Largest distributed Construction and EPC Chronicle in India and Asia Pacific.

1. CMYK
16 |Feature Project Management Software Projects Info | 12 - 18 July | 2010
Where the control should lie
Project management requires management and propagation of the right information at the right
time in the lifecycle of a project life cycle. Lack of coordination and fragmented information can lead
to delays in decision making which further slows down the mobilisation of resources and projects.
There are software packages to the rescue. Purva Khole writes.
P
roject managers often The consequences are high ers for which facility manage- along with the capability of the ment tools, learning curve and
do not have the tools or project failure rates and very ment and the need to obtain PM software that is required. resource loading features as
the training for track- inefficient use of the company’s and maintain a large amount At this stage, a software tool well as detailed performance
ing actual performance versus financial and human resourc- of information on the build- that simulates the project and tracking.
plan, optimise their schedule es. ing for repairs, renovations and the ones that reschedule and
or make efficient use of their Along with the information emergencies. The construction optimise it every time there is Available options
resources. They are regularly management, development industry is becoming a plat- a change is required. Budget Players in the architecture,
surprised by problems that a of design systems is becom- form that provides collabora- is now an important issue in engineering and construc-
bit of data would help them ing an increasingly complicat- tive project management, inte- planning and tracking. At this tion (AEC) industry made an
anticipate. They are unable to ed challenge for architecture, grated design environment and point, software that gives the attempt to implement Product
provide decision-making data landscape and interior design- real-time facility management. capability to budget and sched- Lifecycle Management (PLM),
to executives on ways to finish ers for space utilisation, usage “The concept of project man- ule internal employees as well but there havent been where
the project early or the cost of of advanced materials. Many agement is to ensure that there as external consultants along PLM has been successful. PLM
changes the executives want to builders retain properties and is a higher chance of repeat- with vendors, equipment and tools like Enovia of Dassault
make. As a result, the project lease them out rather than able and predictable results. By travel expenses is required. Systems have been tried for the
can be guided by guesswork. transferring ownership to buy- definition, a project is a unique The software needs to provide AEC industry. But it is quite
endeavour” says Raj Kalady, more sophisticated earned val- unlikely that these will make
MD, Project Management ue reporting, slack and delay their way to capture the AEC
Institute (India). reports for fine tuning as well market as they have matured
as the usual critical path and with inputs from auto and
Managing projects resource level capability. aero industries, and thus have
Smaller Projects: Typically, Multi-project Environment: workflows that are suited for
for smaller projects, project At this level, managers are these industries. In the global
managers plan and schedule managing multiple projects or construction industry Building
with only durations rather than operating in a mature project Information Modelling (BIM)
work estimates and resource organisation where resource is used.
capacity. Due to the size of these utilisation is managed across In the US, almost ten years
projects, Project Managers do all projects and there are exec- ago, there were many BIM-
not really have to track a project utives with accountability for oriented initiatives that were
budget because status reports portfolios of projects. At this spearheaded by governmen-
are limited to completion date point, it is required to consoli- tal agencies like National
tracking. In such cases, there date multiple projects and pro- Institute of Building Sciences,
are many options that will meet vide consistent information so universities and AEC software
these limited needs with Gantt decision makers can prioritise companies like Autodesk and
and PERT charts. At this level projects, allocate resources and Graphisoft. BIM is not limited
where the automation process schedule and track a pool of upto 3D, it is also used as 4D
of laying out plans, preparing people working on multiple and is extended to 5D model-
occasional status reports and projects. Organisation process- ling. BIM architecture provide
producing some simple Gantt es for portfolio management a virtual building development
and PERT charts, the low end and software that can identify platform where the 3D build-
PM software tools cater to the conflicting demands for the ing design is integrated on the
needs. same resources as well as allow schedule of the project with
Larger Projects: As the scale of the executives to set priorities time being the fourth dimen-
projects grows and their impact among projects that require sion and cost being the fifth.
reaches beyond one functional the same resource are required. The 3D model in itself contains
unit, the demand on the Project In this category, users require data about the design aspect.
