Kevin Samuelson (Infor).
Enterprise software vendor Infor is aiming to lift its partnership game in A/NZ to help it deliver its new industry vertical cloud suites to new and existing customers.
Liam Ryan, senior director of partners in Asia Pacific, told Reseller News the company has around a dozen partners in A/NZ, with the three largest currently being Sydney-based ComActivity, Christchurch-based EMDA and Melbourne's Invictus Partners.
Ryan put Infor's A/NZ channel sales at around 30 per cent of total sales but said the company aimed to boost that to around 40 per cent over the next three years.
Reseller partners deliver sales and support and "everything in between".
"I think there’s great opportunities for our current partners and moving forward with our recruitment of new partners," Ryan said at Infor's Inforum conference in New Orleans last week.
“I see a lot of strength both in the direct and the partner businesses with our industry cloud suites. The industry focus and the development we’ve put into our industry cloud suites is where we see significant growth in the markets.”
Credit: Supplied Infor has rolled up over 40 significant ERP and other enterprise software providers since it was founded in 2002 and many customers are still using those legacy products.
Acquired companies included Baan, Lawson, GEAC and supply chain specialist GT Nexus.
Infor CEO Kevin Samuelson insisted support for those products would continue as Infor, unlike SAP, was not forcing customers to shift to the cloud.
SAP has announced it intends to stop servicing its workhorse Business Suite enterprise software in 2025.
Many were happy with their existing software and were looking for stability and support rather than innovation, which is being channelled into Infor's new cloud-based, industry vertical products, Samuelson said.
The risks of a forced migration strategy appear to have been highlighted at Christchurch-based energy utility Unison Networks, which recently announced it was rolling out new software from Australia's Technology One to replace SAP.
Unison's 2018 - 2028 asset management plan said Unison's current SAP software implementation was at end of life by 2025.
"By this time a decision will be made to either upgrade to SAP S/4HANA or an alternative Tier 2 solution," said the report.
Ryan said there were still opportunities to move legacy on-premise customers to cloud but Infor was also seeing a lot of net new business with its vertical cloud suites.
"We certainly want to look to do enablement with our current partners to grow the footprint to deliver more to both current and new markets but there are certain industries where we will recruit as well, where we need additional coverage," he said.
"It won’t be about recruiting hundreds of partners but a handful of strategic partners with industry knowledge."
One large global partner is accounting firm Grant Thornton which Infor is working with in A/NZ to develop its go-to-market for the healthcare vertical, Ryan said.
Deloitte was another global partner with a big footprint in both Australia and New Zealand.
"The way those businesses are set up they are very industry focused," Ryan said.
"There’s somebody that owns that industry. It does become a commercial discussion about how we are going to help that person grow the business and how we can partner to move forward."
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