ERP-Services-Industry_RFP-template

Technology Evaluation Centers Inc. Request for Information/Proposal Requirements Research Instructions Rating Legend Format Response Explanation ● The top of the RFI tab contains six response columns. SUP Supported as delivered "out-of-the-box" ● TEC analysts developed the RFI based on past experience and research into the widest and deepest range of possible requirements. MOD Supported via modifications (screen configurations, reports, GUI tailoring, etc) 3RD Supported via a third party solution CST Supported via customization (changes to source code) FUT Will be supported in a future release NS Not supported Priority 0 to 10, where 10 is most important Mandatory Yes, only for "must-have" factors Note this file contains multiple sheets (tabs). This sheet contains instructions only. Click the tabs at the bottom of the window to access the criteria. RFI Example Vendor Responses Hierarchy Criterion ● Complete the RFI worksheet by placing an X in the appropriate column for each criterion. 1 Module 1 ● The Xs must represent the current state of a product or service. 1.1 Category of Module 1 1.1.1 Subcategory of Category 1 1.1.1.1 Criterion 1 1.1.1.2 Criterion 2 1.1.1.3 Criterion 3 1.1.1.4 Criterion 4 1.1.1.5 Criterion 5 1.1.1.6 Criterion 6 © Technology Evaluation Centers Inc. 2007. This document may only be used for internal purposes. Reproduction and Priorities Must Have = 10 Very Important = 8 Important = 6 Nice to Have = 4 Not Important = 2 No Need = 0Don't forget to indicate your priorities and mandatory requirements for modules, categories, subcategories, and criteria. RFI Example Priority (0-10) Mandatory (Y/N) SUP MOD 3RD CST FUT NS 8 N 4 N 10 N 1 N X 6 Y X 4 N X 10 N X 8 N X 8 Y X internal purposes. Reproduction and redistribution are strictly prohibited. User Responses ● Use the Priority column to indicate how important a particular criterion or entire group of criteria (module or category) is for your organization. ● The Mandatory column is useful for indicating absolute requirements. Note that a "Yes" would mean a vendor/provider fails if it does not support that criterion or group of criteria. It is often useful to use "No" as the general default response and only change to a "Yes" for an absolutely critical item. Technology Evaluation Centers Inc. ERP for the Services Industry Criteria Worksheet Hierarchy Criterion Priority (0-10) Mandatory (Y/N) SUP MOD 3RD CST 1 Portfolio and Project Management 1.1 Portfolio Management 1.1.1 General 1.1.1.1 Cross-project management and portfolio capability 1.1.1.2 Organization of many projects in one central place on the Web 1.1.1.3 Management of an unlimited number of projects within an organization 1.1.1.4 Creation, deletion, and viewing of projects 1.1.1.5 Real time status of projects 1.1.1.6 Alignment of current and future projects with business strategies 1.1.1.7 Capture of all work details, whether simple or complex 1.1.1.8 Ability for users to be assigned to several projects and to have different access rights depending on the project 1.1.1.9 Ability for users to simultaneously and effortlessly consult and make changes to tasks in their project 1.1.1.10 Management of entire project lifecycles and logistics by facilitating collaboration in distributed teams 1.1.1.11 Graphic review and management of the progress of a portfolio of projects 1.1.1.12 Scheduling and multiproject management 1.1.1.13 Wizard-based cross-project reporting 1.1.1.14 Sub-project nesting for collaborative project hierarchal management1.1.1.15 Sub-project nesting for infinite projects 1.1.1.16 Prioritization for cross-project portfolio viewing and goals indexing 1.1.1.17 Viewing of grouping and visualization of priority and status of cross-project information 1.1.1.18 Individualized and current task lists accross multiple projects 1.1.1.19 Polling, project homepages, news bulletins, and other feeds 1.1.1.20 Multiproject integrated components 1.1.1.21 Fully customizable inter-project links 1.1.1.22 Ability to draw information from multiple "child portfolios" in different domains in order to provide overarching governance 1.1.1.23 Dependency links between investments and across portfolios 1.1.1.24 Metric, indicator, and cost calculations that include or exclude dependencies 1.1.2 Project Analysis This category contains 13 criteria below it. 1.1.3 Business Intelligence This category contains 6 criteria below it. 1.1.4 Analytics This category contains 6 criteria below it. 1.2 Project Management This category contains 318 criteria below it.1.3 Demand Management This category contains 6 criteria below it. 1.4 Process Management This category contains 27 criteria below it. 1.5 Workflow Management This category contains 16 criteria below it. 1.6 Risk Management This category contains 17 criteria below it. 1.7 Earned Value Management This category contains 20 criteria below it. 1.8 Idea Management This category contains 13 criteria below it. 2 Resource Planning and Scheduling 2.1 Resource Allocation 2.1.1 Management of task assignments, resource availability, roles, and rates2.1.2 Resource profiles that include skill levels, certifications, training, education, and travel in order to find the right person for the job 2.1.3 Resource planning across both internal and external users 2.1.4 Skill-based and availability-based resource location 2.1.5 CV and resume storage 2.1.6 Resource skill searching 2.1.7 Optimization of resource use across multiple projects 2.1.8 Identification of redundant resources 2.1.9 Assignment of resources in multiple jobs 2.1.10 Employee timesheet tracking, including project manager approval 2.1.11 Task lists for every single team member that show their assigned tasks 2.1.12 Multiple resource allocation to tasks 2.1.13 Ability to find resources based on skills and availability 2.1.14 Ability to view resource over-and under-utilization across projects 2.1.15 Drill down graphical reports 2.1.16 Resource booking and allocation to projects 2.1.17 Resource loading and allocation reporting 2.1.18 Cross-project resource allocation 2.1.19 Recording and incorporation of planned absences and sickness into schedules 2.1.20 Configurable look-ups for resource profiles 2.1.21 Resource allocation and tracking at the project and company levels 2.1.22 Resource replacements 2.1.23 Integrated resource scheduling 2.1.24 Milestones 2.1.25 Resource histograms 2.1.26 Resource scheduling and leveling for time-limited or resource-limited schedules 2.1.27 Resource breakdown structures for resource organization by department, pool, or skill 2.1.28 Option to assign resources automatically based on the availability and the definition of pool or skill required 2.1.29 User-defined priority rules 2.1.30 Ability to handle normal, consumable, and perishable resources 2.1.31 Non-human resource time and allocation management 2.1.32 Multiple user-definable sort and view options 2.1.33 Ability to load the timesheet with allocated activities 2.1.34 Global time reporting per period 2.1.35 Group allocation of multiple resources2.2 Multiple User Management This category contains 10 criteria below it. 2.3 E-mail Notification This category contains 6 criteria below it. 2.4 Message Board This category contains 6 criteria below it. 2.5 Chat Room and Discussion Forum This category