In order to remain sustainable in long run Mining companies invest considerably in their capital projects. One of the examples of capital project is Infrastructure development for a mining. once a resource is established by exploration it need to create an infrastructure to have access to these resources (like constructing road shafts ventilation etc.) and to process (like to construct plant for processing) these resources in most cost effective and safe way. Some of the attributes of these capital projects are:
- High Capital Investment: they require high amount of capital investment which in some case require finance by equity.
- Long gestation period: These projects involve long period to get the return on them.
- High Risk: beside high investment and long period Risk is also increased due to volatile commodity markets, changing government regulations, changing technologies in mining, stakeholders expectations,Environment and geological factors etc.
- Increase in Complexities: Due to involvement of different stakeholders and cross functional persons in the project brings complexities in business processes for their execution.
Since these projects are of strategic importance they require to be managed properly. So in order to manage these projects requires an information system which can provide the visibility over the entire projects to different persons involved in the projects with key focus on the project schedule and costs.
SAP Portfolio and Project Management (SAP PPM):
SAP Portfolio and Project Management is a tool which helps an organization to manage and monitor its projects more effectively and efficiently. It is divided into following three building blocks which can be structured according to organization needs:
- Portfolio Management: helps in accessing strategic aspects of the portfolio like investment opportunities, risks and priorities of the projects.
- Project Management: Helps in delivering high quality projects in time, budget and scope.
- Resource management: Helps in effectively allocating resources to the projects.
Advantages of SAP PPM:
- Alignment of capital / operational spend and strategic intent
- Effective stage/gate control for projects
- Auditable planning and budgeting process
- Early identification of opportunities, bottlenecks and risks
- Improved visibility and management of the portfolio
- Link between business case and actual spend
- Agile process of reviewing and adapting the portfolio
for more information on SAP PPM please visit following link:
- https://www54.sap.com/pc/bp/eam/software/asset-portfolio-project-management/index.html
- http://download.sap.com/download.epd?context=00A8AE33A8B84D541E6754A7231F31C5B412A1FD67CC5CDB9F251C8...
- http://www.sap.com/community/eBook/2012_05_PPM/en/assets/Capital_PPM.pdf
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Owvdq3EIqg
- https://rapid.sap.com/se/#steps2right?stype=ist&indids=i_mining&lobids=i_mining-92&type=bd&bdid=i_mi...
- http://www.sap.com/community/eBook/2012_05_PPM/en/index.html#/page/11
Real time Project visibility with SAP HANA:
Real-time analysis of high volumes of data for complex, long-lasting projects or cross-project monitoring is challenging due to high data volumes HANA can help in providing real time visibility over the project status project profitability and schedule.
to know more about SAP HANA use case for project management visit following link:
