JD Edwards UPGRADE!
Upgrading JD Edwards is rarely just a technical exercise. Successful JDE upgrades require clear strategy, disciplined execution, and achieving the right balance between standard functionality and business reality.
So when you are planning a tools upgrade, a full applications upgrade, or navigating years of customization, I want to dig into my thoughts around when “going vanilla” actually makes sense, lending the experience I’ve had at J.Geiger Consulting.
We have had a run of upgrades coming at us recently. They are so cyclical, it is one of the consistencies that I love about this product!
My thoughts today are around the “Go Vanilla” movement items that have been trying sooo hard to sweep the JDE scene to enable set-it-and-forget-it upgrades. Progress is being made. We have impact analysis tools, and the ability to not retrofit all objects if Oracle didn’t touch them (wait… Oracle doesn’t touch some objects?!).
But let’s be real, those objects that are difficult to retrofit (P42101 Power Forms, fun anyone?!) are often still enhanced or fixed by Oracle over the year(s) since your last upgrade and therefore still require retrofit.
So what do we do?
The “Going Vanilla” concept can feel about as hard to get traction as balding tires in a deep Wisconsin winter wonderland.
What we do is make incremental improvements. When we crawl, we can run, the latter does not happen before the former.
Finding the time-to-value wins
Let me break that down further for you. Identify the time-to-value wins. Sounds hard, doesn’t it? It isn’t, through two exercises.
Exercise 1: Identify value, whiteboard it
Yes, physically stand at a whiteboard and talk through your JD Edwards system. The ability to externalize cognition allows you to see yourself thinking and improve decision clarity. That is science.
So stand at that whiteboard and start writing.
Do this in a vacuum? No. Invite engaging team members (key word here, they need to stimulate conversation). Having tribal knowledge is always a bonus. These are not just IT people; you are trying to dig out pain points – value – where to focus in your system.
Within an hour or two of work, you would be surprised how quickly the areas to focus on surface. If you’ve done this, great, you rock.
Exercise 2: Analysis and time, detective time
So you say you love a good cop drama? Great, get your notepad and pen out, because now we need to do the investigative work.
Remember when I said time to value? We may have uncovered the monsters under the bed, but we don’t yet know how scary they are or what crimes against JDE have been committed.
This is often when bringing in external help can be beneficial. Consultants, especially those of us with deep JD Edwards experience, help frame how the system should or could work in a less customized or more standard way.
Now we interrogate the business to understand process.
What I’ve found doing this many times is that everyone thinks they are special and unique. You are, but your business usually is not.
Yeah, but… yeah, but…
Sure, there are differentiators that provide competitive advantage, and occasionally the system does need to accommodate those. But all configuration options should be explored prior to customization. I usually expect this phase to take two to four weeks of meetings and system review.
When effort and value finally become clear
Now what you have is effort and value. This is where things start to get clear.
You now have a picture of the customized pain points along with the effort required to remove technical debt.
Initiatives that naturally drive the “Go Vanilla” conversation
Things that can drive our ability to execute this include:
- ERP upgrades or platform modernization
- Mergers, acquisitions, or divestitures
- Automation and integration strategies
- Technical debt and key-person risk reduction
- Finance-led control, audit, and close initiatives
- Reporting and analytics modernization
- Cost predictability and support model simplification
- Multi-entity or global standardization
- Disaster recovery and business continuity planning
- Security, compliance, and long-term platform viability
How do I actually sell the spend?
“Going Vanilla” does not need to be a standalone initiative. Instead, it works best as an initiative enhancer.
By reducing even one discovered JDE modification monster (ohhh… I’m going to coin this, Mod Monster, I like it), we set ourselves up for a better upgrade, a smoother merger, or a stronger disaster recovery plan by addressing already-identified technical debt risk points.
But here’s the part that really matters, this doesn’t have to be a project. It can be part of the culture.
Instead of saying, “We need to go clean up customizations,” the conversation shifts to:
“As we do work in the system, are we taking the opportunity to remove them?”
For example, if you’re already addressing challenges with invoice time to cash, that is a perfect moment to evaluate the customizations that were put in place years ago to solve that problem. Do they still make sense? Or can standard JD Edwards functionality, or newer tools, handle this better now?
The same applies to projects and ongoing maintenance. If you’re investing time and money anyway, consider reworking pieces to leverage newer capabilities while intentionally shrinking the footprint of custom code. You’re still delivering value, but you’re also quietly retiring the Mod Monster at the same time.
This is not a cleanup effort, and I really want to be clear about that. We are not fixing something that was “messed up.” There were very valid reasons for modifications in days gone by. But time changes, and this is us molding to that change as part of our normal course of business.
The reality of customization
Customizations create:
Longer upgrade cycles
Higher support costs
Longer outages
More regression testing
More consulting dependency
(Yup, trying to work myself out of a job here!)
Language that resonates with leadership
When talking with leadership, phrases like these tend to land:
“This reduces upgrade cost and timeline.”
“This lowers our dependency on specific people.” (Even your consultants 
, But I am here for you when you need me 
)
“This makes future acquisitions easier.”
“This lets us automate without rebuilding everything.”
“This reduces audit and reporting friction.”
Bringing it all back to upgrades
To me, the vanilla movement is about sustainable upgrades. It is about working toward yearly application upgrades, not just yearly tools upgrades. There is tremendous value in technical debt reduction.
I can’t wait to see you at the next networking event, user group meeting, or national conference so we can talk about how you are working through these steps, selling these highly important ideas to your leaders, and delivering amazing value in your work.
You really are awesome.
– Justen Geiger
If you’re planning a JD Edwards upgrade and want help navigating customization, retrofit decisions, or long-term platform strategy, this is exactly the type of conversation we have with our clients every day.
Hey everyone! We really hope you enjoyed this blog by Justen Geiger.
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