Oracle Primavera P6 v7 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management – New Release

Oracle released a new version of the existing popular product P6 EPPM. Surprisingly, this new release is still called P6 but has a revised release number, v7. The new product is called “Oracle Primavera P6 v7 EPPM”. Many organizations would like to know what new features are added and bug fixes incorporated. I will try to discuss a few main enhancements, and your IT/PMO teams can review and determine if your organization is ready to upgrade to this release.

Improvements:

• Open Enterprise Architecture
  • Event-Driven Architecture: Developers can now utilize this new feature to write “event-driven” triggers and build an integration to any product. Project Managers can get notifications on their PDAs, iPhones, or Outlook; external workflow can be initiated, or dashboards can be updated based on any event.
  • Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) – In the past, clients either used Primavera SDK or APIs to build an integration to other ERP or legacy systems. With the new, improved SOA model and Primavera Web Services, there are additional options because of the open architecture for building integration between P6 v7 and other products.
  • Sharepoint Integration: MS SharePoint integration enables Plug’n’Play interoperability.

• Significant Changes to the web interface also called PriamveraWeb or MyPrimavera.
  • Improved Web-Based Graphics: many organizations have been reluctant in deploying PrimaveraWeb due to the lack of ease of use and limited graphical views. With this new version, there are crisper Gant/Pert views, the option to have floating windows for Activity Codes, Successor/Predecessor, resources assignments, and much more. In addition, critical data that is part of the project/wbs/task can be viewed on one view.
  • Progress Line: This new feature is added to the thick client and the web interface. Planners for years used this feature with P3 3.1 and Suretrack, but it was lacking in the P5 and P6 series. The new progress line can be shown on the Gantt chart to communicate variances in the project progress graphically.
  • Calendar View: Most users love the calendar view in Outlook, and now a similar intuitive view can be used to view their activities along with the required information to perform the work.
  • Enhanced Excel Import/Export Options: Users can now export data offline to Excel, update and review project data, and re-import and update their projects. New activities can be added in excel and imported to their Project Plan.
  • Activity Field-Level Security: Additional edit security privileges can be assigned to users at Activity Level to restrict the update options at the Activity Level. For example, users may be allowed to update the Start/Finish dates while limiting them from updating other activity-level fields.
• Minor changes to the Thick Client interface:
  • No visual enhancements have been added to the thick client. ?
  • One of the necessary modifications is the “Calendar Work Day Definition” option; this enhancement allows Planners to define Work-Day definition parameters at the individual calendar level and allows better control over project timelines and duration of work.
  • Activity Codes: Now, users can add “New activity codes values” on the fly while working on their Project Plan.
• Supports Oracle Access Manager (OAM):
  P6 v7 supports Oracle Access Manager (OAM), which centrally manages security and access to various systems through single sign-on that provides one common login for all applications and removes the need to enter the login credentials for each system.

Should You Upgrade to EPPM P6 v7?

Significant enhancements in this version require a detailed review by each IT department in consultation with the PMO Organizations. Here are some suggestions:

• If you’re using P5 standalone or enterprise: You should try to upgrade to this new version of P6 v7 since your organization can benefit significantly from P6 v7 as there are many bug fixes and new features as compared to P5.
• If you’re using P6 standalone: You will not benefit significantly as the upgrade would be time-consuming, and you cannot use all of the product’s new features. Instead, I suggest reviewing with your IT department and deploying P6 v7 in Enterprise mode.
• If you’re using P6 Thick Client only in Enterprise Mode, you will not see significant benefits if you’re not using the Web Interface. Therefore, I suggest you deploy the Web interface and move some of your user community from the thick client to the Web Interface.
• If you’re using P5 or P6 Enterprise Mode with PrimaveraWeb: You should upgrade and will benefit from the significant enhancements that v7 brings.
• Integration: If you want to build custom integration to ERP systems, other desktop applications, or legacy systems, you should upgrade to P6 v7.

You can download the latest software from the Oracle website, review all the new features/functionalities, and define a path forward if you are interested in upgrading to this version.

Contact Oracle for additional detail:
For a list of issues from previous versions that are resolved in P6 version 7.0, refer to Solution ID prim82775 in the Oracle Primavera Support Knowledgebase:
http://www.oracle.com/primavera/support.html