This presentation was delivered at Collaborate 2012 by our experts. More: Tredegar learned early-on that enterprise-wide Application Upgrades can be complex and costly due to the downtime involved during the cut over window. Learn how the "Alter Table" conversion methodology reduced the table conversion from 20 hours to 2 hours enabling a rapid cutover. The accelerated conversion reduced the overall downtime on the GO LIVE weekend, which prevented any impact to the bottom line.

1. Alter Table – Alters Downtime
Becky Blackhurst, Global Applications Manager, TFP
Mitesh Shah, Sr. Architect CNC, SYSTIME
Session id: 97730

2. Agenda
 Company Background
 Business Drivers to Upgrade
 Upgrade Planning
 Implementation
 Project Stats
 Key Impacts
 Lessons Learned

3. Tredegar Film Products
 Headquartered in Richmond, VA
 Manufacture films used in baby care, hygiene, packaging and surface
protection
 12 Plants – US, Netherlands, Hungary, China, India, Brazil

4. TFP’s JDE Background
 Using JDE E1 8.10 since Jan 2006
o 4 US plants and India Site
o Finance, Distribution and Manufacturing
 Blue Stack
 Hardware hosted by Velocity (WTS) since 2009
 Partner with SYSTIME for CNC support

5. Key Business Drivers to Upgrade
Oracle Support
o Current E1 8.10 release no longer supported
o Move to the current E1 release 9.0 Update 2
o Move to newer Tools Release
o Bugs fixed

6. Key Business Drivers to Upgrade
Strategic Project
o Foundation for growth
o Maintain support, bugs fixed
o Localization improvements
o Enabler for global roll out

7. Planning – Project Scope
 Technical Upgrade
o New hardware – AS400 and servers
o New AS400 operating system
o New JDE E1 release 9.0 Update 2
o New JDE tools release
 CITRIX retired

8. Planning – Our Partners
 SYSTIME  WTS
o Structure, methodology o Provision new hardware
o Experience o Experience
o Retro-fit assistance
There is strength in numbers

9. Our Downtime Constraints
• Shop Floor System – 4 hours
• SF to JDE Integration – 24 hours
Let the Challenge begin !

10. The Journey
 Provisioned Network & Phase 1 Conversions take
Equipment 16+ hours
 Developed retro-fits
 Built/Upgraded DV & PY Environments
What are we going to do?

11. The Conversion Dilemma
 Archive / Purge  F0911 – GL
 F4111 – Cardex
 Pre-convert  F42199 – SO Ledger
 WO Z files
 Or ??

12. Alter Table Process
Traditional conversion – 4 step process: Improved *ALTER conversion – 1 step
•Traditional *ALTER process creates a table with the name process:
XXXXTCTEMP (where XXXX = Original table name, for
e.g.F0911). Table creation is based on of the specs delivered •Adds new columns and indexes to the older release table
with new E1 release to which older system is upgraded and convert it into the newer release format table
•Conversion process copies the data from older release •Simultaneously populates the new columns with default
to newer release table (table with TCTEMP suffix). New columns values, during table structure change itself
in the new table are populated with default values (0 or ‘’)
•Data in the table is not manipulated or moved
•Deletes older release table and rename XXXXTCTEMP
table with original name
•Re-builds indexes
Traditional Conversions Vs. ALTER Conversion
•No need to create new temp table
•No data movement required thus saving lots of time.
• Only required indices are build which saves time to a larger extent

13. The Winning Approach
Traditional Approach Truncate Approach *ALTER Approach
•Initial DV Environment was upgraded •Split F0911 on the basis of period (such as • *ALTER conversion - Identified scope to alter
using traditional table conversion Fiscal year, century) the table structure in place (on the source table)
(TCs) provided within upgrade • Convert the data for the fixed period without having to move the data or
workbench • Save the files with pre-converted data pre-convert data
•Total time taken by upgrade process • Convert only the modified data • Selected the USUAL Suspects – F0911, F4111
during first DV environment conversion • Merge the newly converted data with and F42199 for *ALTER conversion
- 20 hrs (including 16 hrs of TCs ) pre converted set • Ran the conversion
• Restore the merged file in production
•Conversion analysis library. •Conversion analysis
The USUAL Suspects - F0911, F4111 and •Conversion analysis • Saved around 14 hrs during the GO LIVE
F42199 were in the CRITICAL path as they weekend
together were consuming majority of •Test conducted on F0911 took 5.5 hrs with • Table conversions from 16 hours to 2 hours
conversion times. lot of manipulation and manual efforts, • *ALTER conversion reduced table conversion
- F0911 (68,899,200 records) - 16 hrs, time by 800%
increasing scope for human errors.
- F4111 (30,915,732 records) – 5 hrs
- F42199 (4,338,242 records) – 3.5 hrs

