I am considering moving BAAN 4 to Infor LN and I have a couple of question that I hope someone could answer:

- From an ERP move standpoint: when evaluating to move from BAAN 4 to Infor LN 10.7, should we consider this as a technological upgrade or as a fresh conversion to a new ERP system. In other words, from an effort perspective, moving to LN is the same as moving to ERP XYZ or is it a simpler road.
- From an end user change management perspective: Beyond the graphical interface, are the main business processes and data flows in LN 10.7 comparable to the ones in BAAN 4?

I appreciate any feedback.

Thanks in advance

A tricky question. There are a lot of concepts in LN that you can identify as originating in Baan IV - a lot of the table numbers are the same, some common/master data is the same, and so forth.

However, I do think Baan IV -> LN upgrades fall more into a reimplementation, both from a data/technical and process perspective. The changes in items and business partners, distribution/inventory management functionality moving to the warehousing module, and updated functionality around most processes, really point to a reimplementation.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Vince

You can also get document P3558B US -Differences study Baan IVc - LN from InforXtreme. That will give you a good insight on this.

Theoretically, you are moving from a previous version of the software to the latest but personally, I would view it as a new implementation. Although there may be familiar touch points (naming conventions, tables, some common data, etc.) this is a significant upgrade, so should be perceived as a transformation change project.

As for the data flows, there are a number of considerations such as how much customisation or bespoke work has been done and how you manage and automate your business processes that sit both inside your ERP and on the peripheral so not a straightforward answer without a “data audit”.

In the short-term I would recommend an optimisation of your existing system while you undergo an audit and assessment that will give you a better idea of scope and scale of the transformation. This will also enable you to more accurately cost the transformation and balance or justify the ROI of change.

We have many customers who are happily working with Baan IV systems so I’d be happy to discuss with you in person.

Kind regards

Catherine