Infor attempts buy out of Lawson

It was announced on March 11th that Infor is attempting a takeover of Lawson. Quite a bid it is at 1.84B.

It sounds like Lawson would benefit from a shareholders perspective and that Infor would benefit from new markets. But where does this leave Lawson’s customers? In a difficult spot. On the surface, it appears that Lawson is doing this for shareholder value and not to directly gain anything on behalf of the customers.

On the other hand, being under Infor’s umbrella of a multitude of products may hurt them in the short term, but as with other products such as Syteline, they may see significant product improvements a few years out.

To date though, we are not sure what Infor’s end goal is with so many varied products. They seem to have a complex mass of varying solutions, and none of them have been a real standout in the market since being purchased by Infor. Yes, they are still selling licenses, but in our eyes none of the acquisitions have the buzz and excitement they once had as independent companies. It will be interesting to see how Lawson fares if this takeover goes through and they are “assimilated”.

You can read the details here:

Infor Makes Unsolicited $1.84B Bid for ERP Vendor Lawson
By Chris Kanaracus, IDG News

Infor Launches Infor24 Cloud Initiative and Selects Microsoft Windows Azure as Preferred Cloud Platform

Infor and Microsoft

Infor, one of the major players in ERP software, announced today that it has teamed with Micosoft to utilize their Azure platform for SAAS based computing and is offering several cloud based solutions on the Azure Platform. This is a significant move on their part and shows how larger ERP Vendors are moving to cloud computing.

Leading their ERP charge is Syteline, a powerful ERP solution for manufacturers. Taking this to a cloud solution will allow companies without the base infrastructure to utilize this software without the headaches of maintaining application and database servers.

Cloud based ERP should also shorten the implementation timelines of implementations. Using a cloud platform, you have taken the infrastructure questions out of the equation and are now strictly focused on processes and configuration.

You can read the press release here: Infor Launches Infor24 Cloud Initiative and Selects Microsoft Windows Azure as Preferred Cloud Platform.

This seems to be a trend in the industry, ERP software vendors moving to the cloud. Infor is clearly an example of this. What do you think of larger ERP solutions moving to the cloud?

You can see more Infor products in our ERP Vendors Directory.

Infor Launches Infor24 Cloud Initiative

When to use ERP Software Consultants

Many times companies try to select and implement ERP software on their own. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t. So the question is, when should a company use an ERP Software Consultant to guide them in their ERP Selection or ERP Implementation?

The answer is not so simple. If a company is mature and has the resources that can look independently at the business processes, then it may make sense to embark on a selection on their own. Most of the time in mid-market sized or even smaller clients, then it is difficult for them to 1. Spare the resources and 2. Look at the business processes objectively.

Any good ERP Selection begins with a company evaluating their business processes. Borrowing from the Toyota Production system (aka Lean Manufacturing), a company should first eliminate waste and then consider automating. Automating bad processes will only make things worse faster. However, automating good processes will help grow the business and promote better communication.

: Image via Wikipedia

ERP Software Consultants – Best Practices

The real question becomes how much is the company willing to flex their processes to adapt to “best practices” that are usually built into a commercial software system. If the company is flexible (and this takes a lot of leadership to make happen), they can select a system and model their business around that system. The larger commercial systems, such as those from Microsoft, Infor, SAP, Oracle, and others have all grown up from thousands of implementations from all sorts of companies. They have developed efficiencies that many companies who adopt the software’s methodology can benefit from.

The real key is understanding the fit of a software package to the business. If the company does some niche processing, then a mainstream commercial package may not fit. However it the company is a distributor or a manufacturer of discrete products as an example, then a standard mid-market product would likely work for them.

So how do you choose the software, it is back to the business processes and the key requirements. “Key Requirements,” not just all requirements. The things that the old system does not do well and those things that it does very well are good places to start. Additionally, discover those requirements or processes that set your company apart from others in your industry. Usually processes around your competitive advantage are part of the key requirements.

Going back to the original question, should you use independent ERP Software Consultants? If you have a clear and objective understanding, you can afford the time to really research the vendors and you have a strong will with salespeople, then going it on your own might be reasonable.

If you do not have the time, the understanding of the ERP Software market, or the will power to manage at an arm’s length the software vendor’s salespeople, then an ERP Software Consultant would be a wise choice.

ERP Software Consultants