Project ERP

A project ERP organizes a company's operational and financial records around projects rather than products. The central object is the project, carrying its quoted effort, its recorded hours, its costs and its invoices, so that profitability can be read per project rather than only per period.

How does a project ERP differ from a classic ERP?

The central object. A classic ERP tracks items moving through purchase, stock and sale. A project ERP tracks effort moving from quote through delivery to invoice. The accounting is similar; what is attached to it is not. Because the project carries its quoted effort, hours, costs and invoices, profitability can be read per project rather than only per period.

What do agency, service and financial variants refer to?

The same idea described for different buyers. An agency ERP emphasizes campaigns, retainers and external costs, a service ERP emphasizes mandates and utilization, a financial ERP emphasizes accounting depth. Underneath, each is a project ERP with a different emphasis. In each case the central object is the project rather than the product.

What does a project ERP have to get right?

Three connections: the quote to the plan, the plan to the recorded hours, and the recorded hours to the invoice. If any one of them is manual, the figures stop being current and the system becomes a place to file results rather than to steer by them.

Who needs one?

Companies whose revenue comes from projects rather than products: consultancies, agencies, software and engineering firms, planning offices, production companies and technical service providers. They need profitability per project rather than only per period, which requires one record carrying the quoted effort, the recorded hours, the costs and the invoices.

troi is a project ERP with PSA capability built in. See all features.