Oracle Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management

Project management is one of the most demanded approaches to the organization of activity of the companies and the organizations worldwide. Information solutions for project management become an important part of IT landscapes of the project-oriented enterprises. The complex of the products Oracle Primavera provides unified information environment and allows to solve effectively problems to all project participants: from final contractors to upper managers.

Oracle Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (PPM) 8

Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (PPM) 8 provides to large enterprises the platform for the organization of management and control which supports decision making process on a strategic corporate project portfolio and also helps the companies and the organizations to approve use of the available resources with the priorities.

The version of Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management 8, being for 100% the web focused solution for management of project portfolios (PPM, Project Portfolio Management), provides faster deployment and adaptation, a possibility of joint work in a single system at the global level and also provides "a uniform version of the truth" for decision support. It allows the enterprise to have an exhaustive idea of projects of any scale and complexity which can be managed in the environment of the uniform PPM solution.

Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management 8 supports the business analysis and business process management. It helps to create the project portfolios which are completely approved with the corporate purposes and tasks.

Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management 8 is integrated with Oracle Primavera P6 Analytics, Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) and Oracle Unified BPM Suite for business process automation that is necessary for effective management by the enterprise. The new version is also integrated with Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne.

New opportunities of Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management 8 allow the organizations:

• Approve PPM processes with organizational goals and strategy through business process automation, templates of projects, flexible use of data of PPM and the approved application of the best practical methods of management of a project portfolio;
• Use expansion and improvement of the user opportunities at the level of applications for acceleration of mastering and implementation and also achievement of complete transparency of control of projects;
• Reduce risks and raise degree of satisfaction of customers and clients thanks to invariable accomplishment of the undertaken obligations under projects;
• Provide the unified templates and reports for a guarantee of coordination of performance measures and forecasting;
• Optimize resource management through performance improvement and scalabilities, expanded event management and the upgraded architecture which is simpler for implementing and implementing.

Information corporate system of project management  of Primavera allows to provide all role project participants with the specialized tools intended for accomplishment of the most various tasks. The interface of each software module allows the user to obtain necessary project information, at the same time, without being overloaded with excessive functionality or data. Software of Primavera allows to create the interaction environment for all project participants. Working in this environment, project participants obtain project information in which they are involved irrespective of the executed role – the contractor responsible or the head.

To software of Primavera it is intended for process automation of project management according to requirements of PMI, IPMA and the ISO standards.

The Oracle Primavera company develops and continuously improves a specialized software for project management since 1983. During this time in the market 2 generations of software products of Primavera were replaced.

All software modules of Primavera provide storage and data processing on all projects of the company in the uniform data warehouse built based on DBMS Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server (at the choice of the customer).

Project Management is held for use as a part of a corporate information system though it can quite work and is autonomous, providing solving of tasks of scheduling and network planning, calculation of a critical path, alignment of resources, what-if of the analysis and other problems of modeling of projects, project groups, portfolios and programs.

Methodology Management allows to save and use further the knowledge base of the company on project management.

The functional modules myPrimavera constructed on modern web technologies form the web portal of projects of the company and have all necessary potential for control and data analysis on project portfolios (myPrimavera Portfolios), project management, development and updating of diagrams (myPrimavera Projects), resource management and roles (myPrimavera Resources), to tracking of processes of initiation and project change, document management, etc. (Collaboration). The special module Primavera PertMaster is intended for identification, qualitative and quantitative risks assessment.

Even the most perfect scheduling and network diagrams will instantly turn into the beautiful, but useless picture if the procedure of collecting of actual data and updatings of diagrams is not provided with special software tools. The choice of the software tool is defined by detailing of resources, requirements to the actual information and available communications between participants. If all contractors have access to a local network of the company or to the Internet, and actual data should be collected and affirm regularly at the end of some time frame, then in this case users need the simple and convenient means allowing to receive structure of works for a time frame and to report on them in real time. These opportunities are given by the functional module Primavera Timesheets. However not always the company can provide employees with continuous access to network. The situation when on works of the Customer Contractors, which not registered access in corporate network of the Customer report is also possible. In these cases there are relevant other means for control and accounting of project works which should work in the mode of lack of permanent connection to network. PM.exchange treats such means. For the contractors working at remote objects the solution for the CPC – Sensory Pro Tracker is provided.

