Infor CloudSuite for Education: ERP for Universities & Colleges

Higher education institutions face a distinctive set of operational challenges: fund accounting with restricted and unrestricted funds, grants management for sponsored research, complex HR and payroll requirements for diverse employee populations (faculty, staff, graduate assistants), decentralized procurement, and the need to support both academic and administrative operations on a single platform.

Infor has a meaningful presence in higher education ERP, primarily through Infor CloudSuite Public Sector (formerly Lawson) and its long-standing HR and financial management products. Several hundred colleges and universities — particularly in the United States — run Infor for their administrative back-office operations.

This page provides an honest assessment of where Infor fits in higher education and how it compares to Workday, Oracle, and other alternatives.

Evaluating ERP for your institution? Our advisors can help you compare Infor against Workday, Oracle, and other higher education ERP options.

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Higher Education ERP Requirements

Universities and colleges need ERP systems that address:

• Fund accounting with restricted, unrestricted, endowment, and agency fund tracking
• Grants management for sponsored research (federal, state, private grants) with F&A cost recovery
• Budget management across departments, colleges, and programs with encumbrance accounting
• Procurement supporting decentralized purchasing with centralized policy enforcement
• HR and payroll for multiple employee types: tenured faculty, adjunct faculty, administrative staff, hourly workers, graduate assistants, and student workers
• Benefits administration for complex higher education benefit plans
• Position budgeting linking HR positions to financial budgets
• Student financial services including tuition billing, financial aid disbursement, and student accounts
• Endowment accounting and investment tracking
• Regulatory compliance including Title IV financial aid regulations, OMB Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200) for grants, and state reporting requirements
• Self-service portals for faculty, staff, and students

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Infor CloudSuite Capabilities for Higher Education

Financial Management

Infor's financial management module (part of CloudSuite Public Sector) provides:

• Fund accounting with multi-dimensional chart of accounts supporting fund, organization, account, program, and activity segments
• Encumbrance accounting to track committed but unspent funds
• Budget management with budget checking at the transaction level
• General ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and cash management
• Fixed asset management for institutional property and equipment
• Multi-entity support for university systems managing multiple campuses
• Financial reporting through Birst analytics with pre-built higher education dashboards

Grants Management

Infor's grants management capabilities cover the grant lifecycle:

• Award setup and management for federal, state, and private grants
• Budget allocation by grant, project, and cost category
• Effort reporting and certification for compliance with federal regulations
• Facilities and Administrative (F&A) cost calculation and recovery
• Cost sharing and matching fund tracking
• Federal financial reporting (SF-425, SF-270)
• Compliance with OMB Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200)
• Grant billing and receivables management

Grants management is one of Infor's stronger capabilities in higher education and a primary reason institutions select the platform.

Human Capital Management

Infor HCM (historically Lawson HCM) is well-established in higher education:

• Core HR with support for multiple employment types and concurrent positions
• Position management with position budgeting linked to financials
• Payroll supporting complex higher education pay structures (9-month/12-month contracts, stipends, overload pay, summer pay)
• Benefits administration for higher education benefit programs
• Absence management with accrual policies by employee type
• Talent management including applicant tracking and onboarding
• Employee and manager self-service portals
• Time and attendance for hourly and student workers

Procurement

• Requisition and purchase order management with departmental approval workflows
• Procurement cards (P-Cards) management and reconciliation
• Catalog-based purchasing with punchout to supplier catalogs
• Contract management for institutional contracts and master agreements
• Supplier management with diversity tracking
• Accounts payable automation with invoice matching and payment processing

Analytics

Infor Birst provides embedded analytics for higher education:

• Pre-built dashboards for financial, HR, and procurement KPIs
• Budget-to-actual reporting at the department and fund level
• Grant status and expenditure tracking dashboards
• Workforce analytics including headcount, turnover, and compensation analysis
• Ad hoc reporting capabilities for institutional research teams

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Where Infor Is Strong in Higher Education

Existing Customer Base

Infor (through its Lawson heritage) has several hundred higher education customers, primarily in the United States. This installed base means Infor has accumulated institutional knowledge about higher education requirements, and many implementation partners have higher education expertise.

