Just drive down to Birmingham, finish the setup on the purchase ordering system, make sure the invoicing goes through smoothly, copy the live database into test, clear down the data and reset the system for going live on Monday.
Didn’t quite go to plan.
The setup was straight forward, one or two niggles but nothing insoluble. The only problem was the interruptions from the contracts invoicing bod sat opposite me with problems with her invoicing. Twice I had to explain that if the journal import was rejected, you needed to look at the report to see which contract was causing the problem and then go into the nominal codes screen where in all likelihood the prohibit posting flag for that code would be set because there hadn’t been any posting to that account for the last six months. Twice. She also had the step-by-step procedure guide on her desk with helpful highlights on the tricky bits.
The copying data across bit also went ok, apart from when I noticed that the consultant had set up a database to copy the data files, export the tables, change the database code on them and then re-import them, the only problem being that he was working on a local copy of the data rather than linking directly to the sql server tables. Doh!
Next problem was a series of niggles that we’d noticed that he claimed to have a fix for in the newest release of the software. Minor things like the preview on the purchase order not working correctly and the credit note screen crashing out unless you went into the invoice screen first. Nothing major then …
We downloaded the new release from the software house’s ftp site in Australia, installed it, restarted the server and found that not only was the original problem still there (although we narrowed it down to being something to do with suppliers who have email delivery set as their main contact method) but there was a whole new problem as well. In short, the goods receipting screen was b0rked – it was displaying a singularly unhelpful error message on each receipt, which was not the most encouraging thing for new users to see as their first experience of a super duper new system.
The debate then ensued as to whether to roll back to the previous version or to wait for a new version from Oz and either upload it on Sunday night or Monday morning with the live date being put back to mid day. Hmmm, neither alternative is particularly appealing, but between my boss, the consultant, his boss and the software house on the other side of the world the time rolled around to half past six before I finally got away from the office.
Half past sodding six on a freezing cold, foggy Friday night. Oh deep joy. Still, the roads were relatively clear and I was running fast and cool, just a smidgeon over the speed limit with Pizzicato 5 and The Shaman on the cd player to set the pace and I was home for a little after eight o’clock. The average speed on the car computer was sixty five miles an hour, honest officer … :-)
Home now, with a tequila to kick things off, and then pizza, bananana bread beer and My Name is Earl on tv.
The weekend starts …. here!
No comments:
Post a Comment