ERP Software Industry News

ATLANTA - Apr 16, 2007
Infor today announced the availability of Infor SCM Advanced Planner 5.0, a new version of its proven supply chain planning and optimization solution. Built on a 64-bit architecture, Infor SCM Advanced Planner 5.0 allows companies to address a growing number of increasingly complex supply chain planning challenges, including movement of more products through more sites, and incorporates real-world scenarios in a single, holistic model.

Infor SCM Advanced Planner 5.0 enables companies to tackle globalization challenges, such as multiple sources of supply and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, where they must recognize real-world constraints in sourcing products from approved suppliers and countries. The solution accurately models what-if scenarios, helping organizations proactively develop contingency plans for risk mitigation, and supports least-cost supply chain optimization. Utilizing 64-bit technology and parallel processing to tackle these challenges, the solution allows more responsive optimization to changes in supply-demand conditions and enhanced problem solving performance.

Molson Coors is the first company to take the holistic approach by deploying Advanced Planner 5.0 to solve its highly complex supply chain, which incorporates more than 750 product lines across six breweries and 40 distribution centers. The solution enables Molson Coors to manage inventory and production for all sites while also factoring in capacity constraints of production, warehousing and distribution.

“The new version of Advanced Planner allows us to incorporate more detail into the planning process, increasing from 7 million to 38 million the number of variables that we factor in,” said Dan Brown, Director of Supply Chain Planning for Imports and Systems for Molson Coors. “The accuracy from the additional detail enables us to reduce inventories while maintaining our high customer service levels.”

“We are now extending our model to dynamically source product beyond the plant level into the individual line level within the plant, further improving the productivity of our plant and resources,” said Jeff Turner, Manager Supply Chain Processes & Systems for Molson Coors.

By encompassing all variables within a supply chain, companies like Molson Coors can meet changing demand ahead of time and understand how these changes affect their business.

“Other solutions force their users to break the model up into silos which compromise the quality of the total supply chain plan,” said Andrew Kinder, Infor Director Product Marketing, Supply Chain Management. “Infor SCM Advanced Planner 5.0 uniquely combines flexibility and adaptability with scalability, which makes it the leading choice for companies with complex, global supply chains to manage.”

Additional features of the upgraded solution include ‘Priority Solving’, an enhancement that makes it easier and faster to develop new planning models to rapidly adapt to changes in supply network conditions.

Infor’s Supply Chain Management solutions enable the world’s leading companies to improve their profitability, competitiveness and growth through network design, demand and supply chain planning, manufacturing optimization, warehousing, transportation management and supply chain analytics. By synchronizing cycles of demand, supply and replenishment, Infor’s solutions allow our customers to get their product to their customers quickly and cost-effectively.

ATLANTA - Apr 16, 2007
Infor today announced Rush University Medical Center in Chicago has deployed Infor Performance Management (PM) Business Process Applications (BPAs). These solutions for performance management provide Rush with access to real-time information throughout the organization, eliminating legacy processes and providing an accurate view of the company’s performance.

As the health care industry becomes increasingly more complex, organizations like Rush are relying on insight gleaned from data to better manage hospital departments and improve overall hospital performance. Infor PM links corporate strategy with performance, enabling health care providers to align resources to support corporate goals.

“Previously, departments had to pull up stagnant reports that were not user-friendly,” said Rick Casey, controller for Rush. “That data would then have to be manually added to their individual worksheets or databases. With the new system, everything is integrated and much more efficient.”

“Healthcare’s post-paper age heralds a time of immense transformation. Each stakeholder organization must assess its capabilities for digital realization…. Organizations that become true optimizers will thrive; those that do not will languish,” notes Gartner in “Findings for Healthcare Firms: Step Up to the Opportunities and Challenges of the Post-Paper Era”, by Vi Shaffer, April 3, 2006.

Infor PM BPAs provide Rush with seamless budgeting and planning, financial reporting, performance analysis, enterprise reporting, analysis, monitoring and notification capabilities that produce a unified view of the organization’s financial and operational performance.