contains 5 criteria below it. 2.6 Contacts This category contains 3 criteria below it. 2.7 Users Preferences This category contains 12 criteria below it. 3 Opportunity, Contact, and Contract Management 3.1 Customer Service and Support 3.1.1 Creating New Cases (Service Requests) 3.1.1.1 Pre-configured case (service request) homepage and data records 3.1.1.2 Quick access to recently created, modified, or viewed case records3.1.1.3 Pre-configured case list views (case record subsets based on user-definable filter variables) 3.1.1.4 Multiple case data record layouts that can be defined to handle cases and service requests with different processes and data needs 3.1.1.5 Availability of a workflow engine to help implement best practice case management activities 3.1.1.6 Mass e-mail function that can be used to send out responses to many people encountering the same problem 3.1.1.7 Association (hyperlinking) of solution records with case records 3.1.1.8 Association (hyperlinking) of both open and closed customer service and support activities with case records 3.1.1.9 Input of both comment and note records into case records 3.1.1.10 Ability to either keep private or make publicly available (via the customer self-service portal) both comments and notes 3.1.1.11 Association (hyperlinking) of documents and files with case records 3.1.1.12 Predesigned customer self-service portal that allows customers to find their own solutions using the published knowledge base 3.1.1.13 Predesigned customer self-service portal that allows customers to find their own solutions to request services and support over the Web 3.1.1.14 Ability for customers to create new case records directly from a form on the company's web site 3.1.1.15 Creation of new case records directly from the contents of MS Outlook e-mails sent by customers 3.1.1.16 Automatic dispatch of a confirmation e-mail to the customer if and when a new case record is created via customer input (using a Web form or a self-service portal) 3.1.1.17 Configurable case status data field that is used to track the status of each case (e.g., new, escalated, on-hold, closed, etc.) 3.1.1.18 Automatic creation (and association with the case) of a history record of the change when a case record is created or updated 3.1.1.19 Automatic availability to customers of new case records and their status via a customer self-service portal 3.1.1.20 Variety of predesigned case management reports that are available for immediate use 3.1.1.21 Predesigned case-related analytics (charts and graphs) that are available for display on dashboards and reports 3.1.2 Assigning CasesThis category contains 7 criteria below it. 3.1.3 Escalating Unresolved Cases This category contains 4 criteria below it. 3.1.4 Solving and Closing Cases This category contains 5 criteria below it. 3.1.5 Creating and Maintaining a Solutions Knowledge Base This category contains 7 criteria below it. 3.1.6 Customer Self-service Web This category contains 13 criteria below it. 3.2 Marketing Automation This category contains 32 criteria below it. 3.3 Sales Management This category contains 147 criteria below it. 3.4 Contract Management and Creation This category contains 23 criteria below it. 3.5 Partner Management This category contains 14 criteria below it. 3.6 Account and Contact Management This category contains 47 criteria below it. 4 Time and Expense Management4.1 Time Management 4.1.1 Timesheet Data Capture 4.1.1.1 Web-based timesheet 4.1.1.2 Multiple detailed and summary timesheet views 4.1.1.3 Off-line timesheet entry 4.1.1.4 Estimation of project timelines 4.1.1.5 Vacation, time-off, overtime, and sick days tracking 4.1.1.6 Tracking of time with a stop watch feature 4.1.1.7 Tracking of an unlimited amount of projects, clients, and employees 4.1.1.8 Ability to attach and append notes to the timesheet 4.1.1.9 Tracking of tasks with WBS code 4.1.1.10 Display of tasks with Gantt Bar 4.1.1.11 Roll up view of tasks 4.1.1.12 Absence and accrual tracking 4.1.1.13 Custom fields 4.1.1.14 Ability to enter time via wireless devices 4.1.1.15 Ability to set user preferences 4.1.1.16 Ability to search timesheets 4.1.1.17 Timesheet templates 4.1.1.18 Retroactive timesheet changes 4.1.1.19 Definition of shifts and work plans 4.1.1.20 Multi-organizational support 4.1.1.21 Configuration of layout and approval process security roles 4.1.1.22 Accurate tracking of project and non-project time 4.1.1.23 Tracking of time at the task and resource levels 4.1.1.24 Electronic timeclocks as entry devices 4.1.1.25 Reallocation by approvers of hours between tasks 4.1.1.26 Real time validation of entered data 4.1.1.27 Tracking of time against company tasks, project nonplaanne tasks, and project planned tasks 4.1.1.28 Ability for employees to designate hours by task within the WBS framework for project-based tasks 4.1.1.29 Web page entry or thin client for remote employees 4.1.1.30 Automatic updating of schedules, costs, and billing information 4.1.1.31 Export of data to third party applications 4.1.1.32 Ability to lock timesheet periods 4.1.1.33 Tracking of non-project activities 4.1.1.34 Zoom in and out feature 4.1.1.35 Audit trail system that tracks all changes to timesheets 4.1.1.36 Control over who has access to projects by WBS4.1.1.37 Ability for users to create and manage their own lists of frequently used projects 4.1.1.38 Default timesheet that can automatically default user to preferred projects 4.1.1.39 Proration of hours to compress and allocate total actual hours recorded by employees down to standard hours 4.1.1.40 Point-and-click and ad hoc business rules customization 4.1.2 Approval and Monitoring This category contains 18 criteria below it. 4.2 Expense Management This category contains 68 criteria below it. 5 Financial Management, Budgeting, Costing, and Billing 5.1 Budgeting and Transactions 5.1.1 Association of project budgets to multiple clients or departments 5.1.2 Tracking and support of multiple currencies 5.1.3 Flexible transaction controls for expenditures and resources 5.1.4 Summary and detailed budget capabilities 5.1.5 Budgetary controls that verify available project funds 5.1.6 Ability to enforce hard or soft controls 5.1.7 Tracking and management of project expenses and analysis of budget data 5.1.8 Tracking of expenses on projects and cross-projects using customizable categories and estimated versus actual costs 5.1.9 Analysis of budget to actual on a annual level 5.1.10 At-a-glance view of if the project is on time and on budget 5.1.11 Real time tracking of project estimates and actuals 5.1.12 Planned value and earned value calculations based on project work 5.1.13 Integration with chart of accounts data 5.1.14 Deadline date for the completion of all financial transactions and closing of financial accounts 5.1.15 Compliance with all applicable funding source requirements for financial reporting 5.1.16 Checklists for financial closure5.2 Project Billing This category contains 22 criteria below it. 5.3 Invoice Generation This category contains 5 criteria below it. 5.4 Project Costing This category contains 30 criteria below it. 5.5 Capital Assets This category contains 4 criteria below it. 5.6 Resource Sharing This category contains 4 criteria below it. 6 Knowledge Management, Collaboration, and Analysis 6.1 Business