ERP end of support is coming: What to do next to protect operations and modernize

When an enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendor either announces that a long-used platform is being phased out or moves a product into sustaining support, it forces leadership teams to make decisions under time pressure. For example, Epicor has announced plans to retire the Classic (Smart Client) experience with its 2026.1 release, prompting many organizations to reassess risk, timelines, and next steps.

After the final mainstream releases, many ERPs will continue to run, but the vendor’s focus shifts. Enhancements slow, updates arrive less frequently, and over time the exposure grows across security, compliance, and integration needs. For the system that supports finance, operations, manufacturing, and customer service, an end-of-support announcement is a strategic inflection point that deserves deliberate planning.

If your organization is impacted by an end of support or major deprecation, the technology implications are only part of the story. You’re likely already fielding questions from operations, finance, IT, security, and the executive team—often with incomplete information and a timeline that feels shorter than it should.

One requirement to elevate early: Ensure your next ERP is AI-ready

End of support is often treated like a technology deadline. It’s also a chance to modernize the capabilities that will matter most over the next decade—starting with an ERP that is artificial intelligence (AI)-ready. That means embedded automation and industry intelligence you can deploy quickly, scale safely, and govern responsibly.

This is where many “horizontal” ERP strategies fall short. Generic platforms may offer AI toolkits, but they still require heavy customization and integration to match the realities of manufacturing and distribution—your data model, workflows, constraints, and daily decisions. Too often, automation gets bolted on, value takes longer to realize, and upgrades get even more complex.

An open, industry-ready ERP changes the equation: Core processes are delivered as standard, operational data is structured for decision-making, and AI and automation can be applied to real use cases. Infor CloudSuite™ is designed around this approach, combining industry-specific capabilities with automation that reduces manual work, improves exception management, and speeds time to value without recreating your ERP in custom code.

As you assess your options, add a few AI-readiness questions alongside the usual timeline, cost, and migration criteria:

• Is AI embedded in the product and aligned to our industry workflows? Look for packaged, role-based use cases—not a promise that you can build them later.
  Is the data model and integration layer designed for automation? Clean master data, consistent transactions, and open application programming interfaces (APIs) matter more than standalone AI tools.
  
• Can we automate decisions and exceptions end to end? Examples include order promises, supply exceptions, invoice matching, inventory replenishment, and customer service triage.
• How will security, compliance, and governance be handled? This is critical as AI touches financial processes, customer data, and operational controls.
• How quickly can we adopt new capabilities without disruptive upgrades? Continuous innovation only matters if you can absorb it operationally.

When AI and automation are built into the ERP, you get outcomes like:

• Exception-driven planning and execution: Detect supply, demand, capacity, and order risks earlier and route the right action to the right role before service levels slip.
  
• More reliable promise-to-deliver performance: Improve available-to-promise accuracy and reduce expedites by reconciling inventory, work in progress (WIP), supply, and constraints continuously.
  
• Less manual work in back-office and service: Automate invoice matching, routine inquiries, and case triage so teams focus on exceptions and customers.
  
• Stronger quality, controls, and compliance: Identify anomalies earlier, guide corrective actions, and strengthen approvals and audit trails without extra spreadsheets.

AI readiness isn’t an “innovation nice-to-have.” It’s directly tied to throughput, service levels, working capital, and how resilient your operation will be as volatility increases.

Here are the core questions to align on early, so you can manage the immediate risk while choosing a platform that supports long-term modernization.

• What exactly is being deprecated and what is the timeline? Clarify what changes at each stage (mainstream vs. sustaining vs. end of support) and what commitments are in writing.
  
• What are the security, compliance, and operational risks? Understand patch posture, audit implications, cyber insurance considerations, and where exposure increases if timelines slip.
  
• How customized or complex is today’s environment? Inventory custom code, reports, integrations, and data flows—and decide what is differentiating versus technical debt to retire.
  
• How will productivity be protected during transition? Plan for the shop floor, warehouse, customer service, and month-end close—and avoid throughput loss during cutover.
  
• What happens to data, integrations, and reporting? Define migration scope, interface rebuilds (electronic data interchange (EDI), warehouse management system (WMS), transportation management system (TMS), product lifecycle management (PLM), and e-commerce), and how key performance indicators (KPIs) and analytics will be preserved.
  
• Which path is best—incumbent, new vendor, or extend while you plan? Compare options objectively across timeline, cost, risk, and long-term fit (including AI readiness).

The concern many leaders feel right now is valid.

In these situations, the dominant theme isn’t resistance to change, it’s concern about how much change this really represents. Years of customizations and ingrained workflows don’t simply carry forward, and even strong target platforms often require more than a user interface (UI) update. For many organizations, this is closer to a reimplementation than an upgrade.

