Information Technology for Project Cost Management (Case study: Soufian Cement Co, Iran)

In today's competitive world, reduction of production costs has become one of the corporates priorities. Survival triangle (cost, quality and time) is the solution that helps companies focus on these three dimensions and have the ability to compete with other companies. Cost management is the first step in this way that providing solutions and advice to managers who need help to have a precise estimate of the costs and enable them to control costs in the anticipated budget framework. The main objective of this research is the evaluation of relationship between information technology and project cost management from viewpoint of Soufian Cement Co executives. According to statistical population of research encompasses all company managers (n= 35), the sampling method that used is census-type and depending on the nature of the topic, a researcher-made questionnaire method (Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 88% for IT questionnaire and 81% for project cost management questionnaire) used for data collection. Preliminary results showed that the level of usage of information technology and project cost management in the company is moderate. Due to normality of all the data, Pearson correlation coefficient test was used for data analysis. The overall results showed that there is a significant relationship between information technology and project cost management, but there is no possibility to control costs by using information technology.