On-premise support expiry pushing cloud migration

Support for on-premise TechnologyOne systems is set to expire in September 2024, pushing cloud migration to the top of the agenda for many of its clients, according to a recent survey.

Lánluas Consulting surveyed TechnologyOne’s local government, health and community services sector and education clients in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. It found that 28% of respondents consider cloud migration the top priority this year.

While 48% of current clients are completely in the cloud, 35% remain entirely on-premise, with a minority splitting between the two.

The research shows that almost half (43%) of those on-premise clients are concerned about staff education, while 39% fear escalating costs as a result of moving to the cloud. One in five (21%) say potential issues from migrating a complicated legacy system (21%) is a concern. Cybersecurity risk (14%) and lack of a cloud migration strategy (14%) are holding back others, while 11% say they will wait till the deadline is closer before they migrate.

Clients that have completed their migration reported staff training (46%) as the biggest headache, followed by a loss of features (40%), data transfer (23%), connection speed (23%), size and complexity of the project (23%) and ensuring security and compliance (17%). Only 11% nominated cost as a pain point.

David Stubbings, Engagement Manager Lánluas Consulting, said strategic planning is imperative to a successful cloud migration.

“Navigating this intricate journey necessitates strategic planning, a clear understanding of the nuances and a willingness to engage experts when required to help ensure no unplanned incidents result in lost data, broken integrations and interfaces or a delay in business operations,” he said.

“Organisations often stumble upon common migration pitfalls due to inadequate preparation, including underestimating the project’s scope, failing to rectify on-premise inefficiencies, introducing new functionality mid-migration, neglecting comprehensive testing, overlooking user training and incurring unnecessary costs due to timing misalignments. As the technology landscape continues to evolve, organisations that successfully embrace cloud migration stand poised for enhanced efficiency, agility and futureproofed operations, especially if done correctly from the beginning.”

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