Intelligence and Reporting 6.1.1 Reporting 6.1.1.1 Types of Reports 6.1.1.1.1 Generation of project level or task level reports 6.1.1.1.2 Cross-project reporting 6.1.1.1.3 Ad hoc reporting 6.1.1.1.4 Project status reporting 6.1.1.1.5 Project performance reporting 6.1.1.1.6 Project P&L reporting 6.1.1.1.7 Earned value reporting 6.1.1.1.8 Cost analysis reporting 6.1.1.1.9 Real time project status reporting 6.1.1.1.10 Customized portfolio reporting 6.1.1.1.11 Customizable, predefined reports 6.1.1.1.12 Summary reports for resource allocation and status6.1.1.1.13 Instant reports on account information, project schedules, status and assignments, service desk tickets, time and expenses, and performance against budget 6.1.1.1.14 Statistical reports for business leaders or decision makers 6.1.1.1.15 Status reports for project managers showing completed tasks, incomplete tasks, overview, date, description, and user 6.1.1.1.16 Creation of public reports that can be shared with other team members 6.1.1.1.17 Resource loading reports 6.1.1.1.18 Analytical reporting 6.1.1.1.19 All scope changes request reports 6.1.1.1.20 All approved scope changes reports 6.1.1.1.21 Scope changes awaiting approval reports 6.1.1.1.22 Scope changes rejected reports 6.1.1.1.23 All change management request reports 6.1.1.1.24 All change management approval reports 6.1.1.2 Report Features This category contains 24 criteria below it. 6.1.2 Dashboards and Analytics This category contains 16 criteria below it. 6.1.3 Views This category contains 16 criteria below it. 6.1.4 Charts This category contains 9 criteria below it. 6.1.5 Gantt Chart Reports This category contains 18 criteria below it. 6.1.6 Portals This category contains 7 criteria below it.6.1.7 Printing This category contains 7 criteria below it. 6.1.8 Search This category contains 5 criteria below it. 6.1.9 Calendar This category contains 14 criteria below it. 6.1.10 Reporting Types This category contains 8 criteria below it. 6.1.11 Performance Analysis This category contains 5 criteria below it. 6.2 Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance This category contains 15 criteria below it. 6.3 Document and Records Management This category contains 305 criteria below it. 7 Third Party Integration 7.1 Project Management Application 7.1.1 Integration with Microsoft Project 98, 2000, and 20037.1.2 Updating of either approved or all task hours in Microsoft Project 7.1.3 Updating of task hours within a date range or the project's start and end dates in Microsoft Project 7.1.4 Updating of project or task information in Microsoft Project 7.1.5 Updating of project resource task assignments in Microsoft Project 7.1.6 Updating of project resources in Microsoft Project when creating new users in time sheet if users do not exist 7.1.7 Updating of resource pool in Microsoft Project from timesheet users 7.1.8 Bi-directional flexible field mapping options 7.1.9 Updating project resource and task assignments from Microsoft Project 7.1.10 Bi-directional live integration 7.1.11 Creation of timesheet users from a resource pool file in Microsoft Project 7.1.12 Integration with other third party project management applications 7.2 ERP, Accounting, and Payroll This category contains 33 criteria below it. 8 Back-office Functionality 8.1 Financials 8.1.1 General Ledger 8.1.1.1 Parameters and Structuring 8.1.1.1.1 Lean manufacturing accounting practices and methods (i.e., manufacturing overheads based on cycle time including labor) 8.1.1.1.2 Fiscal calendar is defined by the user 8.1.1.1.3 Calendar periods are defined by the user 8.1.1.1.4 Calendar can be defined as uneven periods, adjustment periods, or into a maximum of 366 periods8.1.1.1.5 Multiple calendars 8.1.1.1.6 Multi-entity financial reporting 8.1.1.1.7 Fiscal monthly period options for twelve or thirteen months 8.1.1.1.8 Fiscal quarterly periods can be defined as 4-4-5, 5-4-4, or 4-5-4 8.1.1.1.9 Organization of the calendar period defined by the user 8.1.1.1.10 Calendar may be organized in a variety of ways with up to 999 user periods 8.1.1.1.11 Open any number of fiscal years or calendar periods at the same time 8.1.1.1.12 Companies with different regional presences may set a default currency for the financial division of each region 8.1.1.1.13 The reporting entity may determine organization of the financial information 8.1.1.1.14 Distinguish A/P transactions (of the same type) from different entities 8.1.1.1.15 Each entity's ledger can have its own calendar and chart of accounts 8.1.1.1.16 Each entity's ledger can have its own accounting periods opened and closed 8.1.1.1.17 User may choose between data collection and real time posting modes 8.1.1.1.18 Tracks items in the G/L and sub-ledger by quantity and value (in whichever currency is used) 8.1.1.1.19 Maintain unit and dollar amount postings in GL and subleddger 8.1.1.1.20 User defined criteria for system purges for general ledger transactions, journal vouchers, and accounts payable data based on the number of years or months of data required to maintain--each purge type has its own unique criteria 8.1.1.1.21 Sub-ledgers closed out prior to performing a purge. The closeout process sets all financial account balances in the sub-ledger to zero by posting an equal and offsetting transaction8.1.1.1.22 Specify a key and rules to have the system automatically purge all records related to the key throughout the system--sub-ledger accounts, sub-ledger transactions, tables, rates 8.1.1.1.23 Automatic check to ensure that prior to deleting a financial record, the account balance must have been "closed out" i.e. nets to zero 8.1.1.1.24 Translation of balance sheet accounts including the ability to have a default rate (spot) that can be overridden on an exception basis (historic), on an account-byacccoun basis -do not want to set up a rate for every balance sheet account -the override rates will differ ledger to ledger 8.1.1.1.25 Automatically insert actual account balances into the elapsed month's bucket in a future forecast file at the end of each accounting period when the system rolls into the next period 8.1.1.1.26 Prevent roll from one accounting period to the next unless the last job run is the financial statements 8.1.1.1.27 Audit log required for any changes to table information that may contain rates and information, which is used by the system in any way--before, after, change, date, and who 8.1.1.1.28 Flexible general ledger key with multiple levels 8.1.1.1.29 Exception reporting with drill down capabilities 8.1.1.1.30 Change cross charge percentages without retroactively changing previously published financial information 8.1.1.1.31 Provision for use of standards that can be automatically propagated throughout the system to the various ledgers 8.1.1.1.32 Integration with ADP electronic transmission of payroll data 8.1.1.1.33 Use the budget forecast information to create automatic postings; accruals for any potential overhead item, for example, bonus, depreciation, professional fees, new product development, and marketing expense; support standard (automatically repeating) postings and entries that are generated each month with reference to amounts maintained in budget fields for the month. The amounts may or may not be the same from month to month8.1.1.1.34 Automatic year-end rolling of balances in sub-ledgers and general ledger control accounts. 