Re: Anybody running Release 5.5 on V5R4 - some upgrade comments for you

Kent, 

I know you are at R5.5, not R6, but this may help you.  I recently completed 
converting a little over 2000 "fringe programs" (to use your terms) as part of a 
migration from R6 to R7.8 on a V5R4 system.  The project plan was to come across 
strictly "as-is", no changes to take advantage of any new capabilities available 
in the newer version in order to simplify the upgrade.  I spent a little under 3 
months dedicated time doing the work (first 1/2 of the time limited to 26 hours 
a week, the second 1/2 at 40 hours a week).  The shop uses COM (with extensive 
use of the Offline Shipping Enhancement), COM_Net, IM, EPDM, PCC/PMC, MDCC, 
Purchasing/Procurement, A/R, A/P, F/A (yuck), G/L, MRP, and MPSP.  There are 
very few true "changes" to XA at the shop, mostly just reporting format changes 
(pick lists in IM and COM, and some in other apps) and addition of a new "user 
exit" in IM Order Release in the AMIPHF process.

The shop used offline loads extensively, as well as MDCC for shop floor data 
collection and control.   The only things that did not come across cleanly 
(defined as simply recompiling to the new file structures) was the COM offline 
load - there are some minor changes there (new fields, and a new file).  In 
addition, we had to upgrade to the current version of PowerBuilder for MDCC (the 
old version they were using was from 2003 and was no longer available).  They 
will also have to upgrade to the current version of COM_Net before going live 
(due to the COM offline file changes).

The shop has delayed implementation ("financial hold on the project"), but it is 
effectively complete except for some minor user training.  I spent 3 weeks at 
the very beginning creating the R7.8 environment "clean and empty", setting up 
Link Manager for IDF (what Browser became), and determining what batch programs 
were actually used (there were over 7000 objects to review that were in the R6 
"fringe" library).  All time after that was recompiling and testing to make sure 
the objects executed cleanly.

Just to (hopefully) give you a little assistance on your project planning.  The 
migration tool and plan provided by Infor is quite easy to follow and use, once 
you review everything and figure out what you actually need to do for the 
process.  I did five complete migrations during the project (to assist with 
training).

Warning - make sure you allocate time to do a THOROUGH testing and compare of 
MRP.  There were a number of changes in MRP planning between R6 and R7.8 that 
caused the system to provide different results with identical data between R6 
and R7.8 - you will have to make sure all parameters are carefully reviewed.

 Dale (Cork) Gindlesperger, CPIM 






________________________________
From: "Hohlen, Kent" <[email protected]>
To: mapics-l-Zwy7GipZuJhWk0Htik3J/[email protected]
Sent: Tue, October 12, 2010 1:26:00 PM
Subject: Re: [MAPICS-L] Anybody running Release 5.5 on V5R4

Pete,

I guess that depends on your definition of how long a piece of string
is.  If you have a string that is 3 miles long, the first 100 feet of
that string isn't much.

We have over 18,000 objects in AMALIB (which I believe is MAPICS
original objects) on our release.  The amount we have changed is about
0.5%.  I wouldn't consider that a high percentage, but that is open to
debate.  When putting on new releases of purchased software, one
modification can be a lot.  In an ideal world we wouldn't have to change
any objects, but sometimes business needs out weigh our desire not to
modify purchased software.

Kent 
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