What Is Primavera Prime?
Oracle has a reputation for delivering unmatched performance, accessibility, and control over projects of any size and scope. But, the various Oracle platforms remained disconnected for years. Meanwhile, the use of the cloud enabled some integration. To bridge the divide, Oracle created a single platform that connected all systems, Oracle Primavera Prime. This new platform was developed with prioritizing, planning and managing projects and portfolios for all-size businesses.
Some of its key benefits included increased accessibility via mobile devices, better forecasting and costing of future projects and proposals and better capital management. As projects have grown more complex, encompassing large programs, more project management offices (PMOs) needed a way to reduce costs and increase visibility, as explained in this ebook. This system met that demand, so consider these key ways it can benefit your PMO.
Take a moment to think about your project portfolio. In our most recent eBook, we’ve highlighted some key ways you can improve the success of your project portfolio.
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Primavera Prime Enhances Budget Planning
One of the greatest benefits of the new platform revolves around budget planning. Greater project complexity and dependence on previous project status requires a platform that strategically manages budgets. This includes budgets of past, current, proposed and initiated projects. For project offices, budgeting officers can allocate funds, review budgets, design targets, recommend changes to project prioritization and improve visibility into a PMO’s capital plans.
This modeling concept is built into every part of Primavera Prime. Since the platform allows for single-touch access to all of a project’s components and systems, project management professionals (PMPs) can maintain visibility in the budget, a key point in this ebook. In addition, the system can compare budget information against risk profiles, reducing costs and increasing standardization across a PMO.
It Provides a Single Resource for Project Initiation Governance
Another issue with traditional project management occurs during project initiation. A proposal hits stakeholders’ desks, and reports on costs, risks and numerous factors may lead to confusion. If a stakeholder wants more information, he or she must contact the project manager overseeing its initiation. This is where Oracle Prime helps to cut costs and increase visibility during initiation.
Prime allows all authorized parties, including stakeholders, to review findings and information pertaining to project initiation. While the system updates around the clock within the cloud, stakeholders can verify information validity. Moreover, the platform’s independent, integrated nature gives stakeholders an additional tool in recommending changes to plans, authorizing projects and reviewing past, similar work. In other words, the platform further promotes process standardization, reducing costs.
Better Project Costing Tools Reduce Risk and Keep Stakeholders Informed
Budgets are only as good as their value compared to possible, unforeseen expenses. A single setback can derail budgets permanently. But, Oracle Prime enables better project costing through “what if” modeling scenarios, explains this Oracle Press Release, known as time-phased cost planning.
Time-phased cost planning is a simple way of drilling down into a project’s budget in specific time increments, regardless of its current phase.
For example, PMPs may review a project’s possible costs over future quarters while still in its initiation and planning phase. Or, the individual may review the costs incurred should the project fail to meet estimated deadlines. So, this has major implications for project selection too.
Prime Makes Project Selection More Visible and Simpler
A project’s plans, risks, and customers’ expectations determine its costs and feasibility in completion, key considerations in project proposals. But, Prime’s ability to bring risk management, Primavera P6 details, and project execution reports under one roof gives rise to better project selection. This goes back to increasing visibility across all projects in various phases. The Capital Plan Management module, within Oracle Prime, enables PMPs to customize scenarios to reflect changes in location, project type, and risk. Thus, stakeholders and executive-level leaders can make better, data-driven decisions regarding projects.
It Promotes Ongoing Business Process Management
The key to project success depends on its adherence to a simple principle; the entire team must always strive for improvement. This is the core concept behind business process management, and Oracle Prime uses BPM in all processes.
For example, the system identifies possible changes in scope depending on possible risk factors, which gives stakeholders and all parties more information about how to avoid such issues across all projects. Now, think about how the success of your project or portfolio changes if you can reap the benefits of business process management (BPM), like standardization and collaboration, explained in this ebook.
Implementing a BPM platform leads to fewer costs and better visibility across an enterprise. According to a previous blog post, the direct ROI of BPM implementation results from better efficiency and hard-dollar savings on software management. This formula explains how to calculate a platform’s direct ROI:
Direct ROI = (All Physical Cost Savings / All Physical Expenses of Implementation) * 100
Since Oracle Prime has built-in BPM functions, PMPs can calculate the platform’s direct ROI in relation to replacing all other systems used in planning, managing and executing projects through customizable forms and workflow analysis. In other words, it simplifies the entire process. But, project managers should also consider the platform’s impact on collaboration too.
The Module’s Integration Capability Increases Collaboration
Oracle Prime promotes collaboration by eliminating organizational silos and bringing all information and Oracle systems across an enterprise together. This means PMOs can access data from other projects, even those controlled by other PMOs or past project managers.
With greater access to all information, a PMO can create an unbreakable level of standardization in a specific office and collaborate across an enterprise, ideal for large, complex programs and portfolios. Meanwhile, notifications within Prime prevent important details and communications from becoming lost or forgotten.
The savings possible through increased collaboration can be quantified by calculating a platform’s indirect ROI through this formula:
Indirect ROI = (Possible Total Savings Deriving From Better Workflows / Costs of Continuing Without BPM) * 100
For example, if a team can reduce in-office hours after implementing Oracle Prime, it enhances workflows and collaboration, resulting in savings in the labor budget. When compared to projected costs without implementing a BPM-based solution, like Oracle Prime, a PMO can determine its indirect ROI as well.
Consider Top Ways to Build Your Office’s Visibility and Reduce Costs Now
Oracle’s new system will bring unmatched integration to project offices around the globe. And, the platform will leverage all Oracle systems to give project managers superior control over all projects, regardless of their current or projected status. But, how do PMPs or project offices determine if Oracle Prime is right for them?
The answer lies in calculating its direct and indirect ROI, as explained in the above sections.
Join the conversation below on how you think Oracle’s new application will change project and portfolio management processes. Also, don’t forget to download this ebook, and consider how Primavera Prime could help your office with the following:
- Better project planning, including initiation governance.
- Extensive costing scenarios to keep costs down before and during project selection.
- Continuous improvement through business process management.
- Improved collaboration throughout your project office.