An Overview of The Most Common EVMS Cost Engines

Earned Value Cost Engines maintain integrated resource/cost and schedule data for one or more programs. They manage change to the baseline, collect actual costs and work performed, and forecast/project remaining and at completion costs.

The most common cost engines that we see are:

• EVMS forProject
• Deltek Cobra
• EcoSys
• Deltek MPM
• Primavera Earned Value Management
• Dekker Trakker

EVMS forProject was built by forProject and is the only EVM software tool designed to work closely with Microsoft Project Server and SharePoint.  It is unique among EVM software tools in its ability to seamlessly synchronize schedule and resource data from Microsoft Project Server.

Deltek acquired Cobra as part of their acquisition of Welcom Software in 2007. The most recent version is Cobra 5.2. Deltek Cobra is a powerful, configurable, and robust product. It runs on Oracle or MS SQL Server databases. It comes with the standard CPRs and many other standard reports. It has good integration with the Deltek Open Plan, Primavera P6 and Microsoft Project scheduling engines. Cobra also has the ability to process multiple programs.

EcoSys EPC (Enterprise Planning & Controls) was designed specifically to drive full lifecycle project controls.  The EcoSys team developed the original Oracle Primavera project management suite (now P6) and has leveraged their experience to develop EPC. EcoSys introduced EPC in 2006 as a cost management and controls system.  EPC has inherent PM and Cost Management functionality but also excels in integrating data from multiple Enterprise COTS and custom systems used in large enterprises.  EPC is quickly becoming a standard for large organizations and complex Program Management.

Primavera Cost Manager (now Oracle Primavera Earned Value) was originally licensed by Primavera and then purchased a few years ago. It is a capable and scalable product, although difficult to configure and expensive to run.

Deltek acquired MPM from Planview. Deltek MPM runs on the btrieve database and is positioned more for the single program environment. It is simpler to use and more suitable for hands-on use by CAMs than Cobra or Primavera Cost Manager.

Dekker Trakker provides both a scheduling engine and a cost engine. Schedules from Microsoft Project can be included, but there is no integration with other scheduling engines or cost engines.

Pinnacle has integrated many combinations of Cost Engines, Scheduling Engines and ERP of Finance Systems.

The most common examples are:

Deltek Cobra integrated with Microsoft Project or MS Project Server and:

• Deltek Costpoint
• Microsoft Dynamics ERP
• SAP
• Oracle Financials

Deltek Cobra integrated with Oracle Primavera P6 and:

• Oracle Financials 
• SAP