Time flies and seems to fly faster each year. The phrases "How is it October?', "The holidays are almost here" and "Where did summer go?" are common conversation starters these days. While the last 2.5 years of the never-ending-pandemic seemed to make time stand still for months on end, now life both personally and professionally, seems to be cruising by for each and every one of us. We all have good intentions at the start of each year (or month for that matter) to keep tasks like software upgrades on track, but that often will fall by the wayside when competing priorities take over. In print businesses, that can be bidding on new deals, rush customer jobs or juggling staffing levels. With that in mind when is it time to sit up and really start to focus on getting your upgrades back on track? No time is ever a good time, but I tell our customers once you fall more than one major release behind for your Print MIS system, you are starting a snowball effect that makes upgrades more daunting and challenging to do. 

Here are some tips to get you back on track and keep you there:

1) The best tool in your upgrade toolbox is a staging or test server. If you do not have one, talk to your vendor about what is involved in getting one. I realize this can be cost prohibitive for many smaller companies. However, for mid-large size companies, this should be a priority, especially if your Print MIS system handles your corporate accounting. No matter what your size, if you have any customizations or integrations, I see a test server as a "must have" for your Print MIS system. 

2) If you do not have any customizations, an upgrade should be straightforward technically in that there should be minimal risk of workflows or screens "breaking". However, major releases often have changes to the user interface which can make screens look different to end users. This can throw off your user base and send them in to a tizzy if they haven't been exposed to it prior to your production upgrade.
To support user interface changes do the following:
If you have a staging server:

• With the Print MIS staging server upgraded, give SME's (subject matter experts) a 4-week lead time to test thoroughly their areas of the system. This should include customer service, estimators, production, and accounting (PLEASE do not forget accounting). I highly recommend the exercise of having a checklist for each functional area that the SME must run through and sign off on before you declare your production environment is ready to be upgraded. For estimating, this could include items like:
  • ​Create 5 new estimates and validate
    
  • Update 5 previously created estimates
    
  • Produce estimate letters
    
  • Convert estimates to jobs
    

*I cannot stress enough the value in having checklists that can be brought out for every major upgrade. It keeps everybody on task with what needs to be tested and validated prior to a production upgrade 

• All customizations and integrations need to be vetted and tested.  I usually recommend that this is led by the system administrator, but it should not be done exclusively by the SA. The initial technical testing should be done by the SA and then other users are brought into test. It can sometimes be tricky to test integrations if you do not have staging systems in your other applications (i.e.  web-to-print). In these cases, you can work with your vendor to get testing protocols and advice on how to validate for your specific situation.

*If issues arise from the SME testing, work with your vendor to address as necessary. Do not proceed until these issues are resolved. 

• With your staging environment upgraded and your SME checklists all complete and validated, give ALL of your users access to the staging environment 2 weeks before your planned production environment change. Users should have accountability in this time to log in and navigate the new version of the software.  They should each be given a 30 minute window of time to get a sneak peak during working hours.
  
• Support the user staging access period with documentation that identifies key changes that will impact the various user groups. DO NOT give users vendor release notes. Those are intended for technical administrators and not production, accounting or estimating team members. Quick cheat sheets with bullet points and screen shots work wonders.
• If interface changes are significant, offer up lunch and learn type of webinars where users can sit in for a demo of the upgrade and get a look and feel of what's changing

What if you hit a snag with your staging server upgrade?

• This is not uncommon, but you cannot stop and let more time go by.
  
• Work with your vendor for support. Vendors are lifelines during upgrades, and they often want you to upgrade more than you do and they will support through all types of scenarios.
  
• Do NOT expect your vendor to cover off customizations and integrations as part of your support agreement. That is usually on you and if you need to hire professional services from your vendor or a third party, you need to do so. I often tell companies to have some budget set aside annually for upgrades in case they need it, especially when customizations and integrations are involved. It doesn't usually need to be much at all, but having it there sets up the internal expectation there may be some costs.

If you do NOT have a staging server

• Ask your Print MIS software vendor to do an in-depth demo with you and your SME's.
• Prepare as much documentation as possible and give it to your users 2 weeks ahead of time to digest. Pepper them regularly with emails about what is coming and what to expect. Without a staging server there is no opportunity for users to practice so it is a higher risk endeavor than with a staging server BUT this cannot stop you from upgrading. 
• Set up a task group (which really needs to be at least 2 people) to handle "upgrade day". As you will be working a bit blind without the benefit of a staging server, expect that issues will come up and have a plan for how to prioritize and manage them

Moving forward after your major upgrades are caught up:

• keep up to date on point releases. Vendors often push out point releases weekly or monthly to address bugs and fixes and these are invaluable. Not touching point releases for even 2 months can be detrimental. Set up a cadence of taking point releases (i.e. the 15th of every month). They are usually quick to install and require a brief disruption to the system where users cannot access
• Take the time to learn about new functionality and features that have been released. There is often a treasure trove of new functionality lurking in these major releases. Legacy implementations often don't pay attention to these because the business of getting the upgrade done is so taxing no one pays attention to the new bells and whistles. I often get calls asking if we can build a custom workflow for someone only to tell them "Your vendor released x workflow two releases/two years ago".  Leadership needs to stay engaged with the software vendors to find out about new functionality and what is coming on the road map. System Administrators often are so in the weeds they aren't often proactively bringing this information forward.

All in all, upgrade planning and execution needs to become habitual. Leadership needs to set the organizational expectation that Print MIS software will be on a regular upgrade path. When you keep your Print MIS system updated, you will get the most out of your investment, gain new functionality, have a more stable platform, and set your business up for continued success!