“By bringing together many data sources to provide a single, real-time view, Rush University Medical Center is well-equipped to face the competitive pressures of the health care industry,” said Christina McKeon, director of product marketing, Performance Management, Infor. “Infor PM allows organizations like Rush University Medical Center to leverage existing technology investments and become more efficient, ultimately improving the financial and operational performance of the organization overall.”

Infor PM complements Rush’s current installment of Infor FMS E Series. Infor PM will leverage critical information within the FMS E Series financial accounting solutions to distribute and publish the data accurately and efficiently to departments throughout the medical center.

Infor PM is designed for companies in all industries that seek to better monitor, measure, and manage their business performance in real time for improved competitive advantage. Companies of all sizes use Infor PM to leverage the full value of their business-critical information and generate a fast return on investment. Infor delivers solutions for performance management with industry experience built in backed by a global, financially stable company in the market.

ATLANTA - Apr 12, 2007
Infor today announced that Hayward, a California-based building materials and services provider, has completed the implementation of Infor ERP SX.enterprise, allowing the company to fully integrate business processes throughout its statewide operations. Hayward chose SX.enterprise to seamlessly manage business processes, improve communication among its sites, and gain greater visibility across its branches.

“Prior to implementing SX.enterprise we were running multiple databases, limiting our ability to share inventory and other critical business information,” said Sylvana Stratton, CFO, Hayward. “With Infor we have a platform for reengineering our business processes, enabling us to gain greater efficiencies and productivity across our organization.”

SX.enterprise includes an implementation model for distributors, allowing customers like Hayward to manage different phases of the installation. For example, Hayward was able to lead much of the additional branch rollout without onsite support from Infor. This business-specific feature reduced the cost of implementation, enabling the distributor to immediately benefit from a lower total cost of ownership.

“Infor understands that business doesn’t stop just because a customer needs to install a new software system,” said Thad Zylka, Infor vice president of Distribution Industries Solutions. “SX.enterprise efficiently manages customer and product information in all Hayward’s locations through a cost-effective installation process that limits disruption to their normal operations.”

SX.enterprise includes inherent functionality which allows distributors to better manage inventory and order processing. Since implementing the solution, Hayward is able to better manage customer expectations regarding availability of stock and delivery time.
Infor ERP SX.enterprise, a feature-rich solution with a Windows® XP-style user interface, provides companies with over 40 configurable modules from which to choose including an advanced order processing solution with contact and activity management, an integrated eCommerce storefront and catalog solution, and an extensive data warehouse reporting tool to monitor success. Some of the best known distributors in the world use SX.enterprise to manage complex products, improve inventory accuracy, control forecasting demand and simplify fleet scheduling.

SYDNEY, Australia - Apr 11, 2007
Infor has completed a major ERP implementation at Australian cable manufacturer Tycab. Tycab replaced three disparate, ageing and paper-intensive systems with Infor ERP SyteLine, a business-specific solution with industry experience built in which provides customers with a lower total cost of ownership. The centralized solution has provided Tycab single barcode scan functionality for picking and shipping, and a paperless shopfloor for manufacturing; helping the manufacturer to streamline operations, achieve high service standards and gain market share.

Dandenong-based Tycab Australia is a specialized manufacturer of quality electrical cable products used across a broad range of industries, from automotive wiring harnesses and aftermarket, to welding and switchboards. Tycab’s speciality is its ability to produce quality cable quickly with smaller minimum run sizes than other cable manufacturers or importers.

To alleviate some of the impact on service standards that the company’s ageing green screen and paper-based systems were making, Tycab realized it needed a solution that was highly specific to its business.

A key challenge was that Tycab was operating three disparate systems:

OSAS: its front-end customer service and dispatch management system.
Dataflex: a separate, twenty-five-year old manufacturing system with a green screen.
An in-house e-commerce system which handled accounts, order placement and inventory.
Tycab had already attempted to combine the systems after a company consolidation several years ago. However Ash Labib, Manufacturing Manager at Tycab, said, “The integration just wasn’t cutting the mustard. We still had translation issues between inventory and manufacturing job numbers, and between customers and staff. We could not ignore the burden on our staff to ensure data accuracy and synchronization between each of the systems”.

