Breaking Ground with a New Integrated ANSI-compliant EVM and Project Controls Solution

Every project deployment is unique, driven by myriad variables within the customer’s existing processes, future requirements and capabilities, but the latest RPCuk project to enter the ‘go live’ phase is particularly newsworthy, as it is the first of its kind, using the RPCuk-developed EVM template to generate ANSI/EIA-748-compliant reports and auditing functionality.

Oracle Primavera P6 was already the client’s standard project scheduling solution, but – as a service provider to a range of customers in military and commercial markets in the air, land and sea domains – the business required additional Earned Value reporting, not supported by their existing processes, that would be ANSI/EIA-748-compliant to meet new and future MoD standards. RPCuk designed, built, tested and delivered a brand new project controls solution integrating Unifier with their existing P6 solution, hosted on the Oracle cloud, and configured with the RPCuk-developed EVM packaged template.

This was far from an out-of-the box solution and it’s taken some time to get from initial discussions to this week’s live launch. To reach their proposed solution, RPCuk assessed the existing architecture against the new project requirements and advised how Oracle Primavera Unifier would integrate and how the required reports could be generated through our templated EVM solution. A series of functional design workshops was run to show how the RPC solution would be configured in this environment and to document any gaps that may exist between the base configuration and what the customer required. All essential information gathering to ensure that the solution would fully meet the needs of the client.

Innovative Design and Build

This was the first deployment of an RPCuk EVM template, offering a ground-breaking solution to the customer’s required EVM capability. The Earned Value solution architected  by RPCuk was further configured alongside Oracle Primavera Unifier to fully accommodate the business requirements, and the necessary Oracle BI Publisher reports were designed and deployed. CPR reports 1, 2, 4 and 5  were built, tested and approved in line with ANSI/EIA-748 to provide the required reporting and auditing functionality, with CPR 1 and 2 being produced in both financial and unit formats.

Working within an established system to add value and functionality brings its own constraints in comparison with a clean deployment from scratch, but in this instance,
the client was also broadening the scope of their planning and reporting by implementing a new Enterprise Resource Planning solution alongside the new EVM capabilities and Unifier functionality being provided by RPCuk. Our solution needed to link the two designs to make sure no gaps existed, even when the two concurrent development projects were at different stages. Configuring and deploying a new solution in this environment comes with its challenges, sometimes needing to second-guess what the ERP tool would look like in its set-up or to provide input to drive the set-up of the ERP tool in order to integrate with the Primavera toolset. The customer was the main link between these apps, but it was critical to get the architecture right so that the Primavera tools could access and use the necessary data from the ERP tool.

Training to be Self-Sufficient

There is little point in delivering a brilliant solution, and then leaving the client to find their own way with it, so as part of the initial scope of work, training needs were assessed within the organisation and appropriate end-user training was identified and delivered.  User and Admin training sessions were run as part of the deployment, equipping the Admin user to be self-sufficient in the day-to-day administration of the toolsets.

A Successful Solution for the Future

The solution deployed offers vastly improved capability for managing major projects with the potential to be rolled out across the organisation on a project-by-project basis. Standardised cross-project reporting meets and exceeds all the new MoD contracting requirements, including additional reporting through bulls-eye performance charts. It’s a cloud-hosted solution for ease of roll-out and provides seamless integration between Unifier and the existing P6 tool, plus manual integration between the customer’s ERP tool and both Unifier and P6.  The integration between the ERP and Unifier and the ERP and P6 needs to be manual because of the position of the ERP tool deployment, but has been configured for ease-of-use and optimum functionality. RPCuk is proud to have been part of this landmark project.