Upgrading to 10.2 Advice Needed

ERP 10
#1

Hey all, got a question for companies that have gone through major updates before. We are currently 10.1.400.17, and have never done an Epicor upgrade since implementing in July, 2017. We talked to Epicor about helping us upgrade, but they quoted $8k min, and 13+ week lead time.

About our setup:
*On site SQL Server 2012 R2
*Just switched to virtual server using VMware that way we can create clones of our live environment
*Small company <50 employees

Couple of questions:
(1) Are the updates really this much of a struggle?
(2) Is this something we are going to have to do every time we want to do an upgrade?
(3) Do any of you have any suggestions/3rd party companies that can be more helpful?
(4) Have any of you made the switch from SQL to cloud, and have rough cost to do that?

Just frustrated that an update would cause this much of a headache.

Thanks in advance!

#2

@niva5171
The main reason that it appears to be a headache is the fact that you would be making such a large jump and you have not done it before.

Now you have the ability to clone, you could practice the process in a "Sandbox"environment, which is what Epicor would be doing. Just be thankful you are not going from 9.05.701 non unicode! So your part the way there. :slight_smile:

I guess the first question to ask is, how hands on do you want to be?

As you will have read on other posts it is possible to upgrade yourself, but, it does depend on quite a few things.

With a totally blind view of your system, if that quote is 8k all up then I would say that is cheap compared to all the performance improvements, fixes and enhancements that have been done between your version and the current one.

Cloud is not for everyone, but if you are in a situation where you don’t have any specific customisations, then it may be a consideration, but you need to review, and get advice from the cloud experts, and that I am not, perhaps Mr @Mark_Wonsil may be able to provide some sage advice on that part.

The other thing you might also consider is upgrading SQL server, but check the certification in the installation guide with regards to the correct OS and SQLServer combination before doing that.

The other consideration, and I suspect that Epicor or yourself have already run the ERP Analyzer to see what changes you have in your system compared to a base system. If you haven’t then I’d suggest take a look at the report, it is very useful. It will help guide you to the things you have test/validate closely on top of testing your standard SOPs that your users perform on a daily basis.

The takeaway from your current situation is having a good long term strategy in place for maintaining the version of the key piece of software that helps run your business. The bigger the gap between the version you are on and the current release, the more effort is required and more risk to something going wrong when doing it. That being said, being on the bleeding edge is not for all businesses, and a happy medium, needs to be sought between resource availability, upgrade cadence and the company’s ability to adopt change.

Dammit! Another long post sorry :open_mouth:

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#3

That makes complete sense. I think it is a larger process then we were originally anticipating. Have you found that for you guys you need to go to a consultant every time you need to upgrade?

#4

Slightly different for us. We have customisations made and compiled by Epicor CSG, so we have no choice. At least for that side of things. The actual upgrade we will perform (in test) fix all the issues then repeat process on production and apply any fixes required before copying to Pilot to conduct sample end to end tests and reconciliations as required, before releasing Prod for General Access again…abviously the production part being performed during an agreed shutdown period.

#5

@hally is correct in all of that ‘wordage’ :slight_smile: but I’ll add that the move from 10.1.500.17 to 10.2.300.9 wasn’t bad at all. I did it myself and it took about 6 hours all told - but I do a lot of backups/etc. along the way, plus dry- runs of the upgrade two or three times prior to the real event. The biggest headache was installing the client again on all our PC’s around the world (about 100) prior to doing the upgrade. And we also have CSG and CSF modules to work with like him.

The most time was consumed just getting all of my customizations tested by the users, which wasn’t a big deal since we too are virtual and I just spun up a couple more servers for a sandbox and installed the new version there. Then we outline 25 quote-cash scenarios to cover the options in our configurators and went to town testing it. Once they said they were OK, we did the client installs and scheduled the upgrade for a Sunday. All went pretty smooth with no external help. But unless you are comfortable with all aspects of the upgrade, I’d at least enlist an Epicor (or 3rd party) resrouce to help in the few days prior and after to take the load off you, but I wouldnt’ think you would need the entire ‘package’ from Epicor.

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#6

You can check out the post I did about it back in March…

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#7

Okay Awesome. Thank you guys so much! We were leaning towards attempting it ourselves in a sandbox environment. Encouraging to know that it is capable, and that we do not HAVE to go the consultant route. You all are the best. Thanks!

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#8

At the end of the day you are the person that knows your system, and there is everything to gain from doing a test.

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