85% of manufacturers need project ERP but few have it, study says

Traditional Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is not meeting all the needs of project-driven companies, says a new study from IFS, the global enterprise software company.

According to the study results, project-driven industries with the most pressing needs for project ERP include engineering, procurement, and construction contractors, engineer-to-order manufacturers and process manufacturers.

Among the key findings:

· While projects are a necessity for 85 per cent of respondents, 39 per cent have no integration between their project management software and enterprise system.
· The ability to control processes in realtime correlates directly with better integration between project management functionality and ERP. The best results are from running an ERP application with embedded project management functionality.
· Risk management is one of the major gaps left by existing ERP solutions used by project-intensive companies.

“Engineer to order manufacturers and engineering, procurement, and construction contractors all have an obvious need for excellent project management functionality,” IFS North America vice president of marketing Steve Andrew said in a statement.

The study is based on a survey of more than 200 executives with industrial and manufacturing companies in North America. Results were reviewed and interpreted by Cindy Jutras, principal analyst, Mint Jutras of Boston.

The study is available for free download at: http://download.ifsworld.com/studies.