An investment in project management software can be a very big decision and one that is usually well researched and not to be taken lightly. Apart from the obvious consideration of the price, many other factors have to be taken into account to ensure you end up with the right software for the job. So to make the decision easier, I’m posting the following list of 9 reasons why IPM is the project management software for you.
1. IPM is built for project managers
IPM was developed and designed with project managers in mind – it is not an accounting system with some project management aspects built into it. The developers of IPM have over 20 years experience in the construction industry and understand what project managers need out of their software.
2. IPM is user friendly
IPM can be used from within Microsoft Outlook, which makes it one of the most user friendly project management solutions around. Most project managers are already familiar with the Outlook environment and use it on a daily basis, so by accessing all the project related information from here, IPM helps increase user adoption and saves time transferring communication and documents from one application to another.
3. Efficient Document Control
Managing all the documents related to a job can be difficult if you have multiple people all working on separate spreadsheets or documents. But with IPM you can create, track and store all of the documents relating to your project in the one place. You are not limited in your document choices either, with the ability to create many documents such as RFIs, RFQs, Meeting Minutes, Site Diaries, Extensions of Time, Defects, Subcontracts, Change Orders/Variations, Progress Bills, Timesheets and more.
4. Email tracking
Do you hate spending hours searching through your inbox to find an email you need to forward to someone, or sorting each of your emails from contacts on a job into their respective folders? This process is easy with IPM, which if used within Outlook, can automatically generate a tracking number in the subject line for each email you send out. This tracking number will then be used to automatically store all of your emails and any replies against transactions in the job in IPM.
5. Extensive Reporting Abilities
As IPM was developed with an understanding of both the construction industry and its accounting processes, our reporting tools can give you all the information you really need. Unlike other project management solutions that report on only document control, we can report on costs as well.
6. Ability to Customise
We understand that no two organisations’ processes and procedures are the same, and therefore the software they use shouldn’t be either. We use the customising abilities of the CRM framework to tweak our software to fit the needs of each organisation we provide IPM to. This means you can change labels on a form to suit your organisation’s terminology, or remove fields you don’t need.
7. Workflows
Workflows can be created by each user to fit your individual document processes. With workflows, tasks such as turning an RFQ into a subcontract, or generating a change order once a change request is approved are as simple as clicking a button. How you decide to use workflows is up to you, for example you may choose to generate an outlook task or an email to alert you of cost overruns.
8. Job Planning and Forecasting
With our planning and forecasting section you can manage and display live scheduling information in an interactive Gantt chart, access budget data, cash flow and costs information for each job task and add detailed forecast to complete information.
9. ERP Integration
IPM can have ERP integration with Microsoft Dynamics Nav, Microsoft Dynamics AX, Sage Timberline Office or SAP B1. This means accounting and project information can be quickly and easily synced between both applications, saving time and letting your project managers do what they do best, run the project. If you are already using one of these ERP systems it also means you don’t need to change your financial system to use IPM.
If you want even more reasons why IPM is the software for you, please don’t hesitate to contact us to arrange a free demo.