We have been running Epicor products since 1994. In 2016 we did a reimplementation going from Vantage 8.03 (Progress) to Epicor 10. We used DMT to copy over a select amount of information. We still have our old Vantage server running for historic information, mostly job data for parts sales and customer service issues.
Since this server is a security nightmare and grows more unstable every day, I need to find a better way to allow access to the information. I have contacted Epicor so see what services they have available to convert the data and am awaiting a response.
Any recommendations? I do not want all that data brought into our live environment, just a way to access it. Thoughts so far include:
Convert Progress database to SQL and use dashboards/BAQs to access it. I like this idea best but not sure the best way to do the conversion
DMT into blank database. Because of all the related information, where do you start and where do you stop?
I’ve had to deal with this situation for a few legacy softwares after moving to Epicor, but not specifically where Vantage was the legacy ERP.
In one case, the vendor was able to take a very old legacy database and sort of brute force their way through a data migration and stand up an “archive” environment in the latest version of their software. The environment wasn’t really functional in the sense that transactions could be run (because it was a crude data migration that didn’t thoroughly account for how much the software had changed over the years), but it worked perfectly fine as a means for users to view legacy transactions. The Archive environment is then sort of looped in with the Production environment in terms of keeping it and underlying server infrastructure updated over time.
In another case, an analysis was done of what data is useful / needed on an ongoing basis, then some queries written to pull out a handful of “views” from the legacy database. Those datasets are dumped into tables in a SQL database, and then external BAQs let users access the data from within Epicor.
To get the old Progress data to SQL, I performed a manual upgrade to E9 and then to E10. I didn’t worry about it being perfect, UOM’s accounts, etc…just so that it ended up as SQL.
While kind of a pain, burned about 8 hours, it still seemed like it was the easiest/fastest way to get there after all was said & done.
I had options then, simple ODBC for some users for querying… and I could access the E10 client if REALLY needed.
Thanks Bruce. I like that idea. Will you upgrade it moving forward? I am trying to avoid always having to upgrade it and would access it as an external database.
We had our old ERP on Progress. We used ODBC to import the tables into MS Access. All the tables did import and we can access them if needed. The drawback with Access at the time was the size, so it is split over several Access database files.
I believe you could do the same with SQL and it should not have any issues with size. I have not done but the principle is the same.
No - I just wanted to get it to SQL, easier to setup access for querying. I would not expect anyone to ever do any actual data entry in the client - just reports/queries for history.
Thank you all for the feedback. I used to have an ODBC connection to the Progress database that I also connected to Access but as I started this project I was having trouble recreating it.
@bordway that is what I was thinking too. No entry allowed and once it is in SQL, back it up and lock it down.