IN the contracting and construction sector where project estimation, project costing and optimum resource utlisation are key to successfully managing a project, the UAE-based Synergy Software Systems offers an end-to-end contracts management software for any contracting and construction company.

The software offers modules for project estimation, financial accounting, requisition and procurement, project invoicing, project costing, subcontractor management, assets and plant management, and labour costing, which can offer tangible benefits to medium to large-scale business establishments alike.
Explaining about the software, a spokesman for the company says: “The estimation software is a powerful yet easy-to-use tool, which provides the flexibility to create data libraries for labour, material, plant, subcontractor, and composite activities such as installation of duct, etc, allowing users to create estimates much quicker and with ease.
“The software offers several useful features that can save a lot of time of the estimators who work under tremendous pressure of delivering estimates in tight timeframes. For example, BOQ (bill of quantities) can be input via disk in ASCII format, via OCR (optical character recognition) or can be scanned in for pricing. Waste outputs and rates can be adjusted and automatically calculated and included in budgeted/purchase quantity. With the drill down facility, percentage or lump sum markup price can be added or deducted across the whole estimate, section, group, or specific resource. Full analytical breakdown of labour, plant, material and subcontractors is produced automatically for use with enquiries.”
“This industry-specific estimation software, which has a wide array of functions, can act as a bridge between estimation and other departments and can offer valuable savings in terms of time, expense and energy,” the spokesman maintains.
“Project costing modules capture real-time information that can help project staff to analyse each project in a way that provides the right level of control and detail. A multi-level cost structure allows cost/budget reporting and enquiry at summary and detailed levels. This allows users to get an instant view of project progress and drill down into the transaction details, for example, a user can start from a summary information at the project level and drill down to the purchasing transactions, across purchase orders or purchase invoices, and even view the invoice image. The system ensures quick access to cost, value, budget, and committed cost information in numerous user-definable layouts,” the spokesman adds.
The system can also help managers in asset management by defining assets, allocating asset cost to projects, applying overhead costs, maintaining expenditure, monitoring asset utilisation, tracking assets, tracking supplier orders and invoices for hired-in assets, and analysing asset profitability.
Established in 1990, Synergy Software has plotted a steady growth over the years and is considered among the top IT solution providers in the Middle East for numerous sectors including construction and contracting, real estate and facilities management, time and attendance, and access control.
Today the company offers a wide range of professional services that includes product implementation, integration services and management consultancy.
“We are not in the business of just selling software, but we provide lasting solutions to our clients. Our association with the clients has raised our status among the top few in the market,” says the spokesman.
Emphasising on the importance of reliable information, the spokesman says, “In modern-day construction management business, working on tight margins is a facet of all contractors and reliable information flow is vital to maintain levels of profitability. All key personnel  working on a project require real-time reliable information that can only come from a common pool of information, which enables them to manage their projects in a co-ordinated and efficient way. This is a key to success in competitive market place such as the Middle East,” says the spokesman.
“By utilising the experience gained in planning and implementing business systems for last 13 years we have formalised a system for software implementation. This methodology is to define and document the life-cycle of a typical software implementation. It has been devised to assist the project team in the successful identification of tasks and the subsequent achievement of all project life cycle stages. For a project to succeed, it is vital that each part of the life-cycle is properly executed and fundamentally complete before moving to the next stage,”  the spokesman concludes.