What to Consider When Looking to Upgrade

Software for the Investment Management industry can be very expensive. It is an investment in your business. Like any other asset, it needs to be maintained. During the year, various point releases (upgrade) are announced by the vendor. It may or may not have additional functionality, fix a bug that has been nagging your business, or provide a solution to satisfy a specific regulatory requirement you have been working around for a few months.

Advancing with the upgrade is something that needs careful consideration and shouldn't be taken lightly. If you decide to pass on a release, it could prove to be costly when the next upgrade comes around. When you miss a few point releases, sometimes it is not as simple as just implementing the one that seems to have the most immediate uses. You could be looking at an incremental upgrade through all of the releases that were passed over. This will likely extend your basic testing cycle, resulting in additional regression testing and a longer User Acceptance Testing (UAT) period.

However, there are times when it does make good sense to wait; point releases normally are just minor updates that could be adding limited functionality for a specific client, or just refreshing a user interface. These types of changes aren't necessarily mission critical and worth the time and cost of utilizing resources across your business and IT department. A thorough review of the release notes with end users and IT staff is time well spent, ensuring the right decisions are being made.

When considering more complex full version releases, a more thorough review will need to be made. Often, these updates will include vital technology and functional upgrades, including:

Software platform upgrades
Critical software fixes
3rd Party software compatibility
Necessary hardware upgrades
Security fixes

When maintaining enterprise applications and software solutions, it is important that you take into account the opportunity costs. Measuring cost vs. usefulness vs. opportunity, is a great way to help you decide when to take action, and when to sit one out. Establishing a good relationship and partnership with your core vendors will assist with the decision process, and help you build consensus on your decision-making process. Remember, your software is an asset. Educating yourself on the latest and greatest releases will help you make the best decision for your firm.

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Patrick Kirchner

Patrick has over 20 years of experience working with some of the world’s largest investment managers. He has led and participated in a full complement of consulting services from strategic assessment and roadmap exercises, technology and data strategy development and assessment, to evaluation/selection of industry leading software, and complex, multi-site implementations. Patrick has a well-balanced background that spans across front, middle, and back office working in both technical and business-facing capacities and crosses multiple product classes.