Last month we hosted TouchstoneLIVE 2024, our biannual client event that brings together the SunSystems community and finance professionals from across the UK to hear about the latest developments of leading financial management software, Infor SunSystems.
With the news that some versions of SunSystems and Q&A will be on limited maintenance only by the end of 2025, this year’s event offered our clients, and the wider SunSystems community, guidance on their SunSystems choices.
In this blog, we explore key themes from the event including moving from on-premise to the cloud and how our add on solution Partners are using the latest innovations in technology to enhance their applications for SunSystems.
A Unified Vision: Infor and Touchstone
A core focus of TouchstoneLIVE 2024 centred around the substantial benefits of transitioning from on-premise to SunSystems Cloud.
Led by Andrew Newman, VP and General Manager of the Infor SunSystems IBU and his team, Infor started the day with a full hour dedicated to updating our clients about what’s next on the SunSystems roadmap and what lies ahead for SunSystems users , particularly those on on-premise versions of the software.
It is clear that Touchstone and Infor share the same vision that by migrating from legacy SunSystems versions, such as SunSystems 4 and older versions of SunSystems 6, to SunSystems Cloud they will benefit from greater functionality as well as an enhanced end-user experience of the financial management software.
This underscores the strength of our partnership and our dedication to deliver innovative solutions that help our clients navigate the complexities of financial management.
Key partner to Touchstone and Infor, Professional Advantage (PA) also announced that following significant interest from clients even more of their financial applications will be cloud-ready by 2025, emphasising that transitioning to the cloud is becoming increasingly important for the SunSystems community.
AI and Automation: The Future is Now
Since its launch in 2020, Sysynkt has continued to prove popular amongst our SunSystems clients, and TouchstoneLIVE 2024 was no different. With a packed room of finance professionals, Kalev Kalamäe and Penny Phillips showcased the transformative power of AI and Automation in two key areas: AP Automation and Bank Payments.
Using several AI-models and processing engines, Sysynkt’s AI-Assisted Document Recognition Engine analyses, categorises and understands documents such as invoices, triggering a workflow before posting back to SunSystems – saving finance teams hours.
Systems@work also showcased how their innovative use of AI for voice-activated expense entry is the next step in their bold vision for the future where expenses and timesheets are nearly fully automated. Users will be able to speak into their phone with instructions such as ‘yesterday I stayed in a hotel, it was £182.00, charge it to Sales’ and the application will do the rest. The benefits? Reduced costs, increased accuracy, and a better user experience.
Reporting Power: The Ultimate Multitool from Sharperlight
As finance teams know, businesses grow, and so do the number of daily, weekly, monthly reports needed in various formats for several stakeholders. Hours can be spent consolidating and validating data from across the business, including unique systems.
Sharperlight, known for its powerful reporting capabilities, introduced the ultimate multitool which gives users the ability to manage and visualise data from numerous systems. Combining data from multiple sources, including Excel and SunSystems, Sharperlight produces report packs that are updated from live source data every five minutes.
Presented in a web-based, secure dashboard, the reports are customisable to each stakeholder and enable finance teams to report on live data to support business-critical decisions whilst saving money and valuable resource.
Touchstone Data Services: Lightening the Data Load
Companies that make decisions based on data are 58% more likely to beat their revenue targets than those who don’t. As businesses manage ever-growing volumes of data, efficient data management becomes increasingly challenging, which is why during TouchstoneLIVE 2024 we introduced our new managed service, Touchstone Data Services.
Touchstone Data Services collects raw data from multiple sources and platforms, transforms it, and then delivers it in the reporting format of your choice, for example Sharperlight or PowerBI. By automating data transformation, it reduces the burden on internal teams, ensuring data accuracy and consistency. Fewer manual interventions result in faster reporting and more reliable insights, empowering businesses to make better decisions, faster.
Conclusion
TouchstoneLIVE 2024 made it clear that the drive to the Cloud together with innovations in technologies such as AI, automation, big data and Open API will continue to improve the overall user experience of Infor SunSystems. It may be 40 years old but by embracing these latest innovations this veteran financial management software, alongside complementary add-on solutions from the likes of Professional Advantage, Sharperlight, Sysynkt, TimeXtender, and Systems @ work, have made sure it’s —journey continues strongly
If you’re interested in learning more about the innovations and solutions showcased at TouchstoneLIVE 2024—whether it’s about migrating to the cloud, leveraging AI and automation, or enhancing your financial reporting—our team is here to help. Contact us at info@touchstonefms.co.uk to understand how these technologies can benefit your business and drive long-term success.
Watch the highlights from TouchstoneLIVE 2024:
