November 2018 – Most MPM users are aware of Deltek to discontinuing support of their MPM Cost Tool at the end of 2018.
MPM users now have to decide between continuing to use MPM without support and needed updates or transitioning to another cost tool.
The risks associated with the first option are obvious, especially in the long term, but the second option also has potential risks and pain. Deltek is promoting Cobra as the “heir apparent” to MPM. The thinking seems to be that most MPM users will decide to move to Cobra; however, there are many users expressing serious concerns with such a move. These concerns involve the migration difficulty of legacy and current data, the degree of difficulty with using Cobra for custom report generation, the training required to learn the very different interface, the high cost of use and many other aspects.
For the past four years OPDEC has included its IPM Cost Module as an integral part of IPM. With a familiar look and feel to MPM, current MPM users will be able to transition to the IPM cost module easily. With IPM already interfacing with MPM, set up and migration of data is fast and efficient since IPM can utilize standard MPM exports. Another benefit to converting to IPM is the cost module is one of many elements within the IPM software. Users will be able to seamlessly employ other areas of IPM, like the LRE or BCR modules, without the need for additional licensing or cost.
IPM has interfaced with MPM since its inception. Because of this, implementing an MPM migration to IPM is a quick and simple process. Since IPM is a web-based software, only a single installation of the software is needed. Once installed, the IPM ‘global’ cost profile is created. This is typically a one-time setup, which identifies standard items such as the accounting calendar, departments, resources, burdens and rate decks. Most of this information can be easily imported by using data from MPM. Additionally, program specific information and user access will need to be populated.
After this foundational data is complete, the cost data is taken from MPM using 6 standard exports. These files are then imported to IPM where a multitude of compliance checks are run to validate and identify any data issues. With all issues resolved, a single click converts the MPM data to the IPM cost module. The typical program conversion can be done in minutes.
