Hello everyone! Keith Crosslin here. I’m a Board Customer Success Manager for Board Switzerland. Often, when I talk to customers about the possibility of upgrading to Board 14 (B14), they ask me what other customers are saying about it. To answer that question, I interviewed three Swiss customers who shared their experiences with me and, by extension, with you.
The three customers are from different industries, one a Wealth Management Bank, the second an Energy Production Company, and the third a Software Company. All three are using Board to run financial FP&A applications, doing budgeting, forecasting and analysis. Each of the three customers has been a Board customer for at least two years. Two of them started their Board journey with either Board 10 or 11, and the third began with Board 12 (B12). All three upgraded to B14 from B12 and all three managed the upgrade themselves, with one of the three getting assistance from a Board consultant. Finally, one of the customers is running in the Cloud, whereas the other two are on-premise.
For all three customers, upgrading to B14 brought measurable performance improvements, and the upgrade process was relatively painless and quick. In some cases, it was completed in less than one day. All noticed immediate improvements with the responsiveness of front-end capsule screens and components, as well as general performance improvements in pretty much everything. Continue reading for more details about the upgrade process and the benefits these customers experienced.
B14 Performance Benefits
While B14 brings many benefits to back-end database and application developers, the customers I talked with all highlighted usability and user performance benefits as the main drivers for them to upgrade. In one case, the Board CoE wanted to wait for a couple of releases, but users wanted Flex Grid now and convinced them to upgrade sooner Here’s what the customers had to say:
- Flex Grid, particularly with the B14.3 features, has enabled them to create more simple application workflows while providing more complex functionality.
- Enhancements to both the engine and the front-end interface have resulted in a much “snappier” user experience.
- Other improvements in the user interface, such as better entity selectors and design mode features, were very appealing.
- In addition to the upgrade, improvements were made to the way procedures were built, further enhancing performance.
- Developers like the design mode improvements, including alignment guides and the ability to bring the screen list to the front.
- Users found the new version to have a fresh look, and they appreciate the new features. The ability to change the screen settings directly on the screen is also favorable.
- Users no longer complain about performance issues, indicating a successful upgrade in terms of responsiveness and efficiency (I love this one!).
Upgrade Process
All three customers upgraded successfully, experienced a relatively painless upgrade process, and received great assistance from Board Support when they ran into issues. The customers confirmed that B14 is a simple upgrade-in-place, and it doesn’t require any migration steps which were necessary to move to B12 from earlier versions. Two of the customers highlighted that it is possible to reverse the upgrade back to B12 if needed, which greatly reduces the risks of upgrading.
These three customers followed a similar upgrade process, starting first with non-production instances, doing some basic testing, and after resolving a few minor issues, continuing to upgrade their production instances. None of the three completed extensive regression testing of every screen or procedure, but rather, they checked a few key processes and confirmed that their integrations with external systems were still working. One of the three customers started the upgrade directly with B14.0, and they did experience a few more issues and found a bug which was resolved in the B14.1 patch. The customers all commented positively about the rapid response they received from Board Support to help them quickly resolve the issues they experienced.
Some of the specific issues that were encountered include:
- Connection issues were encountered due to incompatibilities with IT settings, but these were quickly resolved, demonstrating the smoothness of the process.
- An error in SAP Reader in version 14.0, which was fixed in version 14.1. They identified this issue during testing, and it was fixed when they applied 14.1.
- There was an issue with the B14.3 configuration files, which needed to be manually adjusted with the help of Board Support.
These customers recommend waiting for the first patch release on a new version to allow for initial bugs to be resolved.
Should you upgrade?
The customers that met with me offered the following points to others who are thinking about upgrading to B14:
- The significant performance improvements in Board 14, both in the engine and the front-end interface, were highlighted as key benefits of upgrading.
- Users love Flex Grid, and it can be a game-changer to provide new application functionality.
These first two points are great hooks for end users who feel that they are receiving a big jump in the application functionality they use every day.
- With a good test plan, even without full regression testing, you can complete the upgrade with confidence, particularly given the ease of reverting to the previous version if critical issues arise, making the upgrade process less risky compared to other systems.
- The experience of three customers who did not face serious issues completing their upgrades hopefully will reassure others to not wait and upgrade now.
Room for Improvement
While all three customers were incredibly positive about their experiences successfully upgrading to B14, they highlighted the following areas where they are hoping for continued improvements in the future.
- Features such as dynamic headings in layouts and automatic scaling of graphics are still missing (consider voting on related Idea Exchange VARIABLE TAB NAME - Board Community).
- While it is great that users can easily adjust the screen to page width or fit-to-screen, users cannot save their preferred screen settings, and they must adjust each time they access the screen.
- While easily switching from play mode to design mode is an excellent feature, it is now too easy to inadvertently override important selections that may be needed on the screen – this needs improvement to prevent this issue (there are two related posts that you might want to vote on: B14 - Reset Selection to Screen default - Board Community, No transfer of selections made in play mode into design mode without having been asked - Board Community).
- Chat functionality needs simple improvements, such as scrolling and being able to sort chats properly. The sorting logic seems random if you have more chats that fit in the window; not all will appear on the screen.
- Closing the screen list menu requires multiple clicks. Users suggest that pressing escape or clicking outside the menu should close it more efficiently.
To my Product Management colleagues, I will schedule time with you to give you more on the feedback above. 😉
Closing
Are you ready to upgrade? Do you still have concerns? What's stopping you from upgrading? What questions do you have?
Here's where you can find more information:
Thanks again to my three customers who took the time to share their experiences. I would like to close with a big shout-out to my Support colleagues for the great job they are doing. All three of the customers I interviewed specifically mentioned their gratitude and appreciation for the help they received from Board Support – Support Team, you rock!
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