If your XPLAN templates are more than 3-5 years old, they could be way behind the latest offerings, features and enhancements offered by IRESS. This is because when IRESS release new features, it often requires new code to be deployed into your advice templates in order to support it.
Your existing templates may need to be modified to deliver these new features. Unfortunately, many templates are not extendable and need to be recoded, often from scratch.
So you can understand the frustration among licensees when they find out that they still can't model joint entities correctly or produce a new and improved like for like table even though IRESS has been supporting it for a long, long time.
Taking on the management of your own advice templates carries with it the responsibility to ensure it is maintained and enhanced to keep pace with changes and improvements in coding best practice as well as new IRESS functionality releases. Blaming the vendor when you can't perform a new function could be more your fault then theirs.
IRESS often release new merge code to support new ways of reporting and this is well published on their community site. Keeping pace with important changes is really important, even if you aren't interested in adopting it.
How does Planfocus approach this issue?
Our framework has been designed with forward compatibility in mind. Licensees using our framework receive annual upgrades that take into account new features on offer plus best practice enhancements to our core templates. Our unique design ensures we are able to upgrade modules of the system without having disrupting existing elements.
If you would like to learn more about the Blueprint advice framework, give us a call on 1300 361 973 or visit our website.
