If you follow industry news, attend prospect events, or read our partner Infor's website, you know that vertical industry expertise is a favorite topic for Infor executives, leaders, and strategists. Industry-specific functionality is part of our critical foundation and a strong differentiating feature for our software solutions, we say frequently. But, have you thought about why? Do you know where our industry expertise comes from and how we leverage it into valuable selling points? Let’s look closer at what “industry expertise” means, why we are highly focused on it as a strategy, and how it will propel Infor forward.

The backstory

To understand where we are going, it helps to know how we got here. History provides context. In the evolution of ERP solutions, there’s a long and winding road that providers and users travelled before today’s Software as a Service (SAAS) model became the accepted best practice. In early days of ERP solutions, massive monolithic solutions with complex architecture and rigid code structure were the norm. Large enterprises invested heavily and hired consultants to customize the operational features. The heavily modified systems were costly to update.

Then came cloud computing. But, for companies to take advantage of the benefits of multi-tenant cloud deployment, they needed to have their industry-specific functionality already built into the solution—so modifications wouldn’t be needed. Modifications slow down deployment and can get in the way of upgrades.

Infor had been heavily investing into industry-specific features of the core ERP solutions. The solutions contain the functionality needed for industry specific applications—making it easier to migrate to the cloud.

Leading Infor partner Independent Computer Consulting Group (“ICCG”) is pleased to announce a new strategic partnership with CADTALK, the first and only software leveraging AI to transform engineering bills of material from virtually any CAD, PDM, or PLM application into manufacturing bills of material and routings inside Infor ERP applications, specifically Infor CloudSuite Industrial(SyteLine).

ICCG is an enterprise software focused consulting firm with a global presence and a track record of more than 2,000 business and digital transformation project executions across ERP, Supply Chain Planning and Execution Systems, Warehouse Management Solutions and Product Life Cycle Management Solutions deployments. 

“We are delighted to be partnering with Infor Gold Channel and Alliance Partner ICCG to provide CAD/PDM/PLM/CAM integration for Infor ERP,” said CADTALK Founder and CEO Scott Brickler.  “ICCG has a very strong domestic and international presence in the Infor ERP and PLM solutions market, and we are excited to bring the best CAD integration solution to more Infor ERP users globally. CADTALK is the go to CAD/PLM Integration solution for Infor CloudSuite Industrial (SyteLine) and we plan with support from strategic Partners like ICCG to extend our Integration to other Infor ERP solutions such as Infor M3 and Infor LN.”

Leading Infor partner Independent Computer Consulting Group (“ICCG”) is pleased to announce a new partnership with SPS Commerce, the world’s leading retail network. The partnership is expected to strengthen the ability of both companies to execute on digital transformation opportunities through engagement and delivery collaboration for the Infor portfolio of systems.

ICCG is an enterprise software focused consulting firm with a global presence and a track record of more than 2,000 business and digital transformation project executions across ERP, Supply Chain Planning and Execution Systems, Warehouse Management Solutions and Product Life Cycle Management Solutions deployments.

ICCG expects the SPS partnership to provide unique advantages, including access to the SPS Commerce network that includes more than 90,000 retail trading partners. The SPS retail network was built over 20 years by consistently adding customers who would rather trust their EDI operations to experts instead of trying to manage rapidly changing retailer requirements on their own.  

Since 1983, Mitchell B. Chi, CPA, MBA, and General Manager - Enterprise Software, has worked with many Fortune 500 companies and hundreds of fast growth start-ups in designing low-cost agile business systems to stay ahead of the competition. He has authored numerous white papers, been a keynote speaker at national conferences, and continues to advise companies in building a “strategic vision with tactical results”.

Mitchell held executive positions with PriceWaterhouse, Goldman Sachs, Oracle, Infor, and 11 successful start-ups. A technology company he founded, MicroSage, won Small Business of the Year from the Small Business Administration. The next year MicroSage was awarded Minority Sub-contractor of the Year from the Department of Energy.

Mitchell is a dynamic and passionate speaker on many topics, especially how to stay relevant in today’s economy by empowering technology.

Q. The United States has depended on overseas manufacturing for many of our products which, in times like the current pandemic, has created a supply chain breakdown leading to stock out situations. In response to that do you think companies will focus on bringing more manufacturing back on shore to address this problem?

