Total Economic Impact
Cost Savings And Business Benefits Enabled By Infor CloudSuite For Manufacturing And Distribution
A FORRESTER TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT STUDY COMMISSIONED BY Infor, JUNE 2025
Total Economic Impact
A FORRESTER TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT STUDY COMMISSIONED BY Infor, JUNE 2025
Legacy ERP systems — which are often on-premises, fragmented, inflexible, and disconnected from customer outcomes — no longer meet the demands of modern enterprises.1 Organizations, particularly those in manufacturing and distribution, face mounting pressure to modernize these systems, streamline operations, and leverage real-time insights to stay competitive.2 According to a Forrester survey, 74% of high-performance IT leaders cite ERP modernization as a critical priority to drive greater agility, innovation, and operational resilience.3
Infor CloudSuite offers cloud-based, AI-ready ERP software that combines industry expertise with modern technology (e.g., generative AI, automation, machine learning, advanced analytics) for industry specific-solutions powered by the Infor Cloud Platform. It can help organizations consolidate operations, enhance data visibility, and scale with confidence while they break down silos, accelerate efficiency and growth, and position themselves to thrive in an increasingly dynamic market landscape.
Infor commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying Infor CloudSuite.4 The purpose of this study is to provide readers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of Infor CloudSuite on their organizations.
To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed four decision-makers with experience using Infor CloudSuite. For the purposes of this study, Forrester aggregated the interviewees’ experiences and combined the results into a single composite organization that is a manufacturing and distribution organization with 2,000 employees and revenue of $1 billion per year.
Prior to investing in Infor CloudSuite, the interviewees’ organizations operated in fragmented environments with legacy, on-premises systems and siloed data spread across multiple ERPs and business units. These legacy environments resulted in siloed data, inconsistent processes, and limited visibility across operations. As a result, the organizations struggled with slow reporting, IT bottlenecks, manual workflows, inefficiencies in procurement and inventory management, and lengthy acquisition integrations that hindered growth and efficiency.
Interviewees said that after implementing Infor CloudSuite, their organizations transformed to have unified, cloud-based environments with standardized processes, centralized master data, greater visibility across their businesses, and flexibility to scale operations. Key results from the investment include increased productivity across IT, finance, and operations teams; reduced revenue leakage and third-party logistics (3PL) costs; improved compliance and audit readiness; and enhanced data integrity, system uptime, and security.
Quantified benefits. Three-year, risk-adjusted present value (PV) quantified benefits for the composite organization include:
A 30% increase in productivity for warehouse and operations employees. By consolidating and standardizing warehouse processes, the composite organization improves its inventory movement, space utilization, and order accuracy. Teams report smoother daily workflows, improved system usage, and fewer manual errors, leading to time savings and reduced operational delays. This saves the composite organization $3.3 million over three years.
A 40% increase in productivity for finance, procurement, and data management employees by Year 3. The composite organization sees time savings from streamlined purchase order creation, supplier invoicing, and financial reporting while centralized master data, standardized chart of accounts, and automated three-way matching accelerate month-end close and reduce manual reconciliation. This results in $3.3 million worth of resource savings for the composite over three years.
A 70% increase in productivity for compliance, audit support, and admin employees. Infor CloudSuite’s built-in controls and audit trails help the composite organization enforce segregation of duties, reduce fraud risk, and improve audit performance. Internal teams rely less on manual oversight and more on system-based checks to enforce policies. As a result, the composite organization saves $3.0 million over three years.
A 25% increase in productivity for production, planning, and field services employees. Teams at the composite organization shift from using spreadsheets and workarounds to structured digital workflows. Production planning is faster, demand forecasting is better, and inventory allocation is more reliable, all of which helps to reduce delays and enable smarter resource planning. As a result, the composite organization saves $2.5 million.
A 50% increase in productivity for IT employees by Year 3. By replacing legacy systems with Infor CloudSuite, the composite organization reallocates thousands of hours previously spent on patching, custom development, and ERP firefighting. IT teams now focus on business enablement rather than maintenance and troubleshooting. This increased productivity results in $434,000 in IT savings for the composite over three years.
Savings on 3PL warehouse fees worth $5.7 million over three years. By consolidating third-party logistics partners, the composite organization reduces overhead, improves coordination, and eliminates redundant facilities.
A 70% decrease in revenue leakage through improved financial integrity and insights. With Infor CloudSuite, the composite organization has system-enforced pricing logic, accurate costing, and inventory tracking that reduce mischarges and pricing errors. It sees fewer invoice discrepancies, and leaders are more confident in financial accruals. For this benefit, the composite recoups $1.5 million in revenue over three years.
Unquantified benefits. Benefits that provide value for the composite organization but are not quantified for this study include:
Reduction in downtime. Interviewees said Infor promises uptime of 99.7% under its standard SLA and that this allows their organizations to avoid productivity losses from on-prem outages. Remote teams stay fully operational even during facility-level disruptions, improving business continuity and reducing operational risk.
Increase in visibility and data control. Interviewees explained that using a unified enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform gives teams up-to-date access to financials, operations, and inventory across divisions. They also said having one version of the truth for reporting and decision-making replaces outdated manual processes and inconsistent data sources.
Improved security. With Infor CloudSuite, the composite organization upgrades from risky and unsupported systems to a modern cloud environment with built-in compliance and traceability features. Interviewees reported having peace of mind knowing systems can be reliably managed, even in the absence of legacy IT personnel.
Empowering proactive, strategic work. Interviewees said that by automating routine processes and improving data visibility, Infor CloudSuite enables their organizations to shift focus from day-to-day operational firefighting to more strategic priorities. Teams are able to spend less time managing manual tasks and more time driving innovation, process improvement, and long-term growth.
Costs. Three-year, risk-adjusted PV costs for the composite organization include:
Fees to Infor. The composite organization incurs licensing and implementation costs directly tied to the number of users, locations, and Infor CloudSuite features in use. The fees include the cost of Infor Global Professional Services, which utilizes Infor’s Time to Value implementation methodology to fast-track go-lives through fit-to-standard configuration and prototyping. This helps the composite accelerate standardization and reduce risk during deployment. Over three years, the composite pays $4.7 million in fees to Infor.
Implementation and ongoing management. Deploying Infor CloudSuite requires collaboration across the composite’s IT and business teams to align processes, migrate data, and train users. Over a three-year, phased rollout to 20 sites, the composite dedicates IT and business resources with the support of hands-on configuration and prototyping sessions. Following go-live, its IT teams spend minimal time managing quarterly enhancements and system upkeep internally. Training is delivered through online modules and recorded sessions, requiring 30 hours per new user. The composite pays $4.5 million in implementation and ongoing management costs over three years.
The financial analysis that is based on the interviews found that a composite organization experiences benefits of $19.72 million over three years versus costs of $9.20 million, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $10.52 million and an ROI of 114%.
