The business of design for engineering and architecture generates revenue and associated profit for the owners of the business by entering into contracts with clients for specified deliverables. Deliverables are the basis for payment and revenue is generated from the cost incurred to produce the deliverables. Developing a robust process that uses the correct business tools to successfully manage the cost and revenue is both paramount and challenging because of changing technology and client expectations. In the year 2000 a visionary information officer of the company initiated a plan to become an information based business by using multiple integrated enterprise databases to minimize duplication of data, facilitate the accuracy and timeliness of information, and reduce the cost of operations. The first component included human resources and payroll. The second piece was accounting which incorporated necessary information from the first component The third leg was the project planning and resource management tool which receives budget and actual cost information from accounting and returns an estimate at completion (EAC) to be used in the revenue recognition process. This paper will describe for a company the background and implementation of the process for project planning and resource management, share the results of the implementation and provide insights that could be used on future implementations. Any references to the process are specific to the operations of the company.
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