In order to address the concern, Tycab reviewed six manufacturing software suppliers before selecting Infor as its business management system.

“Infor understood our needs more than anyone else,” said Mr Labib. “While we wanted a system that was easy to implement and use, we found that out-of-the-box solutions fell short in supporting the unique processes that had given us our competitive edge over the years. Infor had the business specific solutions and domain expertise that could provide us with the best processes for efficiency improvements, but also the flexibility for customization which we needed.”

SyteLine is easy to customize without loss of integrity and this enabled Infor’s professional services team to tailor the solution to meet Tycab’s specific business needs for handling spools, multiples and sets, and volume picking and shipping.

The system went live in two stages to minimize operational disruption. The first phase (purchasing, financial, customer services and dispatch operations) went live in June 2006, followed by the manufacturing operation in October 2006.

Immediately, Tycab benefited from:

Accurate information and data: which, importantly, increased staff confidence in the company system.
A paperless warehouse. Now a single scan completes most transactions and this has improved delivery accuracy and service efficiency.
Tighter shipping control. For example, Tycab no longer ships to customers with credit hold.
Improved track and trace: this means Tycab is now able to quickly find stored inventory in a very large warehouse and optimise inventory for reduced wastage.
Mr Labib said, “We have gained enormous efficiencies and productivity as a result of the improved control of our operations and inventory delivered by the Infor system”.

ATLANTA - Apr 09, 2007
Infor today announced that CryptoLogic Inc., a world-leading developer and supplier of Internet gaming software, has deployed Infor CRM Epiphany to help the licensees of its wholly-owned subsidiary, WagerLogic Limited, optimize their marketing programs. The solution has contributed significantly to the company’s growth in revenues and end-customer base in the last year.

As competition heightens, CryptoLogic’s success becomes closely tied to the number of players its licensees are able to attract. Working closely with its licensees, the company determined marketing dollars were not as effectively spent, campaigns were not uniform, and the return was not optimal. CryptoLogic turned to Infor CRM Epiphany to tackle this opportunity, and immediately realized gains in revenue and customer acquisition.

“Infor CRM Epiphany offers the ability to provide our licensees the combination of advanced outbound marketing functionality, scalability, and ease of use we were looking for,” said Philip Chen, director, Decision Support Services at CryptoLogic. “With a complete view of the customer, we are able to analyze and react to changing customer habits and needs in near real time. The solution creates meaningful bottom-line benefit to our company each month.”

For example, with the solution’s greater segmentation capabilities, CryptoLogic’s licensees have seen up to 60 percent reduction in the time spent daily on customer segmentation activities. Now, the company’s licensees can create more sophisticated campaigns with upwards of 150 specific programs, compared with only 3 for any given campaign before the deployment of Infor CRM Epiphany.

This ability to segment on-line gaming players efficiently through advanced analytics and reporting capabilities enables CryptoLogic’s licensees to understand results from their individual marketing initiatives and continually improve their campaigns. The company has seen a substantial increase in its licensees’ acquisition of new gaming players as a result of more targeted acquisition campaigns.

“The biggest differentiator is the way the solution abstracts data structures,” said Dr. Patric Timmermans, director, CRM product marketing, Infor. “CryptoLogic’s licensees now have a complete and clear picture of their players, and all the data is presented to them in the exact format they need to do their jobs. Now that their campaigns are more effective, they can concentrate their efforts on the activities that produce the best return.”

Infor CRM Epiphany is a comprehensive, market-leading solution for integrated marketing, sales, service, and analytics focused on meeting the unique business-specific needs of customers. Designed to provide unparalleled customer experience across multiple business units and channels, Infor CRM Epiphany integrates customer information from multiple enterprise systems into a single view. Infor CRM Epiphany drives innovation, competitive advantage and increased profitability by focusing on the customer experience to increase the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and sales success.

London - Apr 05, 2007
LONDON, April 5, 2007 - Infor today announced the appointment of Ian Evans as regional vice president for Infor CRM Epiphany in the UK. Ian will be responsible for developing Infor’s CRM value proposition in target industries and helping both new and existing customers to extend their CRM capabilities. Infor CRM Epiphany is a comprehensive, market-leading solution for integrated marketing, sales, and service, focused on meeting the unique business-specific needs of customers.

