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5 Critical Steps for Success

How to Prepare for a JDA WMS Upgrade

COPYRIGHT © OPEN SKY GROUP v.1 | MARCH 2018

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Introduction

If you are reading this document, you’re likely running a RedPrairie WMS and

you have some compelling reason to consider an upgrade. Most likely the issue

is that your WMS and its layered software are years out of support and you’re

concerned you might need to go to eBay to buy parts for your servers. Don’t

worry; you are not alone. Many companies run their WMS for 10+ years before

upgrading or going to a different solution.

We strongly believe that upgrading to JDA WMS is the path of least resistance,

lowest cost and lowest disruption to your business (we will cover that in our

paper on the pleasant surprises of doing a JDA WMS upgrade).

How to Prepare for a JDA WMS Upgrade

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The Five Critical StepsWhile not all easy, these steps are critical to your JDA WMS Upgrade success.

Make sure you have up-to-date documentation on how you use your WMS to-

day. This should be a list of processes, work instructions, SOPs, flow charts, etc.

No matter what direction you go, you will need to explain to new people what

you do today. Invest time before you engage a software vendor or consultant

to get your documentation in order. If this is a task that you don’t think you can

do on your own, call Open Sky Group. We can do it with you and show you how.

Document the integrations down to a transaction and field level for every sys-

tem that integrates with your WMS. This might be your ERP/OMS, Parcel and

Freight Systems, direct EDIs to customers, etc. Make sure you don’t leave out

anything that the WMS needs to talk to today. In the future state, those systems

may be replaced or they might come along for the ride.

Document all issues you have with your WMS today. It is so critical that we un-

derstand what you don’t like so we can potentially correct those challenges. So

many things that used to be handled with work arounds or customization in

older versions of RedPrairie are now standard features of JDA WMS. Our favorite

thing to hear you say is “You can do that?”

How to Prepare for a JDA WMS Upgrade

OPEN SKY GROUP

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How to Prepare for a JDA WMS Upgrade

Document your wish list. Do some dreaming and describe how you would like

things to work in a perfect world. Communicating this will open up possibilities

of features and functions that exist and are simply overlooked. Some of your

dreams are likely to become reality!

Find an experienced Partner who has successfully upgraded real warehouses to

the newest versions of the WMS. We all know that JDA has made some signifi-

cant investments into web enablement starting in 2016 and continuing with the

latest releases. We hear that many consulting companies are suggesting staying

off the bleeding edge and upgrading to pre-web versions of JDA WMS. This is

not only a huge waste of your money, you will also find that keeping current

is how you get fixes from JDA quickly. We not only go-live on the most recent

version, but we keep our live customers upgraded quarterly or semi-annually.

Simply put, the best way to avoid a major WMS upgrade is to keep up with the

minor WMS upgrades. Be sure to ask potential partners for references and the

number of JDA WMS upgrades they’ve done. Open Sky Group successfully com-

pleted 21 JDA WMS Upgrades in 2017 alone. Open Sky Group is an early adopter

of the newest versions of JDA WMS and we have some secrets for upgrading

that allow our clients to do this without spending more than was spent on the

original implementation.

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Thanks for reading.WE HOPE YOU FOUND THIS PAPER HELPFUL AND INFORMATIVE

If you have any feedback or would like more information, don’t hesitate to contact Open Sky today:

www.openskygroup.com

+1 866.359.4437

Open Sky Group is a consulting company specializing in services for Warehouse Management System (WMS) and Ware-

house Labor Management (WLM) software upgrades and implementations. With highly experienced resources, Open Sky

strives every day to be the best consulting partner on the planet for implementing Supply Chain solutions.

Open Sky Group is a gold implementation partner and reseller of JDA WMS, WLM, TMS and other add-on products.

How to Prepare for a JDA WMS Upgrade

OPEN SKY GROUP

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COPYRIGHT © 2018 by Open Sky Group

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The information contained in this document is legally privileged and confidential information intended solely for the use of

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LLC immediately at the address below and delete all electronic copies of this document and destroy all paper copies of

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The Open Sky Group, LLC is a consulting company providing services for JDA RedPrairie® Supply Chain Software Solutions.

RedPrairie® is a registered trademark of JDA Software Group, Inc.

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