Heavy duty Oracle Primavera usage in enterprise environments: maximising ROI

Anthony SpieringsENERGEX

16 August 2010

The most comprehensive Oracle applications & technology content under one roof

Presentation Overview

1. About ENERGEX2. How ENERGEX uses Oracle Primavera as part of its EPPM methodologies3. Understanding 32-bit computing (with examples of tests that you can try)4. Primavera Job Services in ENERGEX 5. Data extraction solutions6. Database performance

About ENERGEX• Electricity distribution network

business, based in south east Queensland, Australia

• Over 3500 staff • $7B in assets, annually investing

over $1B in the network

How ENERGEX uses Oracle Primavera

1. Core application for forecasting; cash consumption, internal labour requirements, major material dates, and modelling contractor capability

2. Three time horizons of interestA. Now to +18 months (yearly planning)B. Now to +5 years (regulatory planning)C. Now to +10 years (strategic planning)

High level data flows

Oracle Primaveradatabase

Build 18-month POW

Ellipse Estimates

ResourceAvailability

SIFT(Network Needs)

OrganisationalConstraints

(e.g. budget, community obligations,

acceptable risk profile, ROI, etc)

Day to day project

management

Current project statusSkill sets

Unconstrained dates

Forecast; resource profile

Qld GovtState Budget

Project completion dates

Constrained dates

Controlled plantDelivery dates(Transformers,

modules, switchgear, relays,

etc)

Balance mix of internal and

external resources

Manufacturers source raw materials

Manufacturers stay or seek work

elsewhere

QLD Govt Infrastructure

plans

HR Human Capital Plans

AER Submission

ENERGEX Funding

Build 5 year POW

Regulatory Outcomes

Ellipse Works Orders

(dates, budget ..)

Future resource capability

Network StandardBuilding Blocks

DO Work

Real Time Network

Equipment Ratings

Economic forecasting

engine

Controlled PlantContracted Deliveries

Extracting ROI from Oracle Primavera

• 35,000 projects in the database, approximate 1.4M activities– 10,000 projects are visible,

• approximately 445,000 activities, • AUD$30B in value• Time span is (current date – 2 years) to (current date + 20 years)

– 25,000 are baselines• Automatically create baselines for every active project using API at key points of the

yearly governance cycle. • 1,000 projects under intense project management at any one point in time

– Project managers are responsible for maintaining their own project in P6– Acquiring and maintaining necessary P6 skill sets is an ongoing issue– In house training and testing is applied

Extracting ROI from Oracle Primavera

• API are used to connect Oracle Primavera to;– Substation Investment Forecasting Tool

• SIFT is an in-house database of future works

– Mincom Ellipse• High level project data (independent LTD, YTD, approvals, etc) into Primavera Project UDF• Synchronise Oracle Primavera material resource pool with Mincom Stores (transformers, switchgear, etc)• Synchronise Oracle Primavera contractor resource pool with Mincom contract module• Mincom Ellipse works order data into Oracle Primavera Activity UDF• Mincom Ellipse actual into Oracle Primavera as “past period” actual

– Business Objects• Exported cash flows are process for further financial modelling (nominal, real, real-inflation, etc) in Business Objects

before being imported back into Oracle Primavera UDF at Project level.

• We thrash Oracle Primavera hard, very hard.• Only product that we are aware of that is so amenable to crunching project data into temporal

data.

How much memory am I using?

How much memory am I using?

How much memory am I using?

How much memory am I using?

Rolling 18-month PoW

Five Year PoW

This area filtered out to fit within 32-bit memory limit

Projects in this area are hidden from analysis in the desktop client

Rolling 18-month PoW

Five Year PoW

This area filtered out to fit within 32-bit memory limit

Projects in this area are hidden from analysis in the desktop client

A day in the life of XBNEWAS18

A day in the life of XBNEWAS18

A day in the life of XBNEWAS18

Potential data extraction solutions

1. Read directly from database

2. Use Oracle Primavera Enterprise Reporting Database

3. Use a mixture of Job Services, scripting, and ETL

4. Upgrade to 64-bit solutions

What is “Logical Data”

321 nnn If you know this side of the equation

Then one can logically construct this side of the equation

Option 1 – Extract data directly from the database

Key Learning’s for ENERGEX

Important that data extractors understand the difference between persistent and non-persistent data. Only extract persistent data directly from the database. And only then if you must.

Option 2 - Oracle Primavera Enterprise Reporting Database

http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/042524.pdf

Key Learning’s for ENERGEX

ERD turns logical data into persistent data for integration into Business Intelligence solutions ERD will remove a lot of stress from the daily working lifeERD is immune to 32-bit computing limitationsERD is a complementary product

Option 3 – Mixture of Job Services, Scripting, and ETL

“Workarounds for using Project Management in a non-LAA environment:

Using the PM client, open smaller EPS nodes/download less data”

Primavera Knowledge Article ID 910591.1

Option 3 – Mixture of Job Services, Scripting, and ETL

Key Learning’s for ENERGEX

Existing Job Services tool suite is a cost effective use of existing functionalitySplitting jobs across the Enterprise Project Structure is an effective technique to manage memory requirementsJob Services outputs are available in time-series dataTip: consider use TAB delimiters in the output

See Appendix in the accompanying paper for details on this technique

Option 3 – Mixture of Job Services, Scripting, and ETL

Option 4 – Go 64-bit (when available)

consumedRAMytenvironmenENERGEXinprojectsofnumberx

wherexy

120765.0

Option 4 – Go 64-bit (when available)

ENERGEX Position

P6 V7 64-bit packaged version offers immediate relief for memory limitationsEagerly await the release of Oracle Primavera EPPM full 64-bit desktop client

Other issues

• Database performance (in heavy duty environments)– Recommend the assistance of a database application tuning expert– Watch I/O performance– Check for network issues– UDF and Project Codes have an accumulative performance hit (use

layouts to efficiently manage UDF and Project Codes)– Have your friendly DBA monitor database performance (e.g. Index)

Conclusions

Oracle Primaveradatabase

Build 18-month POW

Ellipse Estimates

ResourceAvailability

SIFT(Network Needs)

OrganisationalConstraints

(e.g. budget, community obligations,

acceptable risk profile, ROI, etc)

Day to day project

management

Current project statusSkill sets

Unconstrained dates

Forecast; resource profile

Qld GovtState Budget

Project completion dates

Constrained dates

Controlled plantDelivery dates(Transformers,

modules, switchgear, relays,

etc)

Balance mix of internal and

external resources

Manufacturers source raw materials

Manufacturers stay or seek work

elsewhere

QLD Govt Infrastructure

plans

HR Human Capital Plans

AER Submission

ENERGEX Funding

Build 5 year POW

Regulatory Outcomes

Ellipse Works Orders

(dates, budget ..)

Future resource capability

Network StandardBuilding Blocks

DO Work

Real Time Network

Equipment Ratings

Economic forecasting

engine

Controlled PlantContracted Deliveries

More Information

• Full text of this presentation is also available as a white paper http://www.slideshare.net/InSyncConference

• Details of the electricity network projects discussed in the presentation are available at http://www.energex.com.au/network/new_distribution_network_assets.html

Tell us what you think…

• http://feedback.insync10.com.au

Appendix

Option 3 – Mixture of Job Services, Scripting, and ETL

Option 3 – Mixture of Job Services, Scripting, and ETL

Option 3 – Mixture of Job Services, Scripting, and ETL

Option 3 – Mixture of Job Services, Scripting, and ETL

Option 3 – Mixture of Job Services, Scripting, and ETL

Option 3 – Mixture of Job Services, Scripting, and ETL

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