What is our primary use case?
I have taken care of the tool's two full cycles of implementation. My company deals with discrete manufacturing companies, such as industrial equipment or industrial engineering equipment. Basically, the tool is used for any industry associated with discrete manufacturing and if our company is associated with implementing the tool.
How has it helped my organization?
The tool is compiled with a number of features. Infor OS is an automation, alerts, and workflow configuration tool. Infor OS is one of the core applications bundled in the Infor CloudSuite. There are other add-ons, like Infor Factory Track and Infor CPQ, which are Infor's asset management tools and also essential enterprise applications a customer can think of, in my opinion.
What is most valuable?
My customers belong to the manufacturing industry. Infor CloudSuite comprises core ERP applications, and apart from that, it is bundled with analytics tools, social collaboration tools, document management tools, and barcoding solutions like Infor Factory Track. If we specifically speak about Infor CloudSuite, I have to talk about the core ERP functionalities and modules and then the other features, like social collaboration tools, documentation, alerts, and workflows.
If I focus more on the ERP part, Infor LN is a tool that is very strong in the manufacturing domain. There is a manufacturing module that is very strong in terms of automation or features. Any complex situation can be handled. For any discrete manufacturing organization or industry, Infor LN can be implemented to manage the core manufacturing module, which is flexible, and ready to be tailored by mapping the business for any manufacturing industry. Within the ERP manufacturing module, we have revision control. We have a project management module and a sub-module. We have shop floor control and job floor controls, which are the dropdowns of the manufacturing module.
What needs improvement?
Infor has brought a new approach called the sixty, thirty, and ten approaches. This approach is called the Infor Deployment Method, which involves interacting with the customers to gather the requirements. In the first stage, we will categorize the requirements into categories, which are sixty, thirty, and ten. Sixty is the core application where no tweaking is required, so those are standard solutions. Whatever customers tell our company as a requirement, we will analyze whether this is a standard solution or a box solution or whether customization or modifications are needed, and based on that, we can categorize it. So, the majority of the customers' business processes will fall under the sixty category, meaning it doesn't need any tweaking or modifications as it can remain as a standalone vanilla tool. Slight configurations are needed when it comes to the thirty category. Some data changes, some process tweaking, some label changes, and a little bit of configuration to suit the customer requirements will be categorized into thirty categories. Whereas ten, there is another leftover ten out of one hundred percent, sixty is standard, thirty is configuration-related, and ten is unique since we have to develop and enhance according to the customer's business. We will categorize requirements and analyze the ten percent category. Addressing the ten percent requirement will be challenging because we need to customize it. Customization has been easy in ERP because Infor has introduced a new module called extensibility, where we can enhance the solution by customization without touching the core solution. The time taken to address the ten percent requirement will be challenging in terms of understanding the requirement, mapping the requirement, testing, and deployment because those are unique to each customer. Rest ninety percent, we don't have any challenges with the tool.
For the quality department, there is a module called quality, and I feel it has to be a little bit simplified. Implementation-wise, there are no challenges in the tool. When we implement the quality modules, for the end user who does the installation, the tool has to be more simplified. For example, if you inspect the product dimension, let's say the dimension is from one centimeter to ten centimeters, and if there is a criterion that the product should fall under five centimeters and seven centimeters, then it is shown. The range between five and seven cannot be given here, so the quality model should be simplified by providing the ranging facility.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Infor CloudSuite for four years. I work for an Infor channel partner. My company sells licenses, opts for the Infor CloudSuite environment, and implements CloudSuite and other Infor applications.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Infor is putting a lot of energy into AI, enhancing and adding up new features in terms of workloads, and mobile applications, and changing your interfaces, bringing some additional look and components. Every now and then, the tool releases a patch or upgrade, which is known as a release. Whenever there are new patches, a user or company can see whether the solution is impacting their business process in terms of quality or the QA environment because Infor gives us production tests and quality environments. Whenever there is a new patch or new release, then we have to deploy that to a test environment and test it. If it is working fine, then we can directly deploy that into QA and do work to quality check and move to production. Stability-wise, it is good. Somewhere, customizations are available, and in that case, there will be some deviations. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a seven to eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a very scalable solution. You can keep on adding another company. You can keep on adding the offices or warehouses. Scalability-wise, it is a very simple tool. If the initial company structure is set properly, scalability can be made simple. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
If a new factory is opening in some other location, then that location and site need to be introduced. We need to do the basic configuration, settings, and all, and related to that data, the scalability can be easy in terms of setting up new tools.
