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Running BC and old system in parallel at go live

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Posted on by T Henry 74

Question for everyone here for implementation go live.

We were originally planning on importing orders in progress into BC from our old ERP.  Currently we are sitting at approx 1000 WIP orders + purchase orders (every one of our orders is special order so has 1 or more POs).  These orders on the floor have IDs from the old ERP and there is concern details might be lost in transition.

We are thinking to put new orders into BC at go-live and finish as much as we can in the old ERP right up until contract expiry (approx 2 weeks) then work to transition those over into BC which should be a much smaller number.

Finance is concerned about this approach as numbers would be misaligned.  What best practices are you aware of to make this parallel system work keeping our numbers aligned?

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  • T Henry Profile Picture
    T Henry 74 on at
    RE: Running BC and old system in parallel at go live

    Thanks for the advice everyone.  We decided to complete as many orders in the old ERP before moving the rest over to BC.  This made the order list significantly lower.

  • Suggested answer
    Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member Microsoft Employee on at
    RE: Running BC and old system in parallel at go live

    Hello,

    Adding to other replies... In my 23 years of implementing Navision, NAV, and now BC I normally will bring over all WIP and Open Purchase Orders (UNLESS the Order will be finished within a 2 week window). I will denote the old Order Number for reference and processing since the Production Order is on the floor and PO submitted to Vendor already. Now, I will use this process when I have hundreds and hundreds of open records and we have no way to make a clean cut-off.

    The old numbers to new numbers are already aligned since we are documenting the old number within a Purchase Order or Production Order.

    Now as to your note of Parallel processing, I have never done this as it is very old school and not worth the time and money to keep 2 systems running.

    Hope this helps.

    Thanks,

    Steve

  • Verified answer
    S.Kawamura Profile Picture
    S.Kawamura 1,520 on at
    RE: Running BC and old system in parallel at go live

    Hi,

    In my opinion, it is safer to use the old system to communicate with customers until the order backlog is closed.
    It means that there will be temporary double entry.
    In the system implementation project, you must have considered replacing the data in the old system to the data in the new system. Therefore, it is relatively easy to enter the information entered in the old system into the new system. On the other hand, it is a little more difficult to explain to the customer what has been entered in the new system, and to replace the old data with the new data when the customer inquires. And the customer will ask questions based on the old system's way of thinking.
    However, inputting the information into the old system is limited only to the information necessary to communicate with the customer. For example, this information is needed for delivery notes and invoices. Data needed for management accounting should only be entered in the new system.
    In the case of Special Order, where the order is linked to the purchase order, it is difficult to determine, but it would be safer to use the old system. If you can judge that it is safe to use the new system only for orders, then it is safe to use the new system only for orders.

    If it takes more than a month to close an order, it is better to switch to the new system. This is because the accounting closing process will become more complicated.

  • Suggested answer
    MahGah Profile Picture
    MahGah 15,419 on at
    RE: Running BC and old system in parallel at go live

    Hi

    I have seen 3 following methods. But ultimately is your team decision here. 

    1) The method that you described. it is easier for implementation team but sometimes in the future when finance or other departments run reports or review numbers (such as BI reports) they wish everything was clean cut. Also, as finance's team mentioned it takes some exact calculation for finance. 

    2) The hard-cut date. Transfer everything at go-live date. it is the cleanest for everyone. But requires lots of work for implementation team. 

    3) Pseudo method. it is in between. You finish everything in old ERP but you create much simpler (maybe one or two step) pseudo process in BC for those transactions. This way you can capture exact numbers without going to lots of data conversion process. For example to capture production labor you create one step routing but with the total cost of all steps. or you create all the steps but post the lump sump of transactions for each step. 

    I hope this help 

  • Suggested answer
    Inge M. Bruvik Profile Picture
    Inge M. Bruvik 32,744 Moderator on at
    RE: Running BC and old system in parallel at go live

    You will find all kinds of strategies used for those kinds of scenarios. It all comes to to doing a solid analysis of the consequences for the different options you have.

    I think that a hard cut-off is the preferred approach in most cases. But i have also been in cases where we had to work in two systems for a while. Then we had to make sure inventory and finance accounting is in sync between the systems at least on a daily basis.

    I hope you have a partner involved in your project that can help you to find the best approach for your project.

  • Rob F. Profile Picture
    Rob F. 483 on at
    RE: Running BC and old system in parallel at go live

    We are going live on Jan 1st.  We don't use inventory or production orders, just purchase orders with GL accounts.  We are planning a hard cut-off in the old system on Dec 29th for creating purchase orders and posting receipts.  Then on Dec 30th we'll load all the purchase orders from the old system that have remaining balances into BC, and we are planning on enabling manual numbers on the purchase order number series so that we can use the existing numbers from the old system for continuity.  Any new purchase orders created in BC will be using a new number series.

    I'm guessing that with inventory and production orders it can be more complicated, but there should be good examples out there of how other companies have handled this, and partners who have experience guiding customers through the process.  In general I think the options are usually a hard cut-off like we are doing, or running in parallel where users are replicating the same steps for posting, etc. in both systems for a time.

    Good luck with your go-live!

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