Hard Dollar Speeds Project Estimating, Scheduling and Job Tracking Through Enhanced Integrations with Primavera(R) and Microsoft Excel(R)
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Hard Dollar Speeds Project Estimating, Scheduling and Job Tracking Through Enhanced Integrations with Primavera(R) and Microsoft Excel(R)

TEMPE, Ariz.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—February 13, 2008— Hard Dollar Corporation(R), the leading provider of budget - and performance-based project management solutions, today launched the latest version of its Enterprise and Workgroups editions. Construction teams using Hard Dollar version 2008.1 will further simplify the transfer of project information between departments through additional integration points with Primavera and Microsoft. Version 2008.1 provides more flexibility to dynamically create cost models according to each client's needs with less administrative effort, resulting in faster turn-around of estimates. This flexibility will also create more compatible workflows and schedule management between project owner, contractor and subcontractors, further reducing errors and time spent re-keying data.

"Contractors, owners and subcontractors spend a great deal of time coordinating processes for each project simply because their technology systems and internal processes differ," explains Alistair Johnson-Clague, Hard Dollar's president and CEO. "By continuing to partner with industry leaders like Autodesk(R), Microsoft, Primavera and Vertigraph(R), Hard Dollar is delivering on the promise of more tightly integrated, flexible and easy-to-use systems that will make it easier for project teams to collaborate. In the competitive construction industry, the contractors with the ability to adapt to the needs of their clients will always be successful."

Hard Dollar's "out-of-the-box" integration provides construction teams with greater decision-making capabilities and fewer IT headaches by dynamically tying leading systems together. Hard Dollar customers attribute savings of thousands of man-hours per year and 10% under-budget project completion to using Hard Dollar from the estimating through close-out phases of construction projects.

The following enhancements are now available for Primavera users:

-- Create a new job from an existing Primavera project. To help construction teams integrate project planning data from many internal and external sources, Hard Dollar now allows creation of a new job from an existing Primavera project so that customers can leverage project scope and WBS information already entered in Primavera, and retain schedule logic while using Hard Dollar to produce a detailed estimate and budget for the project. Once the Hard Dollar job folder is created, all other components of the Primavera integration (costs and resources) are available.

-- Collaborative schedule management. To improve the ability for contractors, owners and subcontractors to manage schedules together, version 2008.1 offers the following: options for activity ID and work breakdown structure (WBS) mapping; mapping of Hard Dollar tags to Primavera fields; flexibility in managing duration discrepancies between Hard Dollar and Primavera; the ability to add and maintain activities in Primavera that are not affected by synching with Hard Dollar; and the ability to transfer Hard Dollar account codes to Primavera.

The following major enhancements are also available in Hard Dollar version 2008.1:

-- Flexible cost breakdown structure import from Excel. Since cost model requirements typically come at least in part from another party, Hard Dollar now offers a highly flexible data transfer from Excel to help contractors be more flexible in accommodating client requirements, while eliminating omissions or inaccuracies caused by manual data entry. Simply move estimating, scheduling or take-off data to Hard Dollar using Excel for import.

-- User-defined cost segmentation. Now contractors can categorize costs with complete flexibility in order to prepare cost models exactly as they wish. Any cost item in the estimate can now be categorized explicitly as direct or indirect, in addition to user-defined cost categories such as Labor, Equipment, Materials, and more.

-- Platform support. Hard Dollar version 2008.1 provides formal support for Microsoft Office Excel 2007, Microsoft Project 2007, Microsoft SQL Server 2005, Microsoft Windows Vista, and Primavera 6.0.

Hard Dollar version 2008.1 also includes innovations and ideas collected from Hard Dollar customers.

To date, Hard Dollar's budget- and performance-based project management solutions have been utilized worldwide to manage projects totaling more than $1 trillion. Hard Dollar solutions are highly scalable and easy to integrate with existing systems, including accounting systems, ERP, Primavera, Microsoft Project and Microsoft Office.

About Hard Dollar Corporation

Hard Dollar's budget- and performance-based project management solutions help engineering, construction, power and energy organizations to streamline project processes from the early budgeting and conceptual estimating phase, through project closeout and analysis. Hard Dollar customers save valuable time and expense by identifying and modeling projects that align with the organization's goals; determining cash flow through all phases of projects; coordinating planning and execution processes; and achieving the visibility needed to execute consistently on project plans.

For more than 18 years, Hard Dollar has been the standard in project modeling and execution solutions. By partnering with its customers and other leading technology providers, Hard Dollar now provides an end-to-end solution that allows organizations to make better use of existing systems used to manage projects, create a complete Building Information Modeling (BIM) solution and further improve productivity and collaboration across the enterprise.

Hard Dollar is used to manage more than $1 trillion in projects for leading organizations including Aecon, Alstom Power, Duke Energy, Tetra Tech and Zachry Construction Corporation. Project-driven organizations managing complex capital, civil, highway, industrial, infrastructure, maintenance and turnaround projects are finding consistent success by using Hard Dollar to manage the interaction of costs, resources, schedules and cash flow. For more information, contact Hard Dollar at info@harddollar.com.

Contact:

Hard Dollar Corporation
Katie Hall, 480-776-2934
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