Yara Manages Cost Increases in Reopened Projects with Cleopatra Enterprise

Yara, a global leader in the chemicals and fertilizers sector, faced a recurring issue in capital project management: the lack of standardized estimating process. Instead of relying on scattered Excel files, Yara wanted a single software solution to centralize all cost estimates in one system. This standardization would make it easier to store and reuse the knowledge acquired from past projects, while also enabling Yara to build and maintain their own centralized database.

Another major challenge was the cost impact of project restarts. Many Yara projects were stopped during the concept phase, only to be restarted years later. The problem? Significant cost increases due to changes in project scope. These scope changes, often triggered by new technical insights, led to higher CAPEX budgets and disrupted budget predictability.

Before implementing Cleopatra Enterprise’s capital project management platform, the strategy to manage scope and cost shifts largely involved manual communication with technical departments, which was often fragmented and difficult to standardize across teams and projects. Yara needed a centralized solution to bring consistency, control, and clarity to their estimating process, especially for long-term and reactivated projects.

In 2017, Yara decided to implement Cleopatra. From the outset, the Cleopatra team provided strong support, and the rollout process has yielded lasting benefits within the organization. To date, Yara’s experience has been overwhelmingly positive.  According to Yara, Cleopatra has proven to be “quite efficient” and offers a “good knowledge base,” enabling smoother internal workflows for project cost control.

Since its implementation, Yara has fully embedded Cleopatra’s cost estimating module into their workflow. “All estimates are now in the software. All the information is there and standardized. We use the same templates.”

In addition to standardized estimate templates, Yara also adopted standard project reporting formats, which have improved communication across departments and enhanced transparency in cost evaluations.

The collaboration with Cleopatra has been described as “really satisfying,” with excellent customer support and responsive service. What stands out most for Yara is the balance between robust software functionality and reliable service. Yara recommends Cleopatra Enterprise to other companies in the chemicals and industrial sectors, specifically highlighting its value for standardization and time savings in the estimating process.

This standardization has drastically reduced the time spent on estimate preparation and improved cross-project consistency, ensuring that technical changes are easier to manage and quantify in cost terms.

• Consistent and accurate cost estimates using standardized templates in Cleopatra.
• Faster estimate preparation with streamlined workflows and centralized data access.
• Support for benchmarking and historical data to strengthen the accuracy of future estimates.
• Easy access to all estimating information within Cleopatra, reducing data fragmentation.
• Improved control over reopened projects through clear scope tracking and documented costs.
• Reliable customer support and collaboration, strengthening trust in Cleopatra as a partner.
• Create own database