Is Infor up for sale?

Over the last few weeks investment in ERP software has been increasing. The latest rumour (Source:Reuters) is that Infor is the latest in a line of companies sold or resold. It seems like private equity firms believe that there is money to be made in ERP software. According to Allied market Research the global ERP software market is set to grow 7.2% each year until 2020 when it will reach $41.69 billion.

The last year has seen several deals commence that should complete before the end of 2016. In December 2016 EQT made a bid for IFS, the Swedish ERP software company. While the initial bid saw only 84% snapped up, a revised offer was recently agreed with the hold out investor. This should see IFS taken private within a matter of weeks. Oracle made a bid for NetSuite, valuing the company at $9.3 billion in July. That purchase has since been delayed with one investor, T Rowe Price group saying that the bid is not high enough. In July this year Apax partners sold Epicor to KKR in a deal said to be worth $3.3 billion (Source: Bloomberg).

Shoptech’s tracker tools fuel growth in CT, abroad

As the operations manager for Berlin precision tool and fixtures manufacturer Sirois Tool, Andre Nadeau is concerned with efficiencies.

"In manufacturing, it's important to have a snapshot of your jobs," Nadeau said. "It helps us understand how far along a job is, how much time we've spent and our costs."

For many 21st-century manufacturers, that snapshot is increasingly being created by Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, which tracks business resources — cash, materials and production capacity — and the status of business commitments, purchase orders and payroll. That in turn, has fueled an ERP industry that's projected to expand by more than 7 percent annually and grow to $41 billion by 2020, according to Allied Market Research, a global research firm.

Is 2016 the end of the road for ERP software?

In the past, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software has always been about tasks and transactions. It has provided businesses with the control they need to manage production lines and supply chains as they repeat precise patterns, season by season.

However, the business landscape is changing. Manufacturing, for example, is no longer a simple matter of basing decisions on past order experience, making plans based on historic patterns and duplicating processes with little deviation.

As we move into 2016, businesses need to respond quicker, change tactics dynamically according to market demand, analyse and act upon internal and external data, and deliver their products to customers faster than ever before. In effect, rigid, function-led ERP software as we know it will become obsolete. In this article, I will explain why 2016 signals the death-knell for legacy ERP systems.

The latest technologies are changing the ERP industry for good

From adaptive manufacturing to prototyping, the latest technologies are shaking up how we produce, consume and deliver products. The burgeoning development of 3D printing, or additive layer manufacturing (ALM) for example, has the potential to change the face of the production line.

Read More: http://www.itproportal.com/2016/01/14/is-2016-the-end-of-the-road-for-erp-software/