The tool suits medium to large businesses.
How are customer service and support?
Though the solution's technical support is available for us and provides prompt services if there are any extensions, there is no support. There is ten percent of uniqueness we need to address in the tool in terms of customizations. In terms of customizations, one can tweak or add extensions. We will extend the solution to meet the customer's needs. If the standard solution is also not working, and if Infor's extension is there, the support doesn't support it because an extension has been added. Sometimes the standard core application will not work and it might be because of customization. In the aforementioned case, the support won't touch the tickets related to extensions. When providing knowledge with support, the support team needs to improve in terms of guiding the users or customers on how to investigate or address the issues related to the solution. The support team doesn't give the steps to rectify the issues in the solution. For example, if they are unable to do a purchase order Infor, let us say they will say you have to maintain it. They won't elaborate on their response. They should improve in providing the solution with the plan. I rate the technical support a seven out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
How was the initial setup?
The product's initial setup phase is very easy. Once a partner subscribes or procures licenses, as it is a cloud-based solution, you will be directly given a link or a URL where all the parameters for a basic company setup will already be done. Initially, there is always a golden company or a vanilla company where all the parameters are already set, and all the basic master data is already set. The customer has to go and start using the application from Infor for testing, and then implementation partners will come into the picture and schedule the customer's requirements. Based on the categories sixty, twenty, and ten categories, users will amend or modify the processes. During implementation also, there is something called implementation accelerators, which is one of the features Infor is providing for role-based processes, which were already defined. For example, if you are a warehouse clerk, if you are a production manager, what screens, what data, and what sessions are you going to use, sessions will be already bundled under that role or profile. The data will already be presented as basic master data and parameters; we will be already presenting. Role-wise, data and parameters are already there. Role-wise sessions are already a part of the implementation. There is no need to configure it, but for the vanilla company, everything is preconfigured. The process is preconfigured. What sessions we need to work on are preconfigured, and what role you have worked on is configured. The master data, the parameters, and the setup are already pre-configured using the implementation accelerators.
Once the licenses are put in place, I think it'll take hardly two or three days to position that particular customer. The only thing is that based on the module's bifurcation and the implementation part, I think it will take less than a day to implement.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I don't know about the license fees. I feel it is not very cheap, very economical but also not very expensive. Infor also provides lots of discounts if one increases the licenses they use. It is a reasonably priced tool.
What other advice do I have?
I have not used or heard of AI in the tool. I think Infor is working on it, but I think it is not open for channel partners or users at the moment. I have not used or been introduced to AI in Infor.
For data analytics, Infor has another product called Infor Birst, which is a business analytics tool that is easy and simple and where it is possible to pull the data from the database. We can see the data in the graphical representation, like bars, bar diagrams, pie diagrams, or something like that, and so, in that way, AI is integrated into the tool. The reports and dashboards are there in the AI. With the tool, you can pull the data from the database, and you can see the reports and dashboards in a visual representation. I can see that it is AI-integrated, but I have not used it completely. I just heard about it.
Manufacturing industry, especially the discrete manufacturing industry should use Infor CloudSuite. The manufacturing metrics can take a bit out of Infor CloudSuite in terms of manufacturing. They will get tremendous results because they allow us to configure complex business processes and infrastructure. We have alerts, workflows, analytics, and user-based rules. Reports and custom reports are easy, so there are multiple advantages. In terms of technology, AI, and core ERP solutions, I rate the tool an eight out of ten.
*Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.