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process improvements when getting the daily work done is the top priority. But during an upgrade project, especially one where efficiency gains are a stated goal, suddenly re-thinking processes and procedures becomes key. This part of the project can take some significant time, in Palazzo’s case almost two months, but the initial effort proved to be invaluable later in the project. “October was spent installing and resolving installation issues. An IBM Blade Server as well as Tools Release 8.98.0.1 were installed.” In late September 2008 EnterpriseOne 9.0 became available and the download began. October was spent installing and resolving installation issues. An IBM Blade Server as well as Tools Release 8.98.0.1 were installed. After installation was complete on November 4, testing began of all processes including custom processes. After becoming aware of the first Electronic Software Update (ESU) in late November, the cumulative ESU was applied in early December and all testing was restarted. December was spent resolving errors, issues and problems so that all processes could be signed-off. After conducting final testing using new End-of-Month (EOM)/End-of-Year (EOY) checklists, there was an executive decision point of whether or not to go-live. On December 18, “YES!” was the word and everyone went on a well-deserved vacation in order to be ready to start on 9.0 in ’09. New accounting procedures were put in place early January 2009 in order to quickly complete month- end and year-end prior to deployment. Conversion and tools upgrade then began and on January 8, 2009, Palazzo went live on JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.0. As with any upgrade, of course there were some post go-live hiccups. Checks couldn’t be printed but after a conversion to BI Publisher that issue was resolved. Oracle announced in March 2009 BI Publisher would replace Crystal Reports and that it would be delivered in 9.0 and available to all customers currently on technical support. There also were issues with the American Express (AMEX) upload/download. After learning how to run the table conversion correctly and how to run an external CSV correctly, which required a redesign process for writing the file, the AMEX issue was resolved. Timecards had to be reset, which resulted in requiring additional cleanup. An issue was found in internal expense management workflow and after identifying the problem approval routes were implemented. Browser issues may have proven to be the most frustrating of all problems, with frequent HTTP 500 pages cropping up, and discovering the differences in working on Chrome vs. Safari vs. Firefox vs. Internet Explorer. To hear Ira Frosch, President of Palazzo, discuss Palazzo’s upgrade experience view the video on Oracle Media Network at http://www.oracle. com/pls/ebn/live_viewer.main?p_direct=yes&p_ shows_id=8275812 or to learn more about Palazzo, visit www.palazzoinc.com. But when all was said and done, Palazzo found that the deployment of 9.0 was 50 percent faster than that of 8.10. and experienced the significant improvements in efficiency as outlined earlier. After the upgrade there were still follow-up tasks to do such as convert from Red Stack to Blue Stack, implement invoices in BI Publisher, rewrite the AMEX interface in Web services, and implement Business Services Server and convert to portal. A year after the go-live, Palazzo finds itself with unfinished tasks still on the to-do list but with good reason. As expected, other JD Edwards EnterpriseOne customers found that despite the economic climate, upgrading to 9.0 was the right business decision for their organization. Palazzo has been busy helping other organizations design, plan, implement and execute their own upgrade go-live strategies. 15
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