Infor Forms New Advisory Council for Channel Partners

Infor today announced it has established a North American Channel Advisory Council, comprised of members of Infor's community of seasoned channel business and information technology leaders, to foster expanded communication and collaboration between Infor and its network of indirect channel partners. The council enables Infor to leverage the industry-specific expertise, sales insight and close customer relationships of its partners to continue to deliver innovative software solutions with customer-friendly options for implementation and financing.

Seeking to strengthen relationships between Infor and its value-added resellers (VARs), the Infor Channel Advisory Council was chartered to be a representative body for Infor's partner network with a set of goals that are mutually beneficial. The council provides Infor partners with agenda topics in advance of meetings to solicit feedback and insight to share with Infor leadership. Once meetings have been completed, the council relays information, conclusions and decisions back to the partner network.

By providing a direct line to decision-makers at Infor, the company empowers partners and gains key marketplace and industry insight. Bringing VARs together with Infor technology and sales leadership enables Infor to work in unison with partners to establish consistent global standards and share valuable information on product direction and sales strategy, helping boost channel sales and performance. The group will also help to recruit new partners with deep industry expertise and knowledge of enterprise software for the manufacturing and wholesale distribution industries.

Infor's Channel Advisory Council is comprised of six of the company's partners representing a cross-section of solutions and industries. The group meets quarterly with leadership from Infor's sales and partner teams. Members are nominated by Infor and rotate on an annual basis to ensure a broad spectrum of representation.

"Infor channel partners are an important part of our overall sales and support structure, accounting for a healthy percentage of our revenue, so we strive to provide the best training and educational tools to assist our VARs in offering solutions that improve performance for our growing customer base," said Dennis Michalis, senior vice president, global partners, Infor. "The channel advisory council provides a proactive forum for our partners to come together to discuss issues, trends and best practices, while providing Infor's leadership team with essential feedback on what customers have identified as important to their industries."

The North American council is the first of four planned advisory councils, representing each global region. Infor plans to create a similar council in EMEA later in 2009, with councils from partners in Asia-Pacific and Latin America following in 2010.