Manager’s technique grows sophisticated risk assess- Additional data is attached to
page 16-17 Feature.indd 2 7/9/2010 9:23:32 PM

2. CMYK
12 - 18 July | 2010 | Projects Info Project Management Software Feature | 17
"The government should take initiatives in promot-
ing the role of Project Management through IT"
Nishant Kumar Dean, Director - Marketing, Glozon Technologies in an interaction
with Projects Info
Will PM software work well in operate through IT. The gov-
industries such as construc- ernment should take initia-
tion, whose processes are tives in promoting the role of
not necessarily tech-savvy in Project Management through
India? IT while promoting infrastruc-
Definitely, it’s not only ture projects in India.
about being tech savvy or
being aware of technology. It What are the hurdles that you
is about redefining processes, are facing currently? Does
making it more efficient and cost of the package (instal-
error-free with efficient utili- lation and future changes in
sation of resources and teams the organisation) deter cus- The consensus
and developing capabilities tomers? How is the use of technol- of opinion is that the use of soft- to a pro-
to handle more number of Cost is definitely a deter- ogy in managing processes ware solutions is worthwhile cess-based way of working.
projects, all in one go. From rent in making IT an integral in India different from that only in the case of projects with
my experiences I found PM part of infrastructure proj- abroad? a minimum area of 50,000 sq ft.
tools/ERPs are always useful ects in India. However, pro- Indian process manage- Individual units of about 10,000
to enforce standardisation, viding modular solutions as ment and their standardi- sq ft, will not find software solu- Advantages offered
efficient working and defining per client’s requirement, with sations are different from for- tions either cost-effective or
accountability, reducing pro- reduced costs per module is eign construction companies necessary. With regard to task- • The software is developed
cessing time, errors in calcula- working well in Indian con- - Work force management, specific tools, AutoCAD seems to provide project man-
tion and hence adding value ditions. We can also focus material management, supply to be the most commonly used agers with time-saving
to all aspects of construction on providing small need/ chain processes, target setting software among architects. This scheduling and analysis
management. solution based packages and and deadlines, resource map- is specifically used for two and tools as well as archive
retailing of such products on ping and allocations, adjust- three-dimensional design and data for use on future
With the growth in scope of lower scales as well (for Rs. ments and re-targetting are drafting, it allows customisa- projects.
infrastructure projects where 0-100 Crore turnover com- managed differently in India. tion and automation and to top • Scheduling skills include
do you see the construction panies). Mostly companies In India we need more of an it, it is user-friendly. analysis of the critical
software industry headed? below a turnover of Rs 100 IT analytical tool to support Autodesk is useful software path using slack and
The construction software crore do not have a proper construction project where the user can make chang- delay data for optimisa-
industry has picked up gradu- IT department or IT infra- es to one document, which tion of resources to finish
ally but the speed is definitely structure to use such prod- How do you think you are set will be automatically reflected it at the earliest.
slow. The Indian construction ucts, cost being a major factor. to grow by in the next three in other levels. For example if • Project software can be
industry needs to be more Companies with a turnover of years? changes are made in the floor used to identify problems
aware of relevant IT softwares more than Rs 500 crore rely As per the Government’s plan, the elevation, the material early and model alterna-
and services. Acceptance and on big packages like ERPs/ plan of investing Rs 50,000 needed and other parameters tive solutions quickly. All
appreciation of IT in man- SAP and Primeverra. But there crore by 2012 in infrastructure automatically get updated. He of those tasks are best
aging construction and EPC is definitely a market of retail development across India, I doesn’t have to manually go to done with project man-
projects needs to be under- IT products and small pack- see a really good opportunity. each level and make changes. agement software since
stood. It is a specific domain ages to satisfy companies fall- I believe it is just 10 per cent Pune- based Bentley Systems even a small project can
and needs to have more ing between Rs 100-500 crore value of total market available provides Staad.Pro which is waste a considerable
industry experts come up and turnover in the country. for IT in such huge plans. construction software that is amount of a PM’s time
used for total design needs. if those tasks are done
Architects adapt 2D and 3D manually.
