ERP Software Industry News

ATLANTA - Mar 27, 2007
Infor today announced it has enhanced its SunSystems financial management solution to give CFOs greater visibility and access to financial data required to drive better business performance. Infor FMS SunSystems 5.3 includes customer driven business-specific features that enable companies to meet the growing challenges faced by new national and local regulations to comply, control and report financial data.

As globalization and downward pricing pressure lead to reduced margins, both software solutions and business processes must be aligned to support these changes. FMS SunSystems 5.3 addresses these issues to streamline finance operations and control costs by providing access to the right data and at the right time.

“The role of the CFO has evolved to one of transaction manager, communicator and strategist as compliance requirements and competitive pressures place potential pitfalls in the way of business growth,” said Andy Birch, Senior Director, Financial Solutions, Global Industry and Product Marketing Infor. “They are the conscience of the company, which means they must be able to quickly and efficiently interpret complex financial information into clear, decisive business performance strategies. Like the CFO, we have evolved the SunSystems product to keep pace with ever-changing marketplace trends.”

FMS SunSystems 5.3 includes support for Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and 2005 as well as Oracle 9i and 10g. An enhanced user-interface provides the familiarity and ease of use of Microsoft Windows, enabling users to execute queries, perform tasks, and have access to reports more quickly and efficiently.

The latest version’s enhancements include:

Auditability: Additional data is captured on ledger transactions to provide a more complete audit trail, enabling companies to better meet Sarbanes-Oxley compliance
Ledger: Allows for specialized transaction numbering and types, such as payments and receipts
Journal Reversals/Copying: Enables users to automate the reversal of selected transactions and journals
Access to other Infor FMS SunSystems components such as Procurement, Purchase Repositioning, Time, Expense, Resource Management, Collect, Recurring Invoice, Professional Services Automation and Extended Financial Management.
Infor FMS SunSystems is a financial management solution that ensures financial discipline, regulatory and legal compliance, best practices, and operational and control efficiencies by automating and standardizing key business processes. FMS SunSystems provides visibility of information for decision makers, support for low total cost of ownership, and flexibility in the business.

BIRMINGHAM, England - Mar 26, 2007
Infor today announced Orient-Express Hotels Limited has selected Infor’s Performance Management (PM) Business Process Applications (BPA) software. The solution, which is part of the Infor PM suite of performance management software, will improve and streamline financial reporting and integrate financial information across all 49 of its luxury hotel and leisure business units spanning 25 countries.

Infor PM BPA will provide Orient-Express with a centralised, web-based financial performance management system across its 39 hotels, six tourist trains, two restaurants and two river cruise operations. With a `drag and drop’ facility to allow for ease of data comparison between different business units, the highly functional performance management solution will provide a single, integrated financial reporting system to replace the existing spreadsheet based reporting processes.

“We have business units spread throughout the world, and so we were looking for a more accessible, accurate and automated financial reporting system,” said Dillip Rajakarier, Deputy Chief Financial Officer at Orient-Express. “Infor PM BPA software provides us with a single web-based tool which simplifies the entire reporting process while providing us with a much more in depth drill down facility to further analyse and compare our management reports and consolidate all of our financial information.”

Previously for Orient-Express, the collection and reporting of financial and sales information involved the manual integration of several complex spreadsheets, potentially prone to human error. Infor PM BPA software now enables the company to automate this process, removing discrepancies in data and providing real-time budgeting information, leading to accurate and timely reporting.

Chris Harman, Regional Vice President for Infor Performance Management, comments: “We’re delighted to be working with Orient-Express. The relationship is testament to the business benefits that Infor brings to its customers. In an increasingly competitive hotels and leisure market place businesses need to ensure they have the most accurate and efficient reporting processes to monitor performance.