Ian brings more than 19 years of experience in the CRM field, most recently as sales director for Pivotal, the CRM arm of CDC Software. Prior to this, Ian held business development roles with Continuus Software and Elevon.

“Infor is highly regarded as a market leader in CRM and I’m very much looking forward to leading our continued success in the UK,” said Ian Evans on his appointment. “Industry predictions expect spending on CRM software and services to rise from $8.4bn in 2007, to $10.9bn in 2010 as more organisations focus on customer acquisition and retention strategies as a means to achieving growth. Infor’s business-specific CRM solutions drive innovation, competitive advantage and increased profitability by enriching the customer experience, and we are well placed to help organisations to grow through improved customer-centric strategies.”

“CRM is an important part of the Infor business. As we continue to meet the new demands of a growing market we are aggressively adding new staff and so we are delighted to have Ian on board to drive our strategy in the UK,” said Gregg Monastiero, senior vice president Strategic Solutions, Infor. “Infor recognises that people are its greatest asset and we are committed to recruiting the best to deliver on our strategies.”

Infor CRM Epiphany is a comprehensive, market-leading solution for integrated marketing, sales, service, and analytics focused on meeting the unique business-specific needs of customers. Designed to provide unparalleled customer experience across multiple business units and channels, Infor CRM Epiphany integrates customer information from multiple enterprise systems into a single view. Infor CRM Epiphany drives innovation, competitive advantage and increased profitability by focusing on the customer experience to increase the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and sales success.

ATLANTA - Apr 04, 2007
Infor today announced that Designtex, a New York-based subsidiary of Steelcase Inc. that designs and develops inventive surface materials for commercial, hospitality and residential spaces, has chosen Infor Performance Management (PM) Business Process Applications (BPAs) to facilitate strategic planning and link the company’s worldwide financial systems for performance management.

“We evaluated several vendors with planning and budgeting capabilities, but only Infor PM had the intuitive strategy management functionality built-in,” said George Whalen, CFO at Designtex. “With Infor, we are able to develop a strategy and support it with key initiatives and tactics by improving collaboration and dialog within the company.”
According to AMR Research’s July 2006 report, “Trends in Performance Management Spending 2006,” companies that have deployed a performance management system have seen a 30 percent improvement in measured actual versus targeted performance from business intelligence and reporting tools, and a 33 percent improvement in measured actual versus targeted performance from planning, budgeting and forecasting applications.

“Designtex’s requirement of having key data centrally available in order to link strategies to operational activities is the reason many companies turn to Infor PM,” said Christina McKeon, director of product marketing, Performance Management, Infor. “Infor PM makes information visible and accessible by integrating financial processes with strategic planning to enable better decision-making.”

Infor PM BPAs, part of Infor’s suite of software for performance management, is an open, fully integrated, closed loop solution. It is a single application on a common schema which ensures data consistency and provides a rapid time to value for customers looking to unify their business processes. It affords enterprises the flexibility to put powerful performance management capabilities – including strategy, planning, budgeting, forecasting, and financial consolidation and reporting – in the hands of finance and business professionals across an organization, while preserving centralized control of critical information.

TORONTO - Apr 02, 2007
Workbrain Corporation (”Workbrain” or the “Company”) (TSX:WB) today announced that it has reached a definitive agreement with Infor Global Solutions European Finance, S.A.R.L. (”Infor”) under which Infor will acquire all of Workbrain’s outstanding common shares at a price of CDN$12.50 per share in cash pursuant to a statutory plan of arrangement. The transaction values Workbrain, on a fully diluted basis, at approximately $227 million dollars.

This all-cash transaction for 100% of the Company’s common shares represents a 25.6% premium over Workbrain’s volume weighted average share price on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday, March 30, 2007, and a 40% premium over the volume weighted average price for the most recent 30 trading days on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The transaction has been unanimously approved by Workbrain’s Board of Directors, which recommends that shareholders vote in favour of the transaction.

