As reported on Reuters.com



Nearly Half of Electrical-Equipment Manufacturers Use 'Gut Feel' for Project Tracking: Cincom Report



CINCINNATI, Oct. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly 50% of electrical-equipment manufacturers use manual tracking and "gut feel" to track project reporting, including project cost and profit. That's 14% more when compared to a composite benchmark of comparable industries.



This is according to a 2009 research report by software maker Cincom Systems  (http://www.cincom.com/erp) based on a national survey to sales and IT executives that sheds light on how these electrical-equipment manufacturing organizations are managing their businesses for increased efficiency and effectiveness.



One of the reasons for the large lack of formal project tracking may be the lack of project-management integration. A full 50% of electrical-equipment manufacturers have no project-management integration with accounting, finance or customer-management systems. This creates a large gap between rapidly advancing manufacturers that are creating profit and loss statements per project and those that lack insight into the profitability by project on an ongoing basis.



"Without integrated project management, the company is blind to projects hemorrhaging quietly in their respective silos and equally unaware when projects are running ahead of schedule and under budget," says Lou Washington,  co-author of the report. "The end result is the same: assets mismanaged and resources wasted."



ERP SYSTEMS CREATE FREQUENT WORKAROUNDS



Most electrical-equipment manufacturers surveyed report that their ERP systems provide valuable information. However, 86% of those surveyed stated their ERP systems also require frequent workarounds and customized data extracts. Slightly less than 50% of the composite benchmark had similar problems.