And that reality reframes the decision entirely.

A practical framework: Assess your options before you commit

An end-of-support announcement can create urgency, but that shouldn’t eliminate choice. Before you sign up for the default migration path from your incumbent vendor, it helps to run a structured assessment that clarifies risk, timeline, and the best fit platform for the next phase of your business.

• Confirm what is changing (and when). Separate mainstream support, sustaining support, and end of support. Document dates, what will stop (enhancements, compliance updates, security fixes), and what will remain.
  
• Quantify operational exposure. Identify the processes most at risk if updates slow down (financial close, cybersecurity controls, EDI or integration, shop floor, warehouse, customer service). Translate that exposure into business impact.
  
• Inventory customizations and complexity. List critical customizations, reports, integrations, and data flows. The more you’ve tailored your current ERP, the more your “upgrade” resembles a re implementation—regardless of vendor.
  
• Define what “better” must look like. Capture the outcomes you want (cycle time, inventory accuracy, on-time delivery, margin visibility, automation, analytics, and AI readiness) and the constraints you must protect (shop-floor productivity, compliance, uptime).
  
• Compare three paths deliberately. Most organizations have at least three options: (1) Move to the incumbent’s recommended platform, (2) move to a different vendor, or (3) extend the life of the current platform while you plan (where contractually and operationally viable). Evaluate each against timeline, risk, cost, and long-term fit.
  
• Pressure test implementation and change management. Ask how the vendor or partner will protect productivity during transition, how they handle data migration and integrations, and what enablement looks like for different roles (finance, planners, customer service, operators).
  
• Validate with references and proof. Look for customer stories in your industry, measurable outcomes, and a clear post-go-live support model.

A forced change can still be a strategic choice

Whether an organization stays with its current vendor or moves to a new platform, stepping away from a legacy ERP is effectively starting a new ERP initiative. That introduces risk, but it also creates an opportunity.

Rather than rushing into the next version of yesterday’s system, many organizations pause to ask a more practical question:

Is our next ERP built for how we need to operate going forward—or how we operated years ago?

That question matters because the challenges being raised aren’t temporary: rebuilding customizations, retraining teams, protecting productivity on the shop floor or in the warehouse, and managing tight timelines are very real. These aren’t problems a new interface alone can solve.

They require a solution and a partner that understands both the technology and the people affected by change.

Infor industry cloud ERP solutions: Disrupt your industry, not your operations

Infor™ has spent decades helping manufacturers and distributors modernize ERP environments, including migrations from legacy on-premises systems. The focus isn’t just on moving systems to the cloud—it’s simplifying operations, reducing unnecessary customization, and supporting how people actually work.

Infor ERP solutions are multi-tenant, cloud-native on AWS, and embedded with proven industry-specific best practices and workflows. The functionality needed is available from the start, so teams can focus less on rebuilding customizations and more on differentiating—speeding implementation and realizing value faster. Just as important, Infor approaches ERP change with a commitment to your long-term success. Through Infor Care and structured, proven change-management practices, teams are guided with clear communication, role-based enablement, and support that prioritizes adoption and long-term use—not just go-live.

Infor CloudSuite

Infor CloudSuite is Infor’s family of industry cloud solutions—preconfigured, role-based applications delivered as a multi-tenant service and designed around specific industries (such as industrial manufacturing and distribution). Think of CloudSuite as the solution package: It brings together the core business system plus the surrounding capabilities most organizations need to run day-to-day operations, with a consistent cloud delivery model for updates, security, and scalability.

How ERP fits into CloudSuite

Within CloudSuite, ERP remains the system of record—running finance, purchasing, inventory, production, and order management on a single, connected data model. CloudSuite then layers in the industry capabilities and platform services needed to modernize end-to-end processes without stitching together a patchwork of point solutions.

• Core ERP transactions (financials, order management, purchasing, inventory, production)
• Industry-specific capabilities (manufacturing: planning and scheduling, configuration, quality, execution; distribution: pricing and rebates, purchasing workflows, customer service)
• Cloud platform services (integration, workflow, analytics) plus optional supply chain and asset capabilities as needed
• AI readiness (embedded automation or use cases, governed data, and continuous delivery so new AI capabilities can be adopted without disruptive upgrades)

Together, this reduces customization, protects productivity, and keeps you on a platform that can keep evolving.

Proven results across distribution and manufacturing

Manufacturers and distributors are using ERP modernization to simplify operations and unlock measurable gains,without sacrificing day-to-day productivity.

