On 19 November, Infor, a global leader in business applications, held the Infor Innovations Day in Johannesburg, South Africa. This event showcased the latest advancements in business technology, featuring innovative solutions designed to drive digital transformation and enhance operational efficiency.
The day encompassed insightful presentations, hands-on demonstrations and networking opportunities with industry experts. Infor presented the latest capabilities released as part of the regular cadence this October, which included 400+ new capabilities, including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), generative AI (GenAI) and automation, says Khaled AlShami, Vice-President for Solution Consulting for EMEA Edge Solutions at Infor.
Unique and industry-specific innovations were presented to target verticals of customers who remain focused on business outcomes. Infor announced these solutions as Value+ Solutions packaged for customers in specific industries to consume and realise business outcomes.
The South African market is not different from Germany and the UK in terms of industry challenges. Infor can replicate many use cases and success stories from these countries and adapt them to South African regions.
“A cheese manufacturer using Infor’s industry-specific capabilities has increased yield by 1%, which led to 500 000 euros in savings. Why can’t this be leveraged in South Africa so customers in the same vertical or line of business benefit?”
The backbone of Infor’s strategy in being a cloud industry solutions provider is to provide customers with industry-specific solutions that have been tried, tested and rewarded, explains AlShami.
Infor is dedicated to innovation and speeding up business outcomes for customers. As a global leader who serves over 60 000 customers in more than 180 countries, Infor delivers industry-specific software designed to help companies improve operations, drive growth and achieve business goals. The company leverages advanced technologies like AI and ML to create intelligent, cloud-based applications that are tailored to the unique needs of various industries.
AlShami shares an example of the solutions.
Invoice processing using AI capabilities proved to be a significantly higher match than the typical manual or optical character recognition (OCR) assisted process. Invoice processing using AI capabilities revolutionises the way businesses handle billing operations. By leveraging AI, companies can enhance efficiency, reduce costs and improve overall financial management. Infor stressed the importance of adapting this use case to industry-specific challenges, such as industrial manufacturing, distribution, healthcare, food and beverage, etc.
Another example is how generative AI capabilities can be leveraged to eliminate duplicates and redundancy in item masters or databases, driving up productivity by 95%. AI-driven systems can automatically extract relevant invoice data, categorise it and validate the information against purchase orders and contracts. This speeds up the processing time and ensures accuracy. Additionally, AI can identify discrepancies and flag potential issues for review, helping companies maintain financial integrity and streamline accounting processes.
South African businesses are supported by Infor in adopting these new technologies by shifting the conversation from function and features to a value-based and outcomes-driven approach. AlShami advises that the focus should be on how technology can help to bridge the value gap between expectations and the final realisation.
Infor, in partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), carries forward the industry-specific approach and the Value+ Solutions strategy in true multi-tenant software as a service (SaaS) fashion to help customers in South Africa unlock potential and start realising the highest value out of investment, concludes AlShami.
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