Uprgarde to Epicor 9 or Vantage 8.03

system · March 23, 2009, 2:35pm

I think if I were upgrading from version 6 I would plan on going live
with 9 versus 8. (you have to upgrade to 8 to upgrade to 9) I don't
know anything about the upgrade from 6 to 8 but I'd imagine you'd have
to redo customizations and probably a lot of other things so why do them
twice. Do them once and be on the latest version of the software. I
would, however, wait until the amount of time between patch releases
decreases. Make sure to give yourself plenty of time to do the
implementation, you'll probably need it in order to make sure everything
is working properly In addition, like someone else mentioned, definitely
get a separate test server. Also, check with Epicor and have them
specify the best config for a server, I noticed a decrease in
performance of version 9 over version 8 on our test server. I've also
heard about numerous performance complaints regarding both 8 and 9 most
likely due to inadequate hardware.

Alison Levy | IT Manager | Mats Inc.
dir: 781-573-0291 | cell: 781-964-1698 | fax: 781-232-5191
alevy@... | www.matsinc.com Ask us about our clean, green and beautiful matting and flooring

This message is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company.

________________________________

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of DD
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 11:10 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Re: Uprgarde to Epicor 9 or Vantage 8.03

I was planning on converting the data as the job history contains a huge
amount of information that they use when creating a new job that is
close to the same as a previous job.

I will redo all customizations in 8.03 or 9 on a test database created
from a trial conversion.
Then I planned to export the customizations and import them into the
live converted database.

--- On Mon, 3/23/09, Alison Levy <alevy@...
<mailto:alevy%40matsinc.com> > wrote:

From: Alison Levy <alevy@... <mailto:alevy%40matsinc.com> >
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Re: Uprgarde to Epicor 9 or Vantage 8.03
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
Date: Monday, March 23, 2009, 8:55 AM

Hi

We purchased Vantage 8 last year and have yet to go live for various
reasons, one of them being the advantage of Epicor 9. Anyway, we did
install 8, made some customizations to screens, etc. As soon as 9 was
released I upgraded. The upgrade itself was interesting mainly because
the instructions didn't really fit what happened during the upgrade.
Needless to say, I muddled my way though it and 9 is running on a test
system. The data itself converted just fine, but the customizations
didn't. I got errors on 2 out of 4 custom screens. My customizations
pretty much consisted of adding and removing fields, nothing too major.
Since 9 was released there have already been 2 patches. I did the first
one and plan on doing the second one this week. One thing I did notice
about the first, is they changed some field names; I found this out
because prior to the patch I had tried to use a field in the
configurator whose name had a "-" in it, which the configurator doesn't
like, the first patch renamed that field. I'm sure things like this
could cause problems in other areas such as custom screens. My guess is
that there will be many more patches before all the bugs are worked out
of 9.

Anyway, given what I know now, if I were live and thinking of upgrading
and had the option of starting with a clean database, that's probably
what I'd do. Given what I've seen in the test environment, I can't even
imagine how much cleanup there would be if a migration was done
especially if there was any kind of customization done to the system at
all. If, however, there were no customizations, you may be fine going
to 8 then going to 9. If I remember correctly, it took an entire day to
upgrade from 8 to 9 (I didn't have that much data in the tables)

Alison Levy | IT Manager | Mats Inc.
dir: 781-573-0291 | cell: 781-964-1698 | fax: 781-232-5191
alevy@matsinc. com | www.matsinc. com Ask us about our clean, green and
beautiful matting and flooring

This message is intended only for the individual named. If you are not
the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this
e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have
received this e-mail by mistake. Please note that any views or opinions
presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not
necessarily represent those of the company.

____________ _________ _________ __

From: vantage@yahoogroups .com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups .com] On
Behalf
Of Brian W. Spolarich
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 9:03 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups .com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Re: Uprgarde to Epicor 9 or Vantage 8.03

Any thoughts about migration vs. re-implementation (i.e. starting with
a clean database and importing only what you need)? My sense is that a
good number of folks who are on 6.1 are planning on just starting from a
fresh db.

