REPOST: Inforum 2013 Session Scheduler now available for registered attendees

Inforum 2013 in April is approaching fast. Schedule your agenda to maximize your participation in the activities.

The Session Scheduler is an easy-to-use tool that allows you to customize your Inforum 2013 experience. Personalize your agenda, plan your trip, and maximize your investment in Inforum.

Click here to access the session scheduler and build your agenda.

Your login and password are the same as those you used for the Inforum registration system. As a reminder, your login is your email address and your password is the one you set when you registered.

Inforum 2013 offers a broad range of content sessions designed to help you build your subject expertise and knowledge base. Whether you’re looking for multi-day training courses, hands-on computer-based Academies, industry outlooks, or abbreviated "speed" sessions on specific topics, you’ll be able to compile the education curriculum you need.

Click here for a full listing of hundreds of specialized sessions offered at Inforum 2013.

Check back soon for the Inforum mobile app—hold your Inforum schedule in the palm of your hand, get a real-time list of events happening, and connect with other Inforum attendees.

Visit the Inforum 2013 website for more event information.

Or visit Infor.com for news on suite upgrades. C-level news can be found on this Twitter page for CEO Charles Phillips.

Business in the cloud

With the increasing dynamism of business processes, interface with customers presupposes easy access. There’s no better venue to establish that quick relationship than over the Cloud.

Image credit: ibm.com

Infor, the third-largest enterprise software provider in the world servicing over 70,000 customers, has adjusted its platforms and suites for this development. The cloud is not as uniform or all-encompassing as layman’s terms imply. Embedded within it are specific infrastructure that may or may not permit the smooth rollout of software for business applications.

Infor Business Cloud applications, a set of products perfected for specific industries, take business applications to the Cloud with the goal of reducing complexities in customer engagement. They also target the reduction of IT costs for businesses while empowering them to generate changes along with the caprices of the market. As Infor’s CEO Charles Phillips would be apt to promote, Infor Business Cloud applications are all for flexibility, while retaining business focus on customer satisfaction.

Image credit: blog.widen.com

Infor’s Cloud-friendly services are especially tailored for backroom applications such as HR and talent management, financial management, and sales force automation. The range of applications is set to widen, especially given Infor’s headstart in Cloud-based enterprise software.

Image credit: synergy.net.pk

The company is actually one of the pioneers of Cloud-based software, and at the moment boasts two million subscribers. The main asset of this feature --- Web availability of enterprise processes and solutions --- magnetizes customers most. Easy access means needing nothing more than a Web browser to conduct business.

Read more about enterprise software through this blog.

Charles Phillips: Optimizing IBM SmartCloud for the new Technorati

At the recent IBM InterConnect conference in Singapore, Charles Phillips’ Infor rolled out the expansion of IBM SmartCloud infrastructure with the inclusion of Infor Integrated Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) stack. The Private Beta availability of the iPaaS augments the pre-configured and menu-driven platform of the IBM SmartCloud with an option to allow IBM’s cloudmeisters to integrate, extend, and develop an array of applications and services within a local development structure that serves both Cloud and on-premise deployments. The refurbishment of the cloudware also allows users to upgrade their applications easily and experience Infor’s mobile and computing capabilities in the device spectrum.

Charles Phillips. Image credit: Ibm.com

IBM is set to obtain the best-of-breed for its cloud system with its partnership with Charles Phillips’ Infor. In addition to the iPaaS, the Infor SyteLine ERP included in the Private Beta is another fueling factor. Running on IBM SmartCloud, Syteline makes the cloudware’s menu-driven stack incremental and different from what IBM had offered before. Syteline brings a lot of opportunities to leverage a world-class ERP straight from IBM’s cost-effective and customizable cloud system.

Charles Phillips. Image credit: Copleycg.com

Infor SVP for Business Cloud Ali Shadman reveals that there’s more to iPaas than making any cloud system a hybrid entity. Some key benefits of the iPaaS are:

• Minimal coding requirement for business functionality;
• Protection for existing investments through the extension of ongoing business functionality; and
• Utilization of open and standards-based technology.

Charles Phillips. Image credit: Ibm.com

Apparently, the IBM SmartCloud for business includes five main areas of choice: IT platform, management support and deployment, performance and availability, security, and billing. The odds could be that the IBM-Infor collaboration will find faster adoption in both large and mid-range markets.

Charles Phillips’ Infor is a leading ERP solutions provider. For more information, visit www.infor.com.

Charles Phillips and facing the demand with Infor Hospitality

Technology advances out of a need to eliminate complexities, a rule that remains true in today’s business applications. Infor, led by Charles Phillips, creates ERP solutions tailored to the needs of various sectors, the hotel industry included. After all, running a hotel is not as easy as lounging in one.

Charles Phillips | Image Credit: Homivo.com

Charles Phillips | Image Credit: archithings.com

Hotels seek to provide its customers with the feeling of being at home away from home, an end that starts at the reception area, and entails giving customers what they need when they need it. For a business that thrives on direct customer contact and quality interaction, nothing spells “success” more than a front office that can readily respond to any demand or concern.

Infor Hospitality is a set of applications that offers solutions for various aspects of hotel management. True to Charles Phillips’ word, the suite contains applications specially designed to ram up the quality of service that the front office provides. When integrated with a hotel’s front office and on-property technology, the suite facilitates better services by providing a centralized view of the guests and more opportunities to improve business operations and the delivery of services. Included in the suite are:

• Infor HMS – This combines the front office with sales, marketing, and central reservations, and provides a unified look at guests and the business’ performance.


