Best Practices for the Best Approach

The Architecture upgrade and migration service is based on Oracle Easipath Migration Method (EMM) and Oracle’s Application Implementation Method (AIM). Both these methods dovetail together to provide the client with an avenue to help implement the upgrade. The two approaches are as follows:

EMM

EMM provides a comprehensive plan to assist clients in their product migration. It instills best practices that Oracle has applied at numerous clients. It provides processes, tools and the roles required to accomplish migration of projects of all sizes. The approach is split into four distinct phases:

• Migration Assessment
  This component will focus on understanding the processes, functions, data and operational roles needed to perform the upgrade. This will also assess the impact of customizations and reporting.
• Update and Test Phase
  Implement the Technical Architecture and test the new systems. This phase will typically also include updates of end user training documents and acceptance testing.
• Transition Phase
  The upgrade to the Production systems and post cut over support will be included in this phase.
• Production Phase
  Provide assistance in monitoring and tailoring of the new production system to meet the system criteria set out in the Technical Architecture.

AIM

The Technical architecture will create one or more candidate conceptual architectures for the new applications. The AIM model will provide a prototype that enables the client an early review of the direction and vision of the future architecture. The architecture will also show the relationship between the different layers or components of the new system architecture. It will also identify any architecture subsystems that you need to build or purchase from other vendors. The objectives of this approach are:

• Realization of the business and Information Systems vision:
  • Identification of the key business functions and organizations in the new architecture.
  • Identification of the data centers that will manage the data and processing of the key business units.
  • Identification of the information flows for the business functions and organizations.
  • Identification of the key legacy applications which will be replaced or retained by the new architecture.
• Hard and soft costs associated with the architecture. This would include:
  • Identification of the possible hardware and networks that support each application that is deployed.
  • Identification of the different interfaces that will access the candidate architecture and the subsystems that will be required to support them.
• Risk factors for the new architecture including:
  • Technical Risks
    Understanding the impact of leading edge technology on the infrastructure. The tradeoffs for each model and the risks associated with each approach.
  • Project Risks
    The resources, budgets and timelines required to implement the architecture.
• Deployment implications and a roadmap from the current existing system to the new architecture.