watson@cbnewsl.att.com (laura.k.watson) (08/08/90)
I am in need of some kind of software package for quoting. I'm not a computer science type - just a project engineer type these days. I may not know the right words to explain what I need, but here goes anyway. We need to be able to put bill of material tree structures in and have the system perform something sort of like an MRP (that's Material Requirements Planning) function to add up how many of each different parts. We need to be able to put labor estimates in. We need to be able to have it interogate historical files of pricing information on parts we have purchased previously. We need to be able to have it crunch all numbers and come up with the big number like $500 million or so. It needs to be able to be flexible enough to have what if capabilities, like what if we ship these systems in a different order, what if we order all the parts at one time up front or split it up into smaller quantities of orders. Is there anything like this out there? Am I posting this in the right newsgroup? Please don't tell me I can do all these things with an ordinary garden variety spreadsheet, I'm really wanting something more application-specific. Any advice or pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. Laura Watson