Increase in productivity gains per finance, procurement, and data management FTE
Return on investment (ROI)
Benefits PV
Net present value (NPV)
Payback
| Role | Industry | Revenue | Employees and users |
|---|---|---|---|
| CIO | Food and beverage | $1.8B | 700 employees 400 Infor CloudSuite users |
| CFO | Industrial products | $1.5B | 3,000 employees 1,500 Infor CloudSuite users |
| IT manager | Food and beverage | $800M | 200 employees 125 Infor CloudSuite users |
| Global digital manager | Manufacturing | $200M | 250 employees 150 Infor CloudSuite users |
The interviewees noted how their organizations struggled with common challenges prior to investing in Infor CloudSuite:
Limited organizational efficiency due to siloed systems and differing operations. Prior to using Infor, the organizations operated across fragmented divisions, each running on different ERPs, warehouse management system (WMS) solutions, and processes. This siloed structure hampered visibility, standardization, and the ability to leverage company acquisitions effectively. Business processes, financial reporting, and even core master data varied widely across entities, making operational integration difficult. The CIO of a food and beverage organization noted: “Every company operated independently. From processes to financials to reporting, it was messy and disconnected.” The CFO at an industrial products organization echoed this sentiment: “Customers had to deal with three divisions and six different systems. Even placing one order was cumbersome.”
Barriers to visibility and reporting from lack of consolidated data. Without centralized systems, the organizations struggled to consolidate operational, financial, and customer data across divisions. Reporting was slow, manual, and often unreliable, and teams relied heavily on spreadsheets and disconnected sources of truth. The lack of real-time visibility made cross-entity decision-making nearly impossible. The global digital manager at a manufacturing organization shared: “Each of our four entities had its own database. Even basic financial consolidation was manual and a nightmare across countries.” The CFO at an industrial products organization said: “Before cloud systems, we couldn’t even consolidate payroll information across six systems. By the time you had the data, it was already outdated.”
IT team inefficiencies. The organizations spent significant IT resources maintaining aging and heavily customized on-premises environments. Upgrades were time-consuming, scaling was difficult, and maintaining security and support had become increasingly costly and risky. Instead of enabling innovation, IT teams were stuck firefighting infrastructure and integration challenges. The IT manager at a food and beverage organization shared: “Our old system was so customized that we couldn’t maintain or scale it. We were pretty stuck.” The CIO of a food and beverage company highlighted, “Upgrading infrastructure took six months, and integrating even one acquisition could take up to a year.”
Drained employee productivity. Disconnected systems and limited automation left employees burdened with manual data entry, paper approvals, and redundant work across procurement, finance, inventory, and production management. These inefficiencies introduced human error, slowed operational cycles, and increased administrative overhead. The CIO of a food and beverage organization explained, “Across nine companies, manual processes multiplied inefficiencies. Nothing was integrated, and simple tasks took far longer than necessary.” The IT manager at a food and beverage organization said, “Production planning and purchasing were managed entirely through spreadsheets with no system coordination.”
Negative downstream business impacts, including downtime and customer experience issues. System fragmentation and manual workflows led to frequent delays, production downtime, and poor customer and vendor experiences. The organizations could not deliver unified services, nor could they react quickly to operational disruptions. The IT manager at a food and beverage organization shared, “A manufacturing change could halt production for 1 to 2 hours because the system couldn’t generate new orders in real time.” The CFO of an industrial products organization added: “Customers had no unified experience. They had to interact separately with three companies just to place an order.”
Limited scalability and adaptability to support evolving business needs. As the organizations expanded through organic growth and acquisitions, their legacy systems could not scale or adapt fast enough to support evolving requirements. Customizations made upgrades infeasible, and different systems across entities prevented operational consolidation. The global digital manager at a manufacturing organization commented: “Our operations in the US, France, China, and India all ran on independent systems. There was no common foundation to support global growth.” The CIO of a food and beverage organization said: “We couldn’t support even 20% business growth with the old systems. It would require massive new hiring.”
The interviewees’ organizations searched for a solution that could:
Deliver a comprehensive, unified, cloud-based ERP platform to replace fragmented legacy systems.
Simplify business operations by reducing system complexity and administrative overhead.
Improve operational productivity and streamline critical workflows across teams.
Enable easier day-to-day operations with standardized processes and real-time visibility.
Support scalability and future growth initiatives
Leverage modern technologies, including automation, embedded analytics, and cloud flexibility.
Enhance security, system reliability, and risk management with a modern cloud-based architecture.
Each of the interviewees’ organizations evaluated multiple vendors and chose Infor CloudSuite.
Based on the interviews, Forrester constructed a TEI framework, a composite company, and an ROI analysis that illustrates the areas financially affected. The composite organization is representative of the interviewees’ organizations, and it is used to present the aggregate financial analysis in the next section. The composite organization has the following characteristics:
Description of composite. The composite organization is a US-based, midmarket manufacturer and distributor that generates approximately $1 billion in annual revenue and has 2,000 employees. It operates across 20 manufacturing and distribution locations and partners with an additional 50 3PL warehouses to support its global operations. Historically, the organization relied on a patchwork of on-premises ERP systems across its different divisions, which led to siloed processes, fragmented data, and high operational complexity. With business growth accelerating through organic expansion and acquisitions, the organization faced increasing challenges around visibility, system scalability, financial integrity, and maintaining consistent operational standards across locations. The need for a modern, unified ERP platform became critical to reduce administrative overhead, improve agility, and enable better financial and operational control at scale.
Deployment characteristics. The composite organization deploys industry-specific Infor CloudSuite software solutions across its manufacturing, distribution, and 3PL locations. It uses a phased rollout strategy and then ramps usage from 20% of employees in Year 1 to 50% in Year 2 to 100% of users (1,000 users) organizationwide in Year 3. The deployment includes key operational areas, such as warehouse management, finance, procurement, production planning, field service, compliance, and audit support, with the goal of streamlining workflows, consolidating data, enhancing security, and reducing operational downtime.
$1 billion revenue
1,000 Infor users by Year 3
20 manufacturing and distribution facilities
50 3PL warehouses
| Ref. | Benefit | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atr | Increase in productivity: Warehouse and operations | $492,750 | $1,231,875 | $2,463,750 | $4,188,375 | $3,317,085 |
| Btr | Increase in productivity: Finance, procurement, and data management | $288,000 | $1,080,000 | $2,880,000 | $4,248,000 | $3,318,167 |
| Ctr | Increase in productivity: Compliance, audit support, and admin | $441,000 | $1,102,500 | $2,205,000 | $3,748,500 | $2,968,715 |
| Dtr | Increase in productivity: Production, planning, and field services | $365,625 | $914,063 | $1,828,125 | $3,107,813 | $2,461,307 |
| Etr | Increase in productivity: IT | $60,750 | $182,250 | $303,750 | $546,750 | $434,059 |
| Ftr | Savings on 3PL warehouse fees | $800,000 | $2,400,000 | $4,000,000 | $7,200,000 | $5,716,003 |
| Gtr | Reduced revenue leakage through financial integrity and insights | $224,000 | $560,000 | $1,120,000 | $1,904,000 | $1,507,919 |
| Total benefits (risk-adjusted) | $2,672,125 | $7,470,688 | $14,800,625 | $24,943,438 | $19,723,255 |
Evidence and data. Interviewees described how siloed operations and manual processes previously drained warehouse and logistics productivity. Each division operated its own ERP and warehouse system, creating duplicate efforts for inventory management, planning, and fulfillment. Daily activities such as material requirements planning (MRP) runs, warehouse cross-charging, and physical reconciliation required heavy manual intervention, which led to inefficiencies that compounded as the businesses grew. Interviewees said Infor CloudSuite provided a unified platform that consolidated operations, automated key workflows, and reduced manual touchpoints. These changes helped the organizations scale without adding headcount while improving day-to-day efficiency across logistics and operations teams. Interviewees measured the impact of Infor in the following ways:
Reduction in time spent on manual warehouse planning and coordination. Interviewees said Infor’s automation capabilities, such as overnight MRP planning runs and robotic process automation (RPA)-enabled cross-charging, significantly reduced manual work for planners and warehouse managers. The CIO of a food and beverage company shared, “Daily planning runs that used to take 15 or 30 minutes per day because they needed to be manually initiated are now handled automatically with Infor. It adds up to huge time savings and avoids human error as well.”