“Over the last 12 months Infor has seen the demand for its PM solutions grow significantly as customers want to not only measure but help apply a consistent global management structure to multiple disparate business units. Infor’s solution not only enables a head office to compare and contrast performance figures across all units but enables the operating units themselves to easily benchmark against the rest of the group. These systems are all about providing value at all points of the management chain.”

Infor PM BPA software, which is part of the Infor PM suite of performance management software, is an open, fully integrated, closed loop performance management solution, built as a single application on a common schema to ensure data consistency and to provide a rapid time to value for customers who are looking to unify their business processes. It affords enterprises the flexibility to put powerful performance management capabilities - including strategy, planning, budgeting, forecasting, consolidation and reporting - in the hands of finance and business professionals across an organisation, while preserving centralised control of critical information.

In January 2007, Ventana Research ranked Infor as the overall leader for enabling Performance Management (PM) in an organisation. More than 10 leading PM vendors were evaluated on the basis of the functional capabilities of their solutions and, with an overall score of 97 percent, Infor was ranked highest for companies seeking a PM solution provider. Infor has been ranked the number one PM vendor for three years in a row.

MUNICH, Germany - Mar 22, 2007
Infor announced today that Pankl, a global developer, producer and distributor of engine systems, drive systems and chassis components for motor racing, high performance cars and aerospace, has gone live on Infor Performance Management Enterprise Planning and Infor Performance Management Consolidation.

Infor’s performance management solutions will now provide Pankl with the ability to improve and streamline financial reporting through the integration of financial information for enterprise-wide transparency. Pankl benefits from improved data quality and consistency, and saves valuable time by standardizing accounting workflows and automating processes such as debt consolidation.

“Infor provides us with a single, integrated financial reporting system, leading to accurate and timely reporting,” says Mag. Norbert Passler, Group Controller at Pankl. “Business specific standards combined with flexibility for easy customization made Infor our first choice.”

Continuous growth made the company look for a flexible, comprehensive solution to automate former manual processes, removing discrepancies in data and providing real-time financial information to the management.

Pankl chose Infor for its integrated approach, covering both financial planning and consolidation while using a single, high performance database. Infor enables Pankl to report sales transactions on product by customer, showing enterprise-wide impact on revenues, open receivables or profit. In addition, critical production and HR performance indicators can be calculated and reported with Infor.

Infor was recognized by Pankl as providing a low cost of ownership since the functional footprint of the solutions came with Pankl’s business-specific requirements built-in as standard. For example, Infor provides Pankl with guided workflow capabilities, automated processes, built-in financial functions, and pre-built reports.

“Accurate and efficient planning and reporting processes are key to supporting enterprises in today’s competitive market environments. Infor helps Pankl to achieve a consistent view of all key performance indicators to react more quickly to changing business requirements,” continues Mag. Norbert Passler.

Infor’s comprehensive PM solutions help companies achieve greater alignment between business strategies and financial and operational performance. Infor PM includes applications for strategic planning, planning and budgeting, forecasting, financial consolidation, expense management, subsidiary management, scorecarding, reporting, and industry- and role-based analytics. With Infor, organizations can work with a single vendor that delivers business-specific solutions with best practices and industry experience built-in. The end result for customers is gaining accurate information more quickly to improve performance across the organization.

ATLANTA - Mar 22, 2007

Infor today announced a new Mobile Order Management (MOM) solution that will enable field sales personnel in the distribution industry to process orders remotely using a PDA, laptop or any other mobile device. MOM enables distributors to better service their customers from anywhere in North America, meaning sales personnel can spend less time on manual order processing and more time meeting customer need.
“Infor recognizes that in today’s competitive landscape, distributors face growing pressure from customers and suppliers to find enterprising ways of saving time and resources,” said Thad Zylka, Infor vice president of Distribution Industry Solutions. “Our Mobile Order Management solution enables companies to significantly improve delivery time of products and services, and provides buying leverage to increase profitability.”
MOM’s intuitive, web-based interface allows the user to quickly access stored inventory data and submit order information via wireless access. When connected to the internet or local network, the user has access to current inventory availability and customer-specific pricing.
“Ours is a service-driven business and our employees need quick access to inventory and order information to meet customer demands,” said Bruce Streiff, Crest Industries CFO. “Mobile Order Management will allow us to process orders more efficiently, thereby providing a greater level of service to our customers.”

