The latest version IS the greatest!
When you hear about a new release of MIP Fund Accounting, do you load it as fast as you can? Or are you a bit pioneer-phobic — the fear of having arrows in your back? Do you feel upgrading software is like a trip to the dentist — to be put off as long as you can?
Many users have the notion that it is better to let other users “shake out the bugs” before they install it themselves. Others can’t wait to try the promised new functionality.
So what’s really the smart choice to make? The answer, is “BOTH.”
Why wait?
When the major release number changes (e.g. from 2014.x to 2015.0), we have often seen a number of issues with the product that just weren’t caught even though the product gets lots of alpha and beta testing. Every month when we meet with your TeamNFP Certified MIP Business Partner, we go through the Knowledge Base provided by Abila discussing the items most likely to cause you the most trouble. Our goal is to help them help you and so we all spend time staying current and discussing the fixes and “work arounds” suggested or we recommend one to our partners for those few instances when there isn’t one provided.
Significant and broad changes sadly often bring unintended consequences. But speculating on why that’s true really isn’t the focus of this article. But we’ll agree that it often isn’t productive to jump on a release as soon as it comes out if you don’t have to (in order to produce 1099s or W-2s, for example). Almost always there will be a .1 release in time for those important tasks, so it’s fairly safe to wait.
You may also have staff or even the head of your nonprofit who drag their feet about switching. No matter how much better the upgrade is there is:
- A learning curve because things just don’t work as they used to
- A dread that the changes will impact other things and it will take time they don’t have to do those other fixes
So, you wait knowing that at some point you and they will have to make the change, deal with the downtime, and hope that the improvements are real.
Why Upgrade Now
But once the .1 release has been made available, it’s time to change your tune! Each release that follows will have more of the improvements you seek and the changes made are usually of a highly focused nature, so the risk of those unintended consequences is quite low. So these are high gain, low risk releases and you should be happy to install them as soon as you can.
So, take the plunge, the water is fine. Upgrade now.
More Reasons to Upgrade
For more reasons to upgrade any software you have or convince others on the need to upgrade, read Why You Should Upgrade and ask them to do so, too. We agree, you need to act in order to:
- Not get stuck with an obsolescent version that’s unsupported.
- Be able to take advantage of new features and improvements.
- Reduce or eliminate any problems you encountered because they may have already been corrected.
- Keep control and deploy in your own time after you see if there are any other adjustments that need to be made to other software, how you do things, protect yourself against fraud, waste, and abuse, etc.
- Have more opportunity to interact with the software, giving you more familiarity with issues that surface when you or others implement changes.
- Learn new things about accounting and better ways to do things.
Final Thoughts
Be sure to say thank you to your TeamNFP MIP Business Partner and Abila’s technical staff for maintaining the Knowledge Base that is such a big help to all of us. They take a lot of the pain away from your software upgrade. Your Business Partner is also always there to help you. So are we at TeamNFP — just email me at QJohnson@TeamNFP.com or contact your Business Partner.
Don’t you wish you could take us with you when you go to the dentist to share your pain? (No offense intended to dentists anywhere!)
Upgrading really IS better than a dental procedure!
