Vantage Leadership Council Meeting Notes

system · August 28, 2008, 1:33pm

I must reply off list.

________________________________
From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of xorone
Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2008 12:32 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Vantage] Vantage Leadership Council Meeting Notes

Todd,

How does one become privy the this fantastic Leadership Council Meeting teleconference?

--- On Thu, 8/28/08, Todd Caughey <caugheyt@...<mailto:caugheyt%40harveyvogel.com>> wrote:

From: Todd Caughey <caugheyt@...<mailto:caugheyt%40harveyvogel.com>>
Subject: [Vantage] Vantage Leadership Council Meeting Notes
To: "vantage@yahoogroups.com<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>" <vantage@yahoogroups.com<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>>
Date: Thursday, August 28, 2008, 11:54 AM

The following are just my random notes from the recent Vantage Leadership Council...part of that Epicor related group of users. Whether you are a member or not there are things done and said there probably worth knowing about. Again, these are notes from what I heard and there is always a chance I misinterpreted things so clarification from the other YahooGroup participants in the tele-conference is much appreciated. ..on or off list.

* Epicor 9 (as they call it) went into Beta about 53 minutes ago from the time of this email. Initially this is a "hosted beta" on Epicor servers. There are 83 sites signed up for beta and of these 19 are going live on the beta version. Epicor seems pretty pumped up about it as far as functionality and stability after internal testing. No mention of the timing for general release.
* There will be a presentation by Mark Pladson at Perspectives on 6.1 to 8.x migration. Apparently he has also found his original 6.1 to 8.0 notes.
* A sub-group is being formed within VLC to address 6.1 to 8.x migration issues and the need for free or low cost tools to assist this process...preferabl y without as great a need for professional services by the more experienced sites.
* 8.03.406 is scheduled for Sept. after a couple more late added issues are resolved. There was considerable discussion about the terminology of patch numbers and letters. Basically 8.03.4xx will not have new or enhanced functionality or release point (no 8.03.5xx) and 9.0 or 9.1 are where this sort of thing will happen.
* Also discussion of patches that introduce new bugs...the answer to which by Epicor is that this is not acceptable and they do everything they can to avoid it. There is a new VP of Quality (Mike Wagner sp?) who will be in charge of their QA processes on patches.
* Joe Jasper mentioned that on the web portal site if you look up a SCR there will now be a target patch level and date for resolution. This has been a long standing issue where when calling support on an already identified issue the answer about a fix was vague. Once you have the SCR# you can now get a more definite idea of when the fix will be. In addition there is a daily Development Review Board (DRB) that reviews all SCRs from the previous day that establishes which patch level the issue will be in so that this info gets onto the portal.
* A developer support group has been or is being established to act as support for developer and customization related issues as well as to create data fix routines for cases where data, and not the code, is the issue at a site. This us supposed to relieve regular support from dealing with site specific issues as well as relieve development from coding around issues caused by bad data. Caveat....this is how I heard it but I may be a little off on the underlying goals here.
* Perspectives this year will have between 30% and 50% user delivered content. The goal is 50%. This will make perspectives even more valuable and counter balance some of the long held opinions that the whole thing is just a marketing venue for Epicor. Attendance registration is a little off from last year but the Earlybird registration discount period is still on (until tomorrow?) and there is typically a flood of registrations just before it ends. There was also some discussion about Fire Marshall issues and crowded rooms and areas and some additional rooms and larger rooms have been added. Personally.. ..I expect a lot of info about Epicor 9 and probably fanfare similar to Vantage 8.
* There was a long discussion about support escalation and in the near future (as well as at perspectives) the existing escalation track will be distributed. Something probably like: Support tech---->Support Manager----- >Support VP----->Product Manager....etc. ... The bottom line was all the Epicor people expressed a strong desire to know if Support is not getting the job done so don't hesitate to escalate. Also there was discussion about banning the support response "Working as Designed" and the idea of having an automatic review by development (or someone with more experience with the system) before a support tech can issue this response.
* It appears there will be some sort of tracking system set up at the other major user group for enhancement requests.

That's it as far as (and as best as) I can recall.

-Todd C.

[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 · August 28, 2008, 11:54am

The following are just my random notes from the recent Vantage Leadership Council...part of that Epicor related group of users. Whether you are a member or not there are things done and said there probably worth knowing about. Again, these are notes from what I heard and there is always a chance I misinterpreted things so clarification from the other YahooGroup participants in the tele-conference is much appreciated...on or off list.

