ERP Companies on the move?

INFOR and Epicor are in the news again. Recently a notice came in that INFOR filed an offering aimed at raising $100 million, to probably fuel some acquisitions. Why is this of interest? INFOR will probably continue to reinvent themselves as they contemplate some smaller acquisitions to embrace their current apps.

ERP software companies like to reinvent themselves as new coding becomes available. INFOR, like Epicor, owns a lot of much older ERP companies. We all witnessed this to some degree, as CC Triad became Activant and was forced to merge into Epicor while layers of debt were added. A nervousness among Eclipse users developed and was witnessed by phone calls to this office and others about the business viability of Epicor as large numbers of people departed. Epicor brought in a person who has a history of turning around companies and he is still runnig Epicor.

Through all this drama about the financial liability of ERP software companies, Microsoft has emerged in all distribution verticals as a company that has come to play and stay. In an earlier post regarding Microsoft’s Convergence 2015, I started to explain the stability, technology and adaptability that Microsoft brings to the channels thru a heavy weight VAR that has switched its focus to Advanced Supply Chain Software, which unleashes one click functions from software that most distributors have running in their business currently. The Microsoft VAR, I.B.I.S. Inc.,  incorporates SPA setup and collections, three way match by allowances with Business Intelligence built in to the base package.

There’s much going on in the ERP world. We’re in the process of reaching out to the major ERP companies (Oracle, SAP, Infor, Epicor / Eclipse, Microsoft, DDI) and asking them to guest post their technology vision to address distributors’ needs.

What are you thinking you will need from your ERP company in the future?