Infor Strengths, Domain Expertise, and Key Differentiators
Infor’s strengths lie in its vertical focus and its ability to invest heavily in both feature/function as well as its underlying technology (think middleware). After years of being privately held by several private equity firms, Koch Industries first invested in Infor in 2017, but then completed the acquisition of the remaining portion of Infor from Golden Gate Capital in April 2020. Koch’s deep pockets have allowed Infor to deliver thousands of new features across multiple product lines.
Having initially grown through acquisition (since 2002), its product portfolio includes dozens of ERP solutions (in addition to some other specialty solutions like the recently acquired MES solution) of which a handful have become strategic and form the building blocks for its industry-specific CloudSuites. While originally all these acquired ERP products were on-premises solutions, these strategic products have undergone a technology transformation that allows them to be offered as multi-tenant SaaS solutions. But even more importantly, they are now supported by a microservices architecture.
Infor OS (Operating Service), its foundational cloud platform provides horizontal technology services to its vertical CloudSuites and extends into third-party solutions as well. The services range from essential, business-critical functionality to more advanced high tech like its AI engine Coleman, built-in predictive analytics for optimized production, inventory and delivery schedules and connectivity to support Industry 4.0. This allows Infor to develop some common components that can be shared across a variety of its industry-specific solutions.
Infor has deep domain expertise to deliver industry-specific features, functions and (professional) services to the following industries:
Manufacturing: Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Chemicals, Food & Beverage, Construction & Engineering, High Tech and Electronics, Industrial Manufacturing Consumer; Fashion, Food & Beverage, Retail, Distribution; Wholesale distribution, Equipment Dealers, Logistics Service Providers, Public Sector; Defense, Federal, State and Local Governments, K-12 Education, Energy and Natural Resources; Oil & Gas, Utilities, Healthcare; Healthcare Institutions, Hotels & Resorts, Restaurants & Food Services, Service Industries; Bank & Financial Services, Professional Services, Transportation Service Providers.
Infor does not attempt to address all these verticals with a single solution. Instead it assembles each industry CloudSuite from a flexible set of components, drawing on its portfolio of strategic ERP solutions.
Infor Recent Developments
In October 2021, Infor announced the general availability of its Infor Coleman AI Digital Assistant app for Microsoft Teams. The Infor Coleman Digital Assistant was previously available via a web browser, the Infor Go mobile app, and Amazon Alexa for Business. With this release, Infor customers can interact with Infor Coleman using Microsoft Teams. This can help reduce adoption friction when rolling out the digital assistant to organizations that already use Teams. The Infor Coleman AI Digital Assistant provides a conversational interface to the Infor OS platform, the underlying foundation of Infor CloudSuites. It offers custom skills, a chat UX, and natural language processing (NLP) capabilities.
In October 2021, Infor launched Infor Public Sector, a dedicated multi-tenant cloud offering for the UK public sector. The solution combines Infor CloudSuite Public Sector, Financials and Supply Chain Management (FSCM), Infor People Solutions (HR & Talent) with the dedicated public sector enterprise asset management capabilities of Infor Hansen, all of which run on Amazon Web Services (AWS). As part of the offering, Infor will build on more than two decades of experience with UK public sector organizations such as South West Water, Borders College, London Fire Brigade and Viewpoint Housing; and many global customers including the City of Coral Gables in Florida, US, Ras Al Khaimah Wastewater Agency (RAKWA) in UAE, and the City of Franklin in Tennessee, USA.
In July, Infor collaborated with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to support its AWS for Health initiative. AWS for Health is an initiative featuring services and solutions from AWS and AWS Partners, built specifically for healthcare, biopharma, and genomics customers. The initiative is designed to make it easier for health customers to select the right tools and partners for their highest-priority workloads across the health community to help unlock operational efficiencies and insights, respond with agility to unforeseen circumstances, lower costs, and realize clinical and patient care improvements. This collaboration underscores Infor’s commitment to the healthcare industry and to providing its customers with a trusted cloud offering through AWS.
