Benefits of Upgrading Business Software

Technology plays a major role in the success or failure of business, but our increasing reliance on software solutions can make tech stack upgrades a balancing act. However, in today’s landscape of vulnerability threats and changing regulations around security and privacy, it is strongly recommended that Hyperscience users remain current on their software version.

There are many reasons to upgrade to a new Hyperscience release. Each release delivers new improvements to the features our users love, as well as security and productivity enhancements that make Hyperscience even easier to use and scale.

Here are some reasons to consider updates as soon as possible.

1. Access New Features and Capabilities

The user is the center of the developer’s universe. We want to improve your experience with every release.

When you upgrade, you gain access to features, functionality, and connectors to other systems that weren’t available in previous versions. New versions also frequently contain enhancements around functionality you might be heavily reliant on. These enhancements can help you better use the application, providing a greater return on your tech spend, and making it easier to automate document-centric processes end-to-end with greater efficiency.

2. Minimize Technical Spend & Improve ROI

Postponing an upgrade might cost you more than a well-planned upgrade program. Your software investment includes more than just the technical capabilities available when you originally purchased the product—but all the research and development that follows.

Older software versions can become a burden for your IT department as employees work to maintain an aging solution. An older version can require more attention, time to support, and more workarounds.

Upgrading your software is a best practice that will help reduce your internal support burden and maintain your business continuity.

3. Stay Secure

With each new release, Hyperscience monitors and addresses security vulnerabilities in supported versions. Using a dated version of the application can pose a security risk for your business.

Upgrading to the latest software version protects your systems and applications from viruses, spyware and/or other malicious software that can harm or steal data, or force lengthy delays in problem resolution.

Get peace of mind knowing that any critical patches or updates for currently supported versions are just a download away.

4. Receive Continuing Support

If your company continues using an outdated software version beyond its end of service date, your enterprise and business continuity could be at risk. We may not be able to provide you with hotfixes, nor will you be able to enjoy the regular patches and improvements we roll out to supported versions.

This can be avoided by updating to the latest version, and then by staying up to date with new releases. Version jumps between each release are much smaller (and safer) than going from a version a few years old to a brand new version. The longer it’s been since your last upgrade, the more time there has been for significant changes to the way the application works.

Regular updates ensure that businesses can continue operating at full capacity without needing costly resources and lengthy periods of time to test and deploy a significant version change.

Who Needs to Upgrade?

Hyperscience offers multiple flexible deployment options, including on-premises, private cloud, and our fully managed SaaS offering, the Hyperscience Cloud Platform. For our SaaS platform, we help our clients stay on the latest version of the software, using automated upgrade readiness checks to ensure a smooth transition to new versions.

For those using our on-premise or private cloud offering, upgrades aren’t initiated automatically, but must be performed manually instead. For these users, keeping the following in mind will help secure a seamless transition to new versions.

Suggestions for a Stress-free Upgrade

To make the upgrade process go as smoothly as possible, we advise users to follow these recommendations.

1. If you have a test environment, deploy the upgrade there first. This will allow users to familiarize themselves with the changes and improvements that have been made to the product.
2. Don’t forget about our upgrade documentation. Most issues clients experience during upgrades, including drops in automation rates or errors in processing, result from missing an important step in the process.
3. Verify that your team has not made any changes to your infrastructure (such as reducing the memory on a server or installing another piece of software on it), as this could impact how Hyperscience operates.
4. Make sure you have enough training data for any machine learning models that need to be retrained. Retraining ML models is always recommended to ensure your models are aware of the latest types of documents you are processing. Retraining can also be necessary to leverage the model improvements coming in the new release.

Taking the Next Step

We work to make the upgrade process as simple as possible. To get started with your upgrade:

1. Review our comprehensive upgrade documentation in the Hyperscience user guide
2. Contact our support team if you have any questions
3. If needed, schedule time with your Hyperscience representative to go over your upgrade plan

Maintaining updated software is critical for meeting the needs of your business and gaining access to the latest features. Our commitment is to help you plan successful upgrades with lower risk, minimal cost, and less time.