Custom Project Billing
Solution for Unifier

DRMcNatty supported the creation of a Project Billing solution, including the integration of P6 data and custom web services in Unifier to automate the payment requests process. With the payment request approved, a custom BI report can be generated from Unifier to output the payment certificate document. The final component of the solution is the custom integration which extracts the Unifier billing data for loading into the EBS Billing Module.

Overview

An industry leader for dredging, reclamation and marine construction work. Their senior management required a new Project Billing Process solution for their clients. Unifier would be used to extract the P6 progress data through its P6-Unifier integration and perform the calculations required to prepare the client billing through the Payment Application business process. Custom integration would be developed to extract the approved billing data from Unifier into their Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) Project Billing module.

Challenges

Initial analysis and design of Unifier modules, Cost Breakdown Structure and business processes had been completed. DRMcNatty was engaged to help close out the solution and prepare it for User Acceptance Testing. Key functional areas that were still incomplete included correctly sending Primavera P6 progress data to Unifier’s project schedule sheet and architecting how Unifier would calculate the billing data into the Payment Application. With the latter, there was identified a functional limitation in how Unifier schedule sheet data could be used within a Payment Application. Additionally, the initial calculations and Payment Application design and workflow were not fully agreed upon requiring further discussion with the relevant departments.

Solution

DRMcNatty resolved the issues with the P6-Unifier integration to correctly send P6 data into Unifier and architected a Unifier Web Service (UWS) design that would perform the necessary calculations to auto-create a Payment Application with the correct line item amounts. This UWS component meant modifications to the initial Payment Application design. Once the Payment Application moved through its workflow resulting in the agreed and final invoice amounts (Payment Certificate), the custom integration would trigger and transfer this data into EBS. DRMcNatty worked closely with the Integration Team during UWS development and provided support for the Unifier-EBS integration testing phase. Throughout the design process a series of meetings were planned with the relevant departments, such as IT and the scheduling team, ensuring solution objectives were achieved. This included key items such as determining the correct calculations to populate the Payment Application to agreeing on the design of the Payment Application workflow.

Results

The solution was approved by all departments and its implementation was completed for User Acceptance Testing within the time allocated to DRMcNatty. Additionally, administration and user guide documentation was provided to assist with User Acceptance Testing.

Major dredging

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