EPC and EPCM systems are becoming so widespread these days that its hard to imagine a successful project being completed without one. But what would be the right kind of system to invest in? Today I’ll discuss how and why you should assess the benefits of an engineering procurement construction software.

First let’s consider what would be the hallmarks of a ‘successful’ project. The broadest success criteria would of course be cost, time, and quality; was the work completed on time and on budget, and was everything done as per the agreed-upon quality requirements. At the other end of the scale, every organisation has its own detailed criteria for what they consider a successful and/or profitable project and what kind of project they would like to do more of. So while its impossible to come up with a one-size-fits all definition, its fair to say that there are a few ground rules to be kept in mind when deciding how a project “performed”. One thing common to all success criteria is the underlying digital/It infrastructure – it can make or break the outcome and the engineering procurement construction software is the cornerstone of that infrastructure.

What does an effective engineering procurement software do? It ensures that:

• An officially approved As-Built Project Master Schedule was published.
• There was agreement between all relevant parties about Contract Issues like Delay and Disruption Claims, Change Order Costs, etc.
• All Contracts were properly closed out.
• As-built documentation was handed over.
• Lessons learned during the project were captured and archived (for future reuse).
• Performance of Project controls vs Agreed metrics was analysed and submitted.
• The project’s overall performance was properly measured and documented, preferably with the help of an outside consultant.
• There was sufficient Vendor Testing and vendor documentation was managed properly.
• The project leadership’s performance was monitored and documented in a way that will help the company provide improve future performance, and will help management give feedback to the rest of the team.
• Any unused material or components was correctly disposed of.
• The project’s accounting and financial documents were correctly maintained and recorded into a digital system.
• There was a Project Investment Appraisal (PIA) report or its equivalent created and filed. This report contains information about all the costs and spends that occurred during the project including all equipment, materials, contracts, etc. This will help the company calculate the project ROI more effectively.

A well-configured EPCM system will help companies accomplish all the above and will therefore significantly lower costs and effort.

Now let’s break down where your engineering procurement construction system should be utilised for it to make the most impact:

First, in the Integration of stakeholders ie helping your project stakeholders interact with each other via an integrated platform or communications portal. This level of integration is a vital aspect of modern project management and can significantly affect the project’s outcome.

Next is cost, which leads immediately to human resources which are the biggest chunk of costs. A good engineering procurement software will be invaluable in helping you plan and optimise the way those resource manhours are allocated, deployed, and monitored.

Then there’s ‘scope’. Here, a digital system makes a tremendous impact as it can digitally record all schedules and agreements and ensure the scope is clearly defined, understood, and agreed upon by all relevant parties – which in turn will ensure that everybody is working on the same page for the duration of the project.

Next we have quality, usually considered one of the three legs of the famous Cost-Time-Quality tripod and almost impossible to achieve without a digital engineering procurement construction software. Suffice it to say, a modern digital system makes quality almost a ‘given’.

Then come procurement, risk management (including HSE), communications, and so on, all of which are tangibly and significantly affected by the adoption of a digital EPCM system.

In summary, to better understand what to look for in your EPCM, consider this example: you have a Project Director who works directly under the owner. Under this senior management  exists a hierarchy of managers, all of whom need to be managed and monitored, which is very difficult to pull off without a digital EPCM. Plus, if there is a PMC involved, the system becomes an absolute necessity. Now consider the entire portfolio of projects a company has going at any given time and clearly, the engineering procurement construction software has to be able to support all the roles across all the projects across PMC, Director, Owners, and everyone reporting to them, meaning, it should be able to keep track of all the activities across Pre-FEED, FEED, EPC Execution Phase, Project Handover, and Project Close-Out while capturing all the requisite documentation along the way.