Implementing Infor CloudSuite can be a long upfront process. But the payout at the end is worth the time commitment. Putting in the time to understand how Infor CloudSuite works, the features that will improve efficiencies, and how to customize the solution for your organization will help you get the most out of your investment.
We previously covered some of the factors to consider before implementation in our article, Implementing Infor CloudSuite: Best Practices Before Getting Started. This article is going to focus on the best practices to consider during an Infor CloudSuite implementation to help your project run more smoothly. Let’s get started.
Dedicate Your Resources Full Time
Our Infor consultants have had their hands in many different implementations, but what we’ve found to be the key to success for all of them is having a dedicated team. Over the course of a project, many clients start to pull those employees back into their legacy roles, and the implementation job becomes part-time. This is a sure-fire way to cause delays, or even worse, bust your budget.
During an implementation, each team member needs to stay focused on their role. This may mean you’ll need additional resources to help with project management or day-to-day administration, but it’s critical to ensure your staff can focus on getting the software implemented on time.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you should finish your Infor CloudSuite implementation with the same team you started with. Changing horses mid-stream can result in reduced engagement and things falling through the cracks. Keep your team together, however, and you can avoid all that
Own the Documentation
It’s critical that your organization owns the documentation process. During the implementation, you’ll have to create a flowchart and inventory of every business process, and if your organization doesn’t drive this task, you’ll get to the end of the project and realize you don’t understand your own processes. (And believe us, that’s not a fun place to be.)
Owning documentation from the flowchart to the scripting will help you better understand your new business processes in the system, ensuring you hit the ground running with Infor CloudSuite.
Testing, Testing, Testing (and More Testing)
Whether you’re deploying Infor CloudSuite in the cloud or on premises, it’s imperative that you do some level of stress testing. While it’s true that you will run into a lot of different things in the CloudSuite environment that can be difficult to stress test, our consultants have found some ways around that.
For example, let’s imagine that you’re trying to push 49,000 purchase orders or match 5,000 invoices. In whatever system you had before, you may have done that with low programs, such as load runner, because you were really processing your servers. But with Infor CloudSuite, you no longer have servers. Instead, you purchase a number of processors, and you need to understand where those bottlenecks might happen.
The two biggest culprits of system resource issues tend to be accounts payable and human resources payroll, as they process the most transactions. During your implementation, it’s vital that you stress-test based on the number of processing threads allocated to the production environment.
Additionally, if you plan to use a requisition approval or invoice approval, test the entire build-out. Trust us on this one—every time an organization skips this test, they inevitably run into issues post-go-live.
Bring On an Infor CloudSuite Expert
Finally, consider bringing on an experienced third-party Infor consultant for your implementation. Our senior-level Infor consultants will start by learning as much about your organization and its operations as possible. This allows them to suggest features and configurations so that your system meets your exact needs. And if problems come up, there’s a good chance we already know how to fix them—fast.
In the next article of our series, we’ll cover everything you need to know to be successful once you go live with Infor CloudSuite. In the meantime, if our Infor experts can help you with a project, or you’d just like to learn more about what we offer, contact us today.