-bws

--

Brian W. Spolarich ~ Manager, Information Services ~ Advanced Photonix /
Picometrix

bspolarich@advanced photonix. com
<mailto:bspolarich% 40advancedphoton ix.com> ~ 734-864-5618 ~
www.advancedphotoni x.com

From: vantage@yahoogroups .com <mailto:vantage% 40yahoogroups. com>
[mailto:vantage@yahoogroups .com <mailto:vantage% 40yahoogroups. com> ]
On
Behalf
Of Mark Wonsil
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 8:57 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups .com <mailto:vantage% 40yahoogroups. com>
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Re: Uprgarde to Epicor 9 or Vantage 8.03

Hi Doug,

> Any suggestions from people that have upgraded to Epicor 9?
>
> Would you upgrade from 6.1 to Epicor 9 now or go to Vantage 8.03?
> Is 9 stable enough now?
> Does it use the same customization tools? VB.net BAQ reports etc?

Same tools but BAQs are a little stronger (link to tables more than
once)
and BPMs are stronger too. If you want to use the Web Interface, start

> We have to rewrite all the Report Builder reports in BAQ / Crystal

anyway

> taking 3 or 4 months. Would it be worth going to Epicor 9 with a go

live

> date this summer?
>
> I am seeing lots of bugs in Vantage 8.03 and do not know if 9 would be
> better or worse.

I think that you'll find 8.03.407A more stable than 9.04.503 at this
point
just because there are more people on it than Epicor 9.

Unless there's something that you really want, I would get people used
to
the interface changes by going to 8.03.4XX first. The move to Epicor 9
won't
be nearly as dramatic. If you're converting data as opposed to doing a
reimplementation then you have to go to 8 at some point anyway. I think
you'll like 9 when you get there but unless your people need some of
those
features, I would hang on until early next year for the 9 upgrade. If
you
were an 8.00.8XX user and were thinking of upgrading, I might very well
recommend moving to 9 over 8.03 but coming from 6.1, I think the stop
off at
8.03 might be easier.

Mark W.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

system · January 7, 2009, 12:35pm

Does anyone know if Epicor 9 will run on Windows Server 2008 with 64
bit processing? I do not see it in any of the literature recently
released. Curiously, the Progress literature in the new marketing
package is dated 2005 and Windows 2008 is not mentioned.

Thanks,
Dave
8.03.406A Vista Progress
Xybix

system · January 7, 2009, 12:50pm

> Does anyone know if Epicor 9 will run on Windows Server 2008 with 64
> bit processing? I do not see it in any of the literature recently
> released. Curiously, the Progress literature in the new marketing
> package is dated 2005 and Windows 2008 is not mentioned.

The installation guide shows instructions for it:

https://epicweb.epicor.com/doc/Docs/Epicor9_InstallationGuide_904_Progress.p
df

but I'm not sure if you're just running the OE in compatibility mode or not.

Mark W.

system · January 7, 2009, 1:31pm

--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, "ofcwiz" <DavidH@...> wrote:

>
> Does anyone know if Epicor 9 will run on Windows Server 2008 with 64
> bit processing? I do not see it in any of the literature recently
> released. Curiously, the Progress literature in the new marketing
> package is dated 2005 and Windows 2008 is not mentioned.
>
> Thanks,
> Dave
> 8.03.406A Vista Progress
> Xybix
>

I was just speaking to my VAR and he said that he was playing around
with Server 2008 and was running into problems. When he called Epicor
he was told that they hadn't even considered 2008 yet so they may have
instruction son how to do it but I don't believe it has at all been
tested.

system · January 7, 2009, 2:56pm

Yes, we are live on Epicor 9 running Windows Server 2008 64 bit.
However, at this time, Progress & Epicor 9 do not make use of the 64 bit
processing. Eventually they will be upgraded to use it.

