Construction

Project Analyst : Project Management Tool for Construction Industry

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Overview

The purpose of Project Analyst is to manage and improve project delivery. Meeting or exceeding customer expectations on time and within budget. Standardize project management processes and terminology. Standardize technology to achieve cost savings from economies of scale and efficient administration of the system.

Features & Benefits

		Project Analyst will simplify and enhance the ability of stake holders to better manage project(s) by enforcing the Project Management Methodology as suggested by PMI.
		Make use of automated tools.
		Create Project Work plans and monitor project status.
		Develop and manage project budgets.
		Compare actual spending against the estimated budget.
		Create and manage resource pools that enable project managers to identify and provision staff to tasks in projects based on their skill.
		Define, review, approve and prioritize projects based on business goals.
		Track and manage groups of projects at the enterprise level using reporting tools such as executive dashboards, to view task, time, financial and other data.

Details

Project Analyst comes in 3 versions, a desktop product, a Client Server and a Web based application, which has been developed keeping in mind the Project Management to any Industry and in particlaur to Construction business. Project Analyst is constructed by using Microsoft .Net technologies and on MS SQL Server 2005 Database.

Project Analyst is particularly useful for builders who can use the various formats provided in this product to store, process and use the information for legal as well as convenience purposes.

There are many forms typical to the construction business, like the Bill of Quantities, Request for Information, Notice of Variation, Confirmation of Verbal Instructions, Hire Agreement, Comparative Statement, Purchase Order, Site Instructions and many more. Project Analyst helps the builder store this information in an orderly and an easy format, thereby making things less complicated and cumbersome for the co.

One of the main functions of Project Analyst is to provide legal validity to the agreements that are entered into by the builder and the client. Project Analyst helps the builder format verbal agreements in a concrete document form, which then helps the builder when claiming legal recourse against the client if such a need arises.

Let us now see in detail as to how Project Analyst helps legalize and arrange systematically the various activities, dealings and agreements related to the construction business, beginning from the beginning stage of any project. After a construction company receives an invitation to submit a tender document, the Marketing department of the company submits the tender document to the Tender department, which in turn raises a Bill of Qualities ( BOQ) and submits the tender to the client.

The Bill of Qualities shows the scope of work that would be undertaken, the units and the quantity of the material required, the rate per unit and the total amount required to carry out the given task. The BOQ has an automatic arithmetic function, which calculates the total amount of money required, when the rate and the quantity of each unit of material to be used is entered.

After this BOQ is submitted to the client and is approved and selected by him/her, the builder receives the Letter of Intent, following which the project begins to take shape physically.

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION: When the client needs some information from the builder, he/ she sends to the builder a Request for Information form, which is in turn checked and filled with the necessary information by the builder and is printed and sent to the client. Project Analyst provides a specific format for this form as well.

CONFIRMATION OF VERBAL INSTRUCTIONS FORM: There are cases where the client wants some changes to be made in the existing building plan and asks the builder to do the same. The builder then sends a hard copy of the Confirmation of Verbal Instructions form using the format provided by Project Analyst to the client, asking for his/ her signature, in order to avoid misunderstandings later.

NOTICE OF VARIATION: In addition to the Confirmation of Verbal Instructions form, a hard copy of the Notice of Variation form, which informs the client about the costs that will be incurred on account of the changes to be made, would also be sent for the client’s signature. Project Analyst has an automated format for the Notice of Variation form as well, thus helping the firm to systematize its’ record and calculation of expenses and thus acting as a legal proof. The requisite changes would be made only if the client signs on these documents.

BILL OF QUALITIES FOR THE VENDOR: Some of the work received by the firm is outsourced to another firm that specializes in the same, in order to cut costs. In such a case, a Vendor BOQ is sent to the prospective vendors in the list stored by the firm. This Vendor BOQ is contains information like the type of work to be done, the quantity of material needed and the rate per unit of the material required and the total amount of money required for each function.

COMPARITIVE STATEMENT: After the vendors bid for the company’s project, a Comparative Statement showing the Benchmark BOQ, BOQ as per the Contract and the BOQ of various bidders is generated, which shows the deviation of the actual contract from the benchmarked contract. The calculation of this deviation is another automated function of Project Analyst.

WORK ORDER: After consulting the Comparative Statement, the most profitable vendor option is chosen and the work order for the vendor is created in the automated format.

PURCHASE ORDER: This purchase order again is an automated function of Project Analyst, which is used in order to enter the details of the goods purchased from other vendors. Both the vendors as well as the project details are entered in this form.

SITE INSTRUCTIONS: When site instructions are to be given to the contractor, be they internal or external instructions, they are entered in the automated format provided by Project Analyst, which are then checked by the contractor on his/ her computer.

HIRE AGREEMENT: Project Analyst also provides an automated Hire Agreement form, which is used to enter the details of machines and services hired on account of the project. It contains the vendor and the project details. Another great feature of Project Analyst is that calculations to be made are done automatically by the software. Project Analyst also has many other functions in addition to those mentioned above.