Reduced administrative burden from warehouse consolidation. The organizations consolidated their warehouse operations from hundreds of facilities down to streamlined regional hubs, which dramatically cut the daily administrative workload related to shipments, receiving, and inventory counts. One interviewee explained: “We reduced from 200 to 100 warehouses. The manual labor savings from coordinating shipments and consolidating data were massive.” This interviewee said the consolidation allowed warehouse managers to shift from constant transactional oversight to more strategic activities.
Operational scalability without headcount increases. With Infor, the organizations were able to absorb significant business growth without proportional increases in staffing. An interviewee from a food and beverage organization said their company’s revenue grew 60% over five years without significant additions to warehouse or logistics personnel.
Improved financial and operational visibility across locations. Infor CloudSuite also improved financial accuracy and operational transparency for the same organization. The interviewee said automation of warehouse cross-charging, which previously consumed 20 hours of director-level time per month, now occurs weekly and distributes financial impacts more evenly across reporting periods.
Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes:
The organization onboards a total of 250 warehouse and operations full-time equivalents (FTEs) onto Infor CloudSuite over three years. It onboards 20% in Year 1, 50% in Year 2, and 100% in Year 3. Roles affected include warehouse supervisors, logistics planners, inventory analysts, and MRP planners.
These roles see a 30% efficiency improvement with Infor CloudSuite.
The average fully burdened annual salary for a warehouse and operations FTE is $73,000.
Forrester conservatively estimates that 50% of the total time saved per FTE is applied directly back to value-generating tasks, which is included in the benefit analysis. The composite’s employees apply additional time savings toward professional development, training, and work-life activities, which is not included in the analysis.
Risks. The increase in productivity may vary depending on the following:
The total number of users affected by efficiencies created with Infor CloudSuite.
The maturity of process automation before implementing Infor CloudSuite.
The size, scope, and complexity of the business processes affected.
The salaries of FTEs.
The percent of productivity captured by the affected users.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $3.3 million.
Improvement In productivity
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Warehouse and operations FTEs affected by Infor CloudSuite | Composite | 50 | 125 | 250 | |
| A2 | Productivity gains per FTE with Infor CloudSuite | Interviews | 30% | 30% | 30% | |
| A3 | Average fully burdened, blended salary for a warehouse and operations FTE | Composite | $73,000 | $73,000 | $73,000 | |
| A4 | Productivity recapture | TEI methodology | 50% | 50% | 50% | |
| At | Increase in productivity: Warehouse and operations | A1*A2*A3*A4 | $547,500 | $1,368,750 | $2,737,500 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↓10% | |||||
| Atr | Increase in productivity: Warehouse and operations (risk-adjusted) | $492,750 | $1,231,875 | $2,463,750 | ||
| Three-year total: $4,188,375 | Three-year present value: $3,317,085 | |||||
Evidence and data. Interviewees described significant time savings and efficiency gains across their organizations’ finance, procurement, and master data management roles after implementing Infor CloudSuite. Previously, teams spent considerable time manually processing vendor invoices, updating pricing files, managing master data, and handling cross-charging workflows. High volumes of manual touchpoints not only slowed operations, but they also increased error rates and made it difficult to scale as the businesses expanded. Interviewees said Infor CloudSuite’s AI- and RPA-driven automations helped their organizations accelerate workflows, reduce headcount pressure, and shift staff toward more strategic, exception-based tasks.
The CFO of an industrial products organization explained that before using Infor CloudSuite, updating vendor pricing files that often contained millions of SKUs was a manual, cumbersome process that could take up to 30 days per vendor. After implementing Infor’s vendor price update automation, the organization reduced that cycle to about one week, which enabled faster SKU expansion and improved pricing accuracy.
The same interviewee said their organization added more than 4 million new parts and increased the number of vendors it manages without needing to proportionally expand master data or finance teams. They attributed this to automation capabilities that reduced the need for manual data entry and intervention. The CFO said, “By streamlining vendor and part data updates, we didn’t need to add new headcount even as the information we managed grew exponentially.”
The IT manager at a food and beverage organization said that accounts payable (AP) teams previously spent 1 to 2 hours per day manually capturing invoice data, matching purchase orders, and entering payments into the system. But they explained that Infor’s AI-powered AP automation — including optical character recognition (OCR) scanning — eliminated much of this low-value work, allowing AP processors to focus on approvals and exceptions. The interviewee shared, “Infor’s AI captures invoices directly from PDFs and emails, automatically matching suppliers and totals.”
Consolidating master data into a single, unified system helped interviewees’ organizations improve data accuracy, strengthen audit readiness, and reduce costly manual errors in procurement and AP processes. The CFO at an industrial products organization said, “Having our customer, vendor, and parts data centralized and updated timely allowed us to cut down on errors and improve transaction visibility across three distribution centers.”
Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes:
The organization onboards a total of 200 finance, procurement, and data management FTEs onto Infor CloudSuite over three years. It onboards 20% in Year 1, 50% in Year 2, and 100% in Year 3. Roles affected include AP processors, procurement analysts, accountants, data administrators, and financial operations managers.
These roles see a 20% efficiency improvement with Infor CloudSuite. This increases to 40% for the increased number of FTEs affected by Year 3 as they use the system more and increase the automations created on it.
The average fully burdened annual salary for a finance, procurement, and data management FTE is $80,000.
Forrester conservatively estimates that 50% of the total time saved per FTE is applied directly back to value-generating tasks, which is included in the benefit analysis. The composite’s employees apply additional time savings toward professional development, training, and work-life activities that are not included in the analysis.
Risks. The increase in productivity may vary depending on the following:
The total number of users affected by efficiencies created with Infor CloudSuite.
The maturity of process automation before implementing Infor CloudSuite.
The size, scope, and complexity of the business processes affected.
The salaries of FTEs.
The percent of productivity captured by the affected users.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $3.3 million.
