We are installing IFS for the first time. We are debating whether to install the most current version (21R1) or v10 UPD 12. The concern is that 21R1 is a major release and was just released in March so may not be entirely stable.
Our installation is primarily focused on Financials, Procurement and Project Management.
I’d like to hear from any customers with experience implementing 21R1. Have you had significant issues with bugs? Have you lost any functionality that you had in v10 Aurena or Enterprise?
I’d also like to hear from IFS support as to the current bug list and are there any major issues with the release?
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There are a lot of differences (lost functionality) with Aurena compared to IEE. Several threads on this portion of the topic.
Here is the Cloud reference info
My experience is from an upgrade perspective. We have done a lot of looking at Aurena, and as much as we can looking at Cloud, but there isn’t a whole lot of hands on experience available. (No RACE, no training info yet, etc) We have done a fair bit of research in the context of what it will take for us to upgrade, at least enough to make a decision. We accept it is going to be a ton of work to upgrade whether we go to 21R1 or wait for a later version, so we’ve decided to go to Cloud now.
I’ve not heard of a hard stop sort of problem (customers or community) that has prevented go lives or stalled projects, there are tons of smaller bugs though to be sure. They are listed on the IFS Cloud forum with all of the update changes, but my experience it is super hard to sift through and correlate what it actually means for your business.
One of the main drivers is trying to move to the front of the bus if you will for maintenance and support, if you haven’t looked at in detail the support model and dates for each of the versions, I recommend you also take that into consideration. We’ve historically been later and at the tail end of support for a version which presents different problems. The product is mature, but the support is slower in our experience which makes sense, you expect you have the best and the largest quantity of support folks on the newest version.
Another driver is getting to a fully mobile platform that is portable to many devices. V9 which we’re on has very little capability in that realm, V10 has an obvious mix as some modules have Aurena available, but Cloud is only Aurena as you know. While I understand the skepticism of ready to market on the first version, there is always risk in that. We’ve decided that in the length of time it will take us to complete the upgrade, significant problems that may come up will have the time to get sorted out or we’ll be able to figure out an interim solution.
For us, our path is Cloud 21R1 and we will perform at least one update on that version BEFORE we go live so we have that experience without having to take the entire company through the process. I’m not offering a recommendation one way or the other as I don’t know your situation, just our plans.
I would like to share some thoughts from an IFS partner point of view. Currently, I can see that lot of IFS customers are moving from old IFS versions to IFS Cloud. We always recommends our existing customers to upgrade to the latest track. Even for the new IFS sales we mainly focus on IFS Cloud.
We are running few IFS Cloud upgrades projects in different regions and our customers had the same doubt at the beginning. But when considering the all factors, all decided to move with IFS Cloud. If you really worry about the stability, I think, you can start the project now and directly apply IFS Cloud 21R2 which will be released soon.
I think there are few important points you should really consider when making a judgment.
1.Minimize the overall Cost:
If you are new to the IFS, it is always good to start from the new version, there won’t be an additional cost or the change management. If you are a new IFS customer, you should start the learning cycle from IFS new user interface (Aurena), then you don’t need to struggle to shift from one UI to another later. If you start from IFS EE client interface, you have to spend considerable cost after 3 to 4 years’ time to train your users to IFS Aurena. If you start IFS Aurena client in APP10, you probably get the same experience, but why you should use an old version when the new stable version is available?
2. Evergreen Product:
IFS provide an Evergreen Support for IFS Cloud solution
You might have realized that IFS support for APP10 will be ended on 2025 (extended support under certain cost up to 2028). When it comes to IFS Cloud, IFS will make two release per year with new functionalities and there will be a monthly service updates also. So, you will be experiencing an evergreen product with a smooth update process.
3. Maintaining Customizations:
If you go with IFS App10, if there are any customizations, you have to manage it via Citrix Build place which will be an additional cost for you. But, IFS Cloud offers new lifecycle experience process and tools without an additional charge. So, it will be an equal playing fields for customers, partners and IFS.
4. Embracing new Technology:
Hope you already know IFS Cloud Architecture is different when comparing with IFS App10. Although we call it Cloud, IFS offer their fully browser based containerized solution to be hosted as IFS Managed Cloud, 3rd party hosted or On premise. Further, it comes as a modular based single product. It mainly laydown the foundation for the “composable ERP solution”.
5. Functional and technical Enhancements:
There are lot of new enhancement in IFS Cloud version. IFS You can get more details from IFS Community platform. There are few general changes which I can highlight.
Industry Lobbies
Brower based new user experience
Single data model, API model and security model (IFS Identity and Access Manager(IAM))
Embedded extensions such as Country Specific Global extensions
