Yes. Please watch ETQ CTO Morgan Palmer’s Product Roadmap session during Quality Vision 2021, ETQ’s virtual customer conference. That session includes a demo of Reliance NXG Spring 2021, and a replay of the session will be available for 3 months following the event, via the event platform. In addition, we will be posting customer-focused demos to this NXG Migration landing page.

ETQ will provide notification and documentation of upcoming Reliance NXG Summer 2021 and Fall 2021 releases when those are launched. The new NXG continuous release cycle will include three major feature releases a year, at a pace of one release every four months.

When can Reliance 2020 customers migrate to NXG?

Yes. The timing depends on your configurations and environment. Our experts will review with you our understanding of your current usage, your version of Reliance, and a number of other variables. This will help us work together to determine your target migration timeframe. We expect that Reliance 2020 customers with simple configurations will migrate at the end of this year or early in 2022. For medium complexity customers, we expect migrations will occur throughout 2022, and for the most complex customers, we expect migrations in 2023. We will have a pre-check tool to help us identify any items that require attention. We will work with you to address those items before the migration.

How were the timeframe schedules selected?

The migration schedule was developed based upon the level of effort for our customers to migrate. For those who have basic configurations, the migration will be straightforward, thus allowing those customers to migrate first. Customers with higher levels of complexity and use of specific features will be better suited to later timeframes either due to the expected effort to adjust configurations or as a result of required feature availability.

We are On Premise. Why can’t we move to Reliance NXG?

Reliance NXG takes advantage of a number of cloud-native SaaS capabilities that cannot be installed on-premise. If your company will not be moving to SaaS, ETQ will offer an upgrade path for our on-premise customers via Reliance 2020. Once on Reliance 2020, there will be on-going Reliance feature releases.

Of course, you can migrate to and take full advantage of the advanced capabilities of Reliance NXG, but you will need to transition to a SaaS deployment as part of the migration. ETQ has helped dozens of customers switch from on-premise to SaaS, and we can support you with this.

What prep work do I need to do?

There is nothing for you to do right now. We will be providing more information as we get closer to your migration date. For customers who perform validation, you will have 45 days between the time your Validation system is updated until the time Production is updated.

What is my responsibility during my migration timeframe?

There will two phases to the migration:

1) We will take a snapshot of your current environment (both data and configurations) which will be copied to both Reliance NXG Development and QA/Validation environments. At this time, you will have the ability to test the release, and Life Sciences customers will have the ability to validate the software. During this phase, you will continue to use your current Production environment. However, you won’t be able to make changes to PROD.

2) At the end of the first phase, we will take another snapshot of your data, bring that to your new Reliance NXG environment, and then promote your configurations from the QA/VAL environment. Customers need to understand that during the first phase, there can be no changes to their current PROD environment, as those changes will be lost. With the move to our continuous release process, we will give customers 45 days access to the new version on their DEV and QA/VAL environments before the software is made available on PROD.

Will there be any changes in the UI?

Reliance NXG was developed using Reliance 2020, carrying forward the existing user interface and platform functionality. Form layouts are not affected by the upgrade from Reliance 2020 to NXG. There are some usability enhancements in Reliance NXG Spring 2021, such as better contrast in forms for accessibility.

Can Reliance NXG be accessed on a mobile device?

Yes, NXG has a responsive Web interface for Mobile devices and the ETQ Mobile App will be available for NXG in time for the migration.

Are promotions the same in NXG?

Promotions will work the same in Reliance NXG. For some customers, this will be the first time they have multiple environments. With a DEV and QA environment, it is important that all changes be made in DEV, then promoted to QA, where they can be tested. Once satisfied, customers can promote to PROD. Customers will no longer have the ability to modify the PROD environment directly.

Are there any costs associated with the upgrade to NXG?

We recognize you need to know as early as possible if there will be costs associated with your migration. Due to the variable nature of customer configurations, we will need to evaluate your configurations and environment before we can provide guidance on any potential changes that may be needed as a result of new or modified functionality in NXG.

In order to accomplish this we are asking for feedback from customers in two phases. In mid-April 2021 we will send you an email summarizing our understanding of your environment. Your reply to that via a linked online form will help us determine our initial recommendation for your migration timeframe. Following that we will run a pre-check tool to help us identify any items that require attention. We will work with you to address those items before you migrate.

For those Reliance 2020 SaaS customers with simple configurations we anticipate there will be minimal costs or potentially no costs associated with the migration.

Customers who don’t want to migrate to NXG should upgrade to the latest version of Reliance (2020). Hosted/On-premise customers will be able to continue with their current deployment model, however it’s important to note that ongoing product enhancement work will focus on Reliance NXG and Reliance (2020). Please see our current Support Policy in the ETQ Campus Knowledgebase for ETQ’s support policies for Reliance 2017, 2019 and 2020.

Will there be downtime?

All customers will have 3 environments in the new system. You will have (PROD) Production, QA/VAL (Validation) and DEV (Development). The DEV and QA environments will be set up for you to access several weeks before PROD is migrated. When we migrate your PROD environment, you can expect some downtime, and full details of the exact steps in the migration will be discussed with you as we get closer to your migration date. The downtime period will be as brief as possible and you will have advance notice, for your internal planning purposes.

What testing has ETQ conducted on the migration process?

We will have a set of tools to aid in the migration. The first is a pre-check tool that will confirm your compatibility with NXG. The second is the actual migration tooling that will move your current Reliance 2020 environment to Reliance NXG. We will perform extensive testing of these tools, including migrating a test batch of customers to ensure a smooth transition.

Do I need to validate again?

Yes, you should expect to validate your new Reliance environment. You will have access to a QA/VAL environment for this purpose.

What Validation services will be available?

You will have access to the same validation services as are available today for any patch.

Upgrading from Verse to Reliance, there was a significant UI change. Going from Reliance 2019/2020 to Reliance NXG will be a much simpler migration. Your configurations are protected and will migrate as-is unless a change is identified in the pre-check process. Anything that is not compatible will be identified before the start of the migration so it can addressed ahead of time.

What training is available?

Training for new NXG functionality will be made available through ETQ Academy, alongside other Reliance training.

Now that I have access to new NXG features, how do I begin using them?

Whenever we release a new version of Reliance, we include a definition of the new capabilities. We also add instruction to ETQ Academy when appropriate. You can start using these new features and functions as soon as they are installed.

There is no change in our customer facing teams. We are here to help you as always. You can always contact Support, your CSM, or Sales/Account Executive just as you do today. For technical support, please submit a case in Campus.