Meet Mr. M3 or, as we call him, Sean Conner, ICCG Vice President of Industry Solution Consulting. Each week Sean will present a video focused on Infor M3. Subscribe to our channel to make sure you don't miss them.

Sean Conner has experienced CloudSuite on multiple levels over the last 15+ years. He has used the system first-hand as an end user, configured multiple instances as an implementation consultant, and led acquisition implementation teams as the CIO for a $300M distribution company with 23 distributing branches.

Sean has leveraged the Infor CloudSuite platform within multiple organizations to increase efficiencies and provide innovated solutions to their current real-world challenges within the Manufacturing, Chemical, F&B, Distribution, and Fashion industries.

Click Here to join Sean for this 10-minute overview about Infor M3 in the cloud.

Shifting trade conditions and tariffs have set the stage for frontier markets in Africa to emerge, but how can global brands and manufacturers tap into this vast wealth of resources? Global trade winds are shifting, driven by mounting forces that range across political, social, and economic landscapes. Uncertainty looms in the forms of tariffs, trade wars, and populism. Commerce continues to undergo a transformation as Uber-ization and the Amazon effect continue to play out across industries, redefining customer expectations in both the B2C and B2B sectors.

Into Africa: Tapping vast resources beyond China as trade conditions remain volatile.

A rising middle class emerging from China and India is creating new opportunities that come with new demands and challenges.

The Factory of the Future is coming, and it's being built on technology, innovation, and advanced manufacturing capabilities. But what is it, exactly? And what are the technologies you need to know about to help your manufacturing company embrace the change?

The definition of the Factory of the Future is evolving; even the name is in flux. Some call it Smart Manufacturing, Industry 4.0, or the Digital Enterprise. While the terms may vary, there's one thing that is clear: The Factory of the Future is the product of fast-changing disruptive technologies hitting manufacturing like a cyclone. Information technology and operational technology are both seeing drastic innovations and the convergence of these two forces is creating a paradigm shift. Manufacturing is experiencing the fourth industrial revolution.

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?

In this podcast, Infor’s Guy Courtin and Christine Barnhart discuss how manufacturers are adopting learnings from B2C supply chains to be more responsive to end customer needs. From AI and machine learning to greater digitization of the supply chain, modern manufacturers must become more nimble and responsive—creating a true multi-enterprise network to meet their customers’ needs.

Independent Computer Consulting Group Extends Relationship From India And US To Europe, Targets New Verticals

Infor, a global leader in business cloud software specialized by industry, today announced that Independent Computer Consulting Group (ICCG) has become a Gold Channel Partner in Europe.  This builds on the existing, extensive relationship between Infor and ICCG, who is already a global delivery and Alliance partner.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has a lot of people talking. The fact that those people no longer hail primarily from the world of science fiction is representative of just how far the ideas driving this technology have come. AI has entered the main stream, and it has the technology world buzzing with excitement. The potential applications of AI are as vast and varied as any complex technology vision that has ever been brought to life. And in truth, that is where the real excitement lies—in finding out just how far we can take AI and in turn, how far it can take us. In this paper, we’ll take a look at the many exciting applications taking shape for AI today; what ideas are on the horizon; and importantly, what the potential impact on the B2B world might be.

Infor® LX is an ERP solution that offers deep industry functionality and flexibility to help you adapt to new manufacturing trends and industry changes. 

Infor LX is a comprehensive, flexible and advanced enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for mixed mode and process manufacturers that operate with an IBM System i environment (formerly AS / 400 or iSeries). This solution improves the efficiency of the main business processes, including manufacturing, logistics, channel management, customer relations, relations with suppliers and financial management. With Infor LX, companies can improve their efficiency, agility, sustainability and profitability by improving their ability to manage variable demand and adapt to changing market conditions.

Why should you invest in this technology?

In a perfect world, functionality and ease of use would be the top criteria manufacturers use when deciding to purchase, replace, or upgrade their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. Unfortunately, in the real world, cost considerations rear their ugly head. Business leaders are concerned about the price of not only purchasing the solution, but also how much it will cost to implement, support, and maintain. Further, there is significant concern that an ERP implementation will cause significant disruption to the business, cause the organization to lose focus, or even “break” business processes that the company looked upon as core to their success.