I am very excited to announce that Charles Phillips is joining Infor as our new chief executive officer.  I’ve spent over eight years working with my talented team here building Infor into a $2 billion software market leader. Frankly, I can’t think of anyone better to lead Infor through its next phase of growth than Charles. Charles is a talented, visionary executive; a strong leader with a wealth of industry experience; and most importantly, an executive with a proven record of delivering exceptional results wherever he has worked. Most recently, Charles served as president and director at one of the world’s most successful software companies, Oracle.

Charles has a pretty impressive background. He did an outstanding job during his seven years at Oracle, overseeing revenue growth of nearly 300 percent.  He led the acquisition of several multi-billion dollar companies, including BEA Systems, Hyperion Solutions, and Siebel Systems among others. Before his years at Oracle, Charles was an analyst at Morgan Stanley, on Wall Street, researching technology companies, and he served as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps.

Even though I’m handing over the keys to Charles as our new CEO on December 1, I will remain chairman of Infor and continue to play a critical role in Infor’s strategic development. I want to share few things that will be happening at Infor in the coming months.

• I am proud to announce that we will be adding additional employees in the coming months, increasing our overall number of employees by approximately 8 percent. These will be positions involving direct contact with our customers, and additional development positions. They reflect our continued success and growth in what we all recognize is a challenging economy.

• I am also really excited to let you know that we will ship our next generation of Infor applications in January. Infor ION will provide common workflow, business process monitoring and management, across our applications whether on premise or in the cloud. Stay tuned for details regarding that.

• Finally, regardless of who sits in the CEO position, I want to assure you that we remain  firmly committed to our two core beliefs: the importance of constant innovation and the value of laser focus on our customers.

For those of you interested in getting to know Charles Phillips, take a look at my interview with Charles on YouTube. Just follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/user/inforvideo#p/a/u/0/9o2aPnocMaQ

I can’t tell you what an honor it has been to lead you over the last 8 ½ years. I am very excited about the addition of Charles to our leadership team, and the promising future for Infor. Thank you for all you have done to make Infor the success it is today!

Posted by Jim Schaper, Chairman of Infor

Today, Infor announced Infor Flex, a new program that gives customers a clear, fast and cost effective path to adopt Infor's latest product innovations. Jim Schaper, Infor's Chairman and CEO, provides a short introduction to Infor Flex in this video. Below the video is an overview presentation. 

Infor Flex Overview Presentation

Here's a quick overview that gives more details on the program (click the projector icon to see it in full screen mode). You can also visit the website for more information. As always, your feedback is welcomed in the comment section.

Infor: A Good Partner is Still a Good Partner in Tough Times
Open Letter to Customers from Jim Schaper, CEO, Infor

As you know, Infor is a private company and our financials are not publically available. Yet, given the current state of the economy, I have been asked: “How is Infor doing these days?” So, I’d like to provide you with some insight on the overall state and health of our company. Let me reassure you that your investments in our software, services, and maintenance are safe and secure for the long run. 

Infor is built to last.

Infor’s targeted acquisition strategy has been a core component of our historical growth. We have been, and will continue to be, selective about which technology businesses we acquire. We only acquire products and services that offer incremental value to the customers and markets we serve, drive a lower total cost of ownership, or increase our long-term financial viability.

We aggressively built our business and, in less than seven years, now generate more than $2.1 billion in annual sales. By way of comparison, it took both Microsoft and Oracle 17 years to reach the same level.

The results of our growth strategy speak for themselves:

• Customer satisfaction is at an all-time high. In December, we won the CustomerSat Achievement in Customer Excellence (ACE) award for high marks in overall customer support. Other winners of the award included Trane, Toshiba, Wells Fargo, and Cessna.
• More than 94% of customers renewed their maintenance and support relationships with us this year. This is an exceptional renewal rate and evidence that our customers continue to place value on our support and product deliverables.
• During the last four quarters, we “won back” 425 maintenance customers.  That’s more than double the previous four quarters. Our ability to win back customers that went off maintenance for awhile is a testament to our compelling product development plans and vision for the future.
• Equally important, during the last four quarters we added 2,165 new customers. These companies chose our applications in competitive situations, further validating the strength of our products and company.

Are we financially stable? Absolutely.

We generate significant cash flow and have a solid cash balance. While we have accumulated debt to finance some of our acquisitions, we were fortunate to have financed at the height of the debt markets in 2007, affording us low-interest rates with flexible terms. We are also backed by Golden Gate Capital and Summit Partners, two of the leading private equity funds in the US with over $19 billion of capital under management. Our global scale, leadership position, profitability, current liquidity, and access to additional capital markets make us a viable and a secure partner for the future.

Finally, I believe that being a private company is an advantage for us during these stressful and challenging times. With patient investors and a successful business, we can take a longer term view and do the right thing for our customers and our company.

What can you expect from us?

Two things: Continued innovation and lower total cost of ownership. At our user conference in Las Vegas last fall, we announced an additional $325 million investment over the next four years in our Infor Open SOA technology innovation and modernization program. More specifically, we committed to delivering 19 new interoperable technology components by the end of 2009. This incremental investment has not been affected by the economy, and we are on track to deliver all 19 components as planned. Additionally, we recently released Infor MyDay, the role-based interface that increasingly you will see as part of our solutions. 

We’re working hard to drive down your total cost of ownership. As we refine products, we also continue to improve implementation and delivery costs. In addition to Business Editions and new “Software as a Service” offerings, we have launched a Managed Services group that offers multiple ways to lower costs on the deployment and management of your software, including application outsourcing.

In conclusion, as you navigate these turbulent times, I want you to know that Infor is a stable, healthy and innovative business partner that is making long-term investments in your future. You can depend on us, and together we will get through this difficult period.

As always, I appreciate your business and ongoing support.

Sincerely,

Jim Schaper
Chairman & CEO