given full ownership of their key requirements.

Drill down to the detail

Both drill-down and drill-up are available from any node in the structure, and completion dates for elements of the WBS are used to drive the required dates for connected design, make, buy and install activities.

The Project Manager can click on any Project, and drill directly to any connected activity, i.e. Design activity, Resource Time Booking, Expenses Charge, Supply Requisition, Purchase Order, Manufacturing Order, Service/Installation Order, or any Document, Drawing, Agreement, Health & Safety profile, Variation/Change Request, Invoice, Credit Note etc. The current progress status of any task is also visible.

Make the best use of your time

Such visibility means that the Project Manager can make the best use of their time by focusing on critical tasks which are in danger of deviating from plan, either in time or cost terms.

Costs and revenues

Costs and Revenues are collected and maintained through the defined WBS levels, and Progress completions cascade from lower level tasks up to sub-project and project levels, allowing both a birds-eye view and a view from the bottom up.

Summary level or detail

With potentially many hundreds of parallel activies to manage, it's important to be able to view at the macro and the micro levels. A progress status at the sub-project level can lead the Project Manager step-by-step towards the tasks which may threaten timely competition. In just 4 clicks you can go from the Project summary down to that single supplier RFQ which still awaits a value response, with all of its detail.

Project Expenses can be a significant factor within the overall spectrum of costs. After submission by the employee, the manager or supervisor involved is invited by workflow to approve the Expenses claims, dispersed to one or several Projects. The Project Manager can drill through to see the details of such Expenses claims at any time.

Automated calculations

Industry standard Project Management Performance Indicators are calculated and maintained automatically. Such indices include Weighted Progress, BCWS, BCWP (Earned Value), ACWP, BAC, SPI, CPI, IEAC, ETC, CV.

Intelligent use and control of documents and drawings

Documents, drawings, agreements and even media content form a substantial part of many Contracts and Projects.  With IFS, such documents can be attached to the relevant node in the Project, and can be controlled both tightly and loosely depending on the nature of the document. Full Version and Release control exists, together with Check-In/Check-Out tracking and "drag and drop" initial attachment to Project objects.