Infor: Design+Value
I have written in past about Infor’s micro-vertical strategy and its quest with its internal design agency Hook +Loop to make enterprise software “beautiful”. I saw more of that at Inforum in New Orleans this week, but I also signs of the messages maturing more into a focus on efficiency and value from software. To […]
Infor CEO: ‘Beautiful software’ solves business problems
CEO Charles Phillips explains why his enterprise software company has cultivated design as a core strategic competency.
Infor: Its a vertical world after all
Charles Phillips, CEO of Infor, is a sharp dresser. His lean frame and his attention to detail (he has designed his own shirt collars since he was young) certainly help. At dinner he politely explained to a few curious analysts his sartorial style. And yes, that has helped him in the sales process with executives […]
Sage Data Cloud, new UI and other re-tooling progress
Imagine you run R&D for a major software firm. Your employer has grown the company massively over the last couple of decades with acquisitions of competing and complementary product lines. You now have to support and enhance dozens of product lines, product architectures, etc. Unfortunately, pure-play competitors are now introducing all-new applications at a dizzying […]
Enterprise software and the curse of vendor sameness
Enterprise software vendors talk in pithy, some would say pseudo-sophisticated, language designed to impress prospects, customers, and influencers in the market. Almost all enterprise vendors use terms like the following as symbols to convey broader meaning, despite offering little or no content to the reader: Time to value Continuous innovation Accelerated solutions Big data Mobile first Increase […]
Infor: a grown-up stealth start-up
I have known Charles Phillips, CEO of Infor for going on 2 decades now. He was a polymath way before I wrote a book celebrating them. He has computer science and law degrees in addition to an MBA. He is on the board of a media company, a museum, a jazz organization and a charity. […]
Inforum: The Enterprise Climbers
Bill Starke’s sculpture in the lobby of the Hyatt in Denver I stayed at this week is a good metaphor for the changing enterprise software industry. In general, everyone treats SAP and Oracle as the pursued, and SaaS vendors as the pursuers. Infor is generally talked about as a list of 70,000 customers on every […]
For E.piphany (Infor), It’s Back To The Future
One thing I learned in the past 20+ years of doing CRM – when a tool works, the vendor behind does not matter to the user. They can go out of business, be acquired, change their business model (what do we call that today? pivot?) or all together disappear. The user will continue to use […]
Friday Rant: When Will Infor Get Serious About Procurement?
Earlier this week, Infor announced it was acquiring Lawson, a slumping ERP provider with very limited procurement capabilities relative to SAP and Oracle, let alone best-of-breed procurement vendors. Given Infor’s furious acquisit…
Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2011-03-15
Enterprise news and headlines, first half of March 2011 iPad 2. SAP BI 4. Lawson is up for sale. Larry gets richer. HP launches a new strategy. Potential #Lawson acquisition – How it could affect you Software companies come and go but software products last forever Chuck Phillips and #Infor Offer $1.84 Billion for #Lawson; […]
