Started in Nov. 2021 upgrading from Vantage 8.03 to the Cloud.
It was a little bumpy, but all in all, we are live.
The conversion
Here are some lessons learned doing this upgrade.
Use Epicor for the Conversion process. They ran our database through all of the steps, which took ~30 hours.
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If you have a problem - get a fix for 8.03 to resolve data issues.
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Wish we could have selected the UOM table that was used in the first conversion. Would have cleaned up the database better from the lessons learned.
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Get a license code for DMT Vantage 8.03 - we ran some fixes on UOM prior to the second conversion.
Kinetic User interface
We chose to go with the user interface of Kinetic only. (where available). This decision was a good decision but was hard to execute. In the beginning we had to work to get the menu to default to Kinetic. The education database would not launch in Kinetic only. (That has since changed).
Where the Kinetic Interface did not work for us
- Job Entry and Job Tracker - UI too slow
- PO Suggestions only bring in 200 records (3,500 available)
- Part Search in Purchasing defaults to bring in all, not active
- Customer Tracker - shipments, invoices, etc. does not bring in all records, the ones it does bring in are older dates
- AP Invoice Entry - not able to select packslip
- AP Payment entry - not able to select all payments
- DMR processing - cannot drag and drop file attachment
- (file attachments can’t be dragged into any form, need to manually link)
- Engineering Workbench - paste insert difficult
- MES - Error pops up stating that “The module AdvancedPlanningAndScheduling is not licensed or enabled”
Pluses with the Kinetic Interface
- Was able to create some screens with Apps Studio to streamline our processing of lot controlled material.
- Learned to create buttons to print
- Learned to change the overflow menu order to place more frequent items at the top of the menu.
Kinetic Screen of White and Size issues
The last item which I posted earlier this week is the screen coming up White - only fix is to close and relaunch the screen
When launching on a smaller screen (or square monitor) - you need to maximize the screen every time (double click the top bar). It has been stated that it really isn’t an issue that warrants addressing.
Will not go back to Classic
Kinetic is the new Classic - time to move forward trusting it will get better. The shell is a little different but the engine and chassis underneath are still the same reliable database engine we have learned to love.