At COLLABORATE 12, GSI, Inc., an Oracle Gold partner specializing in upgrades, rolled out its new proposition for users upgrading to Oracle JD Edwards current releases. The upgrade program applies to a variety of software releases dating back to 2000 and will enable users to continue to receive ongoing support and regain compliance while taking advantage of the latest features and enhancements built into the 9.x software. Once a project is engaged, GSI's new program seeks "100% satisfaction guaranteed" and the completion of the upgrade within 100 days.
At the Las Vegas conference, 5 Minute Briefing had the opportunity to spend some time with Kevin R. Herrig, GSI president and CEO, and Shawn F. Scanlon, GSI executive vice president, touching base with the often under-reported JD Edwards user market. JD Edwards is a long-time, stalwart ERP system for mid-sized organizations which Herrig defined as typically featuring revenue in the $30 million to $500 million range. JD Edwards World is built specifically for the IBM iSeries server platform while JD Edwards EnterpriseOne delivers a wide choice of underlying databases, operating systems and hardware for running the system.
Upgrades are commonly viewed with great trepidation by users fearful of the potential disruption, allocation of scarce human and economic resources to the upgrade process, and the perceived difficulty of achieving a successful, timely implementation. Over the long haul, GSI's proposition for users, according to Herrig, is that "each time the customer upgrades it should take less time than the time before."
As part of its specialization in upgrades, GSI conducts extensive presentations and workshops focused on planning ERP upgrades, defining criteria for selecting upgrade partners, shedding light on achieving "fixed bids" for the implementation work to users from upgrade partners, and looking at customization of reports to users and end user report generation from JD Edwards systems. These sessions are often conducted in concert with Oracle, with the methodology developed and presented by GSI which has honed it over many years of experience.
The newest release of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne is version 9.1. According to a GSI corporate fact sheet, the company has assisted in over 100 OneWorld/EntepriseOne upgrades and over 40 "World-to-EnterpriseOne" migrations.
For more information about GSI, go to www.gsi-solutions.com.