Infor is currently ranked as being the third largest of the software vendors in the world, with over 70,000 clients serviced in the past 4 years. We are faced with a really interesting company that was often compared to a pretty large upstart. In order to get some inside information about how this company go to the level it is at, the wife of Charles Phillips, Infor’s CEO, was contacted. Here is what she had to say about the reasons why Infor is so successful right now.
Dealing With People Is Done Differently
According to Karen Phillips, one of the main reasons why Infor is evolving at the rate that it does at the moment is the focus that is basically put on the team members and all the people connected with the company. Most of the software vendors from around the world remain focused on things that are not really important. They just want to focus on technology and try to make everything better without actually realizing what their customers want.
Charles Phillips was always a people person. This means that he did remain focused on communication with people that actually used the software that the company offered. The genuine feedback that was received was used in order to bring in the best possible solutions for those that would end up using the applications. That is why almost all the business clients are nowadays praising what Infor manages to achieve.
Acquiring Technology Instead Of Developing It
Karen Phillips told us that Infor was focused on developing something that was highly useful for clients. This was not done the traditional way, which means creating everything in-house. The approach was basically one that was quite interesting since the company started to acquire software companies that already created exactly what Infor needed. Phillips decided to use most of the budget that was available for him to simply acquire this new technology. The results were pretty good.
Because of the highly aggressive acquisition strategy that was used, the company managed to quickly end up with all the technology that was necessary to offer a complete service for the business customers. It is not at all difficult to realize that the direction of the company is aimed towards improving services and offering applications that take into account the type of business that the client manages.
A Focus On Developing User Friendly Applications
The people that will use the applications have to be considered whenever something is created. This is what Infor did for a long time now. All the applications that are currently offered by Infor are very easy to use. When the learning curve is low, it is so much easier to make the most out of what is available. When the programs are hard to use, it is a certainty that huge problems will appear as productivity will be a lot lower than it should be. Infor always offers opportunities that are great in terms of user experience. That is one of the secrets to success for Charles Phillips.
