Classic to Vantage

At a company I was at previously, we converted to Vantage in January, 1996
(and we think we have problems now!). We also decided to re-enter our
"mountain" of data-the cost of conversion was very high and we wanted to
eliminate a lot of accumulated "junk" as well as make some major changes in
customer and vendor numbering and in our raw material numbering scheme.
This was labor-intense, but it was extremely beneficial in the long run-we
started with our database looking like we wanted it to look-then junked it
up all new! Because of the extreme differences in the field sizes and types
of characters available in different fields between Classic and Vantage,
this was really an easy decision for us-and we had been classic users for at
least 4 years.

Lydia
Canyon Engineering Products, Inc.


-----Original Message-----
From: Diane Rowberry [mailto:diane.rowberry@...]
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2000 8:40 AM
To: vantage@egroups.com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] RE: Classic to Vantage

We chose not to do the data conversion when we went from Classic to Vantage
two years ago. At that time they had only done a couple conversions and the
cost was VERY prohibiting for our small company so we bit the bullet and
started from scratch. We printed everything that we could from Classic -
all the stored methods, vendor lists, customer lists, etc. There was a
mountain of data entry, but starting from scratch gave us the ability to
change the things we did not like in our data from Classic. Looking back in
retrospect, I think we would choose to go this same route again.

Diane Rowberry
Westwood Precision
www.westwoodprecision.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Todd Caughey [mailto:caugheyt@...]
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2000 7:25 AM
To: 'vantage@egroups.com'
Subject: RE: [Vantage] RE: Classic to Vantage


We converted 9/1/2000. But to be fair we did throw a curve or two.
Although we pre-loaded many of the master files they were loaded with the
same codes as in Classic so they should have linked. But the Classic data
was 12 years old and full of garbage. I would agree very much with the
suggestion to clean out Classic data. We eliminated over half of the
customers and 2/3rds of the parts and methods and ran every clean or purge
routine we could. Perhaps we went overboard and this left some dangling
references but we used the regular Classic routines so this should have
cleaned everything up. We also skipped conversion of all SO's, Jobs and
Quotes and are ramping up with Vantage was we phase out the old Classic
jobs. Since job history would not come over anyway we would be starting
cleaning regardless and we have all the SO info in paper bundles. So it was
probably not the typical conversion.

The basic procedure they use is:
1. Special backup for conversion (CONVBACK) on a tape they send you.
2. If you have some Vantage data copy .DB files to zip disk or CD
3. Send to Epicor
4. Wait a week or so and prepare to answer lots of questions about how to
handle exceptions
5. They send a CD back with converted database

We actually did it twice and revealed the purchasing suggestions check box
issue in our conference room pilot.

-Todd C.
Harvey Vogel Mfg. Co.



-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Zywiec [mailto:ezywiec@...]
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2000 8:22 AM
To: 'vantage@egroups.com'
Subject: RE: [Vantage] RE: Classic to Vantage


Rhonda,

You should get the dates of everyone's conversion. We converted the last
week of Dec. 1998 and it was a disaster. I'm sure they learned a lot from
us and hopefully they got better at it.




We no longer allow attachments to files. To access/share Report Files,
please go to the following link: http://www.egroups.com/files/vantage/
(Note: If this link does not work for you the first time you try it, go to
www.egroups.com, login and be sure to save your password, choose My Groups,
choose Vantage, then choose Files. If you save the password, the link above
will work the next time you try it.)
We are preparing to convert one of our divisions from Classic to Vantage. I
am not familiar with classic and could use a few pointers on how to export
data files. Can any of you old classic users help in this.

Thanks
Rhonda
We hired Epicor to do it as part of the purchase agreement for Vantage under
a special promotion last year. The process was pretty straightforward but
there were a number of glitches when it was all done. Several files such as
job history are not converted so you tend to lose a lot. We also pre-loaded
many of our master files and then ran into cases where Classic files could
not link due to missing references - especially BOM to vendor for
subcontract services. We also lost all the customer ship-to info and had a
serious mis-linking issue with vendors and purchase points which they never
did figure out. There are a number of new fields in Vantage which need to
be addressed, especially the purchase suggestions flag on parts (uncheck for
mfg parts or the PO suggestions will run for hours) and the invoice together
flag on the customer record (set on by default unless you ask otherwise).

But for all the trouble I still would not want to try it myself. Getting
data from the AS/400 into a PC recognizable format would be the biggest
hurdle. I suspect they have query reports which output CSV files (like .dbf
files) and then transfer them to a PC where they import them into Access
tables and then have Progress ODBC routines to move the data into a Vantage
database filed by field and record by record (OK columns & rows). Writing
these and getting all the links to work and then verifying it would be a big
job. For Epicor it paid because they can do it over and over and recover
the costs of the development.

Unless you are really experienced with the database and Vantage and have the
skills (or staff with skills) and plenty of time I would have it done for
you.

-Todd Caughey
Harvey Vogel Mfg. Co.
Woodbury, MN

-----Original Message-----
From: Reilly, Rhonda [mailto:rreilly@...]
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2000 4:53 PM
To: vantage@egroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Classic to Vantage


We are preparing to convert one of our divisions from Classic to Vantage. I
am not familiar with classic and could use a few pointers on how to export
data files. Can any of you old classic users help in this.

Thanks
Rhonda


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We no longer allow attachments to files. To access/share Report Files,
please go to the following link: http://www.egroups.com/files/vantage/
<http://www.egroups.com/files/vantage/>
(Note: If this link does not work for you the first time you try it, go to
www.egroups.com, login and be sure to save your password, choose My Groups,
choose Vantage, then choose Files. If you save the password, the link above
will work the next time you try it.)




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
As I recall you have to save the data to disk and ship it to Epicor. They
do wonderful things to it (for a price) and ship it back to you. I would
contact your account rep or support to find out for sure. Good Luck
Marc Durre
Durre Bros.

-----Original Message-----
From: Reilly, Rhonda [mailto:rreilly@...]
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2000 4:53 PM
To: vantage@egroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Classic to Vantage


We are preparing to convert one of our divisions from Classic to Vantage. I
am not familiar with classic and could use a few pointers on how to export
data files. Can any of you old classic users help in this.

Thanks
Rhonda


We no longer allow attachments to files. To access/share Report Files,
please go to the following link: http://www.egroups.com/files/vantage/
(Note: If this link does not work for you the first time you try it, go to
www.egroups.com, login and be sure to save your password, choose My Groups,
choose Vantage, then choose Files. If you save the password, the link above
will work the next time you try it.)
Rhonda,

We also had our data converted but they do offer a second option --
basically a "how-to" on mapping Classic files to Vantage tables. We have
not had the problems that Todd had with our files. After our first
conversion none of our BOM's were complete (the assemblies did not tie
together) and we determined it was an Epicor bug so they redid our data (for
free) and the second time all was well. The biggest data entry chore we
encountered was in the vendor master where everything was defaulted to one
invoice per check (we put all invoices on one check) and in the employee
master where everything except basic data had to be reentered (deduction
master, tax master and the employee's specific tax info and deductions).
Also, the birth dates were all '20' instead of '19' -- looking as though we
hired people that weren't even born yet. They may have corrected that since
I did report it as a problem. Other than that it was pretty clean and I
definitely would not hesitate to do it that way again -- unlike Todd we did
not enter anything on Vantage until the data was converted and the database
installed. One suggestion -- get rid of any old "junk" before you bring it
over since you already know that in Vantage once it's in there you can't get
rid of it.
Rhonda,

You should get the dates of everyone's conversion. We converted the last
week of Dec. 1998 and it was a disaster. I'm sure they learned a lot from
us and hopefully they got better at it.
We converted 9/1/2000. But to be fair we did throw a curve or two.
Although we pre-loaded many of the master files they were loaded with the
same codes as in Classic so they should have linked. But the Classic data
was 12 years old and full of garbage. I would agree very much with the
suggestion to clean out Classic data. We eliminated over half of the
customers and 2/3rds of the parts and methods and ran every clean or purge
routine we could. Perhaps we went overboard and this left some dangling
references but we used the regular Classic routines so this should have
cleaned everything up. We also skipped conversion of all SO's, Jobs and
Quotes and are ramping up with Vantage was we phase out the old Classic
jobs. Since job history would not come over anyway we would be starting
cleaning regardless and we have all the SO info in paper bundles. So it was
probably not the typical conversion.

