Lánluas, the global independent enterprise systems consultancy for TechnologyOne customers, has launched a new whitepaper, TechnologyOne CiA Cloud Adoption: Exploring Drivers, Overcoming Challenges, and Realising Benefits.
The report, based on real-world insights from nearly 120 TechnologyOne users, highlights both the opportunities and hurdles organisations are facing in transitioning to CiA (Ci Anywhere) in the Cloud.
The findings are drawn from a series of roundtable discussions with IT leaders from Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, all at different stages of their cloud adoption journey in addition to extensive independent research commissioned by Lánluas.
While all participants agreed that migrating to TechnologyOne CiA Cloud delivers significant operational and financial benefits, they identified various challenges from their own experiences that can impact the project success.
Key Challenges
These challenges fall under the three core themes of cost, understanding, and resources. While all projects have known costs from licence fees, internal and external resourcing requirements and project management, there are many unexpected costs that will derail budgets, including integration with third-party systems, user acceptance testing, data migration, training and change management.
In addition, organisations can often lack clarity on system functionalities, licensing terms, training and implementation requirements at the planning stage, which can lead to large functionality gaps and organisational risk.
"Risk is the most common topic in the conversations we are having with TechnologyOne customers all over the world," explains John Speed, Lánluas Founder and Executive Director of Growth and Innovation.
"The biggest risks we see when it comes to the TechnologyOne Cloud adoption journey are executive commitment, scope identification and management, budget overruns, timeline delays, and unmet expectations. Add to this a lack of implementation experience, truly understanding the impact on staff and the investment required for ongoing maintenance of the system and you can see why risk mitigation is top of mind at the C Level".
The most common and biggest challenge identified in the whitepaper is internal and external resourcing constraints, including consultant and vendor availability. It was noted in the research that it was very difficult to estimate the resources you need, especially if you don't have previous experience in implementing an ERP system, which many organisations don't as they tend to only replace their ERP system or re-implement their existing product every 10-15 years.
While vendors will know what resources they require, they may not necessarily understand what the customer needs. This becomes complicated as each organisation is different, with different levels of resourcing, skills, experience, and expertise.
"Our roundtable discussions revealed that while organisations see the clear benefits of moving to CiA in the Cloud—such as automation, security, and cost savings—they often struggle with the financial, technical, and resource implications," says Richard McManus, CEO of Lánluas.
"This whitepaper is designed to help organisations anticipate these hurdles and plan more effectively to mitigate them."
The whitepaper addresses these challenges and provides strategic guidance on avoiding common pitfalls, using real-life experience and advice from TechnologyOne customers.
"A successful transition to CiA in the Cloud requires a deep understanding of licensing terms, system functionalities, and the resource demands of implementation," McManus adds.
"By bridging these knowledge gaps and fostering better collaboration between vendors, consultancies, and clients, we can drive more effective ERP transformations."
"Our advice to any organisation undertaking a transition or transformation is to approach it as an opportunity for growth, not just a system upgrade," adds John Speed.
"Prioritise communication, planning, and stakeholder alignment to ensure success and remember the goal is not just technology adoption but creating long-term value for your organisation. It's a never-ending journey, and there are so many people, whether your vendor, external consultants or your peers, who are ready and willing to help support you on that journey and share their experiences".