The modules expanding the main functionality of Primavera (PM.soft series)

When implementing large-scale projects with a large number of the participating organizations processes of interaction between participants become one of factors of the greatest influence on terms and project cost. The modules PM.contract and PM.procurement provide process automation of management, respectively, with agreements and deliveries in projects. Thanks to them, information on the signed agreements and the supplied equipment can automatically coordinate with scheduling and network diagrams in Primavera. Also processes of document flow between the organizations (processes of approval of documents, the issue of the design and estimate documentation and RD, obtaining allowing documentation, information requests entering / outgoing correspondence, minutes of meetings) and also the operational reporting from contractors with places about a platform status, weather conditions, etc. are subject to automation. The system of administrative support of the Contract Management projects provides automation of these processes and allows to minimize the risks connected with documentary support of projects.

Problems of scheduling and network planning are solved also by Primavera Contractor. Its features — only single-user work once with the diagram of one project limited by the number of works.

Oracle Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management 8.3 (EPPM)

The new opportunities implemented in Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management 8.3 (EPPM) will allow the organizations to conform more precisely to requirements and it is better to standardize process of management of a project portfolio (Portfolio Management, PPM). Besides, the solution offers advanced functions of preparation of reports, more user-friendly interface and close integration with applications.

New opportunities of the module Primavera P6 Team Member facilitate work of users, increase efficiency, improve decision making and reporting due to transparency of project implementation and support of joint work on the scale of all enterprise.

A set of new features of visualization gives users even more practical information, presenting difficult design data in the form of the evident graphic reporting. The new version of the solution also allows the organizations to approve diagrams, budgets and expenses, helping to guarantee financial integrity of projects through the improved integration with Primavera Unifier Oracle application.

"To reduce costs, to minimize risks and to report evident results of work to all key project participants, corporate systems of project management should combine flexibility and convenience of control — Yasser Mahmud, the vice president of global division of Oracle Primavera Global Business Unit for product strategy and industrial marketing emphasized. — The new version of Oracle Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management has such properties, combining advanced functions of the analysis and reporting, new mobile opportunities and convenience of using. Powerful expansions will help our customers to optimize project implementation, programs and project portfolios due to increase in efficiency of project teams, predictability of portfolios and overall effectiveness of project management".

Opportunities and improvements of Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management 8.3 allow:

• in details to keep track of interrelations thanks to the improved functionality of charts of Gant (schedules of execution of works) and the scaled network diagram;
• reduce project risks using new filters of job sharing between project participants. It will increase flexibility and will always help project managers and top managers to have necessary information quickly to reveal the problems influencing an adherence to deadlines and to take measures;
• ensure united functioning of a project team thanks to fixing of the discussed subjects between team members and project managers;
• use new mobile opportunities for performance improvement of a project team and guarantee timely providing to all project participants necessary powers and access rights;
• optimize processes by updating of the crucial information collected in management systems for dresses on execution of works and assets via the Primavera P6 Team Member interfaces;
• facilitate use with setup of column headings directly on plans and charts for compliance to corporate standards and new options of import/export for more effective contractor interaction, subcontractors and suppliers and also expanded functions of printing for various requirements to the reporting;
• integrate Primavera P6 EPPM and Oracle Primavera Unifier by binding of projects, code assignment of costs of Oracle Primavera Unifier directly to the Primavera P6 EPPM tasks and also automation of process of synchronization of data.

Oracle Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management 8.4 (EPPM)

The Oracle corporation provided release 8.4 of Primavera P6 EPPM in the fall of 2014. In this release the significant improvements of functionality increasing efficiency of work with the software solution and its ergonomics were declared. In release the following innovations are implemented:

• The integration of P6 EPPM and Unifier Cost Controls allowing to compare the diagram, the budget and project cost is improved.
• The Team Member 8.4 application integrated in one solution Progress Reporter and Team Member for a time recording and tracking of the statuses of execution of works.
• There was a possibility of transfer of global data between the Primavera P6 EPPM databases.
• In use instruments of updating of target plans and import of projects became more convenient.
• There was a possibility of viewing the list of the users working in the project at present.
• For simplification of installation and administration of P6 Professional in a standalone mode the SQLite database is used now.
• New features for the Visualizer service intended for submission of the line chart are added.
• The Team Member 8.4 application is supported on IOS and Android devices, including offline on iPad and iPhone.

2011

Oracle Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (PPM) 9

The Oracle corporation announced in September, 2011 release of the solution Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management 9. The new version is designed to help the organizations more flexibly, is transparent and to precisely exercise control of project portfolios according to effective objectives.

Primavera Portfolio Management 9 allows to optimize reconciliation procedures and working activity using new opportunities of business process automation thanks to what the speed of decision making and performance of resources also increases. At the same time, the new version helps to increase information transparency, involving bigger number of employees of the enterprise in process of management of projects. It, in turn, leads to expansion of interaction between them and elimination of uncertainty in a question of responsibility for decision making, says Oracle.

