Should I Buy P6 Professional on its own or When it is in the EPPM Suite?
Written on . By CPM Solutions
Believe it or not, this is a very frequent problem when it comes to purchasing Primavera Project Management solutions. It is not as easy as buying an all-in-one project management program that will solve your problems. For bigger, complex projects or even a series of projects, it gets as complicated as determining which platforms are useful for executives/managers versus administrators/schedulers. You may even want this software to extend functionality to all roles within the organization if the level of involvement is extensive (which the EPPM suite will come in handy for).
It is crucial to understand the differences between the Primavera EPPM suite and the non-web version of the license, P6 Professional Project Management. The key issue here is that many buyers do not understand how the license and software are two separate entities. There are two licensing routes to decide whether or not you want the rights to use the standalone version or potentially, the entire bundled software suite:
It is also very important to know that once you buy into the PPM license, you cannot upgrade it to the EPPM license – in fact, you will be required to purchase an entirely new set of licenses. Your PPM license will only allow you to use the standalone version of Primavera P6. The EPPM license consists of the same rights of the PPM, but also the ability to pick and choose other software within the Primavera P6 suite. This is a critical detail if you find that in the future, you would like to utilize some of the components offered in EPPM which are not offered in the PPM licensing.
From the diagram, it mentions that P6 Professional and P6 Windows Client are almost identical. However, there is one main difference:
All the administrative/set-up work must now be done through P6 Web Access in the suite version and it also has bonus capabilities that do not exist in the P6 Professional (non-web version). Here’s a diagram to help further clarify:
Now after knowing all of this, you can better answer the question of “which product/license is best for me or my organization”? You should consider factors such as size and quantity of your projects, the level of involvement from your entire organization, and budget. Another thing to keep in mind is that the license pricing is very close between the standalone edition and the entire EPPM suite. If your company already has a large budget for software acquisition, it might be worthwhile in the long-run to invest in the entire suite to give room for flexibility and functionality expansion.
*Please note: neither P6 Professional (non-web licensed version) nor P6 Windows Client can be used through the web unless it is through Citrix or Microsoft Terminal Services. P6 Web Access will give you access to the database and projects over the web, but it is a completely different platform from the P6 Windows Client.