Anne Benedict, Infor | Inforum DC 2018
(upbeat electronic music) >> Live from Washington D.C. It's theCUBE. Covering Inforum D.C. 2018. Brought to you by Infor. >> And welcome back to Washington D.C. We're in the Washington Convention Center here for Inforum 2018, continuing the coverage here on theCUBE, I'm John Walls with Dave Vellante, we're joined now by Anne Benedict, who is the S.V.P. of human resources at Infor. Anne good afternoon to you. >> Thank you, thanks for having me. >> You bet, thanks for being here. Now, 17,000 employees, so obviously you've got a lot of responsibility there. You're not only an Infor Executive, but you wear the hat of being an Infor client, (laughs) as well. Tell us about that, and how that works out, and, I guess, how you can test drive a lot of different services on your own before it goes out to the market. >> I like to joke that I feel like I have the best HR leadership role in the business, or in the world perhaps, because I get to not only lead a great company full of great people, 17,000 employees around the world, I'm so proud of them, but then I also get to be a customer of one of the greatest products in the HCM world that there is, and I have a direct line to the product managers, to the developers, to the consultants who can really help us to use our product to it's fullest advantage internally for our selves. So, it's like a toy box that every H.R. executive dreams of, and it's right there at my door step to test, to use, to innovate with them. They're always open to our ideas, our feedback internally. We're often a beta customer for the features, and functionality that are coming out to our customers, so it's a great position to be in. >> So what about the relationship, because there is a great give and take. Obviously, because you are a tremendous resource on the development side. What is that exchange like, and how does that work in terms of what's working, what's not, what you think others would want instead, or what they'd like to tweak a little bit. How does that work? >> So, you know, we're trying to sort of straddle a balance between using the product as it's intended to be designed for the breadth of our customers, no matter what industry they're in. We're obviously in a technology industry, but we have a lot of health care customers, government customers, services customers who have their own particular needs. So, we like to experiment with the technology the way it's designed for other industries, but then also I can make adjustments for use for our own company as a services company, as a technology company, and a good example of that for example is I'm working very closely with product management right now to help them design the next iteration of what our talent management suite will look like. So, we have a design concept for how we want to give performance feedback, for example, internally at Infor, and we're sharing that design the product management team to help them create the next version of the product that will meet the design requirements that we've set out for ourselves, and that I think a lot of other companies are moving towards. It's a modern approach to talent management, and we're working very closely hand in hand with product management to make sure they're designing something that we, we're co-designing it with them really. So, what I'm expecting is for us to have a really great next iteration of that product that is very modern, and up to date on what science is telling us about performance feedback. >> So, you're a pioneer, in a way, but you probably don't want to mess with with core H.R., that's table stakes. Talent management is something that, frankly, not a lot of companies do well. So, you may be more receptive to experimentation there. Is that a fair assertion? >> Yeah, I would say that's true, and also my background is, I grew up in H.R. with quite a breadth of experiences, but my depth of expertise has always been on the talent management and leadership development side. So, that's been sort of where I've been wanting to play with the product, and give my point of view on where I think it should evolve. It's just my particular strength that I bring, I think, to this role and to the product as well. >> How do you see the role of the Senior H.R. Executive evolving? How has it changed in the last several years? How is, maybe, digital transformation, this whole big data, the data movement? How does that factor into that role, and your vision of where that goes? >> Yeah, I think companies are looking for a different type of H.R. Executive than they have in the past. And I was fortunate that this wasn't by design. It was very serendipitous, but my career path led me, I think, in the exact right direction. So, I started my first 10 years of my career as a consultant at Mercer doing H.R. consulting. So, I was consulting the companies how to make, how to create the best H.R. department possible, how to create H.R. strategy, how to operationalize that. And, it was that consulting mindset that I've taken with me throughout my career. After consulting I moved internally to various companies, and that skill set of just being able to identify a problem, come up with a solution, and measure an implementation, I've taken with me in my role. So, I think companies are looking for H.R. executives who bring that sort of mind set to the role. And, I think that's what I've been able to do at Infor. And then, I think also when I was a consultant I was also advising customers and clients on technology, and how to use technology for H.R., so that's why I'm so thrilled to have this role, because