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B1 | Finance, procurement, and data management FTEs | Composite | 40 | 100 | 200 | |
| B2 | Productivity gains per FTE with Infor CloudSuite | Interviews | 20% | 30% | 40% | |
| B3 | Average fully burdened, blended salary for a finance, procurement, and data management FTE | Composite | $80,000 | $80,000 | $80,000 | |
| B4 | Productivity recapture | TEI methodology | 50% | 50% | 50% | |
| Bt | Increase in productivity: Finance, procurement, and data management | B1*B2*B3*B4 | $320,000 | $1,200,000 | $3,200,000 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↓10% | |||||
| Btr | Increase in productivity: Finance, procurement, and data management (risk-adjusted) | $288,000 | $1,080,000 | $2,880,000 | ||
| Three-year total: $4,248,000 | Three-year present value: $3,318,167 | |||||
Evidence and data. Interviewees said that before adopting Infor CloudSuite, their organizations’ audit preparation and inventory traceability processes were heavily manual and fragmented. Audit coordinators, quality managers, and administrative teams had to gather information from multiple departments, export spreadsheets, and manually reconcile inventory records across internal and third-party systems. Interviewees explained that the platform’s real-time traceability tools, lot-level inventory management, and visual reporting drastically streamlined compliance activities, improved data integrity, and allowed teams to focus on strategic process improvements rather than firefighting manual discrepancies.
With Infor’s M3 Graphical Lot Tracker and centralized lot-level reporting, auditors gained the ability to access end-to-end product traceability instantly without relying on manual report compilation across departments. The IT manager at a food and beverage organization shared: “Previously, it took 24 to 48 hours to prepare reports for auditors. Now, we can trace products visually and have the information ready in minutes.” They said this shift freed administrative staff from multiday prep cycles and enabled faster, smoother audits.
Interviewees also said Infor CloudSuite improved inventory accuracy and reduced physical counting needs. Some said that prior to using the platform, their organization lacked lot-level control once goods left internal warehouses, leading to frequent manual reconciliations and spot checks at third-party warehouses. But one interviewee said with Infor’s systematic lot management, their organization improved its inventory accuracy by 30%.
By automating traceability and inventory tracking, administrative and compliance staff who previously spent hours on daily reconciliations and report generation gained the ability to focus on process improvement, contract compliance, and KPI development. Administrative analysts similarly shifted their focus from reactive reconciliation to proactive audit readiness and operational optimization.
Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes:
The organization onboards a total of 100 compliance, audit support, and admin FTEs onto Infor CloudSuite over three years. It onboards 20% in Year 1, 50% in Year 2, and 100% in Year 3. Roles affected include compliance coordinators, audit support and documentation specialists, and administrative analysts.
These roles see a 70% efficiency improvement with Infor CloudSuite.
The average fully burdened annual salary for a compliance, audit support, and admin FTE is $70,000.
Forrester conservatively estimates that 50% of the total time saved per FTE is applied directly back to value-generating tasks, which is included in the benefit analysis. The composite’s employees apply additional time savings toward professional development, training, and work-life activities that are not included in the analysis.
Risks. The increase in productivity may vary depending on the following:
The total number of users affected by efficiencies created with Infor CloudSuite.
The maturity of process automation before implementing Infor CloudSuite.
The size, scope, and complexity of the business processes affected.
The salaries of FTEs.
The percent of productivity captured by the affected users.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $3.0 million.
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C1 | Compliance, audit support, and admin FTEs | Composite | 20 | 50 | 100 | |
| C2 | Productivity gains per FTE with Infor CloudSuite | Interviews | 70% | 70% | 70% | |
| C3 | Average fully burdened, blended salary for a compliance, audit support, and admin FTE | Composite | $70,000 | $70,000 | $70,000 | |
| C4 | Productivity recapture | TEI methodology | 50% | 50% | 50% | |
| Ct | Increase in productivity: Compliance, audit support, and admin | C1*C2*C3*C4 | $490,000 | $1,225,000 | $2,450,000 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↓10% | |||||
| Ctr | Increase in productivity: Compliance, audit support, and admin (risk-adjusted) | $441,000 | $1,102,500 | $2,205,000 | ||
| Three-year total: $3,748,500 | Three-year present value: $2,968,715 | |||||
Evidence and data. Interviewees said their organizations experienced major gains in production planning accuracy, field service efficiency, and raw material management after adopting Infor CloudSuite. Previously, they handled production scheduling manually through spreadsheets, field service paperwork created billing delays, and raw material usage often involved reconciliation errors that affected inventory and financial reporting. Interviewees explained that Infor CloudSuite enabled a shift to real-time scheduling, mobile field operations, and better production control through innovations like virtual tanks and MRP automation. These changes improved operational agility, cut manual effort, and allowed frontline workers and planners to better align production to real-world demand.
Automating the validation and approval of purchase orders and production schedules reduced manual handoffs and email-based approval delays for the interviewees’ organizations. They now approve POs and update production plans faster, which interviewees said cuts administrative cycle times by days and improves responsiveness to changing customer demand.
Infor CloudSuite introduced virtual tank scheduling functionality that enabled the organizations to more accurately track and backflush raw material usage during production, which minimized errors like negative inventory. The IT manager at a food and beverage organization noted, “Infor CloudSuite’s virtual tank model helped us backflush actual production use, tightening raw material control and improving inventory integrity.” They said this helped eliminate overdrawn inventory transactions and provided clearer cost accounting.
The CFO of an industrial products organization explained that mobile field service capabilities helped eliminate paper-based workflows, which reduced billing cycle times from 20 to 30 days to less than a week. Field technicians gained the ability to close work orders digitally in real time, significantly accelerating revenue recognition and operational visibility.
Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes:
The organization onboards a total of 250 production, planning and field services FTEs onto Infor CloudSuite over three years. It onboards 20% in Year 1, 50% in Year 2, and 100% in Year 3. Roles affected include production schedulers, plant operators, and maintenance and field service technicians.
These roles see a 25% efficiency improvement with the Infor CloudSuite.
The average fully burdened annual salary for a production, planning, and field services FTE is $65,000.
Forrester conservatively estimates that 50% of the total time saved per FTE is applied directly back to value-generating tasks, which is included in the benefit analysis. The composite’s employees apply additional time savings toward professional development, training, and work-life activities that are not included in the benefit analysis.
Risks. The increase in productivity may vary depending on the following:
The total number of users affected by efficiencies created with Infor CloudSuite.
The maturity of process automation before implementing Infor CloudSuite.
The size, scope, and complexity of the business processes affected.
The salaries of FTEs.
The percent of productivity captured by the affected users.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $2.5 million.
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D1 | Production, planning, and field services FTEs | Composite | 50 | 125 | 250 | |
| D2 | Productivity gains per FTE with Infor CloudSuite | Interviews | 25% | 25% | 25% | |
| D3 | Average fully burdened, blended salary for a production, planning, and field services FTE | Composite | $65,000 | $65,000 | $65,000 | |
| D4 | Productivity recapture | TEI methodology | 50% | 50% | 50% | |
| Dt | Increase in productivity: Production, planning, and field services | D1*D2*D3*D4 | $406,250 | $1,015,625 | $2,031,250 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↓10% | |||||
| Dtr | Increase in productivity: Production, planning, and field services (risk-adjusted) | $365,625 | $914,063 | $1,828,125 | ||
| Three-year total: $3,107,813 | Three-year present value: $2,461,307 | |||||
Evidence and data. Interviewees said that before adopting Infor CloudSuite, IT teams spent significant time and resources maintaining heavily customized, on-premises ERP systems. Internal teams juggled software development, patch management, and feature enhancement work, which are tasks that diverted focus from strategic initiatives and often required weeks of effort to manage safely. Interviewees explained that Infor CloudSuite shifted their organizations away from reactive maintenance and custom coding toward models where the vendor handles updates, security patches, and core functionality enhancements. As a result, they said IT teams reduced low-value manual work, which allowed the organizations to avoid the cost of developing features in-house and focus more on strategic oversight and process improvement.
