MGP, the consortium responsible for the construction management on the new Terminal Building at Toronto Pearson International Airport, reviewed several off-the-shelf products that provided project cost control capabilities. All were found to be too cumbersome to implement quickly and efficiently. As a result, Giffels was requested to develop the software that provided the required functionality on this project.


The client requested that the system be simple to use and flexible enough to handle cost control reporting from the early stages of a project, where contract details are minimal, through to completion. The system must also be capable of importing/exporting data from several construction managers into an efficient data structure to provide monthly reporting to the client in a timely manner.

An organized and flexible data structure was developed by analyzing existing data and all reporting requirements. The result was a database that provided the capability to adopt itself to both coarse or fine levels of detail and implementation. Microsoft Access™ 2000 was used as the development platform.

An organization specific WBS structure was incorporated into the design to standardize data entry and maintain a multi-level grouping of sub projects within the overall project structure. The duration of the project was considered in developing the data tables to enable budget changes through escalations, transfers, reallocations and change orders.

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