Upgrading to 10.1, from a users perspective

[HugoHermans]

From a users perspective, why should we upgradefrom Windchill 9.1 to 10.1? The UI will change, but what's the added value?

TIA, Hugo.

<< ProEWF5 M160- PDMLink 9.1 M060>>

[AL_ANDERSON]

From a specific, end user perspective, no software change is welcome
ulness it makes their personal job easier. Windchill 10 is a little nicer
and friendlier than 9.1 once you get use to it, but if the company
implmenting the upgrade doesn't use new functionality and/or redo their
business processes a long with the upgrade (which is unlikely), then there
is no real difference. Such a user might easily say, "Great! Now I have
to learn this new thing for no good reason....grumble grumble."

10.0 and 10.1 and the to-be 10.2 each offer varying degrees of new
features and functions over 9.1. Those features make process changes
possible, if you choose to do the work to implement those changes.
However, if 9.1 is perfectly fine for you, then you should stay on 9.1
until it is going out of support, and move to 10.1 (or whateever is latest
at the time you have to go) because you "have to" in order to ensure
"support" for your enterprise application. At that point, the benefit for
the end user is that if something breaks that they can be assured of a
timely fix vs being potentially down for extended periods of time on
obsolete and unsupported software.

At this point, I think 9.1 is getting pretty close to end of life. So, if
you want support, you may have to go forward regardless of the fact that
most users won't immedately get much benefit other than a "new interface."

Al








[solutions] - Upgrading to 10.1, from a users perspective

Hugo Hermans

[TonyFoulon]

Dear Al and Hugo

Please note that Windchill 9.1 is already in sustained support mode since December 2012. So if the customer does not pay an additional fee, he has no access to SPR fixes.

See Standard Support will now cover 4 years of R&D support (software fixes, patches and maintenance releases) from the date of product launch for customers with active Maintenance Support agreements.
After that 4 year period, customers who maintain active Maintenance Support agreements will have ongoing access to all of the Maintenance Support program features, except access to SPR fixes, during the Sustained Support period.
After two years, Technical Support will direct customers to adopt a more current release. Additionally, customers who maintain active Maintenance Support agreements may choose to purchase Extended Support for a one year period after Standard Support ends. Extended Support will entitle customers to access to SPR fixes during that one year period.

Support is only one aspect to consider. There are a lot of new and enhanced features that can and will make the user and administrator experience better.

Tony

[cc-2]

Hi Hugo how are you?

I was going to mention the end of support of 9.1 but Tony was quicker. This is a pretty good reason.

Have you used 10.1 already or seen demonstration ?

I find there are a lot of new functionalities users should adopt quickly. eg the way table can be customized.

the searches and the way it keeps your search history.

We are currently on WF4 and moving to WF5 with PDMLink 9.1 M060 but we can't use Creo unless we move to M070.. in that case better move to 10.1 and have Creo 2. Which also have a lot of functionalities such as link between WTpart Configuration and CAD.

Unless you have time and resource to do a gap analysis to see which benefits user will gain in term of new user interface it is hard to say.

What suits a company may not apply to another. The fact 9.1 goes out of support is a good reason, of course you can still extend.

Maybe your case consist in adding all the little reasons (end of support, upgrading CAD, upgrading server maybe, more friendly GUI etc...) to make a valid reason so your management will access to pay for the upgrade and training.