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)

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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

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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

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Questions and Open Forum

Questions?

Recommendations?

Changes or suggestions? (friendly amendment)

Your issues? Bugs?

Infrastructure challenges?