ESA has developed a procedure and its associated tool for calculating and aggregating in a reliable manner the price elements of the financial proposals through the whole contractual chain.
The tool is called ECOS, the ESA Costing Software.
With ECOS, the price proposal work can be partitioned through the industrial structure, and the proposals can be generated and passed to higher levels electronically.
The information presented is conform to the ESA standard costing and pricing requirements introduced in the ESA Conditions to Tender, and represented by the ESA PSS-A forms (Procedures, Standards and Specifications). An important feature in this process is the computerized integration of data at successive levels of the contract hierarchy, thus avoiding the onerous task of manual integration of data from several sources, a task that is both time-consuming and prone to errors.
The software package is distributed to companies doing business with
ESA free of charge and ESA periodically organises free training courses in
ESTEC.
A Video Training can also be downloaded together with the installation software or as stand alone download at any time.
From 2004, ECOS is under the full responsibility of the ESA Cost Engineering Section (TEC-SYC).
· Ensures consistency of data.
· Enables automatic printing of ESA PSS-A forms conformal to ESA requirements.
· Enables computerized tender integration at each contractual level.
· Provides a clear presentation of information and reduces paper volume.
· Incorporates information concerning the technical and programmatic baseline relevant to the cost proposal.
· Enables detailed, fair and rapid analysis of tenders at any level.
· Provides flexibility when proposal data needs to be changed at short notice.
· Allows the impact of changes to be simulated and facilitates updates of proposals in order to reflect the prices that are finally negotiated.
· Allows interfacing with internal company computerized costing system.
· Allows flexibility of input level detail, and allows information to be presented or extracted at any level.
· Provides commercial confidentiality.
ECOS is maintained for ESA by:
ESA Cost Engineering Section (TEC-SYC)
Telephone:
+31 71 565 32257
and it is under the responsibility of the Head of Cost Engineering Section, Mr. H. Joumier.
All questions must be referred to:
ECOS HelpDesk
E-mail:
ecoshelp@esa.int
Telephone:
+31 71 565 6500
Fax:
+31 71 565 6501
The latest software release is available on the ESTEC FTP server.
The companies wishing to download a copy are requested to register to the ECOS Help Desk providing the 4-digit ESA Supplier Code.
Download using FTP software as follows:
FTP address: ftp.estec.esa.nl
UserID: ecos
Password: it is provided by calling the ECOS Help Desk.
Please report any software errors/improvements/suggestions to the ECOS Help
Desk by e-mail or fax.
ECOS training courses are designed to advise users how to create
cost proposals in ECOS, including building the product tree (PT) and the work
breakdown structure (WBS), issuing ITTs to
subcontractors and integrating Tender Answers, as well as analysing the reports
produced by ECOS.
Please contact the Help Desk for information on the next course. All courses
take place at ESTEC Noordwijk,
Applications for this course are required to be submitted to the ECOS Help
Desk, by fax or e-mail, at your earliest convenience. The maximum number of
participants per company is normally restricted to two.
Video Training allows anyone having to submit ECOS
files associated to a financial proposal to get acquainted
with the application software within
an estimated time of half a working
day.
For practical reasons, it is recommended to initiate ECOS training or self training through the video training at the soonest to work efficiently and with confidence.