Improvements include the optimized user interface unified for solutions of the Oracle Primavera complex that facilitates mastering of a product by end users in Primavera Portfolio Management 9.

Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management is the scalable, web focused solution for project management and project portfolios (Project and Portfolio Management, PPM). The product provides the functionality and configurability necessary for management of portfolios of any type: from formation of the idea to its implementation, developers claim.

"The organizations aim to increase the speed and accuracy of the made decisions and to avoid creation of the systems and Wednesdays limiting possibilities of personnel with tough structures and nonflexible processes — Mike Sicilia, the senior vice president of global division of Oracle Primavera Global Business Unit noted. — The new version of Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management meets these requirements, optimizing different processes, including decision making that helps to increase economic return from project portfolios. Besides, the new user interface is an evident confirmation that Oracle provides completely integrated comprehensive corporate EPPM solution for project management and project portfolios".

In the whole Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management 9 allows the organizations to accelerate receiving return from projects thanks to: to the simplified setup and use of the graphical interface that facilitates work and reconciliation procedures, increases performance, does more effective decision making process; to the improved information access due to upgrade of means of the early notification, increase in efficiency of data analysis and enhanced capabilities of annotation (supply of data with comments, notes, explanations and links); to use of closely integrated complex of products with the unified, standard user interface designed to facilitate mastering of products and to increase performance.

2013

Oracle Primavera Unifier 9.12

The Oracle corporation announced in the spring of 2013 the new version of the product Oracle Primavera Unifier which provides a cloud solution for project management and material objects of any size in the vertical markets. In version 9.12 new opportunities for planning of capital investments, cost control and interaction with third parties are implemented. The solution is a part of a complex of the solutions Oracle Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM) for the industries with intensive project activity.

"The optimized integration into Oracle Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management, intuitive user functions for design of business processes and the increased security will help to reduce costs for implementation and to simplify to users system learning and also to accelerate payback of the solution" — said in corporation.

So, Oracle Primavera Unifier of version 9.12 allows: provide financial integrity of projects, giving an opportunity to approve diagrams, budgets and costs through direct integration with Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management; simplify design, increase convenience of work and expand possibilities of users, providing the unified environment for testing, configuring and deployment of Primavera Unifier; increase efficiency of IT and optimize business processes thanks to complete use of resources of the modern equipment and program architecture and also due to integration with products of the Oracle Fusion Middleware complex, including Oracle Identity Management, Oracle WebLogic Server and Oracle WebCenter Content; increase security of applications and data thanks to new uniform multi-user architecture.

"Using the new version of Primavera Unifier the Oracle corporation will help the organizations to reach full control over capital investments by optimization and integration of crucial business processes, data and documents. The improved integration and new opportunities for such tasks as planning of capital investments, cost control and project implementation, will promote fast mastering of the solution by users and will accelerate payback" — Yasser Mahmud, the vice president of global division of Oracle Primavera Global Business Unit for product strategy and industrial marketing reported CNews.

2014

Primavera Portfolio Management 9.1

On December 11, 2014 Oracle announced the new version of Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management 9.1 with new features for the organization of workflows, management and control, expanded support of the Internet browser for achievement of higher level of flexibility, efficiency and knowledge of managers at decision making on a portfolio of projects.

Program window screenshot

The new version of a product gives to the companies additional opportunities for optimization and arrangement of priorities of corporate investment portfolios, reductions of non-productive, excess costs.

Enhanced capabilities of the organization of workflows and the procedure of the early notification in the new application version allow to reach new levels of control automation of a portfolio of projects that promotes increase in efficiency and accuracy of the decisions on the strategic investments made by the enterprises and also improvement of efficiency of use of resources and increase in transparency.

Advantages of Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management 9.1

• Business users can execute search in several criteria, such as status of project implementation or start date of implementation of the project and to act on the basis of search results – increasing knowledge of projects and investments, and improving management efficiency for optimization of investment and use of resources.

• The companies can improve understanding of management processes and control using new connections with numerous functions of workflows, including charts and reports.

• Heads can accelerate processes of approval and a statement, to make more operational decisions and to avoid project implementation delays thanks to email notifications which contain references to specific tasks now.

Expanded support of Internet browsers facilitates to users access to the solution. The new version of a system supports the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser of versions 8, 9, 10 and 11.

New planning process and control allows the companies to define more precisely the key purposes of the strategic corporate investments, presenting them in the measurable form, to offer initiatives which will be approved with strategy and organization mission, to select the directions and to define priority of investments on the basis of accurate economic cases for justified solutions.

Improvements of the new version help to manage proactively a portfolio of projects by means of control of activity within projects, estimating efficiency of a portfolio of projects in real time, comparing the current and earlier data retrieveds between terms of control checks for identification of discrepancies and potential problems, to regulate process of project implementation increasing, reducing or canceling investment financing if necessary.

