Managing Automation - December 2008 - (Page 13)

Quote of the that Infor plans to crank up its acquisition engine once again. “We’re going to take advantage of a down market, and we’re going to start acquiring,” Schaper said. Schaper said Infor would most likely target companies with $200 million or less in annual revenue and whose revenue is growing or at least flat. That’s something of a departure from the first round of Infor’s acquisition binge when the company acquired 19 software companies in four years ending in early 2007, growing from under $35 million to well over $2.2 billion in revenue. At that time, Infor was willing to buy software companies with falling revenue. But this time, Schaper said, “You’re not going to see us buying significantly attritting assets today. It doesn’t serve our long-term future any longer.” Infor would consider acquiring a direct ERP competitor, Schaper said. Ultimately, he said, the company will seek acquisitions that serve mid-market customers and can move Infor into new vertical markets or strengthen its position in markets the company already serves. Jim Schaper Schaper said he expects software companies focusing on troubled industries, such as financial services and automotive, to be particular bargains. Infor last year called off its acquisition run, in part, because of tighter credit markets and rising software company valuations. But falling software company valuations “have presented an opportunity that we hadn’t envisioned that we would see,” Schaper said. Separately, Infor’s management has decided against raising software maintenance rates as competitor SAP recently announced plans to do. Schaper said Infor will hold standard annual maintenance rates at 20% of software license fees. SAP has said it will raise rates for most customers from 17% to 22% gradually over the next four years. Oracle has charged 22% for maintenance since 2006. Schaper acknowledged that the decision means Infor is “leaving some revenue on the table.” But, he said, the move is intended to encourage Infor customers to renew maintenance contracts or, in some cases, pick up lapsed maintenance options. The move is also recognition that many of Infor’s small and medium-sized customers are cash-strapped in the current economic environment, Schaper said. “For us to be a long-term, dominant provider in the SMB space and to continue to differentiate ourselves from Oracle and SAP, the lowest cost of ownership wins,” Schaper said. — J.M. MONTH “We’re going to take advantage of a down market, and start acquiring.” — Infor Chairman and CEO Jim Schaper KRONOS NOW TRACKS SHOP FLOOR MACHINES For the Continued from page 10 W Record FINANCIAL ith the announcement of Workforce Central version 6.1 at its annual user conference in October, human resources software specialist Kronos has quietly staked out a broader footprint in the manufacturing world. Kronos executives told customers attending the Orlando, FL, conference that version 6.1 contained more than 1,000 enhancements, such as the ability to track not only human resources on the shop floor, but also the machines that those workers operate. At the heart of this capability is the new Performance Monitor feature, said Gregg Gordon, Kronos’ global practice leader for manufacturing, in an interview. Through the monitoring tool, which is part of the Activities module within Workforce Central, shop floor managers can view in one place the status of machines, shop floor workers, and work in process — all in real time. Performance Monitor, for example, may show that a machine is down and allow the line manager to shift labor to another work cell. The marriage of labor and equipment tacking ties Kronos’ Overall Labor Effectiveness metric to the more traditional measure of Overall Equipment Effectiveness, which many manufacturers use to assess the performance of their machinery. In a typical scenario, Gordon explained, a specific maintenance person or machine operator may be associated with an inordinate amount of machine downtime. Workers on the shop floor enter specific reason codes for time when they are not working, including equipment setup, breakdown, and unplanned downtime. The 6.1 product allows managers to see the associations between labor and equipment and get to the root cause of the downtime. “We’re not just collecting the information and then a week or two later you can see what the results were. We’re collecting the information and you can see it right now, anywhere Honda Motor India is rolling out Servigistics Service Parts Management. Dedini S/A Industrias de Base, maker of plant equipment for the ethanol industry, selected data mastering products from Silver Creek Systems. JDA Software Group, Inc. posted thirdquarter revenue of $98.4 million, up from $93.6 million. Net income was flat at $8.2 million, compared with $8.3 million. Sirit Inc. reported third-quarter revenue of $3.8 million (Canadian), down from $5.6 million (Canadian) a year earlier. A net loss of $2 million (Canadian) was down from $1.8 million (Canadian) a year earlier. Zebra Technologies Corp.’s third-quarter sales of $244.1 million were up 12.4% from the year before. Net income declined to $25.8 million from $27 million. M&AS ABB agreed to acquire Ber-Mac Electrical and Instrumentation Ltd. of Calgary to expand its oil and gas presence. Antenna Software purchased strategic assets of Vettro Corp., which offers mobile applications for field service. Consona Corp. bought Intuitive ERP assets from Chinese VAR GrapeCity. HighJump Software bought BelTek Systems Design, a provider of direct store delivery software. Rockwell Automation is acquiring Xi’An Hengsheng Science & Technology Co. Ltd., a process solutions integrator in China. PARTNERSHIPS Predictive maintenance company Mtelligence Corp. selected Kepware Technologies as its primary provider of device connectivity to manufacturing equipment on the plant floor. NaviSite, Inc. will offer MuleSource SOA technology as part of Navisite’s AppStructure hosting platform. 13 December 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Managing Automation - December 2008

Managing Automation - December 2008 Contents Take 1 Business Objects Chief Says Union with SAP Meets Objectives After One Year Yes, Emerson, Too, Is in the MES Market Infor Chief Puts Off IPO, Restarts Buying Plans Kronos Now Tracks Shop Floor Machines IQMS Rolls Out User Interace, Other Upgrades Notes Five Ideas for Demand Planning Building on the SOA Blueprint Innovation Now A Team Effort Lean %2B Technology = LEAN^2 Finding Flaws Before They Spread Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

Managing Automation - December 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.