Real-world upgrade stories: 3 different approaches to learn from

[Michael_S]

The following examples highlight the importance of selecting a methodology that fits your unique operational needs, ranging from Old Mutual’s risk-averse "clean slate" migration using SS&C Blue Prism Professional Services, to an Australian Government agency’s robust parallel build supported by our partner ecosystem, and Hapag-Lloyd’s agile "DIY" execution by a lean internal team.

Whether you choose to leverage external experts or rely on in-house capability, these case studies prove that the right plan is vital to a smooth transition.

• Story 1: Old Mutual's parallel upgrade approach
• Story 2: The Australian Government's upgrade during "busy season"
• Story 3: Hapag-Lloyd's DIY Upgrade - move fast and break things!

 

Story 1: Old Mutual's parallel upgrade approach

Old Mutual was running Blue Prism version 6.5, which had become unoptimized over time. They faced frequent performance issues, instability, and rising infrastructure costs. The organization needed to upgrade to v7.1.2 to stabilize their environment, reduce costs, and access modern features like the browser automation agent, improved API support, and new security patches.

 

How They Executed

Rather than an in-place upgrade, the team opted for a "Clean Slate" migration to completely new infrastructure.

• Methodology: They engaged SS&C Blue Prism Professional Services (Product Upgrade Assurance) and followed strict "Runbook" templates.

• Phased Approach: The three-month project was split into Pre-migration (Planning), Migration (Execution), and Post-migration (Monitoring).

• Parallel Build: They built the v7.1.2 environment alongside the old v6.5 environment. This allowed them to migrate their 250 digital workers and 85 automations in small, controlled batches with zero downtime.

 

Lessons Learned

• Planning is Everything: The pre-migration phase was the longest and most critical part of the project. Detailed knowledge sharing upfront prevented remediation work later.

• Follow the Checklists: Rigid adherence to SS&C Blue Prism’s migration checklists line-by-line was non-negotiable; it caught oversight errors that would have caused failure.

• Contingency is Key: By using a parallel environment, they always had a "roll-back" option to the old system if the new one encountered issues (though it rarely did).

 

Key Benefits

• Stability: Process errors and incidents dropped significantly; developers now work without system interruptions.

• 50% Infrastructure Reduction: Optimization of the new environment is expected to cut their infrastructure footprint by half in the coming year.

• Zero Downtime: The "Clean Slate" method ensured no business processes were impacted during the transition.

• Resiliency: New load balancing features allowed them to spread infrastructure across two availability zones for better disaster recovery.

 

How to Emulate Success

• Don't "In-Place" Upgrade if Unsure: Consider a parallel build to remove the risk of downtime.

• Use Product Upgrade Assurance (PUA): Leverage the official templates and Professional Services rather than creating a plan from scratch.

• Implement "Gates": Create strict sign-off requirements for stakeholders at the end of every phase before allowing the project to proceed.

Read the full story here:
Detailed and Deliberate Planning Was Key to Our Successful Migration to v7.1.2

Story 2: The Australian Government's upgrade during "busy season"

A large Australian government organization serving 26 million citizens was running on Blue Prism version 6.8. They needed to upgrade to v7.1.2 primarily for enhanced security and support, but also to unlock new capabilities like Blue Prism Interact (for human-in-the-loop automation) and Hub. A unique challenge was the timing: the upgrade had to occur during their busiest time of year due to seasonal processing requirements.

 

How They Executed

They utilized a Parallel Migration strategy, running the new infrastructure alongside the old.[1]

• Partnership: The team collaborated with Deloitte for implementation and SS&C Blue Prism Professional Services for validation.

• Infrastructure: They spun up 30 new virtual machines (v7.1.2) alongside their existing 101 machines (v6.8).

• Phased Rollout: Automations were moved in small batches—starting with one, then increasing to 2-3 per day.

• Speed: Initially planned for 5-6 weeks, the migration was completed in just 3 weeks because the existing code worked without changes on the new version.

 

Lessons Learned

• Busy Seasons are Useful: conducting the upgrade during their peak period allowed them to test seasonal processes that wouldn't have been active during quieter times.

• Configuration Requires Expertise: While the IT team followed the installation guide, they faced configuration challenges that required direct intervention from Deloitte and Blue Prism experts to resolve.

• Code Stability: No code changes were needed for the target applications; automations functioned perfectly on v7.1.2 without refactoring.

 

Key Benefits

• Quality of Life: The team reported faster run times, better Control Room handling, and resources becoming available immediately after logging out.

• Optimized Capacity: The migration offered a chance to "re-stack" automations, improving utilization rates.

• Instant Rollback: The parallel infrastructure meant they could revert an automation to the old version in "three seconds" if an issue arose.

• Expanded Scope: The upgrade enabled their first Interact automation to move into Hypercare.

 

How to Emulate Success

• Use Parallel Migration: This acts as a safety net, making it a "no-brainer" for executives to approve since there is zero risk of lost capacity.

• Don't Fear Peak Times: If you have seasonal processes, upgrading during a busy period is the only way to truly test them live.

• Talk to Peers: Speaking to another customer who had successfully upgraded was the final step in securing organizational support.

Read the full story here:
Executing a Successful Migration to v7.1.2 During Our Busiest Time of Year

Story 3: Hapag-Lloyd's DIY Upgrade - move fast and break things!

Hapag-Lloyd, a global shipping company, was operating on Blue Prism version 6.10. The primary drivers for their upgrade to v7.2 were technical necessity and future-proofing: they needed to address changes in browser architectures (Chromium Manifest V3 compliance), access advanced security features, and leverage new functionalities like Data Gateways.

 

How They Executed

Unlike organizations that rely heavily on external partners, Hapag-Lloyd executed this with a lean internal team.

• Team Size: The entire project was planned and executed by just four people (the Platform team and CoE).

• Timeline: The end-to-end process took only three weeks (Week 1: Playground analysis/Regression testing; Week 2: Downtime planning; Week 3: Deployment).

• Strategy: Due to ongoing development work, they opted for a "Big Bang" approach—upgrading development, test, and production environments in one go—rather than the traditional sequential rollout.

• The "Playground": They utilized a dedicated "Playground" environment (separate from Dev/Test/Prod) to test the upgrade path and train new developers without risking the core pipeline.

 

Lessons Learned

• Latency Nuances: While the playground was effective for functionality testing, it did not perfectly mimic production load, leading to some missed latency issues regarding scheduling elements.

• Playgrounds are Critical: Having a sandbox environment allowed them to spot deviations from documentation and validate digital worker behavior before touching the main environments.

• Documentation Gaps: Testing revealed where their internal documentation did not match their actual setup, reinforcing the need to keep documentation live and accurate.

 

Key Benefits

• Speed: The project was completed in under a month.

• Minimal Disruption: Business productivity remained high, with downtime limited to just a few hours for the actual service upgrade.

• Compliance: The organization successfully future-proofed against upcoming browser extension changes (Manifest V3).

 

How to Emulate Success

• Build a Playground: Establish a pre-production environment specifically for "breaking things," testing upgrades, and onboarding new developers.

• Mock Up Production: When testing, clone your production environment as closely as possible to catch issues that documentation might miss.

• Script Your Tests: Test your upgrade scripts in the playground repeatedly ("test, test, test") so the actual upgrade day is just a routine execution of a practiced plan.

Read the full story here:
What We Learned From Upgrading to Blue Prism v7.2