According to a study released by IFS, for the engineer to order provider traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) software does not meet the needs of project-driven companies. Further, project ERP is essential for various industries including engineering, procurement, and construction contractors; engineer to order manufacturers; and process manufacturers.
"Engineer to order manufacturers and engineering, procurement, and construction contractors all have an obvious need for excellent project management functionality," said Steve Andrew, IFS North America vice president of Marketing, in a statement.
The survey involved over 200 executives within industrial and manufacturing companies in North America. Most of them, who are involved with engineering, fabricating or managing highly engineered products or assets, believe that running traditional ERP will suffice, Andrew further added.
Yet, according to IFS study, traditional products will not work successfully as they focus only on products, not the types of projects associated with something like engineering or constructing a processing plant or asset lifecycle management processes like maintenance, plant shut downs and lifecycle extensions.
IFS Applications, featuring an embedded project management functionality, are an ideal choice for all types of companies including those in complex industries that require custom software to manage the complexities arising from projects.
According to findings, while projects are a necessity for 85 percent of respondents, 39 percent have no integration between their project management software and enterprise system.The survey has also identified risk management as one of the major gaps left open by existing ERP solutions used by project-intensive companies. The ability to control processes in real-time correlates directly with much better integration between project management functionality and ERP.
In other company news, IFS, which has deep roots in the engineer to order market, was recently selected by Merrill Technologies Group (MTG) to power its new enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.
Edited by Jamie Epstein