3002951 - Unable to open directory and repository

recently upgraded your PI/PO system and are unable to open the ESR and IB due to an error: 
Unable to launch the application

Upon tracing the error, you can see the below:

NLParseException[ Could not parse launch file. Error at line 6.]
 at com.sun.javaws.jnl.XMLFormat.parse(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.javaws.jnl.LaunchDescFactory.buildDescriptor(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.javaws.jnl.LaunchDescFactory.buildDescriptor(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.javaws.jnl.LaunchDescFactory._buildDescriptor(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.javaws.jnl.LaunchDescFactory.buildDescriptor(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.javaws.jnl.LaunchDescFactory.buildDescriptor(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.javaws.Main.launchApp(Unknown Source)
...
Caused by: org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; lineNumber: 6; columnNumber: 2; The markup in the document following the root element must be well-formed.
 at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.util.ErrorHandlerWrapper.createSAXParseException(Unknown Source)
 at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.util.ErrorHandlerWrapper.fatalError(Unknown Source)
...