“In just over seven years, Workbrain has built the leading workforce management software company based on innovation and attention to the customer. Joining Infor will accelerate our current momentum by providing us access to Infor’s 70,000 customers and extensive global distribution network. We believe that all of our stakeholders will benefit from this combination,” said David Ossip, CEO of Workbrain.

Infor is the world’s largest private software company and third largest enterprise software provider. It provides applications that run virtually every aspect of a business, from enterprise resource planning to the supply chain, customer relationship management and financial systems. Infor focuses on business-specific solutions, which require less customization, provide more functionality and result in lower cost of ownership.

“Infor’s successful business model combines the built-in business experience of focused software providers like Workbrain with the scale, stability and breadth of solutions of one of the largest software providers,” said Jim Schaper, Chairman and CEO of Infor. “We will continue to invest and build upon Workbrain’s solutions. Workbrain expands our current human capital management offering with unmatched domain expertise in the areas of time and attendance, scheduling, absence management and workforce planning.”

Mr. Roger Martin, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Workbrain stated: “We are extremely proud of the business that our management team has been able to build, and the results that are being delivered through this transaction to our shareholders. This announcement follows a comprehensive process which has been supervised by our Board with the assistance of our financial advisors.”

Workbrain’s Board of Directors was advised by Merrill Lynch and Genuity Capital Markets, each of whom provided Workbrain’s Board of Directors with an opinion that the consideration to be received by securityholders under the transaction is fair from a financial point of view. Stikeman Elliott LLP provided legal advice to Workbrain.

Workbrain’s CEO, David Ossip, and Alon Ossip, a Director of Workbrain, have agreed to vote the 3,994,200 common shares that they control in Workbrain, which represents approximately 22% of Workbrain’s issued and outstanding common shares, in favour of the transaction.

The transaction is to be carried out by way of a statutory plan of arrangement and will be subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory and securityholder approval. The transaction is expected to close in June of 2007.

A proxy circular will be prepared and mailed to shareholders by early May providing shareholders with important information about the transaction. The definitive agreement and, once mailed, the proxy circular will be available at www.sedar.com and www.workbrain.com.

Conference Call
Investors, media and analysts are invited to participate in our conference call, to be held as follows:

Date: Monday, April 2, 2007
Time: 2:30 PM EST
Dial-in: (416) 849-2698 or Toll Free at (866) 400-2270

Please dial-in approximately ten minutes prior to the start time. Replay information is available upon request from Workbrain’s media relations contacts.

ATLANTA - Mar 29, 2007
Infor today announced that Turkcell, Turkey’s largest mobile phone operator and Europe’s second largest GSM operator, has won the Gartner CRM Excellence Award 2007 for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The award marks the eighth time an Infor customer has been recognised by IT analyst firm Gartner for excellence in CRM.

Turkcell was singled out for its successful deployment of Infor CRM Epiphany which has dramatically improved interaction with Turkcell’s 31.8 million customers. Infor CRM Epiphany is a comprehensive, market-leading solution for integrated marketing, sales, service and analytics, focused on meeting the business-specific needs of customers.

Turkcell won the award based on its customer centric strategy which was developed to boost profitability by increasing the number and improving the quality of customer interactions each month. Turkcell now manages more than 23 million customer interactions per month through 19 different communication channels.

“We congratulate Turkcell on winning this award and are extremely proud to play a part in their success,” said Gregg Monastiero, senior vice president of Infor’s Strategic Solutions Group for CRM. “Turkcell is a strong example of a company putting customer centricity at the heart of profitability. We look forward to witnessing further dividends as a result of this approach.”

The award was presented following a thorough review process which involved Gartner analysts evaluating all entries based on proven excellence in their CRM initiatives. From this, Gartner selected three finalists. Attendees at the Gartner CRM Summit in London then evaluated each finalist’s presentation against Gartner’s eight building blocks for CRM and voted Turkcell the winner.

