Primavera Systems
Company Overview
With more than 25 years of experience, Primavera Systems Inc. is a market leader in the construction project management software industry. Primavera software is used by more than 76,000 customers around the world; these customers manage multi-billion dollar projects in all sectors of the construction industry.
In October 2008 Oracle Corp. acquired Primavera for an undisclosed sum. Once the deal is finalized, Primavera will be its own global business unit within Oracle, and Primavera software will be known as Oracle Enterprise PPM (project portfolio management).
Bala Cynwyd, PA
Web: http://primavera.com
Primavera P6, Primavera's newest release, is an integrated construction project management product created for globally prioritizing, planning, managing and executing projects, programs and portfolios. By utilizing what-if scenario modeling, capacity analysis, tabular scorecards and optimization functionality, P6 enables users to align their portfolios with their strategic objections. Other capabilities of Primavera P6 include project proposal workflow, automatic portfolio creation and maintenance, configurable criteria modeling, top-down planning, interactive scorecards, rich graphics, portfolio capacity planning, team collaboration and performance reporting, the vendor said.
Primavera ProSight has been built specifically for proposing, planning and controlling portfolio investments, ranging from IT projects to capital programs, in a collaborative manner. Capabilities of this Primavera software include portfolio management, decision-support graphics, what-if scenarios, dependencies, proven scalability, secured access, automatic alerts, integrated detailed planning and collect investment ideas.
When numerous people from different disciplines work together on the same construction project, it is important to have complete project control. This is why Primavera created Contract Management, a document management, job costing and project controls solution that provides insight into contractor performance, helps users make timely payment for completed work, facilitates collaboration and streamlines contract and document administration, said the vendor. Primavera Contract Management's latest release includes approval processing with flexible workflow, the ability to capture email from Microsoft Outlook or other email systems and additional web application server support, the vendor said.
Primavera Pertmaster is a lifecycle risk analytics solutions that integrates cost and schedule risk management; this provide users a means for determining confidence levels for project success, the vendor said. This Primavera software includes a schedule check for constraints, open-ended tasks, out-of-sequence updates, negative lags, positive lags, start to finish links and start milestones. Pertmaster's risk loading application allows users to apply uncertainty risk distributions to the templated quick risk to eliminate the challenge of accurately modeling task uncertainty, to the risk register that provides risk response planning through mitigation plan scenarios, and to the methodology-oriented user interface which offers real-time risk distribution overlays within the Gantt chart. In addition, the risk-reporting application includes features such as determining confidence levels and proposal schedules, identifying key risk drivers, analyzing what-if scenarios on cost and schedule changes and critical forecasting. Primavera Pertmaster can be fully integrated with Primavera software such as P6 and P3 as well as Microsoft Project 2003 and above and Microsoft EPM/Project Server.
Primavera Cost Manager combines project performance data from cost systems and Primavera schedule data to create an integrated cost information and program scheduler solution. With Cost Manager, users can plot a company's organizational charts and responsibility assignments using the Performing Organization Breakdown Structure (POBS). Additionally, Cost Manager provides a graphical interface mapping tool; this configures the information that is to be imported from project management and ERP systems, determines if a project is ahead or behind schedule or over or under budget by analyzing the earned value KPIs, and tracks variances between what was budgeted and how the project is actually being carried out, said the vendor.
Primavera P3, a predecessor to Primavera P6 that is also known as Primavera Project Planner, is a construction project management solution designed specifically for project professionals from a variety of industries such as engineering, construction, architecture, utilities and telecommunications. With the ability to organize projects with up to 100,000 activities, P3 is ideal for large-scale, multifaceted projects, the vendor said. Additionally, Primavera P3 offers a single database solution that gives multiple users access to project files throughout the project and supports a wide range of data exchange formats.
Ideal for resource planning and control on small to medium sized projects, Primavera SureTrak offers customized layouts for more effective and efficient reports, as well as interactive filters for on-the-go reporting and analysis. Primavera SureTrak is compatible with Primavera P3 and Primavera Expedition.
Primavera P5 is also a precursor to the company's popular P6 project management and scheduling software. Some advice on making the switch to the latest version is available in our tip, Upgrading to Primavera P6 from P5, which was based on a session presentation at the AACE International Annual Meeting in July 2008.