Does your turnaround self-serve dashboard(s) display easy to digest information on your turnaround’s current status? Does your team know where to look and what to look for to stay updated on progress?

If you’re still building your green up reports using Excel, there’s an easier way.

Are you still entering your turnaround schedule updates manually? How long is it taking to enter all the schedule update information for each update? There is a better alternative! TAPS can help alleviate some of the pain and stress of manually processing updates to your P6 schedule. TAPS is a barcode updating tool usable for both P6 Web and Client. A version of TAPS that does not use barcodes is available on mobile devices as well. Let’s have a look at how quick and easy you can update your schedules using TAPS on your phone.

TAPS v11 has a new look. TAPS updates using the computer and scanner maintain the previous, proven functionality, but now TAPS updates are also available using your mobile device. Now anywhere you can safely use your phone, you can enter the updates and send them directly to the schedule instead of waiting until you are back in the office to enter them.

All updates do not have to be received from the same source - just computer, just phone, or a mix of both – whatever works best with your project team. If you have some activities where a field report returned to the office to complete the scanning, TAPS easily addresses that. In the same schedule, if some activities are better updated using TAPS on a phone to submit the updates, TAPS easily addresses that as well. You can even use TAPS and other tools like CAPPS or P6-Loader to update your schedules.

Are you wondering how you might update your schedule with activities of all three P6 activity percent complete types? TAPS allows processing of updates for any of the activity percent complete types, mixing as you require with no issues.

TAPS also allows you to use barcode scans to update steps. Yes, steps and resources also. So no matter the mix of update types you may require, TAPS has a number of options available.

Are you polluting your P6 data when you import XERs/XMLs from other companies? Do you have a scrubbing database you import XERs/XMLs into just so you can clear out unwanted data from them, re-export the cleaned project, and then re-import it to your working database? Both of these scenarios are very common and in the first case, can really pollute your working database with all kinds of unwanted garbage or in the second case, cause lost time cleaning out someone else’s junk.

P6-Scrubber is the answer to your data pollution woes. This tool designed by Emerald Associates will take care of clearing out that unwanted garbage prior to importing the XER/XML by allowing you to easily decide what is acceptable in the file. The P6-Scrubber Definition Configurator allows you to set up and save definitions for each client to be used over and over without rebuilding it each time. Definitions can also be edited, so if a new cleansing definition is needed, it can be added to the existing one.

P6-Scrubber can be deployed stand alone or it can be pointed at one or many database so data can be validated against what is already in the database.

Have you ever had the need to demote an XER from a higher version of Primavera P6 to a lower version so you can import the file into your database? This can be a problem when the file was generated in a higher version and you have a lower version in your organization. Manually modifying the version can cause data corruption and bring your database to its knees.

As you’d likely expect, P6-Reporter (previously EP-datawarehouse) delivers you data in tables that represent your common P6 items: Projects, Activities, Resource Assignments, and Resources. There’s a lot you can do with these, but to create great reports, you’ll often want to manipulate these tables too:

• prepare the data, so it’s ready to feed your visuals
• prepare the data, so it can describe relationships between your data
• reduce the amount of information being passed in so that your reports are light and responsive

We have our project portfolio in P6. How can we quickly and easily access project information to see how the projects in our portfolio are progressing? Can we easily see where there are issues that need our attention? We can with self-serve dashboards in Power BI.

I’m Ian Nicholson, VP Solutions at Emerald Associates. I have been working with Oracle Primavera Risk Analysis (OPRA) since 2001 when it was Pertmaster, Emerald being the exclusive Canadian distributor for Pertmaster until their acquisition by Primavera in 2006.

In this series of blogs, I will explain why I feel that all OPRA users should upgrade to Safran Risk (SR).

I’m Ian Nicholson, VP Solutions at Emerald Associates. I have been working with Oracle Primavera Risk Analysis (OPRA) since 2001 when it was Pertmaster, Emerald being the exclusive Canadian distributor for Pertmaster until their acquisition by Primavera in 2006.

In this series of blogs, I will explain why I feel that all OPRA users should upgrade to Safran Risk (SR).

Something we are asked is whether our P6-QA Tool is useful throughout the life cycle of your projects. Its use throughout the planning phase is obvious, of course; it helps with schedule development. Even after you’ve planned out your work though, the QA tool can help while you’re executing your plans. Let us examine a couple examples of how.

Keep in mind - it is beneficial to equip your team with the best tools for the job! Work Smarter, Not Harder!

I’m Ian Nicholson, VP Solutions at Emerald Associates. I have been working with Oracle Primavera Risk Analysis (OPRA) since 2001 when it was Pertmaster, Emerald being the exclusive Canadian distributor for Pertmaster until their acquisition by Primavera in 2006.

In this series of blogs, I will explain why I feel that all OPRA users should upgrade to Safran Risk (SR).

I’m Ian Nicholson, VP Solutions at Emerald Associates. I have been working with Oracle Primavera Risk Analysis (OPRA) since 2001 when it was Pertmaster, Emerald being the exclusive Canadian distributor for Pertmaster until their acquisition by Primavera in 2006.

In this series of blogs, I will explain why I feel that all OPRA users should upgrade to Safran Risk (SR).

I’m Ian Nicholson, VP Solutions at Emerald Associates. I have been working with Oracle Primavera Risk Analysis (OPRA) since 2001 when it was Pertmaster, Emerald being the exclusive Canadian distributor for Pertmaster until their acquisition by Primavera in 2006.

In this series of blogs, I will explain why I feel that all OPRA users should upgrade to Safran Risk (SR).

I’m Ian Nicholson, VP Solutions at Emerald Associates. I have been working with Oracle Primavera Risk Analysis (OPRA) since 2001 when it was Pertmaster, as Emerald was the exclusive Canadian distributor for Pertmaster until their acquisition by Primavera in 2006.

In this series of blogs, I will explain why I feel that all OPRA users should upgrade to Safran Risk Analysis (SR).

The Cloud is a remarkable and innovative tool. It connects people from around the world, allows us to share fun vacation pictures and adorable videos of our pets, and offers a massive network that can process any and all data under the sun.

But as anyone who's ever had to use the back end of a Cloud program can tell you, it can quickly get complicated, leading to far too many headaches and sleepless nights trying to figure out what's going wrong. We could tell many horror stories about hours spent hunched over our computers just begging our systems to work the way we want - and I bet you could too!

So when one of our clients approached us looking to evaluate their options with Cloud software, we knew how they felt. At the time, they had been using on-premise servers, but were looking to upgrade to a database with more features at a reasonable price. They had considered Software as a Service (SaaS), but found the price of such an upgrade to be too steep to be a realistic option.

Luckily, we had previously agonized over the same decision and were able to offer our personal server in the Cloud; EAI hosted by OVH, as an alternative with a much lower price than the SaaS system Oracle offered.

Our client was also in sore need of maintenance services. Before they came to us, they had been operating, maintaining, and repairing their own cloud servers with only a handful of IT specialists who were unfamiliar with Primavera to begin with. As you can imagine it was slow, frustrating work, and when things broke down it could be days before they got everything up and running again. So when we suggested the EAI server, they were quick to take advantage of our services.

Now that they've moved to EAI, our client is able to enjoy the benefits of Cloud without the hassle that comes with sustaining their database. Emerald Associates handles the maintenance, repair, and operation of EAI, and offers on-sight visits and training for our client's entire team so that they will have the familiarity with Primavera that is so crucial in today's business environment. We have been working together with this particular client for the past 3 to 4 years now to keep their servers in the Cloud running smoothly and efficiently, giving them the freedom to spend their time and energy on what really matters - their business.