5 Key Benefits of Oracle Primavera Prime
Project management offices (PMOs) of all sizes recognize the importance of visibility and adherence to project or portfolio deadlines and budget. Yet, today’s projects have increased in scope, duration and constraint. Meanwhile, the demand on PMOs to reduce costs continues, and project managers are often in the crossfire between stakeholders and team members. This is where Oracle Primavera Prime changes the game.
Oracle, well-known for its commitment to simplifying and streamlining project portfolio management (PPM), has created a new platform to handle these demands, Oracle Prime. The system functions by bringing disparate project management operations together, increasing process standardization and reducing delays. But, this new system goes further than many realize. If you do not take advantage of this platform, your PMO could suffer serious setbacks in reducing costs and improving visibility. In fact, consider the top five benefits of Primavera Prime.
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1. Oracle Primavera Prime Unites Project Teams and Stakeholders
Prime Cloud Service is another name for this innovative platform. Its core function lies in uniting Oracle systems through the power of the cloud. Notably, the system uses cloud-based risk analyses, scheduling and planning tools to give project managers and all relevant parties information about a project.
Disparate systems eat away at your project’s level of visibility. This continues as individual activities progress into costs and vice versa. Meanwhile, stakeholders remain out of the proverbial look throughout the process. But, the platform eliminates this level of isolation. Team members, stakeholders and upper-level managers, like program managers, can log in and see all your project’s details. Moreover, this eliminates redundancy and ensures your current project adheres to stakeholder and company demands, boosting visibility along the way.
The one-touch nature of this platform goes beyond by leveraging the power of connected devices to control and manage scope, the budget and schedule within one system, too.
2. It Integrates Scope, Cost and Schedule Into One System
Scope, cost and schedules are related in all projects. But, these systems often function independent of one another. As a result, inaccuracies materialize, and the project’s chances of success fall. One of the core features of Primavera Prime rests in its ability to bring this relationship to fruition.
Scope management tools allow project managers and schedules to communicate and make changes to a project within the same system. Furthermore, this eliminates concerns that arise with other sub-par systems, like not being able to make changes when another individual is logged into the system. Plus, the cloud-based engineering of Prime ensures 100-percent visibility into a project’s current status. This means fewer errors are made when running reports or sending information to others within your PMO, company or contracted agencies.
Considering cost, integration begets savings and standardization. Integration allows all team members to see how their current activities impact the project’s overall budget and schedule. In a sense, this contributes to greater timeliness of project delivery, tracking of project variables and adherence to the schedule, asserts Oracle. In addition, integration gives project managers the ability to proactively manage possible issues, like reworking the schedule around major weather events.
3. Integrated Project Portfolio and Capital Plan Management Enhances Company Visibility
While on the topic of budgets and schedules, it is important to consider PPM features and capital plan management. The initial press release on Prime noted the system’s core function on providing extensive capital plan management functions.
For example, capital planners could perform analyses of budgets, create hypothetical scenarios to determine low-risk projects, perform project costing analyses, select projects and ensure compliance with appropriate regulations. These features have expanded as Prime evolved, too.
This capacity is only a response to the integration between PPM processes and financial tools within the Oracle suite of products. The simplest way to think of how these systems contribute to visibility is by adding the level of visibility gained through individual Oracle platforms together. In other words, visibility improvements from using Primavera P6 and Oracle Risk Management are combined within this new, cloud-based system. Therefore, the overall level of visibility in your project and future projects increases as your PMO uses the system.
4. A Purpose-Built Mobile Application Keeps Information at Your Fingertips
Oracle tools for project management have a reputation for keeping information at your fingertips. But, the new platform maximizes this concept through a purpose-built mobile application. This means the system can function with or without an active internet connection. The key is in the system’s ability to update and connect information seamlessly, eliminating redundancies.
A native mobile application gives all team members in the field access to the same information individuals within the corporate or local PMO have. This includes portfolio documents, information about a project or program’s scope, activity schedules and more. Moreover, the system provides this information in both online and offline modes, which reduces costs and risk.
For example, risks arise when an individual decides without pertinent knowledge relating to part of the project, like a building assuming untreated wood is necessary. Yet, the project’s plan may dictate pressure-treated wood to be used in all areas near water sources, such as a lavatory. The incorrect assumption may lead to problems and additional costs later in the project, even after delivery. But, a mobile application eliminates this concern.
As a web-based solution, Primavera Prime enables immediate creation of an existing or future project’s work breakdown structure, activities, resource demands and possible schedules from any location. Furthermore, the tool can leverage Big Data within your company and the Oracle family of partnering businesses to create superior cost projects and forecasts. Thus, it simplifies resource management and ensures everyone remains on the same page.
5. A Simple Interface and Rapid Deployment Save Time and Money While Reducing Risk of Change Resistance
One of the major reasons PMOs avoid new systems revolves around resistance in change management, otherwise known as change resistance. This is a simple way of saying that some people may be uncomfortable with using a different system. Although training and education about the platform’s capabilities eliminate this concern, Prime was designed with this fact in mind.
The interface within Prime requires no special actions on the part of the client or other team members to use. In other words, the web-based interface automatically starts without the need to spend hours updating plug-ins or installation files. Furthermore, the system can be accessed on both iPad and iPhone operating systems to create an even greater level of accessibility and deployment across the PMO without extensive training.
Prime is also built as an application that allows anyone to use the system immediately. Dashboards provide direction with clear pathways to accessing information. Moreover, individual employees can personalize their dashboards, eliminating extraneous information without sacrificing project integrity.
Fast deployment and an easy learning-curve within Prime result in greater adoption rates of the platform. This means fewer employees will be confused, and complaints may not even exist. There will be those who remain resistant to change, but Prime’s uniqueness and unmatched ease of access makes it an ideal solution for PMOs and individuals that have remained stuck in traditional, costly PPM platforms and systems.
This is perfect for project offices currently going through organizational changes or other forms of change management. By bringing everything under one roof without requiring extensive upgrades or changes to existing equipment, your team’s visibility and collaboration will grow, too.
Discover How Oracle Prime Could Help You Reduce Costs Now
The benefits of Oracle’s new platform, Primavera Prime, will bring unique and lasting harmony to your company and its associated projects. These benefits will help you grow as a project manager and learn the value of increased visibility and reduced costs in your project prospects.
Of course, you may still need to think about how to evaluate the returns possible through this new system. A previous blog post explained how you can use the following formulas to calculate its potential value.
Indirect ROI = (Possible Savings From Better Workflows / Costs of Not Implementing the System) x 100
Direct ROI = (Physical Cost Savings / Physical Implementation) x 100
If the formulas result in a positive ROI, you can use that information to gain executive-level support of your planned investment in the system.