205460 primavera at the principal financial group
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- Principal Financial Group is a Fortune 500 company that offers retirement services, insurance solutions, and asset management. It uses Primavera to allow multiple project offices to use a single tool containing enterprise resources, driving consistency across projects. - Mark Strosahl is the Primavera administrator and has worked at PFG for 7 years in various roles. He oversees the Primavera helpdesk, roadmap, upgrades, and acts as the liaison to the Primavera vendor. - PFG's Primavera architecture currently includes P6 Web, P6 fat client, Progress Reporter, and uses both SQL and Oracle databases. Upcoming projects include migrating to Oracle database and upgrading
205460 primavera at the principal financial group
- 1. Mark Strosahl Primavera @ The Principal Financial Group An admin’s view of
- 2. • 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
- 3. 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
- 4. 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.
- 5. • 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?
- 6. 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
- 7. • 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
- 8. “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
- 9. Test Pilot Prod P6 Web Job Services Database Client Primavera Architecture
- 10. Primavera Roadmapas of 10/1/12 Timeline Project 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?
- 11. 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)
- 12. 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
- 13. 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
- 14. 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 Picture link
- 15. Automated Test Plans Business Drivers • Limited Team Resources • Core functionality tested • Put you to sleep • 8 .1 .3 .4 + Picture link
- 16. SQL to Oracle dB conversion Business Drivers – Ease of Support – Larger user base (= more bugs found) – Compatibility • Performance Comparisons • Pain Points • Benefits
- 17. Custom Settings • LDAP and SSL • Pilot refresh (1st and 16th) scheduled • Annual Rate Change process • Limit of 8 baselines per project Picture link
- 18. Questions and Open Forum Questions? Recommendations? Changes or suggestions? (friendly amendment) Your issues? Bugs? Infrastructure challenges?