Infor Velocity: Innovating Quickly & Disrupting the ERP Market

In today’s competitive digital tech industry, it’s no longer enough to simply ‘innovate’. Advancements in technology are accelerating with no signs of stopping. Now, to grow as a company, you must ‘innovate quickly’ before your competitors do. The ambitious people or groups that do this are the embodiment of the word ‘Velocity’… Infor Velocity, that is!

This was the key message from Terry Smagh, SVP & GM of Infor, during his keynote speech at Singapore’s Four Seasons Hotel for the Infor Velocity Tour. On this tour, Infor executives such as Terry, Wolfgang Kobek, EVP & GM, and Phil Lewis, SVP, Solution Consulting, announced some new key offerings and messaging around Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). One of the big ones is the implementation of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) for their ERP and cloud solutions. With this new development, Wolfgang shared that Infor intends to ‘disrupt’ the ERP market by implementing AI with their time-tested and proven ERP platforms. Let’s dive into what else was discussed and shared at the event.

According to Phil in his keynote speech, their ‘Unique Selling Point’ has been understanding that every client is also ‘unique’. Rather than having a one-size-fits-all ERP for every customer, Infor has created industry-specific solutions for three key areas: Discrete Manufacturing, Process Manufacturing & Distribution, and Service Industries. Infor went a step further, offering 2000+ micro-vertical accelerators from their ‘industry process catalogue’ for clients to find the best optimisation of ERP. Now with Gen AI coming into play on Infor’s platform, customers can expect analytics, insights, and in turn ‘innovation’ to come at a faster pace. Infor Gen AI will be offered to deal with mundane tasks such as ‘data-fetching’ and further automating repetitive tasks or processes that may still vary slightly. One of Infor’s very own innovations that they were pleased to present was “Process-intelligence Mining.” With aspects of both ‘process intelligence’ and ‘process mining’, users can expect to significantly cut downtime when making discoveries in how to better optimise processes and task flow in their businesses.

In addition to the keynote and welcome speeches, I was grateful to sit at the media roundtable with the three executives. They were happy to share further insight into not only Infor’s solutions but also some customers’ perceptions of ERP in general. I particularly loved Wolfgang’s statement on the topic of ERP in general, stating:

“…[Adopting] an ERP Project is as popular as going to the dentist. [You] have to do it, but you don’t want to.”

This couldn’t be truer in most cases, given how painstakingly long and tenuous this process can be. And with Infor’s messaging around the need to innovate quickly, this reality no longer matches up. However, Infor intends to reduce the pain of this process by using pre-planning measures, including their earlier mentioned ‘Industry process catalogue’ for clients to use in their assessment. It’s refreshing to see a company taking steps to do everything it can to make the ERP purchase cycle as efficient and quick as possible. In addition, at the roundtable, Wolfgang shared some key disclaimers and tips for ERP or AI customers on the prowl:

“[In terms of] ‘Vision’, the management really has to clearly articulate what they’re trying to achieve here.”

To avoid mismanaging ERP projects and managing expectations, both Wolfgang and Phil emphasised the importance of ‘vision’ and that it must be clear from the top down on the customer’s part. They stressed that customers must clearly define what they wish to achieve before anything else. This makes a lot of sense, as communication breakdowns can occur across a team, especially when dealing with abstract topics like ‘vision’ or end goals, which can be difficult to maintain consistently clear when passed down a communication chain.

So, to any readers considering adopting a new AI or ERP initiative, you heard it here from the innovators at Infor: Have your goal or vision in mind first! Then, after that, look for an ERP or AI solution that can help you innovate at an exceptional velocity and make that vision come true.