Infor, stormed into the corporate consciousness with a string of audacious acquisitions between 2002 and 2006. Some of the world’s best regarded software brands (JBA, Geac, SSA Global, Systems Union, Extensity, Baan and Mapics to name but a few) were swept up in a multi-billion dollar spending spree that catapulted the newly formed group almost overnight to a prominent position in the global mid-market with a ‘captive’ user base of around 70,000 customers.
Initially famed for the brashness of this strategy based on a loose federation of brands the group has matured beyond market expectations and established a clear identity, culture and technical direction that makes it a formidable mid-market player. Now much more settled and assured under Jim Schaper’s skilful leadership the group is focussing on what it’s good at – developing business applications for mid-sized businesses and leaving the heavy lifting, as far as technology is concerned, to Microsoft. Gary Simon, FSN's managing editor looks at Infor's strategy.
The softening of the economy has of course helped concentrate minds; both Infor and its customers are watching margins, containing costs and looking to squeeze every last ounce of productivity out of of their workforces. For Infor and its customers the decision to align itself closely with Microsoft makes deep business sense. Following its post-acquisition phase in the first half of this decade Infor found itself with a bewildering choice of technology platforms and products. Even with an 1,800 strong development team Infor would struggle to maintain the status quo, let alone to develop a convincing product road map.
“The Microsoft strategy has allowed us accelerate progress,” Jim Schaper, Infor’s CEO told FSN on a recent trip to London. “Delivering technologies is not good use of our skills and resources,” he added. And of course he is not alone. A number of software vendors have recently thrown in the towel with Microsoft. It’s a win/win situation for all involved. Customers get to leverage their investment in Microsoft SharePoint that is probably lying fallow in their technology stack, and Infor can accelerate support for collaborative applications which are becoming the key to user productivity, organisational responsiveness and profitability. Microsoft benefits from the growing share of business applications reliant on its technology.
For Infor customers the Microsoft tie-up is especially timely because it provides certainty around direction after a number of years in the ‘wilderness’ waiting to see how their Infor products will develop. One Infor business developer told FSN, “What is important is that we have a roadmap and that customers can see where we are going – the fact that the changes will take place gradually is of less concern. The fact is that customers now have no reason to leave the Infor stable,” he said. But what exactly does a Microsoft platform provide?
Collaboration is the new buzz phrase in corporate systems, “allowing people to do more with less,” adds Schaper. But supporting businesses in the quest for improved productivity requires the interplay of a number of more subtle changes. It starts with the user interface – something that businesses consistently undervalue yet is vital to user productivity. Utilising SharePoint technology allows Infor to provide a consistent user interface no matter what applications are being deployed. The instant familiarity and single sign-on capability (roughly meaning one password to access any permitted applications) means that it easier to move employees from one application area to another, reducing the learning curve and allowing user departments to redeploy people to smooth out peaks and troughs in demand.
But it also possible to support roles-based processing, where the environment presented to an end user (or group of users) through a corporate intranet matches the job that they are required to do with relevant tasks, performance indicators, dashboards and reports specifically tailored to the job in hand.
Underpinning the presentation of the application is the greatly simplified middleware, Infor ION, which drives the ‘central nervous system’ of the application linking the various application components into a unified suite, leveraging workflow technology to provide an efficient communications channel that cuts across traditional functional silos that can all too often act as brake on productivity.
Which brings us to the Cloud debate or where exactly should the applications be hosted? It is here that Infor has something different to say. In common with most of the established ERP players Infor is hedging its bets in the cloud, i.e. giving customers the choice about whether to host their applications on-premises or in the cloud. Jim Schaper isn’t convinced that the Cloud is the panacea that it is often made out to be. “Complex ERP environments with heavy customisation go against the rationale for the cloud. Most cloud vendors are offering a one-size-fits-all solution but there are simpler applications such as Infor Expense Management or asset management that are simpler and less costly to host in the cloud,” he told FSN.
“What is important is that users have a single sign-on irrespective of where the application is located and that the user is unaware of whether the application is being hosted in the cloud or on-premises,” he added. It is Infor ION which provides the communication and secure sharing of data across on-premise and cloud applications in what Infor describes as “Cloud without Compromises”.
The new Microsoft-ready applications are being rolled out to customers starting in early 2011. The move is likely to be very welcome in the mid-market although Schaper confirmed that there are also plans to take new applications into the upper mid-market ($2billion to $4billion organisations) early next year.
Infor’s strategy looks very sound and the decision to leverage Micrsoft’s technology has allowed it to quickly round out its offerings and get the company on-message with what is happening elsewhere within the mid-market. There is a palpable sense of purpose and enthusiasm in the company which can now concentrate on driving business functionality and adding greater value rather than being locked into endless iterations of technology. The company hasn’t altogether abandoned the other technologies such as IBM and Oracle but its overriding direction is clearly Microsoft.
However the move presents some interesting market dilemmas. If the best of Microsoft’s technology is going into Infor applications where does that leave Microsoft’s Dynamics brand in the mid-market? Secondly, Infor is now very clearly positioned around an easy to understand strategy and popular approach. It could leave Oracle and SAP with much more of a fight to retain and win customers in mid-sized companies. As Jim Schaper agrees - customers have heard of Microsoft!
