ECM Upgrade Best Practice

Frequency

Because most ECM systems have a regular yearly release, it is ideal to realize the benefits of upgrading every year. This will help with keeping up with OS and database upgrades as well.

SP2

In general, upgrades to enterprise software should wait for Service Pack 2 of the current release. This allows for initial release bugs to be fixed and stabilized. For OnBase, this usually puts the upgrade window in the third quarter of any given year.

Budget

If an upgrade is planned for every year, the budget line item will smaller and more digestible by management.

Schedule

An upgrade schedule should be regular and expected. The more regular, the easier and less expensive it is. The resources involved with not being trying to remember all the steps from scratch again. The steps themselves will be more up-to-date.

IE, OS and Database

At the enterprise level, you don’t want OnBase slowing down IE releases, or database upgrades. It makes sense to keep up.

Environments

With VMs and multiple environments, upgrade steps can be written and tested many times before the actual upgrade. This should help minimize risk for each upgrade cycle.

Enterprise system upgrade and implementation schedules

It’s important to get on the upgrade train each year (or two) as early as possible. There will always be larger, more important initiatives that will bump OnBase upgrades, but at least you’ll be on the list.

 

When new solutions are being developed, the requirement to be using the latest possible version of software is much more important. Even one year can make huge difference between solution offerings.

Sample Upgrade Matrix

There are concerns and potential issues when it comes to planning and executing upgrades. As the scale and complexity of the solution increases, so does the upgrade matrix.

 

Concern	Solution Details
Impact on Solution
Impact on Users
Environment Setup
Integration
Complexity
Cutover Approach
Downtime requirements
Testing
Upgrade Risk
Risk of Waiting
Resources