Interoperability between ERP System and Project Planning System

Abstract

SAP in an ERP system which is a digital system used in Aker Subsea to store, organize and manage information related to the company that all employees in the different functions use daily. Primavera is the time planning tool in Aker Subsea. Today information is copied manually from SAP over to Primavera by the planners to analyze and create schedules. There exists an application that copies information between SAP and Primavera called Inspire. Aker Subsea is interested in implementing this so that the planners will have more time to analyze and forecast potential pitfalls of the future. As the planning department in Aker Subsea has spent several years on building up their procedures, structure and manpower the time has come to implement the integration software. As ERP systems are modular then the integration can be seen as installing a new time planning module to the ERP system and for this there is done a lot of research into. There is a clear need for four specific things in an integration like this to be successful: “Top Management Support”, “ERP Teamwork and Composition”, “Project Management” and “Change Management Culture and Program”. BIM is a similar system to ERP, but with different functions. Research on this can be valuable to ERP implementations. As more research is done to BIM it becomes clear that interoperability between software is needed on many levels and between several disciplines. As time and progress is registered in the ERP system it is highly relevant to have that information in the planning tool.