Interviewees said that prior to using Infor CloudSuite, IT teams were responsible for building and maintaining custom features (e.g., shipment notifications, blockchain-based traceability) they believe should be standard in modern ERP systems. But they explained with Infor CloudSuite, these capabilities came built-in, which eliminated the need for ongoing internal development and continuous reiteration as the organizations grew. An interviewee from a food and beverage organization said their company freed approximately 15 to 20 hours per week for each IT staff member who previously spent time on custom work.
Interviewees said the vendor-managed updates of Infor CloudSuite allow IT teams to stay current automatically, which improves system security and stability without dedicating time to manual patch processes. The CFO of an industrial products organization explained: “With our previous on-prem systems, patching could take weeks and created huge risks, including systems breaking across our interconnected software. Now, with Infor, updates happen seamlessly, and we just focus on managing outcomes — not firefighting.”
By moving away from highly customized legacy environments, interviewees’ organizations reduced reliance on specialized contractors and avoided the need to maintain deep in-house expertise for system integrations and custom development. Interviewees said IT teams gained the ability to operate more efficiently with internal resources focused on strategic initiatives rather than system maintenance.
Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes:
The composite onboards 10 IT FTEs onto Infor CloudSuite in Year 1, and they continue to work with the platform as adoption grows across the organization.
These FTEs see a 10% efficiency improvement with Infor CloudSuite in Year 1. This increases to 30% in Year 2 and to 50% in Year 3 as more locations and workstreams are onboarded onto the platform and as the organization’s systems become more connected across regions and divisions.
The average fully burdened annual salary for an IT FTE is $135,000.
Forrester conservatively estimates that 50% of the total time saved per FTE is applied directly back to value-generating tasks, which is included in the benefit analysis. The composite’s employees apply additional time savings toward professional development, training, and work-life activities that are not included in the analysis.
Risks. The increase in productivity may vary depending on the following:
The total number of users affected by efficiencies created with Infor CloudSuite.
The maturity and amount of fragmentation of legacy systems.
The salaries of FTEs.
The percent of productivity captured by the affected users.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $434,000.
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E1 | IT FTEs | Composite | 10 | 10 | 10 | |
| E2 | Productivity gains per FTE with Infor CloudSuite | Interviews | 10% | 30% | 50% | |
| E3 | Average fully burdened salary for an IT FTE | Composite | $135,000 | $135,000 | $135,000 | |
| E4 | Productivity recapture | TEI methodology | 50% | 50% | 50% | |
| Et | Increase in productivity: IT | E1*E2*E3*E4 | $67,500 | $202,500 | $337,500 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↓10% | |||||
| Etr | Increase in productivity: IT (risk-adjusted) | $60,750 | $182,250 | $303,750 | ||
| Three-year total: $546,750 | Three-year present value: $434,059 | |||||
Evidence and data. Interviewees said that prior to implementing Infor CloudSuite, their organizations managed large, fragmented networks of 3PL warehouses and that these redundant facilities increased costs for storage, shipping coordination, labor, and inventory reconciliation. Managing dozens or hundreds of external warehouses required significant daily operational oversight, driving inefficiencies across supply chain operations. By enabling warehouse consolidation and providing real-time inventory visibility, Infor CloudSuite allowed the organizations to streamline their logistics networks, eliminate low-volume facilities, and realize substantial cost savings on 3PL warehouse fees.
Interviewees said Infor provided their organizations with centralized inventory and planning capabilities, which enabled the consolidation of redundant 3PL sites. The CIO of a food and beverage organization shared: “Before [using Infor CloudSuite], we had over 200 third-party warehouses. After consolidating with Infor, we cut that number to around 100, significantly reducing overhead.” Other interviewees said their organizations were able to eliminate duplicate facilities, particularly low-volume locations, which led to fewer contracts, lower storage fees, and reduced administrative labor.
The organizations also improved the speed and accuracy of shipments by moving away from fragmented fulfillment through smaller warehouses toward centralized distribution centers. The CFO of an industrial products organization highlighted, “By consolidating inventory into larger DCs (distribution centers), we can now ship directly to customers, avoiding unnecessary branch-level stock movements and reducing logistics complexity.” Interviewees said this efficiency improvement positioned their organizations to lower shipping costs over time and improve responsiveness to customer demand.
Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes:
In its previous environment, the composite organization had 100 3PL warehouses.
With Infor CloudSuite, the composite reduces the number of 3PL warehouses in its environment by 50% in Year 3 as more of the organization is onboarded onto the platform.
The annual cost of a 3PL warehouse is $100,000.
Risks. Savings on 3PL warehouse fees may vary depending on the following:
The number of 3PL warehouses and complexity of warehouse setups.
The cost of a 3PL warehouse.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $5.7 million.
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F1 | 3PL warehouses in prior environment | Composite | 100 | 100 | 100 | |
| F2 | Reduction in 3PL warehouses as the organization migrates to Infor CloudSuite | Interviews | 10% | 30% | 50% | |
| F3 | 3PL warehouse cost per location | Composite | $100,000 | $100,000 | $100,000 | |
| Ft | Savings on 3PL warehouse fees | F1*F2*F3 | $1,000,000 | $3,000,000 | $5,000,000 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↓20% | |||||
| Ftr | Savings on 3PL warehouse fees (risk-adjusted) | $800,000 | $2,400,000 | $4,000,000 | ||
| Three-year total: $7,200,000 | Three-year present value: $5,716,003 | |||||
Evidence and data. Infor CloudSuite’s impact on financial accuracy and control was one of the most critical benefits highlighted by interviewees. They explained that before implementing Infor CloudSuite, their organizations relied on spreadsheets and manual processes to track pricing, promotions, and inventory levels. This created the risk of pricing errors, promotional misapplication, inventory discrepancies, and revenue leakage.
But interviewees said with Infor CloudSuite, pricing and promotions are enforced systemically, lot-level inventory integrity is maintained across internal and 3PL locations, and their organizations are able to manage by exception rather than chasing manual errors. There were measurable improvements in financial performance, inventory control, and margin protection. Interviewees reported the following outcomes:
Improved inventory accuracy and reduced adjustments. The lot-level management of Infor CloudSuite provided real-time visibility into inventory, which dramatically reduced discrepancies between internal records and 3PL partners. The IT manager at a food and beverage organization noted, “We saw approximately a 30% increase in inventory accuracy with Infor CloudSuite in the first year, cutting the need for physical counts and daily reconciliation.” This improvement reduced manual efforts, minimized inventory adjustments, and enabled the company to move from multiple spot checks per year to a single annual audit. As a result, inventory-related financial variances dropped significantly.
