A Project Management, Costing and Controlling System for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

摘要

With growing popularity of Project Management there have been an increasing number of software products, claiming they qualify as all-inclusive project management tools [Frit00]. Turning to the web, one realises that there seems to be a perception on what project management should be. However when we focus on a business that entirely works project oriented and therefore aims at a piece of software to assist with the organisation of projects and the business as a whole, there do not seem to be a lot of tools available in the marketplace. This is even more so if we look at the demands of Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) [Gray00]. As we got involved in a project concerned with the introduction of project management in SMEs, especially German trade businesses, we found there is an increasing demand for information technology (IT) support covering all aspects of the business [Hand01] thus requiring us to analyse business processes. The method adopted for calculating cost is the rule of thumb for most of the time, while, if ex post calculation existed, it could hardly be described as satisfactory because it only exists with an aim to account for the profitability of a project [Frau01]. Other findings are not realised and therefore do not enter into future calculations. In addition to that the crucial task of providing customer quotes creates a state of panic because there is usually no - up to date - data available and therefore it creates a repeatingly overwhelming effort. The impact this practice has on businesses and also on customer satisfaction can only be speculated on but is sure to be of financial relevance.