In June 2021, Infor announced a “Three for Free” program for smaller distributors in North America, designed to help them leverage cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) technology in an effort to help them rebound from the pandemic and strengthen their businesses. For a limited time, small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) in North America received a subscription for three free user licenses of Infor CloudSuite Distribution — a cloud platform powered by the Infor Distribution SX.e ERP system — with an optional fixed-fee services engagement. The program applied to any SMB that was not already an Infor ERP customer.
In July 2020 Infor introduced its new Payroll module for Infor Global Human Resources (Global HR). Infor Payroll provides in-house payroll processing capabilities with multiple options for service partners to help manage back-end payroll processes, including employment tax filing, wage payments, wage garnishments, and other value-added services. Infor’s payroll solution offers flexibility to help organizations enable the desired balance of operational control. Significant updates to this new offering include the benefits of being a module within Global HR as well as being included as part of industry-based CloudSuites. Payroll is now offered to all Infor CloudSuite HCM customers, fully integrated with Infor CloudSuite Financials, with plans to make third-party financial integration available.
In January 2020 Infor released a number of solutions designed to help omnichannel retailers and fashion brands optimize their inventories, improve demand and supply planning, boost factory efficiency and help take their fashion products to market faster. The new, machine learning (ML)-driven solutions are generally available (GA) and include Infor Retail Allocation, Infor Omni-Channel Planning for Brands, the latest version of Infor CloudSuite PLM for Fashion, and the Infor Nexus RFID Scan & Pack solution.
In June 2019, Infor unveiled the India Business Unit (IBU) as a new separate region -- comprising India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan -- to further accelerate progress and tap growth opportunities in this vast market.
In November 2018 Infor launched the Infor Treasury Management and Infor Advanced Treasury Management product suites. Both solutions help companies overcome complex financial challenges: future-oriented teams can optimize key cash and risk management, payments, and working capital strategies. Within Infor Treasury Management, there are three core modules. The first, cash and liquidity, provides CFOs and treasurers with the necessary visibility and meaningful reporting to optimize cash, control bank accounts, and manage liquidity. The second module, Transaction Lifecycle Management, enables you to manage and track liabilities and investments. It is integrated with Infor Cash Management and General Ledger to ensure smooth processing. The third module, Payments, offers global multi-bank payment solutions. Users can support enterprise-wide payment and withdrawal workflows, including payment factories and payments-on-behalf-of (POBO).
In October 2018 in Japan, Infor Fashion Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Cloud launched a new product lifecycle management solution for multi-tenant that is cloud-native and tailored to the fashion industry, Cloud. Fashion PLM Cloud can be used as a cloud service on robust security infrastructure, has a lower cost of ownership compared to purchasing a single version of on-premises software, and always keeps up with new versions without requiring extensive upgrade work. Fashion PLM Cloud is the foundation for applying the latest digital technology to the product development process in the fashion industry, centrally managing product design and development work, and supporting efficient collaboration among stakeholders. Fashion PLM Cloud is a solution that combines high scalability and flexibility that runs on Infor OS which is Infor's cloud operating service platform and can be deployed quickly to meet the growth and evolution speed of your business. Fashion PLM Cloud is a subscription type cloud service, there is no need for a big upgrade work accompanying software version upgrading, future addition of hardware, increase of internal resources, configuration work is virtually unnecessary, Saving time and reducing total owner costs.
Infor OS provided with Fashion PLM Cloud facilitates collaboration among not only in-house designers, product development engineers, purchasing sales, and procurement staff, but also people engaged in all product development including outside vendors, Increase productivity across the business. In addition, since Fashion PLM Cloud is a simple and intuitive user interface, you can easily understand and start using the procedure.