Richard Sirow, President
Independent Components Corp.
516-481-5100 x106 FAX=516-481-5550

On Jan 7, 2009, at 12:35 PM, ofcwiz wrote:

> Does anyone know if Epicor 9 will run on Windows Server 2008 with 64
> bit processing? I do not see it in any of the literature recently
> released. Curiously, the Progress literature in the new marketing
> package is dated 2005 and Windows 2008 is not mentioned.
>
> Thanks,
> Dave
> 8.03.406A Vista Progress
> Xybix
>
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

system · January 7, 2009, 6:28pm

At Perspectives they were running Epicor 9 in the Hall of Solutions. I
inquired what it was running on and the Epicor rep showed me. It was
running on a dual core laptop with Windows Server 2008 and 4 gigs of
ram. I was told by another of Epicor guys at the "how much hardware"
station there will be a 64 bit version of Epicor 9.

Cliff Drumeller
IT Manager
Mass Precision, Inc.
408 786 0348
408 314 7420 cell

________________________________

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of ofcwiz
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 9:36 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Epicor 9 system requirements

Does anyone know if Epicor 9 will run on Windows Server 2008 with 64
bit processing? I do not see it in any of the literature recently
released. Curiously, the Progress literature in the new marketing
package is dated 2005 and Windows 2008 is not mentioned.

Thanks,
Dave
8.03.406A Vista Progress
Xybix

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

system · March 23, 2009, 8:40am

Â
Â
Any suggestions from people that have upgraded to Epicor 9?
Â
Would you upgrade from 6.1 to Epicor 9 now or go to Vantage 8.03?
Is 9 stable enough now?
Â
Does it use the same customization tools? VB.net BAQ reports etc?
Â
We have to rewrite all the Report Builder reports in BAQ / Crystal anyway taking 3 or 4 months. Would it be worth going to Epicor 9 with a go live date this summer?
I am seeing lots of bugs in Vantage 8.03 and do not know if 9 would be better or worse.
Â
Thanks
Doug
Â

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

system · March 23, 2009, 8:58am

Hi Doug,

> Any suggestions from people that have upgraded to Epicor 9?
>
> Would you upgrade from 6.1 to Epicor 9 now or go to Vantage 8.03?
> Is 9 stable enough now?
> Does it use the same customization tools? VB.net BAQ reports etc?

Same tools but BAQs are a little stronger (link to tables more than once)
and BPMs are stronger too. If you want to use the Web Interface, start

> We have to rewrite all the Report Builder reports in BAQ / Crystal anyway
> taking 3 or 4 months. Would it be worth going to Epicor 9 with a go live
> date this summer?
>
> I am seeing lots of bugs in Vantage 8.03 and do not know if 9 would be
> better or worse.

I think that you'll find 8.03.407A more stable than 9.04.503 at this point
just because there are more people on it than Epicor 9.

Unless there's something that you really want, I would get people used to
the interface changes by going to 8.03.4XX first. The move to Epicor 9 won't
be nearly as dramatic. If you're converting data as opposed to doing a
reimplementation then you have to go to 8 at some point anyway. I think
you'll like 9 when you get there but unless your people need some of those
features, I would hang on until early next year for the 9 upgrade. If you
were an 8.00.8XX user and were thinking of upgrading, I might very well
recommend moving to 9 over 8.03 but coming from 6.1, I think the stop off at
8.03 might be easier.

Mark W.

system · March 23, 2009, 9:03am

Any thoughts about migration vs. re-implementation (i.e. starting with
a clean database and importing only what you need)? My sense is that a
good number of folks who are on 6.1 are planning on just starting from a
fresh db.

-bws

--

Brian W. Spolarich ~ Manager, Information Services ~ Advanced Photonix /
Picometrix

bspolarich@... ~ 734-864-5618 ~
www.advancedphotonix.com

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Mark Wonsil
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 8:57 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Re: Uprgarde to Epicor 9 or Vantage 8.03

Hi Doug,

> Any suggestions from people that have upgraded to Epicor 9?
>
> Would you upgrade from 6.1 to Epicor 9 now or go to Vantage 8.03?
> Is 9 stable enough now?
> Does it use the same customization tools? VB.net BAQ reports etc?

