Your Pricefx Upgrades Frequently Asked Questions, Answered

At some point, you decided to invest in our pricing software solutions, looking forward to improved pricing processes and margins. However, as your business and the market rapidly evolve, the version you purchased a few years may prove less effective in tackling your current issues or shield against modern security threats. For this reason, Pricefx upgrades are vital, as they ensure your solution stays competitive and fortified with the latest security enhancements.

At Pricefx, we’ve heard a few of the same questions come up from our customers on what they should know about upgrading their Pricefx solution.

To help, this article will walk through your questions one by one, and make sure that your company is fully prepared for what to expect for future upgrades.

Your Top Pricefx Upgrades Questions Answered

1.     Why Upgrade My Pricefx Solution? Do I Have To?

Like any software solution, Pricefx is continuously evolving in response to customer, industry, and security needs, and coming out with improved versions throughout the year.

Upgrading is how your company takes advantage of our new features and security improvements, and more importantly, ensures that its Pricefx solution stays on top of the latest market and industry demands.

Pricefx upgrades accomplish a few things, namely:

• Adding New Capabilities or Features: This is where your company benefits from the new products we’ve developed over the year, for example, Product Recommendation and Negotiation Guidance (2.0) in the latest Clover Club 12.0
• Improving Existing Core Capabilities: Apart from developing entirely new products, we make regular improvements to core capabilities – such as offering a Visual Configuration tool a few releases ago – to enhance their potential.
• Resolving Issues: Other minor upgrades involve small fixes to specific capabilities, often in response to feedback from customers. For instance, this might include additional security or improved filtering, search, and tracking functionalities.

And since June 2023, upgrading your Pricefx solution isn’t just beneficial, it’s essential.

Our N-1 policy requires every company to use the latest Pricefx version (N) or one version before it (N-1) so that they take full advantage of the improvements we’ve made to our platform. This policy concerns those who host the solution in a private environment and don’t upgrade by default.

So, yes – you should (and must) keep your Pricefx solution up to date, but it’s in your company’s best interest to do so.

2.     What Kind of Upgrades Are Available?

In general, two types of Pricefx upgrades to know about are major releases and minor releases, or patches.

While major releases happen twice a year – in January and June – and contain new features and functionalities, minor releases happen monthly and involve smaller improvements to existing functionalities.

You can identify a major release by its whole number (e.g., Clover Club 12.0) and minor releases by varying decimal points (e.g., Clover Club 12.1, 12.2, and so on) throughout the year.

Despite what the name suggests, minor releases are vital. Beyond extending the value of selected areas of the solution, minor releases also provide opportunities to bolster the security of your software solution – a factor equally deserving of attention, especially as your company grows.

3.     Can I Just Request One Major Release a Year?

Technically? Sure, you can. Keep in mind, though, that to stay compliant with our N-1 policy, your solution should be no more than one version behind our current version.

That said, we recommend upgrading your Pricefx solution at least twice a year to benefit from our latest security improvements and platform advancements and to stay competitive in your industry.

4.     What Is the Pricefx Upgrade Process Like?

If your company hosts its Pricefx solution in a shared environment, congratulations! You don’t need to do anything to get the most updated Pricefx version – we automatically update the platform by default.

On the other hand, with a private instance, you’ll have to request upgrades on an on-demand basis. When that time comes, you can request an upgrade in one of two ways: either by way of Platform Manager or support ticket.

As a self-service platform, Platform Manager is the easier option and what we recommend going with. If issues come up when requesting an upgrade there, you can head to the Support Desk and raise a ticket for a Cluster Upgrade (remember: the upgrade will affect your Pricefx cluster, which means that all its partitions will update at once).

When making your request, we recommend providing a block of time during which your company can go “offline” with the solution. Because upgrades involve changes to the core solution, they can temporarily interrupt users’ ability to use the platform, and sometimes require restarts when switching over to the latest version.

Once the time window for the upgrade is confirmed, all that’s left is to wait. And it won’t be long until you’ll get to enjoy the benefits; major releases take a few hours, and minor upgrades as little as a few minutes to complete.

5.     When Do Upgrades Happen? Are Weekends Possible?

Pricefx performs upgrades during the working week. As we’ve mentioned, upgrades are easiest booked through Platform Manager, partly because the availability of our team and their respective time zones are visible.

For an upgrade window outside of standard working hours, you’ll need to make the request through the Support Desk. Approval for non-standard upgrade windows is subject to the availability of resources and granted based on business impact. Keep in mind this is an exceptional situation .

6.     Where Can I Receive the Latest Information on New Releases?

To stay up to date on all past and upcoming releases, including an up-to-date schedule for major releases, keep an eye on this page. Here you’ll find the calendar and release notes outlining what’s changed since our last release.

For information on the latest release, Clover Club 12.0, you’ll find everything there is know here on key improvements to expect.

How Can We Support You?

We hope this article has helped address some of your most immediate questions and concerns about the upgrade process at Pricefx. Still have questions about Pricefx upgrades – how they work, or how to prepare? Consider reaching out directly to a Customer Success Manager (CSM).

In this article, we briefly touched on the role of Pricefx support teams in facilitating upgrades. Want to learn more about how they fit into our broader post-implementation support network?

Head over to our comprehensive guide below to find out how Pricefx can support you: