ECOS – The ESA Costing Software

Introduction to ECOS

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 Self-Training Manual can also be downloaded together with the installation software or as stand-alone download document at any time.

From 2004, ECOS is under the full responsibility of the ESA Cost Engineering Section (TEC-SYC).

ECOS Features

· Ensures consistency of data and guarantees the total price aggregation including in highly complex industrial team structures cases.

· 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.

About ECOS

Management

ECOS is maintained for ESA by:

ESA Cost Engineering Section (TEC-SYC)
Telephone:             +31 71 565 3227

and it is under the responsibility of the Head of Cost Engineering Section, Mr. H. Joumier.

 All questions must be referred to:

 ECOS Help Desk

E-mail:                  ecoshelp@esa.int

Telephone:             +31 71 565 6500
Fax:                      +31 71 565 6501

How to get the latest version of ECOS software

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 their 10-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

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, Netherlands.

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.

Self-Training Manual allows anyone having to submit ECOS files associated to a financial proposal to get acquainted with the application software within an estimated time of a normal working day.

For practical reasons, it is recommended to initiate ECOS training via the self-training document at the soonest to work efficiently and with confidence. Further training and associated advices delivered during the training sessions at ESTEC may complement this initial training.

The Self-Training now exists in two versions:

· The Full Self-Training Manual including all ECOS 5 features (count 8 hours for completing it)

· The simplified version intended for lowest sub-contracting tiers i.e. that do not need to send ITTs further down and Select/Integrate corresponding tender files (count 2 hours for completing it)

To open or download the Self-Training Manual version of your choice, click on the corresponding Icon her below: 

1 -  Full Self-Training                              2 - No-Sub-cos simplified Self-Training