"Year end was less stressful thanks to your simplified check list. It was easy to read and very useful."

Debbie Smith
Self Regional Healthcare


Client - Special School District of St. Louis - Upgrade

Assignment - Special School District of St Louis (SSD), a special education services provider for students with disabilities, wanted to upgrade their Lawson Financials applications from version 8.0.3 to Lawson's release, version 8.1. Because of our expertise and involvement with the original Financials implementation, SSD chose JAT to manage and implement the upgrade.

Challenge - Working closely with the SSD team, JAT faced a number of challenges including:
  • SSD uses Lawson's Requisition Self-Service product to create and approve requisitions. Upgrading to the 8.1 applications necessitated a newer version of Requisition Self-Service which had not been included in their preliminary plans.

  • SSD's initial implementation included a series of customizations to facilitate their business process including one to facilitate their AP check reconciliation. The existing customizations needed to be updated to work with 8.1 applications.

  • As a new client, SSD wanted recommendations and direction to assist them in selecting the best upgrade approach and timeline.

Solution - JAT relied upon a combination of Lawson's upgrade methodology and JAT's experience to assure a successful upgrade. To reduce the overall cost of the project, JAT leveraged the SSD internal team. This was accomplished by managing the project and performing some necessary tasks while at the same time allowing SSD to complete portions of the project with which they were comfortable. The JAT project manager also drew on the knowledge of the team previously involved with the initial implementation to answer questions related to the original customizations. JAT assisted in evaluating which customizations could be eliminated based on the newly deployed functionality in the 8.1 application.

Results - JAT's experience, combined with the efforts of SSD's key staff, enabled the district to go live with Finance and Procurement version 8.1 in three months. The upgrade was a success and put SSD at the proper release level to begin subsequent projects.

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