We are seeking an ERP system to support our business processes for our medium-sized IT services company. We currently use an in-house developed ERP system that covers the following areas:
- Project management
- Quotation management
- Order management
- Invoicing
- Time tracking for employees (on projects)
The new ERP system must meet the following requirements:
Client and Master Data
- Dashboard: User-configurable ERP home screen/interface displaying user-specific content for employees, project managers, line managers, and the PMO (Project Management Office / Order Processing)
- Master Data:
- Management of company-specific contact data, including the ability to store multiple addresses.
- Management of multiple company bank accounts
- Invoice data entry: Management of various tax rates within the invoicing process, including validity periods and subsequent transfer of values to outgoing invoices
- Organization (Market Segment Department):
- Mapping of the company’s organizational structure with an overview and the ability to link various departments and users (roles)
- Hierarchical and non-hierarchical roles must be assignable.
- Definition and data entry for market segments with market segment managers, fixed and personnel costs, as well as overhead costs and surcharges.
- Employee management:
- Complete employee overview with all relevant information and the ability to filter employees by various criteria (current, former, etc.)
- Comprehensive data entry for employees, including supervisors, target working hours, vacation entitlement, and cost overview.
- Recording of cost overviews for internal employees regarding cost center assignment, including both flat-rate and actual costs or hourly rates and workstation flat rates.
- Regarding the classification of flat-rate and actual costs for employees, actual costs may only be visible to specific users (Controlling and management).
- Recording of employee workstation flat rates.
Customers and Suppliers
- Customer and Supplier Management:
- Complete customer/supplier overview (without search entries) with all relevant information, as well as assignment and overview of customer contacts
- Creation and editing of contacts (customers).
- Special flags for contacts (e.g., “Left the company”) are required.
- Customer and supplier data entry:
- Data entry for customers/suppliers including general contact information, bank details, cost center, and a free-form notes field.
- Internal employee assignment to a supplier required.
External Employees
- Special Requirements - External Employees:
- Comprehensive data entry for external employees analogous to an internal employee, additionally marked with “EXTERNAL”.
- Ability to assign an external employee to an internal contact person.
- External employees must be mappable in the role “Customer/Supplier” when entered in the master agreement and on incoming invoices.
- Ability to enter multiple different hourly rates for external employees, which apply depending on the project assignment.
- Ability to record external employees as members of the project team and include them in personnel and resource planning.
Framework Agreements
- Contract Management: Complete overview of all active framework agreements (without search criteria) with the option for users to create a new framework agreement
- Contract Data Entry:
- Ability to map a hierarchical contract structure with the option to define a framework agreement as the highest hierarchical level
- Data entry in the framework agreement regarding term, hourly rates, payment terms, and general contract data
- Payment terms within the contract data entry can be flexibly entered in both days and weeks.
- Ability to link documents/files to a framework agreement.
- Assignment and navigation of framework agreements to quotes, orders, and projects.
- Additional provision of one or more hourly rates for quotes, orders, projects, and invoices.
Quotes
- Quote management:
- Complete overview of current quotes (without search criteria).
- Ability to create and edit quotes.
- Selection/filter options for the quote overview for specific users (or user groups).
- Quote data entry:
- Detailed data entry for quotes, including various general quote data, special costs, calculations, and payment milestones. An option to subdivide quotes.
- Ability to compare originally estimated quote data with actual quote data (following renegotiations).
- Ability to subdivide a quote to split it into different components (fixed price and variable costs).
- Flexible linking of documents/files to quotes.
- Assignment and navigation of quotes to orders, projects, and framework agreements.
- Payment milestones:
- Ability to enter payment milestones with the option to transfer them later to the corresponding order.
- Ability to attach documents or files for potential invoices after the order is placed.
Orders
- Order Management:
- Complete overview of current orders (without search criteria)
- Ability to create and edit quotes.
- Selection/filter options for the quote overview
- Order Data Entry:
- Detailed data entry for orders, including various general order data, special costs, payment milestones, etc.
- An option to create quote subdivisions.
- Ability to assign or navigate orders to quotes and projects.
- Flexible linking of documents/files to orders.
- Ability to assign and navigate orders to quotes, projects, incoming and outgoing invoices, and master agreements.
- Payment milestones:
- Display of a cost overview by order in a forecast. Option to enter forecasts.
- Ability to enter multiple documents for a single invoice with automatic generation of payment milestones from order/quote data, including time period, payment method (monthly, quarterly, one-time), and total.
- Incoming Invoices: Invoice overview for managing incoming invoices with assignment to quotes and orders, featuring various functions (create new, edit, delete, document links)
- Outgoing Invoices:
- Invoice overview for managing outgoing invoices with assignment to quotes and orders, featuring various functions (e.g., Create New, Edit, Delete, Document Links).
