205460 primavera at the principal financial group
TRANSCRIPT
Mark Strosahl
Primavera @
The Principal Financial Group
An admin’s view of
• Introduction to PFG and myself
• Primavera @ PFG
– Background
– Architecture
– Roadmap
• Data Retention
• Batch Reports
• Projects
– SQL to Oracle DB migration
– P6 to P6 R8.1
Today’s Topics
Principal Financial Group
• Fortune 500 Company
• The Principal Financial Group® (The Principal®)
is a global investment management leader
including retirement services, insurance
solutions and asset management. The Principal
offers businesses, individuals and institutional
clients a wide range of financial products and
services, including retirement, asset
management and insurance through its diverse
family of financial services companies.
• Headquarters in Des Moines, IA
• 9,900 US employees / 12,900 worldwide
Why PFG uses Primavera
• Enterprise application allowing multiple project
offices to use one tool containing all enterprise
resources.
• Single application for project execution, driving
consistency across projects.
• Assesses project priority easily
• Ability to evaluate resource allocations across
projects and resolve conflicts.
• Ability to forecast and manage resource time.
• Mark Strosahl
• Education: Iowa State University
– B.S. in MIS (08’)
– MBA (13’)
• Experience
– Student Producer, 4 years
– IT Analyst, 2 years
• Admin of Informatica and IBM WTX
– Primavera Tool Manager, 3 years
• Admin of Primavera
(4+2+3=7 years)
Who am I?
What Do I Do?
• Enterprise Project Portfolio Support Team
– Team of 4
– Primavera Helpdesk
– User Consultant
• Primavera Roadmap
• All IT functions
– Upgrades
– Add-ons
– Bug reporting
• Vendor relationship
– Troubleshooting
– Purchases
• P3 2000
• P5 2006
• P6 2007
• P6.2.1 2009
• P6 R8.1 2011
Primavera @ PFG
Version History
• 4,500+ Progress Reporter
• ~800 P6
• PeopleSoft nightly
employee feed
Current Users
“Current” Architecture
• Test, pilot, prod
• EPPM Suite 8.1.3.5
• P6 Web
• P6 (fat client)
• Progress Reporter
• BI Publisher (test)
• SQL and Oracle dB
• Web Sphere (AIX) 7.0
• P6services.jar (Windows)
Picture link
Test Pilot Prod
P6 Web
Job Services
Database
Client
Primavera Architecture
Primavera Roadmapas of 10/1/12
Timeline
Pro
jec
t
Q3 Q4 Q1
(2013)
Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1
(2014)
Q2 Q3 Q4
Rate Change 2012
Roles and codes elimination – Primavera integration
Primavera Oracle database Migration (SQL to Oracle)
BI & P6 Analytics Research
Primavera Data Cleanup (ongoing)
Primavera 8.2 or better
Agile?
Primavera Weekly Processes
• Primavera Timesheets submitted by Monday at 9 a.m.
• Monday at 9 a.m. Timesheet report published
• Actuals applied by noon on Tuesday
• Reports
– Project status
– Resource analysis
– Dashboard (throughput)
• Summarize all projects nightly (ideal)
Primavera Data Retention
• Quarterly delete process
– Projects older than 3 years
– Admin/Ops older than 2 years
• Inactive Resources w/out Actuals
– (w/ Activity Resource Assign.)
• Empty OBS
• Removing Resources w/ zero actuals
• Removing Team/Roles from inactive resources
• Old Timesheet Weeks
Picture link
6.2.1 to 8.1.3.3 Upgrade
Business drivers:
– Web Sphere 7.0 support (6.1 expired Sept 2012)
– Utilize SQL Server 2008 (prev. compatibility mode 80)
– Simplified Architecture (no Group/timesheet server)
– Better P6 Web functionality
• Auto-updated portfolios
• Schedule Preview
• Enhanced Activity filtering, group/sort
• Over-allocation resource check
6.2.1 to 8.1.3.3 Upgrade - Results
• Started fine
• Weekly Web Sphere Server Reboots @ Peak times
– Hung processes
– Database (SQL) blocking
– (timesheets + actuals)
• Job Services (p6services.jar)
– Jobs stuck or failed
• Summary data not in reports
• P6 web – Java reliance
• No new functionality utilized yet
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Automated Test Plans
Business Drivers
• Limited Team Resources
• Core functionality tested
• Put you to sleep
• 8 .1 .3 .4 +Picture link
SQL to Oracle dB conversion
Business Drivers
– Ease of Support
– Larger user base (= more bugs found)
– Compatibility
• Performance Comparisons
• Pain Points
• Benefits
Custom Settings
• LDAP and SSL
• Pilot refresh (1st and 16th) scheduled
• Annual Rate Change process
• Limit of 8 baselines per project
Picture link
Questions and Open Forum
Questions?
Recommendations?
Changes or suggestions? (friendly amendment)
Your issues? Bugs?
Infrastructure challenges?