How Klik IT started 25 years ago...and what's next?

In conversation with Terry Clarke, CEO

How did the founding team meet?

Prior to the company being formed, the founders of Klik IT worked together as part of a large team of JD Edwards Consultants whose focus was a pan European implementation project of JDE World.  After some time working on this project, Klik IT was set up to manage the JDE development team on behalf of the client.  This first customer has worked with Klik IT continuously from this time and still remains a loyal and valued Klik IT customer today in 2023!

What were some of the first projects?

Y2K was a significant early project.  In the lead up to the millennium, crucial development work was required as the version of JD Edwards needed to be upgraded to A73CU10 to make it Y2K compliant.

Around that same time, the roll out of the Euro currency started.  As the new currency was adopted across a number of EU member states, the currency changes lead to a significant amount of JDE development work.

“They were fun and exciting times with major projects including Y2K and Euro Conversions. It’s incredible to think how far we and the company have come in the past quarter of a century!”

Working beyond the UK and Europe

The founders of the business broadened their projects beyond Europe to become Global suppliers of JD Edwards development services.  They managed Latin American environments, global rollouts annually and change control of JDE.

Gradually, the more JDE development work the team undertook, it became apparent that data build up and how to manage ‘old’ data was a concern for large JD Edwards users. The JDE World architecture was such that as data accumulated it began to affect system performance.  Slowing systems were becoming an issue.

Reacting to customers experiencing issues with system performance

Unsurprisingly, a number of JD Edwards customers were starting to see significant data build up in their JDE systems. After all, the nature of an ERP system is to collect data as an organization goes about its day to day business.  But, Klik IT had noticed the negative side effects on the system.  In response to this, Klik IT set to work designing and building a safe and effective way to address this.  Knowing JD Edwards as well as they all did, they decided to develop a solution that would work from within the JD Edwards system. The idea was to keep it as easy as possible for the JDE users.

Purge-it! for JD Edwards World was developed and launched as an integrated JDE solution.  The JDE World add on product was brought to market in 2003 as a way to manage any volume of data by moving it to an archive database.  Purge-it! for JDE World is celebrating an anniversary too! 20 years since it was launched.

It’s humbling and a tribute to the technology and the people behind the company that so many customers remain Purge-it! users to this day.  In fact, the company’s very first Purge-it! customer is still using the solution 20 years on! This large organization continues to be an active customer benefiting from the evolution that Purge-it! has undergone during this time in line with new releases of JD Edwards.

Following the JD Edwards acquisition

When PeopleSoft acquired JD Edwards in 2003 and JD Edwards EnterpriseOne was subsequently announced, there was a question mark over whether there would still be the same clear need to manage data build up in JDE.  These doubts were soon quashed.

Data continued to accumulate in JD Edwards systems with a knock-on effect of the ERP system becoming less responsive and overall slowing down.

As the JD Edwards product evolved, so did the Klik IT archiving solution.  In 2005 Klik IT announced that Purge-it! for EnterpriseOne was ready and available.  Even though Klik IT’s first Purge-it! for E1 customer is no longer a JD Edwards user, the 2^nd and 3^rd Purge-it! for E1 customers have worked with the company non-stop and continue to be active customers.

Following the acquisition of JD Edwards by PeopleSoft, there were noticeable improvements in the EnterpriseOne client server.  Subsequent releases of JDE E1 became more robust and simpler for users with the development of the web front end.  What’s more, PeopleSoft formalized the partner programme, setting out a clearer structure around use of logos, branding, educational and promotional materials etc.

All change as Oracle steps in

In 2005, JD Edwards future was thrown into uncertainty as Oracle acquired PeopleSoft. However, the close-knit JD Edwards community with its active User Group network was a huge positive force in ensuring ongoing support for the various JD Edwards versions.  Since Oracle’s acquisition of PeopleSoft, the JDE infrastructure has seen huge advances.  Integrations and interoperability have taken massive steps and leaps forwards.

From Klik IT’s perspective, the marketplace has changed dramatically since the JDE World days of the late 90’s.  In line with this, Klik IT has transitioned from a pure consultancy to a vendor of complimentary data management products.  Notwithstanding this focus on archiving and data management, Klik IT has never forgotten its routes.  To this day the company continues to provide consultancy services in World and EnterpriseOne with active customers – some from those very early days.

People

Being part of the Oracle JD Edwards community and the partner community is a huge privilege. This keeps Klik IT closely connected with the JDE technology and crucially with the users. We value this window into how JD Edwards is used every day around the world by businesses of all sizes in different verticals, each experiencing unique data challenges.

Coming back to Klik IT the company and looking more closely at the internal team, extremely low staff turnover is a noticeable attribute over these past 25 years.  Employees have demonstrated great loyalty and dedication to the company.

The majority of the Klik IT team have been with the company for more than a decade, some approaching two decades and some even longer! There are numerous reasons why this is special but one particular benefit we like to shout about is the vast amount of shared JD Edwards knowledge and experience we have at our disposal across the organization.  We stopped counting as we approached 200 years!

The Oracle JD Edwards product team has without doubt evolved the JD Edwards architecture enormously over the last 18 years. The individuals in the Oracle JD Edwards product teams across the world have been a constant source of leadership, direction and support throughout this incredible JD Edwards journey.

Beyond 2023

Klik IT isn’t standing still.  The company is celebrating this tremendous 25 years in business throughout 2023 whilst continuing to develop its products and services so that users can maximize the value of their JDE investment.

The reasons for archiving JD Edwards data have remained the same in some respects but there are additional factors that have risen to the fore in the JD Edwards marketplace.  Costs of storage and concerns around deteriorating system performance remain relevant.  However, data security and data compliance have become key drivers when considering data retention and the lifecycle of data.  We’ve seen that financial repercussions and damage to a company’s brand are both serious risks of retaining data that no longer holds value to a business.

We’re excited to be continuing our journey of data management for JD Edwards.  Not only are we continuing to manage data volumes with Purge-it! but we’re also excited to be addressing data compliance with our new data compliance module.  The data compliance module is part of the existing Manage-it! solution.

BLUEPRINT 4D 2023

The Klik IT team will be at BP4D in Dallas, TX, this coming May, celebrating 25 years in business. As always, we’ll be sharing our latest archiving and data management solutions and knowledge with the JD Edwards community.

Join us on our booth and in our educational sessions.

Come by and help us celebrate!

Thank you!

None of what we’ve described would have been possible without the JD Edwards technology, the JD Edwards community of users and partners and of course the Klik IT people.

Thank you to all for this amazing experience!