Project Business Automation Makes Project Modeling Possible

For businesses like ETO manufacturing where highly engineered, one-of-a-kind products are delivered, it’s critical to setup every project for success right from the start.

Oftentimes, project managers and salespeople spend a lot of time and resources building complex and unique project proposals based on guesses, instead of ensuring accuracy through reliable models that are based on best practices. Using a project modeler helps teams generate the right numbers as soon as they engage with prospects.

Project Modeling enables you to improve the process of project inception and implement a solution that not only increases speed and agility, but also makes the best possible process repeatable by everyone. Project Modeling automates the process of parametric estimating for your projects.

This is the fourth blog in the Project Modeling series (see the third blog here). This blog will discuss how Project Business Automation is required for Project Modeling

PBA is Required for Project Modeling to Work

What makes Project Modeling possible is Project Business Automation (PBA). PBA is a business process management software designed specifically for project-based organizations that integrates all core Project Business processes into one, end-to-end system.

Download the Project Business Automation Quick Guide  to learn how PBA creates a streamlined, comprehensive system for companies.

Financial and Operational Integration

Project Modeling constructs a project’s financial and operational components simultaneously. That said, Project Modeling requires the integration of all the cost, pricing, labor and equipment resources, procurement and supply chain, and any other required components of a project. A Project Model must have up-to-date information on all these components to ensure the accuracy of the model’s output.

Typically, this information lives in different point solutions, including the ERP/accounting systems, HR applications, estimating tools, project management applications, and mostly spreadsheets. Without this real time data feeding into the model, it would become useless quickly.

With PBA, the data and management of all these functions are housed in one system that a Project Model can access in real time.

Resource Management

Resource management is a key area that needs to be integrated into a Project Modeler. Labor is the largest part of most projects. However, if labor costs and billable rates had to be keyed into every Project Model, then models would quickly become outdated.

If costs and billable rates change, then you would need to update every single model or modify them once a model is inserted into a project because it will not be correct at that point. This setup would make the modeling approach less efficient and even more laborious.

PBA creates a real-time connection between the resource pools available and the Project Model to ensure its accuracy. There is no need for manual integration.

Procurement and Production

Similar to resource management, procurement and production are connected to Project Models through PBA. This real-time connection ensures that all models are up to date with the latest costs, prices, margins, lead times, and capacity availability. Once a Project Model is configured and inserted into a project, the user can be rest assured that all estimates are accurate.

Integrated is Better and More Efficient

Technically, Project Modeling could be done in a separate system. However, all the information that the models use would have to be imported from different point solutions or recreated in the new system.  Basically, it would create more of a burden than any efficiencies gained. It would exacerbate the problem of disparate systems and data that plague Project Businesses.

Project Modeling as part of your PBA system guarantees accuracy and speed in the project initiation phase, and an easier transition to execution. Project Modeling goes beyond simply creating the project estimations and schedule, it represents an accurate operational plan that a team can execute against.

Download the Project Modeling Whitepaper to learn how to create a streamlined and controlled planning and estimating process for your company.

In our next blog, we will discuss designing project models with PBA.