Infor enhances offering for small, medium-size distributors

Infor recently announced new enhancements to its ERP solution for small to medium-size distributors, Infor ERP FACTS; a product that enables ordering, inventory, account management, customer relationship management and purchasing.

New features include an enhanced user interface, sales reporting on Microsoft SQL, and improved scalability. The new features enable enterprising companies to achieve better insight into day-to-day operations, which drive efficiencies across the organisation.

They will be available locally and throughout sub-Saharan Africa from Softworx, an EOH company and Infor product distributor.

Deployed by more than 2 000 distributors across North America, FACTS addresses core transactional, analytical and inventory operations. The next generation is designed to provide distributors with specific functionality to support value added services such as light manufacturing, e-commerce sales and service, and service and repair offerings.

This is especially important for small to medium-size companies who need to increase efficiencies following growth through acquisition or market expansion, and who need to sustain competitiveness in their industries.

Enhancements, including Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, sales analytics and an executive dashboard provide distributors with real-time data access, which ensures government compliance and offers greater visibility into operational performance across the enterprise.

"The distribution industry is highly competitive, especially for small and medium-size companies, where driving top line growth and maximising IT investment is critical to their success," says Gavin Kilfoil, regional manager for sub-Saharan Africa at Infor.

"The latest version of FACTS exemplifies Infor's commitment to providing business-specific solutions that evolve as our customers' business environments and needs change."

From sales order management and financial processing, to inventory management and procurement, flexible commissioning and sales account tracking, the enhancements help distributors control the critical business areas that drive their growth and effectiveness.

Additionally, FACTS automates financial and transaction management, and sales operations, which gives distributors a comprehensive view of the enterprise and enables them to optimise customer service, inventory levels, productivity, and profitability.

Lewis Paper International, a leading printing paper distributor, uses Infor ERP FACTS to manage its North American operations. The Illinois-based distributor benefits from the solution's robust functionality, enabling it to streamline business processes and improve order and inventory management.

"Infor's distribution user group community, product development team, focused organisation, and advanced solutions help keep them small enough to care, yet large enough to support our continued growth," says Shari F Necheles, director of IT for Lewis Paper International. "The latest release of FACTS will provide us with advanced tools to better understand and serve our customer needs. With this latest upgrade, we can also take advantage of the complementary solutions Infor offers to help us maximise our business performance."

FACTS' improved scalability eliminates mask restrictions associated with front office applications such as sales analysis, enabling distributors to store and track accounts over a billion dollars to support their business as it grows. An enhanced intuitive user interface is complemented by open architecture to the back-end, allowing companies to access SQL environments for reporting.

Companies also will benefit from increased filtering options and drop down menus for quicker access to information, along with customisable dashboards that allow distributors to work more efficiently. Additionally, the flexibility and ease of use of the interface means that companies can access data on a wider range of devices and platforms for improved productivity.