For many healthcare organizations, outdated ERP systems like Infor S3 create inefficiencies, limit scalability, and struggle to keep up with evolving industry demands. Transitioning to Infor CloudSuite offers a modern, cloud-based solution that enhances operational efficiency, improves data accessibility, and streamlines critical business functions.
However, a migration of this scale requires careful planning and expert guidance to prevent disruptions to patient care and daily operations. Leveraging an experienced consultancy that can tailor their approach to fit your unique requirements and provide senior-level consulting resources, provides that provide comprehensive support at every stage of the migration.
By leveraging the knowledge and experience of our internal Infor SMEs and our trusted consultant advisor, April Restivo, we created a comprehensive guide to an Infor S3 to Infor CloudSuite migration. This content includes key considerations and best practices for building a project team and ensuring a successful cloud migration, highlighting how our experts help your organization maximize the benefits of your new cloud ERP platform.
Gearing Up for a Cloud Migration
Challenges Associated with Legacy Systems
Outdated Infor S3 architecture in the healthcare landscape often leads to reduced system performance, limited interoperability with EHRs and other critical applications, and higher maintenance costs, making it difficult to keep up with evolving patient care and operational demands.
Manual processes and siloed data across finance, HR, and supply chain functions create inefficiencies that can result in issues with payroll accuracy and the mismanagement of vendors, pricing, and contracts that can contribute to overspending and inaccurate inventory counts.
Additionally, with Infor S3 nearing its end-of-life support, healthcare organizations face growing concerns about maintaining data security vulnerabilities, facilitating workforce innovation, and finding IT professionals with the expertise to maintain a legacy system without built-in support.
Goals of a Cloud Migration
To overcome critical limitations within the legacy Infor S3 environment, many healthcare organizations are migrating to cloud-based ERP solutions like Infor CloudSuite, Workday, or Oracle Cloud to gain scalability, automation, and real-time operational insights.
Migrating to the cloud helps reduce IT overhead through system updates and maintenance initiatives, freeing up internal resources to focus on patient-centric initiatives rather than system upkeep. Additionally, advanced security features are continuously updated to align with HIPAA and other healthcare regulations, minimizing risk and ensuring data protection.
With enhanced mobility, automation, and cost efficiency, cloud-based ERP solutions empower healthcare organizations to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and future-proof their technology investments in an increasingly digitized healthcare landscape.
Considerations for Outlining a Migration Strategy
Change management
“Clients miss the ball on change management more often than not. They think they have all the right tools to handle the project effectively, but this often fails without a focus on communication and change management across the organization. They need a PM who’s been there, done that to ensure they have adequate resources and support to facilitate a successful project.” – April Restivo, Senior-Level Infor Project Manager
Effective change management is arguably the most important aspect of any implementation, migration, or enhancement project; however, it is often also the most overlooked. Clients often don’t establish strong change management practices during migration, making it difficult to prepare internal staff for changes to the system and their roles.
To combat this issue, clients should analyze each person’s role and key responsibilities before the migration project begins to understand how the project and new system will change their role and day-to-day operations. Taking advantage of the training courses Infor offers to help with the transition supports internal teams in understanding the real impact of the transition and preparing for new responsibilities in their new Infor CloudSuite system.
Data cleansing
“Many of the healthcare organizations we work with have been running Lawson for 10+ years, leading to outdated data, unused reports, and duplicate records. A lack of standardization like this can create pricing discrepancies and overpayments.
For example, one person might enter an address as ‘Suite 400’ and another as ‘Ste. 400,’ or spell out ‘Street’ instead of ‘St.’ So, cleaning up this data before migration is key to ensuring accuracy and efficiency in your new CloudSuite system.” – Steve Logue, Senior-Level Infor SME
Clients still operating in the Infor S3 landscape have typically been running legacy applications for more than 10 years, often leading to high volumes of unused data, reports, and interfaces that are simply taking up valuable space. Additionally, because of a lack of standardization and a greater probability of human error within the legacy system, organizations also face critical issues with duplicated data and crowded databases.