2015

Oracle released accelerators of cloud services of Primavera Project Portfolio Management

For the aid to the companies which are carrying out the transformations caused by regulation gain, changes of competitive environment or continuous implementation of innovations the Oracle corporation released three new accelerators of cloud services for management of corporate project portfolios (Enterprise Project Portfolio Management, EPPM) in the financial services industry, public sector and the sphere of engineering design and construction.

For April 4, 2015 a system is equipped with new accelerators:

• Oracle Business Process Portfolio Management Cloud Accelerator — to support transformation of business in financial institutions, continual process improvement and observance of the changing regulating regulations, the solution provides a full range of functionality for management, tracking and implementation of the innovation initiatives, operational projects and changes in processes on the scale of all enterprise. This accelerator supplements analytical opportunities of applications for risk management and accomplishment of the regulating regulations, such as Oracle Financial Services Operational Risk, creating the complete solution for change management in the financial services industry.

• Oracle Public Infrastructure Monitoring Cloud Accelerator — Public institutions at any levels invest in infrastructure projects for quality improvement of life of citizens, reducing unnecessary costs and increasing efficiency. To help to manage in the best way difficult projects, the solution Oracle Public Infrastructure Monitoring Cloud Accelerator provides the descending planning and the ascending monitoring of projects, increasing efficiency of infrastructure changes for any types of public administration — from federal to centralized.

• Oracle Contract Management Cloud Accelerator — In the field of engineering design and construction projects are executed collectively — contractors and owners should coordinate actions and cooperate to control contract management and to provide compliance of costs to expectations. Oracle Contract Management Cloud Accelerator provides to such organizations previously configured, flexible rules and processes, allowing them to start quickly contract management and cost control during all project lifecycle using the system keeping business development and satisfaction of the growing requirements.

Oracle Primavera in the form of the complete solution

On December 3, 2015 the Oracle corporation proposed the solution for management of project costs, diagrams and amounts of works at the enterprise and in a cloud - the upgraded complex of the solutions Oracle Primavera.

Many organizations begin the projects of transformation covering a set of territorial subdivisions, internal and external participants who demand transparency at the level of the top management. The companies understand need of such projects, but their execution - a task not trivial. The advanced version of a complex of the solutions Oracle Primavera is focused on support of effective implementation of projects, proposing single solution for cost management, diagrams and amounts of works on projects.

As a part of major version of an opportunity, applicable Primavera — Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management in all product portfolio Primavera Unifier Oracle Primavera Prime, Primavera Analytics and Primavera Gateway. At any model of implementation, in a cloud environment or directly at the enterprise — users are given all range of functionality:

• managements of amounts of works on projects and results — in the uniform integrated complex. The updated complex of solutions offers means of budgeting and assessment of the project progress on the basis of operational data, helping project managers to plan more precisely, to perform project works and to manage them. Thus, the companies can manage information in the integrated hierarchies of costs, works and structures of projects, providing unprecedented control over their accomplishment.

• receiving role information access and to means of collective work. Project participants can obtain necessary information using mobile devices now — from relevant fill rates of the projects updated in real time to analytical indicators of costs, diagrams and business processes — that provides the complete transparency necessary for acceptance of optimal solutions.

• the analysis and comparison of cost data and diagrams on the scale of all enterprise. Users can quickly get data access about project statuses and if necessary perform operations, using the unified analytical representations and the configured dashboards. The solution for the business analysis offers ready representations and also the possibilities of configuring allowing the companies to modify dashboards according to individual requirements for identification of trends, tracking of efficiency, accomplishment of the analysis of root causes, cost forecasting and cash flow.

• integration of a complex with ERP systems for the best project management on the scale of all enterprise. Information for management of project portfolios often arrives from ERP systems therefore such integration is extremely important. Primavera supports double-sided integration with ERP systems, providing to project participants access to operational updates that they could calculate precisely and effectively predicted cash flows, manage budgets and obligations and also to effectively use the existing management systems.

Mike Sicilia, the senior vice president and the CEO of division of Oracle Primavera Global Business Unit, noted:

- There are huge changes — the organizations begin to invest less in maintenance, directing more investments to innovations. It fundamentally changes the project definition and methods of management over them. It is necessary to execute projects so that the received results provided real and considerable benefits therefore the question "how will we make it?" becomes crucial. Being the leading solution provider for enterprise project management, Oracle aims to assist the companies in all industries in the answer to this question, providing the uniform complex of solutions designed to satisfy specific requirements on project management for any industries and unrolled both in corporate and in cloud environments.