Infor: Delivering Enterprise Cloud Software to Support Businesses in Digital Environment

Advances in technology have led organisations to go beyond digital transformation. In this way, enterprise cloud computing assists them to save, store and process sensitive data, providing all of the resources needed to perform the required business functions in an integrated manner. In Indian business infrastructure, cloud-based services have already become prevalent. However, for some enterprises, it is difficult to manage innovation without cloud computing.

In an interview with Analytics Insight, Ranga Pothula, Managing Director, India Business Unit, Infor shares how his company is playing a significant role in the field of cloud computing, assisting businesses to leverage cloud infrastructure to accomplish business success.

Kindly brief us about your role at Infor and your journey with the company.

In June 2019, Infor set up the India Business Unit (IBU) as a separate region to further accelerate progress and tap growth opportunities in India. As the current Managing Director for Infor's India Business Unit, my responsibility lies in scaling the Infor IBU operations by sharpening focus on global delivery, servicing offerings, technology developments, and strengthening customer and partner relations. This year marks 22 years in my journey at Infor. Having been at the helm of both R&D and CoE services across multiple products, delivery services, managed services (IMS) in my last two decades with Infor, I have been responsible for global delivery services operations in India, the Philippines, Egypt and Poland over the past four years as well.

What is Infor's biggest USP that differentiates the company from competitors?

Infor is a global leader in business cloud software for companies in industry-specific markets. It builds complete industry suites in the cloud and efficiently deploys technology that puts the user experience first. Infor's biggest differentiator is industry specialization and last-mile functionality. The company designs customized software products and offers end-to-end services across the applications for seamless deployment of solutions.

Please brief us about the products/services/solutions you provide to your customers and how do they get value out of it.

To support businesses in the digital-native environment, Infor offers cloud enterprise software solutions specialized by industry. The company delivers customized, high quality secure, reliable and cost-effective applications on the cloud. The solutions are built with a deep understanding of each industry that enables businesses with a global supply chain, networked analytics, and an artificial intelligence-led user experience. Infor products cater to businesses in a wide gamut of industries including Process and Industrial Manufacturing, Oil & Gas, Food & Beverage, and Logistics & Distribution. The product portfolio includes robust solutions such as Infor LN, Infor M3, and Infor CloudSuite Financials. The company's solutions ease the complexities of technology deployment for businesses, while delivering the last mile functionality.

Tell us how your company is contributing in the IoT, AI, and Cloud Computing industry in India and how the company is benefiting its customers.

India is on the verge of a dramatic shift when it comes to interacting with technology. By coupling business processes with modern cloud computing, strong open source support, the latest artificial intelligence and IoT capabilities, and advanced analytics, Infor offers a connected, intelligent network with cumulative productivity benefits to businesses. Application of these next-gen technologies automates, anticipates, predicts, and informs organisations, significantly improving decision making for a variety of business functions.

Infor is transforming enterprise software by delivering business-critical applications with the benefits of cloud computing. It offers agile and highly-flexible solutions that deliver tangible business results. We are also approaching and adopting emerging technologies as a part of our inherent CloudSuite platform. We have integrated AI with asset management and IoT to predict maintenance needs, to avoid or minimise equipment failure. It increases accuracy in predicting demand curves and subsequently increases consumer service levels while decreasing inventory levels, with far superior results, compared to traditional forecasting solutions. Infor has seamlessly implemented the power of AI with Infor Coleman to improve data quality and business analytics by filling in the gaps on data that is incomplete to increase the relevancy and accuracy of decision support tools.

Which industry verticals are you currently focusing on? And what is your go to market strategy for the same?

At Infor, we understand that every industry and market has unique needs and hence believes in providing specialized solutions to best fit the demanding requirements of different sectors. Infor's micro-vertical focused approach caters to a wide gamut of verticals in India, including Process and Industrial Manufacturing, Oil & Gas, Food & Beverage, Fashion and Logistics & Distribution. By bringing in technology innovation, Infor has outlined the strategic roadmap for its Indian customers in these industries.

How do you see the company and the industry in the future ahead?

As the prevalence of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big Data and Analytics, etc. gain momentum in India, businesses are fast adopting the technologies along with cloud to derive business benefits. As a testament to this, the public cloud services market across India is estimated to reach a market value of more than four billion dollars in 2020. Additionally, businesses are operating primarily on technologies, making way for more flexible yet more productive and efficient ways of working. Improvised monitoring, process automation and the ability to gain powerful real-time insights will further fuel growth for tailor-made tech solutions in the region. This will help organisations predict and prescribe actions in anticipation of emerging customer needs. The advantages of these software solutions are only going to keep growing in the sector for any foreseeable future.

Infor is at the helm of innovations to support businesses adopt the technology trends to stay ahead of the digital curve. In the next 12 months, we are looking at faster delivery with a deeper focus on the industry, moving ERP complexity to the cloud, delivering greater innovation from products, and front and back-office automation. Driven by the aim to meet the demands of enterprises, our dedicated and long-term focus remains on improving results for our customer's business, through industry-specific customized solutions.