We are in the middle of upgrading from 9.1 to 10.0. We started in August
last year, and we expect to go live on-schedule at the end of May this
year.
Generally speaking, the PTC upgrade tool for data migration is the best we
have seen. It is much better than any previous data migration tool that
we have used in the past as we moved from 5.1 to 6.0 to 6.2.6 to 8.0 to
9.1 and now to 10.0.
We have encountered many questions, bugs, and usability issues that are
either fixed, or in the process of being fixed by PTC Tech Support, our
local PTC consultants, or our own technical and process experts who have
set about learning the new user interfaces. Although some of the problems
would be show stoppers if they were not fixed in time for go live, we do
not anticipate any specific technical problems that we cannot fix since we
just finished our 2nd round of UAT and still have time for critical
patches and bug fixes. Admittedly, at least half of our problems are with
our own customizations. We have strived in 9.1 to be as "out of the box"
as possible, and we are much, much less customized than any version of
Windchill that we have used prior to 9.1, but we still have a lot of
site-specific reports, services, workflows, and a few custom forms that
have to migrated over to 10.0 and fully regression tested and debugged.
Here are the big surprises that are big enough to mention.
1- So many users in our Windchill system prior to 10.0 have become used to
using right-click, open in new tab or new window to look at items in a BOM
that the new right-click = actions list in 10.0 is throwing many new users
into some confusion despite our explaining to them how the new system
works. I suspect that over time we will just get used to the new system,
but we are so used to the old one that it may take a while. The new
"Search" features are also different enough to cause some confusion; but
10.0 should be easier to use than 9.1 for searching, as well, once our
users get used to it, although we miss the "Search in Folder" option that
was convenient for us in 9.1 when browsing folders that does not appear to
be available in 10.0. Finally, the change in interface requires us to
redo all of our job aids and training materials. This is a big deal that
takes a lot of time. We actually purchased PTC University on-line
training, but we cannot use it since that material is too generic to help
anyone outside of IT. Basically, every job that needs a job aid now needs
that job aid remade to account for the new interface in 10.0.
2- Windchill 10.0 has a recommended 2 GB RAM memory requirement for user
PCs with a recommendation of 4 GB ram. We are a large company with a lot
of PCs (about 5000+ users). Right now, about 25% of our users do not have
PCs with at least 2 GB RAM and we are testing to find out just how bad
their performance may be on those older systems. Windchill 10.0 also
requires a newer JRE that still requires a 2nd log in to use applets when
we are running them in IE 8 (our approved browser) - which is apparently
an Oracle / JRE problem as opposed to a PTC problem. Users still hate the
extra log in, however. We also have to spend a lot of time rolling out
the new JRE after making sure it is compatible with our other enterprise
applications that use java applets.
3- Product View Heavy Client no longer works with Windchill 10.0 requiring
us to move to CREO Viewer 1.0 along with the Windchill 10.0 upgrade.
4- The object model associated with RTP to an ERP system has changed. The
change is an improvement, but our complex programs for preprocessing parts
and BOMs for RTP to ERP (we use Baan 5C) and our post-processing programs
all needed about a month of rework, documentation, and retesting to
account for the new object model.
5- There is so much new functionality that it is almost impossible to
upgrade AND take advantage of the new functionality at the same time. We
are essentially trying to upgrade with all of our objects and processes
intact, leaving any new functionality or new objects alone for possible
future optimization after we are live and stabilized on 10.0.
Al Anderson
Solar Turbines
PLM Functional Architect
