Infor dives deeper into micro-vertical software delivery

PAC attended the Infor Velocity Summit, which took place on the 22nd and 23rd of October in Amsterdam. The event focused on Infor’s product strategy, particularly three key distinct elements announced by CEO Kevin Samuelson and CTO Soma Somasundaram: process intelligence, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI), both machine learning and generative AI.

The industry-specific Cloud Suites deployed in a multi-tenant cloud (AWS) offer Infor a competitive advantage thanks to their pre-built best industry practice processes. This allows them to serve customers at a micro-vertical level (e.g., discrete manufacturing, distribution, food & beverage, automotive, fashion) through fast software deployment, integrations and extension for custom needs without impacting the core.

The main idea revolved around bringing further value to customers by providing much more efficient processes that involve fewer steps and produce better, and faster outcomes. According to Infor customer Miller Industries, Infor’s process optimization freed up worker hours to focus on the business.

Infor achieves that through the Infor OS platform that serves as a foundation for its CloudSuite, highlighting components such as Data Fabric, which is harmonized for applications to provide insights and drive business processes, APIs for connectivity and integration capabilities, and Security. On top of its core systems, Infor adds its Value+ out-of-the-box solutions, which are basically accelerators that bring extra value on top of the CloudSuite through AI, process intelligence, automation, and RPA, allowing for quick innovation. All of this is supported by CareFor Managed Services and CareFor Success to provide customers with sustained capabilities and value.

The event also featured interesting customer success stories featuring names such as Aston Martin, Nutreco, Karl Lagerfeld, Amalthea, Sethness Roquette, Boskalis, and Miller Industries, who shared their experience with Infor and offered valuable insights regarding the transition to the cloud.

Infor highlighted the concept of “Value Void” a digital divide between those already enjoying Infor’s cloud capabilities and technologies (e.g., Gen AI) to drive business performance and faster innovation versus on-premise laggards, who are increasingly left behind due to legacy constrictions.

Infor’s “Beginning Your Cloud Journey” was particularly interesting. It highlighted benefits and concerns when moving to the cloud from Infor customers Boskalis and Miller Industries. Both customers said that its various business units across the globe using the same platform and standardized and best practice processes were key drives to move to the cloud with Infor. Additionally, centralized financial processes are now more cost-effective and efficient.

Miller Industries also highlighted the importance of reworking the existing data foundation (data cleansing, data fragmentation…), which if not tackled from the get-go, will undoubtedly lead to challenges and additional costs later down the road. It further stated that Infor’s cloud on AWS was a big step up in terms of security compared to on-premises.

Andrew Kinder, Infor’s SVP of Industry Strategy, pointed out, in a room 90% composed of on-premises customers, that cloud migration should be interpreted from a value-added point of view rather than cost savings, as it brings you new levels of productivity enhanced by AI-empowered data which drives value and competitiveness. Boskalis stated that while the cloud is still expensive in comparison to on-premise TCO, the value lies in a much higher quality of services, access to tools, automation, and process optimization, low latency, and more, which open doors to cost savings and better experiences.

Infor also announced a new Partner Program (CareFor) on the back of its existing program (Infor CSE), focused on selecting partners with deep micro-vertical expertise. Infor’s continues support with partners is further complemented through its CareFor Managed Services offering.

Infor reported a revenue of USD 3.5 billion in the fiscal year that ended in May 2024, with USD 1.5 billion generated through its cloud offerings which continues to enjoy outstanding growth supported by net new cloud sales as well as a large share of existing customers migrating toward the Software-as-a-Service model. Its on-premises solutions under the license and maintenance business model are shrinking by high single digit, but will continue to receive support.