So, while a lot of clients that have been live on a legacy Infor S3 system think of their CloudSuite migration as a lift-and-shift, it’s really more of a new system implementation. Instead of thinking of their new CloudSuite system as their existing Lawson system, but better, clients should treat it as a new system altogether as it was built cloud-native from the ground up and has a different build, look, and feel.
Without monthly maintenance requirements and regular data mapping and validation, on-premise systems typically fill up with outdated or irrelevant data. Cleansing critical business data before migration ensures that only good data is moved into the new system, reducing security risks and improving the quality of the new database.
Before migration:
- Analyze and change/clean the chart of accounts to match the current business model
- Cleanse item and vendor master data
- Assess current contracts and archive any expired contracts
- Standardize data and ensure quantities are in lower units of measure
- Cleanse, consolidate, and eliminate unused pay codes in GHR
Customization
Legacy Infor S3 systems often come with a generous amount of customization due to the lack of standardized features and the need for customers to create a system that operates exactly how they need it. Clients often try to customize their new CloudSuite system to replicate their legacy S3 system, leading to extra work and less-than-optimal outcomes almost every time.
When moving to a new Infor CloudSuite system, clients should focus on leveraging the industry best practices business processes designed into the system and the standardized features in the cloud. This offers a more streamlined approach to critical business operations rather than complicated customizations that only work for certain users or business units and result in high ongoing support costs. This supports a more streamlined move to cloud-based systems, requiring less manual effort from internal teams and better employee engagement with the new system.
Project responsibilities
Clients often miss the ball on the communication and change management aspects of critical migration projects. By placing a stronger focus on effective communication, collaboration, and change management across the entire project team, clients can facilitate a streamlined migration.
With an established change management plan and project methodology through an experienced Project Manager, clients can ensure a successful project that limits issues with miscommunication across project teams and extended timelines.
Outlining the Best Approach for Your Needs
Project Methodology
“For many companies and projects, a waterfall approach tends to work the best because it outlines specific criteria that must be met before the team can move forward. It’s an almost foolproof method.” – April Restivo, Senior Infor Project Manager
Companies can leverage either a waterfall or agile methodology for the implementation of their new cloud-based applications. To determine the best-fit approach for each project, clients need to identify the critical aspects they’re currently lacking and what they can handle from a risk tolerance perspective. Before migration, organizations should define the goals they want to accomplish and the way they want to go about achieving them to ensure a methodology that is aligned with their most critical needs.
The waterfall approach involves five key phases: Align, Define, Build, Test, and Train. This method takes a phased approach, where project teams can only move to the next phase after they meet the agreed-upon criteria for the previous phase. This ensures that no steps are overlooked and prevents teams from retracing steps further into the project.
Roles and Responsibilities
Executive Sponsor Committee
- Outline priorities and provide strategic guidance for each project phase
- Allocate resources across organizational units (i.e., Finance, Technology, etc.)
- Approve key project milestones and portfolio decisions
Program Management
- Manage project progress, risks, issues, and ongoing decisions
- Execute predefined project plan across organizational units
- Ensure executive alignment and deliver critical program objectives
Workstream Leads
- Provide in-depth knowledge of key project areas
- Offer day-to-day project direction for internal and external teams
- Monitor project scope to address key risks and issues
- Assist in developing implementation strategies and work plans
Project Team
- Offer tailored knowledge and expertise in specific project areas
- Provide day-to-day project direction objectives for internal and external teams
- Manage project scope and make adjustments as needed to address critical risks
- Act as the first point of contact for the identification and testing of new applications
- Partner with executives to develop an implementation strategy and associated work plans
Key Project Milestones
Whether your organization chooses an agile or waterfall approach to your migration project, our project management consultants have the flexibility to align phase requirements to your business objectives and ensure a successful deployment. One of our largest healthcare clients determined that a tailored waterfall approach was the best course of action to meet their specific business objectives and ensure their project team stayed on track throughout each phase.
Here’s a closer look at the key objectives and milestones of each project phase for this client.
