JDE Upgrade from ERP 8.0 to JDE9.1

Tgex

Member
We are planning for an Upgrade from JDE 8.0 B7334 SP23 R1 to JDE 9.1.

The Current Release configuration of our system is

Dep Server : Windows Server 2003
ES : AIX 5.1
DB: IBM DB2 8.7

Has any one done the upgrade from ERP 8.0 to 9.1, If so what are the steps that are involved and approach we should follow for successful upgrade.

The current version is non unicode compliant..Need pointers in converting unicode conversion approach.


Thanks
 
Tgex

Upgrading from ERP 8 to 9.1 is quite common. It is customary for customers to use a business partner to assist with the upgrade. There are a number of steps involved in the process. It generally takes most customers several months to make the transition. It is not as simple as upgrading from an old version of MS Office to a current version.

A few places to get started - if you have a relationship with a business partner, give them a call. If not, contact your Oracle rep, they can help you with finding a business partner. There are also some seminars that you can go to. Ask your Oracle rep about the "100 day upgrade" seminar. That seminar is put on by Oracle and/or select Oracle business partners.

The other thing that you should take a look at is transitioning over to a hosted solution. Jumping from ERP 8 to EnterpriseOne 9.1 is a pretty big leap and will likely require new hardware to run it on. It will require transitioning from a windows based application to a browser based application. You'll be jumping about 12 years ahead in your technology. A hosted solution is a very viable solution.
 
You don't have to convert to unicode unless you need the language support.

I would probably echo that you are looking at replacing your hardware and you might want to assess if you want to back-end to AIX. Depending on your internal skillsets, cloud (outsourced) or switching to another architecture (Windows/SQL, etc) should be something to consider.
 
We would be switching entirely to new hardware. probably we would go with the AIX and DB2.
During the upgrade if we do not go for unicode conversion, once after the upgrade if the lanuguage support is required then does it still requires unicode conversion.
 
Hi,

This is quite a leap as others have said. We're in the process of upgrading from 8.11 to 9.1. Something that we did from the outset... if at all possible get 9.1 installed on test machines (can be done at a push on powerful PCs) and have a look at the standard functionality. We did this internally but a Business Partner can help with this. This can help the business determine what functionality needs to go over to 9.1 and what is already in 9.1 as standard. Technology stack will be a big decision to make (or hosting).

It's all good fun ;)

Good luck,

Sanj

ps. Definitely try to attend a '100 day upgrade' seminar - a good starting point.
 
Hi,

I have some time savers in the menu area - ways to take what you have in terms of menus, roles/groups and security that will help. In every case remember that companies often invest 100 days just in upgrading menus/security alone - so get this part of your plan clear.
 
You don't have to convert to unicode unless you need the language support.

I would probably echo that you are looking at replacing your hardware and you might want to assess if you want to back-end to AIX. Depending on your internal skillsets, cloud (outsourced) or switching to another architecture (Windows/SQL, etc) should be something to consider.

1. I would always convert to unicode. Every new installation comes with unicode - its only upgrades from pre-8.x that have the non-unicode support, so there would be less supported customers on non-unicode. Why go through an upgrade to end up having issues with support because you're not unicode ? Although it takes up more space on the database storage (~50%) - the penalty on performance would be also an issue, since a non-unicode database has to go through an extra "translation" process for every database transaction. So, make sure your consultant configures unicode when you're live in production.

2. Sticking with AIX is fine - again, this is bad advice - you likely have a large implementation and are looking for support across thousands of users and maybe you have other platforms that is hosted on AIX. AIX is a common implementation amongst E1 on Unix - though not as common these days as Linux or Solaris, since both are "native" oracle Unix products. However, you will likely have to re-consider your database platform - although UDB (10.5 or 9.7) is supported with EnterpriseOne - less than 1% of customers use UDB. Its an incredibly uncommon implementation choice, and I know that other customers have had issues getting support from Oracle over it. There have been a lot of rumors about Oracle dropping support for UDB in the past (which hasn't happened yet) - but it is the most logical platform that they would drop support for. You should consider going from UDB to Oracle (on Unix) - or getting an AS/400 and running DB2. Moving to Microsoft and SQL Server are definitely also another option - but if you don't have the skillset in house, then stick with what you have experience with. As far as scalability goes, all platforms are very scalable these days.

Lastly, don't forget that "8.0" is actually "B7334" - which is, for all intents and purposes, OneWorld Xe (its also called "Xe 2" in some CNC circles !). Its the most common upgrade process out there - but it is a big change, resulting in more than 750 table conversions that have to occur - and its very important to ensure that the partner you choose can not only help with your upgrade conversions, but also has experience in converting your data in a small enough window to minimize the impact of the go-live on your business.

Lastly, as for the cloud choice - don't get bamboozled. There are good companies that provide SAAS out there, and there are options to just host the hardware. Make sure you arm yourself with as much knowledge as possible - go to upgradejde.com to get all the technical information you can, and also ensure that Oracle is aware of the choices you're making. You might end up with an expensive licensing audit in the best case - or ending up paying substantially for a consulting organization to have "free reign" over your upgrade choices in the worst case. Do it right, and pick the partners that will serve YOU and not their pockets.
 
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Hi Jon,

I take issue with your comments about bad advice. You have different experiences than I have and you are not the arbitrator of these things. I believe the original poster was looking for advice from any forum member, not just your advice.

Unicode does come standard with any 9.0 or higher installation as you have indicated. It does also come with a higher price tag for disk space (and additional

costs) at the trade off of the improved unicode translation time. If you are an existing customer with a large database you should know about this so you can make an informed choice. The original poster doesn't indicated in the original post or follow up if they actually require unicode so we can't assume that.

I don't really understand your comment about "Sticking with AIX". I merely suggested looking at alternatives because this is an increasingly rare skillset. Later in your comment you suggest that the author has a "Large implementation" and yet still, other alternatives are fine "All platforms are very scaleable".

Anyways, the gist of my comments is that you made some assumptions which haven't been validated and then labelled someone's opinion as bad advice. Worth thinking about.


Malcolm
 
Well, the way I read this, I think this was a generic comment along the lines of "you will be ill-advised to stick with UDB", since you did not actually gave such advice in your post in the first place. In fact you suggested looking around instead, which Jon echoed and which I am echoing here as well. So we all are right here ;-)
 
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