Same tools but BAQs are a little stronger (link to tables more than
once)
and BPMs are stronger too. If you want to use the Web Interface, start

> We have to rewrite all the Report Builder reports in BAQ / Crystal

anyway

> taking 3 or 4 months. Would it be worth going to Epicor 9 with a go

live

> date this summer?
>
> I am seeing lots of bugs in Vantage 8.03 and do not know if 9 would be
> better or worse.

I think that you'll find 8.03.407A more stable than 9.04.503 at this
point
just because there are more people on it than Epicor 9.

Unless there's something that you really want, I would get people used
to
the interface changes by going to 8.03.4XX first. The move to Epicor 9
won't
be nearly as dramatic. If you're converting data as opposed to doing a
reimplementation then you have to go to 8 at some point anyway. I think
you'll like 9 when you get there but unless your people need some of
those
features, I would hang on until early next year for the 9 upgrade. If
you
were an 8.00.8XX user and were thinking of upgrading, I might very well
recommend moving to 9 over 8.03 but coming from 6.1, I think the stop
off at
8.03 might be easier.

Mark W.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

system · March 23, 2009, 10:10am

Hi

We purchased Vantage 8 last year and have yet to go live for various
reasons, one of them being the advantage of Epicor 9. Anyway, we did
install 8, made some customizations to screens, etc. As soon as 9 was
released I upgraded. The upgrade itself was interesting mainly because
the instructions didn't really fit what happened during the upgrade.
Needless to say, I muddled my way though it and 9 is running on a test
system. The data itself converted just fine, but the customizations
didn't. I got errors on 2 out of 4 custom screens. My customizations
pretty much consisted of adding and removing fields, nothing too major.
Since 9 was released there have already been 2 patches. I did the first
one and plan on doing the second one this week. One thing I did notice
about the first, is they changed some field names; I found this out
because prior to the patch I had tried to use a field in the
configurator whose name had a "-" in it, which the configurator doesn't
like, the first patch renamed that field. I'm sure things like this
could cause problems in other areas such as custom screens. My guess is
that there will be many more patches before all the bugs are worked out
of 9.

Anyway, given what I know now, if I were live and thinking of upgrading
and had the option of starting with a clean database, that's probably
what I'd do. Given what I've seen in the test environment, I can't even
imagine how much cleanup there would be if a migration was done
especially if there was any kind of customization done to the system at
all. If, however, there were no customizations, you may be fine going
to 8 then going to 9. If I remember correctly, it took an entire day to
upgrade from 8 to 9 (I didn't have that much data in the tables)

Alison Levy | IT Manager | Mats Inc.
dir: 781-573-0291 | cell: 781-964-1698 | fax: 781-232-5191
alevy@... | www.matsinc.com Ask us about our clean, green and beautiful matting and flooring

This message is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company.

________________________________

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Brian W. Spolarich
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 9:03 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Re: Uprgarde to Epicor 9 or Vantage 8.03

Any thoughts about migration vs. re-implementation (i.e. starting with
a clean database and importing only what you need)? My sense is that a
good number of folks who are on 6.1 are planning on just starting from a
fresh db.

-bws

--

Brian W. Spolarich ~ Manager, Information Services ~ Advanced Photonix /
Picometrix

bspolarich@...
<mailto:bspolarich%40advancedphotonix.com> ~ 734-864-5618 ~
www.advancedphotonix.com

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> ] On
Behalf
Of Mark Wonsil
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 8:57 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Re: Uprgarde to Epicor 9 or Vantage 8.03

Hi Doug,

> Any suggestions from people that have upgraded to Epicor 9?
>
> Would you upgrade from 6.1 to Epicor 9 now or go to Vantage 8.03?
> Is 9 stable enough now?
> Does it use the same customization tools? VB.net BAQ reports etc?

