A quick look at the P6 Optional Client R8.1 Software
Primavera P6 release 8.1 introduced a new iteration of an old favorite, the P6 Professional client, but in a form that has caused a little buzz and a little confusion among the user community. To clarify what exactly the P6 Optional client is, we thought it would be a good idea to both tell you what it is, and show you what it looks like. In following blogs, we’ll also talk about recent changes in this area with the most recent release 8.2, which changes the picture again for this type of client.
Above: Primavera P6 Optional client
The Primavera P6 Optional R8.1 client is aesthetically almost an identical twin of its well loved P6 Professional client sibling: so at first glance you wouldn’t see much difference in the interface of either product. Look closer and you’ll notice slight menu differences, namely the missing Admin menu and shorter Enterprise menu. There are more important differences under the hood that we’ll talk about next.
Above: overlay of the Professional client (back) and Optional client (front)
Above: overlay of Professional and Optional clients showing Enterprise menu differences
In short, you wont be able to administer the database, create or modify EPS elements, OBS elements, Project Codes, Step Templates, Cost Accounts or Funding Sources using the Optional client. Most other things are in tact however, so you shouldn’t have any issues working a schedule.
Under the hood
The main under the hood difference is that P6 Optional client will only work with the EPPM database. For your amusement, we tried to connect a P6 Optional client to an Oracle P6 Professional database and got the following message. And don’t try this at home folks, we’re trained professionals.
No surprises there.
We then tried to connect P6 Professional to an EPPM database and got this equally predictable message.
This leaves no doubt that these clients work only as advertised. As you probably know, Primavera’s development strategy has been to move the entire Professional client’s functionality into the web based EPPM version of the system: particularly the administrative functions. Back in the mid 2000’s, you performed all your administrative functions using the Professional client and could really only perform project data work using the web versions of that time.
Having now moved all the administrative functionality to the web based system, Primavera has stripped it out of the Professional client altogether, giving us the Optional client in R8.1 EPPM environments. It’s a decent compromise and is certainly popular with professional schedulers and other die-hard power users who feel they still can’t quite get what they want from the web based system alone.
At the back end of December 2011, Oracle Primavera launched P6 revision 8.2, which has changed the lay of the land once more. This will be the focus of our next blog that you can read here, covering the story of the Professional clients.
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