Infor Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) Activities
In October 2021, Infor announced the acquisition of Lighthouse Systems, a provider of manufacturing execution system (MES) software for smart manufacturing. Lighthouse Systems’ MES solution can be fully integrated into Infor CloudSuite ERP systems. This will help Infor address a critical customer requirement of 24x7 manufacturing operations. For those manufacturing companies that are looking to implement ERP and MES together, Infor anticipates that its ability to offer a fully integrated solution “out of the box” will significantly shorten time to value for customers. Based in Crawley, UK, Lighthouse Systems has major offices in the UK, the United States and Singapore. Its approximately 100 employees serve customers worldwide in focus industries such as automotive, building & construction, food & beverage, life science, machinery & equipment, packaging, and sustainable energy.
In July 2021 Hexagon AB, a global leader in digital reality solutions, announced an agreement to acquire Infor’s global EAM (enterprise asset management) business, for approximately 2,750 MUSD. The terms of the agreement include establishing a deeper commercial relationship between Hexagon and Infor as well as Hexagon and Koch Equity Development, both subsidiaries of Koch Industries, Inc. Hexagon gains a best-in-class, SaaS-based asset management solution – Infor EAM – which is used to track assets, digitalize maintenance operations and enable customers in nearly any industry to reach optimum operational efficiency.
In October 2021 the divestiture was completed after resolving an issue in kind of consideration shares. Completion of the transaction was subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, which have now been obtained.
The SaaS-based EAM, is used to track assets, digitalize maintenance operations and enable customers in nearly any industry to reach optimum operational efficiency. Infor’s EAM business is expected to generate 2021 revenues of 184 MUSD, of which over 70 per cent is recurring, with an adjusted operating margin of over 40 per cent after integration. Given the strong fit of Infor EAM across Hexagon’s businesses, the transaction is expected to generate significant sales synergies. dynamic, and intuitive location platform used to optimize clinical assets and supplies, streamline patient workflows, and ensure the safety of staff.
This acquisition enables Infor to offer an expanded suite of technology for healthcare organizations. The Intelligent InSites solution will complement the Infor CloudSuite Healthcare footprint, enabling support across the continuum of care including clinics, urgent care, emergency departments, inpatient care, procedural care, and behavioral health.
In April 2019, Infor completed the acquisition of Efficient Frontiers doing business as ReServe Interactive, a provider of cloud-based sales and catering, restaurant reservations, and floor management software that serves the restaurant, sports, and entertainment, event center, golf and country club, and hotel markets in the U.S. and Canada. ReServe Interactive’s sales and a catering solution will enable Infor to offer more functionality through Infor CloudSuite Hospitality, and increase Infor’s presence in non-hotel hospitality venues such as entertainment centers, stadiums, wineries and conference, and convention centers.
In September 2018 Infor acquired Vivonet a cloud-based hospitality solutions company. The acquisition extends Infor's suite of solutions for hospitality with point-of-sale (POS) and inventory and procurement functionality for companies in the food service management, full and quick service restaurant, and hotel food and beverage micro-verticals. Founded in 2000, Vancouver, BC-based Vivonet offers solutions for POS, kiosks, kitchen systems, payments, labor scheduling, and food and labor cost management.
Vivonet products are deployed at more than 4,000 locations, with customers including Sodexo, Delaware North, Booster Juice, Burger 21, Pita Pit, and Texas Chicken & Burgers. Infor Hospitality solutions, which include robust capabilities for property management, revenue management, asset and incident management, analytics, and artificial intelligence, will be extended with POS from Vivonet.
