The client

One of our Clients is Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) services company providing world-class infrastructure development services by harnessing leading edge technology and utilizing high quality resources. Its differentiation and competitive advantage stem from the in-house facilities for engineering design, quality assurance, supply chain, project management, construction, operation, and maintenance. Further, backward integration into raw materials, such as cement from Binani factories allow for dependable supplies and timely execution of projects involving substantial civil works.

Business need

Client has implemented Oracle E-Business Suit (Version 12.1.3) with basic modules of finance, Purchasing, Inventory, HRMS and Payroll.

However after implementing these modules, client was unable to manage their projects and track the project performances. They were also facing challenges to ascertain project task wise profitability and control over the project execution. In addition to the above, the client was unable to track and control the activities were performed at the project sites due to lack of visibility.

The client needed a robust application by which they can capture cost at the project task level, manage cost and revenue budget, manage resources, generate RA Invoices from projects and recognise revenues. At the same time, the client required an application by which they can track and control the activities performed at different project sites. At the end of every month, the client wanted to see the performance of every project as well as task and project wise cash forecasting.

Challenges

1. Budget: The requirement was to capture project and task wise cost and revenue budget and compare the same with the actual for variance analysis and project performance.
2. Project Costing: After implementation of above modules the cost was captured at the project level but the requirement was to capture the cost at the project task level.
3. Project Billing: Project wise billing was handled by entering manual AR Invoice or Credit Memos. There was a requirement to capture invoice amount project task wise. So that task wise performance can be ascertain.
4. Customer BOQ: There was a requirement to capture customer BOQ (Bill of Quantity) in details with quantity and rates and they wanted to raise RA (Running Account) Bill based on the BOQ.
5. Supplier BOQ: The client outsources some of the activities of the projects to other vendors. To track the supplier / vendor billing, they wanted to capture the supplier BOQ (Bill of Quantity) in the system and the P2P process to be controlled as per the BOQ.
6. Site Activity: There was a requirement to capture site activities like ICR (Inspection Call Report), SITR (Site Inspection Test Report), MDCC (Material Despatch Clearance Certificate) and GRN (Goods Receipt Note) in the system.
7. Project wise Cash forecasting: There was a requirement to generate a report which will show monthly cash forecasting project wise.

Solution

Conacent proposed the client to implement the Project Management modules in Oracle EBS with emphasis on Oracle Project Costing and Oracle Project Billing. As part of this mandate, Conacent undertook the following:

• Oracle Project Modules were implemented to manage project task efficiently.
• Above module enabled the organization to manage their internal resources and allocate the cost of the resources to the respective projects.
• Standardization of performance metrics across the organization (1 OU, approx. 200+ inventory/project organizations) to streamline the client’s internal processes. Conacent was involved in business process definition, program management, project management, package evaluation, package implementation, key user training, and post-production support
• Conacent developed a bolt-on application called Site Solution for capturing customer BOQs in details. There was an option to manage and track the version of the BOQs and keep the history. The Site Solution module was fully integrated with Oracle Project Billing and Receivables. This application enabled user for raising customer invoices and credit memos as per the BOQ of the project.
• There was enablement of capturing supplier BOQ in details, and integration with with Oracle Purchasing and Project Costing.
• Enabled user to capture the activities like ICR, SITR, MDCC and GRN performed at the project site.
• A matrix report provided project wise cash forecasting.

Strategy

Leveraging the implementation, a team of 8 experts from Conacent decided on the methodology and approach to implement the Project modules in their existing Oracle EBS to achieve process efficiencies. Using the Oracle seeded modules; Conacent streamlined the process of project budgeting, project costing and project billing.

The Site Solution module was integrated with Oracle seeded modules like Purchasing, Inventory, Project Costing, Project Billing, Payables and Receivables so that the entire application can act as one unit.

Benefits

• The implementation imparted high visibility to the project management team and improved visibility of performance of the project at the granular level.
• Task management has now become easier and visible.
• Now the client can manage their resources more efficiently.
• The Site Solution module improved the visibility of the activities performed at the various project sites.
• Now managing projects has become much easier and the respective project manager can take suitable decision on time.
• Management is able to see project wise cash forecasting at any point of time by running a report.
• A large number of manual practices have been systemized.
• Excel dependency reduced to a great extent.