Estimating Progression to ES Conversion Hours

[NEmacGuy]

For Mac Vars:
I would be curious to find out what you experience has been with estimated -vs- actual hours for converting an existing Progression account to Macola ES. If you are willing to share. I was looking for information to use as a benchmark our results and help estimate better in the future. Currently compling our results.

Installation :
Training :
Conversion-Data :
Conversion-Reports :
Go-Live :
Bug Issues :

 

[crystalreporting]

A comparable question might be 'how long is a peice of string'.

In order to answer your question better, I would need more information i.e. what are they upgrading from, how many companies and how much data do they have, how many reports do they have etc.

For everyone one of my clients that is taking the ES path, I am strongly recommending they first upgrade to the latest Progression version (7.6.300), then upgrade to MS/SQL (if they're not already). I like to have as fewer number of factors involved in an upgrade as possible.

Remember too, that anyone used to working with the distribution modules in Progression should be able to locate and navigate their way through the distribution modules in ES. Though the screens have changed, the functionality is largely the same. Financials is clearly the big change, so that's where the bulk of your training time will go.

In lots of cases, reports don't require huge changes. This is particularly true if the customer is already on MS/SQL, as the reports will already be ODBC based (hopefully) and can be switched to the ES database by selecting a new datasource name. Exact have been good enough to create views using the old Progression naming convention and these views then reference the new ES (Dutch) table names. This allows you to get up and running with your existing reports, then drop the views and access the new ES tables directly at a later point. Bear in mond too that most customized reports are not financial ones - they're distribution (at least that's been my experience).

Lastly - Exact has a program in place to assist you in determining the steps involved to upgrade from Progression to ES - it's called PACES and can be found on the partner portal.

Hope this helps?

Peter Shirley

http://www.linkcorp.com

 

[NEmacGuy]

Crystal Reporting,
I would agree with you on the fact that no too conversions are the same. But I was only looking for general estimates of what other VAR were hitting. We have Converted 4 Progression accounts to two non-progression. We skipped the paces program for various reasons. The actual conversion of the raw data has not been a problem. I am actually impressed with how fast it does work. The only issues I have had were with the way they decided to handle terms codes, which I ended up editing the sql scripts to work the way I wanted. Our clients did not like the random codes. The numbers I am coming up with just seemed to be outside of what we expected. Nearly the same amount of time to switch to a different system, or the same as when we convert a customer from an other system such as peach tree or realworld. Let me change that, we have had a realworld conversion utility and the users adapt to Macola(old) with little training. Thus they have been our main target, but lately the realworld accounts that are left either don't want to spend money, or Great Plains has been offering great deal to switch to GP.

We generally could quote a btreive to sql conversion at a minimum of 16 hours or 1 hour per workstation for accounts with 15+ workstations. (Easy to predict what it will cost and what you will make)

Can you run the conversion utility on a 7.6.300 company ? The utility currently support from 7.5.103F - ?. The data changed in 7.6.300.

Heres what I have complided so far, I am sure I need to teak these numbers.

Based on 1 Progression Company 10-15 Users

Training :
Accounting - (Completely new) 40 Hrs
Distribution - (Just a general overview) 12 Hrs
Systems - New 10 Hrs

Conversion of Data :
Utility (4-6 gig of data) 2 Hrs
Data CleanUp 8 Hrs
PreAudit 8 Hrs
Post Audit 8 Hrs

GoLive Support:
Go Live Support 40Hrs
New Reporting Required 40Hrs
Bug Issues / Download Updates* 40Hrs
*Expect weekly for first 3-4 weeks hopely less over time
Conver Existing reporting 12hrs
-------
220 Hrs

 

[crystalreporting]

My apologies - I responded under the assumption you were a Macola end-user, as opposed to a reseller.

Your hours look very reasonable to me. I'm guessing that the 40 Hrs for 'New Reporting Required' is to develop reports that the client no longer has or now requires as part of the change to ES. They should be excluded from the total upgrade costs if they are 'new' reports.

Some customers elect or prefer to have a trial conversion first, but NOT to be used in parallel. Instead, customers get to try their normal day-to-day functions with data that is theirs. This converted snapshot of the actual client's data allows them to validate the data themselves. This clearly requires that someone at the customer site can take ownership of both the data validation, and the trial use and approval of the new software. I only mention this as an option (and it doesn't work for every customer) because it could potentially reduce your data conversion costs to 4 hours - 2 x 2 Hrs Utility (4-6 gig of data). It can help to reduce the cost of training and post-conversion support if managed well too.

I'm not sure (and don't need to know) what your hourly rate is, but even at $100 per hour, that's $22K. For a lot of customers that's a significant expense for a software upgrade - probably moreso for those of the size in Macola's target market. Customers who may have elected to completely outsource an upgrade in the past, may be willing to undertake more of the work themselves if given the option.

With respect to the upgrade utility - it is my understanding that the ES utility is NOT available for 7.6.300. However at this stage of the year I encourage ALL of my customers to move to the most recent Progression version in preparation for year end - even if they don't use the modules that are affected by state or government year end changes.

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on the PACES program.

Peter Shirley

http://www.linkcorp.com

 

[NEmacGuy]

Thanks for the info.

I agree with you on the trial conversion. The thing we have encountered are it has scared off (gladly on our part) customer who were eager to convert to the lastest and greatest. (But this use to a source of $ as Macola use to supply service packs @ 1 a quarter up until 7.6.100a).
Now when we sugguest a trial conversion then think there is something wrong with the utility or the program, and they also are expressing that this is not an upgrade but a whole new program.
We have been aggressive on ES and Esynergy, even with all of the issues. Having said that, it does appear that there may be alot of sites that may never make the leap from Progression to ES.

On the PACES program, we have not taken advantage of it. Once I have free time, I would not mind looking to see if they are running webinars for partners. We have viewed it as not practical for us; because, the conversions we have run, we would not have been able to forward the data to macola, and have them send it back. At one point we thought that was part of the program. We have run the conversion utility a few times now, and the support was good/great. One customer had bad data in the G/L comparative file, never cared (didn't run comparatives), and we go stung when the comparative data was added into the conversion. The trials worked, we updated, and then did a final, and it didn't. There was no way to fix the data in the system using the system, so we edited it in SQL.
We promised the customer Friday PM pickup of data, Monday AM starting on ES, Monday PM near normal operations. We hit the target, but it was bloody.

Somewhere in that long mess is my single biggest issue with the ES system. I like the ability to fix an issue caused by the system with-in the system. (ex. Client uses a non-numeric char in the cash flow payment type/meth/no field 3. This gets recorded but causes various report and views to crash. one example of many) I have had to train our Business Advisors (Macola Tech/Trainers) on how to use query analyzer and enterprise manager. Only good thing is I am pleased with how they picked it up. Not sure what we will do when we get the first out of balance posting, or maybe that will never happen.

Hope I did not overwelm you.

 

[canimp]

Heads up note:

If you are converting a Progression site to ES that has a pre-existing eSynergy install, integrated or stand alone, then the assistance of Exact expertise is likely your best path. That scenario adds some unique considerations to the conversion/migration in combination with the requirement to merge the eSynergy data into the new ES.
GUIDS here, GUIDS there - GUIDS, GUIDS everywhere.