Addressing outdated OpenText infrastructure, ready for RISE – Customer story

For businesses, maintaining outdated infrastructure can have a major business impact, including: 

• Compliance issues: Using outdated software can result in non-compliance with industry regulations and standards. Organisations could face legal penalties and loss of certifications. 
• Lack of vendor support: When systems are out of support, vendors no longer provide assistance, updates, or patches. This makes troubleshooting more difficult and can lead to security vulnerabilities. 
• Increased operational costs: Maintaining outdated systems often requires more resources and specialised knowledge, leading to higher operational costs. Custom support solutions can also be expensive.  
• Performance limitations: Older systems might not perform as efficiently, potentially slowing down operations and reducing productivity. 
• Limited functionality: Outdated systems may lack new features and improvements available in more recent versions, putting organisations at a competitive disadvantage. 

Real-world example and solution

A pertinent example of these challenges is seen in the experience of our client, a global manufacturer of electrical domestic appliances. Their outdated on-premise archive server was five years out of support, running on hardware over ten years old, and a Microsoft Windows server that was also out of support. Frequent system failures meant they often couldn’t retrieve data they needed, forcing their IT team to redirect its focus and prioritise resolving these issues. 

Their current version of OpenText Vendor Invoice Management (VIM) was also out of support. As a big VIM user, they faced several issues: 

• Inability to access or save images led to delays in payment processing and sales orders. 
• Creating PDF copies of incoming orders was hindered, and they couldn’t save or retrieve sales orders, general attachments, purchasing records, sales documents, and data. 
• Delays in invoice approval and order processing led to penalties and halted business processes altogether. 

A key part of their longer-term strategy is to adopt RISE with SAP and exploit innovations available with cloud-based solutions. Upgrading to OpenText Core Archive for SAP, OpenText’s cloud and software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, would reduce costs (including operational costs, service fees, and maintenance) and shift the burden away from internal IT resources. It also delivers benefits like system security, regular software updates, and operational agility. 

Upgrading VIM provides similar benefits enabling the business to once again receive full technical support, including troubleshooting, patches, and assistance with any issues that arise. This support is crucial for maintaining uninterrupted business operations and quickly resolving any problems that may occur. Additionally, it provides access to the latest features like OpenText Core Capture and the cloud-based intelligent OCR solution for VIM. 

With 22TB of data to migrate, Proceed and the client’s team devised a strategy to avoid impacting their 24/7 business operations. 

Key steps included: 

• Deleting data that is no longer needed to optimise storage in the new cloud environment. 
• Ensuring data integrity and system functionality through comprehensive testing. 
• Phased implementation to minimise operational disruption and maintain business continuity. 

Post-migration, an extensive knowledge transfer ensured the client could fully leverage the new system’s capabilities. This project did not just address the immediate challenges but also strategically aligned with the company’s long-term goals to integrate more closely with SAP RISE. 

Need help upgrading your OpenText infrastructure?

Are you facing similar challenges with outdated infrastructure and unsupported systems? We have assisted numerous clients with OpenText implementations, upgrades, and optimisations. What sets us apart is our flexible and dynamic project approach. This ensures that we can truly understand your business requirements and respond quickly and efficiently, providing you with a cost-effective and focused project. 

Reach out to discuss your business requirements.