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QuestDirect.org
LessonsLearned for Upgrading
JD Edwards
(Xe ->9.1) Don’t bite off more than you can chew, walk before you run and other clichés.
Find out why we crammed 6 months of implementation into a 13 month project
QuestDirect.org
Who We Are
• Empire Merchants LLC is Metro New
York's Leading distributor of fine wines and
spirits.
• Empire Merchants’ vision is to be the
distributor of choice to our suppliers,
customers, associates and the community.
QuestDirect.org
Who We Are • We have 1200 associates.
• We ship 8.5MM cases per year.
• We are privately held.
• JD Edwards users since 2002.
• Approximately 200 JD Edwards users.
• Successfully running JDE Xe 7.334 financials and distribution modules.
• We operate 24 X 5. Orders placed by 5pm are delivered the next day.
• Relatively high number of transactions.
QuestDirect.org
Why Empire Upgraded
• JD Edwards Xe coming to end of support.
• Upgrade to supported version to mitigate
business risk.
• Ability to leverage new functionality.
• Ability to leverage new technology.
QuestDirect.org
Upgrade Tenants • Empire will go to the latest version of JD Edwards
– Enterprise One 9.1.2.
– JD Edwards Financial and Distribution Modules
– Includes all third-party applications, custom programs and interfaces.
• Go live July 21, 2014
– Second Monday of July 2014 shutdown.
• This is primarily a system upgrade, we will implement limited business process changes, we will not be reengineering all business processes.
– Enhancement requests – all items will be captured in the Parking Lot and be reviewed, classified and prioritized.
QuestDirect.org
Culture descends from the top down
• Involvement of the company leaders – Senior executives supported the project
• Cleared ITs’ decks so we could focus on the project
• Prioritized project for team members
• Actively involved in key milestones (kick offs, weekly status…)
• Led by example, dedicated time to the project
• Approved budget and timeline
– Department Heads • Took ownership, led by example
• Actively Involved
• Assigned Super Users and Subject Matter Experts
QuestDirect.org
Know Thy Self, We’ve all been around the block
• Why did we cram 6 months of implementation into a 13 month project? – We mapped out the timeline to fit:
• Our business environment – Busy period – OND (October, November, December)
– Industry Shutdowns in Jan and July
• Resources – Availability - Take into account how much time they can give
and when
– Experience Level - Most people do not do this type of work often, give them time to get up to speed
– This extended timeline added challenges to resource continuity with the consultants
QuestDirect.org
Our Empire Team
Steering Committee &
Executive Committee (7)
Process Owners/
Business Leads
(12)
Subject Mater
Experts
(14)
Super Users
(18)
QuestDirect.org
Our Empire IT Team
Ed Lederer
(CIO)
Armando Valerio
JDE
Application
Manager
Al Ferrante
Operations &
Systems Manager
CNC & I Series
Operations
(2)
Business Analysts
(5)
Developers
(4) Documentation
(2)
QuestDirect.org
Our MCG Team
Engagement
Manager
Distribution
Lead
CNC
Developer
Technical
Lead
Finance Lead
/PM
Documentation
/UPK
QuestDirect.org
Share-share that’s fair
• Setup an organizational structure for
heavy user involvement
– Shared responsibilities for
• Requirements definition
• Scripting
• Testing
• Documentation
– Business users took lead and ownership with
IT and MCG providing support
QuestDirect.org
You get what you inspect, not what you
expect
• Testing
– Thorough and structured “IT” testing
• Developer testing - ensure retrofits work
• Unit testing by Business Analysts – ensure output
is what is expected
– Track and monitor what is tested
• Better to fix and retest now then to clean up in
production
QuestDirect.org
Practice Makes Perfect • Training
– Have the business teams take ownership to develop a method that works for their team. One size does not fit all
• Our goal was to train the trainer and support as needed
• Approaches we actually used – Train the trainer and conduct formal classroom training
– Train the trainer and conduct small group/one on one training
– Implementation team conducted training directly
– Take the opportunity to make your organization stronger
• Give the users a better understanding of what they do and why they do their day to day activities
• Take a deeper dive into what they do (i.e. Order Active rules and status)
• Expand the breadth of what they do
QuestDirect.org
Genius is 1% inspiration and 99%
perspiration • More on Training
– Set up facilities and structure that enable the training • We set up dedicated training rooms and practice areas that
were accessible.
• Scheduled the training and published a calendar.
• Added sessions based on feedback.
• Supported trainer and trainee.
