Our expertise in international projects and the managements of large numbers of concurrent projects drew parallels with ABN AMRO’s objectives. Working in house with the ABN AMRO’s property team, we developed a project database to track live and historic work across all regions. The system captured cost data from construction projects worldwide and produced high-level and detailed estimates for capital budget reports, as well as other strategic cost management reports. The interfaces were developed to suit a range of users: from pivot graphs for high-level management to simple Excel import forms for users in satellite branches.

Analysis was then carried out in financial, procurement and organisational fields to identify best practice and implement new global procedures. Benefits to ABN

AMRO include:

• Bringing consistency and accuracy in the way costs are captured and categorised
• Reducing time spent looking for past project cost data
• Simple input/import forms (Excel cost estimate pro-forma) reduces data-capturing time
• Reproducing expert knowledge to create accurate estimates which can be substantiated
• An effective interactive reporting system for both project and senior management level