Saturday, October 23, 2004

Infor aquires Lilly Software: vendor consolidation continues

Infor Global Solutions (formerly Agilisys) has just acquired Lilly Software, the latest in its series of acquisitions in the Tier II and Tier III ERP marketplace.

Just last week I interviewed representatives from Lilly at the APICS International Conference, and I was quite impressed with Lilly's support for constraint-based manufacturing (drum-buffer-rope) and lean manufacturing. But there was no hint in our discussion that privately-held Lilly was about to be acquired. Business must still be tough out there.

If other vendors have not been paying attention to Infor, they should be. Infor is obviously on a roll, snatching up a series of mid-market vendors almost too numerous to mention. Whether Infor can consolidate these many offerings or rationalize the portfolio is another question. SSA Global and Epicor have adopted similar strategies, SSA larger and somewhat more successfully, Epicor less so.

I'm waiting for Infor to give some indication of what its strategy is for rationalizing its many offerings.

Update, Oct. 31. Interestingly, John Moore at ARC Advisory Group appears to have exactly the same perspective on Infor as I do.
The addition of Lilly, who has struggled recently, should fit nicely within the discrete solution product suite Infor Global offers, in particular, its Lean Manufacturing solution. Unlike fellow mid-market consolidator SSA-Global though, Infor does not appear to have a coherent strategy for bringing its products together, which over time could create a growing cost burden and compromise future R&D and support for its customers.
Related posts
Infor acquires process ERP vendor, IncoDev
Agilisys changes name to Infor Global Solutions
Agilisys acquires Infor
Agilisys continues acquisition binge
Rumor confirmed: Agilisys is acquiring daly.commerce

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