No boss? No problem! An ERP upgrade done right

It’s a cruel irony in IT that when problems abound and you save the day, people notice — and, if you’re lucky, appreciate your efforts. But when it all goes right and your background work keeps systems running smoothly, it won’t warrant a mention and no one realizes the time and effort you’ve invested. It’s about time we share these “wins” with the world at large.

When I graduated from college in the early 1990s, I was hired at a family firm that had multiple business ventures. The enterprise operated in six different business veins, from retail to manufacturing. Though the businesses varied in scope, they ran a common software package in a DOS environment on Novell servers.

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The head of the parent company’s IT department had a side business as a vendor, supplying the group with hardware and software. Yes, this was a very different time — no one in the company seemed to view this as a conflict of interest. As a result, all of our PCs and servers were what we called “white box” and built from parts my boss supplied. For me, working with such machines was a great experience because I learned a lot about hardware that I’d never touched in my college career.

The puppet master

When I came on board, my boss had been in charge of all the computer equipment for five years, having installed the original hardware and software that moved the company from paper to PCs. He had complete control over the company’s technology, backed by the confidence of the board of directors, which was made up of brothers and sisters.

I worked the next five years following the business plan my boss had laid out, believing everything was fine as I had no access to the finer details of contracts and license details. Around this time, Novell and Microsoft were vying for leadership in the server OS market.

Our ERP software (written in BBX, or Business Basic eXtended) had been heavily altered by my boss to “suit” the family’s idea of how business should be conducted and how reports needed to be run, along with many minor changes. I later found out these modifications had rendered us unable to install any ERP software updates for the past three years — doing so would’ve disclosed the number of violations we were committing and the vast differences between our current system and the vendor product.

I didn’t know all the reasons at the time. But it become obvious to everyone that the customized ERP system was no longer adequate, and the board of directors started asking about upgrades.

My boss said he was handling it, but I couldn’t help but think of the difficult upgrade path ahead. Our IT shop was a two-man operation that serviced 13 locations scattered over multiple states and connected by 33Kbps modems. It’s archaic now, but it had served our needs well. However, it was easy to see that if we ever moved to a Windows-based ERP solution, we’d be in for a world of hurt.

See ya, wouldn’t want to be ya

One morning, my boss called me to his office. He then announced that he had accepted a job at another company and would be leaving in two weeks. Needless to say, my stomach began to churn. Not only had he been a fixture at the company, he had made a lot of noise about updating our ERP systems. The board was expecting it, but he provided no details about where we were with the project.

Nonetheless, my boss moved on, and to assist me with IT duties, the board promoted an electrician who was quite competent and a great asset, albeit not classically trained. My new co-worker and I hadn’t even gotten our bearings before we took an already-scheduled meeting with a local service provider, who brought along eight individuals. They assured us we could not possibly handle this ERP transition ourselves and were more than happy to provide all the assistance we could ever need for the bargain price of $125 per hour.

After a two-hour beat-down, my partner and I thanked them for their demo and replied that we would be in touch. It goes without saying that our egos had been greatly dented and our ire was up. We vowed to never use that firm and to go down in flames before surrendering.

As the days went by, I began to uncover the extent of my prior boss’s finagling with the software. I determined that it would be easier to roll to an new ERP package that contained the functionality and robustness we required rather than to try to convert the old one. Before he left, my ex-boss had assured us that he was available evenings and weekends for a mere $80 per hour as visions of new pickup trucks surely sailed through his head. Again, my partner and I made a second vow to not pursue that avenue, either.

It took a full two years to replace all the Novell servers with Windows 2000 servers and 250 DOS workstations with Windows 98 desktops, as well as roll the ERP software to the new package. In the process, we added two more employees to the IT staff. We had had to port several thousand inventory codes along with their current inventory count, AR and AP. It was a massive undertaking that we tackled one location at a time, spending two months on each site.

Since we were changing our bread-and-butter package, I decided to scrap the time-keeping, payroll, and HR packages as well and move to different ones. Looking back, I can see that I was young, foolish, and extremely blessed. Though it was a lot of work, we encountered no major problems, and the board of directors accepted and backed our recommendations.

The company has thrived and is still going strong, and management probably remains unaware of the miracle transition we pulled off 15 years ago. Because there was hardly a ripple, the job likely looked easy, and thus we received no accolades — except, perhaps, the board approving our recommendations. But at least now a few more people know too.

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This story, “No boss? No problem! An ERP upgrade done right,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more crazy-but-true stories in the anonymous Off the Record blog at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.