Commercial Services

GPDS provides a wide range of Commercial Services including Project Controls, Procurement, Supply Chain, Contract Management, Document Control and Field Finance/Accounting.

Project Controls

GPDS’ experience goes beyond the basics, or simply preparing, maintaining, and reporting a project’s schedule. The GPDS Project Controls team integrates with your project team and other subcontractors on scope, schedule, cost, and change management including planning, scheduling, measuring, and reporting. Our specialists will not only report progress but also identify any issues, recommend recovery actions and plans, and champion alternatives based on “what if scenarios,” allowing for timely decision-making to aggressively mitigate project risk. Deliverables from Project Controls include the following:

  • Integrated Master Schedule (IMS)—a single program schedule containing all authorized scope, scope relationships, project, and program milestones, within the systematic decomposition of scope or Work Breakdown Structure.

  • Baseline Schedule—the planned schedule integrating all scope and work activities.

  • Current Schedule—updated schedule data aligned to one date (data date) and published regularly.

  • Milestone Summary Schedule (MSS)—summary of scopes and relations to major milestones. This summary schedule is driven from the detailed project schedule updates and contrasted back to baseline schedule data.

  • Schedule Information—data and information from schedules and schedule updates including:

    • Start / finish metrics

    • Gatepost milestone status

    • Three week look ahead

    • Schedule variance reports

GPDS will tailor our cost control support to integrate with client applications—engineering, procurement, construction, finance, and accounting and provide accurate, timely reporting of costs, quantities, and commitments. Our approach includes:

  • Tracking of budgets, actual and earned hours, and cost values by the established Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

  • Standard cost reports

  • Cash flow projections

GPDS uses integrated cost/schedule baselines to measure performance and provide maximum visibility and control. The frequent collection, consolidation, analysis, and reporting of costs furnishes our clients with current, accurate status information to compare against project and contractor baselines. We track progress by obtaining and analyzing the work performed. The detailed integration of costs and schedules via the WBS enables us to time, sequence, and labor resource requirement and communicate any variances quickly and efficiently.

Procurement and Contracts Management 

Services include Competitive Tendering, Bid, Evaluation, Award (Technical Evaluation, Commercial Evaluation, and Letter of Recommendation to Award) and Sole Source determinations. GPDS integrates and administers proven and effective, cost and schedule management systems for current and planned scope for each project phase. We apply customized administrative, technical, and management processes across the contract. Our processes are designed to facilitate the successful completion of the contract scope of work. This includes:

  • Contracts management to ensure project controls

    • Provide work authorization, planning, and performance monitoring for all work

  • Information availability

    • Provide accurate and timely information on all critical management areas including: contract cost, work scheduling, work status, and work performance

  • Performance measurement

    • Provide processes and tools to measure cost, schedule, and administrative/technical performance

  • Continuous improvement

    • Improve work processes based on a system of performance metrics

  • Visibility

    • Accurate and consistent reporting

    • Containing all authorized scope

    • Timely identification of variances

    • Highly visible program designed to help prioritize the actions of the team

  • Simplicity

    • Flexibility to accommodate changes over the life of the project

  • Comprehensiveness

    • Integration of cost/schedule/scope

    • Incorporation of to-date history along with to-go projections

Document Control

A key aspect of a Contract Management program is preservation of data quality to ensure documented, auditable quality data. Our Document Control Specialists work with your project team to accomplish this preservation through using an established set of procedures tailored to your Document Management System (DMS). We ensure that the proper use of paper and electronic files; controls on signatures and signature authority; routing procedures; and marking, handling, and storage of documents, including of correspondence, e-mail messages, records of telephone conversations, and meeting minutes are maintained and stored in a timely manner. Document Control Specialists carefully review and establish records classification procedures, a Records Retention and Turnover Plan, and a roadmap for records use, which allows for an effective storage and disposition plan. Our Document Control specialists review all documents to ensure that they meet quality requirements, and then categorize and submit them to the DMS. 

Supply Chain Management

GPDS offers Supply Chain Management (SCM) solutions to provide visibility into mining operations for enhanced planning and scheduling of materials flow – from the blast site to the shipment of ore. Our solutions address mine-to-port shipping and logistics of mining enterprises as well as contractors. Our techniques rationalize inventory and working capital while facilitating demand-driven business planning.

Supply chain visibility improves governance and streamlines multi-modal transportation. Our supply chain solutions address demand fluctuations by aligning production plans with market trends, capacity, and constraints such as infrastructure and labor. We implement technologies to enhance the supply chain with robust asset and payment systems as well as reliable data management.

Field Finance/Accounting

F&A support assists clients with invoices/payables to vendors, integrated with Project Controls and the Work Breakdown Structure ensures effective Cost & Commitment Reports accuracy. Assists clients with monthly, quarterly, and yearly regulatory and filing requirements.

  • Sarbanes-Oxley compliance

  • Assistance with payroll

  • Invoice review of all contractors and consultant invoices to ensure contract compliance

  • Creation of reports that ensure client data requirements are met with the highest quality