Infor Enforces Exclusivity

Several partners that have worked with one or more of the company's business software products said they have been told they have to become exclusive to Infor or leave the fold. And they have until Dec. 1 to decide. These partners also offer SAP Business One, Microsoft Axapta or Navision ERP solutions that compete with Infor offerings.

Several of these partners said they received the e-mail message just weeks ago advising them of the requirement and the time line. The partners CRN spoke with, all of whom requested anonymity, said they have not yet decided on their plan of action.

Rick Parker, senior vice president of field marketing at Atlanta-based Infor, acknowledged that the message was sent to partners and confirmed the deadline, but he maintained that only a handful of solution providers are affected. And he added that these partners were not blindsided. "We've been talking to them about this for a year," Parker said.

"When we acquire companies, we evaluate [reseller] agreements. We immediately—upon the acquisition of a company—let those channel partners know about our exclusive requirement," he said.

"It is our policy for partners to be exclusive. We view them as an extension of Infor. We invite them to employee meetings. We are not willing to invest in partners who will compete with us," Parker added.

Parker spoke from the company's annual sales meeting in Orlando, Fla., where he said about one-quarter of the 2,200 attendees were partners.

The notion of partner exclusivity is a hot topic in the industry. The not-so-secret issue is that virtually all software vendors want their partners to concentrate solely on their products, but very few state that desire so explicitly. Some merely set very high quotas on partner sales for the partner to get the highest margin and support levels, for example.

At the end of the day, even some of the Infor partners who were irked about the ultimatum sympathized with Infor's situation. "I can see why Infor is doing this. They have a lot of older, legacy products, and they're trying to build a wall around them to protect that business," said one partner.

Infor, which is majority-owned by Golden Gate Capital, certainly has a lot to sell. The company last month completed its planned buyouts of SSA Global, Extensity and Systems Union, adding to its already extensive portfolio of financial, reporting and business intelligence applications.

At the time, Infor CEO Jim Schaper told reporters that with those offerings under its belt, Infor boasts 70,000 business customers—twice as many as Oracle and SAP combined.