Lawson Retirement Evaluation Checklist
Key Questions Every Organization Should Ask Before Choosing a Lawson Data Archive Platform
Retiring a legacy Lawson system can significantly reduce infrastructure costs and eliminate the burden of maintaining aging ERP servers. However, once Lawson is retired, the archive platform becomes the long-term system of record for historical financial and operational data.
Before selecting a solution, organizations should verify the following areas.
- Security & Compliance
☐ Does the platform support encryption at rest and in transit?
☐ Does it integrate with your existing identity provider (SSO/SAML)?
☐ Are role-based permissions available to control user access?
☐ Does the system maintain detailed audit logs of all user activity?
☐ Has the vendor undergone SOC 2 or equivalent security assessments?
☐ Can administrators manage user access policies centrally?
- Data Volume & Performance
☐ Has the solution been tested with full production-scale Lawson datasets?
☐ Can it handle 10+ years of transactional history without performance issues?
☐ Are query results returned quickly even with billions of records?
☐ Is the architecture designed to scale as data volumes grow over time?
- Query Coverage & Data Accessibility
☐ Does the platform support detailed queries across major Lawson modules?
Examples include:
☐ General Ledger (GL)
☐ Accounts Payable (AP)
☐ Vendor Records
☐ Payroll History
☐ Procurement Data
☐ Transaction Distributions
☐ Can users access transaction-level detail, not just summary reports?
☐ Are query screens designed to mirror familiar Lawson workflows?
- Long-Term Platform Sustainability
☐ Does the architecture eliminate the need to maintain legacy Lawson servers?
☐ Is the platform built on modern cloud infrastructure?
☐ Does the vendor have a clear long-term roadmap for the product?
☐ Will the platform remain viable for 10–20 years of data retention?
- Governance & Audit Readiness
☐ Can auditors retrieve historical transactions quickly and easily?
☐ Are access logs and user activity recorded for compliance reviews?
☐ Can organizations demonstrate clear data stewardship and governance?
☐ Does the platform support internal and external audit processes?
Final Consideration
Retiring Lawson is often a once-in-a-decade decision. The archive platform selected will become the system your organization relies on to access historical financial and operational data for years to come.
Ensuring the platform meets the requirements above helps protect your organization from costly surprises after the legacy ERP has been retired.
Save this checklist and follow this guide before choosing a Lawson Archive Platform:
