We performed the 5.1 to 6.0 upgrade about 1 1/2 months ago. We looked at
the documentation and decided to proceed without training on the new
systems. Everything went pretty good. Vantage 6 has changed a bit from
5.1, but not significantly enough to impair your users. I would say you
would be back to normal operations within 3 days. We would have been fine,
except for data collection. We use a TT5 data collection system (barcode
scanners). This system was degraded to the point of being useless for close
to three weeks. After I replaced nearly every piece of equipment in our
data collection system, Epicor admitted it "probably" was the software.
[sarcasm]Some coincidence that data collection stopped working right after
the upgrade. [/sarcasm] Epicor sent us several fixes for the gateway and we
had a working program after 4 weeks (unacceptable, though we did finally get
it).
So, apart from one system (critical to us), the upgrade was not too bad.
Notes:
- The upgrade process for the server took longer than I expected. It took 7
hours just to upgrade from 5.1 to 5.2 to 6.0 with prep, upgrade, schema
changes, etc... 800 MB database. Once that is done you can split into
teams - one team to replace the software on all of the clients (new version
of Progress), one to fix all of the reports.
- We're still fixing reports from schema changes. Most notable for us:
they've broken out the sales reps for a quote into a separate table instead
of keeping them in a semi-colon delimited field. They also eliminated the
field "EntryPerson" on Quotes.
- We use Michael Podlin's timeout utility. He has an excellent version for
6.0. In hindsight, I would have preferred having it prior to the upgrade.
The first weeks after, without the utility, made a lot of users grumpy about
the new system because they couldn't get in. They blame it on the upgrade,
but it was the lack of a timeout utility.
- Progress has a built-in timeout for it's database that we tried, but this
won't work for us. We use data collection, and the timeout utility will
bump our labor collector and gateway off on the weekends. Otherwise it is
worth a look.
If you have any questions, feel free to call or email me,
Chris
Christopher Gitzlaff
Manager - Information Systems & Technology
Major Industries, Inc.
Phone: (715) 842-4616 ext. 323
Fax: (715) 848-3336
cgitzlaff@...
-----Original Message-----
From: mansfield1024 [mailto:johnm@...]
Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2003 4:54 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] upgade from 5.1 135 to 6.0
Hi to all,
We are getting ready to take the step from
5.1 to 6.0. I would like to get an idea on
how different 6.0 is. We use the AMM data
collection module is this any different?
How much user training is needed to go to 6.0?
How did the BOM convertion go?
Is the EDI any different?
If the upgrade is done on the weekend can
the plant guys function on Monday?
Any of your thoughts will be helpful.
Thanks for your help,
John Mansfield
General Sheet Metal Works
Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must have
already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
(1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder and
Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
(2) To search through old msg's goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
(3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
the documentation and decided to proceed without training on the new
systems. Everything went pretty good. Vantage 6 has changed a bit from
5.1, but not significantly enough to impair your users. I would say you
would be back to normal operations within 3 days. We would have been fine,
except for data collection. We use a TT5 data collection system (barcode
scanners). This system was degraded to the point of being useless for close
to three weeks. After I replaced nearly every piece of equipment in our
data collection system, Epicor admitted it "probably" was the software.
[sarcasm]Some coincidence that data collection stopped working right after
the upgrade. [/sarcasm] Epicor sent us several fixes for the gateway and we
had a working program after 4 weeks (unacceptable, though we did finally get
it).
So, apart from one system (critical to us), the upgrade was not too bad.
Notes:
- The upgrade process for the server took longer than I expected. It took 7
hours just to upgrade from 5.1 to 5.2 to 6.0 with prep, upgrade, schema
changes, etc... 800 MB database. Once that is done you can split into
teams - one team to replace the software on all of the clients (new version
of Progress), one to fix all of the reports.
- We're still fixing reports from schema changes. Most notable for us:
they've broken out the sales reps for a quote into a separate table instead
of keeping them in a semi-colon delimited field. They also eliminated the
field "EntryPerson" on Quotes.
- We use Michael Podlin's timeout utility. He has an excellent version for
6.0. In hindsight, I would have preferred having it prior to the upgrade.
The first weeks after, without the utility, made a lot of users grumpy about
the new system because they couldn't get in. They blame it on the upgrade,
but it was the lack of a timeout utility.
- Progress has a built-in timeout for it's database that we tried, but this
won't work for us. We use data collection, and the timeout utility will
bump our labor collector and gateway off on the weekends. Otherwise it is
worth a look.
If you have any questions, feel free to call or email me,
Chris
Christopher Gitzlaff
Manager - Information Systems & Technology
Major Industries, Inc.
Phone: (715) 842-4616 ext. 323
Fax: (715) 848-3336
cgitzlaff@...
-----Original Message-----
From: mansfield1024 [mailto:johnm@...]
Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2003 4:54 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] upgade from 5.1 135 to 6.0
Hi to all,
We are getting ready to take the step from
5.1 to 6.0. I would like to get an idea on
how different 6.0 is. We use the AMM data
collection module is this any different?
How much user training is needed to go to 6.0?
How did the BOM convertion go?
Is the EDI any different?
If the upgrade is done on the weekend can
the plant guys function on Monday?
Any of your thoughts will be helpful.
Thanks for your help,
John Mansfield
General Sheet Metal Works
Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must have
already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
(1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder and
Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
(2) To search through old msg's goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
(3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/links
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/