BAAN Support and Maintenance Options for Legacy Systems
Maintaining a BAAN ERP system after vendor mainstream support has ended requires creative support strategies. Infor offers extended support for later BAAN versions at premium pricing, but BAAN IV and early BAAN 5.x users must rely on third-party maintenance providers, independent consultants, and community knowledge. The BaanBoard forum remains the most comprehensive knowledge base for BAAN troubleshooting, with thousands of posts covering every module and version. This guide maps out the support options available to organizations committed to running BAAN for the next 2-5 years.
Third-Party Maintenance Providers
Third-party maintenance (TPM) providers like Rimini Street, Spinnaker Support, and regional BAAN specialists offer ongoing support for legacy BAAN systems at 50-70% of Infor's maintenance fees. TPM providers deliver break-fix support, tax and regulatory updates, security patches, and technical guidance without requiring migration to current Infor versions. The trade-off is no access to new feature releases or official upgrade paths, which is acceptable for organizations planning to run BAAN for a defined remaining period.
- Rimini Street: Enterprise-grade BAAN support with 24/7 coverage, custom code support, and tax/regulatory updates at 50% of vendor maintenance fees
- Spinnaker Support: BAAN support with dedicated primary support engineers who know your specific configuration and customization landscape
- Regional BAAN specialists: Smaller consultancies in India, Netherlands, and Southeast Asia offering BAAN support with deep 4GL and DEM expertise
- Evaluate TPM providers on: BAAN version experience, response time SLAs, custom code support scope, and security patch delivery capabilities
- Negotiate TPM contracts with clear scope boundaries: what is covered (break-fix, configuration), what requires additional fees (customization, integration)
Community and Self-Support Resources
The BAAN user community, centered around BaanBoard (bfrg.nl) and regional user groups, maintains a wealth of troubleshooting knowledge accumulated over 25+ years. Self-support strategies include building internal BAAN expertise, creating runbooks for common issues, and establishing relationships with independent BAAN consultants for escalation. Organizations running BAAN should invest in documenting their specific configuration, customizations, and known issues to reduce dependency on external support.
- BaanBoard (bfrg.nl): The primary BAAN community forum with searchable archives covering BAAN IV through SSA ERP LN troubleshooting topics
- Build internal runbooks documenting your specific BAAN configuration, common issues, resolution procedures, and escalation contacts
- Establish retainer agreements with 2-3 independent BAAN consultants for escalation support when internal team cannot resolve issues
- Maintain a BAAN test environment for safely reproducing issues, testing patches, and validating configuration changes before production deployment
Security and Compliance for Unsupported Systems
Running unsupported BAAN versions creates security and compliance risks that must be actively managed. Without vendor security patches, organizations must implement compensating controls at the infrastructure and network level. Isolating BAAN behind firewalls, restricting direct database access, and monitoring for unauthorized activity become mandatory. Audit and compliance teams must document the risk acceptance and compensating controls for unsupported ERP systems in SOX and regulatory filings.
- Implement network segmentation isolating BAAN servers behind dedicated firewalls with strict ingress/egress rules limiting access to authorized systems only
- Deploy host-based intrusion detection (HIDS) on BAAN application and database servers to monitor for unauthorized access or suspicious activity
- Conduct annual penetration testing targeting BAAN infrastructure to identify and remediate vulnerabilities in the unsupported software stack
- Document compensating controls for auditors: network isolation, access monitoring, incident response procedures, and migration timeline commitment
- Implement database activity monitoring (DAM) to detect and alert on unauthorized SQL queries, data exports, and privilege escalation attempts
Secure reliable support for your BAAN system. Contact Netray for support strategy consulting.
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