But I will still go out on a limb here and say that SoftBrands’ manufacturing products mentioned in Part 1 might have the best chances of being brought back to life under Infor. To be fair, Infor has breathed more than one breath of fresh air into some long-written-off enterprise resource planning (ERP) products. Think of Infor ERP LN (formerly Baan) or Infor ERP Adage (formerly SCT Adage) and how much these products have been bolstered via Infor’s “Extend, Enrich, and Evolve” or “Three Es” approach and accompanying product delivery.
To that end, I am not sure how neglected and technologically far behind the “classic” Fourth Shift product is at this moment in order to be fully service-oriented architecture (SOA)-enabled within the Infor Open SOA framework. But the least Infor can do is to offer the “evolve” components like Infor MyDay or Infor Business Information Services (BIS) to legacy Fourth Shift customers.
Offering Infor MyDay on top of all of its ERP assets is a great way to entice customers to use Infor’s unified user interface (UI) and then eventually swap out the antiquated underlying systems. Part of the strategy for Infor MyDay is to layer it on top of all underlying enterprise systems and eventually have it become the main UI that Infor customers will use to access enterprise information.
However, from my understanding of Infor’s current sales strategy, the vendor really needs to focus on the plethora of its existing solutions. SoftBrands will certainly add an inevitable distraction in the short term, and at least it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Enter Infor Flex
This brings me to an even more recent announcement about Infor Flex, a well-thought-out program that was devised to give customers on active maintenance contracts a clear, fast, and cost-effective path to adopt Infor’s latest product innovations.
While the entire press release can be found here, and there is also an Infor Blog entry with a video message from Infor’s chief executive officer (CEO) Jim Schaper here and a Flex Overview Presentation here, the gist of the matter can be found in the following excerpt from the PR:
“…Through a package of software, services and financing, Infor Flex gives customers compelling, low-risk options to upgrade to the latest version of their existing Infor products or exchange to another Infor product, on a like-for-like basis. The decision to upgrade or exchange is completely in the hands of customers based on the needs of their business. Infor Flex minimizes license and/or transaction fees and offers significant benefits, such as a fast, reduced-fee implementation methodology and incentive pricing on additional users, modules or complementary solutions…”
A week before announcing Infor Flex, Infor also announced Infor Financing, which, for a limited time, offers qualifying customers a zero-percent financing option so they can immediately improve their competitiveness through software that’s available at flexible and favorable payment terms. Infor Financing is also available as part of the Infor Flex program for qualifying customers.
As with the SoftBrands acquisition coverage, there is little I can add to the opinions of Ray Wang, Frank Scavo, and ZDNet’s Dennis Howlett in their respective blog posts. My understanding on the Infor Flex program is that Infor has either removed or dramatically reduced and simplified pricing along with providing special incentives for customers to get access to new product releases in order to encourage customer upgrades.
Some software companies charge for each new release, but Infor does not seem to be one of these (“out of touch”) vendors. The new license revenue stream is always appealing, but that policy does make licensees seriously consider the cost before an upgrade. There simply are cases where upgrades induce major underlying platform changes that have, historically, incurred costs. Infor pledges to leave no stone unturned, however, in finding ways to eliminate or reduce these.
I can only speculate on whether there has been considerable customer resistance recently, which has then pushed Infor to this new program. In other words, it is difficult for the cynic in me to think that any vendor does anything for the customer out of the goodness of its heart. But in any case, what Infor is doing here will be beneficial if it moves more clients to the latest releases at a cost-effective price. My hunch is also that the focus is on leveraging Infor Open SOA and Infor MyDay.
But the “catch 22″ here is in how many of Infor customers are on the latest product release to be able to take advantage of these new “evolve” products. Not too many, I guess, and there Infor might be facing a real problem. There is a significant investment in this new technology, but if Infor Flex cannot build a lasting success in its install base, the company will ultimately fail.
