MARIProject

The MARIProject is the project management for SAP Business One. The integration of MARIProject's project management functionalities with the ERP software SAP Business One helps to reduce mistakes in data recording and to save time for administration and cost for software maintenance. In addition, MARIProject enables time-saving costing and provides powerful reports at the touch of a button.

• Project costing: The interplay of SAP Business One and MARIProject ensures reliable costing and helps you save time because the data from customer relationship management, purchasing and planning flow together in the project costing. Also different calculation methods are available.
• Resource planning: While you schedule times for your resources (employees, employee pools, items, equipment), the costs are determined automatically. Learn more about project planning.
• Time & travel expenses entry: MARIProject allows you to enter your time and travel expenses in the back office or over the Internet via smartphone and tablet (Android or iOS). All data is immediately available in the system and must not be entered twice or transferred from one system to another.
• Project controlling: You have always up-to-date reports at your fingertips because all data is available in one single system. The reports provided by default show the project controlling whether projects are profitable.
• Project billing: MARIProject supports all common billing methods: at cost or at fixed price, milestone billing, billing by due date and project-related commission. All project-related costs that are recorded in the system are considered in the project accounting.
• Customer service: MARIProject includes two modules for customer service that are delivered with the standard: the Support Desk for the processing of support tickets and the Service Module for maintenance and repair operations, for example of products and plants.
• Affordable solution: Despite the large scope of functions, MARIProject with SAP Business One is an affordable solution.

Project Costing: MARIProject enables time-saving project costing because it applies the data of SAP Business One  as a basis, e.g. the prices of items and services.Additional requirements for the calculation, such as sales margins for goods and services, are stored in MARIProject. Therefore you are able to see your margin immediately in terms of value and as a percentage when calculating a project (see image on the right).To meet the requirements of the particular project, you can change the default setting for each item. As a result, MARIProject will recalculate the margin.
Benefit from the following functions:

• Play through different budget versions
• Define different costing variants
• Use different costing methods
• Calculate the revenues for each individual position of the contract
• Grant discounts per item or for the entire project
• Define company-specific approval processes, for example for sales quotations or budgets
• Use foreign currencies: currency fluctuations are compensated automatically at the time of posting

Simple document creation and flexible document shipping: When the calculation is complete, generate the sales quotation automatically in the corporate design of your company. Print out the document or send it in PDF format as an attachment to an e-mail.

 

Project-Related Purchasing: Competitive procurement and efficient stock control ensure the economic success of a project, especially in the ECO industry. SAP Business One provides functions for general procurement and stock control.
MARIProject extends these functions by project-related purchasing functionalities. It is possible to procure items for a specific phase of the project. The costs are automatically assigned to the phase and are billed after completion of the phase. These functionalities help you get a clear overview of the project costs and simplify the billing process, especially for long-term projects.
Key Features:

• Project-related comparison of quotations
• Determine the most favourable item prices of all price quotes of your suppliers (see video on the right)
• Visualise the purchase status per project on item level (cmp image on the right)
• Setup approval processes for procurement
• Manage multiplet warehouses 
• Use your mobile devices for project-related material requirements requests

 

Project Planning: With MARI Project, you can plan time and costs in one step (see image "Cost planning" on the right) because the purchasing and sales prices of all resources are stored in the ERP software SAP Business One.The concurrent planning helps you to save time and to reduce also transmission errors.All resources are planned in the same way, whether it be employees, items, equipment & machines or resource pools.
Benefit from the following planning functions:

• The capacity overview (see image "Time planning" on the right) reveals at a glance whether planning capacities of resources and resource pools are exceeded.
• MARIProject takes into account different calendars in the employee planning. e.g. public holidays, vacation, full-time and part-time staff, freelancers etc.
• Allocate resource pool planning by drag & drop to individual resources
• Changes on other levels (e.g. costs, duration, analyses etc.) are automatically updated when you move dates
• Easily define approval processes to integrate, for example, division managers in the planning of their employees
• Vacation Planning: Also vacation is considered in the planning. MARIProject helps you define the entire vacation process for your business from the vacation request of the employee and the vacation approval of the superior up to the entry of approved vacation in the Outlook calendar of the employee.

       >Interfaces to Outlook and Microsoft Project

       >An interface to Microsoft Project helps you synchronise planning with your business partners
       >Enter planned dates directly in the Outlook calendar of the employee

Time Sheet Entry: MARIProject allows time tracking based on your individual needs: Services (project times) or pure attendance times can be entered in the back office, via Internet, smartphone or tablet (Android, IOS). Through the integrated time recording, costs are always assigned to the project and are immediately included in the analyses. As a result, you are always up to date.
Benefit from the following functions of the time recording:

• Post hours to a project phase
• Employees can record their services. Alternatively, a project manager or an authorised employee of the back office can enter times and services.
• The same applies to the  entry of travel expenses.
• MARIProject supports various input devices: barcode, laser pen and touch screen, for example for the recording of times in an assembly hall.
• Posting block: Project managers can define limits for the time recording to stay in line with the project budget.
• Working time models always in mind: Define the working time account (e.g. full time, part time etc.) in the employee calendar. Based on the time recording, the accounts are compared, overtime is determined and transferred to a flextime account if necessary.
• Hours List: MARIProject generates a flexible hours list at the touch of a button, for example to submit it with the invoice to the customer.
• Approval Process: Many companies have defined approval process. These processes can be represented also in MARIProject: The project manager, for example, can approve recorded hours before they are billed to the customer. It is possible to approve project hours completely or only partially.
• After the approval, the approved positions are automatically displayed for billing in the financial accounting to ensure a smooth and efficient workflow.

