Charles Phillips is a really important person in the ERP industry. The work that he did so far managed to bring in a lot of success for all the companies that were represented. Charles Phillips’ affairs as CEO of Infor have led to success. That is mainly because of the fact that we see such high quality in basically everything that he does. When referring to the ERP market, the focus that he has at the moment with his work at Infor is something that can only be seen as revolutionary.
Modifying The Rules Of The Game
In cloud computing in general we have some pretty big players like Oracle or Salesforce. The ERP industry is one that is evolving because of a really simple reason. Small to medium-sized companies nowadays need access to software in order to remain competitive. This is where there is a gap in the market.
Charles Phillips quickly figured out the fact that there is a gap present. Because of this, he quickly started an aggressive acquisition strategy. His focus became niched. Infor started working hard on delivering quality cloud based software solutions for the companies in the retail industry. This includes specialized apps that could handle the exact needs and wishes of every single business customer.
Offering Customized Packages As Opposed To Standard Deals
Out of all the business decisions that Phillips made, this is the one that was the boldest. The market is filled by software providers that basically offer a strict set of features. Most of these features are not going to be useful. That is especially the case with the smaller firms. We are faced with many programs that are simply overpriced because of this. For instance, in the graphics field, Adobe Photoshop has many tools available. Only true professionals will need them. Regular businesses will not need that. They just need something simpler.
Infor steps in and offers sets of features and applications that deal with the exact needs of their clients. That is why a large part of the clients moved towards the cloud and the new applications that were developed. This did automatically increase the profits of these companies and of Infor at the same time.
Buying Instead Of Building
In the ERP industry, Infor managed to change more rules than many expected. The common practice was to keep building new apps and then offer them on the market. Charles Phillips instead decided to buy out different companies that offered the applications they lacked. This basically means that high quality software was bought and included in the services offered by Infor. The acquisition strategy helped out a lot and is now seen as a great innovation in ERP.
On the whole, the work that was done by Charles Phillips did change the rules of the game in ERP. Oracle and other competitors started to apply the same strategies in an attempt to stop the fast growth that Infor experiences right now. Whether or not they will succeed is something that remains to be seen.