The benefits of integrating Primavera P6’s database with Microsoft Excel have long been a secret weapon of many advanced Primavera users. By leveraging spreadsheet functionality to manipulate project and enterprise level P6 data and avoid time consuming manual data entry, users are able to drastically increase their productivity and leave envious colleagues in awe of their P6 wizardry.

The Primavera Software Development Kit (SDK) is a legacy technology feature that is included with Primavera P6. It was released with P6 r3.0 (at the time known as P3e). It implements an ODBC driver that enables a connection between the Primavera P6 data store and other software such as Excel or Access. However, as the underlying P6 technology has advanced significantly in recent years, many are finding the old SDK tricks falling short in today’s Primavera enterprise environments. Some serious technical drawbacks of the antiquated SDK have made it a non-option for many Primavera client companies.

In January when the oil prices fell below 50$ a barrel, many of our Calgary clients started re-evaluating their capital project plans to get the most out of this year’s investments. One of our clients was planning to invest in significant pipeline infrastructure and progress on a drilling program with 6 drill rigs on the go at any given time. The client needed to rearrange priorities and reduce this year’s plan down to 3 rigs and decrease main trunk line development.

One of our consultants who is currently loading large amounts of P6 data using Emerald’s P6 Loader came to me with a concern that there is sometimes a lag between loading information using our P6 Loader (via the API’s) and it appearing in P6, even if he repeatedly pressed the F5 (Refresh) key. The lag could be minutes or hours depending on the situation.