Infor Launches EMEA Channel Recruitment Drive

Published: September 2, 2008

by Dan Burger

Among the ERP software vendors with customers on the IBM System i hardware, no one tops Infor. The privately held company has more than 16,000 customers running its ERP LX (formerly SSA BPCS), ERP XA (formerly MAPICS), System 21 (formerly JBA), ERP A+ (formerly DP Solutions), and HCM Infinium (formerly Software 2000) software suites. Last week, the company announced plans for improving its channel partner network across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). The plan calls for the recruitment of new partners and the termination of underperforming partners currently on the team.

Two years ago, Infor's channel partners were told to cease their representation of all competitive products. Partners that had been offering competitive products were asked to present a plan for dropping those products and exchanging them for comparable Infor solutions.

The initiative's success is tied to adding at least 40 resellers and system integrators. One area of particular interest is the Nordic countries, where Infor executives believe improvements can be made. Some partnerships will be established around exclusive territories, although the company was not specific about those zones.

It would seem that 350 new Infor customers in EMEA during the last 12 months is a creditable amount, but the channel revenue accounted for only 18 per cent of Infor's total license revenue in EMEA. According to IDC, Infor's annual revenues from the EMEA enterprise applications market is nearly $1 billion.

"Infor is the world's tenth largest software company and having acquired some of the best solutions in the market, we provide channel partners with proven solutions for their customers," says Jean-Philippe Pommel, Infor's vice president in charge of EMEA channels and alliances. "Our approach to channel recruitment is focused on quality over quantity. We are not looking to take on thousands of partners and risk dilution of our focused approach, but a smaller number of partners which are well aligned with our products and company ethos."

A series of road shows--designed to show companies the advantages of an Infor partnership--are in place to aid the recruitment effort. They will begin in September following the vendor's annual EMEA partner conference in Marbella, Spain, and will stop in at least 12 cities.

Infor's product mix consists of software designed for enterprise resource planning; supply chain management; warehouse management; enterprise asset management; human capital management; expense management; performance management; and financial management.

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