More accurate pricing enforcement and promotion management. Interviewees explained that before using Infor CloudSuite, customer service teams manually checked prices against spreadsheets, which led to inevitable human errors and missed promotional expirations. But they said pricing and promotions are now systematically enforced. The CFO at an industrial products organization said, “The system now blocks invalid promotions automatically, holding customers accountable and reducing pricing mistakes.” This helped prevent revenue leakage, tightened forecasting accuracy, and reduced the risk of cash-flow disruptions caused by unexpected adjustments.
Decrease in revenue leakage and better margin protection. Interviewees from organizations that systematized pricing and inventory controls said their companies recovered a meaningful share of revenue previously lost due to manual errors. These improvements were reflected in higher financial accuracy, fewer bad debt write-offs, and better accrual planning for promotions and variable costs.
Decrease in revenue leakage
Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes:
The composite generates $1 billion in annual revenue.
In the prior environment, the composite lost 2% of revenue to pricing inefficiencies.
In the prior environment, the composite lost 2% of its realized earnings to pricing and payment inefficiencies.5
With Infor CloudSuite, this revenue leakage is reduced by 70% in Year 3. This reduction ramps in correlation with the number of locations and users onboarded to the solution (20% of the 70% in Year 1, 50% of the 70% in Year 2, and 100% of the 70% in Year 3).
The composite organization’s operating margin in 10%.
Risks. Reduced revenue leakage through financial integrity and insights may vary depending on the following:
The organization’s annual revenue.
The number of revenue-related workflows affected by Infor CloudSuite.
The organization’s revenue leakage prior to adopting Infor CloudSuite.
The speed of the Infor CloudSuite adoption.
The skill sets of employees whose workdays are affected by efficiencies created using Infor CloudSuite and their ability to derive value from those efficiencies.
The organization’s operating margin.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $1.5 million.
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G1 | Revenue | Composite | $1,000,000,000 | $1,000,000,000 | $1,000,000,000 | |
| G2 | Revenue leakage prior to implementing Infor | Composite | 2% | 2% | 2% | |
| G3 | Decrease in revenue leakage attributable to Infor CloudSuite | Interviews | 14% | 35% | 70% | |
| G4 | Subtotal: Revenue uplift due to Infor | G1*G2*G3 | $2,800,000 | $7,000,000 | $14,000,000 | |
| G5 | Operating margin | TEI methodology | 10% | 10% | 10% | |
| Gt | Reduced revenue leakage through financial integrity and insights | G4*G5 | $280,000 | $700,000 | $1,400,000 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↓20% | |||||
| Gtr | Reduced revenue leakage through financial integrity and insights (risk-adjusted) | $224,000 | $560,000 | $1,120,000 | ||
| Three-year total: $1,904,000 | Three-year present value: $1,507,919 | |||||
Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:
Reduction in downtime. Interviewees said Infor CloudSuite’s cloud-native architecture leverages multi-availability zones, elastic load balancing, and 24/7 proactive monitoring to deliver high availability and minimize downtime risks with a promise of 99.7% uptime SLA. They explained that these features ensure resilience against outages and disruptions that typically affect on-premises systems and that moving to Infor CloudSuite significantly improved system uptime and business continuity.
An interviewee from a food and beverage organization said Infor CloudSuite consistently met its 99.7% uptime guarantee over five years, which was a marked improvement over the regular disruptions the company experienced with its previous on-premises system. And the global digital manager at a manufacturing organization said that prior to moving to Infor CloudSuite, power or internet outages at the headquarters would shut down remote access to critical systems like accounts payable, accounts receivable, and customer service, which would halt operations. But they said with Infor CloudSuite in place, employees can work seamlessly through their own internet connections and avoid major business disruptions during events like the shift to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Increase in visibility and data control. Interviewees explained that Infor CloudSuite enhanced visibility and control through its unified data model, embedded analytics with Infor Birst, master data management capabilities, and industry-specific best practices. They said their organizations benefit from centralized, real-time data access, standardized workflows, and system-enforced controls across finance, operations, and supply chain activities.
Interviewees shared that Infor CloudSuite significantly improved data consistency and operational alignment across their organizations. The CIO of a food and beverage company highlighted that consolidating from nine disconnected ERPs into a single system enabled full master data harmonization for customers, suppliers, and financial accounts: “Before, every division spoke a different data language. Now, it’s one system and one master.” The IT manager from the other food and beverage organization said Infor CloudSuite’s embedded controls and automated three-way matching improved procurement integrity and audit readiness, helping the company meet Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act compliance standards. They said: “You can’t process a payment unless all the approvals and matches are there. It’s built into the system.”
Improved security. Interviewees explained that Infor CloudSuite offers built-in security and compliance features, including role-based access controls, audit trails, data encryption, and automatic updates that help customers meet modern cybersecurity and compliance standards. By moving away from fragmented on-premises systems to Infor CloudSuite’s managed and always-updated cloud environment, the organizations strengthened their ability to safeguard critical business information.
Interviewees shared that Infor CloudSuite meaningfully improved security, traceability, and system resilience compared to previous solutions. The global digital manager at a manufacturing organization said prior to using Infor CloudSuite, their company faced significant risks tied to outdated infrastructure and limited internal controls: “If the [person] who was doing the maintenance stopped working, we were in trouble.” But the interviewee said with Infor CloudSuite in place, their organization gained a modern, secure platform with built-in security protections and traceability it previously lacked, which is a foundational improvement that justified the investment and helped ensure business continuity.
Empowering proactive, strategic work. Interviewees shared that prior to using Infor CloudSuite, operational and IT teams spent a disproportionate amount of time on manual oversight, data validation, and reactive problem-solving. But they said by unifying processes, automating routine tasks, and improving data reliability, Infor CloudSuite enabled teams to redirect their efforts toward higher-value strategic initiatives (e.g., proactive planning, data-driven decision-making, innovating on new services or process improvements), so teams were better equipped to support long-term growth. The IT manager at a food and beverage organization summarized: “We’re no longer buried in manual tasks. We finally have time to think ahead.”
Accelerated Global Implementation With Infor’s Time To Value Approach
According to Forrester research, transitioning to a modern ERP isn’t as simple as flipping a switch.6 It requires deliberate planning and a clear roadmap that addresses both technology and change management. The global digital manager at a manufacturing organization shared that their company experienced these benefits during deployment with Infor’s Time to Value implementation methodology. They said that by leveraging the Time to Value approach, their organization successfully transitioned from four fragmented legacy systems onto the unified Infor CloudSuite platform across four countries in just 12 months. They also explained that along with Infor’s data-first approach, its fit-to standard and industry best practice model enabled their organization to standardize business processes early, which accelerated adoption and reduced deployment risk.
Instead of depending solely on theoretical training or documentation, teams engaged hands on with Infor CloudSuite from the beginning, allowing users to practice real transactions and build confidence early in the project. The global digital manager shared, “The success of this first go-live is giving greater confidence for our teams that this will be a lasting solution in our organization.” They said by embracing Infor’s phased approach, best practices, and early-user enablement, the organization minimized disruption, accelerated time to value, and positioned itself for stronger long-term scalability and operational success.
