Introducing Infor24 and Our First Wave of Cloud Apps

One of the facets of Infor that I like best is the speed at which we can move relative to other large software companies. A case in point is our growing relationship with Microsoft, which began about a year ago.

From my perspective, discussions began to intensify in late February after a small group of us flew to Redmond. A few months later, we had an agreement signed and development work underway to start using Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Microsoft Silverlight, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Reporting Services, Microsoft Windows Server, and Microsoft Single Sign-On service in our products.

When we announced that decision, we also could have told the world that we had signed on to use Microsoft Windows Azure as our cloud platform. Azure was at the center of the winter discussions. Instead, we opted to wait until Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), where we were part of Bob Muglia’s keynote. Mr. Muglia is the president of Microsoft’s Server and Tools Business.

While we are one of the first software companies to embrace the nascent Azure platform, it’s been a relatively pain-free experience. By early March, we had our first two apps running on Azure. These included a Java-based procurement app and the .NET-based SyteLine ERP product.

At WPC, we announced the immediate availability of Infor24 ERP SyteLine, Infor24 Expense Management, and Infor24 Asset Management. More Infor24 cloud offerings will be moving in.

The view from WPC

Brian Rose was part of the Infor team attending WPC. Until recently, Brian was Infor’s CIO. Today, he is our vice president of cloud solutions. Shortly after the WPC keynote, he sent me this email:

“Day one of the event has been outstanding. I have not seen a conference with this excitement and with over 13,000 global attendees in a couple of years. From my perspective, Microsoft is clearly ’all in‘ on the cloud, but the announcement regarding an appliance that can be placed on-site running Azure is a game-changer. This announcement completes the strategy for providing on premise, private cloud, and public cloud Microsoft-based solutions. 

“Microsoft's Azure strategy provides the cost benefits of the cloud while addressing data privacy concerns, local compliance issues, and global support. This is a key differentiator. The announcement of the appliance also delivers on the CIO's dream of never having to upgrade an on-premise Microsoft OS or a version of SQL Server. With HP, Dell, eBay, and Fujitsu as the partners on this project, they have the support of the market leaders and the ability to execute.

“I must admit that I also liked how Microsoft positioned Azure as ’IT as a Service.’  Salesforce.com provides SaaS and PaaS; Amazon provides IaaS and limited PaaS; and others provide IaaS. But Azure, in combination with partners like Infor who develop apps on Azure, provides all levels— SaaS, PaaS, IaaS— which is truly IT as a service.            

Some interesting stats—70% of Microsoft’s 40,000 developers are working on cloud products and services in 2010; over 10,000 customers are on Azure; Microsoft cloud supports 1B customers and 20M businesses. Cloud market predictions are 28% CAGR over the next 3 years, and will grow from $17B to $45B.”

Infor24 is already generating interest from buyers

Before the official announcement, we were already getting inquiries from customers and prospects. What’s been most surprising is the interest in ERP-in-the-cloud. One global manufacturer wants to support thousands of ERP users in the cloud.  This would be the largest cloud ERP installation in the world.

This is going to be a very interesting market. The promises of private clouds, public clouds, appliances, and hybrid architectures should result in downward pressure on the total cost of software ownership. Think of it as Infor-sponsored stimulus bill for IT and line of business.

What do you think?

What applications will you move to the cloud? Will ERP be at the top of the list? Or will it be near the bottom? Are you interested in an Infor24 Private Cloud? How about an Infor24 Appliance?

As always, I welcome your feedback and ideas.

Comments

[Randy M Starr]

Bruce, we could not be more excited about the Infor / Microsoft alliance and Infor's embrace of Microsoft tools and technologies - including Azure - as its preferred ‘go forward’ development stack! We have been Microsoft Gold Certified Partners in the Mobile and ISV competencies for years and we are intimately familiar with the many benefits as well as a few ‘gotchas’ that these technologies provide for reliable, real-world enterprise mobile solutions. In fact, we developed the Advanced Mobile Platform that underlies many of the mobile solutions for Infor products entirely on Microsoft infrastructure!

We are particularly enthusiastic about the announcement of Infor24. We have recently developed an Advanced Mobile 311 solution for Apple iPhones and iPads that uses an Azure-compatible set of cloud services to automatically route Service Requests to Infor EAM, Hansen and eventually other Infor products. We are working hard to be among the first Infor Channel Partners to offer an Infor24-based mobile solution with an affordable subscription-based pricing model.

Like Microsoft and Infor, we’re ‘all-in’ on the cloud strategy!

[Mike Maske]

Bruce, how about an open interconnection specification so that cloud applications can talk to each other for a seamless integration across multiple vendors and platform?