8.1.1.1.35 Automatic linking and posting of control accounts from related sub-ledger accounts 8.1.1.1.36 Process jobs in edit and update mode 8.1.1.1.37 Jobs required to include error and warning messages on reports 8.1.1.1.38 Reports to include a control report that lists pages on which errors and warnings have occurred 8.1.1.1.39 User-defined controls to allow specific jobs to update multiple times in a period 8.1.1.1.40 View postings at the company, market, and title/SKU level 8.1.1.1.41 Table master functionality--set parameters in a table, have jobs read the table and create postings or reports accordingly 8.1.1.1.42 User-defined field names for tables 8.1.1.1.43 Method for verifying keying to ensure only appropriate records updated 8.1.1.1.44 Archiving of transaction history as well as purge from active files 8.1.1.2 Chart of Accounts Structure This category contains 48 criteria below it. 8.1.1.3 Ledger Development and Management This category contains 14 criteria below it. 8.1.1.4 Enterprise Reporting Structure This category contains 15 criteria below it. 8.1.1.5 Journal Entry and Reporting This category contains 44 criteria below it.8.1.1.6 Journal Vouchers This category contains 41 criteria below it. 8.1.1.7 Controls for Ledgers This category contains 7 criteria below it. 8.1.1.8 Multicurrency Capabilities This category contains 24 criteria below it. 8.1.1.9 Online Inquiry Reporting This category contains 10 criteria below it. 8.1.1.10 Report Writing Capabilities This category contains 65 criteria below it. 8.1.1.11 Variable Analysis This category contains 3 criteria below it. 8.1.2 Accounts Payable (A/P) This category contains 246 criteria below it. 8.1.3 Fixed Assets This category contains 94 criteria below it. 8.1.4 Cost Accounting This category contains 53 criteria below it. 8.1.5 Cash Management This category contains 16 criteria below it.8.1.6 Budgeting This category contains 70 criteria below it. 8.1.7 Accounts Receivable This category contains 112 criteria below it. 8.1.8 Financial Reporting This category contains 36 criteria below it. 8.1.9 Project Accounting This category contains 57 criteria below it. 8.2 Human Resources This category contains 496 criteria below it. 8.3 Procurement Management This category contains 280 criteria below it. 9 Product Technology 9.1 Synchronization and Replication 9.1.1 Synchronization Characteristics 9.1.1.1 Requires the user to maintain a data link to the central database9.1.1.2 Mobile device synchronization 9.1.1.3 Methodology to ensure data accuracy 9.1.1.4 Application-to-application synchronization 9.1.1.5 Uses data compression techniques to improve download times 9.1.1.6 Methodology for remote and field users to synchronize data with the central sales management system using analog modem links 9.1.1.7 Methodology for remote and field users to synchronize data with the central sales management system using wireless communications 9.1.1.8 Methodology for remote and field users to synchronize data with the central sales management system using T1 lines 9.1.2 Replication Methodology This category contains 7 criteria below it. 9.2 Implementation and Training This category contains 23 criteria below it. 9.3 Technical Fit This category contains 399 criteria below it. 9.4 Cross-module Features This category contains 24 criteria below it. 9.4.25 Zoom-in/zoom-out supportFUT NS Description Project portfolio management organizes a series of projects into a single portfolio consisting of reports that capture project objectives, costs, timelines, accomplishments, resources, risks, and other critical factors. Executives can regularly review entire portfolios, spread resources appropriately, and adjust projects to produce the highest departmental returns. As its name implies, project portfolio management groups projects so that they can be managed, the same way an investor would manage stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Project portfolio management (PPM) organizes a series of projects into a single portfolio consisting of reports that capture project objectives, costs, timelines, accomplishments, resources, risks, and other critical factors. Executives can then regularly review entire portfolios, spread resources appropriately, and adjust projects to produce the highest departmental returns. General portfolio management functions provide access and visibility to all of the projects under the same portfolio. They provide information on the types of demands being placed on information technology (IT), and help evaluate performance through the effective use of resources, such as people, funding, assets, and processes. They also maximizes business value.Project analysis is used for project appraisal. It benchmarks project systems using quantitative, statistical analysis. Project analysis helps to ensure that the project is feasible, budgeted correctly, and has realistic requirements. It also helps to perform what-if scenarios for optimizing and balancing the portfolio. Business intelligence (BI) uses strategic information to analyze investments and evaluate performance. Effective portfolio management must be driven by secure, accurate, and scalable tools to collect metrics. Users can create clear, high-level overviews across projects and programs with comparative analyses on the value of organizational assets, new projects through BI, and analytical tools, such as the information technology (IT) scoreboard. Project management analytics is a flexible, comprehensive information system that is used to monitor and control project data. Users can evaluate individual projects, partial projects, or multiple projects. Analytics include overview reports and reports offering various degrees of detail. Project management is a methodical approach to planning and guiding project processes from start to finish. According to the Project Management Institute, the processes are guided through five stages: initiation, planning, executing, controling, and closing. Project management can be applied to almost any type of project, and is widely used to control the complex processes of software development projects.Demand management creates a critical connection between the service and project functions of the information technology (IT) organization. It provides a single view where demand can be evaluated and managed, while offering total visibility of resource utilization. Organizations know that IT governance, portfolio planning, and financial management are ineffective without a view into the service work that creates demand and taps precious resources. Process management allows all business processes to be managed as a unified whole, making it easier to optimize and standardize processes across the entire organization. Because a process manager can manage characteristics inherent in a process business, processes become more automated, adaptable, cohesive, collaborative, and reusable. This results in increased business agility and lower process costs. Organizations can monitor their innovation, growth, and strategy through the process manager's support for knowledge-intensive processes. Workflow is the operational aspect of a work procedure: how tasks are structured, who performs them, what their relative