If you have maintained a Premium Annual Support Contract with us since your original purchase or last upgrade, you can receive the QIS6 upgrade at no cost, providing you are willing to install it. This should cause you no worry because it is a fairly straightforward exercise. Of course we can provide assistance if you require and it is certainly likely that investment in some additional training would be beneficial. We are offering options for both of these at reduced rates to help you get the most out of your upgrade as quickly as possible.

If you do not have a current ASC and/or you want to enquire about additional services, complete the relevant details where indicated in Step 1, and we will contact you about your options. You can check out the specific QIS 6 Upgrade training classes in the Training pages of this website.

In most cases the steps to an upgrade are;

1. Complete the Upgrade Request form that can be accessed from this page or simply send an email to upgrade@qis6.com and we will start the ball rolling to provide you with the upgrade pack and instructions.
2. You can run QIS6 for test purposes on the same SQL Server as your existing 5.x installation or any another SQL Server box you have as long as it is running Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or 2005. An alternative is to set up a spare PC as a temporary server with Windows XP/Vista Business and MS SQL Express that will provide a test platform for up to 5 users at no cost.
3. Create a copy of your QIS production database from your latest backup on the Server you prepared in step 2. From now on we'll call this the Q6 Test Server. Run the Database Upgrade option from the upgrade pack. This is an in-place upgrade that should take only minutes to run, even for a large database.
4. Run the Q6 setup program on the Q6 Test Server to install the necessary Q6 services. Unfortunately the QIS ProcessLink service and related QISoft Interface Console cannot be run on the same server as an existing Q5.x version although all your link information will be in the upgraded database so you can explore the new settings that are available.
5. Install the QIS Client software on a few selected PCs. This will run quite happily alongside a QIS 5.x client. After the initial install most client PCs can be set to automatic upgrade mode.
6. Start testing.
7. When you are ready for the big roll-out stop your existing QIS services, isolate the database from end users and then run the Q6 Database Upgrade (sorry, missed that all important step - after isolating the database take an extra backup, just in case). If you can have all end users ready to go with the Q6 Client by this time then the transition will be even faster.
8. If you use ProcessLink you should also install the new version at this time, replacing all existing instances, as well as the QISoft Interface Console, the AutoUpdate service and, if you haven't already done so, the Q6 Task Manager service. Prepare your links with any of the new options you intend to use.
9. Make the database available to end users.
10. Go live!