Businessmodel of Infor

Customer Segments

Infor provides a range of general enterprise software products and industry-specific products to businesses of all sizes across multiple sectors. The Company provides industry-specific products to customers in the following sectors:

• Manufacturing, including initial forecasting, material and capacity planning, production planning and warehouse management solutions;
• Healthcare, including integration, planning, tracking, and healthcare management products;
• Distribution, including advanced order promising at point-of-sale, multi-channel sales support, supply management, and stock tracking software;
• Public Sector, including solutions for government, education, public authorities and utilities customers;
• Automotive, including planning and manufacturing management tools for original equipment manufacturers, automotive tier suppliers, specialty vehicle manufacturers, and aftermarket service and specialty parts manufacturers.
• Service Industries, including management software for insurance companies, banks, airlines, shipping companies, casinos, religious institutions, utilities and professional service organisations.
• Equipment Service, Management and Rental, including products designed for equipment manufacturers, distributors and rental companies; and
• Consumer Products and Retail, including enterprise software products for customers operating across the retail chain. Infor serves customers across three geographic regions—the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. The Americas, notably North America, is the Company’s largest market, accounting for around 62.8% of its annual revenue in 2015/2016.

Value Propositions

Infor provides value for its customers in the following ways:

• Its strong market position and brand reputation, being one of the largest and most established operators in its field, with a brand associated primarily with quality and efficient services;
• Its varied and high-quality product portfolio, including a broad range of products to suit customers of any size and across multiple industries;
• Its range of complementary products and services, which supplement and support one another, and enable the Company to operate as a one-stop shop;
• Its upgrade and update system, which enables customers to stay up to date with the latest functionality without having to start a new contract or find a new provider; and
• Its geographic and sector reach, providing customers across multiple sectors and regions access to its full suite of services and solutions. ### Channels

Infor operates a website at www.infor.com, through which it provides information on its various products and services. The Company, however, does not operate an online sales channel.

Infor makes the vast majority of its sales through its direct sales force. The Company operates dedicated sales teams for each of its target industries, divided geographically into regional sales teams. Infor has sales and service offices across its three operating regions: the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. This sales team is supported by a telesales group that focuses on inside sales to smaller customers and smaller transactions within larger customer accounts.

In addition to its direct sales teams, Infor collaborates with more than 1,670 channel partners worldwide, including resellers, systems integrators and distributors. These partners typically focus on sales to smaller customers and countries where Infor does not maintain a direct presence.

Customer Relationships

While Infor has an online presence, the Company’s products and services are not available on a self-service basis. Instead sales are made primarily through direct contact with members of one the Company’s regional sales team, enabling customers to receive a more bespoke service.

Much of Infor’s customer relationship management relates to its provision of maintenance and support services, including the provision of software updates and upgrades. The Company operates a support portal for its customers, with clients organised into three groups depending on the level of support provided: Infor Essential Support, Infor Premium Support, and Infor Elite Support. In this way, the Company aims to have long-standing, recurring relationships with its customers.

Additionally, customers are able to interact directly with Infor through its social media accounts with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+.

Key Activities

Infor develops, markets and sells a range of enterprise software products and solutions to an international client base. The Company’s activities are organised into three reportable business segments: License, Maintenance, and Consulting.

Infor operates the Infor Technology Platform, which is supplemented by a range of additional software products, offers intelligent open network integration, enterprise collaboration, mobile development platform and applications, and business intelligence, operational reporting, business vault, and embedded analytics solutions.

The Company provides a portfolio of industry-specific enterprise resource planning products, including for customers across the healthcare, manufacturing, automotive, public sector and distribution sectors. Additionally, Infor provides ancillary maintenance and technical support solutions, including product upgrades and updates, and consulting services.

Key Partners

Infor collaborates with a range of partners across multiple sectors as part of the Infor Partner Network. The Company organises its partners into categories:

• Channel Partners, including authorised resellers, distributors and independent sales agents;
• Alliance Partners, including regional and industry partners, systems integration partners, public sector and healthcare partners, and platform partners;
• Delivery Partners, including implementation partners and other companies than supplement and enhance Infor’s consulting services;
• Solution Partners, including integration, implementation, and software development partners; and
• Complementary Partners, including application, hardware, and technology companies that work with Infor to develop complementary offerings to customers. Among Infor’s current partners are Accel Solutions Group, Acumen Group, Greaney Consulting, Motorola Solutions, Synergy Resources, and Westin Engineering.

Key Resources

Infor’s key resources are its technology and software products, its IT infrastructure, its partnerships, its sales and marketing channels, and its personnel. The Company commits a significant amount of its resources to research and development activities, and has a number of copyrights, patents, and trademarks in place.

According to its annual report, the Company currently holds 64 US-issued patents, six pending US patent applications, five foreign equivalent patents, and five foreign equivalent patent applications.

Cost Structure

Infor incurs cots in relation to the research and development of its products, the maintenance of its IT infrastructure and software platforms, the management of its partnerships, the implementation of marketing and advertising campaigns, and the retention of its personnel.

For the year ended 30th April 2016, Infor spent approximately $421.6 million on research and development, amounting to around 15.7% of the Company’s total annual revenue. Infor employs around 14,390 employees worldwide, which represent costs in the form of salaries and benefits.

It also operates a network of offices across the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific, accruing costs in the form of rental and utility fees.

Revenue Streams

Infor generates revenue primarily through the sale of perpetual software licenses that grant its customers use of its various software-as-a-service products, as well as access to product updates and support, and consulting services. The Company’s products – primarily categorised as the Infor Technology Platform and related products, enterprise resource planning software, and Industry-specific software products – generate revenue in three ways:

• license revenues, including license fees from products licensed to customers on a perpetual basis and subscription revenues;
• maintenance revenues, including revenue derived from product updates and support fees, which are typically charged annually; and
• consulting services and other revenue, including revenue generated through consulting services and fees levied in relation to customers who have licensed Infor products. For the year ended 30th April 2016, Infor recorded an annual revenue of $2.7 billion, up on the 2.4 billion generated the previous year. More than half of this revenue, around $1.4 billion. Was generated by the Company’s Maintenance segment, with the License and Consulting segments generating $627.1 million and $670.2 million respectively.