• SoftBrands Epitome PMS – This creates a business system that manages property, converts information into knowledge, and potentially boosts profits by streamlining operations and increasing revenue and occupancy.


• Infor Starlight PMS – This creates a customizable, flexible, and central guest, company, and travel agent index that proprietors can readily access.


• SoftBrands Hotel FrontRes PMS – This helps manage reservations, sales, purchases, and services.


• SoftBrands Core CRS – This integrates and distributes data about guests, inventory, and rates across the company.

Charles Phillips | Image Credit: Synergy.net.pk

For more information about Charles Phillips, visit this Facebook page.

Charles Phillips: Even the God particle has to be managed

Charles Phillips Image Credit: infor.co.uk

 Charles Phillips and his company, Infor, could now tack management-down-to-the-particle as part of their creative portfolio. The discovery of the Higgs Boson particle, only the hugest idea in the world of physics since Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, could not have come without pooling a team of scientists all trundling out their own equipment, ideas, and personalized scientific methods. Achieving cohesion in quest of a slippery discovery like the Higgs Boson particle would have required a special degree of sophistication in databases of findings and inventories of equipment. A large Hadron Collider is no construction crane; it smashes protons into each other and performs feats of Particle Physics documented through formulae and geek jargon. Imagine creating a database for that.

Charles Phillips Image Credit: infor.co.uk

Charles Phillips and his team of software and application developers at Infor rolled out the Infor10 Enterprise Asset Management software, which was responsible for the inventory of at least a million pieces of equipment used for the longitudinal research on the Higgs Boson. Infor was tapped by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) to systematize operations for the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. The extensive use of Infor10 EAM was spun off by CERN into several other applications that took care of other maintenance processes apart from inventory. Security, road management, and other scientific activities were all outsourced for management into Infor10 EAM.

Charles Phillips Image Credit: ptw.de

Know more about Charles Phillips and Infor through this Twitter page.

Charles Phillips: Infor leads web-based support with Infor Xtreme

According to Charles Phillips, Infor’s culture of speed has several facets. Aside from helping customers run faster by providing software with sophisticated functionalities, the company also responds to its clients and works to solve their problems as fast as possible. With this aim at the core of its services, it is no wonder that Infor’s Xtreme Support program would be counted among the leaders of Web-based support today.

Charles Phillips Image Credit: guiasenior.com

Customer support plays a role so vital to both organizations and their customers that it can be a deciding factor in a company’s success. For customers, it can spell the difference between a maximized and a wasted investment in enterprise software. This contributes largely to customer satisfaction, which in the long run, may affect a manufacturer’s performance in the market.

Charles Phillips Image Credit: infor.com

Charles Phillips’ Infor is clearly pushing the envelope in terms of its customer support services, as seen by the recognitions it has garnered. Infor Xtreme Support was recently counted by the Association of Support Professionals (ASP) among the “ten best support sites.” This was in recognition of the support portal’s capability to assist Infor customers in resolving technical problems quickly and minimizing business process interruptions. The Xtreme Support program also won the 2012 MarketTools ACE Award for support in March this year.

Infor Xtreme Support is a user-friendly and customizable Web-based portal, a part of the company’s Xtreme Support program. It was redesigned and re-launched in January, and offers easy-to-access critical support resources including software patches, updates, knowledge base, online communities, and more. It also features a new user-grade interface that allows users to set their viewing preferences in order to facilitate faster and more effective access to information.

Charles Phillips Image Credit: Justin Sullivan, Getty

For more information about Charles Phillips, Infor’s CEO, visit this Facebook page.

Charles Phillips: Infor addresses the needs of a city-sized customer

Charles Phillips’ Infor is known for its industry-specific ERP systems. It delivers sophisticated enterprise solutions that fit its customer’s needs and processes to a T, even if the client concerned is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country.

Charles Phillips Photo Credit: facebook.com

Infor recently included San Antonio, the largest city in Bexar County, Texas, in its growing clientele. The company is more popularly known as a source of innovative software and tools used in private enterprises, but together with Lawson, it also offers solutions designed for the public sector. In this area, Infor focuses on industry expertise, and shares best practices among industries like healthcare, utilities, and transportation.

Part of Charles Phillips’ “New Infor” is the company’s emphasis on product development. This is in order to produce more innovative software for its diverse client base.

As the 19th largest city in the U.S. in terms of population, San Antonio demanded a powerful IT system in order to efficiently manage its complex infrastructure and business operations. It identified a total of 3,500 functional and technical requirements to automate and streamline its processes, covering data delivery and the creation of effective budget-related decisions.

Charles Phillips Photo Credit: facebook.com

To address its numerous IT needs, Bexar County selected Infor's Lawson solutions: Lawson Financial Management, Lawson S3 Supply Chain Management, and Lawson Business Intelligence. These solutions allowed the county to make better budgetary decisions, and improved the management of the end-to-end procurement process, from sourcing vendors to managing ongoing contracts. The county was also able to realize savings with the streamlined process and accurate data, and is currently expecting additional savings in the future.

“We were confident the Lawson solution would be simpler, functionally richer, and more cost-effective," says Susan Yeatts, auditor of Bexar County.

Charles Phillips Photo Credit: Justin Sullivan, Getty

For more updates on Charles Phillips of Infor, visit this Twitter page.