In manufacturing, companies are using Infor CloudSuite Industrial (CSI) to simplify operations, connect the quote-to-cash process, and improve agility—often with lean IT teams. Examples include:

• Hines, which moved from a patchwork of heavily customized on-premises systems to CSI to simplify operations across multiple manufacturing businesses and gain agility and efficiency.
• ACS Group, which uses CSI with configure, price, quote (CPQ), and Factory Track to get real-time visibility across quote-to-ship—helping teams quote faster and stay aligned to delivery and job-completion targets.
• Oliver Packaging, which leveraged CSI with AI (Coleman) to optimize inventory significantly faster and reduce workload in identifying customer-order anomalies—supporting better on-time delivery and customer satisfaction.

In distribution, organizations are using Infor CloudSuite Distribution (CSD) to streamline warehouse and customer service processes. Examples include:

• Babbitt Chainwheels, which streamlined operations and improved customer service with Infor CloudSuite Distribution.
• Turtle, which competed against companies three to ten times its size—without expanding its IT footprint. In just four months, Turtle achieved over $700,000 in incremental revenue and a $500,000 margin improvement, while reducing manual work and improving decision-making.

“When we looked across the opportunities for digital transformation, we specifically chose Infor because of their unique and strong relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS).”
— Teesee Murray, Group President, Turtle

Built for what comes next

Infor CloudSuites are built on a true multi-tenant industry cloud platform—enabling continuous innovation without the disruptive upgrade cycles that define traditional on-premises ERP models. Just as important, this delivery model is what makes an ERP AI-ready: you can adopt embedded AI and automation capabilities as they evolve, with a consistent approach to security, compliance, and governance.

Organizations migrating from legacy ERP environments to Infor CloudSuite consistently cite benefits that support AI readiness and long-term operational agility:

• Reduced reliance on customization
• Automatic updates without operational disruption
• Scalability for growth, acquisitions, and new business models
• A proven migration approach supported by experienced services teams
• Embedded AI and automation for end-to-end exception management (planning, order promising, inventory, AP), reduced manual work, and accelerated decision-making using operational data

Infor CloudSuite is often described as “the last upgrade you’ll ever need,” a reflection of a delivery model designed to evolve with the business.

A committed partner—post implementation

One of the biggest concerns during an ERP discontinuation isn’t the technology, it’s whether you’ll have committed partnership through and after go-live.

Teams worry about retraining, losing hard-won process knowledge, and whether partners truly understand how the business runs day to day—especially where productivity, timing, and margins matter.

Infor’s time-to-value implementation methodology leverages industry best practices built into our CloudSuites, enabling organizations to minimize customization, reduce risk, streamline change management, and accelerate value realization. However, we see implementation as just the start of our partnership. We stay accountable for ensuring value is realized and sustained—before, during, and after go-live.

Through Infor Care, customers are supported with structured change-management practices that focus on communication, role-based enablement, and adoption. Many of the people architecting and guiding our ERP implementations have worked directly in plants, warehouses, and operations roles, bringing real-world understanding to the transition.

Rather than forcing organizations to adapt to a generic ERP model, Infor helps customers modernize without losing what already works. This includes:

• Change-management programs that prioritize user adoption, not just go-live
• Industry‑specific best practices that reduce the need to rebuild legacy customizations
• Advisors who speak the language of the business, not just the software

For organizations navigating an ERP sunset, this people‑first approach is often the difference between disruption and momentum.

Take the next step—on your terms

An ERP sunset doesn’t require panic—but it does require a decision you’ll live with for years.

This moment is a window to reduce risk, simplify how work gets done, and put an AI-ready foundation in place—so automation, analytics, and continuous improvement become part of day-to-day operations (not separate projects that never quite scale).

If you’re already facing a reimplementation-level change, don’t default into the next version of yesterday’s ERP. Choose a platform that is industry-ready and AI-ready by design. For manufacturers and distributors, Infor CloudSuite is that next step: a multi-tenant industry cloud on AWS with embedded industry best practices, open integration, and built-in AI and automation to drive measurable outcomes.

The fastest path to clarity is a short, structured assessment of your timeline, customization footprint, and AI-ready requirements—then mapping them to the right CloudSuite migration path.

Explore Infor CloudSuite for your industry—and the best migration path forward

Infor CloudSuite Industrial: Purpose-built Cloud Solution for discrete and industrial manufacturers

Proven ROI with Infor CloudSuite: Independent analyst validation from Nucleus Research

Cloud ERP built for continuous innovation: Why CloudSuite is often called “the last upgrade you’ll ever need”

Infor Industry resources

• Industrial Manufacturing industry page: Manufacturing ERP Software | Industrial Manufacturing | Infor
• Infor Distribution industry page: Wholesale Distribution Software | Industry | Infor CloudSuite

Learn how Infor CloudSuite helps organizations modernize with less risk, faster time to value, and proven industry results.