order is, how they are synchronized, how information flows to support the tasks, and how tasks are being tracked. Managing risks formally identifies, quantifies, and manages risks to a project, during the project's execution. It entails completing a number of actions to reduce the likelihood of occurance and the severity of impact of each risk. Earned value management (EVM) allows users to compare a snapshot of actual project spending and progress with planned spending and progress, allowing the earned value to be easily monitored. This capability is critical for project managers in regulated environments. Idea management solutions allow organizations to obtain tangible return on investment (ROI) from the collective knowledge in their midst. Idea management applies knowledge management principles to gather, share, and apply the collective insight of an organization's employees in critical subject areas. Resource planning and scheduling is the efficient and effective deployment of an organization's resources when they are needed. Such resources may include financial resources, inventory, human skills, production resources, or information technology. Finding and allocating the right resources for a project is a difficult task for project managers. Project management tools schedule tasks, assign work to resources, and track time in large projects.CV = curriculum vitaeEach user can be assigned to several projects with different access rights. Extensive preferences and e-mail notification options adapt to each user's experience and style. Each task within a project is assigned to a specific user or member of the project. Users may simultaneously and effortlessly consult and make changes to tasks in their projects. E-mail notification allows team members to communicate effectively. Users may decide to receive e-mails at specific times. Message boards send messages to specific users or to the whole project team and indicate when messages are received or have been read by others. Chat rooms or discussion forums help teams communicate while leaving a record. Proper communication on a project among project members and stakeholders is a critical factor for managing sponsor and stakeholder expectations. Maintaining and updating a contact list is a must for multiple projects and for people who multitask. Users can utilize several parameters to specify and configure user preferences. Opportunity management systems (OMS) store sales opportunities and related information. Each sales lead can be tracked with information such as source, type, worth, status, likelihood of closure, etc. An OMS can also perform other related tasks, such as prioritizing sales calls and generating analyses that assist the fine-tuning of marketing strategies. Contract management systems provides tools to create and edit contracts, as well as to monitor and mange the provision of service in line with the agreed-upon terms and conditions. Contact management systems enable organizations to easily store and find contact information, such as names, addresses, and telephone numbers. Sophisticated contact managers provide reporting functions and allow several people in a workgroup to access the same database of contacts. Some also provide calendar functions, which blurs the line between contact managers and personal information managers (PIM). Customer service and support (CSS) automates some service requests, complaints, product returns, and information requests. Traditional internal help desk and traditional inbound call-center support for customer inquiries are now evolved into the "customer interaction center" (CIC), using multiple channels (Web, phone/fax, face-to-face, kiosk, etc). Key infrastructure requirements of CSS include computer telephony integration (CTI) which provides high volume processing capability, and reliability.MS = MicrosoftEnterprise marketing automation (EMA) provides information about the business environment, including competitors, industry trends, and macroenviromental variables. It is the execution side of campaign and lead management. The intent of EMA applications is to improve marketing campaign efficiencies. Functions, which include demographic analysis, variable segmentation, and predictive modeling, occur on the analytical (business intelligence [BI]) side. Sales management automates some of the company's critical sales management functions, such as, for example, lead or account management, opportunity management, proposal management, and activity management. Contract management systems provides tools to create and edit contracts, as well as to monitor and manage the provision of services in line with the agreed-upon terms and conditions. Partner relationship management systems provide tools to automate a business strategy between vendors and their partners in order to improve communication and collaboration by developing, launching, tracking, and refining partner programs and operations in the areas of sales, marketing, customer service, and other enterprise business functions. Contact management systems enable organizations to easily store and find contact information, such as names, addresses, and telephone numbers. Sophisticated contact managers provide reporting functions and allow several people in a workgroup to access the same database of contacts. Some also provide calendar functions, which blurs the line between contact managers and personal information managers (PIM). Time management refers to the development of processes and tools that increase efficiency and productivity. Time management tools include electronic timesheets that capture both work and non-work related activities, thus allowing organizations to capture and track data for payroll and project-related activities. Expense management refers to tools that streamline and automate the submission and approval of multiple expenses and expense types, such as travel, lodging, car rentals, meals, etc. In accounting, an expense is a general term for an outgoing payment made by a business or individual.Time management refers to the development of processes and tools that increase efficiency and productivity. Time management tools include electronic timesheets that capture both work and non-work related activities, thus allowing organizations to capture and track data for payroll and project-related activities. WBS = work breakdown structure WBS = work breakdown structure WBS = work breakdown structureExpense management refers to tools that streamline and automate the submission and approval of multiple expenses and expense types, such as travel, lodging, car rentals, meals, etc. In accounting, an expense is a general term for an outgoing payment made by a business or individual. Financial management systems in a professional services automation (PSA) solution automate the tracking and submission of project budgets, costs, and assets. In addition, it provides the capability to track multiple billable details and generate customized invoices. Budgeting and transactions refer to the tracking of projects budgets and the comparison or analysis of actuals versus estimates.Project billing functionality give managers flexibility when editing and creating billing details, for instance by determining which rates, dates, services, and expenses to include, as