One point that seems to have been missed in this discussion is the fact that P3e is a central database and as such communications become an issue.

Im sure many of you have worked at construction sites where network speed back to the head office server was painfully slow and in some cases non-existant.

I used P3e on a corporate network and even though we had high speed links between the offices, if the lines were conjested or down you may as well go make a coffee or go home!

Give me stand alone P3 on a construction site any day :)

Thanks to all for comments, its very stimulating. great.

and think everyone is in the same area of thinking.

and for the books am over 60 and not a problem but do not want to blow the experience I have ip p3 to learn another program. Too late for that.

I can open a proect or group in P3 and with absolute confidence advise my client about a schedule, and what makes it tic. This is based on my years of experience in p3. Like to say can make p3 do everything but fry chicken and am working on it.

So you young bucks enjoy p3E and i will stick with the good ol p3.
And yes, came a long way in planning, at one time had 35 planner and draftsmen just to draw schedules, had strip maps of i/j node schedules all over the building, and still could not figure it out as well as I can do alone withP3.

Thanks for all the support comments. best regards bill

Dear All,

To be fair to Primavera company, Primavera has to come out a product like P3 e/c, which is based on SOL database, to place them continuously as a leader in the market. However, I don’t understand why the company is not upgrading P3 win as a separate line of product by using an evolutionary approach. P3 win still can be improved a lot in terms of users interface, and it can be done easily with little efforts. With this approach, they still can enjoy the benefit of the continuous and increasing (if they lower the price a little bit) revenues from P3 win. Unfortunately, it seems to me that Primavera turn around stick a different label - P3 e/c and sell to the construction industry after it comes out with a P3 enterprise (P3 e) for manufacturing industry. This is really a cheap shot. Anyway, Primavera is still a private company. Otherwise, we can easily see how they are doing with this strategy. The financial data will speak for themselves.

Here are some simple examples why P3 e/c is taking revolution approach from P3. Fragnets are now called Methodologies. Hammock activity is now called Level of effort activity. Costs are now called Expenses. Estimate to complete (resource) is now called Remaining units. If you were the existing users of P3 win for a long time, it is natural that you will have some resistance yourself, not to mentioned to convince others. On the other hand, the new users are more adaptable to P3 e/c as they don’t have any burden.

I remember 15 year ago when I started using P3 (for DOS), I was trying very hard to explain to people what “Fragnet” and “Hammock” mean, which can never be found in the dictionary (Fragent). Finally, few people have asked me the same questions. Those terms are now widely used in the construction scheduling specification in US and finally receive recognition. Think about what would happen if we introduce them “Methodologies” or “Level of Effort”.

In final words, after I studied P3 e/c, I tend to think this is a different product than P3 so that I can appreciate it. However, Primavera has trying to make an equal sign between two products for some reasons, which I think it really disturbs many existing users. . It Primavra company insists on making p3 e/c = P3, the making of the success of P3 win will inevitably determine the future of P3 e/c (at least for construction industry).

A final message to Henk: We should pay more respect for those people around 50 years old are still actively using computer. They are the people born in the changing time. Just thinking about how they went through punching cards to PC, DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95 till now, Windows XP, etc. They are the true survivors! Also I do remember the switching from P3 DOS to P3 Win is such swift and successful. I don’t know why this time is such slow and it shouldn’t be this way.

Eric Chou, PE
HTC Project Controls, Inc.
www.HTCProjectControls.com

Philip

I think the P3e 3 years ago cant be compared to wat it is now.
In my country (Netherlands) we’ve never got the advise to switch from P3win to P3e because it were 2 complete diferent programs. 1 as a enterprise solution ?? en one for the professional project planner. Now P3e has developed to a stage were you can consider to make a switch from p3win to p3e Because P3e has a lot of the good features from p3win (still not everything). But i still think you should only switch if you work in a multiproject environment because than you can expirience the benefits of the strong multiproject structure. If not stick to P3win because it is still the most powerfull project planning tool (i think)


Regards

Henk

Appreciate your feedback, ha ha expect to get a rise out of lots of planners.


But in speaking with some pals who work at the Primavera home office here in the states, they state that P3 3.1 is their Bread and Butter,and will be here for a long time. Its the backbone of the Company. P3E is good but not made for construction.

And yes, over 50 and think p3 will be a key player for a long time, what you do not read is about many firms who have gone to p3E then switched back to p3.
having said that, each to his own.

Agree with Scott,

After using p3 since it came out, do not find that it would have any advantage to go to p3e for constructon projects at this time. Really, stop and think, spent last 10 years mastering p3, and to toss all that background to learn a completely new program is not a smart thing to do.

Clients are paying for my experience in p3, and not to learn new programs. Diff. between p3 and p3 e is same as comparing p3 to open plan.
Spend more time playing computer then planning.

will use p3 until retire, bill

Hi Scott,

No doubt in my mind, P3 e/c is a superior product. However, as it is first called “Enterprise”, P3 e/c is mainly targeting for the big players such as Fortune 500 companies. The use of the SQL database in P3 e/c, which can be easily integrated into the company’s Enterprise backbone, makes it better enterprise software than old P3 product. I was told that this product is expected to make more profit for the company from those industries than construction. Anyway, I would see them to be two different products.

However, I feel that the terminologies and design implication are too complicated for most people in construction industry. Furthermore, the needs for “integration” in a construction company are not as critical as other industries such as manufacturing, etc. P3 e/c is quite easy to learn in terms of the users interface. However, it is very difficult to be implemented in construction. The terminologies such as Enterprise Project Structure (EPS), Methodology, Roles, Nodes, etc are too alien and redundant for the people in the construction industry.

I don’t think that the issue of one or multiple projects can be the criteria for switching software either. Please be reminded that P3 also has the feature of “Subproject” to handle multiple projects. If you want an easier life, you can also put all projects in one P3 project file. It all depends on how you implement the software.

Again, if you just use P3 stand alone, I don’t think you have a need for P3 e/c. Furthermore, I am pretty sure that every reports or solutions you need in construction industry can be done in P3. If you already invested in P3, why change for northing? I think that there will be no way for Primavera to change the way the construction is doing business for years by a product or “vision”. Believe or not, P3 will be sold for long time as the demand is still there. Even they stop the sale of P3; you still own your copy. Why worry about?

Eric Chou, PE
HTC Project Controls, Inc.
www.HTCProjectControls,com

Hi there,

In my opinion it is better to stick to P3 at this point of time, unless you are are intergrating your financial systems, time sheets etc.

Thanks & regards

Dinesh