* Epicor 9 (as they call it) went into Beta about 53 minutes ago from the time of this email. Initially this is a "hosted beta" on Epicor servers. There are 83 sites signed up for beta and of these 19 are going live on the beta version. Epicor seems pretty pumped up about it as far as functionality and stability after internal testing. No mention of the timing for general release.
* There will be a presentation by Mark Pladson at Perspectives on 6.1 to 8.x migration. Apparently he has also found his original 6.1 to 8.0 notes.
* A sub-group is being formed within VLC to address 6.1 to 8.x migration issues and the need for free or low cost tools to assist this process...preferably without as great a need for professional services by the more experienced sites.
* 8.03.406 is scheduled for Sept. after a couple more late added issues are resolved. There was considerable discussion about the terminology of patch numbers and letters. Basically 8.03.4xx will not have new or enhanced functionality or release point (no 8.03.5xx) and 9.0 or 9.1 are where this sort of thing will happen.
* Also discussion of patches that introduce new bugs...the answer to which by Epicor is that this is not acceptable and they do everything they can to avoid it. There is a new VP of Quality (Mike Wagner sp?) who will be in charge of their QA processes on patches.
* Joe Jasper mentioned that on the web portal site if you look up a SCR there will now be a target patch level and date for resolution. This has been a long standing issue where when calling support on an already identified issue the answer about a fix was vague. Once you have the SCR# you can now get a more definite idea of when the fix will be. In addition there is a daily Development Review Board (DRB) that reviews all SCRs from the previous day that establishes which patch level the issue will be in so that this info gets onto the portal.
* A developer support group has been or is being established to act as support for developer and customization related issues as well as to create data fix routines for cases where data, and not the code, is the issue at a site. This us supposed to relieve regular support from dealing with site specific issues as well as relieve development from coding around issues caused by bad data. Caveat....this is how I heard it but I may be a little off on the underlying goals here.
* Perspectives this year will have between 30% and 50% user delivered content. The goal is 50%. This will make perspectives even more valuable and counter balance some of the long held opinions that the whole thing is just a marketing venue for Epicor. Attendance registration is a little off from last year but the Earlybird registration discount period is still on (until tomorrow?) and there is typically a flood of registrations just before it ends. There was also some discussion about Fire Marshall issues and crowded rooms and areas and some additional rooms and larger rooms have been added. Personally....I expect a lot of info about Epicor 9 and probably fanfare similar to Vantage 8.
* There was a long discussion about support escalation and in the near future (as well as at perspectives) the existing escalation track will be distributed. Something probably like: Support tech---->Support Manager----->Support VP----->Product Manager....etc.... The bottom line was all the Epicor people expressed a strong desire to know if Support is not getting the job done so don't hesitate to escalate. Also there was discussion about banning the support response "Working as Designed" and the idea of having an automatic review by development (or someone with more experience with the system) before a support tech can issue this response.
* It appears there will be some sort of tracking system set up at the other major user group for enhancement requests.

That's it as far as (and as best as) I can recall.

-Todd C.

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

system · August 28, 2008, 1:31pm

Todd,
Â
How does one becomeÂ privy the this fantastic Leadership Council Meeting teleconference?
Â

--- On Thu, 8/28/08, Todd Caughey <caugheyt@...> wrote:

From: Todd Caughey <caugheyt@...>
Subject: [Vantage] Vantage Leadership Council Meeting Notes
To: "vantage@yahoogroups.com" <vantage@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Thursday, August 28, 2008, 11:54 AM

The following are just my random notes from the recent Vantage Leadership Council...part of that Epicor related group of users. Whether you are a member or not there are things done and said there probably worth knowing about. Again, these are notes from what I heard and there is always a chance I misinterpreted things so clarification from the other YahooGroup participants in the tele-conference is much appreciated. ..on or off list.

* Epicor 9 (as they call it) went into Beta about 53 minutes ago from the time of this email. Initially this is a "hosted beta" on Epicor servers. There are 83 sites signed up for beta and of these 19 are going live on the beta version. Epicor seems pretty pumped up about it as far as functionality and stability after internal testing. No mention of the timing for general release.
* There will be a presentation by Mark Pladson at Perspectives on 6.1 to 8.x migration. Apparently he has also found his original 6.1 to 8.0 notes.
* A sub-group is being formed within VLC to address 6.1 to 8.x migration issues and the need for free or low cost tools to assist this process...preferabl y without as great a need for professional services by the more experienced sites.
* 8.03.406 is scheduled for Sept. after a couple more late added issues are resolved. There was considerable discussion about the terminology of patch numbers and letters. Basically 8.03.4xx will not have new or enhanced functionality or release point (no 8.03.5xx) and 9.0 or 9.1 are where this sort of thing will happen.
* Also discussion of patches that introduce new bugs...the answer to which by Epicor is that this is not acceptable and they do everything they can to avoid it. There is a new VP of Quality (Mike Wagner sp?) who will be in charge of their QA processes on patches.
* Joe Jasper mentioned that on the web portal site if you look up a SCR there will now be a target patch level and date for resolution. This has been a long standing issue where when calling support on an already identified issue the answer about a fix was vague. Once you have the SCR# you can now get a more definite idea of when the fix will be. In addition there is a daily Development Review Board (DRB) that reviews all SCRs from the previous day that establishes which patch level the issue will be in so that this info gets onto the portal.
* A developer support group has been or is being established to act as support for developer and customization related issues as well as to create data fix routines for cases where data, and not the code, is the issue at a site. This us supposed to relieve regular support from dealing with site specific issues as well as relieve development from coding around issues caused by bad data. Caveat....this is how I heard it but I may be a little off on the underlying goals here.
* Perspectives this year will have between 30% and 50% user delivered content. The goal is 50%. This will make perspectives even more valuable and counter balance some of the long held opinions that the whole thing is just a marketing venue for Epicor. Attendance registration is a little off from last year but the Earlybird registration discount period is still on (until tomorrow?) and there is typically a flood of registrations just before it ends. There was also some discussion about Fire Marshall issues and crowded rooms and areas and some additional rooms and larger rooms have been added. Personally.. ..I expect a lot of info about Epicor 9 and probably fanfare similar to Vantage 8.
* There was a long discussion about support escalation and in the near future (as well as at perspectives) the existing escalation track will be distributed. Something probably like: Support tech---->Support Manager----- >Support VP----->Product Manager....etc. ... The bottom line was all the Epicor people expressed a strong desire to know if Support is not getting the job done so don't hesitate to escalate. Also there was discussion about banning the support response "Working as Designed" and the idea of having an automatic review by development (or someone with more experience with the system) before a support tech can issue this response.
* It appears there will be some sort of tracking system set up at the other major user group for enhancement requests.

That's it as far as (and as best as) I can recall.

-Todd C.

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

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