Using MOM, field reps can remotely inquire about the status of an order; add, change or remove charges, line items and order line level comments; and search for customers and ship-to addresses. Other features include the ability to perform manual price overrides, and apply a discount or mark-up percent.

FARNBOROUGH, England - Mar 16, 2007
Infor today announced SunSystems customers will have the opportunity to interact with other SunSystems users, hear from company executives regarding the strategy for the solution, and participate in hands-on demonstrations during Infor’s SunSystems Customer Day, March 27 at The Emirates Stadium, London. The event also marks the formation of an independent UK & Ireland Infor FMS SunSystems user group.

The event will provide more than 4000 Infor FMS SunSystems customers an essential networking opportunity to learn details on the future direction and R&D programmes planned for the solution. Seminars and product demonstrations will enable companies to make the most of their existing investments as well as learn about the capabilities of Infor Performance Management and the value it extends to SunSystems customers.

“FMS SunSystems has many years of experience built in to this business specific solution,” said Doug Norton-Bilsby, vice president EMEA for Infor’s Global Financial Solutions. “This event is a great opportunity for customers to learn more about how Infor evolves its solutions to offer them peace of mind and extends functionality to maximize their IT investments. For example, one of our seminars will focus on how companies can ‘close their books faster’, which is a critical capability for many publicly traded companies when trying to enhance shareholder value.”

During the last 20 years, Infor FMS SunSystems has been installed in 18,000 sites and has more than 100,000 users in more than 190 countries. Infor FMS SunSystems is a proven, customer-driven solution that meets the full range of traditional and expanded business responsibilities. SunSystems brings together a wide variety of business functions in a scalable, multi-language, open systems platform and goes beyond core financial support by offering reporting and performance management applications that enable the financial function to better manage, understand and improve the business.

ATLANTA - Mar 15, 2007
Infor today unveiled its next-generation supply chain management solution, Infor SCM WM 9.0, which breaks down the boundaries of traditional warehouse management by providing business-specific capabilities to global manufacturing, distribution, logistics and retail enterprises. This completely re-architected solution drives business agility by extending warehouse management capabilities beyond the four walls.

Traditional market approaches to warehouse management are focused within the four walls of the warehouse and have limited ability to share information with other systems such as transportation & logistics, supply chain visibility and control, as well as event and performance management solutions. WM 9.0 breaks down these barriers to provide visibility both upstream to the customer and downstream to the supplier. Enterprises are now able to change their processes more easily. With this new insight, organizations are able to more intelligently respond to changes in inventory demand and supply, virtually eliminating the risk of stock outs and delayed deliveries.

According to Aberdeen Group’s The Extended Warehouse Benchmark Report, published December 2006, effective supply chain management does not stop inside the four walls of the warehouse. To reduce warehousing costs and cut order fulfillment times, companies must focus on how they manage inventory in the “extended warehouse”. Inventory in satellite warehouses as well as in transit must be visible across the enterprise. Furthermore, once product arrives at a distribution center it must be quickly unloaded and received into inventory.

Infor recognizes market conditions, business needs and customer demand for real-time visibility of goods in the supply chain can bring about immediate and necessary process change for enterprises. Traditional warehouse management solutions have proprietary platforms, scheduled releases and complex upgrades. Infor WM 9.0 grows and adapts with the company, regardless of size, helping them differentiate their businesses by helping them create value across the supply chain.

“The majority of systems in use today are inflexible to changes in customer requirements or business needs, and are complicated and expensive to maintain and upgrade,” said Eric Nilsson, vice president, product management, Infor. “Infor SCM WM 9.0 provides inherent business-specific functionality, without the need for costly customization. This significantly speeds installation and optimizes performance with third party systems.”

