In the 90s at Gartner I wrote a paper on ERP Upgrades "Refuleing in Mid-air"
"Because the software is now in production, little downtime can be tolerated. Thus, our analogy to refueling a plane in mid-air - it cannot be landed, just slowed down. Similar to that deceptively simple procedure, the upgrade cutover process must be frequently rehearsed and flawlessly executed. Upgrades carry an additional risk - typically, few vendor or systems integrator resources are really up to speed with the new release."
Over a decade later Jon Reed, a SAP implementation veteran makes some of the same points and adds to them
"Treat the SAP upgrade as a whole new implementation."
"Bring in outstanding consultants in specialized areas that are integral to your SAP upgrade."
In other words, still deja vu all over again.
A decade ago, companies did not have a choice. Today with SaaS and in-background, incremental upgrades they do. Why do they not escape from the treadmill ? And why do on-premise vendors not behave as if the escape is a viable strategy?
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