The basic procedure they use is:
1. Special backup for conversion (CONVBACK) on a tape they send you.
2. If you have some Vantage data copy .DB files to zip disk or CD
3. Send to Epicor
4. Wait a week or so and prepare to answer lots of questions about how to
handle exceptions
5. They send a CD back with converted database

We actually did it twice and revealed the purchasing suggestions check box
issue in our conference room pilot.

-Todd C.
Harvey Vogel Mfg. Co.



-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Zywiec [mailto:ezywiec@...]
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2000 8:22 AM
To: 'vantage@egroups.com'
Subject: RE: [Vantage] RE: Classic to Vantage


Rhonda,

You should get the dates of everyone's conversion. We converted the last
week of Dec. 1998 and it was a disaster. I'm sure they learned a lot from
us and hopefully they got better at it.

We no longer allow attachments to files. To access/share Report Files,
please go to the following link: http://www.egroups.com/files/vantage/
<http://www.egroups.com/files/vantage/>
(Note: If this link does not work for you the first time you try it, go to
www.egroups.com, login and be sure to save your password, choose My Groups,
choose Vantage, then choose Files. If you save the password, the link above
will work the next time you try it.)




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
We chose not to do the data conversion when we went from Classic to Vantage
two years ago. At that time they had only done a couple conversions and the
cost was VERY prohibiting for our small company so we bit the bullet and
started from scratch. We printed everything that we could from Classic -
all the stored methods, vendor lists, customer lists, etc. There was a
mountain of data entry, but starting from scratch gave us the ability to
change the things we did not like in our data from Classic. Looking back in
retrospect, I think we would choose to go this same route again.

Diane Rowberry
Westwood Precision
www.westwoodprecision.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Todd Caughey [mailto:caugheyt@...]
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2000 7:25 AM
To: 'vantage@egroups.com'
Subject: RE: [Vantage] RE: Classic to Vantage


We converted 9/1/2000. But to be fair we did throw a curve or two.
Although we pre-loaded many of the master files they were loaded with the
same codes as in Classic so they should have linked. But the Classic data
was 12 years old and full of garbage. I would agree very much with the
suggestion to clean out Classic data. We eliminated over half of the
customers and 2/3rds of the parts and methods and ran every clean or purge
routine we could. Perhaps we went overboard and this left some dangling
references but we used the regular Classic routines so this should have
cleaned everything up. We also skipped conversion of all SO's, Jobs and
Quotes and are ramping up with Vantage was we phase out the old Classic
jobs. Since job history would not come over anyway we would be starting
cleaning regardless and we have all the SO info in paper bundles. So it was
probably not the typical conversion.

The basic procedure they use is:
1. Special backup for conversion (CONVBACK) on a tape they send you.
2. If you have some Vantage data copy .DB files to zip disk or CD
3. Send to Epicor
4. Wait a week or so and prepare to answer lots of questions about how to
handle exceptions
5. They send a CD back with converted database

We actually did it twice and revealed the purchasing suggestions check box
issue in our conference room pilot.

-Todd C.
Harvey Vogel Mfg. Co.



-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Zywiec [mailto:ezywiec@...]
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2000 8:22 AM
To: 'vantage@egroups.com'
Subject: RE: [Vantage] RE: Classic to Vantage


Rhonda,

You should get the dates of everyone's conversion. We converted the last
week of Dec. 1998 and it was a disaster. I'm sure they learned a lot from
us and hopefully they got better at it.
Converted from Classic in 4/99. It was well worth the ca$h and I would do
it again. A caveat before you decide: Obtain Epicor's document outlining
"What does NOT get converted." You can avoid some real headaches as long
as you keep your eyes open. I'd really like to see the docs they issue
these days for the "do-it-yourselfers." We did shell out an extra 2 grand
to have a "preliminary" conversion done-just in case it wasn't at all what
we expected. The conversion staff know what they're doing over there and
didn't hesitate to ask for direction in cases of exceptions.

Clean out as much "garbage" from Classic as you can afford (time-wise) to
do. As one of the other "Converts" pointed out-you can never get rid of it
in Vantage.