RE: Upgrade Considerations: Software vs Hardware

Al,

Do you have comparison costs?  Most importantly, do you have realistic
implementation costs for both options?  Upgrading from DB to XA is going to
take time and effort, but your data will be preserved and the learning curve
for your company will be reasonably short.  A new system requires converting
the data, either through some (probably custom) conversion programming, or
by x people keying stuff for y days.  A new system will require extensive
(therefor expensive) training.  There will be more and larger changes to
policies and procedures.  You're really talking a major implementation
versus "just" a major upgrade (not that I mean to trivialize either one,
they're both large undertakings).

My gut feeling is that with realistic estimates for all of this that
replacing your old machine with a nice new box is likely to come out
cheaper.  I could be wrong, though.  The other factor is risk of unexpected
business disruption - you need to consider that in both scenarios.

One final question: Is your old box big enough to carry both your existing
MAPICS installation AND your new ERP system during the testing and
conversion process?  You could end up with hardware upgrade costs anyway,
just to be able to switch!  For that matter, you need to be sure your old
box can handle the load of whatever new ERP you pick - MAPICS/db is
relatively lightweight for the function provided, most of its competitors
are heavier.

The ultimate issue is going to be which will fit the business better when
you're all done.  If it costs a little extra but you get a better fit, it's
probably worth it, whichever choice that is.

Dave Shaw
MAPICS-L Moderator
Spartan International, Inc.
Spartanburg, SC
 
-----Original Message-----
From: aldg [mailto:aldg@mail.rvi.net]

Hi Mapics ML:

My employer has an interesting situation to ponder and I thought I would
request some feedback from the ML members because you may have been though a
similar situation before.

We've been a Mapics DB (Y2K, Mod 4) user for many years on a CISC version of
the AS/400.  If we upgrade to Mapics XA, we have to replace our hardware
with RISC type because EA doesn't support CISC.

We have been looking at other ERP software such as HarrisData because it
will run on our existing hardware and it appears to be similar to Mapics.

The other consideration is that apparantly IBM won't be offering any
upgrades or support for our old CISC machine in the future.

My employer is trying to make the best decision given the economic
restraints it has to operate in.  If money were no object, we would probably
upgrade to XA and get the new hardware but this is the real world that we
are dealing in and the decision has to be analyzed from all points of view.

Please comment on this situation so that I can offer my employer some of
your suggestions on this matter.
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