Infor Global Solutions: Revolutionizing business application software

Infor is the third largest business application software company with operations serving more than 70,000 customers. It has revenues of about $1.8 billion and has approximately 8,000 employees. But it doesn’t stop at that.

“We’re very much tailored to providing solutions to specific industries” According to David Hope, President, Asia Pacific South at Infor, the company is now going towards new directions in terms of management team, strategy and technology. In early 2011, when Charles Phillips joined as the company’s new CEO, he brought in new global leadership to Infor. “He had successfully completed the acquisition of Lawson software which is about 4 and a half months ago now. Then he totally changed the global market model in a way that Infor is now investing heavily in technology and driving innovation,” he added.

Infor indeed managed to be a game changer in the industry by providing solutions that is tailored to a specific industry. “So as an example, I think 60% of the world’s breweries are using Infor solution and 80 of the top 100 automotive suppliers areusing Infor solutions,” said Mr. Hope.

The company is trying to revolutionize the way people create and use enterprise software. The end user can now approach and utilize their IT system in a different, and better way. Mr. Hope noted that Infor is trying to make it almost seamless between the way that end users at any level of organization uses the technology for their  personal situation. “Users can access their enterprise solutions from their desktop computers, tablet devices, and smart phones (whether it’s Iphone, Android, Ipad—much like they do with Google, Facebook, and Twitter). We are enabling how software work with accessibility to all those main forms of consumer accessibility,” he added. 

Infor’s newest initiative
Thus, the launch of Infor10 - a new technology which features a consumer-grade user experience, complete industry-specific software applications and Infor10 ION Suite, a lightweight, middleware technology that changes the way enterprise software is managed.

ION is unique to Infor10. It connects and integrates Infor and non-Infor applications, storing information in a common format and repository. ION allows information that flows among applications, analytics and social media streams to be accessed by users from their desktops, laptops and mobile devices. Unlike conventional middleware, the lightweight ION technology is not layered on top of existing applications, but infused into them. As a result, ION makes integrations quicker, simpler and more reliable. Mr. Hope noted that ION is not heavy and cumbersome. “It’s very easy for customers to deploy. And that is also the secret ingredient in Infor that allows us the connectivity between these consumerbased applications,” he added. 

Mr. Hope differentiates Infor in that we don’t believe the one-size-fits-all system approach. “We’re very much tailored to providing solutions to specific industries,” he added. Therefore ION makes it possible to connect the rich functionality of leading ERP and best-in-class solutions from Infor and affiliate Lawson Software for specific industries. Be it aerospace and defense; automotive; chemicals; distribution; equipment service, maintenance & rental; fashion; food and beverage; general manufacturing; healthcare; high tech; hospitality; industrial equipment and machinery; and public sector. 

Future plans for Infor

Infor is actively providing dynamic solutions to over 164 countries. But according to Mr. Hope, Infor is still looking at developing more strategic partnerships globally with a global partnership program called the Infor Partnership Network (IPN). “Infor also has a very aggressive strategy in terms of penetrating the developing economies. So we put in significant investment in to South America, China and we’re now in the new level of investing in to India,” he added.

Indeed, Infor is rapidly becoming a world leader in providing business application software. But we will see more of Infor’s exciting initiatives as the company continuously revolutionizes the industry in terms of the user’s experience of accessibility and drill out in terms of industry.

“We’re very much tailored to providing solutions to specific industries”

David Hope, President, Asia Pacific South at Infor