ERP release management: Adopting Infor’s updates successfully
The October 2025 Infor CloudSuite release has officially landed. For organizations running on Infor M3 or other Infor CloudSuites, this is a strategic opportunity to future-proof your ERP system. As a follow-up to our previous blog, Preparing for Infor’s October 2025 releases, this article dives deeper into what effective ERP release management looks like and how organizations can gain maximum value from every feature.
Why ERP release management matters more than ever
With the rapid pace of innovation, cloud-based ERP platforms now push out bi-annual updates that include compliance mandates, performance enhancements, and transformative capabilities, like Gen AI tools and intelligent automation. However, if releases are managed poorly it can lead to disruptions, compliance gaps, or missed value. Structured ERP release management is vital because it ensures businesses:
- Stay compliant with regional tax and reporting laws
- Avoid disruptions to core operations
- Rapidly adopt new features like AI and Experience Designer workspaces
- Enable continuous innovation without compromising stability
Infor’s October 2025 release spans 488 enhancements, including over 100 customer-driven updates. That scale of change demands a release strategy that goes far beyond manual testing.
From planning to adoption: The release management lifecycle
Effective ERP release management involves multiple phases, each requiring coordination across IT, functional teams, and ERP partners. Here’s how organizations can structure this journey:
1. Assessment & impact analysis
Before applying updates, teams must understand what’s changing and how those changes affect their specific environment. This involves:
- Reviewing Infor’s release documentation across M3, OS components, and industry add-ons
- Identifying which features are auto-enabled vs. optional
- Mapping enhancements to configured modules and business processes
Charlie, Fortude’s AI-powered assistant, accelerates this process with automated release impact analysis. It analyzes release reports, checks configurations and code, and generates detailed insights. This eliminates 80–90% of the manual effort typically required in this phase.
2. Regression testing & validation
Regression testing is crucial for ensuring that new updates don’t disrupt existing processes. Manual testing is time-consuming and often lacks full coverage.
That’s where Fortest, Fortude’s automated regression testing tool, comes in as it:
- Executes predefined test cases across order-to-cash, inventory, finance, and other modules
- Reduces validation time by up to 90%
- Ensures consistent, repeatable testing with minimal maintenance
- Supports feature toggles and testing in non-production tenants
This allows teams to safely trial features like the GenAI Assistant, M3-specific AI Agents, and new VP-level Workspaces without impacting live operations.
3. Compliance management
Infor’s October release introduces critical updates, such as Dual VAT support for Brazil, B2B e-invoicing for Belgium, and the Israel Electronic Invoice Reform. Failure to implement these correctly can result in financial penalties or system audit failures. With Charlie’s compliance-critical change detection, businesses can proactively address such mandates.
ERP release management teams must:
- Identify all region-specific compliance updates
- Align them with internal reporting processes
- Test and validate localization changes thoroughly
4. Adoption enablement
Technology adoption is a change management issue. The October release brings 14 new configurable experience designer applications and a revamped user interface.
Successful release management includes:
- Running training programs via Infor U Campus
- Encouraging sandbox testing of new features
- Rolling out changes gradually using feature toggles
- Gathering user feedback for continuous improvement
Tools that power strategic release cycles
Effective ERP release management depends on more than good intentions. It requires intelligent tools:
Fortest: Automated testingat scale
- Pre-built libraries for M3
- Rapid validation of custom workflows
- Integration with ERP change pipelines
Charlie: AI-driven release impact management
- Analyzes release documentation
- Assesses the impact on configuration and code
- Auto-generates actionable tasks in Jira
Together, these tools turn the release process from a reactive drill into a structured, strategic initiative.
Fortude’s role in release management
At Fortude, we don’t just support ERP releases, we elevate them. Our Infor ERP Consulting practice brings together:
- Infor-certified consultants with deep functional and technical expertise
- Automation capabilities that reduce release risk
- End-to-end managed services for testing, impact analysis, and compliance validation
For clients managing multiple regions, localizations, and customizations, our structured release methodology ensures nothing slips through the cracks.
Best practices for the October 2025 release and beyond
If you haven’t already, here’s how to ensure a seamless rollout:
- Subscribe to Infor’s release communications to stay ahead of mandatory changes
- Complete release training and review documentation for each component used
- Use Charlie to automate impact analysis and assign work items
- Run Fortest in non-production tenants to validate workflows
- Track compliance items regionally and validate their implementation early
- Plan change adoption through user training and feature toggle testing
From update to advantage
Infor’s October 2025 release offers significant advantages. From AI integrations and user experience upgrades to compliance mandates, every update can be a lever for competitive advantage.
But it must be managed right. With tools like Fortest and Charlie, and Fortude’s specialized ERP consulting services, businesses can turn their ERP release cycle into a performance accelerator.
Need help managing the October release?
Talk to our Infor experts to simplify your next release cycle and realize faster ROI.
FAQs
ERP release management is the structured process of planning, testing, scheduling, and implementing updates or enhancements to an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. In the context of cloud-based ERP platforms like Infor CloudSuite, release management ensures that organizations stay current with the latest features, security patches, regulatory compliance updates, and performance improvements.
Infor CloudSuite typically follows a biannual release cycle, delivering major Feature Releases twice a year, usually around April and October. These releases include new functionalities, enhancements, compliance updates, and bug fixes. The regularity of updates supports continuous improvement while giving organizations time to prepare, test, and adopt changes in a predictable manner.
Infor provides several tools to streamline the release management process, with two of the most notable being Fortest and Charlie. Fortest is an automated testing platform that helps organizations efficiently run regression tests during updates.Charlie, is an AI-powered impact analysis tool that evaluates upcoming changes and identifies which areas of the system may be affected.
Failing to implement a mandatory update, especially those related to regulatory compliance or security, can have serious consequences. These may include system incompatibility, data integrity issues, operational disruptions, or legal and financial penalties. Effective release management helps ensure your organization doesn’t fall behind, remains compliant with legal standards, and maintains operational continuity.
Not necessarily, many features in Infor’s updates are optional or hidden behind toggles. These are often referred to as “feature toggles” or “configurable options,” and they provide flexibility in adopting new capabilities based on business needs. However, some features are auto-enabled and could impact existing processes without user intervention. It’s critical to review release notes and impact assessments to identify any auto-enabled changes or mandatory updates. This helps prevent unexpected disruptions and ensures proper change management and user training are in place where needed.
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