 

Travel Expenses Entry:  The entry of travel expenses in accordance with the laws is a fairly complicated matter. To facilitate the procedure, the different travel categories (hotel, airfare, kilometers driven by company car or private car, accommodation allowance etc.) with the tax requirement under current German law are already stored in MARIProject.

• Travel expenses can be entered in the back office or also via mobile devices. When recording travel expenses, the employee can directly assign the travel costs to a project.
• In addition, MARIProject helps represent the complete travel expenses processing.
• Internal Accounting and Billing
• After the travel expenses have been approved by the project manager, the accounting department can reimburse the employee the travel expenses and - depending on the contract - can bill the costs to the customer so that there are no delays in billing and no amounts remain open.

 

 

Support Desk: The support desk (user help desk) of MARIProject allows online customer service for 1st, 2nd and 3rd level support. The ticket system for the processing of software messages with IT service providers is especially helpful.Through the integration of MARIProject with SAP Business One, the staff of the customer service have all the information they need for the processing of customer requests:  customer data, projects, used products etc.

Benefit from the following functions:

• Enter data quickly, irrespective of location and time
• Link images and documents
• Document the processing online
• Online access also for customers
• Ensure smooth data exchange with customers
• 24/7 editing for all involved
• Priority levels0
• Service level agreements
• Integrated time sheet entry 
• Billing and Analyzing Support Tickets

After completion of the support ticket, the support staff enters the working time used to solve the ticket in the support desk. The project manager approves the data and the accounting department bills the approved value to the customer. A closed workflow again!

Service Module:The service module of MARIProject has been developed for the processing of maintenance and repair operations. It is interesting for companies that produce products,  such as (medical) equipment, telephone systems or IT infrastructure constructions, such as elevators, air conditioners, solar plants and wind parks.
With MARIProject you optimally manage the entire maintenance & repair process with one software and keep always track of the costs.

• Planning: Rely on already stored product and customer information while planning orders. Schedule dates and maintenance intervals, the duration of a process and the provided employees. The system generates a specification of costs during the planning which can be used for the sales quotation to the customer. It is also possible to deposit check lists, pick lists and packing lists for the placement of the service vehicle.
• Processing & Documentation: Once the order is placed, the service vehicle is loaded based on the generated pick and packing list. The service staff can view the service tasks planned for them with all customer information (address, geo information of the location etc.) online, for example on their tablet (cmp. screenshot "Service Dashboard" and "May Service Tasks" on the right). The service staff document their approach on the spot, add if necessary the unplanned consumption of materials and use the mobile time and travel expenses entry. Finally, the customer confirms - also online - the completed operation with his signature.
• Billing & Reporting: Immediately upon completion of the data entry, the order can be billed to the customer and is automatically posted.
  Because all data is available in the system, you can track the success of the customer service in daily up-to-the-minute analyses.

Project Billing: As studies repeatedly show, especially service providers often do not bill services because the services are recorded in different systems and as a result, are not available or not available in a timely manner in the accounting.MARIProject simplifies the complete project billing because services, items and travel expenses have to be entered only once in the system. This enables you to keep track of all data.The system automatically shows the accountant the values that are due for billing at the contractually agreed time:

• MARIProject supports all common billing methods: at cost or at fixed price, milestone billing, billing by due date and project-related commission
• Invoices can be generated in different currencies. The exchange rate is updated according to the default in the  financial system of SAP Business One.
• Different payments methods are available, such as invoice, cheque, cash or credit card payment.

 

Work in Progress (WIP): MARIProject helps you in the calculation of work in progress pursuant to IAS/US GAAP with a template that you can customize to meet the needs of your business. The values are transferred to the financial accounting/balance sheet at the touch of a button.

• Internal Distribution of Services
• The system flexibly supports also the distribution of internal services. Assign the provided services/incurred costs to the appropriate cost centers.
• Less time and effort in the accounting
• After creation of the invoices, the invoices are posted in the ERP system. This reduces the accounting effort.
• In addition, all costs are taken into account in the project reporting.

 

 

Project Controlling: MARIProject has been awarded by SAP with the designation"Certified Integration with SAP Applications" and "SAP Qualified Solution for SAP Business One".  The proven standards ensure a quick implementation of the software.MARIProject combines all project-specific data: planning times, costing, recorded services and used materials etc. In particular in the project controlling, integrated time recording, planning and billing is an advantage because you save a lot of time to search for relevant data.

• In a matter of seconds, you have access to reliable, up-to-the minute project analyses and recognise without much effort differences of time and budget. This helps you detect negative developments at an early stage so that you can counteract promptly.
• Included by default: More than 200 templates for reports such as percentage of completion, residual volume, planned/actual comparison of project hours, employee  capacity, project totals etc.
• In addition, you can define company-specific analyses (e.g. breakeven analysis per project) or a visually prepared dashboard for the comparison of planned and actual hours per customer.
• Systematic project controlling: Systematic project controlling is essential to secure the company's success. For this reason, the pre-configured reports, which are contained by default, are one of the key benefits of the project management solution MARIProject.
• The pre-configured reports are displayed with up-to-the-minute data on a simple mouse click. You can also create own reports cutomised to the specific needs of your business so that you are well prepared for the growing requirements in project business.
• Real-time reports for projects with large amounts of data
• Lots of data come together in medium-sized businesses every day. To be able to evaluate this targeted data (e.g. for the range selection), a solution like SAP Business One on HANA is helpful.
• SAP Business One on HANA is also a good solution for the evaluation of large projects because the visualised dashboards help you keep an eye on the development of your business.

As award winning SAP partner and full service provider, we advise you in all questions concerning MARIProject. Our experienced staff help you with the introduction of MARIProject in your business.