Published on the 11/10/2010 | Written by Newsdesk
Infor’s new family of applications combine industry-specific functionality with rapid implementations to speed time-to-value…
The leading provider of business software for mid-market companies has unveiled the applications called Infor Express, and also launched Infor SCM Demand Planning 6.4.
This came during a demonstration of its Infor ION strategy, cloud computing offering and integration with Microsoft technologies and tools to an audience of Pacific customers from Australia, New Zealand, PNG, Fiji & Vanuatu at Inforum, its annual user conference in Melbourne.
iStart’s General Manager Hayden McCall attended the conference and heard about Infor’s growth in this region, which while only aorund 3 percent of Infor’s global revenue, is a market that is vocal in driving Infor’s product strategy.
“The Pacific is an important market for Infor with a large number of mid-market customers using our solutions to meet their business needs as well as their IT budgets,” said James Brackenrig, VP Pacific, Infor.
“At Inforum, we can gather our Pacific-based customers annually to present them with the latest developments from Infor, such as Infor ION, our Microsoft partnership and Infor24 cloud offering, as well as share best practices to enable them to get the most out of their IT investment with Infor.”
Bruce Richardson, Infor’s chief strategy officer based in Boston, says the company sees the global economy is recovering and he was impressed with the ongoing boom going on in Australia, things were picking up in Europe but the US economy is still uneven. For Infor, recent performance has been solid.
“We’ve always been profitable.”
Cloud is hot
Richardson said there was no doubt that people were very interested in the move towards cloud computing. He said customers wanted to talk about cloud computing after announcing a cloud-based ERP product in July.
“I’m really surprised at the amount of inquiry we get (about cloud) but I also think it’s going to be one of those great tools for just getting into a dialogue. If they want to run their own data centre, or have us run it? We’ll do whatever makes sense for them. It’s going to be a way to differentiate us.”
Richardson thought there would be more consolidation among vendors, especially in the cloud space.
The new software suite
He said he was excited about ION, which is a new suite of software services that use open data standards to securely integrate information from Infor and non-Infor applications.
At the conference, Pacific customers got their first look at how Infor ION can simplify connectivity and data sharing, which removes the need for complex and costly middleware.
Infor Express solutions use the experience gathered from thousands of successful installations to speed up implementation time – with full activation in as fast as 90 days. Unlike the rapid implementation programs of other vendors, Infor uses a flexible, self-paced timeframe made possible by a subscription-based learning program.
Infor SCM Demand Planning 6.4 allows companies to increase productivity and more accurately predict and influence customer demand to seize new revenue opportunities.
New features help planners better engage sales and marketing in the forecasting process, and suppliers in the ordering process, leading to more accurate and predictable demand and supply plans.
Microsoft partnership strengthens
Infor uses Microsoft technologies and tools to create software solutions that are easier for mid-market companies to deploy and use. At Inforum, the company outlined its vision for the future based on complementary Microsoft technologies that will allow organisations to speed up deployment time and reduce management complexity.
Next generation Infor software will include:
• Single sign-on across a range of Infor applications
• Dynamic graphical interface using Microsoft Silverlight
• Microsoft SQL server as preferred Infor database
• Collaboration and portal based interface using Microsoft Sharepoint
