Standardizing Construction Codes in EcoSys with ICMS Fields
EcoSys leads the global project cost management market with built-in business intelligence tools such as intuitive dashboards and reports that provide visibility into portfolio and project performance. The recent release of new “out-of-the-box” capabilities in EcoSys (Standard Product v. EC2.02) introduces International Construction Measurements Standards (ICMS) codes, helping organizations achieve global consistency in classifying, defining, measuring, analyzing, and presenting constructions costs at a project, state, national or international levels.
The globalization of the construction industry adds an additional challenge for project cost managers by increasing the need for comparative analysis between countries and by international organizations, such as the IMF, the World Bank, NGOs, and regional development banks. EcoSys seamlessly implements ICMS codes enabling your organization to join the rest of the world in the practice of consistent project cost reporting and analysis across international boundaries. Now you can classify costs across the whole project life cycle and eliminate inconsistencies and discrepancies when accounting, comparing, and predicting project finances.
EcoSys ICMS Project Codes
With the incorporated ICMS fields, projects within EcoSys can be classified according to their principal purpose, as listed below.
Project costs can be broken down further as needed, according to the ICMS hierarchical framework implemented in EcoSys. This ICMS hierarchical framework consists of four levels: Level 1: Project or Sub-Project, Level 2: Cost Category, Level 3: Cost Group, and Level 4: Cost Sub-Group.
Easy Classification of Projects using EcoSys ICMS Codes
An EcoSys user can easily assign an ICMS Project Code to an EcoSys Project by navigating to the Projects > Project Setup screen and clicking the Project ID to display Project Details in the lower panel. Then the user selects the ICMS Common tab and sets the Main Project Type. Once the Main Project Type has been selected, the user can click on the Main Project Type to display a pop-up screen for capturing and displaying data that is unique for each of the ICMS Project Types.
The ICMS Common tab was added to Project Details to support ICMS fields. Construction cost price level, construction cost currency conversion, procurement, site details among several other ICMS cost fields can be maintained in the ICMS Common tab.
EcoSys ICMS Cost Categories and Groups
To categorize project costs further, ICMS Cost Categories and Groups can be tracked for EcoSys projects for future reporting and analysis. The ICMS Categories and Groups field was added to the General tab of the Project Structure screen.
ICMS Cost Category Values were implemented in EcoSys as follows: Acquisition Costs, Construction Costs, Renewal Costs, Operation Costs, Maintenance Costs, and End of Life Costs. Each ICMS Cost Category is broken down into Cost Groups and Cost Sub-Groups.
Easy Tracking of EcoSys ICMS Categories and Groups for your Projects
To assign ICMS Cost Categories and Groups to a Project, an EcoSys user navigates to the Project Structure screen and selects the Project Type to display the Project Structure Details screen. On the General tab, the user clicks on the ICMS Cost Categories and Groups field ellipsis to select one the ICMS Cost Categories or Groups.
EcoSys brings significant benefits to your organization’s construction project cost management practices by implementing ICMS. These EcoSys built-in ICMS features are optional and can be configured specifically to your organization’s requirements, starting with EcoSys EC2.02 through future releases.