WM 9.0 focuses on efficiency inside the warehouse and the highest level of support for RF, voice, wave planning, cross docking and labor reporting. Outside the warehouse, the solution creates value by extending capabilities including Yard Management, Event Management, Performance Management, Transportation and Logistics, and RFID.

Infor SCM Warehouse Management 9.0 is available in Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish.

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 move product to their customers quickly and cost-effectively.

ATLANTA - Mar 13, 2007
Infor today unveiled its service-oriented architecture (SOA) strategy, Infor Open SOA, part of the company’s commitment to extend, enrich and evolve its product lines to meet the needs of enterprising companies of all sizes.

Infor Open SOA provides the capabilities for an event-driven SOA, which is an approach where interoperable applications and software components can be deployed and upgraded with little or no disruption to other enterprise systems. The infrastructure for event-driven SOA is built into Infor solutions, at no additional cost to the customer, and will be delivered with regular product upgrades according to the Infor product roadmap.

“Infor Open SOA is the result of a dialogue we had with our customers, who told us they wanted the benefits of SOA, without the upfront costs, lengthy implementations and all the undue complexities,” said Jim Schaper, CEO of Infor. “Our approach is different than other enterprise application providers because it is grounded in a fundamental understanding of our customers’ business challenges.”

Event-driven SOA
Infor Open SOA is based on an event-driven, distributed architecture that allows orchestration of business events across enterprise applications and services. Through a publish and subscribe model, business events are exchanged asynchronously between applications and services across the standards-based Infor Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), in accordance with event orchestration modeling specific to industry and customer-specific business processes.

Instead of forcing customers into a vendor-focused ecosystem, Infor’s event-driven SOA architecture allows customers to create their own ecosystem, deploying software components from Infor, in-house, and third-party sources. It eliminates the dependencies of “command and control” middleware that bloats with complexity as new services are added. By remaining platform-independent, Infor Open SOA facilitates interoperability between different enterprise systems and prevents the need to “rip-and-replace” to support the requirements of a proprietary middleware stack.

“We’re not following the beaten path of creating large, complex platforms that require customers to lock-in to technologies they do not need and cannot afford,” said Bruce Gordon, CTO of Infor. “Infor Open SOA allows customers to innovate through an approach that is interoperable by design. It enables our customers to make their own choices and puts them in control of their enterprise ecosystem.”

As part of its commitment to open standards, Infor has adopted the Open Applications Group Interoperability Standard (OAGIS) as the native interface for all communication between Infor solutions. OAGIS is the most mature and extensible XML-based format and an accepted standard across industries. It is governed by an independent standards body and available without royalty or licensing fees.

Strategic Direction
Infor is delivering Open SOA in phases as non-disruptive, incremental updates with regular product release plans. This evolutionary approach includes the delivery of business process components, in broadly applicable solution areas such as customer relationship management and supply chain, which can then be assembled into business-specific solution suites. These suites will combine best-in-class intellectual property from Infor’s product portfolio, which is rich with built-in business and industry experience. Through Infor Open SOA, customers will have the freedom and flexibility to mix and match business processes to meet their needs, delivered on the technology platform of their choice.

Infor has already delivered on the initial phase of Open SOA, providing the basic event-driven infrastructure and embedding it into several solutions. Infor is currently building the extended SOA infrastructure, such as master data management, and concentrating on the continued enablement of existing solutions as well as the introduction of new, native SOA applications. Infor will provide more detailed product roadmaps to its customers leading up to its annual user conference, Inforum, to be held Sep. 9-12, 2007 in Las Vegas.

PARIS - Mar 13, 2007
Infor announced today enhancements to Infor HCM Anael SIRH, a global personnel and human resources management solution, which is part of the Infor HCM suite. The enhancements will be demonstrated during the Solutions RH Exhibition March 13 to 15, 2007 at the CNIT in La Défense, Paris. Extensive system enhancements will now help protect many employees in a range of industries where they face daily hazards.

