The Old ERP Dilemma - Should We Install The New Release?
Olin Thompson - June 13, 2002

What To Know Before You Even Think About It

Before you even start to decide on taking the release, you need to understand some of the realities set by the vendor. Most vendors have a policy about how long they support an old release, but with most, the practice does not follow the policy. You need to probe beyond the policy statement to find out the truth. Remember that the vendor wants you to continue to pay maintenance and if they stop supporting the release that you are on, they face a loss of maintenance revenue from you and all the others that are still on that release. In fact, most vendors have a very liberal practice on supporting older releases. For these vendors, a loss of support is not a reason to go to the new release...