Succeed in Global Multi-Site Infor Cloud Migrations

Cloud migration in your enterprise, particularly if operations are spread across several global sites, could appear as an encouraging prospect. The benefits of Cloud migration are many and far-reaching; it protects your enterprise-critical data, lowers the total cost of ownership (TCO), gives you the flexibility to scale your operations, and enables you to make the best use of your team for value-added initiatives.

Yet, multi-Cloud migration could also appear as a challenging prospect, and you may have many questions. There is IT architecture complexity and legacy systems to contend with; possible data security compromises and multiple security layers to address (application, network, data centers, and infrastructure), network latency, deployment models, along with team readiness and any knowledge gaps. Cost management is central to any Cloud migration process. One study found that Cloud migration inefficiencies can increase costs by 14% annually compared to the originally planned amount, with delays in the process in some cases. This same study also discovered that enterprises with successful Cloud migration outcomes often have CEOs who actively champion the cause, map out the implementation process at the beginning itself, and ensure the team is equipped with the necessary skill sets.

Clearly, there are lessons for any enterprise from those that have succeeded with their Cloud migration strategies. The starting point is to remember that Cloud migration is an incremental process. Sustainability and scalability must become the main drivers of your multi-site Cloud migration strategy if your enterprise is to leverage its many benefits for the long term. It encompasses building a repeatable global solutions template, minimizing risks through predictability, creating a sustainable delivery structure, and incorporating technologies such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Intelligent Automation (IA).

Your team must think about geographical location and regional or country-specific differences as a global enterprise. Building a global template that you can repeat as and when needed across all your sites will become indispensable. Spending considerable time on the initial design and discovery phase will define the success of your multi-site Cloud migration process. As a part of this process, you will need to:

• Perform a comprehensive needs analysis
• Consider all your enterprise applications, devices, and users; your infrastructure, including any legacy systems and security and governance policies that need updating
• Understand how to leverage existing data
• Budget forecasting
• Consider how your migration process and its implementation will differ across regions as a part of this analysis

This initial phase requires extensive stakeholder consultation to understand these concerns.

Given the many different factors involved, standardization is an imperative. Standardizing processes and tools across all your sites makes post-migration management, maintenance of consistency, and quality at all your sites much easier – especially when you decide to scale your operations. Modifications and customization also become important components of your global template. Any global enterprise has to strike a careful balance between global standards and local flexibility. Discuss how you will respond to specific local requirements without compromising the overall integrity of the solution. Often, a Cloud solution will require integrations and extensions based on its unique use case.

For example, a food manufacturer with facilities based in Australia and New Zealand succeeded in their multi-plant Cloud ERP implementation through custom integrations. The lack of integration in their facilities resulted in a lack of supply chain and inventory visibility and traceability, manual data transfers, and production inefficiencies. All of these issues incurred additional costs for the manufacturer. Fortude implemented Infor M3 for manufacturing operations at one site. At the other, Fortude automated processes, rectified integration issues, rolled out a maintenance management model, and configured a new warehouse. The manufacturer gained much needed end-to-end supply chain visibility, which simplified inventory management, improved production processes, and automated manual processes.

It is obvious that risks increase when many sites are involved. We believe in predictability as an integral component of a multi-site Cloud migration to help mitigate these risks. Predictability, too, is linked to the initial stages of formulating a global template. Standardizing processes results in predictable timelines and budgets that your enterprise can adhere to throughout the implementation. These have to be clearly communicated to your entire team for thorough planning so that you do not have to deal with extra costs due to inefficiencies in your migration.

Predictability is also achieved by performing an enterprise-wide risk assessment and understanding potential flaws in your systems. You are then able to introduce a strong governance framework with a governance policy that addresses these potential risks and compliance monitoring to ensure that your migration will not be exposed to security risks.

However, no matter how comprehensive you aim to be when crafting such a framework, risks can occur. It is here that you will need additional risk mitigation strategies that include proactive audits to identify risks early and practical risk mitigation tips such as testing, phased rollouts, and pilot programs. Test automation tools such as Fortest developed by Fortude help to streamline your testing process. Use Fortest to automate regression testing, access pre-built functions, and create customized industry-specific tasks. You can also work with an Applications Managed Service Provider who will perform 24/7 monitoring, maintenance, incident resolution, and contribute to your team’s skill set.

Ensuring that your Cloud migration strategy is sustainable must address the people-factor along with the technology. This is why the initial stakeholder consultation is important before you begin mapping out your global template. Think of your entire team (including both onsite and offshore), how the migration will affect their daily tasks, and what needs to be prioritized. Finalize the roles and responsibilities of each sub-team within your enterprise to ensure there is alignment among all teams and any external consultants to avoid miscommunications. An efficient project management system will need meticulous documentation, as this will help you identify the mission-critical tasks and enable your team to prioritize them.

A diverse team with various experience levels and expertise is an advantage. In our experience, a multi-tiered team approach applied to such teams helps initiate the necessary knowledge transfer and ensure continuous support once the migration starts. This approach also helps to accelerate multi-site Cloud deployment through synchronized workflows and adoption of technology tools that ultimately make project management more efficient.