SAP-Centric Projects

In the context of the "owner" function of enterprise project management, it actually is misleading to label 'best-of-breed' project management software as "Enterprise" (like Primavera Enterprise or Microsoft Enterprise Project Management). In the big picture, they are mere niche solutions for almost all business situations. Only SAP or similar systems that cover comprehensively all core business functions are true enterprise systems. These often is seen when looking at financial aspects, but also going beyond such. For example:

• Expenditures on projects in SAP will immediately hit the P&L or balance sheet;
• Elaborate warehousing, purchasing and materials requirements planning (MRP) functions allow to coordinate operational and project-specific requirements;
• Sales-related billings can be triggered by PS milestones; and
• Top-down budgeting as performed in the SAP IM module allows to integrate project controls functions into the complete ecosystem of corporate decision making.