XE upgrade or out of support?

For years we are running OneWorld XE (recently updated to SP24.1.3) and are currently upgrading all of the hardware to the latest possible configuration.
We are also upgrading the Finance module to E1 9.0.

We have conducted extensive studies on upgrading of OneWorld XE or to other ERP software. One alternative I hope you can give your opinion, is to stay on XE without support for another 5 years (which Oracle ends in 2013).

I am curious to hear the opinion of the JDEList users, maybe you are facing the same strategic decisions?

Note that we require Oracle support mainly for Finance related issues and this is being upgraded to E1 9.0 this year.

JDE E1 24.1.3. - AIX 5.3 - Oracle 10.2.0.4

Your post is a bit confusing
The first thing we need to know is how do you plan to continue using Xe AFTER you upgrade Finance to 9.1?
And why would you upgrade only Finance? Do you know anybody using E1 split in two releases?

Hi Adrian, thank you for the reply!

We understand it is an unusual situation, with 2 instances of JDE (upgraded for Finance) and mainly for the sales/inventory module we use the 'old' XE. The finance part is covered, but we hope to understand viewpoints on keeping the 'old XE' instance running for another 5 years, effectively without Oracle support.

Kind regards, Mike

Mike,

asking the community to "vote" on this is kinda ridiculous - given that we don't know the details of your company's situation, short/long term plans, resources, etc.

Here are some thoughts/Questions to consider:

1. Do you still plan to use JDE after this 5 year window?
If you elect to not upgrade and stay on a very old version then in another 5 years the cost and effort of upgrading will be equal to (or exceed) the costs of implementing a new ERP system (given that XE is already 10+ years old). This is true whether you upgrade (re-implement) JDE or implement non-JDE. If you plan to replace JDE after 5 years then perhaps you should drop support.

2. Your ERP (JDE) system is a critical component of your business. Eliminating the ability to upgrade / support that system introduces some risk to the business.

3. Unfortunately, most businesses feel forced to upgrade not because of new functionality but because of technical reasons. Examples:
- ERP system is not supported on newer OS releases - run at your own risk or it won't run / has bugs.
- Newer Peripherals (printers, backup devices, etc) have drivers that won't work with the old OS you're running JDE on.
- new Server hardware requires newer OS's.
- 3rd Party interfaces/software require upgrades
- Your Windows clients will be forced to stay at an old windows release (with all the problems associated with that) unless you use some approach such as using Citrix servers, etc that user's must connect to to run JDE.
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Normally I'm all for not rushing to the latest release and avoiding the updates treadmill. However you've already milked XE for all its worth.
To me the key consideration is the business' answer to the question "What are our plans in 5 years? Replace or Upgrade?"

Cheers,

Having never been involved in the 'sales' aspect of Upgrades, I have to ask myself; "What is the cost of always being current?"

Those incremental steps of upgrading every 18 months vs the giant leap of flinging off a cliff to the unknown!

Isn't it cheaper to take those annual baby steps? What is the real cost of staying current (almost to the bleeding edge) vs sleeping at the wheel until the ice berg presents itself in glory?

(db)

Hi Larry,

The vote is nothing serious, hoping to attract attention.

In response to your valuable remarks;
1. We use the five years to come up with a new (non ERP) solution
2. Risk for the business is indeed most important and we should do everything to reduce or eliminate those risks
3. Our concern as well, and although we are updating/upgrading as much as possible, it will indeed be a challenge to keep it technically in sync.

Thank you for your response!