Upgrade to QAD EE? 3 things to AVOID

Posted on: October 14, 2015 | By: David Kwo | QAD Financials, QAD Manufacturing, QAD Business Process, QAD Distribution

Congratulations! You made the decision to upgrade to QAD EE!  You most likely have a date set for implementation and know which steps are needed going forward. What issues do you need to avoid? Here are the top three mistakes Logan Consulting sees when companies make the upgrade to QAD EE.

1. Skipping the necessary (and sometimes unglamorous) step of cleaning master data

Master data is not just an IT issue anymore. It is critical for every aspect of your business and should be treated this way. We commonly see companies that lack a single source of clear and consistent master data. Without this, system and storage costs will increase. There will be more complexity within your system, and resources will be wasted on frequent error corrections. 

2.  Not being up to date on current business processes

The new functionality in QAD EE requires a fair amount of financial process work. Thus forcing companies to take a deeper look at their current financial processes.  Within the 4-7 years that QAD upgrades occur, businesses are bound to change based on new markets and products. Thus, the old processes revolving around operations and distribution may no longer support the current business. Since most companies are being asked to do the same or more with fewer resources, the necessary process rework in these areas commonly gets pushed to Phase 2 of the upgrade and never truly materializes.

3.Not ensuring they are using everything available within their current QAD version 

While QAD’s new EE functionality possesses some impressive new operational functionality in serialization, item attributes and quality control. Our experience is that most companies are using less than 50% of the available functionality in their current version.  In fact, well over 50% of the process gaps we identify can be addressed with functionality that the company already owns. As companies experience frequent turnovers, lack of good user documentation causes newer users to fall back to tools they are familiar with. Such as Microsoft Excel or Access. In order to take advantage of the newer functionality, there is not shortcut. The blocking and tackling of forecasting, planning and production must be done within QAD.

These simple and common mistakes can cost your company extra time and headaches during the implementation phase of QAD EE. Luckily, these mistakes can be easily avoided beforehand ensuring that your upgrade will be a breeze. If you have more questions regarding QAD implementation, contact Logan Consulting, your Chicago based QAD partner.



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