Semane

The Bottom Line

Consulting purchased ProMan in 2003 to replace a “patchwork” in-house system consisting of Microsoft Word and Excel and a generic accounting package. A swift return on investment was achieved by having the basic system up and running in the shortest time. Further “on the go” functionalities were added consistent with achieving user acceptance and as client priorities dictated.

Background

Semane Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd is an independent, owner-managed South African engineering consulting company with a significant black management shareholding. Semane specialises in EPCM, multi-disciplinary engineering consulting, and project management. Whilst rooted in the mining industry and heavy industrial sectors, the company has expanded its capabilities to meet its clients’ diverse
service requirements.

Historically the company used a mix of Pastel, Excel spreadsheets (in which timesheets were captured) and invoices created. Many “on request” analyses and reports had to be manually prepared with management reports being re-typed in Excel. Such a patchwork system resulted in unreliable project costing and there was a clear need for an integrated solution.

“Our advice would be – get the basic system running quickly, then apply additional facilities “on the go”. In Semane’s case, it meant no extra capital costs or additional training and minimal interruption of operations. It also minimised user resistance and enabled us to select our own order of implementation.”

ProMan – The Lo(gi)cal solution

As a locally developed and supported project financial solution based on SA industry practices, ProMan was the logical choice.

Akron Software also offered quick turnaround times on issues and requests and had an established, extensive client base.

“Akron’s experience with implementations eliminated the need for parallel runs, whilst offering a manageable system changeover with full training support.”

According to Semane’s Gerhard de Klerk the most important lesson was that for the implementation to be a success, it had to be planned as a process and not as a one off ‘big bang’.

“On the Go” Functionality added by Semane

From Manual cheques No Debtors statements Manual plot/print logging Manual staff refunds Manual payment demands Limited budgeting Manual CVs

To Full Payment Runs Bulk Emailed PDF statements ProTrack (automatic) Automated via Creditors Outstanding debtors letters Full forecast to completion functionality ProMan system generated CVs

Gerhard de Klerk added that the small things that ProMan delivers can make a big difference to managing business success. These include: mileage claims via timesheets, with automatic regular refunding, the ability for each timesheet user to view his or her leave and claims, on-line debtors status for project managers and even built in BBBEE reporting on suppliers.

Semane project for Foskor

About Proman

ProMan is South Africa’s leading integrated project and financial management software for Consulting Engineering firms and other enterprises, such as audit firms, critically dependent on time and disbursements for their income stream. Originally developed in the 1980s, the current version runs on Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7. It uses the popular Microsoft SQL Server relational database.

As well as Southern Africa, the system is also used in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Australia, the Far East and China.

ProMan’s proven track record among Consulting Engineering practices is due to the following key advantages:

• ProMan is the industry standard solution for managing the complete Project Financial Management lifecycle.

• ProMan is cost-effective for any size of firm – from a single PC based system to a multi-tier, multi-branch, multi-national, multi-currency enterprise wide information environment.
• ProMan’s real time menu driven and graphical reports enable Project Management as well as Financial Personnel to rapidly assimilate key trends and to highlight key issues for action.
• Unlike comparable ERP systems, ProMan is rapidly implemented in a matter of weeks rather than months or years showing firms a rapid rate of return on their system investment.
• Akron Software continues to develop innovative, industry-specific modules for ProMan. These include ProTrack (automatic tracking and allocation of all printing and plotting costs to projects), CV and Project Information Sheets, Purchase Orders and ProDraw Drawing Management (integrated drawing register and secure drawing file management).

Akron Software

Akron Software (Pty) Ltd, which develops, markets and supports ProMan is a wholly owned South African application software company. Its head office is in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Take the first step towards streamlined project management with ProMan.