ERP For The Construction Industry
By Sohini Bagchi
Bangalore, Mar 16, 2006

ERP has become the buzzword across verticals from manufacturing to accounting, engineering and design firms. Quadra Software Solutions, in partnership with SAP India, has launched SAP-Quadra, an ERP designed for the construction industry.

Joseph Philip, MD, Quadra Software Solutions and Srinivas Rao, Executive Director, small and medium enterprise, SAP India, discussed with CXOtoday as to how the new ERP will benefit the Indian construction industry.

The solution can be classified into Contractor Suite and Builder Suite. Contractor Suite features pre and post tender estimation, labour management, purchase and inventory management, billing and MIS based solutions. Whereas the Builder Suite has estimation and costing, labour management, client management, billing and site management.

About the niche focus of the company, Philip commented, "The focus of ERP has so far been on client organizations, such as manufacturing, retail or on engineering and design firms. However not much has been done for the construction industry, particularly for the construction contractors."

Rao commented about the partnership, "We have selected Quadra as partner for its best practices in the construction industry. With this, Quadra would become mySAP All-in-One partner and would incorporate Quadra's domain expertise to mySAP All-in-One solution to offer industry specific ERP solution."

On being asked about the benefits of the solution for the construction industry, he commented, "The construction industry needs to communicate on a large scale with other related businesses such as material and equipment suppliers, vendors, subcontractors and clients. SAP-Quadra can be used by construction companies to improve responsiveness in relation to customers, strengthen supply chain partnerships, enhance organizational flexibility, improve decision making capabilities and reduce project completion time and lower costs."

As part of its expansion plans, Quadra would soon be venturing the Middle East and African markets. In terms of future plans of the company, Philip said that Quadra is looking at doubling their head count in India by the end of this year.