Infor HCM Anael SIRH includes entirely new functions concerning personnel management and personal protection; particularly in the ‘Hygiene and Safety’ domain. It will now also include a new personnel administration module covering training recycling, the management and evaluation of performance, equipment allocation management, both specific and generic personal protection equipment (PPE), social security data management (CAF, CRAM, CNAM and Social Security) and social rights management.

Thibault de Clisson, Vice President and General Manager EMEA, Infor Enterprise Financial Solutions, said, “Functions related to HSE in terms of image and regulatory compliance are a major issue for companies, whatever their sector of activity. In fact, these questions not only touch the whole range of labour law regulations, but also the environmental regulations facing all organisations. Furthermore, certain sectors are subject to specific regulations, such as European directives. Therefore we have applied our deep domain experience to extend our human resources system to help customers meet the mounting HSE challenges across Europe.”

This is the case, for example, in the chemical industry where products considered dangerous to both humans and the environment are handled, stored or disposed of. The new Infor solution, which has enormous experience built in, includes new modules dedicated specifically to this kind of risk management (including nuclear industry risk management, which is entirely new in the market).

Since December 2003, legislation has embraced the monitoring of employees who work with dangerous substances (in addition to what has already been applied to the nuclear industry). Companies using or producing this type of product must now be registered while closely monitoring the individual exposure of employees. Furthermore, both legislation and case law require the implementation of preventive policies and procedures. Infor’s Risk Management module manages general risks, including chemical, noise and vibration exposure, facilitated via:

The listing of all risks to which employees are exposed, as well as keeping data sheets on the products associated with each risk (frequency, operating procedures, exposure category, etc.).
The listing and monitoring of personal protection equipment as well as the collective equipment used, including specific cases such as exposure to asbestos.
The individual exposure calculations for each type of product with alerts triggered by maximum exposure thresholds.
The closer medical monitoring of exposed personnel, with full presentation of all previous exposure levels.
Numerous indicators complete this module in order to monitor both actual exposure levels and anticipate future ones for personnel at each structural level.
The Head of the establishment, the HRM, the internal competent radiological protection individual or unit, the occupational health service and the State via the IRSN (French Nuclear Safety and Radiological Protection Institute) are involved in the legislation on the monitoring of employees exposed to ionising radiation. Further enhancements to HCM Anael include a nuclear industry risks module, which enables organizations to benefit from a tool that manages and monitors this type of risk. In an operational manner, the module monitors individual exposure records, issues exposure reports, exposure certificates and handles the transfer of data to the IRSN (SISERI central system). Indicators permit a swift and graphical monitoring of the exposure of employees and trigger warnings when thresholds are approached or exceeded. Complete dosimeter management is likewise integrated.

Moreover, over the last year, Infor has enriched many other functions within the Infor HCM Anael SIRH, in particular:

A biometric access control module.
A module dedicated to the prevention and management of work accidents. Daily commutes, occupational diseases, the management and monitoring of accident enquiries, their associated action plans, the potential choice of various diagnostic/studies/prevention methods and numerous other indicators.
New value added functions, such as a complete range of tickers, schedules and alarms (per theme) to provide both immediate and future visibility of all data arriving at expiry points; the planning and management of meeting rooms and training rooms as well as their associated equipment and documentary management at all the relevant posts.
Infor HCM Anael SIRH is a dynamic and innovative solution for helping with human resource management: including ERM, human resources, self-service, workflow and decision-making. This reliable, protected and evolutionary solution guarantees constant adjustment of resources to the requirements of new situations. It is designed as a dynamic approach for: anticipating the right person in the right position at the right time; making good recruitment choices; promoting personnel loyalty; providing a coherent and motivating remuneration policy; increasing personal skills; evaluating relevant assessments; improving communication; sharing management information and reducing routine tasks within the human resources department.