Same tools but BAQs are a little stronger (link to tables more than
once)
and BPMs are stronger too. If you want to use the Web Interface, start

> We have to rewrite all the Report Builder reports in BAQ / Crystal

anyway

> taking 3 or 4 months. Would it be worth going to Epicor 9 with a go

live

> date this summer?
>
> I am seeing lots of bugs in Vantage 8.03 and do not know if 9 would be
> better or worse.

I think that you'll find 8.03.407A more stable than 9.04.503 at this
point
just because there are more people on it than Epicor 9.

Unless there's something that you really want, I would get people used
to
the interface changes by going to 8.03.4XX first. The move to Epicor 9
won't
be nearly as dramatic. If you're converting data as opposed to doing a
reimplementation then you have to go to 8 at some point anyway. I think
you'll like 9 when you get there but unless your people need some of
those
features, I would hang on until early next year for the 9 upgrade. If
you
were an 8.00.8XX user and were thinking of upgrading, I might very well
recommend moving to 9 over 8.03 but coming from 6.1, I think the stop
off at
8.03 might be easier.

Mark W.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

system · March 23, 2009, 11:16am

I was planning on converting the data as the job history contains a huge amount of information that they use when creating a new job that is close to the same as a previous job.
Â
I will redo all customizations in 8.03 or 9 on a test database created from a trial conversion.
Then I planned to export the customizations and import them into the live converted database.
Â

--- On Mon, 3/23/09, Alison Levy <alevy@...> wrote:

From: Alison Levy <alevy@...>
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Re: Uprgarde to Epicor 9 or Vantage 8.03
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, March 23, 2009, 8:55 AM

Hi

We purchased Vantage 8 last year and have yet to go live for various
reasons, one of them being the advantage of Epicor 9. Anyway, we did
install 8, made some customizations to screens, etc. As soon as 9 was
released I upgraded. The upgrade itself was interesting mainly because
the instructions didn't really fit what happened during the upgrade.
Needless to say, I muddled my way though it and 9 is running on a test
system. The data itself converted just fine, but the customizations
didn't. I got errors on 2 out of 4 custom screens. My customizations
pretty much consisted of adding and removing fields, nothing too major.
Since 9 was released there have already been 2 patches. I did the first
one and plan on doing the second one this week. One thing I did notice
about the first, is they changed some field names; I found this out
because prior to the patch I had tried to use a field in the
configurator whose name had a "-" in it, which the configurator doesn't
like, the first patch renamed that field. I'm sure things like this
could cause problems in other areas such as custom screens. My guess is
that there will be many more patches before all the bugs are worked out
of 9.

Anyway, given what I know now, if I were live and thinking of upgrading
and had the option of starting with a clean database, that's probably
what I'd do. Given what I've seen in the test environment, I can't even
imagine how much cleanup there would be if a migration was done
especially if there was any kind of customization done to the system at
all. If, however, there were no customizations, you may be fine going
to 8 then going to 9. If I remember correctly, it took an entire day to
upgrade from 8 to 9 (I didn't have that much data in the tables)

Alison Levy | IT Manager | Mats Inc.
dir: 781-573-0291 | cell: 781-964-1698 | fax: 781-232-5191
alevy@matsinc. com | www.matsinc. com Ask us about our clean, green and beautiful matting and flooring

This message is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company.

____________ _________ _________ __

From: vantage@yahoogroups .com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups .com] On Behalf
Of Brian W. Spolarich
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 9:03 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups .com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Re: Uprgarde to Epicor 9 or Vantage 8.03

Any thoughts about migration vs. re-implementation (i.e. starting with
a clean database and importing only what you need)? My sense is that a
good number of folks who are on 6.1 are planning on just starting from a
fresh db.

