This guide explains best practices for upgrading from an older, customized version of aACE to a newer version. It is intended for general users.
Customized functionality can help your company streamline workflows and improve business processes. By its nature, customization can also intersect with other out-of-the-box features. Often this intersection requires a trade-off. The customized features frequently bring an immediate benefit for the business, but they require changes that prevent other features from being used fully.
This trade-off can become more apparent when a company with a customized aACE system starts looking at the benefits of upgrading to the latest version of aACE.
Customizations do not mean your company is unable to leverage all aACE features. It only means that integrating other features into your customized workflows will require consideration and a careful approach. There are two ways to approach the task.
Undo Some Customization
aACE functionality is typically coded as a feature set than an series of isolated features. Through discussion with aACE developers, you can identify the ideal balance between customized benefits and robust, standard feature sets.
This requires time for collaborative meetings. aACE developers will need guidance on the specific aspects of the system you want to leverage; they will also provide you with a clear understanding of which functionality can or cannot be integrated with your existing customizations.
Upgrade to a New Version
The upgrade process typically begins with focused discussions of how aACE works out-of-the-box. This may sound contradictory, but experience has shown that the best way to conduct an upgrade is to start with standard aACE, rather than the customized version.
This is because we continually work to improve aACE. So the current version will typically have dramatic improvements compared to the your initial aACE system. In addition, the way you do business will have changed in many small (and possibly large) ways. Lots of customized functionality can be carried over to a new aACE system, but a lot can also be left behind as you take advantage of new feature sets.