Attendees at the event chose Turkcell for its vision and organised approach to challenges. They were also impressed by the company’s customer-driven, multi-channel product development strategy which rewards customer loyalty. Voters noted the importance of having board-level support for the initiative and felt that it was clear that Turkcell had made good use of customer segmentation and customisation. Some attendees noted that Turkcell’s approach takes CRM to the next level by thinking about the experience from an individual customer’s view.

Turkcell now joins seven other Infor CRM Epiphany customers that have won the Gartner award since 2001: Essilor, Bankinter, Boise Office Solutions, GSI Commerce, Grupo Financiero Bital, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and HSBC.

“We are delighted to receive this prestigious award,” said Meltem Sahin, Head of Marketing Insights and Reporting, Turkcell. “We believe this award highlights Turkcell’s continued commitment to providing the highest levels of customer satisfaction possible. With the help of Infor CRM epiphany, we have decreased customer complaints by 30 percent and increased first time query resolution by 15 percent. In the last year alone we increased customer satisfaction in a market where our competitors are facing decreases.

Infor solutions help businesses throughout the world to extend and enrich their customer relationships and evolve every day business processes to ensure benefit and return on their investments. The continued success of Infor CRM Epiphany customers at the Gartner CRM Awards over the past seven years highlights Infor’s business-specific solutions and the deep domain expertise of Infor’s people in helping to drive successful CRM strategies.

Designed to provide unparalleled customer experience across multiple business units and channels, Infor CRM Epiphany integrates customer information from multiple enterprise systems into a single view. Infor CRM Epiphany drives innovation, competitive advantage and increased profitability by focusing on the customer experience to increase the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and sales success.

About Turkcell
Turkcell is the leading GSM operator in Turkey with 31.8 million post-paid and pre-paid
customers as of December 31, 2006 operating in a three player market with a market share of approximately 60% as of December 31, 2006 (Source: Telecommunication Authority). In addition to the high-quality wireless telephone services, Turkcell currently offers General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) countrywide and Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) in dense areas, which provide for both improved data and voice services.

Turkcell provides roaming with 541 operators in 193 countries as of February 26, 2007. Serving a large subscriber base in Turkey with its high-quality wireless telephone network, Turkcell reported US$4,700 million net revenues as of December 31, 2006 as per IFRS financial statements. Turkcell has interests in international GSM operations in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Northern Cyprus and Ukraine. Turkcell has been listed on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) and the ISE (Istanbul Stock Exchange) since July 2000 and is the only NYSE listed company in Turkey. 51.00% of Turkcell’s share capital is held by Turkcell Holding, 7.46% by Cukurova Group, 13.07% by Sonera Holding,5.07% by M.V. Group and 0.01% by others while the remaining 23.39% is free float.

ATLANTA - Mar 29, 2007
Infor today announced it has won ISM’s 2007 “Top 15” award for its customer relationship management solution, Infor CRM. For the third consecutive year, ISM, a strategic advisor of CRM and Real-Time Enterprise initiatives, has chosen Infor’s solution for the CRM Enterprise Software Award.

Infor CRM is a comprehensive, market-leading solution for integrated marketing, sales, service and analytics, focused on meeting the business-specific needs of customers.

Infor was evaluated against competitors according to 217 selection criteria, including 110 business functions, 49 technical features, 36 implementation capabilities, five real-time criteria and 17 user-support features.

“The Top 15 CRM Awards serve as the industry benchmark for leadership in customer relationship management,” said Barton Goldenberg, founder and president of ISM. “Following our rigorous testing, Infor CRM clearly measured up to our strict standards for excellence in customer relationship management functionality.”

“Our company, technology and customers continue to be recognized by independent industry observers for the rapid, substantial and quantifiable impact our solutions have on the customer experience and bottom-line business performance,” said Gregg Monastiero, senior VP Strategic Solutions, Infor. “Infor will continue to demonstrate industry leadership in CRM through innovation, customer responsiveness, and a steadfast commitment to delivering measurable results.”

Designed to provide unparalleled customer experience across multiple business units and channels, Infor CRM integrates customer information from multiple enterprise systems into a single view. Infor CRM drives innovation, competitive advantage and increased profitability by focusing on the customer experience to increase the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and sales success.