- Mar 08, 2007
ATLANTA– Mar 7, 2007 – Infor, one of the largest global providers of enterprise software, today announced that Smith Turf and Irrigation is extending its ERP solution, Infor ERP A+, to allow customers to electronically receive and review invoices, and make payments online. Smith Turf, a distributor of outdoor power equipment and irrigation supplies across the Southeast, is also expanding use of Infor ERP A+ to an additional 150 users, enabling the company to benefit from data sharing for improved collaboration across all operations.

An Infor customer since 1996, the company initially used the point-of-service functionality of Infor ERP A+ to generate a new line of business revenue with walk-in outdoor power equipment dealerships. The company continued expanding its business with the addition of e-commerce and catalog capabilities from Infor. As a result, Smith Turf sales have grown 60 percent from $77 million in 2000 to $125 million in 2006.

“Infor’s solution has enabled us to capitalize on the trend in our industry of customers purchasing products and services from online retailers,” said Wayne Smith, CEO and chairman. “This has directly resulted in expanding our operations regionally and growing our customer base over the last five years. Now, with Infor eBill, we are in a unique position to satisfy customer demand for an end-to-end ecommerce solution.”

Integrated with A+, Infor eBill Center is an online bill pay solution that enables the company to automate collections. By improving the collections process, Infor eBill Center reduces costs associated with accounts receivables and cash posting activities.

“Leading companies like Smith Turf understand technology’s impact on internal and external business performance,” said Thad Zylka, Infor vice president of Distribution. “Not only has Smith Turf extended its e-commerce capabilities for customers, but they now have a tool to improve internal processes, which has significantly enhanced data sharing among divisions.”

Infor ERP A+ is a robust distribution management solution specifically designed to help distributors of all types run an efficient, end-to-end operation. From accounting and sales to the warehouse and everywhere in between, A+ allows distributors to enhance customer service, optimize inventory levels, increase productivity and improve profitability.

BIRMINGHAM, England - Feb 27, 2007
Infor, one of the largest global providers of enterprise software, today announced that Pilkington, a global provider of glass products, has selected its Infor SCM Demand Planning solution. The forecasting, inventory planning, and sales and operations planning solution is expected to improve product availability and reduce inventory in Pilkington’s global automotive glass replacement (AGR) business.

Pilkington has a market leadership position in the global AGR market which has shown consistent growth for the past two decades. Pilkington Automotive Glass Replacement (PAGR) identified a need for business-specific demand-planning solutions when the company realized it could increase revenue and stimulate demand by improving the customer experience.

Pilkington’s complex distribution model involves multiple stock locations, expanded product ranges and high volumes of product change. Pilkington sought a solution with the experience built in to handle this complexity as its existing planning systems failed to meet the high levels of customer service availability required, without increasing cost and inventory. Infor SCM Demand Planning proved itself to be capable of providing a level of support beyond ERP and localised point solutions. It was chosen because of its scalability and the balance between functionality and ease-of-use and implementation.

“The previous ERP planning route was unable to cope with the complexity of our supply chain and we were prevented from achieving the high levels of stock availability we require to compete and grow in our target markets,” said Mike Ball, Director of Projects, Pilkington AGR.

“At present we are running a very diligent implementation but we are very confident that Infor SCM Demand Planning will enable us to reduce the inventory held at our European Distribution Centre and respond better to our customers’ requirements with improved availability.”

“We love to work with market leading organisations like Pilkington in projects which we know drive genuine bottom line results in a very short timeframe. Supply chain pressures are greater than ever and we are seeing an uptake in companies like Pilkington who come to us to extend their ERP systems in areas like demand and supply planning, warehousing and transport. Infor is unique in offering an end-to-end supply chain management solution from ‘concept to customer,’” said Andrew Kinder, EMEA Supply Chain Management Product Marketing Manager for Infor.