I believe this initiative to get customers to upgrade or migrate will be the vendor’s focus (and a litmus test of a sort) for the next year or so. It is a good idea to get customers in a position so they can take advantage of these new innovations. But with a customer base of 70,000, the vendor cannot do this with a sporadic win here and there. Infor needs to show proof points and mass adoption relatively swiftly.
To that end, I am not sure how neglected and technologically far behind the “classic” Fourth Shift product is at this moment in order to be fully service-oriented architecture (SOA)-enabled within the Infor Open SOA framework. But the least Infor can do is to offer the “evolve” components like Infor MyDay or Infor Business Information Services (BIS) to legacy Fourth Shift customers.
Offering Infor MyDay on top of all of its ERP assets is a great way to entice customers to use Infor’s unified user interface (UI) and then eventually swap out the antiquated underlying systems. Part of the strategy for Infor MyDay is to layer it on top of all underlying enterprise systems and eventually have it become the main UI that Infor customers will use to access enterprise information.
However, from my understanding of Infor’s current sales strategy, the vendor really needs to focus on the plethora of its existing solutions. SoftBrands will certainly add an inevitable distraction in the short term, and at least it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Enter Infor Flex
This brings me to an even more recent announcement about Infor Flex, a well-thought-out program that was devised to give customers on active maintenance contracts a clear, fast, and cost-effective path to adopt Infor’s latest product innovations.
While the entire press release can be found here, and there is also an Infor Blog entry with a video message from Infor’s chief executive officer (CEO) Jim Schaper here and a Flex Overview Presentation here, the gist of the matter can be found in the following excerpt from the PR:
“…Through a package of software, services and financing, Infor Flex gives customers compelling, low-risk options to upgrade to the latest version of their existing Infor products or exchange to another Infor product, on a like-for-like basis. The decision to upgrade or exchange is completely in the hands of customers based on the needs of their business. Infor Flex minimizes license and/or transaction fees and offers significant benefits, such as a fast, reduced-fee implementation methodology and incentive pricing on additional users, modules or complementary solutions…”
A week before announcing Infor Flex, Infor also announced Infor Financing, which, for a limited time, offers qualifying customers a zero-percent financing option so they can immediately improve their competitiveness through software that’s available at flexible and favorable payment terms. Infor Financing is also available as part of the Infor Flex program for qualifying customers.
As with the SoftBrands acquisition coverage, there is little I can add to the opinions of Ray Wang, Frank Scavo, and ZDNet’s Dennis Howlett in their respective blog posts. My understanding on the Infor Flex program is that Infor has either removed or dramatically reduced and simplified pricing along with providing special incentives for customers to get access to new product releases in order to encourage customer upgrades.
Some software companies charge for each new release, but Infor does not seem to be one of these (“out of touch”) vendors. The new license revenue stream is always appealing, but that policy does make licensees seriously consider the cost before an upgrade. There simply are cases where upgrades induce major underlying platform changes that have, historically, incurred costs. Infor pledges to leave no stone unturned, however, in finding ways to eliminate or reduce these.
I can only speculate on whether there has been considerable customer resistance recently, which has then pushed Infor to this new program. In other words, it is difficult for the cynic in me to think that any vendor does anything for the customer out of the goodness of its heart. But in any case, what Infor is doing here will be beneficial if it moves more clients to the latest releases at a cost-effective price. My hunch is also that the focus is on leveraging Infor Open SOA and Infor MyDay.
But the “catch 22″ here is in how many of Infor customers are on the latest product release to be able to take advantage of these new “evolve” products. Not too many, I guess, and there Infor might be facing a real problem. There is a significant investment in this new technology, but if Infor Flex cannot build a lasting success in its install base, the company will ultimately fail.
I believe this initiative to get customers to upgrade or migrate will be the vendor’s focus (and a litmus test of a sort) for the next year or so. It is a good idea to get customers in a position so they can take advantage of these new innovations. But with a customer base of 70,000, the vendor cannot do this with a sporadic win here and there. Infor needs to show proof points and mass adoption relatively swiftly.
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