JDE World to E1 – Its only an Upgrade!

Roger Franklin, David TavernerArdent LeisureAugust 16, 2010

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Agenda

•What’s in an Upgrade•Who we are•What we did•How we did it•What went right/wrong and @#$%%^!

Who is Ardent Leisure?

Ardent Leisure operates a range of premium leisure assets including the Dreamworld, WhiteWater World & QDeck theme parks and attractions. AMF and Kingpin Bowling, d'Albora Marinas, Goodlife Health Clubs, as well as Main Event, in the United States.

An Average Day at the office

An Average Day at the office

The JDE Team

Dave Taverner – Technical WizVaise Williams – CNCRoger Franklin – does everything Dave & Vaise doesn’t do!(This is the Ardent JDE Team!)

What’s an Upgrade

• When someone “Finally” decides that the time has come to stop maintaining / improving the current “system” and upgrade to the latest and greatest!

Upgrade or re-Implement?

Upgrade or re-Implementation?

• When you jump 15 years / 8 software releases and move software generations…– What do management expect?– What do users expect?– What’s the bottom line when the dust settles?

Management Expectations

• It is only an upgrade – we pay this huge annual maintenance bill (normally presented at the meeting!!) to ensure we can always upgrade – so put in the disks and lets have a look at it!

And…… how much is it going to cost?

Users Expectations

• Does it look better than our Green Screen?

• Do our processes stay the same

• Do we get any training/manuals etc

• When do management want it in by!

Upgrades – The Bottom Line

• World to E1 V9 is a HUGE LEAP

• Sell it as an implementation – not an upgrade

• The data comes across ok

• Suggest migrating single companies in a multi-company environment

• Most processes & terms stay the same

About Ardent Leisure

• JDE World installed in 1994 to Dreamworld

• Other companies on A7.3 + AccPac + ComOps + GreatPlanes + Peoplesoft

• 62 Legal entities involved – 4 currencies with 3 different year-ends

How did we start – Planning!

• Made a conscious decision to follow an Agile approach (expect the unexpected!)

• Limit documentation to what was necessary

• Involve all people at all steps of the project – empower people to make decisions

Agree on “Project Success”

• Customers Invoices correctly

• Finance can confirm sales / GST etc

• Customer Statements produced

• Finance can run Month ends

• Vendors Paid correctly

• Staff Ok

Teams

• “The Most effective committee is one of two where one is absent”!

• Both the JDE Application and technical teams were kept small (1 each!)

• Teams within each company were established covering each process

Training

• Teams trained over a 2 week period with 5-7 sessions lasting 45-90 minutes

• Training supported by process specific “Cheat Sheet” documentation

• Multi-choice tests given throughout the training to test its effectiveness

Testing

• Teams tested over a 2 week period following a similar format to training

• Live data used to test processes

• Interfaced data tested with 20 days of data

• Data conversion successfully completed 3 times before the Go-Live meeting

Installation of E1 V9.0

• Enterprise One V9.0 installed by Vaise Williams

• 2xWeb Servers + 2xApp Servers + 1xBatch Server + Deployment Server

• 3 Environments (DV/PY/PD)

• (Time taken – 2.5 days)

Technology

• World A7.3.12 – i’Series 520

• E1 V9 Loaded on Windows Intel Servers – SQL Server 2005, Oracle Application and Web Servers – All E1 Servers running as Virtual Servers on a Dell R805 running VM Ware ESXI 3.5

Where did we start?

• Made the AR Conversion programs made for A7.3.16 run on cum 12

• Using SQL Scripts – copied selected files from World to E1 (F0010,F0008,F0101…)

• Exclude AAI’s/UDC’s/NN tables

Table Conversions (1)

• Most tables are the same or similar – in iSeries speak – a Copy/Map/Drop works.

• AR Tables need to run through the Data Conversion Process.

• Generic Text (F0016,161,162,163,164) – custom conversion program created.

Table Conversions (2)

• Chart of Accounts (F0006/F0901) – copy works fine – decided that all COA maintenance is done in World!

• F0902/F0902B/F0911/F1201/F1202 ok

• Address Book ok – custom program to move email address into correct E1 file.

Environment Setup

• Setup User Profiles + Security Groups

• Security on Group Profiles only

• Created program and report versions and new menus

Reports & Forms Mgmt

• Started using BI Publisher for Forms Mgmt(it’s free – but ……..)

• Tools 8.98.1 did not offer total control over email From / Subject / Content fields. 8.98.3 comes close but…..

• We wrote our own “Wrapper” around BIP.

BI Publisher – What we Got

Email

What we got out of the box

BI Publisher – What we Wanted!

Email

What we wanted out of the box

BI Publisher

Full Email control Multiple “From” addresses Controlling Subject Lines Form constructed emails Archive everythingTest for non-”Junk Mail”

BI Publisher – Bursting Control File

BI Publisher – Archive Everything

BI Publisher - Summary

• Our solution supports our multi-company, multi-location requirements.

• Some reports customised to support “Email to Submitter” functionality

• Latest Tools Release offers some of the functionality we were looking for – Not All!

BI Publisher – Further Info

• White Paper covering our solution was published by JDETips in March/April 2010.

Suggest you check out the article!

Chart of Accounts

Custom E1 Job to copy Chart of Accounts from World to E1

What went well? (1)

• We got the right people on board at the start of the project.

• We got them on our payroll and made sure they had our best interests at heart.

• We did not “Over Promise” – Our message was “We are Changing Foundations”

What went well? (2)

• Once we accepted World to E1 V9 was a re-implementation – the transition went well!

• Data conversion – no major issues

• User acceptance – no major issues

• Management – why does it take so long!

What didn’t go well….

• BI Publisher had more bugs in it that an anthropologists backpack!

• Trying to take the high ground on “No Mods” – failed – we made a few mods…!

• Underestimated the setup time and effort

What would we do differently

• Increase the core team by 50% - to three!

• Sell the “Big Picture” better to management – “don’t expect either time savings or staff reductions by upgrading to E1 V9”

• Sell the “Creating Future Possibilities”

Our message our Business

By upgrading to JDE E1 V9 – we are creating a range of “Future” possibilities

Our Business Case

• Single ERP Application on a Single Platform

• Considered World E9.1 vs E1 V9, chose E1 due to platform, software capabilities and available resources.

• View to increasing JDE Module Use

In Summary

Listen and Talk to everyone – they all have a story…. Some of them are even

believable!

If they don’t know JDE World – run!

(test their knowledge!!!!)

In Summary

The hardest thing you will have to do is

START!

Contact Details

Roger Franklin (0413 040 389)

Roger.Franklin@ardentleisure.com

David Taverner (0407 025 975)

Vaise Williams (0415 597 508)

Tell us what you think…

• http://feedback.insync10.com.au