Phase 1:
The initial phase of the migration project involves defining the current state of your system landscape, conducting initial GAP analysis and discovery, building applications and testing scripts, and beginning the process of extracting and converting data to the correct format. This ensures the new CloudSuite system is aligned with your project objectives and organizational requirements.
Milestones
Key criteria to move on from this phase include completing at least 90% of the application build, finalizing GAP analysis results, approving proposed test scripts, finalizing SIT 1 and MoSCoW designs, and documenting test results.
Phase 2:
Once initial analysis and design have been completed, the project team should focus on outlining critical ‘must-haves’ for RICE (Reporting, Interfaces, Conversions, and Extensions) development, validating their application design, defining critical testing scenarios, converting critical data points, and verifying key integration points.
Milestones
Key criteria to move on from this phase include approving proposed testing scenarios, testing RICE ‘must-haves,’ completing SIT 2 (Systems Integration Testing) plans, approving 100% of the application build, testing at least 75% of core integrations, and documenting initial testing results.
Phase 3:
The next phase involves solidifying data conversion and project scenarios, developing ‘should-haves’ for RICE development, executing and retesting SIT 1 plans, and enabling user security requirements to ensure an efficient, comprehensive transition.
Milestones
Key criteria to move on from this phase include testing 100% of integrations and security requirements, approving 100% of the project build, testing RICE ‘should-haves’, creating a complete UAT plan, and documenting core testing results.
Phase 4:
During the next phase, the build is frozen so users can focus more on validating and converting critical business data, testing integrations, documenting key test phases, and verifying RICE M/S testing processes. This phase facilitates adequate system testing and ensures users understand how the system works before it gets deployed into the production environment.
Milestones
Key criteria to move on from this phase include confirming SIT results, validating UAT results, creating comprehensive EUT plans, and training system trainers for UAT readiness.
Phase 5:
In the final phase of the migration project, teams should focus on completing core training materials, gaining Infor approval for Go-Live, determining the fitness of the existing Go-Live date, and conducting a mock Go-Live for the production environment.
Milestones
Key criteria to deploy the new Infor system in the production environment include documenting critical results for testing, training, and mock Go-Live, conducting the Infor Approval Assessment, and completing the Go-Live readiness agreement.
Building a Cohesive Project Team
Client-Side Consulting Resources
By enlisting the support of external, client-side consulting resources, organizations can effectively augment their internal teams and align individual objectives with broader organizational goals, ensuring a seamless migration across business units.
Surety Systems provides senior-level consulting resources to ensure comprehensive migration support, from initial planning and data cleanup to comprehensive system configuration, integration, and post-implementation optimization.
Our senior-level Infor consultants act as an extension of your internal team, providing tailored consulting resources to help you navigate every stage of your CloudSuite migration while keeping your current operations running smoothly. Here’s a closer look at how we can help.
- Expertise and Strategic Guidance: Our senior-level Infor consultants offer strategic insight and experience to ensure your project stays on track and meets organizational goals.
- Augmenting Internal Teams: By partnering with our Infor consultants, you can augment your internal team and core capabilities, bringing best practices to the table while filling critical knowledge gaps across business units.
- Legacy System Backfill: With the help of our expert consultants, you can ensure that critical legacy operations, such as on-premise system administration, Accounts Payable processing, HCM operations, and security administration, are supported in tandem with the implementation of your new CloudSuite system.
- Project Leadership and Coordination: Our senior-level consultants are responsible for leading and coordinating the entire migration process from planning to execution, ensuring alignment across all departments and minimizing disruption.
- Risk Mitigation and Problem-Solving: With extensive knowledge and experience in the Infor on-premise and cloud landscape, our consultants are able to anticipate and manage potential risks during the migration, offering solutions to keep the project moving forward without delays.
- Training and Knowledge Transfer: By partnering with our team of expert Infor consultants, you can ensure proper training and knowledge transfer so internal employees are self-sufficient with the CloudSuite platform post-migration.
Internal Project Teams
When it comes to filling critical project roles and ensuring project objectives are completed on time, clients must prioritize building a comprehensive, collaborative, and competent project team. By selecting the right mix of internal and external consulting resources, fostering open communication, and leveraging project management best practices, organizations can drive success and achieve their strategic goals more effectively.
