Benefits of Unit4 Financials by Coda in the Cloud – Our Customer’s Perspective
Cloud migration can be transformative for your organization - but for many looking to turn the page on legacy systems, the Cloud, its benefits, and the migration experience, can require clarification, and learning from others' experiences can help.
In a recent customer panel, at the UKI Unit4 Financials by Coda (U4FbC) Customer event 2024 I had the pleasure of talking to three highly valued Unit4 customers – Linda Schneider, Senior Systems Accountant, Superdry, Robin Wright,
Group Financial Controller, Together Money, and Richard Woolhouse, Finance Project Manager, Portman Travel - who have all experienced the benefits of Cloud migration with Unit4.
So, what can we learn from this customer panel? I share the key takeaways in this blog: how these successful organizations transformed, what’s possible with U4FbC in the Cloud, and what you can learn from successful Cloud migration journeys – keep reading to find out.
Why migrate to the Cloud?
In many respects, Cloud migration is becoming a question of when not if – the benefits are becoming undeniable, and those early adopters now have a competitive edge that disrupts other competitors who aren’t there yet.
This remains clear to our customers too, post-migration, as Robin of Together Money notes: “It interests me that there is any sort of resistance to Cloud – it’s the future - if you think generically about technology, you’re either moving on or staying where you are.”
Whether it’s system outages, disk space, or even security, Richard from Portman Travel adds “I don’t have that constant worry of ‘what are our IT priorities’ because someone looks after that for us.”
Importantly, Linda of Superdry highlights that the partners of the organization were all in the Cloud anyway, and they want to be on the same systems to align operations, bring value, and not create unnecessary obstacles to corporate goals.
Benefits of Moving to the Cloud
I asked the panel to outline the two main benefits they discovered when moving to the Cloud.
For Superdry, they found the Cloud provided a stronger foundation for their systems, with greater reliability for their IT teams, having dealt with systems outages two or three times a month with on-premises deployments – these issues are a 20-minute fix when partnered with a Cloud provider.
Again, Cloud security was a huge highlight for Portman Travel, allowing easy accessibility for their teams without sacrificing security, as the Microsoft Azure Cloud platform will shoulder the security concerns through their larger resources.
Robin of Together Money praises the continuous release side that allows his business to benefit from the latest releases without having to involve IT and the potential wait times that incur.
He also recognized the value of being able to experiment more. Innovation could be sped up with a more malleable Cloud system that allows for experimentation, even from non-IT-trained staff.
Lessons Learned from the migration process
I asked the panel what they learned from the migration process, and what advice they would give to those undertaking the process.
Portman Travel urged organizations to “get the right people around you.” By collaborating with Unit4 SMEs (Subject Matter Experts), while also imploring his own teams to collaborate with Unit4, hiccups and obstacles could easily be identified and resolved, reducing risk in the process.
Together Money concurred: “test, test, test,” as IT teams managing on-premises systems may not have set up the initial deployment to be migrated, meaning there will naturally be some hiccups along the way. The solution is to test – the Cloud engineers often have easy solutions - a sentiment the entire panel supported.
Pre-migration fears
Cloud migration can surface natural anxieties related to losing familiar processes, including data security, downtime, and integration with the key applications used by an organization – yet Unit4 Cloud engineers often have the solution.
This was demonstrated for Together Money, who had fears about accessing their database post-migration, worried that the complex financial reporting they do might be disrupted. Unit4’s Cloud engineers created a replica environment to ensure their finance teams could run their reports during the migration process, alleviating this anxiety.
Experiences with the Cloud Migration Assessment
Linda from Superdry was one of the customers on the panel who undertook a Cloud Migration Assessment.
Unit4 consultants examined Superdry’s current system, identified the issues and potential migratory risks, and presented a plan to resolve them - with a dedicated Unit4 team to guide her organization through the process.
This allowed the migration to be completed in just one month, which speaks to the value of an initial Cloud Migration Assessment, allowing the whole process to be quick, easy, and risk-free.
How can Unit4 help you on your Cloud migration journey?
Organizations must turn the page on legacy systems, accepting that traditional approaches to data management cannot compete in today’s markets. The Cloud presents a proven and effective way for organizations to digitally transform Unit4 Financials by Coda and leverage data, rather than serve it.
You can hear the full customer panel with Superdry, Together Money, and Portman Travel to further explore their unique migration stories or consult our dedicated Cloud migration pages to learn more about how Unit4 helps you throughout the journey.
Ready to move your Unit4 Financials by Coda solution to the Cloud? Start your journey to the Cloud by evaluating your current solution and needs with our Cloud Migration Assessment. It will provide all the details needed to map out your migration path.