Infor Customers in ARTW Customer Database
Leveraging a rigorous data-centric research methodology, APPS RUN THE WORLD asks the simple question: Who’s buying Infor applications and why? And we provide the answers – supported by decades of research – to our clients around the world. Our Customer database has over 100 data fields that detail company usage of Infor and other enterprise apps by function, customer size, industry, location, implementation status, partner involvement, Line of Business Key Stakeholders and IT decision makers contact details. List of Verified CloudSuite Aerospace & Defense, CloudSuite Automotive, CloudSuite Business, CloudSuite Business (SMB), CloudSuite Corporate, CloudSuite Distribution Enterprise, CloudSuite Facilities, CloudSuite Fashion, CloudSuite Financials & Supply Management, CloudSuite Food & Beverage, CloudSuite HCM, CloudSuite Healthcare, CloudSuite Hospitality, CloudSuite Industrial (Enterprise Edition), CloudSuite Industrial (SMB), CloudSuite Industrial (SyteLine), CloudSuite Public Sector, Infor Configure Price Quote, Infor CRM, Infor HR Service Delivery, Infor Learning Management, Infor Marketing Resource, Infor Rhythm E-commerce & Collaboration Platform, Infor SCM, Infor Service Management, Infor Talent Management, Infor Talent Science, Infor Workforce Management customers.
Infor Overview
Ownership: - Koch Industries
Number of Employees: 17500
Functional Markets: Analytics and BI, Content Management, CRM, eCommerce, EPM, ERP Financial, ERP Services and Operations Management, HCM, PLM, PPM, Procurement, SCM, TRM, PaaS,
Key Verticals: Aerospace and Defense, Automotive, Banking and Financial Services, Communication, Construction, Real Estate, Consumer Packaged Goods, Distribution, K622, Higher Education, Federal Government, State and Local Government, Public Safety, Healthcare, Life Insurance, P&C Insurance, Specialty Insurance, Leisure and Recreation, Hospitality, Life Sciences, Manufacturing, Media, Faith-Based Nonprofit, Youth and Elderly Care, Special Cause Nonprofit, Oil and Gas, Chemicals, Professional Services, Retail, Transportation, Utilities,
Infor Key Enterprise and Cloud Applications
CloudSuite Aerospace & Defense, CloudSuite Automotive, CloudSuite Business, CloudSuite Business (SMB), CloudSuite Corporate, CloudSuite Distribution Enterprise, CloudSuite Facilities, CloudSuite Fashion, CloudSuite Financials & Supply Management, CloudSuite Food & Beverage, CloudSuite HCM, CloudSuite Healthcare, CloudSuite Hospitality, CloudSuite Industrial (Enterprise Edition), CloudSuite Industrial (SMB), CloudSuite Industrial (SyteLine), CloudSuite Public Sector, Infor Configure Price Quote, Infor CRM, Infor HR Service Delivery, Infor Learning Management, Infor Marketing Resource, Infor Rhythm E-commerce & Collaboration Platform, Infor SCM, Infor Service Management, Infor Talent Management, Infor Talent Science, Infor Workforce Management
Infor Revenues, $M:
| Type/Year | 2020 | 2021 | YoY Growth, % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Revenues, $M | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe |
| Enterprise Applications Revenues, $M | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe |
| Cloud Applications Revenues, $M | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe |
* Enterprise Applications Revenues = License + Support & Maintenance + SaaS
** All revenue figures are estimates based on public records, Cloud and Non-Cloud business models in Apps Run The World's vendor database, and annual survey results including vendor feedback.
Infor Revenue Breakdown By Type, $M:
| Type | License | Prof. Services | Hardware | Support & Maintenance | SaaS | PaaS | IaaS | Other (Non Enterprise Application Revenues) | Total |
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| % of Total Revenues | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe | 100% |
| Revenues, $M | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe |
Infor Enterprise Applications Revenues By Functional Markets, $M:
Infor Enterprise Applications Revenues By Verticals, $M:
Infor Revenues By Region, $M
| Region | % of Total Revenues | 2021 Total Revenues, $M | 2021 Enterprise Applications Revenues, $M | 2021 Cloud Applications Revenues, $M |
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| Americas | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe |
| EMEA | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe |
| APAC | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe |
| Total | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe |
Infor Direct vs Indirect sales
| Region | Direct Sales | Indirect Sales | Total |
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| Type % | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe |
| Revenues, $M | Subscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe |
Infor Customers - Breakdown by Geo, Size, Vertical and Product
List of Verified Infor Customers
No. of Infor Customers: 73000
No. of Infor Enterprise Applications Customers: 73000
No. of Infor Cloud Customers: 15000
No. of Infor Cloud Subscribers: 71 million
Infor supports more than 73,000 customers. Many of these customers have come through acquisitions over the past (almost) 20 years. While Infor closes new business at an impressive rate, this number has only grown modestly over the past few years, indicating that the company also suffers from attrition of those legacy customers. While many of the acquired companies focused heavily on the small to mid-size markets, Infor’s advanced technology and breadth of solution today is more focused on the medium to large enterprise.
