Smagh: ‘we develop complete solutions’ 
Technology

Empowering enterprises

Infor plans to expand its presence in India with sector-specific solutions

Arbind Gupta

Infor, a global leader in cloud-based, industry-specific enterprise software is expanding its operations in India to capitalise on the business opportunities presented by the market. Having set up a new development centre in Hyderabad in 2022, the New York-headquartered company has witnessed impressive growth in India. Now a part of US-based Koch Industries, the company has grown at a CAGR of 100 per cent in the last three years in the country. Infor builds complete industry suites in the cloud and efficiently deploys technology that puts the user experience first, leverages data science, and integrates easily into existing systems.

India, where the company is also looking to put up an exclusive Data Centre, is expected to grow at 45 per cent y-o-y in the next three years. A growth market for the company, India is expected to contribute about 30 per cent to the APAC business in the next three years.

In 2020, the US-based Koch Industries Inc had completed 100 per cent acquisition of Infor. Since then, the latter has been a part of the Koch group, which is involved in refining, chemicals and biofuels; forest and consumer products; fertilisers; polymers and fibres; process and pollution control systems; electronics, software and data analytics; minerals; glass; automotive components; ranching; commodity trading; and investments.

Infor’s India Development Centre (3,500 employees) is among the company’s two largest locations in the world. The investment has allowed the company to continue to pioneer digital technologies, such as cloud, mobility, data analytics, artificial intelligence and IoT, to deliver new industry-specific features and functions specialised for industries. With this expansion, Infor aims to leverage India’s diverse and skilled talent pool to drive digital innovation through expanded teams that span various functions, including engineering, operations, and research & development.

“India is a growth market for us,” affirms Terry Smagh, senior VP & GM, Asia-Pacific & Japan, Infor. “In the last few years, backed by our investments as also industry-specific solutions, we have grown significantly. And look to maintain this momentum going ahead as well. Our platform is robust and we will continue to focus on the sectors we are operating in at present. We are also evaluating sectors like retail and supply chain”.

Globally backed by 17,000 employees, Infor serves over 60,000 organisations in more than 175 countries. The businesses rely on Infor to help overcome market disruptions and achieve business-wide digital transformation. Its extensive knowledge of industry nuances enables it to develop complete industry suites in the cloud, offering micro-vertical functionality that is highly adaptable and intricately tailored to every use case.

Operational advantage

“We are a global leader in business cloud software specialised by industry,” adds Smagh. “We develop complete solutions for our focus industries. Infor’s mission-critical enterprise applications and services are designed to deliver sustainable operational advantages with security and faster time to value. Our digital automation capabilities enable organisations to

be agile and future-ready, transforming historically complex AI technologies into valuable and attainable enterprise goals”.

Infor has been positioned for the fourth consecutive time as a leader in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises. Infor’s position as one of the leaders in this Gartner Magic Quadrant is based on the Gartner evaluation of the company’s ability to execute and completeness of vision.

Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises, Gartner notes that, “AI and GenAI are at the forefront of the more significant innovation in ERP. These capabilities are changing the way organisations will consume applications. The embedded intelligence found in packaged ERPs are evolving to the point where the solutions can act with autonomy. The embedded intelligence will become more pervasive to augment or automate work and create more intuitive user experiences.”

Infor’s recent study has revealed that 75 per cent of organisations anticipate a 20 per cent boost in efficiency over the next three years. Additionally, 80 per cent of the organisations agree that success will depend on the adoption of new technologies. To drive these measures, 78 per cent of companies polled, plan to increase their tech investments by 20 per cent or greater over the next three years. Machine learning and generative AI stand out as most referenced technical drivers of improved efficiency.