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Expertech targets construction industry with IPM

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Johannesburg, 12 Aug 2013

Expertech is bringing Australian-developed project management software - IPM - to the South African market.

Speaking at an event in Johannesburg last week, Bernard Ford, CEO of Expertech, an enterprise business software distributor, said the software was initially developed for the construction industry.

He added that SA is a lucrative market for IPM, as R750 billion has been invested in the construction industry. Ford also noted that IPM is presented through Outlook, but managed in an MS.SQL database, and is able to create, store and track all project communications, RFIs, drawings and revisions, meeting minutes, change requests, subcontracts, and purchase orders, to provide a simple but sophisticated project management toolset.

Developed within current Microsoft technology, the IPM range provides users with a familiar and easy-to-use interface, he adds. "Operating from within Outlook, and with the ability to integrate into Microsoft and other enterprise resource planning applications, we believe IPM provides a software solution that understands the needs and habits of today's project management team."

In a presentation during the event, Reef Fielding, technical director at IPM Global, noted that construction software has not evolved as fast as construction technology has. "In the past 10 years, we've had new technologies, but the construction software has not been addressing that.

"People in the construction industry have been struggling to handle and file every piece of information, and this is being badly done," said Fielding.

According to him, project management software must be easy to use, flexible and customisable. "We believe that business today, and in particular, managing projects, involve many modes of communication. An effective project management application needs to be able to manage all those modes of communication effectively and easily."

For Fielding, IPM offers easy access to information due to its simple navigation methodology, and offers lower cost of implementation due to its minimal set-up requirements. He adds that IPM adopted the Microsoft Outlook interface mainly because of the high adoption rate by users and because it is seen as an extension of Outlook.

The Microsoft Dynamics environment, which powers IPM, offers improved communications history around the project documents as a result of the automatic filing process, he said. "The Microsoft Dynamics environment also offers lower cost of ownership resulting from simple processes to customise screens and workflows without [the help of] external consultants."

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