Some recent wins include: Huida, Metito, Panda Restaurants, Maison Sieur d’Arques, CGR, AutoWorld and Hofil Transportation Company, Amsterdam UMC, Foundation Building Materials, and others.
Among its ERP customers are York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Lineage Logistics, Toye, Kenning & Spencer, Egbert Taylor Group, Kempinski Hotels, First Transit, Promethean, The Caldrea Company, Zicom, Spraylat, Organic Valley Family of Farms, Koch Equipment, Pride Industries, Dematic, Beldon Brick, Ferrari, High Five Sportswear, Shaklee Corporation, Herman Miller, Western Wire, Rocky Brands, Physicians Formula, Duramax Marine LLC, Piper Aircraft, Karma Industries Limited, Montebello Packaging, HKL Baumaschinen GmbH, Moba, Banglacat, Pama, AUNDE Brazil, Essen, Group Dekko.
Infor SaaS CRM customer references include Sanofi, Publix, o2, LSI, Invista, GE Capital, Energy Australia, Dell, Crown Perth, Covident, Barnes&Noble, Amgen, American National, TicketMaster, Telstra, Scotiabank, Schweppes, Pitney Bowes, Callaway, Blanchard, Sony Computer Entertainment, Heartland Payment Systems, World Financial Group, Ted Baker London, Rheem, Georgia-Pacific, and others.
Infor HCM customer references include Community Medical Centers, Kellogg Company, PSI, State of Utah, itella, Interface, AMC theatres, Einstein Healthcare Network, Hyundai Motor Europe., Affiliated Computer Services, Butler Machinery Co., City of Abilene, City of St Paul, MN; Cook County Hospital, Friendly’s Ice Cream Corp., and LHC Group. and many others.
Infor Market Opportunities, M&A and Geo Expansions
In June 2022 Infor entered into a technology partnership with Everstream Analytics, to help organizations better anticipate and navigate supply chain risks and disruptions. Through the partnership, Infor will integrate Everstream’s end-to-end supply chain risk assessment and monitoring data with its Infor Nexus multienterprise business network platform.
The Infor Nexus Control Center, an end-to-end supply chain control tower, provides organizations with visibility to orders, shipments and inventory throughout the supply chain — delivering intelligent, actionable insights through its connectivity to carriers, logistics service providers (LSPs), suppliers and manufacturers.
Everstream’s solution will complement these capabilities by providing data on external events — such as weather, labor strikes, port congestion, cybersecurity, ESG (environmental, social, and governance), and partner risks (physical and financial) — that could impact a company’s supply chain flows and its ability to deliver.
With this new application, organizations can extend their electronic health records (EHR) and clinical systems’ Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource (FHIR) and application programming interface (API) capabilities beyond their current limited support, streamline care coordination by providing needed information to providers and patients, and expedite their organization’s digital transformation while utilizing existing clinical systems connected to an innovative FHIR-based ecosystem. This presents a very significant opportunity for Infor in Healthcare to impact healthcare outcomes and business operations. In August Infor announced 100 new or expanded relationships over the past 12 consecutive months. These included customers such as Hermes Pardini Group, Penn Highlands Healthcare, and Sentara Healthcare. More recently Infor added St Vincent Health and Amsterdam UMC.