14. The Journey Continues
 Unit Testing
 Provisioned Phase 2 Equipment
 Built/Upgraded TP Environment
 Developed Conversion Validations
 Applied new tools release
 Integrated CRP
Next Time - Automated Testing Tool

15. The Journey Continues
 Built/Upgraded PD Environment
 Installed and configured Mimix
 Installed Showcase 9.0
 High Availability Test
 Mock Cutovers
 Stress Testing
 User Acceptance
Are We Ready?

16. Cutover
Event Duration
Bring down JDE / Shop Floor stays up 1:00 hour
Pre-conversion data prep 3:00
PD 8.10 Data Conversion to 9.0 format 2:00
Apply JDE 9.0 Software Updates 7:30
PD 9.0 Data Validation 2:30
JDE Surface Test 0:30

17. Cutover
Event Duration
Bring down Shop Floor system 1:00
Convert SF data to 9.0 format 2:00
Shop Floor validation test 0:15
Final Go/No Go Decision 0:15
Enable services and license keys 0:45
Live in 21 hours

18. Project Stats
 85 Objects Retro-fitted  90 member Project Team
o IT, Supply Chain, Finance & BUs
o Tredegar and 3rd Parties
 500+ Tables Migrate o US, India and Brazil
 19 Software Updates  12000+ Man hours
o IT = 7500+
 385 GB Data o IT Partners = 4200+
o TFP Testers = ???
287 Calendar Days

19. Project Stats
 60 Functional Testers  3 Mock Cutover Trials
o Unit Testing – 640 scripts
o Integrated Test – 4+
 3 Stress Testing Events
weeks
 390+ JDE Users
o UAT – 2 weeks
 20 Training Sessions
Test, Test and Test Again

20. Key Impacts
 Retired Citrix access
o Custom Shop Floor Data Collection application
migrated to HTML
o Biggest training impact
o Transitioned in 8.10 prior to cutover
 HTML uptime limitation
o Security Kernel

21. Key Impacts
 Additional ESU’s
o Retro-fit rework
o Re-testing
o Time line slippage
 ALTER Conversion Process
o Reduced conversion from 16 hours to 2 hours

22. Lessons Learned
 Data conversion is small portion of cutover time
o Post conversion updates and languages
o Validations
 Data Validations
o New planner data conflicts
o Technical validations as well as financial reports

23. Lessons Learned
 Project Partners
o Collaborative strength
o Oracle engagement
 Practice makes perfect
o Multiple mock cutovers paid off in the end

24. Lessons Learned
 Custom Grids
o Delete and start fresh
 Test, Test and Re-test
o Biggest risk – the unknown; what did not get tested

25. SYSTIME Overview
• Largest specialist provider for Oracle JD Edwards services
• Global reach- NA, Europe, ME, Japan, APAC, South America, South Africa
• JDE Focus with Surround Strategy for MDM, Fusion Apps, SOA, BI, Agile, OTM and
Demantra/ASCP
Key Statistics: 5 times Oracle
JDE Award
• 650+ dedicated JD Edwards professionals winner
• 17+ Years in the JD Edwards business
• 120+ Global implementations, 50+ Upgrades & 20+ Global Roll Outs in last 3 years
• 265+ JD Edwards customers globally OFM 4 Apps
Partner of the
Year 2010
Oracle Relationship:
• Oracle Platinum Partner
• ONLY company to have Advanced Specialization in JD Edwards areas
• Co-development partner for Oracle