A. In the 1990’s, America sacrificed quality, availability, and brand loyalty for shareholder value, top line revenues, and acquisitions. The consumer was complicit in this, as they also sacrificed quality for price.

Fast forward to our current global quarantine and staying alive times. I believe the manufacturing reboot will be organic and with a huge “Buy America” movement, A.C. (After Corona). The US has a significant inventory of idle factories, the highest unemployment in history, and many families continue to be worried about basic commodities. Consider this: If there was a 10% increase due to “Buy America” that’s $2.15T of the US GDP of $21.47T. The trickle down could be as high as 5x or $10.75.2T from real estate (commercial and residential) renovations and durable goods to services and even, entertainment. 

Supply chains are the most fragile in the “first leg”, raw materials to finished product inventory. Currently, with supply chains stressed, US based, leading companies are developing plans to fortify as much of the “First Leg” back to America. The answer is not hard assets and labor alone. Flexible and agile technology is core to any tactical execution.

Infor CloudSuite Industrial (SyteLine) helps manage all key business processes into one integrated system

In just under 5 months, ICCG completed an upgrade implementation of Infor® CloudSuite™ Industrial (SyteLine), for RES Exhibits, a family-owned and operated trade show services company specializing in creating one-of-a-kind experiences for one-of-a-kind brands.

They were running an older version of Infor SyteLine that was not allowing them to manage key processes effectively. This older version also required many customizations and work arounds. The consensus was to upgrade to the latest available version of Infor SyteLine and take advantage of all the capabilities of the newer release. They selected ICCG, an Infor Global Alliance Partner, to lead the upgrade implementation because of their deep understanding of the technology and functionality of Infor CloudSuite Industrial.

“System upgrades calls for good understanding of the customer’s existing configuration of their ERP system,” said Shiv Kaushik, CEO for ICCG.  “The enhanced capabilities in the newer version combined with prior relevant experience to successfully deliver upgrades, involves carrying forward some business specific modifications to the solution and makes the deliverance complete in a timely manner.”

Probably one of the most famous quotes in marketing comes from Harvard Business School Professor Theodore Levitt: “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!”

That, in a nutshell is servitization.  Turning a traditional product offering into a service. This new customer-centric feature becomes a differentiator, adding value, building relationships, preventing commoditization, and adding profits. Data insights, generated from the Internet of Things (IoT) are often at the heart of the new service offering. Sometimes the new offering is used to generate revenue, replace the old product-centric business model, or be a complimentary add-on designed to boost loyalty.

Innovation is a central component of the manufacturing industry. It can take many forms and address many functions. It can be a simple tactic for improving shop floor operations. It can be a concept for a new type of product or service. It can be a revolutionary approach that completely disrupts the way you do business. But all innovations start much the same way: as an idea.

How does innovation fit into your growth strategy?

Manufacturers everywhere have an extremely underutilized employee. This employee is a robust repository of institutional knowledge, facts, and random trivia. However, this employee is full of latent potential that hasn’t yet been tapped, and they are ready to do so much more.

Ok, so maybe this is a quirky metaphor, but—in case it wasn’t clear—this underutilized employee is your organization’s data. And Data could be doing so much more to help your human employees make better decisions.

For many manufacturers, the collected data is sitting in various databases and spreadsheets, waiting to be called upon, sorted, and analyzed to inform decisions across your organization.

Infor is focused on productivity improvements and outcomes-based delivery of projects as the keys to ERP technology success.

To enhance productivity, Infor wants to make it easier for customers to move to its CloudSuite systems, a cloud-based ERP, and wants those systems to be embedded with intelligent ERP technologies such as business analytics, as well as AI, machine learning and robotic process automation (RPA).

"We're constantly looking at ways for our software to bring value to your organization," Infor CEO Kevin Samuelson said during Inforum 2019's opening keynote.

There is interest in intelligent ERP, but some customers and analysts believe it's too early to tell if it will be widely adopted in applications.

Digital transformation is impacting all manufacturing and distribution businesses. No matter how complex their supply chain is, manufacturers must be able to respond faster to change, reduce excess inventory, and cut costs. Most importantly, manufacturers must deliver to customers what's been promised, and on time. To keep up with the pace of change requires an agile and modern ERP solution that is flexible enough to handle both the opportunities and challenges manufacturers face today— and tomorrow.