AP Year End Issues

We decided to go the route of only installing the AP 2010 1099 changes because the full initial download looked more like a MSP than a CTP. Has anyone else decided to postpone putting in these big changes?

Kind of irritated that Lawson is shoving all the additional changes in a CTP (76130) in order to get the recently enacted changes for bonus depreciation. As of right now, our business component is telling us NO WAY.

We only put in the AP 1099 change because we didn't have enough time to go through the other enhancements from the other patch.

The Lawson 2010 YE patch process was fraught with issues.
It included a growing list of fixes eventually stacking six upon the original.
The final count, exhorbitant at best, was compounded with untimely publishing and erroneous documentation issues.
Repackaging and renaming of patches seemed common occurrence.
And documentation, although minorly errant, misdirected our requisite test system installs.

Most notably, the 2010 YE patch process, included some database modifications.
Yet previously, our exposure to Lawson database changes were only via upgrades.
All other prior database modifications were usually coupled with some form of documentation for database differences.

Surprisingly, this patch included a modification to the AP Vendor Master, as well as incorporating several new files.
In retrospect, we needed, at least, some impact analysis for the database modification.
The sole indicators of these modifications were honorable mentions seemingly buried in the Preview README file.

Fortunately this was identified at the eleventh hour.
It resulted in a mass recompile of all objects in our subsidiary Sales & Income system that utilized AP Vendor Master.
Wether this was an oversight or an anomaly, this may have caused us big problems - had it been another file.

In regard to the new files, they obviously did not affect our applications; but they did impact Operations.
During production install, Operational monitoring tools notified our Systems Administrator.
Updates immediately ensued accommodating the journaling and mirroring functions.

Moreover, the Lawson 2010 YE patches impacted the business with substantial downtime.
Benchmarks on our test systems – always typically slower - were perplexing for a typical patch.
A re-categorization of this as an MSP or upgrade were clearly imminent, as immoderate benchmarking was consistent.

We regrouped, identified critical interfaces, revisited our final install plan, and contacted our Users.
Although reluctant, the User community acknowledge our case.
They agreed to extended business downtime, and reorganized their weekend schedules.

By Sunday pm, all systems returned to normal, well within the announced timeline.
Once riddled with challenges, the Lawson 2010 YE ‘patch’ process became successful.
All business teams were responsive and resilient during all phases of the process.
And Lawson Tech Support was supportive, as well; professional, and prompt in CASE resolution at all tiers.

POST INSTALL STATUS: Completed; No Fallout.

We are a new customer and this was our first year end experience. I wish we would have known to pull out only the 1099 changes. Ever since we applied the AP year end patch we have nothing but issues with our RSS application. User can not close or receive requisition. Also have issues with PO30. We have a lot of cases open and so far installed one RSS patch after the other without any resolution. Our users are getting very frustrated. The problem is that the issues are not consistent. It is not every PO, every user, or every vendor. No pattern. The yearend patch touched so many tables, it is difficult to determine which piece is causing the problem and Lawson is no help so far. Very frustrating