-bws

--

Brian W. Spolarich ~ Manager, Information Services ~ Advanced Photonix /
Picometrix

bspolarich@advanced photonix. com
<mailto:bspolarich% 40advancedphoton ix.com> ~ 734-864-5618 ~
www.advancedphotoni x.com

From: vantage@yahoogroups .com <mailto:vantage% 40yahoogroups. com>
[mailto:vantage@yahoogroups .com <mailto:vantage% 40yahoogroups. com> ] On
Behalf
Of Mark Wonsil
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 8:57 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups .com <mailto:vantage% 40yahoogroups. com>
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Re: Uprgarde to Epicor 9 or Vantage 8.03

Hi Doug,

> Any suggestions from people that have upgraded to Epicor 9?
>
> Would you upgrade from 6.1 to Epicor 9 now or go to Vantage 8.03?
> Is 9 stable enough now?
> Does it use the same customization tools? VB.net BAQ reports etc?

Same tools but BAQs are a little stronger (link to tables more than
once)
and BPMs are stronger too. If you want to use the Web Interface, start

> We have to rewrite all the Report Builder reports in BAQ / Crystal
anyway
> taking 3 or 4 months. Would it be worth going to Epicor 9 with a go
live
> date this summer?
>
> I am seeing lots of bugs in Vantage 8.03 and do not know if 9 would be
> better or worse.

I think that you'll find 8.03.407A more stable than 9.04.503 at this
point
just because there are more people on it than Epicor 9.

Unless there's something that you really want, I would get people used
to
the interface changes by going to 8.03.4XX first. The move to Epicor 9
won't
be nearly as dramatic. If you're converting data as opposed to doing a
reimplementation then you have to go to 8 at some point anyway. I think
you'll like 9 when you get there but unless your people need some of
those
features, I would hang on until early next year for the 9 upgrade. If
you
were an 8.00.8XX user and were thinking of upgrading, I might very well
recommend moving to 9 over 8.03 but coming from 6.1, I think the stop
off at
8.03 might be easier.

Mark W.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

system · March 23, 2009, 11:52am

I recommend anyone who doesn't have a stand alone development
server/platform (not just a different database on your live server) to
get one made. This is a huge safety net for testing patches/fixes,
conversions, updates etc. This can really cut down your implementation
time and headaches like DD mentioned knowing all your pitfalls ahead of
time.

Rob Bucek

Manufacturing Engineer

PH: 715-284-5376 ext 311

FAX: 715-284-4084

<http://www.dsmfg.com/>

(Click the logo to view our site)

________________________________

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of DD
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 10:10 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Re: Uprgarde to Epicor 9 or Vantage 8.03

I was planning on converting the data as the job history contains a huge
amount of information that they use when creating a new job that is
close to the same as a previous job.

I will redo all customizations in 8.03 or 9 on a test database created
from a trial conversion.
Then I planned to export the customizations and import them into the
live converted database.

--- On Mon, 3/23/09, Alison Levy <alevy@...
<mailto:alevy%40matsinc.com> > wrote:

From: Alison Levy <alevy@... <mailto:alevy%40matsinc.com> >
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Re: Uprgarde to Epicor 9 or Vantage 8.03
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
Date: Monday, March 23, 2009, 8:55 AM

Hi

We purchased Vantage 8 last year and have yet to go live for various
reasons, one of them being the advantage of Epicor 9. Anyway, we did
install 8, made some customizations to screens, etc. As soon as 9 was
released I upgraded. The upgrade itself was interesting mainly because
the instructions didn't really fit what happened during the upgrade.
Needless to say, I muddled my way though it and 9 is running on a test
system. The data itself converted just fine, but the customizations
didn't. I got errors on 2 out of 4 custom screens. My customizations
pretty much consisted of adding and removing fields, nothing too major.
Since 9 was released there have already been 2 patches. I did the first
one and plan on doing the second one this week. One thing I did notice
about the first, is they changed some field names; I found this out
because prior to the patch I had tried to use a field in the
configurator whose name had a "-" in it, which the configurator doesn't
like, the first patch renamed that field. I'm sure things like this
could cause problems in other areas such as custom screens. My guess is
that there will be many more patches before all the bugs are worked out
of 9.