– Types of sessions • Foundation – basic training on new version for everyone
• Trainer readiness – to ensure the trainers knew what to do, met expectations and rehearsed as needed
• Instructor led for the specific business functions
• Scheduled practice sessions for specific business functions
– UPK used as a training tool
QuestDirect.org
Fool me once shame on you, Fool me twice shame on me
• More Testing - Thorough and structured user testing – User acceptance testing (UAT)
• Process owners must own the scripts
• Schedule attainable goals and milestones (5 Due by 10/1, 10 by 11/1..)
• Scheduled monthly check-in meetings, most associates had limited experience in scripting.
• Give yourself enough time, Empire scheduled 10 weeks – 5 for prescheduled functional testing
– 1 week for integration testing
– 4 weeks to retest as needed
• Schedule testing to: – Build on itself (i.e. use items created in a previous test to create POs or SOs)
– Use “canned” data, just in case there were issues with earlier tests
• Have a testing room, some place away from their normal work area
• Bring in lunch for the team
– Track and monitor what is tested • Create a method to organize and track scripts. We used spreadsheets
• Create a method to track objects that need to be reworked. We developed an application in JD Edwards
QuestDirect.org
Are we there yet??
• More Testing
– Cycle Testing • Integrated tests conducted by IT
• Testing of interfaces into and out of JD Edwards
• Volume testing
– Stress Testing • We used users.
– Coordinated timing for users across locations.
• Added batch jobs to increase load.
• Looked into software tools
QuestDirect.org
Cut Over • Data Conversion
– Conducted 6 Mock GoLives • Reduced conversion time form 70 hours to 38 Hours
• Planned steps out in detail
• Cut Over during the weekend of 18 July 2014
• System not available to users on Monday
• Began to turn over to users on Tuesday and Wednesday. – GoLive took place during Empires’ July Shutdown, limited users
on the system
• Normal operations began on 28 July 2014
• Deployed support resources to all locations to directly support the users
• Tracked issues as they came in
• Daily Status calls for first 2 weeks – Provided visibility and transparency
QuestDirect.org
Our New JDE Environment
• JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.1.2
• Tools release 9.1.3
• IBM iSeries 740 – Production Server
• IBM iSeries 720 – Disaster Recovery
Server
– Mimix for replication
• Upgraded all desktops to Windows 7
QuestDirect.org
Some Facts and Figures
• 3097 Custom Objects – is this heavily
modified?
– 2490 - Retro fitted
– 607 - Obsoleted
• 1624 Test Scripts developed
• Documentation
– 255 Main Topics
– 215 Duplicate Topics
QuestDirect.org
Lessons Learned • Server sizing and tuning
– We had some interactive performance issues that impacted the user experience. Involving WebSphere and memory utilization.
– Worked with IBM Labs and Oracle to tune server configuration.
• When sizing servers ask for cost sensitivity for more capability. (i.e. relativity small $ to double memory)
• Test on same desktop configuration as will be used in production, including monitors. – It took some effort to configure display sizing
– Impacted initial user experience
• We needed more CNC resources than initially scoped
QuestDirect.org
April – June 2012 June-Sept 2012 Sept 2012 Jan - April 2013
Developed Budgetary
Estimates
Analyzed JD Edward
upgrade verses conversion to SAP
Presented upgrade
recommendation to board
Received Proposals: Implementation
Partner Hardware
March – ordered hardware
May 2013 June 25, 2013 July – Sept 2013 Sept 2013 – Feb 2014
Selected Minardi Consulting Group As Implementation Partner
Kick Off Meeting
- Invited all team
members and EM
management and
MCG presented
objectives, high level
plan
Business
Requirements Sessions
Retro Fits and testing
of objects
Feb – April 2014 May – Aug 2014 July 22 2014
User Acceptance
Testing
Rework of retrofits as
needed
Training Cut over planning Mock Go Lives
GO LIVE
JDE Upgrade
Implementation Plan
QuestDirect.org
Questions ?
QuestDirect.org
Contacts
Joanne Ferrier
Director of Consulting
Office (973) 227-1998
Cell (201) 401-1254
Armando J. Valerio
Application Manager
Office (718) 383-5500 x9266
Edward B. Lederer
Chief Information Officer
Office (718) 383-5500 x 9455
QuestDirect.org
Join more than 500 other
JD Edwards users at
April 12-16, 2015
Mandalay Bay- Las Vegas, NV
• Keynote from Lyle Ekdahl,
Vice President of JD Edwards
• JD Edwards’ Roadmap and Strategy
(Including Big Announcements)
• Education around JD Edwards with Edge
products, macro-level content and high-level
strategy
• More than 230 Solution Providers across
several Oracle Products
QuestDirect.org/COLLABORATE
