Infor is now #3 in ERP revenues behind big names SAP and Oracle. Since hiring former Oracle executive Charles Phillips the company has made a formidable journey from "the graveyard of ERP to become the world's largest start-up", according to analyst Gartner.
In less than a year from the day he stepped up to his new position, Phillips and his team tied together the sprawling Infor portfolio (containing software such as LN, EAM, SyteLine, M3 and PowerFlex). "The Secret" is the integration platform called Intelligent Open Network, or "ION".
With ION, as well as other innovations like the integrated social platform solution, Ming.le, the new "beautiful" interface SoHO, and Infor's Cloud Suite the company even plans to "rattle" ERP business leaders, SAP and Oracle.
But how did all this happen? What made the successful Oracle team with Charles Phillips, Infor President Stephan Scholl and Duncan Angove jump on what at the time appeared to be a "sinking ship"?
ENGINEERING.com's Verdi Ogewell met CEO Charles Phillips, who some have described as "the Steve Jobs of business software", in Barcelona during an Infor partner event. Clearly Phillips has set his sights high. He is aiming for Infor to become the first ERP vendor in the cloud offering complete solutions for micro verticals. These solutions are customized for different sub-segments of the main industrysegments. "GM and Ferrari are a good examples", says Infor's VP of product strategy, Soma Somasundaran. "They have very different needs although both of them are in the automotive industry".
Different segments and different needs, yes, but the common denominator is the Cloud. In Infors case it referes more specifically to the Amazon Cloud. But first, customers must migrate their data to the Cloud. Phillips and his team have set a low barrier to switching, "We've offered to do it for a fixed fee, $ 55,000", said Phillips, "and let me tell you that this Upgrade X offer attracted. In a couple of weeks we had over hundred customers literally raised their hands".
In this TV-report you will also meet:
- Stephan Scholl, President, Infor
- IDC analyst, Jason Anderson
- Soma Somasundaran, VP of Product Strategy, Infor
- James Shaw, VP & CIO Custom Building Products
- Vittorio Boero, CIO, Ferrari
- Phil Lewis, Solution Consulting Director, Infor EMEA Channel