This monthly newsletter is designed to deliver information about activities and progress around amplify – the BW Corporate Equipment ERP Transformation. 

Send questions to amplify@barry-wehmiller.com

People

Our User Acceptance Testing journey continues with momentum building across the organization. More than 100 testers have been engaged so far, participating in more than 29 individual workstream sessions and three comprehensive End-to-End testing sessions. The dedication and insights from our testing community are shaping the final system configuration and our go-live readiness.

What the Testers Are Saying

The feedback from our testing teams reveals both excitement for the system's potential and practical insights about the transition ahead.

"I like that we're all going to be connected," shared one operations team member. "Blue Star PLM, QR processor quality module, all those are outside of today... Now it'll be all in." This sentiment captures what many testers are discovering – the power of having integrated workflows instead of juggling multiple disconnected systems.

Another tester emphasized the communication improvements: "Right now, we're either waiting on an email or team's message... or some kind of reminder that, so we should be able to give signals to the right team members to do work."

However, our testers are also providing honest feedback about navigation flow: "It seems like it's a lot of forward and backwards... So I do this, I save this, and I gotta go hit the back button twice to get back to my original screen."

The testers will continue to put the system through its paces until August 15.

Process

The new ERP system organizes work using a structured project hierarchy that breaks complex projects into manageable pieces.

So, what does that look like? 

A project typically has several elements. The project hierarchy uses a "header project" to hold the big-picture information. This includes things like billing plans and overall design details.

Under the header project, you create sub-projects for specific deliverables. For customer projects, these might be modules, service, or freight. For R&D projects, they could be designs, testing, or development work. Internal projects might have sub-projects for facilities, equipment, or other investments.

Sub-projects let you manage each piece individually. Team members can track progress and costs for each deliverable separately. At the same time, the hierarchy gives a complete view of the entire project. This means there is both detailed control and big-picture oversight.

The system is flexible enough to work for many different types of projects across BW. 

Technology

Once the UAT testing event ends on August 15, there are critical next steps for the project. 

The project team conducts a comprehensive analysis of all testing results. This involves several key activities:

• Fix all critical bugs found during the final phase of implementation. Prioritize bugs based on severity and address minor ones in the next phase
• Leadership teams review UAT outcomes against predetermined success criteria
• Ensure that known bugs and defects have been addressed and retested; Provide the testing team with complete business requirements
• Complete regression testing to confirm that recent changes haven't negatively impacted the software
• Teams verify that user accounts, permissions, and system configurations match agreed requirements
• Address navigation problems, confusing terminology, or workflow inefficiencies discovered during testing
• Bugs with medium severity have a noticeable impact on the software's usability or functionality but do not cause critical issues. They may hinder certain features or workflows, but the software remains generally functional
• Focus on issues that would significantly impact user adoption or daily productivity

The goal is to ensure that while minor issues may remain, no critical barriers exist that would prevent successful business operations on day one of D365 F&O.

Team Members' Spotlight

Beverly Sandroni, Scott Johnson, and John Simon have been recognized for their efforts in helping team members succeed. 

Beverly Sandroni received the BW Papersystems Nominator award. “Beverly has been very helpful in ensuring we understand the continuous transitions and formats of the new Dayforce and overall accounting challenges we face as leaders and how we translate these to our team that is in our care. Always takes the time to sit down and ensure our understanding is solid thus enabling us to keep errors to a minimum,” said John Arvamidis, Shift Leader, BWP MWU US - Baltimore MFG Machine Shop.

Scott Johnson received a Commitment Champion award for being the first to complete critical data validation for Project Amplify and routes validation signoffs, while analyzing massive datasets that keep Project Amplify moving forward. As THE go-to coordinator for routes and a Master of Data migration entities, Scott continues to guide our team through the D365 F&O transition with expertise and dedication. 

John Simon also received the Commitment Champion award for Driving Results.  John has demonstrated exceptional leadership and technical expertise as a critical driver of Project Amplify's data migration initiative. His dedication to data migration and process excellence has been instrumental in advancing this transformative project. His meticulous approach to data migration has safeguarded critical business information during this complex transition. 

Congratulations to these team members!

Keep Connected! 

This newsletter, our Viva community, and the amplify SharePoint, are designed to provide regular communication to keep you informed. In addition, we encourage you to email amplify@barry-wehmiller.com with questions or feedback.