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Upgrades
That scream
you just heard was when the news hit
that it’s time to upgrade your software.
You know the comments: Didn’t we just upgrade last year? Why do we have to do
this again? I like the way the system is running. I can’t afford another bottle
of Tylenol. Come near me with an upgrade and I’ll poke you in the eye.
Chances are you made some of those comments. Upgrades are rarely among the most
anticipated events for software users.
Upgrades have become more complex because there is more integration among
systems. The average time between upgrades has shrunk from three years back in
the early 1990s to less than 24 months during the past three years.
So, why do it? Why volunteer to put your organization through an upgrade?
Because in most cases, it is worth it; to you, your employees, your customers
and ultimately your organization.
More Wow Functionality!
Of course, if the upgrade gives you greater capabilities, you can respond
faster to customers and make your employees and processes more efficient.
Typically, an upgrade is released because technology – programming languages and
hardware – have increased the ability of the systems to handle more data. You
may not use the latest technologies, but some of your competition does. Take a
recent upgrade of Microsoft Great Plains for example. If you didn’t upgrade, you
never got the opportunity to use some of the most recent features that came from
feedback of other users: the ability to age credit memos, reprint statements and
maintain a default checkbook. Why wouldn’t you want the ability to increase the
reach of sales consultants, track time more effectively or respond to a customer
quicker?
An upgrade of accounting software increases your efficiencies by integrating
with more of your other systems. But, does more integration compromise your
information?
Integrations Or Security?
You can do both. The day of the stand-alone business management system is
coming to an end. Most of your business processes affect multiple areas of your
company. Right? So software publishers have responded by increasing the
integration of formally unconnected systems creating more process efficiencies.
It takes a little longer after an upgrade to be sure your security is set up
properly (See Page 2), but when it is done right everyone can benefit from the
new features on the system. Consider the positive impact of Best including a
version of Business Alerts in it’s software for all users on current
enhancement/client care plans for MAS 90 • MAS 200. It integrates with Microsoft
Outlook and allows you to automatically generate e-mails to top management,
customers, vendors or employees or others when certain activities or events
occur.
Here’s another example. The new upgrade of Microsoft Excel 2003 will include a
link to bring Microsoft Great Plains data directly into Excel without having to
enter the Great Plains system. You don’t need to buy more user licenses, but now
you can offer others the ability to pull selected information directly from
Great Plains using the Great Plains security protocols. You can import it into a
more familiar Excel spreadsheet and give access to your sales team, management
and other non-system users!
Maximize What’s Available!
Think of the upgrade as an opportunity to revise business processes to take
advantage of added capabilities. Consider the distribution client who last year
chose to upgrade their software themselves and go right back to business as
usual. They completely missed the added ability to create tracking links to
sales orders that could be linked to their website so their customers could
track orders online. They upgraded because they were forced to and never took
the time to consider the system improvements (See Page 3, The Critical Key To
System Success: Training).
Some organizations put off the upgrade until the last moment, which in many
cases is when the software publisher announces the de-support date for a
specific system. Don’t delay too long or you could get into a situation where
you are running on an unsupported version. Microsoft announced it would stop
supporting Windows 98 in 2002 and stopped supporting Windows 95 almost two years
ago. Both Microsoft Great Plains and Best MAS 90 • MAS 200 have announced
similar ends to support on their older versions. Publishers do this to free up
technicians for more research and development. The drive is constant to design
systems that provide more for companies and users. That means there is always a
team of programmers working to improve the product to better meet and anticipate
needs of users like you.
The Strategy
When it’s time to upgrade you should call together those who support you and
your systems. Clarify your needs and review the functionality available with the
additional features of the upgrade. Be sure to include system users as well as
managers and the IT department in the discussion. You’ll get much better
“buy-in” from your team and much better acceptance of the potential of the added
functionality. You’ll save time and money and you will see an improvement in
daily processes.
Another important component to the planning strategy is to know when the time is
right to make the move. At L. Kianoff, we weigh different factors to determine
how long to wait before moving to the new version. These would include: the
nature of the upgrade - such as what was changed, what modules and third party
products you have, any external integrations and your current hardware specs.
The goal is to move you ahead to take advantage of new features, but not put you
at risk.
Finally, as fast as technology moves today, don’t be surprised to learn that
while you’re debating your upgrade, the software publisher is already working on
the next upgrade as well as beta testing another. As long as there are users
asking their systems to do more, software publishers will continue to add new
features and push more integration.
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