well as by setting the other terms by which each particular project is to billed. Invoice generation functionality allows organizations to customize the format of project invoices that demand detail. Project costing functionality allows for the tracking of project expenditures, allocations, and costing adjustments. The placement, creation and calculation of capital assets in the context of a project. Resource sharing in this context refers to the sharing of financial data across multiple resources. The major focus of knowledge management is to identify and gather content from documents, reports and other sources and to be able to search that content for meaningful relationships. In PPM, knowledge management also includes robust business intelligence capabilities from the extracted repository of information in the system. Business intelligence (BI), visualization, and reporting defines, evaluates, and monitors portfolios through a combination of customizable reports and dashboards that provide real time performance to all stakeholders. Some built-in reporting engines allow the retrieval and strategic analysis of live data at the people, project, and organization levels. Reporting features enable users to analyze project status, individual tasks, resource utilization, issues, risks, and other project-related items to help improve the efficiency and profitability of organizations. Regular written or verbal (minuted) reports are an essential part of project monitoring and progress. It is worth spending some time at the start of the project defining report templates to ensure that the right information is communicated at the right frequency and to avoid collecting superfluous information. P&L = profit and lossProject dashboards show key performance indicators (KPI) for projects. Project management view tools capture the views of relationships between work products, such as functional specifications, risk assessments, and project plans. Views are comprised of graphics, charts, calendars, resources, individual and group views, and web views. Charts are useful tools for analyzing and planning more complex projects. For example, when a project is underway, Gantt charts help monitor whether the project is on schedule. If it is not, users can pinpoint the remedial action necesssary to put it back on schedule. The main chart types in project management are Gantt charts, program evaluation and review technique (PERT) charts, timelines, etc. Gantt charts are a project planning tool used to represent the timing of tasks required to complete a project. Because Gantt charts are simple to understand, they are used by most project managers to illustrate completion or progress. Portals provide access to an organization's project management knowledge base via the Internet. Project information that was scattered in different formats and at different locations becomes visible to everyone from one central place.Printing program evaluation and review technique (PERT) and Gantt charts can be difficult unless they can be adjusted on-screen for printing (to make the best use of pages). Reports, PERT charts, and Gantt charts may be either printed directly or pasted into other programs for printing. They may also be distributed by "printing" to the Windows print driver, which comes with a fax card; to a portable document format (PDF) print driver such as Jaws PDF Creator; or to similar products. PDF files may be easily uploaded to a web site. The search tool is a powerful feature, because it enables users to search for information in the entire project. Users can search for a particular task, resource, or document. Searches can be further refined by the date or time the item was last modified. The calendar is an interactive feature that shows task deadlines. Tasks' start and end dates are displayed for each month. Tasks can generally be opened from within the calendar and can be moved. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) is a US law passed in 2002 to strengthen corporate governance and restore investor confidence. Software solutions compliant with SOX provide businesses with internal controls and reporting capabilities. A document management system manages documents for electronic publishing. It generally supports a large variety of document formats and provides extensive access control and searching capabilities across local area networks (LAN) and wide area networks (WAN). A document management system may support multiple versions of a document. It may also be able to combine text fragments written by different authors. It often includes a workflow component that routes documents to the appropriate users. A record management systems automates the creation, retention, and scheduled destruction of an organization's paper and film documents. Computer-generated reports and documents fall into the records management domain, but traditional data processing files do not. Numerous best-of-breed professional services automation (PSA)and project portfolio management (PPM) vendors' solutions integrate with third party project management systems, customer relationship management (CRM), and back-office systems to provide their clients with complete PSA functionality for organizations. Professional services automation (PSA) or project portfolio management (PPM) solutions frequently integrate with third party project managment solutions to provide a complete view of project portfolios.Professional services automation (PSA) or project portfolio management (PPM) solutions frequently integrate with third party project back-office solutions to provide a fully integrated (end-to-end) solution for professional services organizations. ERP = enterprise resource planning Back-office software does not interact directly with the customer. It provides functionality for internal operations, such as financials, human resources, and procurement. Financial system modules for bookkeeping and ensuring accounts are paid or received on time. General ledger keeps centralized charts of accounts and corporate financial balances. It supports all aspects of the business accounting process. In this module, financial accounting transactions are posted, processed, summarized, and reported. It maintains a complete audit trail of transactions and enables individual business units to view their financial information, while parent companies can roll up all business subsidiaries and view the consolidated information. Lean manufacturing typically refers to paperless (or less paper) production and accounting. Instead of recording costs for every single order, the idea is to record these for certain determined cycles or schedules.Multiple calendars may be useful for different accounting scenarios. For example, different financial entities may need separate fiscal calendars--one set of books might require a quarterly calendar while another would require a different term. If a merger results in two financial entities that have different fiscal calendars, the accounting system will need to maintain both calendars and normalize the data (Q2 for Entity A is equal to Q3 for Entity B). This may also be useful for what-if scenarios. A financial reporting entity is a business unit which can legally make financial reports. The 4-4-5 calendar period uses a four week, four