• How ERP Giants Are Building GenAI Into Their Products

  December 9, 2024 Alex Woodie

  We are still near the top of Gartner’s hype curve when it comes to generative AI. Larger companies that have discipline and money, and startups with time and ambition, are finding success with GenAI, but many organizations are still in the planning and roll-out phase. The same could be said for ERP vendors, who have started their GenAI journeys but are expected to ramp up adoption significantly in the years to come.

  Since the dawn of the mainframe age, computers have automated the work that was previously done by people. Large armies of file clerks were no longer needed once …

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• Infor Marketplace Offers Solutions for IBM i

  July 26, 2023 Alex Woodie

  Infor, which is the biggest ERP vendor for IBM i, didn’t forget about the IBM i when it updated its Infor Marketplace recently. In fact, the software market features a range of solutions that can run on IBM i and work with Infor ERP solutions running on IBM i, the software company says.

  Infor originally launched the Infor Marketplace in January 2022 with the goal of streamlining the process of searching for and obtaining software that augments operations for its 65,000 customers. Third-party solutions available at the launch included Avalara’s tax automation software and talent management software from Visual …

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• Infor Puts CM3 Project On Hold

  June 29, 2022 Alex Woodie

  Infor is no longer developing an on-premise and containerized version of M3, its ERP system that’s popular with IBM i customers. While the CM3 project is apparently dead, the company is working to certify the latest release of the ERP system on IBM i version 7.5, IT Jungle has learned.

  Like other ERP vendors with large legacy installed bases, Infor has struggled to get customers to move to its cloud offerings. In particular, its customers who run the M3 ERP system on IBM i have not migrated to the cloud version of the product in the numbers that Infor expected. …

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• Why Infor’s IDF Is Important for Customer Innovation

  May 25, 2022 Alex Woodie

  Among the remaining large ERP vendors targeting IBM i, Infor appears to be the most committed to ongoing development on the platform. A key element of that strategy is the Infor Development Framework (IDF), which plays a big role in extending the functionality in its IBM i-based ERP systems to meet customers’ specific needs.

  The IDF features most prominently in Infor’s long-term strategy for the ERP XA (MAPICS), ERP LX (BPCS), and ERP System 21 product lines, says Robert Russel, the vice president of product development at Infor.

  “We’re starting to try to essentially get that technology embedded into …

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• Infor Touts Stronger Roadmap For IBM i ERP

  May 4, 2022 Alex Woodie

  It may not be fashionable in some circles to have ERP software that runs on IBM i, since containerized microservices running in the cloud are all the rage. But since it was fully acquired by Koch Industries last year, Infor does not care. That change of heart is at the center of a renewed focus on continued development of its IBM i ERP systems.

  For many years, Infor actively pushed many of its IBM i customers to move to other platforms, including cloud-based ERP systems. While it didn’t sunset any of the IBM i products (it has around a dozen …

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• Infor Moves IBM i Products to New ‘Compass’ Group

  April 27, 2022 Alex Woodie

  Infor is taking a new approach to managing many of its IBM i-based ERP systems and supporting the customers that rely on them to run their businesses. Called Compass, the new group is tasked with revitalizing Infor’s relationships with IBM i customers by catering to their unique needs, according to the company.

  Infor created the Compass group about 10 months ago, soon after Koch Industries finished its acquisition of the company, according to Stewart Applbaum, the executive vice president and general manager of Infor Compass, who took over Compass about a month after it was created.

  “We realized that we …

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• Infor CM3 to Provide On-Prem Alternative to Cloudy M3

  April 20, 2022 Alex Woodie

  For years, Infor has been leading with the cloud when it comes to M3, the ERP system formerly known as Movex. But now, the software giant is readying a new hybrid deployment option called CM3 that will run in a Linux or Windows container and IBM i.

  Long before Infor completed its Lawson acquisition in April 2012 — even before Lawson finished its acquisition of Intentia in 2006 — plans were solidly in place to migrate the core RPG code underpinning the Movex suite to Java, thereby opening the software to run on platforms besides just IBM i, its historical …

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• Infor Customers Share IBM i Stories

  February 16, 2022 Alex Woodie

  Infor is often disparaged for being a graveyard of IBM i ERP products. But at the recent Inforum Digital event, three Infor customers shared why they’re bullish on their IBM i ERP systems from Infor.

  Badger Meters is a publicly traded manufacturer of water meters based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The 115-year-old company has more than 1,600 employees and has relied on Infor ERP LX system and BPCS predecessors to automate its operations for many years.

  According to Jim Reinardy, the director of information systems for Badger Meters, ERP LX has met the company’s needs, which has included a number of …

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• Infor Touts Benefits of Industry-Specific ERP

  February 2, 2022 Alex Woodie

  Infor executives took to the digital airwaves last week to discuss the company’s strategy for delivering industry-specific ERP solutions, which they claimed can deliver better functionality to customers in less time, with lower costs and fewer risks.

  The fear of time-consuming, expensive, and risky customizations is palpable among enterprises, Infor CEO Kevin Samuelson said during a roundtable with fellow Infor executives at last week’s Inforum Digital event.

  “The reality is, when we go in to talk to a customer, they’re nervous because there’s a reputation for projects taking too long, costing much more than expected, and companies ultimately not getting …

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• Warning Signs: Inside Travis Perkins’ Failed ERP Migration

  November 3, 2021 Alex Woodie

  When UK construction supplier and home improvement retailer Travis Perkins announced last month that it had selected Oracle Fusion Cloud’s Financials as the core of its new ERP deployment, it marked the latest in a long series of decisions about the company’s computing infrastructure. Unfortunately, it came after many poor decisions and failed ERP migrations along the way. Hopefully they will serve to educate others who might travel the same path.

  Travis Perkins’ current ERP woes began in 2016 at Infor’s annual Inforum user conference in New York City. The UK company’s then CEO, John Carter, announced that it …

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