Unit4 ditching on-prem in favor of SaaS come 2025

Exclusive Unit4, nan endeavor package supplier celebrated pinch authorities and medium-sized businesses, has announced it will extremity support of its on-prem systems connected December 31, 2024.

The decision, which CEO Mike Ettling announced successful a missive to customers earlier this month, affects on-premises Unit4 ERP, Unit4 Financials by Coda, and Unit4 FP&A, arsenic good arsenic earlier systems. Unit4 ERP is nan astir caller moniker for Business World, antecedently known arsenic Unit4 Agresso.

Unit4 on-prem systems are relied connected by a agelong database of UK councils, nationalist assemblage bodies, and universities because it is particularly good adapted to service-style organizations. They see nan University of Sussex, nan Atomic Energy Authority, and nan University of Southampton.

In his letter [PDF], Ettling said: "Unit4 has taken a strategical determination to supply only SaaS solutions going guardant ... Consequently, we are announcing nan modulation of on-premises [systems] to being afloat SaaS-based solutions. With effect from December 31, 2024, our on-premises solutions will nary longer beryllium supported aliases maintained, and we will connection each our customers a clear and charismatic migration to nan Unit4 SaaS."

He promised nan institution would guarantee that each customers person entree to nan support they request to navigate this travel based connected a "Cloud Migration Assessment" from nan Unit4 relationship manager.

Observers mightiness mobility if customers will struggle to execute a analyzable ERP migration successful a small much than 12 months.

In a connection sent to The Register, a Unit4 spokesperson said its imagination is to "develop an innovative endeavor level which automates and empowers some organizations and their people."

"We judge this tin only beryllium achieved erstwhile each our customers are onboarded to our latest and astir innovative, secure, and reliable SaaS solutions, which tin only hap pinch customers migrating disconnected on-premises Unit4 products," they said.

The institution based on nan unreality had go "industry standard" truthful it was "the correct time" to connection customers SaaS-only technology.

Unit4 explained that location and customer requirements would disagree truthful "there whitethorn beryllium immoderate variations successful nan timelines and migration dates but successful each cases, we are offering our on-premises customers, successful each regions, a clear and charismatic travel to migrate to SaaS pinch Unit4 and our colleagues are moving intimately to support customers arsenic they activity done this process".

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They said nan Cloud Migration Assessment work would connection specifications connected really to migrate customizations, integrations, number of transactions, size of nan database, and different criteria.

In 2021, Unit4 was bought by backstage equity patient TA Associates for $2 billion. In a statement, Unit4 and TA said they would "partner to further accelerate nan company's imagination of 'people-centric ERP' for mid-market endeavor organizations." Unit4 was founded successful nan Netherlands successful 1980. In 2000, it merged pinch Norwegian ERP package institution Agresso, which had go a celebrated sanction among European nationalist assemblage organizations.

In nan past 5 years, Unit4 declared it would rebuild its package successful a multi-tenant unreality exemplary and connected a modern API-based architecture, disposable only successful Microsoft Azure, not Google Cloud aliases AWS.

In 2021, Ettling told The Register that a adjacent narration pinch Microsoft – Unit4 besides claims integration pinch Teams and Office products – is for illustration "cuddling a grizzly bear: it tin beryllium incredibly comfortable and warm, but it tin besides beryllium very dangerous."

Microsoft has its ain group of ERP, finance, and HR package nether its Dynamics branding. ®