the 3D model that helps inte- and ArchiCAD. In India too, India. Asta Power Project is CAD for making layouts and • The value of an archive
grate workflows across all stages BIM has started picking up with professional project manage- plans of which 3D CAD has is that it makes future
of the building lifecycle, start- the presence of global BIM soft- ment software designed to plan grown very popular for inte- estimates much easier
ing from planning. A major- ware companies. The influx of and deliver construction proj- rior designs and walkthroughs and much more accu-
ity of large-scale construction multinational companies will ects on time and within budget. simulation and visualisation. rate. With the appropri-
companies are on a BIM plat- boost BIM usage as they will This tool offers a comprehen- The real challenge in this is to ate project management
form using advanced software. undoubtedly bring in global sive range of project planning, prepare business processes and software, tracking actual
Autodesk Revit is the global practices. resource and cost management workflows and implement them performance in terms
Interactive Multimedia features that are both power- in these tools. So the success of of hours of work and
Technologies (IMT) has ful and easy to use. Material investment and implementa- completion dates builds
Major Players launched a web-based ERP manufacturing companies can tion of these strategies depends a database for estimating
• Autodesk solution eBuild with applica- also use this software. on how well people change their on the next project.
• Bentley Systems tions solely adapted for the real In the project management conventional working mindset.
• Aurigo Software estate and construction market. software, specific parameters
Technologies IMT eBuild can be modularised cover real estate, civil engi-
• INS E-Solutions
• Interactive Multimedia
and each module can be linked
at any time as per customer’s
neering, structural engineering
and architecture, dealing with
Featured companies
Technologies requirement. The software can areas like blueprints and build-
• Graphisoft be used to carry out functions ing codes, while the industry Glozon Technologies
• Nemetschek of release of indent or purchase shares with others such fields
• Tekla
• Construction Computer
order, billing/transactions and
dispatch of material/consign-
as accounting, payrolls, human
resources and overall project
G lozon Technologies is an ISO 9001:2000 company, led by a team
of two IITians with a common goal of networking and database
management through innovative ideas and models. The company
Software ment, etc. Material manufac- management. So then, it is a develops Esticon which is used for construction and EPC world to
• Penta turing companies can also col- given that this is a field that deal with BOQ, definitive and control estimation, status tracking, bid
laborate with real estate and will benefit vastly from the use analysis and evaluation, and reconciliation. It can be integrated with
construction companies using of software solutions. There ERPs and designed to provide reports to check time cost resource.
leader followed by Bentley IMT eBuild as a vendor. are several software solutions The software is built on J2EE, compatible with all databases; web-
microstation V8 XM that is INS E-Solutions offers Asta’s for the construction industry. based, access controlled and automated data backup facilities. The
being used. Nemetschek is the software solutions into the con- Some are suites, incorporat- company has a strong technical team that is conversant with func-
BIM leader in the European struction market in ing solutions for many param- tional areas, solution development and system integration.
market with Vector Works eters, like bidding, equipment
maintenance, cost monitoring, Email: marketing@glozon.com
change orders and invoicing. Website: www.glozon.com
These solutions vary in terms
of complexity, and users have
to decide on one or another
based on needs. According Nissi Infotech
to Nishant Kumar Dean,
Director – Marketing, Glozon N issi Infotech is into development of softwares for the infra,
road, and construction and logistics companies. The company
has an Infraconsoft road and construction management system as
Technolgies, “In India we need
more of an IT analytical tool to a solution for infra companies for tracking and managing inven-
support construction projects. tory and tracking of vehicles of multiple branches remotely. This
Indian Construction companies software also has a vehicle and machinery management module
have to be made aware about that offers host of facilities to solve the problem faced by fleet and
the available packages made heavy vehicle owners having multiple branches. This software is a
in India exclusively for them web based; the management can get the reports from anywhere,
through their understanding anytime of their convenience.
about the Indian processes and Email: sales@nissiinfotech.com
systems and not rely only on Website: www.nissiinfotech.com
big packages.”
page 16-17 Feature.indd 3 7/9/2010 9:23:34 PM