The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Infor CloudSuite and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:
Greater business agility. Interviewees said Infor CloudSuite empowers their organizations to adapt to change more quickly and enables employees to work seamlessly from anywhere. The IT manager at a food and beverage organization shared: “As long as they have an internet connection, [employees] can get done what they need to. You’re no longer tied to the office to get anything done.” In addition to operational flexibility, interviewees explained that Infor CloudSuite is always evolving and encourages a change-ready mindset across their companies. The CFO of an industrial products organization said: “One of the benefits of the organization is being accepting of change. Because, in this case, it’s happening whether you want it to or not.”
Ease of expansion. Interviewees reported that the standardized master data structures and harmonized processes of Infor CloudSuite makes integrating new acquisitions dramatically faster and less complex. The CIO of a food and beverage organization said the time to onboard acquisitions shrank from about one year to just two to three months: “Any new acquisition we get, it’s not an implementation anymore; it’s simply adoption and deployment.” The CFO of an industrial products organization shared a similar experience: “We can integrate [new acquisitions] a lot quicker because our backbone is stronger.”
Faster adoption of emerging technologies. Interviewees said Infor’s cloud-based platform, extensible architecture, and built-in support for emerging technologies like blockchain and AI gave their organizations flexibility to quickly meet new regulatory and customer demands. The IT manager at a food and beverage organization said: “When one of our biggest retailers eventually mandates blockchain, [we’ll be] ready. We don’t have to scramble to build it ourselves anymore.” Interviewees also said they appreciate the ongoing evolution of Infor CloudSuite, which enables faster adoption of new features and tools without major disruption.
Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Appendix A).
| Ref. | Cost | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Htr | Fees to Infor | $2,000,000 | $400,000 | $1,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $5,400,000 | $4,692,712 |
| Itr | Implementation and ongoing management | $1,297,800 | $1,591,275 | $2,093,175 | $42,525 | $5,024,775 | $4,506,260 |
| Total costs (risk-adjusted) | $3,297,800 | $1,991,275 | $3,093,175 | $2,042,525 | $10,424,775 | $9,198,972 |
Evidence and data. The interviewees’ organizations paid fees for Infor CloudSuite based on the number of users and features in use. Some features are transaction-based while others use consumption tiering. Several interviewees said their organization also leveraged various types of Infor professional services (Infor’s Time to Value implementation methodology, Infor Organizational Change Management). Pricing may vary. Contact Infor for additional details.
Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes:
The composite pays $2 million for implementation services utilizing Infor’s Time to Value methodology during the initial yearlong implementation period.
The composite organization deploys Infor CloudSuite to four locations and 200 users in Year 1. This increases to 10 locations and 500 users in Year 2, and to 20 locations and 1,000 users in Year 3.
Risks. Fees to Infor may vary depending on the following:
The scope of the project in terms of the number of users and features in use.
The complexity of the organization’s prior environment and rollout timeline.
The organization’s need for professional services.
Results. Because Infor provided the pricing for the composite organization, Forrester did not adjust this cost for risk, yielding a three-year total PV (discounted at 10%) of $4.7 million.
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H1 | Infor professional services fees | Composite | $2,000,000 | $0 | $0 | $0 | |
| H2 | Infor user fees | Infor | $0 | $400,000 | $1,000,000 | $2,000,000 | |
| Ht | Fees to Infor | H1+H2 | $2,000,000 | $400,000 | $1,000,000 | $2,000,000 | |
| Risk adjustment | 0% | ||||||
| Htr | Fees to Infor (risk-adjusted) | $2,000,000 | $400,000 | $1,000,000 | $2,000,000 | ||
| Three-year total: $5,400,000 | Three-year present value: $4,692,712 | ||||||
Evidence and data. Interviewees described the implementation, training, and ongoing management of Infor CloudSuite as up-front investments that positioned their organizations for faster growth, improved user adoption, and long-term operational efficiency. Implementation timelines at the interviewees’ organizations ranged widely, from 18 months to four years, following a phased approach. However, interviewees said these up-front investments allow their companies to experience smoother system updates, faster onboarding, and greater agility to evolve with business needs.
They mentioned the following details:
Implementation required strong collaboration across IT, business, and leadership teams to harmonize processes and migrate data onto a unified platform. The organizations often dedicated cross-functional project teams (sometimes representing 10% of the workforce or more) to drive groupwide alignment. The CIO of a food and beverage organization shared, “We involved about 70 people to design the group model from the start, ensuring every company had a voice and a stake in the success.” Many interviewees also emphasized that leveraging Infor’s industry best practices and phased deployment strategies helped reduce risk and accelerate integration across business units.
Training investments focused on scaling knowledge quickly and empowering self-sufficiency. Interviewees said their organizations built robust digital training libraries, recorded live sessions, and deployed online learning hubs that made onboarding repeatable and efficient. The CFO of an industrial products organization noted: “We recorded every training session and published it online. It let new users ramp up at their own pace without burdening managers.” In addition to conducting early hands-on pilots, many interviewees said their organization now assigns role-specific online courses to new hires, which shortens time to productivity compared to their previous systems.
Ongoing management shifts from heavy IT support to streamlined internal enhancement cycles and business-driven innovation. Several interviewees said their organization absorbed system maintenance internally and dedicate approximately 10% of business analyst and developer time to quarterly releases and optimizations. Teams prioritize and deliver quarterly enhancements based on business requests, which allows the system to evolve alongside changing needs. The CIO of a food and beverage organization remarked: “After go-live, we kept momentum by releasing new enhancements every quarter. [We’ve released more than] 300 so far, all driven by business users.” Interviewees said this approach enabled their organizations to avoid costly development bottlenecks and keep user engagement high after initial deployment.
Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes:
Implementation and rollout to 20 locations and 1,000 users takes place over three years. Implementation takes place one year in advance of when a location is fully rolled out.
Ten IT FTEs spend 50% of their time assisting with implementation and rollout.
The average fully burdened annual salary for an IT FTE is $135,000.
The number of business users who assist with implementation increases from 30 during the initial implementation to 60 in Year 2 as the composite increasingly onboards locations onto Infor CloudSuite.
The average fully burdened annual salary for a business user FTE is $83,000.
All net new Infor CloudSuite users require an average of 30 hours of training on the platform.
The blended hourly salary for an Infor CloudSuite user FTE is $52.
Three IT FTEs dedicate 10% of their time to ongoing management of the solution.
Risks. Implementation and ongoing management costs may vary depending on the following:
The size, scope, and complexity of the organization’s operations and rollout.
The available capacity and skill sets of teams
The salaries of FTEs.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 5%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $4.5 million.