The global pandemic has brought to light the fact that Healthcare data today is siloed in legacy systems that lack connectivity to innovative healthcare solutions. However, this, in no way, diminishes the continued opportunity for Infor in all its chosen verticals. While some industries saw a distinct slow-down during the pandemic, as the world emerges, many are seeing renewed growth and this, in turn, presents a strong opportunity for Infor.
In August 2020 Infor launched Infor Construction and Property Management, a cloud-based solution that lets construction businesses, serving the healthcare and public sector industries, digitize their entire operations and expand into property management roles. Infor Construction and Property Management offer embedded business intelligence and analytics, simplified navigation, and enhanced security and SaaS capabilities to help businesses manage the entire building process, from scaffolding to lease management.
Infor Construction and Property Management are tailored for construction businesses serving customers across the healthcare industry and the public sector. For healthcare-focused businesses, the solution can help reduce the cost of hospital and commercial office building build-outs, as well as property management of leases and tenants, which in turn boosts operational efficiency. Public sector-focused construction businesses can leverage the solution to solve critical leasing needs, such as sourcing and managing tenants for airport and transit centers, school and educational buildings, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) properties, and higher education and university management housing.
The robust, cloud-based solution offers construction businesses enhanced financial management with on-demand centralized data, role- and user-based secure access, simultaneous cash- and accrual-based accounting, and real-time insight into operational accounts receivable. Improved features include job cost accounting, purchase order management, and service request modules, and an interactive map that acts as a visual guide to filter by region, state, or project. The solution supports multi-family, commercial property, and construction management and financials, and specializes in HUD, university housing, apartment, and retail lease spaces.
Infor’s cloud-based property management and construction applications are designed to deliver industry-specific capabilities without the need for extensive customizations. Its cloud-based architecture means businesses benefit from automatic software upgrades that continuously improve functionality, and users can access data and meet complex reporting requirements while working seamlessly from any device.
During the first half of 2019, Infor made a lot of partnership agreements with different partners all around the world. Infor partnered with GTY Technology Holdings, a provider of SaaS solutions for the public sector, to fuel digital transformation – helping government agencies significantly improve the way they engage stakeholders and manage their resources. The same period Aŭtomatigo Inc. and Infor Japan K.K., the Japanese subsidiary of Infor, announced that Aŭtomatigo has signed an agreement to be an Infor Alliance Partner specializing in the Infor Nexus cloud commerce network.
In June, Infor joined forces with Linklogis, which will leverage the Infor Nexus platform to power a suite of financial service solutions designed to reinforce the supply chains of small and medium-sized upstream suppliers that are traditionally underfunded and overlooked.
Another partnership agreement Infor made with Montage, the single solution to engage, interview, and hire better candidates, faster. The goal of this partnership is to allow both companies to leverage their respective platforms in bringing the next generation of predictive talent analytics and interviewing technology together during the hiring process.
One of the more important partnerships that Infor made in 2019, is with ESDS, India's leading Managed Data Center and Cloud Hosting Service provider to drive digital transformation for Indian and Middle-Eastern Businesses. Through this partnership, Infor and ESDS will provide a robust and modern IT infrastructure that delivers state-of-the-art user experience along with an integrated platform for seamless collaboration across existing systems and deep data analytics capabilities to drive informed business decisions.
Over the past year, Infor has invested heavily in analytics by buying Cloud BI vendor Birst for $105 million after spending $126 million for Predictx for retail analytics. The moves are expected to drive better insights for its customers both at the horizontal level and retail-specific use cases.
Infor introduced its artificial intelligence play called Coleman, which aims to use the latest machine-learning technologies to eliminate certain business processes, similar to what robotic process management can do to with virtual assistants handling repetitive inquiries from driving direction to helpdesk support. Along with its Enterprise Asset Management applications, Coleman will zero in on predictive maintenance and drive positive results for many of its industrial customers.
