Why are Fast Upgrades Crucial to Customer Satisfaction?

For more information, please contact Gwendoline Huret at ghuret@opentext.com.

In an ideal world, customers would stay current and upgrade every time a new software version, patch or hotfix was released. Customers on the latest software versions benefit from all the latest features and have the highest security guarantees from both a code and support perspective. One of the number one reasons customers don’t do this though, and therefore don’t benefit from the highest product satisfaction available, is due to the hassle and cost of upgrades. Specifically, the time factor often comes up as the biggest burden.

In the Document Management product team, this is a conundrum our customers are very familiar with. The number one request around roadmap is often “make upgrades faster”. However, when you dig into why upgrades take so long, the answer is often more process related than technical. During a Content Manager Upgrade customer forum, customers admitted that internal testing, approval, and training processes around upgrades were more taxing than the technical upgrade itself. For many there is little that can be done to shorten this process, since much of the testing and approval is defined by regulation.

So, whilst the tech is not usually the slowest denominator, it is the easier aspect to control. In this article we will focus on technical ways that software owners can make upgrades faster and easier for themselves, in the hope to encourage all our customers to find a path to the fastest upgrade.

Cloud as a Service

The short and obvious: moving to cloud as a service makes upgrades somebody else’s problem.

Both Content Manager and AppEnhancer have a cloud offering available to customers which includes upgrades amongst its many services. Cloud as a Service is a great way to ensure you are kept on the most current version and benefitting from the latest and greatest.  When new releases come out, the Cloud as a Service team upgrades all its customers, meaning they become very quick at the upgrades and have worked through any possible issues prior. This does NOT mean that upgrades have to be automatic: we still work with customers to ensure their testing, approval and training processes are met before pushing the upgrade through to production. Leaving the upgrade process to a team who do it full-time for all their customers is a great way to ensure a faster upgrade.

Containerization

If you prefer to stay on premise or manage your own cloud, but still want a faster technical upgrade, you may want to consider containerization. Containerization is a method by which all required files, libraries, and even the environment are included along with the software product in its own “container”. This is a similar concept to a “virtual machine”, but more efficient in resources as it does not require its own operating system. Kubernetes is the best known containerization platform, you’ve probably heard the name before because containerization is becoming a best practice.

A containerized version of your product, once tested, will run the same regardless of environment. This greatly accelerates testing and deployment. Many cloud as a service offerings actually use containerization to lower their costs.

Containerization will likely increase the complexity of your upgrade the first time you use it, a short-term cost to pay for faster upgrades going forward. Many organizations are moving towards containerization in general, so if that is your case we recommend you hop on the wagon.

If your product supports it, containerization is a quick and easy way to upgrade as well as move towards the future. Both Content Manager and AppEnhancer are containerization friendly.

Retire Customizations by Upgrading

Here’s a situation that I often see as PM: You need a new feature and the current release doesn’t offer it. You build a customization to get it. Several releases later, this customization is now included as part of the product. But because you believe your product to be heavily customized, and you’ve seen the pain of upgrades in the past due to this, you aren’t even looking at the newest version and don’t realize your customization can now be retired if you upgrade, accelerating any future upgrades.

The moral of the story here: even if you’ve had painful upgrades in the past, upgrading is often always better than sitting on an old version. Reach out to your representative for a chat on the latest features and see if some of your customizations can perhaps be retired in light of the latest product enhancements. Remember that retiring a customization is often a great way to cut on cost of ownership.

Keep on top of new features and see if they can replace any previous custom work to save costs and gain faster upgrades. See also Content Manager Upgrades.

Beta Programs

Many software solutions will run beta programs, allowing a select group of customers early access to the software. This gives you the change to have an early start on testing, and flag any potential issues before the hard code is released. In the Document Management team, both Content Manager and AppEnhancer have extended the concept of the Beta program by allowing customers to submit their test use cases to our engineering teams, for us to happily incorporate them to our testing. This allows you the comfort of knowing that our engineering team have tested your exact use cases before you make the decision to upgrade to a new version. If you’d like to participate in a Beta program or get your test cases included in engineering testing, contact your product manager today.

Migrate from Desktop to Web

Many software products that have a long legacy in the industry started in desktop format. As these tools modernize, they usually offer a web interface alternative that progressively feature matches the desktop component. People are by nature opposed to changing their habits, and many customers like to stay on desktop for as long as possible, even when a web alternative has been brought in, or in the case of Content Manager even a mobile app. I’ve seen this happen with both AppEnhancer and Content Manager. AppEnhancer is now fully web, and yet many customers continue to desire desktop. The main reason for this behaviour is avoidance of change, an “if it isn’t broken don’t fix it” attitude. Owners often bring up the argument that moving to a web interface does have a short-term cost in the training and support sense.

Long-term though, and particularly in the context of upgrades, web interfaces are a clear winner. They have a lower cost of ownership going forward, don’t have to be upgraded on each individual user machine, and also provide higher levels of security.

If you want faster and less painful upgrades, move your end users to web interfaces or apps, and minimize desktop clients.

Remember that Upgrading saves you time later

Later software versions often have more modern and therefore intuitive interfaces. Users often find that they can understand how to use the tool more easily, with less requirement for support or training. Later versions offer features to improve intuition and also user efficiency. So don’t forget that time lost on upgrades is often made up for later. For example, in FY25 you can expect a brand new web UI for AppEnhancer, increasing user satisfaction and efficiency.

Work with PS or a Partner

Finally, you don’t have to upgrade yourself. If you work with an expert, such as our professional services team or our many partners, you may find your upgrades to be significantly faster.

Stay Satisfied

Upgrading is usually the best decision to increase customer satisfaction with the product. Get more value out of your software solutions by staying current. Although upgrades are always a project in themselves, your end users will thank you in the end.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this blog. Comment below.

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