BaaN Projects for Civil Construction Industries:

After implementing BaaN Projects, Here is small note on that.

BaaN Projects Functionality takes care of almost all of the functionalities of Civil Construction Industry. In fact, we felt every Module in that is meant for Construction Industry itself.

Few Good ones are Budgetting and Control,
1. From a Single Budget - ELEMENT BUDGET, one can derive ACTIVITY BUDGET & COST COMPONENT BUDGET and also Control the Project by ELEMENT, ACTIVITY and COST COMPONENT.
This infact helps very much for Project Control by different Roles.

For Senior Management - Project Control by COST COMPONENT
For Quantity Surveyors - Project Control by ELEMENT
For Planning Engineers - Project Control by ACTIVITY.

2. The Project Planning Board might not be as flexible as Primavera but scores a point over Primavera in Network planning (critical Path Analysis).

There are many other points to note the good ones, But Let me also tell U few drawbacks.
1.The Invoicing Module needs extensive Custmoization.
2.The Parameter Project Budget/Project Control in Maintain Projects does'nt allow U have Project Control by ACTIVITY and also PROGRESSIVE INVOICING. This is the major drawback of BaaN as a Solution for Construction Industry. I am not aware whether BaaN has taken care of it in BaaN V OR...

Well, seeing most of the Construction Industry Clients going for JDEdwards ( may be agrresive marketting), As BaaNits we can very well recommend for BaaN as a Tailor made ERP for Construction Industry.

The above are few points for BaaN - Civil Construction Industry

Best Wishes
Sridhar Joshi

Hi:

We are very interested in implementing Baan for a construction company here in Latin America.
In which country did you implemented the solution. How long did it take. How large is the construction company ?

Regards

Hi,

Pl find below answers for UR querries.

1. We implemented BaaN for a Construction Industry in Middle East (UAE).

2. It took us nearly 8 months (but Clients involvement is a key factor in implementing BaaN in less or more than 8 months).

3. The Company'S turnover is around 200 Million US$

4. It manages around 20-25 Projects at a time.

If U have any further querries Pl feel free to mail me.

Best Wishes
Sridhar Joshi

Over and above the standard product, there is a construction specific version based on Baan IVb and c that has a lot of customers in the Netherlands and surrounding areas. I don't know its present status, because it was part of the BBS/VBS stable, and briefly was its own company BBCS (Baan Brothers Construction Systems). I know there were a lot of enhancements, particularly in generating subcontract orders for work packages. It only used Element Budgets, but did have installment invoicing. I have seeen it integrated to PowerProject - a PM package commonly used in UK construction, which worked in a similar manner to MS project integration in Baan ERP. One problem that is likely to be encountered is that almost every country has different regulations to ensure that self-employed construction workers actually pay tax, so the first implementation in any country will take a customisation hit to cope with this.

Jeff,

Do you know of any out-of-the-box package in the UK that interfaces with BAAN Project and deals with a correct way of:

- handling subcontracting without invoicing?
- cost based revenue recognition?

I liked your final comment and agree with you there. However, I believe BAAN Project is a very good fit for construction companies all over the world and not just The Netherlands.

Regards,

Edwin

Hi Edwin

I know that VBS contracted Origin to provide a UK solution for subcontractors. This included recognition of subcontractor status, and provided for a schedule of expected payments. claim processing, retentions and tax handling. Not quite out of the box, but it probably still exists on a system somewhere!

In terms of revenue recognition, the construction project I worked on used milestone achievement as a trigger for revenue rather than recorded progress, absorbed costs or earned value. I suspect that the A&D version has rather stronger functionality for claiming installment payments on the basis of work done than does the construction variant.

I agree that the Project package, with or without the Construction add-on, offers a sound platform for construction opportunities. I've even noticed the 'c word' reappearing on Baan.com recently!

Regards

Jeff