Grants Management

Infor's grants management capabilities are genuinely competitive. For research universities where sponsored research is a significant revenue source, the grants module handles the complexity of federal compliance, F&A calculation, and effort reporting well.

HCM Depth for Higher Education

Higher education HR and payroll is unusually complex. Faculty contracts, concurrent appointments, summer pay, graduate stipends, and multiple benefit plans create requirements that generic HCM systems often struggle with. Infor's Lawson-heritage HCM handles these scenarios based on decades of higher education deployments.

Cost

Infor typically prices lower than Workday and Oracle for higher education deployments, making it a pragmatic choice for institutions that need solid functionality without the budget for a premium platform.

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Where Infor Is Weaker in Higher Education

Student Information System

Infor does not offer a student information system (SIS). It does not handle admissions, enrollment, student records, academic advising, or learning management. Institutions will need a separate SIS (Ellucian Banner, Ellucian Colleague, Oracle PeopleSoft Campus Solutions, Workday Student) and must integrate it with Infor for student financial transactions.

Modern User Experience

While Infor's Ming.le portal and recent UI updates have improved the user experience, Infor's interface is generally considered less modern and less intuitive than Workday's. For institutions prioritizing end-user adoption and self-service, this is a real consideration.

Cloud Maturity

Infor's cloud transition for higher education customers has been slower than Workday's ground-up cloud approach. Many existing Infor higher education customers are still on-premise (Lawson) and face a migration path to CloudSuite that involves meaningful effort.

Market Momentum

Workday has captured significant market share in higher education over the past decade. Many institutions selecting new ERP systems today are gravitating toward Workday for its modern architecture and strong reference base. Infor remains competitive but is not the momentum leader in the sector.

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Infor vs Competitors for Higher Education

When Infor Is the Right Choice

• Institutions already running Lawson/Infor that want continuity and lower migration costs
• Research-intensive universities that need strong grants management at a reasonable cost
• Universities prioritizing cost-effectiveness over having the latest cloud platform
• Institutions that do not require an integrated SIS within their ERP

When Workday Is the Better Choice

• Institutions making a fresh ERP selection and prioritizing modern user experience
• Universities where employee and manager self-service adoption is a primary goal
• Organizations that want a born-in-the-cloud platform with regular, automatic updates
• Institutions that are evaluating Workday Student for a unified administrative platform

When Oracle Is the Better Choice

• Large university systems with complex financial requirements (consolidation, intercompany)
• Institutions already invested in the Oracle ecosystem (PeopleSoft, Oracle Database)
• Research universities needing deep integration between grants, projects, and financials

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Implementation Considerations

Typical Phasing

Key Success Factors

• Change management is critical in higher education — faculty and decentralized departments resist imposed systems
• Data migration from legacy systems (often decades-old Lawson or Banner environments) requires significant effort
• Integration with SIS must be planned from the start; student financial transactions cross the SIS-ERP boundary
• Governance structure should include academic and administrative stakeholders

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Frequently Asked Questions

How many universities use Infor?

Infor (including legacy Lawson installations) is used by several hundred higher education institutions in the United States and internationally. The exact number varies depending on how active vs. legacy installations are counted. Major research universities, state university systems, and community colleges are all represented in the customer base.

Can Infor handle student billing?

Infor's AR module can process student billing transactions, but it does not handle the upstream student financial aid calculation, packaging, or Title IV compliance. Those functions require a student information system (SIS) that integrates with Infor for the financial posting of charges and payments.

Is Infor moving higher education customers to the cloud?

Yes. Infor's strategic direction is to migrate all customers to CloudSuite on AWS. However, the migration path for on-premise Lawson customers involves meaningful effort (data migration, reconfiguration, retraining), and many institutions are proceeding cautiously. Some are choosing to migrate to Infor CloudSuite while others are using the transition as an opportunity to evaluate Workday or Oracle.

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Evaluating ERP for your institution? Our advisors specialize in higher education ERP selection and can help you compare options based on your institution's priorities.

Get Infor Pricing Compare Infor

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Related pages:

• Infor CloudSuite Overview
• ERP for Higher Education
• Workday ERP Overview
• Compare Infor