Koch Industries is a case in point as the 49% owner of Infor plans to run its Cloud HCM applications for its own 120,000 employees in 60+ countries.
In September 2018 Infor expanded its partnership with ADP, a leading provider of human capital management solutions, to help provide access to payroll products and services to Infor’s global HCM customers. This partnership is structured to allow Infor’s HCM customers to access payroll services from ADP using certain standardized processes, including single sign-on (SSO), which can help organizations manage their global workforce more efficiently. Managing employee data in worldwide locations can increase compliance exposure and may make adhering to applicable regulatory requirements more complex for multinational companies. By partnering with industry leaders in global HR and payroll technology, Infor aims to better support organizations to help mitigate risk and adhere to stringent local guidelines between countries, while providing a robust HCM solution that also includes payroll. The expanded partnership between Infor and ADP provides a multinational payroll model with HCM that can help position organizations for global success using a standardized solution.
In July 2018 Infor and OpenSesame have partnered to help organizations enhance professional development through curated learning applications. Since 2015, OpenSesame and Infor have helped leading organizations deliver high-quality training solutions to their global workforces. This newly expanded partnership will give all Infor customers and administrators access to OpenSesame's comprehensive catalog of e-learning courses from the world's top publishers, inside Infor LMS, to assist employees in improving their skills, achieving their full potential, and contributing directly to the success of their company. Users can select from more than 20,000 courses in topics spanning business and soft skills, IT/technology, industry-specific, compliance, safety, and certifications. Part of the Infor Human Capital Management (HCM) suite of solutions, Infor LMS is a robust end-to-end solution designed to help with creating, delivering, and reporting on learning throughout an internal and extended organization. Infor LMS customers will be able to access the entire library of OpenSesame e-learning courses through their Infor LMS solution. Users also have the ability to access content on mobile devices allowing for easy learning anywhere, anytime.
Infor Risks and Challenges
Prior to the pandemic, Infor embarked on a number of initiatives to accelerate its Cloud expansion aided by a solid product portfolio for asset-intensive industries from accounting to HR and from supply chain planning to enterprise asset management. The July 2021 move to divest its enterprise asset management business to Hexagon enables the vendor to focus on its core ERP and emerging markets like AI and machine learning with Coleman. The question is whether the divestiture underscores its parent Koch Industries' desire to redirect its energy or limit its exposure to areas that it deems too risky. Still, it's a departure of a tent-like strategy that has served Infor well for more than a decade. Reversing its course appears to signal a new strategy that has yet to fully manifest itself.
Infor Ecosystem, Partners, Resellers and SI
Infor primarily sells direct to its ERP and Cloud customers, but it also relies on reseller channels to help address the needs of those in EMEA and Asia Pacific. It has more than 220 channel and 100 alliance partners in Asia Pacific.
Some partners sell and install Infor solutions. They are recruited to implement, optimize and maintain. These include Cerca Technology, Konica Minolta (Germany), Decision Resources, Inc. and Synergy. However, there is also a myriad of legacy partnerships that were acquired along with acquisitions. These were often life-style businesses, forming somewhat of a cottage industry surrounding older solutions that are no longer “strategic” to Infor. They were notorious for customizing the software. But those customizations often built barriers to customers consuming Infor innovation. Those types of services and partnerships are no longer encouraged. They will have no impact on new customers of Infor’s CloudSuites, but remain in support of legacy solutions. Any new partnerships formed will demand much more in terms of added value to new customers, either in terms of domain expertise in specific verticals, or their ability to add value in terms of extensions.
Infor has also developed an alliance program with larger consulting firms, including Accenture, Cap Gemini, Tata, HCL and Deloitte and Grant Thornton. These partnerships are formed primarily for the influence these companies assert over the mid-to-large enterprise.
