The ERP market is making the transition to the Cloud and Infor are supporting this.
Multi-tenancy, is a software architecture where multiple instances of an application run on the same physical server. A multi-tenancy solution has two key advantages. These solutions can be much quicker to implement. This means customers have a quicker payback period. Customers can also continue to get new functionality without going through a painful upgrade process. With traditional software, the upgrade process was so painful that many companies rarely, if ever, upgraded.
But for customers to fully achieve these benefits, they need to commit to forgoing customisation. Increasingly, large enterprises have decided to do just that. But where Infor is different from the largest ERP suppliers in the market is that instead of building one multi-tenancy solution that serves all their customers, they have built three separate solutions. Each solution is designed to support a certain industry. “It would be cheaper to build just one multi-tenant solution,” Kevin Samuelson the CEO of Infor explained. “But it would not be as good for our customers.”
Most ERP companies have industry templates whose goal is to make it quicker to implement a solution for customers in that industry. Infor does as well. The implementation team goes in and turns on the switches that apply to that industry and turns off the switches that don’t apply.
However, because these other software companies continue to add features for all industries, most of the code added does not apply to any individual customer. Infor executives describe other solutions as being “bloated.” This means that when a competitor’s implementation team goes to configure a solution, they end up turning off 90% of the switches. This makes for longer implementations.
When the Infor services team goes in to implement a templated solution, the functionality does apply to that industry. Having too broad a template makes it more likely that a customer will find it more difficult to commit to avoiding customization.
If an Infor solution which is tailored to your industry sounds like something that would suit your organisation, get in touch with us today as official Infor resellers and implementation partners.