week, five week pattern. Likewise, the 5-4-4 calendar period uses a five week, four week, four week pattern; and analagously for the 4-5-4 pattern. The calendar can be organized in a limitless form, with up to 999 user periods, per calendar The ability to have any number of fiscal years or calendar periods open concurrently The ability to set a default currency by entity. For example, if a large company has one entity responsible for conducting business in the US and another entity for the UK, the default currency may be dollars for the US and British sterling for the UK. The ability to decide how to organize data when defining the organization of an enterprise's financial information account payable (A/P) The ability to define a specific period calendar and chart of accounts for each entity ledger By controlling when an account is open and closed, the posting of information in an account period can restricted. Allows for instant processing or batch processing general ledger (G/L) The ability to change the currency used in balance sheet accounts to another currency using a default rate. It is possible to override this default rate for particular accounts. Moreover, it is possible to set different default rates for different subledgers.A general ledger key typically is an identifier attached to accounts to put the accounts into groups. For example, there may be fifteen accounts in the chart of accounts related to payroll, and all fifteen accounts will be assigned the same key (perhaps "PAYROLL"). Thus the system can purge or set other rules to all chart of accounts with the same key. The ability to cumulatively incorporate results from the previous accounting period into the current accounting period, but only when the last document generated in the previous period was the financial statement. The ability to cumulatively incorporate results from the previous accounting period into the current accounting period, but only when the last document generated in the previous period was the financial statement. General ledgers are designed to present values for creating financial statements. The multiple level for a ledger key means the system will have a more complex and functional key structure--one that supports a hierarchy of keys. The ability to automatically, rather than manually, identify open receivables exceptions by using user-defined conditions (for example, very large amount invoices, exceeding credit line, etc.) ADP refers to automatic data processing. For future expenses that have not been received. Upon invoice receipt, differences are posted to a particular G/L account.This is different from a purge because the balance still exists but has been moved to another account. This allows for the automatic aging of account balances from a current file to a prior file and is required to maintain separate balances relating to customers acquired in the current year and in prior years The ability to process jobs that are in the midst of being edited or updated The ability to create a report subsection that indicates which pages of the report mention errors and warnings The ability to decide if a particular job should be updated more than once during a given time period The ability to look up entries in the ledger by company, by market, and by stock keeping unit (SKU) The ability to define variables within a tabular array of data so that jobs are performed and postings or reports are created accordingly This refers to enterprise resource planning (ERP) database tables, not, for example, report tables. The ability check data entry to make sure that only the correct records are updated The chart of accounts is a list of ledger account names and account numbers, creating consistency in terminology and eliminates redundant accounts. A chart of accounts structure should include fields for account and ledger descriptions, to prevent shadow accounts from being created. Data tree tools allow users to see the structure of the fields and summaries, to help with reporting requirements, foster change, etc. The accounting department is typically responsible for recording all transactions in the company in the journal (GL). All of the criteria that fall Journal Entry and Reporting relate to various ways to record journal transactions. For example payroll is an AP item. As paychecks are cut the AP items need to be reconciled with the cash outflow. A software feature might be the automatic reconciliation of payroll deductions when paychecks are issued (as opposed to having an accountant have to key the transactions by hand).A journal voucher (JV) is a document that authorizes payment for services performed, or for goods that are received or exchanged. As a means to record ledger transactions, JVs may have different approvals for different accounts. For example when someone submits an expense report that money is typically associated with an account on the chart of accounts in the G/L. The account may require a JV for posted entries. The JV may include copies of receipts and a sign off from a manager before the entry can be posted. Accounts payable schedules bill payments to suppliers and distributors, and keeps accurate information about owed money, due dates, and available discounts. It provides functionality and integration to other areas such as customer service, purchasing, inventory, and manufacturing control. The software should support the following functionality: AP company policies and procedures; suppliers/voucher master data; payment controls; invoice processing and aging analysis; payment processing; journal voucher processing; AP ledger posting; check processing; AP transactions and controls; and AP reporting. Fixed assets manages depreciation and other costs associated with tangible assets such as buildings, property and equipment. The software should support the following functionality: fixed assets records; asset transactions; asset depreciation; depreciation books; revaluation and interest calculation; and tax reporting. Cost accounting analyzes corporate costs related to overhead, products, and manufacturing orders. It provides a variety of costing approaches such as standard, FIFO, LIFO, average, target, and activity-based costing (ABC). The software should support the following functionality: cost data; cost allocation definitions; cost allocation process; cost management; cost and sales price calculation; activity based costing (ABC); and activity based cost tracing and tracking. Cash management involves the capability of the system to record cash charges or deposits, recording of cash payments and receipts, cash projection reporting, calculation of expected cash uses/sources, current cash availability, etc. It monitors and analyzes cash holdings, financial deals, and investment risks.Budgeting involves budgetary controls, budget accounting, budget development, and budget allocation. The software should provide sufficient tools to enable detailed budget development and analysis. Additional functionality should be available to integrate with project management software applications either natively or with external interfaces. Accounts receivable tracks payments due to a company from its customers. It contains tools to control and expedite the receipt of money from the entry of a sales order to posting