In July 2020 Infor Japan K.K. and Nippon Systemware Co., Ltd. established a newly-inked partner agreement to help Japanese customers accelerate their digital journey. Under the partnership, NSW can sell or otherwise provide Infor CloudSuite Industrial as a supply chain solution (ERP) for managing sales and production planning. This will enable both Infor and NSW to provide even higher value-added solutions that span both the engineering chain and supply chain. With multi-language, multi-currency, and multi-site support, Infor CloudSuite Industrial is an ERP package for manufacturing companies with global operations. It is already used in more than 6,000 locations globally, including over 1,400 locations in the Asia Pacific and over 200 locations in Japan alone.
NSW has a long history of achievement and expertise across the engineering chain (product lifecycle management and product data management), managing data related to design and manufacturing in the manufacturing industry. In recent years, it has combined the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) to provide solutions for delivering instructions and collecting performance data in production environments, while supporting its customers through their digital transformation (DX).This alliance is off to a promising start to fulfill current market and business needs, with the ERP package having already been trialed by a medical device manufacturer in a project to rebuild its core business system, including its global sites. Going forward, Infor and NSW will continue collaborating in the areas of Infor CloudSuite Industrial and other solutions for the manufacturing industry as both parties help build core business solutions that support digital transformation for customers.
At the beginning of 2019, Infor opened a new office in Charleston, West Virginia, to run cloud applications for U.S. Government Agencies. The office also will work closely with government contractors supporting these agencies. Infor anticipates that it will hire 100 technical employees in Charleston in the disciplines of software engineering, cloud operations, and consulting and support services to support its public sector customers. The office will expand as Infor adds additional customers.
In October 2018 Infor made a strategic partnership collaboration with Itemize Corp., a leading expense document data extraction provider headquartered in New York City. Paired with Infor’s flexible and configurable travel and entertainment travel and expense management solution, the embedded solution can utilize cloud technology and artificial intelligence to automatically capture receipt data and transfer that data to Infor Expense Management.
Earlier at that period, Infor enriched a new collaboration with Donnelley Financial. As regulatory reporting and compliance needs continue to rise, Infor is partnering with Donnelley Financial, a provider of risk and compliance solutions designed to help enable clients to communicate with confidence in complex regulatory environments, for Infor Dynamic Enterprise Performance Management (Infor d/EPM). Donnelley Financial is an industry leader in helping public and private companies to meet their evolving regulatory reporting requirements. Infor d/EPM customers can select ActiveDisclosure, the cloud-based disclosure management solution of Donnelley Financial, to create, manage, XBRL-tag, and file financial reports with regulatory agencies worldwide. When used alongside Infor d/EPM, organizations can systematize and help streamline regulatory reporting while maintaining data lineage.
In September 2018 Infor and #YesWeCode launched GenOne, an Infor and #YesWeCode initiative to increase the diversity of the tech workforce in one generation. This initiative, which is in coordination with the Infor Education Alliance Program, was unveiled from the main stage of Inforum, Infor’s annual customer conference, and will continue to expand throughout 2019. This groundbreaking partnership between #YesWeCode and Infor are being catalyzed by the leadership of Infor CEO Charles Phillips and Social Entrepreneur and Host of The Van Jones Show on CNN, Van Jones to recruit, train, and place underrepresented talent in Technology. Participants in this partnership go through a highly-tuned industry and role-based training and support program in under 4 months with the aim of placing them in well-paying roles across the technology ecosystem.
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Research Methodology
Data used in research reports are derived from publicly available documents, continuous surveys of applications vendors, customers, resellers, Independent Software Vendors, systems integrators and other verifiable sources.
Vendor shares and market forecast results are based on a combination of existing databases as well as demand side and supply side research conducted throughout the year with validation from vendors, customers, channel partners and documentations such as earnings releases and 10Q and 10K filings, vertical industry studies, regional and country-level statistics from public and private institutions(i.e. colleges, universities, government agencies and trade associations).
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