Independent Assurance for a Manufacturer’s ERP Program

How an Australian manufacturer gained go-live confidence and an independent, evidence-based view on whether to stay the course with its new ERP platform.

About our client

The client is an Australian designer and manufacturer of specialist technology products, with around 120 ERP users across multiple business units. The business has been growing through acquisition. 

The challenge

The client was replacing its legacy ERP with Infor LN, a manufacturing-specific enterprise platform. The legacy system no longer met the needs of the business, and the multi-year program was critical to its future operations.

The implementation faced setbacks with data migration, reporting and supply chain workflows, which pushed release dates back several times. Ahead of go-live, the client needed confidence that the new platform would perform under real user load and that its access controls would stand up to internal and external threats.

As the program continued, the client's leadership also wanted an independent view on a bigger question: continue with Infor LN, or upgrade its existing ERP as a lower-risk path that would free the business to focus on new priorities, including integrating a recent acquisition.

Our approach

Avocado supported the client across the implementation as an independent quality and delivery partner, not as the ERP system integrator.

Performance and security testing. Avocado ran load, stress and security testing in parallel to fit a tight pre-go-live window.

• A senior performance testing consultant worked with the client's team to define non-functional requirements, ran baseline and peak-load tests with the client's own users, worked through tuning recommendations, and retested to confirm fixes.

• A senior security testing consultant tested the platform and its integrations, multi-factor authentication, role-based access mapping and least-privilege principles. Issues were raised as they were found, giving the team time to fix them before launch.

Test management and UAT. Avocado provided test management, user acceptance testing leadership and project management for the Infor LN implementation.

Independent ERP review. Avocado brought in an ERP specialist with manufacturing transformation experience, backed by a senior Avocado leader with a background in project recovery. Through stakeholder interviews, documentation review and hands-on assessment of the upgrade option's test environment, the team mapped both platforms against the client's original requirements and gave senior management a clear view of the risks and benefits of each path.

Outcome & Conclusion

Avocado gave the client's leadership independent, evidence-based assurance at each critical point of a complex ERP program.

• Go-live confidence: performance and security were validated under realistic conditions, with issues surfaced early enough to fix before launch.
• Stronger controls: access permissions, MFA and role mapping were tested against least-privilege principles, reducing exposure to internal and external threats.
• Clear decision-making: senior management received an objective assessment of both ERP options against the business's own requirements, so the path forward was based on evidence rather than sunk cost.
• Vendor-neutral advice: because Avocado is not an ERP integrator, its recommendations were free from any interest in one platform over another.

The engagement shows how an independent quality partner can reduce risk on a high-stakes transformation, from testing the platform through to advising on whether to stay the course.