To implement a new release of Online Advantage, your system must be upgraded. The steps of the upgrade process are outlined below.
- Our technical team assess your current software modifications (if any)
- We then determine the cost of the upgrade and provide you with an estimate – largely affected by how many modifications you have and whether you are a hosted client
- Your acceptance of upgrade project cost estimate
- Implementation of previous modifications into new release software in a Test system by our team
- Your testing and training in Test system and sign off
- Implementation of new software into Live system by our technical team
Assessment of current modifications
Our team review your current software changes and provide a summary report.
You review the report and make decisions on whether all the modifications are still required and should be carried forward to the new release.
Estimate cost of upgrade
For a hosted client with no modifications, the cost of the upgrade is included in your hosting agreement, so an upgrade incurs no additional fees except any training required.
For a hosted client with modifications, the upgrade cost is the time estimated to move modifications forward into the new release. The amount of time will of course vary depending on how many modifications are in place and the impact on any new features of the latest version of the system. Any training would be additional to this.
For a self-hosted client with maintenance cover, there is no additional license fee for the new software. An estimate of the costs will be provided to cover training, any modifications required and an allowance for implementing the new software into the Test and Live systems.
Acceptance of upgrade estimate
Once you give us the go ahead, we will start by taking a copy of your current Live database. We will use this to create a new Test system, and then upgrade that Test system with the software from the latest release. If you have any modifications, we then need to re-implement those into the new version ready for your to test.
Testing and training
Why do you need to test?
Though we do take care when updating software, it is a manual process and sometimes mistakes happen. Therefore it is always worthwhile (and best practice) to complete some User Acceptance Testing after any update to the software prior to installing it to your Live. This ensures that your modifications are still working as required in the new version and minimises any business disruption.
This period is also an opportunity to look at the new release features and decide if and how they could be used in your business.
There will be some differences between the old and new software, so all users may need some time in the new Test system to get familiar with the differences.
The testing phase of the upgrade is in your control. We will provide a test plan that covers new features and your major modifications. It is up to you to review that and allocate the testing and assessment of new features to the relevant users.
As you are testing, keep our Support Team informed of any new data changes you might require so that we can add notes to your ‘go live’ plan. For example, if you added ‘reasons to delete sales orders’ to the Test system, to save you adding those in again in Live, support can copy those over for you as part of the ‘go live’ implementation.
Once you’ve completed testing, nominate a date for ‘go live’ and let Support know. The timing should be a quieter point in the month when you are not too busy to allow your users to adapt to the new system.
Live Implementation
Our staff will update your Live system with the new software, and set up any data as noted during the test phase during your ‘down time’. Typically either overnight or on a weekend where possible to avoid any disruption to your day to day activities.
There may be a ‘settling in’ period, so our Support Team is usually advised and prepared to field additional questions via the support portal or email/phone. They will look after anything that may have been missed or overlooked during testing and give it a high priority until resolved.