Infor CloudSuite Implementation Cost: What to Budget in 2026

“How much is this going to cost?” It is the first question every executive asks when an Infor CloudSuite implementation lands on the roadmap. After 26 years of implementing Lawson and CloudSuite across healthcare, higher education, public sector, and retail, I can tell you the honest answer: it depends. But I can also give you the ranges, the cost drivers, and the framework to build a realistic budget.

The problem with most cost estimates is that they come from people who are trying to sell you something. Implementation partners lowball to win the deal. Software vendors quote license fees but gloss over the consulting, integration, and organizational change that dwarf those fees. The result? Organizations routinely underestimate total cost by 40-60%.

This guide is designed to fix that. No sales pitch, just the numbers and the logic behind them.

Cost Ranges by Organization Size

Let me start with the ranges I have seen across dozens of implementations. These are total project costs including software, consulting, internal labor, and infrastructure.

Phase-by-Phase Cost Breakdown

Understanding where your money goes across implementation phases helps you plan and negotiate. Here is how cost typically distributes:

Discovery and Planning (10-15% of budget)

This is where you define scope, document requirements, assess current state, and build your project plan. Organizations that invest properly here save multiples downstream. Skimping on discovery is one of the surest ways to blow your budget later.

Design (15-20% of budget)

Solution design, process mapping, integration architecture, data migration strategy. This is where the big architectural decisions happen. Get them wrong and you pay for it throughout the project. I wrote about this in detail in my post on the hidden costs of poor architecture.

Build and Configure (25-30% of budget)

The largest single phase. System configuration, integration development, data migration build, reports, workflows. This is where your consulting dollars are most concentrated. The quality of your design phase directly determines how efficiently this phase runs.

Testing (15-20% of budget)

Unit testing, integration testing, user acceptance testing, performance testing, regression testing. Organizations consistently underbudget testing. When the project runs over in build, testing gets compressed. That is when go-live problems start.

Training and Change Management (10-15% of budget)

Training material development, train-the-trainer programs, end-user training, communications, organizational readiness. This is the most underinvested phase in nearly every project I audit. If you want to understand why, read my piece on change management for ERP implementations.

Go-Live and Post-Go-Live Support (5-10% of budget)

Cutover activities, hypercare support, stabilization, issue resolution. Budget for at least 4-8 weeks of dedicated post-go-live support. The first two weeks after go-live are always intense, no matter how well you prepared.

Cost Drivers That Increase Your Budget

Here is what pushes implementations toward the higher end of those ranges:

• Number of modules: Each additional module adds configuration, testing, training, and integration work. Going from FSM alone to FSM plus HCM plus WFM can double or triple the effort.
• Integration complexity: Every external system connection (Epic, Workday, Kronos, homegrown applications) adds significant cost. Healthcare organizations with Epic integrations should budget 15-25% of total project cost for integration alone.
• Data migration volume: Migrating 10 years of historical data versus 3 years dramatically increases effort. Infor recommends approximately 3 years, and I agree for most organizations.
• Customization: Every custom modification to standard CloudSuite functionality adds cost now and maintenance cost forever. The more you customize, the harder upgrades become.
• Organizational readiness: Organizations with weak project governance, executive turnover, or resistance to change burn more consulting hours working through organizational challenges.
• Multi-entity complexity: Shared services models, intercompany transactions, and multiple legal entities add layers of configuration and testing.

Cost Drivers That Decrease Your Budget

Here is what keeps costs controlled:

• Proven consulting expertise: Consultants who have done this before move faster, avoid pitfalls, and make better decisions. You pay more per hour but far less in total.
• Clear, controlled scope: Organizations that define scope clearly and enforce change control discipline save 20-30% compared to those that let scope drift.
• Phased approach: Implementing in waves rather than a big-bang reduces risk and spreads cost. Start with FSM, add HCM and WFM in a later phase.
• Experienced internal team: Organizations with strong functional leads who know their business processes require less consulting time for requirements gathering and design validation.
• Standard processes: Adopting CloudSuite best practices rather than replicating every legacy workflow reduces configuration, testing, and training effort significantly.

Consulting Rate Ranges in 2026

Consulting fees typically represent 50-70% of your total implementation cost. Here is what the market looks like:

Hidden Costs Most Organizations Miss

Beyond the obvious consulting and software fees, these costs catch organizations off guard:

• Internal labor: Your best people will spend 30-50% of their time on the project. That is real cost, even if it does not show up on the implementation invoice. Backfill or accept that other priorities will slip.
• Data cleansing: Your data is not as clean as you think. Budget time and money for data remediation before migration. Dirty data going into CloudSuite creates problems for years.
• Environment and infrastructure: Non-production environments, testing tools, development licenses, network connectivity. These add up, especially for multi-tenant CloudSuite deployments.
• Post-go-live optimization: The system is rarely fully optimized at go-live. Plan for 3-6 months of tuning, report refinement, and process adjustment after cutover.
• Ongoing support transition: Moving from project team to steady-state support requires knowledge transfer, documentation, and often retained consulting support.

I covered these in depth in my article on the hidden costs of poor architecture, which applies broadly to implementation budgeting.

How to Get an Accurate Estimate

If you are early in the planning process, here is how to build a budget you can trust:

1. Define scope clearly: Which modules, which entities, which integrations, which data? Vague scope produces vague estimates. Nail this down before you ask anyone for a number.
2. Get multiple perspectives: Talk to at least three implementation partners. Compare not just price but approach, staffing model, and assumptions. Wide variance in estimates usually means scope is not well defined.
3. Add a contingency: 15-20% contingency on top of your best estimate. This is not pessimism, it is realism. Every implementation encounters surprises. The question is whether you budgeted for them.
4. Account for internal costs: Multiply the number of internal FTEs dedicated to the project by their loaded cost. Add backfill costs if needed. This is often 20-30% of total project cost.
5. Plan for post-go-live: Budget 10-15% of your implementation cost for the first year of post-go-live optimization and support.
6. Get an independent review: Before signing with an implementation partner, have an independent expert review the SOW, estimate, and approach. A few thousand dollars in advisory fees can save hundreds of thousands in avoided mistakes.

The Bottom Line

An Infor CloudSuite implementation is a significant investment. But the cost of getting it wrong is far higher than the cost of getting it right. Organizations that budget realistically, invest in experienced talent, control scope, and plan for the full lifecycle consistently achieve better outcomes and lower total cost.

The organizations that struggle are the ones that chase the lowest bid, underestimate complexity, and treat change management as an afterthought. Do not be that organization.

If you are building a business case or evaluating proposals, I am happy to provide an independent perspective. With 26 years of Infor experience, I can help you separate realistic budgets from wishful thinking. Learn more about our CloudSuite implementation services.