Infor Global scouts for acquisitions

To add 200 professional at its Hyderabad centre of excellence (CoE) in next 12 months

Infor Global Solutions, a US-based enterprise software and services company, is on the lookout  for more acquisitions including in India that would help it go deeper and deeper into industries, according to its global chief executive officer Charles Phillips.

“We are always looking at deals (buyouts) and people approach us every week. We make acquisitions when the valuations are appropriate,” he told Business Standard. He, however, declined to disclose any specific targets now.   

The $3-billion, privately held company has so far acquired 50 companies since its inception in 2002, with the latest being San Francisco-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider Orbis Global in December 2012. It acquired US-based LawSon Software Americas Inc in a $2-billion bid in 2011.

Infor has a centre of excellence (CoE) in Hyderabad, which houses over 3,600 of its 12,700 global workforce. Opened in April 2010, The CoE drives research and development for Infor’s core products, and offers products and services to customers like Boeing, Ferrari, ABRL and L&T.

Infor , which services close to 70,000 customers in nearly 194 countries, has added 3,000 customers in the last 12 months.

“Our idea is to add 200 professional in our India centre in the next 12 months,” he said, adding the Hyderabad CoE was definitely a competitive differentiator in terms of the abundant talent pool and skill sets.

Terming India as the company's destination market, Phillips said food and beverages (F&B) and hospitality, manufacturing and industrial equipment were some of the key industries that were going to work for Infor here.

Stating that the company had been seeing a double-digit growth in India since the last three years, which was up to 104 per cent in the last 12 months, Phillips attributed this growth to the localised solutions, including the Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) software, which it had been offering to the Indian market.

Infor Global Solutions, had in January 2012 said its Hyderabad CoE was expected to contribute $70 million to its global service revenues of $500 million for the financial year ending May 2012, and that it planned to take this contribution to 20 per cent in the 2013 financial year.