payments received. The software should support the following functionality: AR company policies and procedures; customers/voucher master data; bill processing and aging analysis; credit management; cash/payment application, receipt processing; journal voucher processing; AR ledger posting; multicurrency accounting and conversions; AR transactions and controls; and AR reporting. Financial reporting enables robust analysis of company performance through delivered reports. These reports will allow individual business units to view their financial information, while parent companies can roll up all business subsidiaries and view the consolidated information. Additionally, solutions should provide user generated reporting tools that are easy to use and provide sufficient depth of and access to the financial data to permit comprehensive analysis. Project accounting uses financial practices to monitor the schedules and spending of projects. Human resources encompasses all the applications necessary for handling personnel-related tasks for corporate managers and individual employees. Modules include personnel management, benefit management, payroll management, employee self service, data warehousing, and health and safety. Procurement Managment functionality manages the acquisition of goods or services at the best possible total cost of ownership, in the right quantity, at the right time, in the right place for the direct benefit or use of the governments, corporations, or individuals. Product technology criteria defines the technical architecture of the product, and the technological environment where products can run successfully. Sub-criteria include product and application architecture, software usability and administration, platform and database support, application standards support, communications and protocol support, and integration capabilities. To recover transmitted data, a receiver must be synchronized to the signal it receives. Data synchronization technologies are designed to sychronize a single set of data between two or more devices, automatically copying changes back and forth.Measuring the success of any software solution is directly related to achieving a successful implementation. The software vendor should provide clients with the necessary knowledge and training to fully utilize the software solution. Training could be basic, advanced, onsiite off-site, etc. Technical fit modules measures the technical qualification of the software, such as how it interfaces, integrates, and its degree of web enablement, encryption, security, and ease of administration etc. Cross-module features are general features, functions, or criteria that are common to all modules, but are not related to any particular module. Such modules include, search, the recycle bin, event viewer, etc.FactorID MasterMo delID 574303 420925 574304 354474 574305 354475 574306 354476 574307 354477 574308 354478 574309 354479 574310 354480 574311 354481 574312 354482 574313 354483 574314 354484 574315 354485 574316 354486 574317 354487 574318 354488 574319 354489574320 431886 574321 354490 574322 354491 574323 354492 574324 354493 574325 354494 574326 354495 574327 419900 574328 419901 574329 419902 574330 354496 574344 354505 574351 354510 574358 354516574677 354869 574684 354966 574712 354979 574729 354629 574747 354732 574768 419973 574782 354876 574783 354877 574784 354878574785 354879 574786 354880 574787 354881 574788 354882 574789 354883 574790 354884 574791 354885 574792 354886 574793 354887 574794 354888 574795 354889 574796 354890 574797 354891 574798 354892 574799 354893 574800 354894 574801 354895 574802 354896 574803 354897 574804 354898 574805 354899 574806 354900 574807 354901 574808 354902 574809 419987 574810 419988 574811 419989 574812 419990 574813 419991 574814 419992 574815 419993 574816 419994 574817 419995 574818 419996574819 354903 574830 354931 574837 354938 574844 354946 574850 354952 574854 354956 574867 420048 574868 420049 574869 420050 574870 420051 574871 420052574872 420053 574873 420054 574874 420055 574875 420056 574876 420057 574877 420058 574878 420059 574879 420060 574880 420061 574881 420062 574882 431892 574883 420063 574884 420064 574885 420065 574886 420066 574887 420067 574888 420068 574889 420069 574890 420070 574891 420071574899 420079 574904 420084 574910 420090 574918 420098 574932 424027 574965 424059 575113 424005 575137 424205 575152 420112 575200 420160575201 420161 575202 420162 575203 420163 575204 420164 575205 420165 575206 420166 575207 420167 575208 420168 575209 420169 575210 420170 575211 420171 575212 420172 575213 420173 575214 420174 575215 420175 575216 420176 575217 420177 575218 420178 575219 420179 575220 420180 575221 420181 575222 420182 575223 420183 575224 354914 575225 354916 575226 354917 575227 354930 575228 354929 575229 354915 575230 354928 575231 354927 575232 354922 575233 354923 575234 354924 575235 420184 575236 420185 575237 420186 575238 420187575239 420188 575240 420189 575241 420190 575242 420191 575243 420192 575262 420206 575331 420275 575332 420276 575333 420277 575334 420278 575335 420279 575336 420280 575337 420281 575338 420282 575339 354839 575340 354840 575341 354842 575342 354854 575343 354855 575344 354856 575345 354857 575346 354866 575347 354867 575348 354868575349 424220 575372 424243 575378 420283 575409 420305 575414 420310 575419 420314 575420 354996 575421 354997 575422 354998 575423 354999 575424 355000 575425 355001 575426 355002 575427 355003 575428 355004 575429 355005 575430 355006 575431 355007 575432 355008 575433 355009 575434 355010575435 355011 575436 355012 575437 355013 575438 355014 575439 355015 575440 355016 575441 355017 575442 355018 575443 355019 575444 355020 575445 355021 575446 355022 575447 355023 575472 355048 575489 355065 575506 355081 575516 355091 575535 355107575543 355115 575551 355122 575557 355128 575572 421004 575581 420315 575587 355144 575603 356222 575909 420321 575910 420322 575911 420324575912 420325 575913 420326 575914 420327 575915 420328 575916 420329 575917 420330 575918 420331 575919 420332 575920 420334 575921 420333 575922 421331 575923 420335 575957 421344 575958 195121 575959 195122 575960 195123 575961 195124 575962 195125 575963 195126 575964 195127575965 195128 575966 195129 575967 195130 575968 195131 575969 195132 575970 195133 575971 195134 575972 195135 575973 195136 575974 195137 575975 195138 575976 195139 575977 195140 575978 195141 575979 195142 575980 195143 575981 195144575982 195145 575983 195146 575984 195147 575985 195148 575986 195149 575987 195150 575988 195151 575989 195152 575990 195153 575991 195154 575992 195155 575993 195156575994 195157 575995 195158 575996 195159 575997 195160 575998 195161 575999 195162 576000 195163 576001 195164 576002 195165 576003 195166 576004 195167 576005 195168 576054 195217 576069 195232 576085 195248576130 195293 576172 195335 576180 195343 576205 195368 576216 195378 576282 195444 576286 195448 576533 195694 576628 195789 576682 195843576699 195860 576770 195931 576883 196043 576920 196080 576978 196138 577475 423145 577756 355188 577757 355189 577758 355190 577759 355191577760 355192 577761 355193 577762 355194 577763 355195 577764 355196 577765 355197 577766 355198 577767 355199 577775 355207 577799 355231 578199 355631 578224 355656