Still Running Lawson v9? Here's Your Complete Upgrade Roadmap

If your organization is still running Infor Lawson v9—or even Lawson S3—you're not alone. I've spoken with dozens of organizations over the past year that are still on these legacy platforms. The good news: you have options. The bad news: the window to exercise those options comfortably is closing. After 26 years in the Infor ecosystem, here's the honest upgrade roadmap I give every Lawson v9 customer.

Where Lawson v9 Stands Today

Let me be direct: Lawson v9 (and the even older Lawson S3) is well past its prime. Infor's investment has shifted entirely to CloudSuite, and the on-premise Lawson product line has a defined end-of-support date of December 31, 2030.

That might sound like plenty of time, but if you've ever been through a major ERP migration, you know that a 4-year runway for planning, vendor selection, implementation, testing, and go-live is actually tight—especially for organizations running complex Lawson v9 environments with years of customizations.

Your Three Upgrade Paths from Lawson v9

Every Lawson v9 organization has three realistic options. Here's how I evaluate each one:

Option 1: Lawson v9 to Lawson v10 Upgrade

What it involves: Upgrading from Lawson v9 to Lawson v10 (now branded as Infor Lawson) while staying on-premise.

• Familiar platform: Your team already knows Lawson. The v9 to v10 upgrade preserves most business processes and customizations.
• Lower immediate risk: Compared to a full CloudSuite migration, a Lawson v9 to v10 upgrade is a smaller change for the organization.
• Buys time: Gets you to a supported platform while you plan the eventual CloudSuite migration.
• Temporary solution: You're still on a platform heading to end-of-life in 2030. You'll need to migrate to CloudSuite eventually.
• Double the cost: You're paying for a Lawson v10 upgrade now AND a CloudSuite migration later. That's two major projects instead of one.
• Infrastructure burden: You still own the servers, the database, the patching, and the DBA costs.

Option 2: Direct Lawson v9 to CloudSuite Migration

What it involves: Skipping Lawson v10 entirely and migrating directly from Lawson v9 to Infor CloudSuite in the cloud.

• One migration, not two: You invest once in a modern platform that Infor is actively developing. No throwaway intermediate step.
• Modern capabilities: CloudSuite gives you Infor OS, embedded analytics (Birst), ION integration, mobile access, and continuous updates.
• Eliminate infrastructure: No more servers, database licensing, or infrastructure staff dedicated to ERP.
• Access to Velocity Suite: CloudSuite customers can leverage the new Infor Velocity Suite for process mining, AI, and automation.
• Larger project scope: This is effectively a new implementation, not just an upgrade. Expect 12-24 months depending on complexity.
• Customization rework: Every Lawson customization needs to be evaluated. Some can be replicated in CloudSuite; others need to be retired.

Option 3: Evaluate Alternative ERP Platforms

What it involves: Using the Lawson v9 end-of-life as a catalyst to evaluate whether Infor CloudSuite is the right platform, or whether Workday, Oracle Cloud, SAP S/4HANA, or another platform is a better fit.

• Clean-slate evaluation: If your needs have fundamentally changed since you selected Lawson, this is your chance to reassess.
• Longest timeline: Add 6-12 months for vendor evaluation before you even start implementation.
• Loss of institutional knowledge: 10-15+ years of Lawson expertise in your organization won't transfer to a new platform.

The Lawson v9 Data Migration Challenge

Regardless of which path you choose, data migration from Lawson v9 is the single biggest technical challenge. Here's what makes it complex:

• Data volume: Lawson v9 environments that have been running for 10-15+ years contain massive amounts of historical data. Infor recommends migrating only 3 years of data to CloudSuite—but deciding what to archive vs. migrate requires careful business analysis.
• Data quality: Legacy data often has inconsistencies, duplicate records, and fields that were repurposed over the years. Cleansing this before migration is essential.
• Custom fields and tables: If your Lawson v9 has custom database objects, those need to be mapped to CloudSuite equivalents or retired.
• Payroll history: Payroll data migration is especially sensitive. Infor Payroll in CloudSuite handles things differently than legacy Lawson payroll.
• Integration mappings: Every integration touching Lawson v9 needs to be documented and re-architected for the new platform.

Module-by-Module Migration Considerations

Lawson v9 customers typically run a combination of these modules. Here's how each one maps to the CloudSuite world:

Lawson v9 HCM to CloudSuite HCM

Human Capital Management is often the most complex migration because of the volume of employee data, benefit configurations, and payroll rules. CloudSuite HCM is a significant improvement—modern talent management, employee self-service, and integrated WFM (Workforce Management)—but the transition requires meticulous data mapping.

Lawson v9 Financials to CloudSuite FSM

Financial & Supply Management (FSM) in CloudSuite replaces the legacy Lawson General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Purchasing modules. The chart of accounts structure, approval workflows, and reporting all need to be redesigned for CloudSuite.

Lawson v9 Supply Chain to CloudSuite SCM

Supply Chain Management in CloudSuite provides advanced capabilities like demand planning and inventory optimization that weren't available in Lawson v9. However, custom procurement workflows built over years in Lawson need careful evaluation.

Timeline: When to Start Your Lawson v9 Migration

Here's the realistic timeline I use with Lawson v9 clients:

Common Mistakes I See with Lawson v9 Migrations

After 26 years and dozens of migrations, these are the patterns that consistently cause problems:

1. Waiting too long to start: The single most common mistake. Organizations that wait until 2028-2029 to begin are forced into compressed timelines with higher risk and cost.
2. Treating it as a “lift and shift”: CloudSuite is not Lawson in the cloud. It's a fundamentally different platform. Organizations that try to replicate every Lawson process 1:1 in CloudSuite end up with a bloated, expensive implementation.
3. Ignoring change management: Your users have been on Lawson v9 for over a decade. The shift to CloudSuite changes their daily workflow. Change management is not optional.
4. Underestimating integration complexity: Every stored procedure, flat file integration, and custom report touching Lawson v9 needs to be accounted for. I've seen organizations discover 3x more integrations than they documented during the assessment phase.
5. Skipping data cleansing: Migrating dirty data from Lawson v9 to CloudSuite just creates problems in the new system. Invest in data quality before migration.

What About Lawson v9 Customizations?

This is the question that keeps IT leaders up at night. Most Lawson v9 environments have been customized extensively—custom screens, modified processes, database triggers, stored procedures, and Crystal Reports.

Here's my framework for handling Lawson v9 customizations:

• Catalog everything: Build a complete inventory of every customization, including who uses it and why.
• Challenge necessity: Many customizations were built to work around limitations that don't exist in CloudSuite. You may not need them anymore.
• Map to standard features: CloudSuite has features that didn't exist in Lawson v9. Some customizations can be replaced by standard CloudSuite functionality.
• Rebuild what's truly needed: For customizations that are genuinely unique to your business, plan to rebuild them using CloudSuite's extensibility framework.
• Retire the rest: Be honest about what you can live without. Every customization you retire is complexity you don't carry forward.

The Bottom Line

If you're running Lawson v9, the question isn't whether to migrate—it's when and how. For most organizations, the direct path from Lawson v9 to CloudSuite makes the most financial and strategic sense. But the clock is ticking, and the organizations that start planning now will have the smoothest, most cost-effective migrations.

I've guided organizations through every type of Lawson migration over the past 26 years—from Lawson S3 to v9, from Lawson v9 to v10, and from both directly to CloudSuite. Every environment is different, but the principles of a successful migration are consistent: start early, plan thoroughly, invest in data quality, and don't underestimate change management.