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I1 | IT FTEs who assist with implementation | Interviews | 10 | 10 | 10 | 0 | |
| I2 | Portion of time IT FTEs spend on implementation | Interviews | 50% | 50% | 50% | 50% | |
| I3 | Average fully burdened salary for an IT FTE | Composite | $135,000 | $135,000 | $135,000 | $135,000 | |
| I4 | Business users who assist with implementation | Interviews | 30 | 40 | 60 | 0 | |
| I5 | Portion of time business user FTEs spend on implementation | Interviews | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10% | |
| I6 | Average fully burdened salary for a business user FTE | Composite | $83,000 | $83,000 | $83,000 | $83,000 | |
| I7 | Subtotal: Implementation fees | (I1*I2*I3)+(I4* I5*I6) | $924,000 | $1,007,000 | $1,173,000 | $0 | |
| I8 | Net new FTEs trained on Infor CloudSuite | Composite | 200 | 300 | 500 | 0 | |
| I9 | Training time per FTE (hours) | Interviews | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | |
| I10 | Blended hourly salary for an FTE | Composite | $52 | $52 | $52 | $52 | |
| I11 | Subtotal: Training fees | I8*I9*I10 | $312,000 | $468,000 | $780,000 | $0 | |
| I12 | IT FTEs who assist with ongoing management | Interviews | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
| I13 | Portion of time IT FTEs spend on ongoing management | Interviews | 0% | 10% | 10% | 10% | |
| I14 | Subtotal: Ongoing management fees | I12*I13*I3 | $0 | $40,500 | $40,500 | $40,500 | |
| It | Implementation and ongoing management | I7+I11+I14 | $1,236,000 | $1,515,500 | $1,993,500 | $40,500 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↑5% | ||||||
| Itr | Implementation and ongoing management (risk-adjusted) | $1,297,800 | $1,591,275 | $2,093,175 | $42,525 | ||
| Three-year total: $5,024,775 | Three-year present value: $4,506,260 | ||||||
| Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total costs | ($3,297,800) | ($1,991,275) | ($3,093,175) | ($2,042,525) | ($10,424,775) | ($9,198,972) |
| Total benefits | $0 | $2,672,125 | $7,470,688 | $14,800,625 | $24,943,438 | $19,723,255 |
| Net benefits | ($3,297,800) | $680,850 | $4,377,513 | $12,758,100 | $14,518,663 | $10,524,283 |
| ROI | 114% | |||||
| Payback | 20.0 months |
The financial results calculated in the Benefits and Costs sections can be used to determine the ROI, NPV, and payback period for the composite organization’s investment. Forrester assumes a yearly discount rate of 10% for this analysis.
These risk-adjusted ROI, NPV, and payback period values are determined by applying risk-adjustment factors to the unadjusted results in each Benefit and Cost section.
The initial investment column contains costs incurred at “time 0” or at the beginning of Year 1 that are not discounted. All other cash flows are discounted using the discount rate at the end of the year. PV calculations are calculated for each total cost and benefit estimate. NPV calculations in the summary tables are the sum of the initial investment and the discounted cash flows in each year. Sums and present value calculations of the Total Benefits, Total Costs, and Cash Flow tables may not exactly add up, as some rounding may occur.
From the information provided in the interviews, Forrester constructed a Total Economic Impact™ framework for those organizations considering an investment in Infor CloudSuite.
The objective of the framework is to identify the cost, benefit, flexibility, and risk factors that affect the investment decision. Forrester took a multistep approach to evaluate the impact that Infor CloudSuite can have on an organization.
Interviewed Infor stakeholders and Forrester analysts to gather data relative to Infor CloudSuite.
Interviewed four people at organizations using Infor CloudSuite to obtain data about costs, benefits, and risks.
Designed a composite organization based on characteristics of the interviewees’ organizations.
Constructed a financial model representative of the interviews using the TEI methodology and risk-adjusted the financial model based on issues and concerns of the interviewees.
Employed four fundamental elements of TEI in modeling the investment impact: benefits, costs, flexibility, and risks. Given the increasing sophistication of ROI analyses related to IT investments, Forrester’s TEI methodology provides a complete picture of the total economic impact of purchase decisions. Please see Appendix A for additional information on the TEI methodology.
Benefits represent the value the solution delivers to the business. The TEI methodology places equal weight on the measure of benefits and costs, allowing for a full examination of the solution’s effect on the entire organization.
Costs comprise all expenses necessary to deliver the proposed value, or benefits, of the solution. The methodology captures implementation and ongoing costs associated with the solution.
Flexibility represents the strategic value that can be obtained for some future additional investment building on top of the initial investment already made. The ability to capture that benefit has a PV that can be estimated.
Risks measure the uncertainty of benefit and cost estimates given: 1) the likelihood that estimates will meet original projections and 2) the likelihood that estimates will be tracked over time. TEI risk factors are based on “triangular distribution.”
The present or current value of (discounted) cost and benefit estimates given at an interest rate (the discount rate). The PV of costs and benefits feed into the total NPV of cash flows.
The present or current value of (discounted) future net cash flows given an interest rate (the discount rate). A positive project NPV normally indicates that the investment should be made unless other projects have higher NPVs.
A project’s expected return in percentage terms. ROI is calculated by dividing net benefits (benefits less costs) by costs.
The interest rate used in cash flow analysis to take into account the time value of money. Organizations typically use discount rates between 8% and 16%.
The breakeven point for an investment. This is the point in time at which net benefits (benefits minus costs) equal initial investment or cost.
Total Economic Impact is a methodology developed by Forrester Research that enhances a company’s technology decision-making processes and assists solution providers in communicating their value proposition to clients. The TEI methodology helps companies demonstrate, justify, and realize the tangible value of business and technology initiatives to both senior management and other key stakeholders.
Related Forrester Research
Enterprise Resource Planning Market Insights, Forrester Research, Inc., November 12, 2024.
How Generative AI Will Transform ERP, Forrester Research, Inc., May 22, 2024.
Linda Ivy-Rosser, Predictions 2024: A Lethargic Enterprise Software Market Goes Cutting-Edge, Forrester Blogs.
1 Source: Your Bold, Next-Gen Approach To ERP, Forrester Research, Inc., September 17, 2024.
2 Source: The Enterprise Resource Planning Solutions For Product-Centric Industries Landscape, Q1 2024, Forrester Research, Inc., February 14, 2024.
3 Source: High-Performance IT Survey, 2024, Forrester Research, Inc., July 2024.
4 Total Economic Impact is a methodology developed by Forrester Research that enhances a company’s technology decision-making processes and assists solution providers in communicating their value proposition to clients. The TEI methodology helps companies demonstrate, justify, and realize the tangible value of business and technology initiatives to both senior management and other key stakeholders.
5 Source: Orient Revenue Operations To Customer Value, Forrester Research, Inc., June 1, 2023.
6 Source: Forrester’s Essential Guide To Next-Gen ERP Modernization, Forrester Research, Inc., April 8, 2025.
Readers should be aware of the following:
This study is commissioned by Infor and delivered by Forrester Consulting. It is not meant to be used as a competitive analysis.
Forrester makes no assumptions as to the potential ROI that other organizations will receive. Forrester strongly advises that readers use their own estimates within the framework provided in the study to determine the appropriateness of an investment in Infor CloudSuite.
Infor reviewed and provided feedback to Forrester, but Forrester maintains editorial control over the study and its findings and does not accept changes to the study that contradict Forrester’s findings or obscure the meaning of the study.
Infor provided the customer names for the interviews but did not participate in the interviews.
Sanitra Desai
May 2025
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