May I Exchange this for another, please?

We detoured briefly into a live ERP implementation. It's moving forward, hiccups and all. Many of our users are beginning to understand the power of our new system. With great power comes great responsiblity - er, I mean major configuration pain. So we're learning the ins-and-outs of QAD.

I started this journey with the intent of simplifying our IT infrastructure by reducing cost and complexity while adding features. So I'm going to save the new ERP explanation for later. I think I remember telling you that I really don't like Exchange. So let's get back to that. 2002 through 2007 were major growth years for our business. We moved into a larger facility. We updated, upgrade and expanded our IT infrastructure. Our user population was growing faster than we could keep up. I had me, a sysadmin, a project specialist and a contract programmer. And I was still working late nights!

The Belly of the Beast, Part 4

I promise to tell you how we got here, but not today. I'm a bit tired.

It's always a gratifying point in any IT project when a critical mass of users has turned the corner and begun investing themselves in their new system. I think we're at that point today. There are still some unsolved bugs, some missing data, some processes to nail down.

The Belly of the Beast, Part 3

Data is here. No migration is without anomalies, so I have some hunting to do - missing records, missing fields. But the real excitement, as always, is with our users.

Change is exciting. New ERP system, new capabilities, information at our fingertips. Why am I always reminded of the 1980s IBM / Charlie Chaplin commercials? Information management never looked so easy!

The Belly of the Beast, Part 2

Vantage data + QAD schema, will it blend?

This is the time when all those silly data entry errors come home to roost. In our case, fourteen years worth. The majority of the last 96 hours has been scrubbing and rationalizing the Vantage data into a format that can be imported into QAD.

As I write, the data import tool is running. So far, only 19 errors ...