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EAE to AB Suite Upgrade: Take it One Step at a Time


In the March 2016 issue of Developing Agility, we focused on the two preliminary steps you should take to help ensure your EAE to Agile Business Suite (AB Suite®) upgrade progresses as smoothly as possible.

Because the EAE to AB Suite Assessment service plays such an integral role in your ability to upgrade with confidence, we wanted to provide some added detail around what we actually do for you as part of this service engagement. During the service, Unisys consultants will work with you to complete two specific activities: the Trial Migration and Assessment Workshop. The duration of this service may vary – typically between 5 and 20 days – based on your organization’s size, as well as the complexity of your application environment. Once we finish the engagement, a Unisys consultant will create and customize a statement of work that reflects your specific requirements.

The Trial Migration

During the Trial Migration phase, Unisys consultants will access the EAE “mdl” for one of your applications, which represents the things you do with that application, and import it into AB Suite, using Unisys resources if possible. From here, we’ll validate, build, and deploy the application to the appropriate runtime environment.

In addition to identifying any potential issues your EAE “mdl” may cause during the actual upgrade process, we’ll also confirm that your application produces similar runtime results in AB Suite as it did in EAE. This includes loading your application into EAE Developer and validating it in this environment for comparison purposes.

Once the service is complete, you’ll receive:

  • A list of the problems encountered and resolutions identified
  • A high-level analysis of any AB Suite import and build warning messages

The Assessment Workshop

We’ll begin the Assessment Workshop by providing you with a detailed questionnaire at least a week before the Unisys consultant’s scheduled visit to your site. The standard, common areas this exercise will cover are printing, end-user interfaces, source control, external interfaces, security, and performance. In addition, we’ll help you identify the resources, spanning hardware, software, and people, you’ll need during your upgrade and determine a timeline for the project based on your specific requirements.

Once the service is complete, you’ll receive:

  • A presentation about your upgrade – whether it’s happening on the same platform or requires a change in platform
  • An assessment report

Many EAE clients that carried out a Trial Migration and Assessment Workshop have benefited from reduced risks, lower costs, and better, more predictable production deployment timelines during their upgrades to AB Suite. We’d love the opportunity to help you achieve similar results. Email us at ABSuite@unisys.com and we’ll be more than happy to answer any questions you may have about the service or work with you to schedule your own engagement.