SAP-Centric Projects

The owner of the project level is the "project" owner as opposed to the "program" owner whose asset or product is being built (or asset is being maintained). This project owner often is the general contractor (GC), but it may also be an internal project controls department or project management organization (PMO).  

The viewpoints, functions and responsibilities of project owners or general contractors are different to program or asset owners. Their concern is much more on the scheduling aspects, progress reporting and management, and simply said getting the project deliverables completed. This also means that their design requirements are different.

If you are the general contractor using SAP to manage capital investment or turnaround projects then your viewpoint is essentially one similar to Make-to-Order projects (see below more information about using SAP and Primavera for Make-to-Order projects, and about our solutions for such organizations). On the other hand, if you are the program owner hiring a general contractor and if your system of record is SAP you the following questions are just some of the critical ones to answer:

 1.    Do you require the general contractor to work in your SAP system or do you let them use their own project management system?

2.    How do you reconcile purchasing documents (GC invoices) with tracking progress of the project itself? How are actuals channeled down to the level at which the GC operates?

3.    Where do you draw the line between the responsibility of the GC and the overall Owner?

4.    If you let the GC use their own system, what exact data do you require to ensure sufficient overall controls on the Owner level?

5. What exact integration requirements do you have?