“From a resourcing perspective, ensuring your project team has all the critical roles filled before the migration begins is critical. By putting the right players on the field, clients can ensure all their bases are covered, regardless of what phase of the migration process they find themselves in.” – Senior-level Infor CloudSuite Consultant
Here’s a snapshot of the primary roles our expert project manager prioritizes for key projects.
What Do Clients Gain?
Comprehensive, Unified Platform
By migrating from a traditionally siloed Infor S3 system, a successful Infor CloudSuite migration empowers users to unlock the full potential of a truly unified technology landscape. Instead of a combination of GHR on-premise and other landmark modules in the initial deployment, the CloudSuite environment allows users to unify their technology and platform without interfacing back and forth between the Infor S3 system.
Additional Accounting Layers
Migrating to a modernized Infor CloudSuite landscape empowers users with additional accounting layers than their existing Infor S3 system. This enables internal accounting teams to gain more granular insight into critical accounting operations and drill down into critical organizational data, facilitating better decisions and optimized business processes.
Better Integrations
In the Infor S3 system, clients typically used a combination of SQL, scripting, and IPA (Infor Process Automation) workflows to build, manage, and optimize integrations between their Infor system and other third-party applications. Integrations are made easier in CloudSuite, allowing organizations to leverage both IPA and API functions within the ION landscape to unify integrations and streamline how they are managed across organizational units.
Access to the Data Lake
With the option to leverage the Infor Data Lake within the modernized CloudSuite environment, organizations can easily consolidate data from their existing Infor system and any external data sources. Once the data has been combined in the data lake, clients can leverage tools like Python and Power BI to assess, analyze, and report on critical data points.
Optimized HCM Processes
Human capital management functionality in Infor S3 focuses on core Human Resources, Payroll, Benefits, and Absence processes, providing the bare minimum for people management.
In the Infor CloudSuite landscape, users gain access to all the same features that are included in the Infor S3 system and comprehensive talent management functions like Recruiting, Onboarding, Skill Development, Succession Management, and Certifications, further improving the employee experience and giving managers greater visibility into their workforce.
Enhanced Supply Chain Functionality
In the Infor S3 landscape, organizations could choose to opt-in for Contract Management and Grants Management functionality as an add-on feature for their existing Supply Chain Management suite. In CloudSuite, both the Contracts Management and Grants Management features are included as part of the application, reducing additional steps required to access this functionality and improving supply chain visibility across the organization.
Relief from System Administration Burdens
Critical updates (CUs) in Infor S3 required system administrators to assess and install any upgrades and patches themselves. The Infor CloudSuite landscape automates these updates, facilitating execution with near-zero downtime and reducing operational costs through streamlined performance optimization, monitoring, patching, upgrades, integrations, and testing. With the automation of critical upgrades, IT administrators and other staff can shift from reactive to proactive operations, maximizing their system investment and ensuring a cohesive, collaborative end-user experience.
Proven Success with Senior-Level Infor Consultants
Large healthcare organization leverages senior-level Infor PM to implement new Infor Financial and Supply Management system
Scenario
The client was in the early stages of an Infor Financial and Supply Management (FSM) implementation to replace outdated and inefficient processes due to rapid organizational growth and the need for modernized ERP solutions. They required support from both their system implementer and external consulting resources to hit critical project milestones.
Our team of consultants, led by a Project Manager with more than 15 years of experience, consisted of three Infor Cloudsuite Financials consultants and one Infor Supply Chain Management consultant. Our senior-level PM helped the project team develop a comprehensive roadmap and project plan with input from our functional workstream leads and guided the client’s internal teams through each phase of the project.
Outcome
The client’s Infor FSM implementation allowed them to optimize critical business processes and provide more efficient operations to support continued business growth and expansion. This optimization allows them to leverage advanced functionality for finance and supply chain operations, as well as scale their business model to several other lines of their business as they continue to acquire other companies.
Contact Us
For more information about our ERP consulting services or to get started on a project with our experts, contact us today.