- Ability to enter various data for outgoing invoices (e.g., invoice status, recipient, address, project reference, etc.)
- Reminders: Marking function for the reminder status with the following stages: 1st reminder, 2nd reminder, lawyer.
Projects and Project Management
- Project Management:
- Complete overview of ongoing projects (without search criteria)
- Ability to create and edit projects.
- Selection and filtering options for the project overview.
- Ability to create projects independently of quotes and orders - user-dependent.
- Enable the display of a project structure plan. Projects must be able to be structured hierarchically or allow for grouping of projects
- Project data entry:
- Detailed data entry for projects regarding general project data, user-based assignment, etc.
- Flexible linking of documents and files for orders.
- Allow project managers to add or remove any employees from their project.
- Provide an overview of project status regarding actual effort, project deadlines, and planned/target hours (from the order).
- Allow flexible linking of documents and files to projects.
- Enable assignment and navigation from a project to quotes, orders, and master contracts.
- Personnel and Resource Planning
Time Tracking
- Time Tracking Management:
- Compliance with labor laws in the system.
- Time tracking for both projects and tasks within projects.
- Detailed time tracking options for employees with project-specific posting capabilities.
- Quick entry of employee times for the PMO with logging and change history.
- Function for a monthly closing that can be performed by the employee with consistent time tracking and posting mechanisms.
- Time and leave accounts must be administratively manageable by Controlling
- Employee time tracking:
- Leave account with various display options
- System check-in and check-out function for employees to assist with tracking their attendance and to generate a current attendance list for the company.
- No storage of this data, and in the case of “no check-in,” no indication of the type of absence.
- For postings to a “Works Council” project, no visibility for the employee’s direct supervisor.
- Time Tracking in the Project:
- Option to transfer existing project hours (from one project to another) – without changing the number of hours or the comment text of the entry.
- Option to transfer existing employee hours (to a desired target project) – without changing the number of hours or the comment text of the entry.
- Display of remaining effort for a task/project in time tracking with highlighting if remaining effort < 0.
- Allow an employee to post to a project even if the remaining effort of the project being worked on is < 0 - but also display a message in time tracking if a project is fully booked.
- Confirmation function required for controlled times by a TL/PL and, if necessary, visibility via a status.
- Ensure visibility of the people in the detailed view of time tracking for the PL who are actively booking to the project.
- People with access to the detailed view but without bookings are not visible to the PL.
- Requests and Processes:
- User/role-based views of an employee’s absence calendar (employee, direct supervisor, CTR, CEO) with configurable display period and option to group employees
- Annual calendar with a practical overview and highlighted display of entries/days
Reports
- Analysis of key business metrics via an Excel template to be populated with corresponding values.
- Detailed analysis of personnel costs based on various criteria (time period, employee, attributes).
- Analysis of internal data for internal cost allocations across all departments, including the display of project staff from other departments.
- Analysis of the workplace allowance for employees/external staff.
- Cost overview in relation to the organizational structure, taking various filter criteria into account.
- Detailed analysis of order data.
- Selection and export of project information based on various criteria.
- Specific project data analysis for project managers using various filters.
- Employee-related analysis of project data—which employee is on which project?
- Various overviews/calculations of project-related costs.
- User- or role-based overview of a time account with various views, including for projects and maintenance.
- Analysis or display of times recorded by the employee, exclusively for the employee themselves.
- Analysis of times an employee has booked in the project for specific supervisors and upwards, using filter criteria.
- Evaluation specifically for the Project Leader (PL) for all ongoing projects, including the previous month’s time entries and the hours an employee has booked for a project.
Roles and Permissions
- Role Descriptions:
- User roles mapped to the company’s internal organizational structure.
- Enable the assignment of deputy roles.
- Permission Assignment:
- Detailed permission assignment for access to individual dialogs and functions.
- Assignment of permissions taking the role hierarchy into account.
- Special permission assignment or role definition for particularly sensitive data.
- Various role-based overviews regarding project permissions
- Management of detailed project permissions with inheritance of employee permissions.
- Analysis of roles and permissions: Overview and review options for permissions and roles.
Technical Requirements
- On-premises hosting, no cloud
- Single Sign-On
- Multiple dialogs possible within a single session, e.g., comparing projects or viewing multiple projects simultaneously
- Web GUI
- Remote access required
- SQL database
- Browser access or mobile app for time tracking
- ID generation – no duplicate IDs (employee ID, project ID)
- Enable re-login to the system
Approximately 40–80 workstations with full access are planned, and approximately 200–400 employees are to be granted access only to time tracking.