Infor is set to acquire Saleslogix, a provider of SaaS customer relationship management (CRM) software.
The strategy is to strengthen its presence in the cloud-based CRM market. IT market research agency Gartner estimates that CRM market revenue worldwide will grow from less than $24 billion in 2014 to more than $42 billion in 2018.
Following the acquisition, Saleslogix’ CRM will become Infor CRM. Infor will benefit from strong sales and service functionality to Infor CloudSuite.
The company said Infor CloudSuite will be the first group of industry-specific application suites available on Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) cloud.
Infor plans a major investment in the product, including increased scalability, refreshed user interface with Infor’s leading UX designers in New York, and added industry-specific functionality that leverages Infor’s deep expertise in industry processes.
More than 1,700 organizations rely on Saleslogix CRM for sales management, marketing, customer service and support, and reporting.
Together, Infor and Saleslogix have more than 300 mutual customers.
Charles Phillips, CEO of Infor, said: “Infor can now deliver the first truly end to end demand-to-supply chain, from lead to ship, by integrating marketing and sales processes with supply chain planning, sales and operations planning, and production scheduling in real time.”
Infor CRM will enable customers to manage the full customer lifecycle in one environment, accessing relevant ERP data to help win customers, manage future sales opportunities, and deliver exceptional customer service.
Infor expects to extend CRM with industry-specific attributes and processes integrated with Infor ERP applications beginning with Infor CRM Automotive, CRM Healthcare, CRM Public Sector, and CRM Manufacturing.
Will customers follow a CRM that has been sold on twice in 18 months – 2 owners obviously didn’t see business value in it (Sage and Swiftpage), will a 3rd – it doesn’t have a good industry rating at this point – check out independent reviews at G2 Crowd for example. Acquisitions are disruptive at the best of times, but 2 in 18 months?! and will the staff be transferred again or will they stay with Swiftpage, leaving infor with diluted expertise and knowledge on the CRM tool they have bought into. Bringing the expertise/staff with an acquisition helps, then you have to keep it and maintain its motivation and transfer knowledge! without that consistency of historical knowledge and expertise the hard becomes really hard!!