6.1 -> Kinetic

  • 20 September 2022
  • 6 replies
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  • New Participant
  • 4 replies

We are leaning hard towards going from 6.1 to Kinetic and would like any of the group’s wisdom on this transition.

Also we are undecided on Cloud vs. Premises


6 replies

We are new to Epicor, so not sure about going from 6 to Kinetic.  Our current system is on Prem.  We were really looking at staying that way so we would not have to upgrade on Epicor’s schedule.  In looking around we ended up being hosted by a third part (2WTech).  This way we have more flexibility in different areas.  According to Epicor, we are on Prem so we are not tied to their cloud rules but our external staff will not have to connect to us to work and we have no additional hardware/software costs and have automatic Disaster recovery and backups taken care of.

Userlevel 1

Going from 6.1 to Kinetic via an upgrade is not advisable.  The differences between the versions is so great that the system is not really usable after the conversion.  Re-implementing the software with use of the Data Management Tool is the safest route to go.  While some people say this process is safe - experience has not shown this to be true.

 

As for Cloud or OnPrem, if you are in multiple locations, Cloud is great for an increased up time SLA.  If you are a single location, the expense is not warrantable for private or public clouds.  The seller of this service makes a ton of money so many people are trying to suggest this.  

HTH,

Calvin Dekker

Epicor Midwest User Group Chairperson.

CodaBears, Inc.

Userlevel 3

First off the differences from 6.1 to E11/Kinetic are massive - regardless of on-prem or cloud.  My 2 cents… re-implement from scratch and use the opportunity to clean out old transactions, re-allign all master tables - including the transition to the “resources” concept.  Dump master tables to Excel, revise as needed and DMT them into the new instance.  Then complete old jobs/orders/etc.. on 6.1 and manually add new, open, transactions to Kinetic version.  You will never have a better chance to clean house.

As for on-prem or cloud, I’ve been dealing with Cloud for a bit over a year now and some things I had not thought about are glaringly apparent.  Mainly get used to going to Cloud Support (CS) for everything Admin related.  Like:

  • Adding UD fields and tables requires CS to update the schema(s).
  • No access at all to SQL Server
  • Re-populating Pilot or Test databases requires CS to do (but the are very responsive!)
  • Writing data to external locations (like FTP sites) will be a struggle - if possible at all
    • Granted there may be other ways to skin this critter with tools I’m not familiar with.  I draw the line at flint knapped stone. 😉
  • You will get your system instance updated automatically, usually over a weekend,  and have random clients fail to automatically update and then have a version mismatch - Monday morning fun. 😲

If you like Report Builder (if using Progress on 6.1) or Crystal Reports you will probably despise SSRS reporting.  Functionally OK but incredibly picky about object placements and margins causing hours of struggle over blank pages.  Not at all forgiving.  Not sure at all about CR on Cloud but not optimistic about connecting to data from the development environment.

All that said (and more forgotten), the capabilities in the latest versions are amazing and super powerful.  I could never go back to 6.1 or even E9.   We do not use any Kinetic interface features (by company policy) and most opt for the plain Modern Interface or even Classic - with Office 2007 theme my screens look just like 6.1.

Anyway, just a few insights and thoughts.

-Todd C.

 

 

So trying to bring over 20 years of history might be unwise?

Userlevel 1

You can leave 6.1 running until the historic data isn’t needed.  You don’t have to move it into your new system.  If you need access to the old information, log into the old Vantage 6.1 server directly.  The old server can be virtualized an setup to run on a newer 2012 or 2016 Microsoft server.  2019 will not allow the old 2000 or 2003 server to run in virtual mode but 2012 & 2016 are ok.

 

HTH,

Calvin

Userlevel 3

I concur with Calvin and Todd

Do a fresh clean implementation.  The structure of 6 is so different from the current structure.

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