“The Cloud400 team is world-class, top-notch, easy to work with, professional, get-the-job-done-above-and-beyond.
“I would recommend Cloud400 to any and everybody without hesitation. I already have.”
National Commercial Landscaping Company Hires IT Solutions Expert
A national commercial landscaping company recruited Michael Miller of Omikron Data Systems, Inc., an independent software and consulting company, for the purpose of providing executive-level strategic IT solutions and consulting services to support mission-critical business objectives. Mike’s career spans two decades of senior-level management in both very large, global companies such as Jacobs Engineering, where he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer.
IBM 9406-570 Production Server With 400 Users
To run their business, the landscaping company runs JD Edwards with approximately 500 users. They had an IBM 9406-570 as the production server located at a data center in Memphis, Tennessee.
JD Edwards 7.3 On 9406-570 OS400 V5R4
“When I studied my client’s environment, I was flabbergasted at the situation. I explained to the CEO, ‘You’ve got a 14 year old IBM 9406-570 server. It was used when you bought it. Parts are failing.’ The CEO suggested I was being an alarmist. Then over Thanksgiving the 9406-570 actually went down hard. That’s when the CEO said ‘You convinced me. Now we need to move.’”
Some Hosting Services Can’t Handle Older JDE On OS400 V5R4
Mike recalls, “As I remember, I had called several hosting services. I cannot remember their names. I had experience working with different hosting companies in the past. I Google searched some others. But these hosting companies could not meet our requirement because our JD Edwards system was an older version on OS400 V5R4. That was a big problem. I was frustrated so I Google searched again and found Cloud400™.”
Another Google Search Yields Cloud400
“When I spoke to Cloud400 and explained we had JD Edwards 7.3 on V5R4, Cloud400 told me that they had experience with JD Edwards as well as OS400 V5R4. I got the answer right away in my first call. I did not have to wait for a Cloud400 sales rep to talk to his technical team and get back to me.”
Cloud400’s Impressive Depth of OS400 Knowledge
“The thing that impressed me and my client’s technical guy, Roy Byars, was when Cloud400 talked about the environment and the system, it was immediately clear the depth of their knowledge of the OS400 environment. I personally felt like we found the guys we need to be dealing with.
CEO Cautious Based On Early Upgrade Experience
“My client’s CEO is cautious so it took a while before we could start the Cloud400 testing. He has told the story many times about an embarrassing ERP upgrade earlier in his professional life that could have hampered his career. That was the basis of his caution.
“I explained to the CEO that I did not want to minimize his experience. I don’t want to give myself too much credit, but I have put in ERP systems that are $65 to $80 million in size that have been successful. I think we can manage this. I explained that the Cloud400 guys are fantastic.”
Pretest Planning Outlines Key Steps
“The next step was a pretest planning session with our JD Edwards consulting firm Helix, our data center ProTech and the Cloud400 technical team. We outlined the key steps to setup the environment, the steps to upgrade JD Edwards from V7.3 to V9.1 and upgrade OS400 from V5R4 to V7R1, and milestones for testing.”
“Then The Testing Began.”
“From my point of view, the testing was painless. I am not minimizing the work that people did. Like the old expression, everything is easy if somebody else is responsible. I was impressed with the technical depth and the team effort to make this project happen. Nobody sugar coated any of the issues. Nobody shirked responsibility. The conversations, the planning and the execution were clearly an example that when you plan and plan well, you get excellent results. Nothing is perfect but the Cloud400 testing was darn close.
“Yes, we had issues of spinning the application up, the sequence of libraries, and the correct order. That was all expected. So while it was difficult in a sense, it was not difficult in that we knew what to expect.”
Total Team Effort All Pulling Together
“Another observation I made with the Helix, the ProTech and the Cloud400 teams is that it was clear there was professionalism and respect. People just got along. As things came up there was no attempt to pass blame. It was professional, cordial and amicable. I never felt like there was ‘your’ team and ‘our’ team. I really felt like there was a project team all pulling together.
“I have only 150% positive things to say about the Cloud400 experience.”
UI Changed To GUI During Cloud400 Test
“While we were testing Cloud400, we also changed the user interface (UI) from green-screen character-based to a graphical GUI interface. That was a concern. Even though the UI is highly customizable, we made the decision not to customize it until after the Cloud400 rollout. We did not want to add delays into the rollout.”
Expected Performance Issues Easily Resolved
“We had a couple issues with performance. When you move to a new system and new OS400 version you get these things. Darren Anderson and Bob Kennedy of the Cloud400 team have been great helping us resolve these.”
Very Impressed CEO Now Wants To Move On More IT Stuff
“The CEO called me the other day and said that in light of how smoothly this Cloud400 process and ERP upgrade went, he wants to move forward on more IT stuff because he is more comfortable.”
Cloud400 Team World Class, Top Notch – No Mistakes
“The Cloud400 team is world-class, top-notch, easy to work with, professional, get-the-job-done-above-and-beyond. They make no mistakes – these guys are just that good. Things happen in projects. Things happen in projects that are not exactly what you expect – that’s life. But mistakes happen when you don’t plan or you don’t care.”
Mike Miller Recommends Cloud400 Without Hesitation
“I found Cloud400 easy to work with. Very flexible. I would recommend Cloud400 to any and everybody without hesitation. I already have.”