What's Next for J.D. Edwards World Users?

Speculation abounds about Oracle's plans for the World community. This stable but aging RPG-based ERP system is still used by thousands of customers. Rumors of discontinued support or an imminent sale have died down, but ongoing uncertainty in the marketplace is driving most user organizations to develop plans to adapt their business systems to new technologies and changing market conditions.

The effort and expense of upgrading may not be appealing to you as a World user: you've been more focused on getting ROI from your existing system than on keeping up to date with the latest technology. Or, worse yet, the system has not been updated since its initial installation except for custom programming. However, not putting a plan in place can put your business systems at significant risk.

Deciding whether or not to upgrade demands you consider features and functionality, technology and performance, and support.

At a minimum, ask yourself these questions:

• Are there new business processes you want to implement but haven't yet?
• Does your current World system have features or functionality you plan to implement, but haven’t?

If the answer to either of these questions is yes, it's best to investigate the issues and resolve any questions as soon as possible. If you don’t, you may learn about software problems (bugs) or missing functionality at a much less convenient time.

If the answer is no, it's still advisable to team up with a service provider to help you maintain the system, train new users, etc. as support services become less abundant at Oracle.

If you commit to Oracle's upgrade path, you can choose from three Releases: 8.9, 8.10, and 8.11. Though you may have heard about 8.12* and “Fusion,” these are future versions and not available at this time.

Release 8.9 brings you into a "One World" environment. Release 8.10 offers significant enhancements, and supports traditional client-server architecture. The current Release (8.11) will get you the most functionality and a "pure internet" environment (no more client/server).

Upgrading from an older Release is a big project (though not as big as an implementation). If you decide to upgrade, here are the Acuity Seven Upgrade Decision Steps you'll need to take:

1. Determine how long the current release will be supported by the vendor.
   1. What upgrade paths does the vendor provide?
   2. What are the costs (internal and external) of upgrading?
2. Define your upgrade targets.
   1. Which version do you want to be on, by when?
3. Assess the need for consulting support in planning and executing the transition.
   1. What kind of assistance do you need?
      • Technical (computer hardware and networking)
      • Applications (vendor software modules and what they do to support the business)
      • Business consulting (the evolution of processes within the business itself)
4. Perform an impact analysis
   1. How will the upgrade affect your business?
5. Retrofit necessary modifications
   1. Are you going to need to have any modifications that you made to prior Releases made to your new release? Or will your upgraded software have the functionality you need built-in, so retrofits won't be required?
6. Plan the change
   1. How are you going to test the system and put it into production?
   2. What can you do to minimize the impact and risks during the upgrade?
7. Determine requirements for new hardware or middleware?
   1. If so, which should be upgraded first? Hardware, software, or middleware?

You will have to select the answer that gives your business the highest ROI. Our deep experience with World software has been used by our clients to:

• Get more out of existing software and avoid upgrading.
• We've helped clients choose and implement upgrade paths.