Upgrades to the product can be deferred should it fall at an inconvenient time

Description

Product upgrades in Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software are necessary for enhancing functionality, fixing bugs, and maintaining software performance. However, these upgrades can interrupt business operations if scheduled at an inconvenient time. The ability to defer these upgrades provides flexibility, allowing the organization to schedule the upgrades at a more suitable time.

Example Use Case

Scenario: A mid-market company relies heavily on its CPM software for its quarterly close processes. A scheduled product upgrade falls at the same time as the company's financial year-end close, which can interrupt critical business operations.

Solution: The CPM software allows product upgrades to be deferred. The company can reschedule the upgrade for after their year-end close ensuring there is no disruption to the critical process. By doing so, they manage to successfully complete their year-end operations smoothly and after, carry out the software upgrade.

Considerations

This is not always possible for SaaS companies, especially those offering a truly multi-tenant solution, as one of the benefits to multi-tenant products is that the vendor upgrades all of their customers at once. There usually is no ability to make exceptions.

If you happen to be on a dedicated environment (offered by the more Enterprise products) you may be able to defer.

Questions to Ask a Vendor

• Upgrade Deferral: Can software upgrades be deferred and rescheduled in the event it falls on an inconvenient time?
• Upgrade Disruption: Should we expect any sort of service interruption during upgrades?
• Standard Timing: Do you process upgrades at a regular time each upgrade cycle, like after hours?