Implementing primavera in a rapidly changing and competitive business environment

The most comprehensive Oracle applications & technology content under one roofThe most comprehensive Oracle applications & technology content under one roof
Implementing EPPM in a rapidly changing
and competitive business environment:
Key Considerations for P6
Loretta Bayliss
Managing Director, Prescience Technology
Vice-President, AUSOUG (Qld)
www.prescience.com.au
Authorised Oracle Primavera Reseller

The most comprehensive Oracle applications & technology content under one roof
Agenda
• Understanding the drivers
• Collaboration & teaming
• Planning is paramount
• A recipe for success
• P6 R8.1 – fact or fiction?
• Procuring the Oracle software and support
• Sustainability beyond Oracle Support

An alternative view
Listen. To what the client needs.
Understand. What they really mean.
Plan. Comprehensively.
Apply. A proven, iterative process.
Know. The product & its relevance.
Act. With precision and certainty.Negotiate.
Negotiate. A great deal on software.
Sustain. With training and support.
Listen.
Understand.
Plan.
Apply.
Know.
Act.
Negotiate.
Sustain.

“Today’s business world is fast-
changing, you need to be open to new
insights and be able to deal with
different situations when they arise.”
Jens Beckmann, Australian School of Business

Understanding the drivers
• Xstrata has a successful, commercially proven operating model in
place already;
• Xstrata operates in a volatile market, where competition is a key
factor.
• Xstrata openly advocates a model of continuous improvement;
• Xstrata was actively seeking the integration of business process into
their chosen software solution;
• Selected sites had been identified to pilot the use of Primavera, as a
small part of a larger continuous improvement model;
• Project scope included:
• license procurement, implementation, training, support and
schedule build.
Why bother?

A true partnership
• Early involvement of IT and business stakeholders to
increase engagement and project support;
• Validation of suggested platform and approach
against corporate IT strategy;
• Promotion of active involvement of site based and
corporate staff;
• Senior stakeholders from both organisations have
established clear and transparent lines of
communication;
• Adoption of an innovative learning solution, to increase
user adoption and post-implementation sustainability.
Collaborating to achieve success

A true partnership
“Working with Prescience is good because they understand they are primarily working
for the people who run the mine at each location - mine manager, production manager,
engineer etc. But they know success depends heavily on back-end IT systems. They
recognised the need to engage local IT support to ensure they were not treading on
anyone’s toes and doing things that don’t fit with our IT strategy.
The key to success is to make sure lines of communication stay open. We’ve developed
a successful working relationship and both parties are working together for the same
result.”
Collaborating to achieve success
“Prescience ask, they listen, they take notice and they ask again to make sure the real
meaning hasn’t gotten lost in the translation. Some other companies just want to do it
their way. It’s our environment and we know how best to manage it.
Prescience has supported us in this. They listen rather than say “We’ll do it this way and
you’ll live with it”. They are just not cut from that mould.”

Planning is paramount
The usual suspects
The planning process needs to be comprehensive and must address
both business and technical aspects of the implementation:
Areas to evaluate included:
• Implementation scope and Business Alignment
• Infrastructure – capacity and versions of hardware, supporting
software & network
• Team availability
• Training capacity and tools
• Application support – both during & after the implementation
• Testing strategy & experience
• Oracle product strategy
• Project planning and management experience & capacity

Plus a few less ordinary
The Xstrata business and technology model also needed to be
incorporated into the planning process
Additional areas to evaluate included:
• The memory of prior failed implementations of planning
software was still fresh in staff & stakeholder minds;
• Although a “pilot” model, there were two pilot sites each with
differing operational constraints;
• The pilot sites were 4 hours driving time apart and not serviced
by interlinking transport;
• Stakeholders were driven by each site, with a common project
sponsor;
• Common team and common timeframe made sense in terms of
maximum benefit to the client;

Plus a few less ordinary
Other Factors:
• Busy operational sites do not afford dedicated project resources,
which needed to be factored in to all information requests;
• IT stakeholders had historically held a pure service provision role
and had not had early involvement in project planning and
approval;
• In a SQL shop, there was much frowning about the future Oracle
footprint, and whether SQL would remain a supported platform;
• The debate about P6 v7 vs P6 R8 was raging in Primavera circles,
although R8.1 was not available at the time of project
commencement;
• Each of the pilot sites was firmly committed to the agreed target
outcomes, and to creating a sustainable model to support their
model of continuous improvement.

Ensuring Success
Build a Repeatable Process …
• Secure – active executive sponsorship & support
• Communicate – transparent reporting on progress
• Gather – proper materials
• Recruit – the right team members
• Organise – Create & update critical documents
• Analyse & plan – use an iterative method (3 rounds)
• Execute – a serious & dedicated testing process
• Experience – have a leader, a “veteran”
TOP TIP – ensure your process enables and empowers you to
move fast once your initial planning is complete

Ensuring Success
Do not over-complicate things
• Either implementation or schedule
• In an environment where speed to outcome is critical,
extraneous complexity only slows things down.

Ensuring Success
… and learn from Lessons Learned!
“We can’t change the past, but we can learn from the past.”
Anonymous
Prescience worked closely with Xstrata to ensure the
planning addressed lessons learned from prior projects:
• Do not implement the software in isolation;
• Ensure the business process is embedded into the project
lifecycle and the learning process;
• Ensure stakeholders remain abreast and engaged;
• Test, test, test and re-test assumptions, constraints &
desired functionality

R8.1 – The myths debunked
P6 EPPM and P6 Pro

There is no standalone

There is no intention to remove Pro completely

Oracle software & support
• Historically de-centralised within Xstrata;
• Fit with model, although did not provide any economy
of scale;
• Prescience, together with Oracle, have challenged
Xstrata’s distributed procurement model (successfully!)
to achieve a more centralised purchasing model;
• Key benefit is discounts to end-user organisation;
• Additional benefit of having more visibility and
centralised management of Oracle CSI – contributes to
proposed sustainable support model.
An effective procurement model …

Beyond Oracle support
• XStrata has subscribed to Prescience’s
extended support (from what is provided by
the Oracle support agreement) model, to
provide application support to site and
corporate users;
• Provides ability for onsite support if necessary
(not achievable through Oracle Support except
in extraordinary circumstances); and able to
be scaled to requirement.
PrescienceAdvantage Primavera Support

Beyond Oracle support
• Prescience has built a tailored eLearning
package for Xstrata, which provides two key
advantages over other available Primavera
training:
• Is specific to the software version
implemented;
• Is interactive and engaging, and supports a
blended learning model, vs the traditional
powerpoint and Oracle Tutor model
PrescienceAdvantage Primavera eLearning

Wrapping it up
• Define the key objective or outcome for your
organisation that is driving the
implementation process.
• Determine what type of implementation is
most appropriate.
• “Begin with the end in mind” and make these
goals clear to your entire implementation
team & stakeholder group.
Determine why …

Listen. To what the client needs.
Understand. What they really mean.
Plan. Comprehensively.
Apply. A proven, iterative process.
Know. The product & its relevance.
Act. With precision and certainty.Negotiate.
Negotiate. A great deal on software.
Sustain. With training and support.
Listen.
Understand.
Plan.
Apply.
Know.
Act.
Negotiate.
Sustain.
Summary

“While we are encouraged by the speed
and scale of the changes we’re
implementing, there is clearly more
work to be done.”
Richard Wagoner

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Implementing primavera in a rapidly changing and competitive business environment

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Implementing primavera in a rapidly changing and competitive business environment