Anyway, given what I know now, if I were live and thinking of upgrading
and had the option of starting with a clean database, that's probably
what I'd do. Given what I've seen in the test environment, I can't even
imagine how much cleanup there would be if a migration was done
especially if there was any kind of customization done to the system at
all. If, however, there were no customizations, you may be fine going
to 8 then going to 9. If I remember correctly, it took an entire day to
upgrade from 8 to 9 (I didn't have that much data in the tables)

Alison Levy | IT Manager | Mats Inc.
dir: 781-573-0291 | cell: 781-964-1698 | fax: 781-232-5191
alevy@matsinc. com | www.matsinc. com Ask us about our clean, green and
beautiful matting and flooring

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From: vantage@yahoogroups .com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups .com] On
Behalf
Of Brian W. Spolarich
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 9:03 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups .com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Re: Uprgarde to Epicor 9 or Vantage 8.03

Any thoughts about migration vs. re-implementation (i.e. starting with
a clean database and importing only what you need)? My sense is that a
good number of folks who are on 6.1 are planning on just starting from a
fresh db.

-bws

--

Brian W. Spolarich ~ Manager, Information Services ~ Advanced Photonix /
Picometrix

bspolarich@advanced photonix. com
<mailto:bspolarich% 40advancedphoton ix.com> ~ 734-864-5618 ~
www.advancedphotoni x.com

From: vantage@yahoogroups .com <mailto:vantage% 40yahoogroups. com>
[mailto:vantage@yahoogroups .com <mailto:vantage% 40yahoogroups. com> ]
On
Behalf
Of Mark Wonsil
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 8:57 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups .com <mailto:vantage% 40yahoogroups. com>
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Re: Uprgarde to Epicor 9 or Vantage 8.03

Hi Doug,

> Any suggestions from people that have upgraded to Epicor 9?
>
> Would you upgrade from 6.1 to Epicor 9 now or go to Vantage 8.03?
> Is 9 stable enough now?
> Does it use the same customization tools? VB.net BAQ reports etc?

Same tools but BAQs are a little stronger (link to tables more than
once)
and BPMs are stronger too. If you want to use the Web Interface, start

> We have to rewrite all the Report Builder reports in BAQ / Crystal

anyway

> taking 3 or 4 months. Would it be worth going to Epicor 9 with a go

live

> date this summer?
>
> I am seeing lots of bugs in Vantage 8.03 and do not know if 9 would be
> better or worse.

I think that you'll find 8.03.407A more stable than 9.04.503 at this
point
just because there are more people on it than Epicor 9.

Unless there's something that you really want, I would get people used
to
the interface changes by going to 8.03.4XX first. The move to Epicor 9
won't
be nearly as dramatic. If you're converting data as opposed to doing a
reimplementation then you have to go to 8 at some point anyway. I think
you'll like 9 when you get there but unless your people need some of
those
features, I would hang on until early next year for the 9 upgrade. If
you
were an 8.00.8XX user and were thinking of upgrading, I might very well
recommend moving to 9 over 8.03 but coming from 6.1, I think the stop
off at
8.03 might be easier.

Mark W.

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system · March 23, 2009, 1:49pm

Anyone have a best practice for dealing with custom reports linked to on the main menu? In 8.03.305L the former SysAdmin hardcoded all the links to \\servername\epicor\mfgsys803\Server\reports\reportname.rpt
so in E9 I'll have to go in and change all the paths before we can test and then again when we launch.

Regarding the upgrade:

> The upgrade itself was interesting mainly because
> the instructions didn't really fit what happened during the upgrade.

No kidding! 89 page "installation guide"... with no pictures and incomplete instructions. I scribbled notes and instructions on practically every page so that the eventual launch will go smoother. (ha!)

Some of the customizations on my system didn't convert 100% either. Last week Support told me to delete and recreate the ones I had the most problems with. Another successful solution!