As more and more companies embrace Windows 7 as their new desktop standard, they are faced with the difficulties of getting Axys 3.x to run in a mixed environment of XP, Windows 7 and terminal server. For those willing to make the leap, upgrading to Axys 3.8.5 is a best practice. It’s Windows 7 compatible and should take much of the guesswork and troubleshooting out of making Axys work in a mixed OS environment.
A couple weeks ago, I was sitting with some clients, discussing the merits of moving to 3.8.5 now or early next year. I let them know that Advent would likely announce a sunset of 3.5.1 and 3.6 later this year. They were still using Axys 3.6 and knew they needed to eventually move to Axys 3.8.5 to stay current. In our meeting, we reviewed the benefits of making the move, which included the various report updates, as well as compatibility updates for Adobe Acrobat 10, Office 2010, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008. They decided to upgrade to Axys 3.8.5 immediately.
To learn more about what upgrading may mean for your firm, read my blog titled “What Version of Axys Should Your Firm Use?”
As our meeting ended, they coincidentally received an email from Advent announcing the sunset of Axys 3.5.1 and 3.6 support. According to the announcement, Advent will work with all Axys 3.5.1 and 3.6 clients on migrating to 3.8.5 by May 31st, 2012, at which point they will no longer support Axys 3.5.1 and 3.6. It states that DTCC 3.5.1 is only compatible with Axys 3.5.1, so DTCC users should upgrade to DTCC 3.8.5 in tandem, and also recommends that DTCC users seek Advent’s assistance to ensure a smooth transition. Advent encourages Axys 3.7 users to upgrade, but will continue to support Axys 3.7 until further notice.
In our experience, upgrading to Axys 3.8.5 has been relatively easy. However, since Axys 3.7 and prior versions’ data needs to be converted to 3.8.x format, the process is slightly more difficult and potentially problematic than other recent upgrades. The data format change can cause compatibility issues with products that interface with Axys, so users should check with their vendors prior to upgrading. There is no need to do incremental upgrades. For example, users can upgrade from Axys 3.6 to Axys 3.8.5 directly.
The only difficulty we ran into with this particular upgrade was that the pesky User Account Control (UAC) feature on Windows 7 PCs needed to be disabled – good riddance – in order for Axys to work properly. In this case, the upgrade was at the upper end of our 2-4 hour estimate, but upgrade times vary based on the amount of data, users, system speed, customizations and possible exceptions. Though we haven’t run into any unanticipated exceptions yet, it is always good to plan for them.
A
bout the Author:
Kevin Shea is President of InfoSystems Integrated, Inc. (ISI); ISI provides a wide variety of outsourced IT solutions to investment advisors nationwide. For details, please visit isitc.com or contact Kevin Shea via phone at 617-720-3400 x202 or e-mail at kshea@isitc.com.