it's the best of both worlds where I get to play with the technology, and also be a cutting edge H.R. leader. >> Alright so-- >> Hopefully. >> How do you asses the Infor HCM capabilities? Come on, give us the good, the bad, what's on the to do list. You know, give us the rundown. >> Yeah, I think it's a phenomenal product, and I'm not just saying that. >> Okay, what makes it phenomenal? >> When I walked in the door a year and nine months ago we were just about to go live with the multi-tenant cloud product. We were one of the first to do that, and we did it in over 65 countries with 17,000 employees, and since then we have subsequently rolled out more functionality, benefits enrollment, absence management, compensation planning, LMS, and each time we learn a little bit more. I can't underestimate the importance of getting the process right before you get the technology in, and the change management that goes around it. If I would say, I would give us a B it might have been around those areas, but the product itself is really it has the perfect balance of coming out of the box with some functionality that you can use right away that's best practice process. >> So you get value right off the bat. >> Yeah, and not a lot of configuration required, easy to get in. We implemented it with that broad scope in a very, very short amount of time, which is almost impossible with our competitors, so. So, I think for that it's fantastic, and then for the specific needs that we've had it's been very easy to build that in as well, so it has best of both worlds I would say. >> So, we saw some pretty cool demos yesterday around talent science, and it struck me as an audience member. There were all kinds of different kinds of attributes of, you know, ambition and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, but you know the one that wasn't on there was like performer, but it struck me that these attributes lead to performance. I guess that's the basic philosophy, but I wanted to test that with you. Just give me the bottom line. >> Yeah. >> But it really is more complicated than that, isn't it? >> It is, yeah, and that's one of the most exciting things about H.R. right now too, I think. And this comes back to H.R. Executive of the future is, I come from an IO Psychology background where data, we used to have to do experiments on subjects with, and collecting data was always the hardest part to studying work, and studying personalities, studying behavior, and now we have all this data available to us that we've never had before. And, talent science is a perfect example of how data is really empowering our decisions. And, to answer your question about how it is predicting performance; A particular attribute doesn't necessarily lead to performance in any role. So, in one role, ambition, really high ambition is actually not a factor for success. In another role, it is. So, it really is, there is no right personality profile that can predict success in any role. It's very role specific. And what talent science is able to do is really find the science behind what is the specific role that will lead to success, and what are the attributes that will lead to non-success, also in a role. And, that's such a powerful thing. What we've found with talent science is that depending on the role we can reduce turnover by 20 up to 70% by choosing people who fit a role profile versus those who don't. >> It's interesting it's like, you know, those books, like the seven attributes or-- >> Or Covey-- >> Of highly successful people, but essentially you're codifying that by role. And, that's true. It doesn't just work for any role. Sales person may be different than an engineer, may be different than a an operations person et cetera. >> So, this is really fascinating, because you have the human science, right, we're all imperfect, we make crazy decisions, sometimes irrational, we act wild, or predictably, whatever it is. And, now you're taking data science, and overlaying with that, so you're trying to come up with some kind of predictable markers, or whatever, for imperfect beings in a way. How's all that merging, I mean, how is technology being the glue in that process? >> Yeah, well I think there's no such thing as right and wrong, or perfect and imperfect. You know, I could get into a leadership speil, but any strength that either of you might have, if you use that to an extreme it becomes a weakness, actually. And, like I used in the example of ambition, high ambition in certain roles, may not be a factor toward success. Where as other roles it might be. Whatever particular DNA, behavioral DNA, that you bring to a role as an individual, it's incumbent upon us as a company to figure out what is the right role for the personality that you bring, and the behavior, and the strengths that you have. And, that's what we're really able to do with talent science, which is, so, if you apply for a role where you don't match the profile I may be able to propose to you, hey, you have really high ambition that's not right for this role, but it may be right for this other role. Have you ever considered that? And, that way we can really, you know, we talk about human potential here, at Inforum. That's the real tool, real tangible way that we can really find the human potential in every single person, no matter what their profile looks like, or strengths, or weaknesses, or faults, as you say. Whatever-- >> Whatever it is, right? >> Whatever they come with we can find the right fit. >> Does technology, generally, and say artificial intelligence or machine intelligence, specifically, can it moderate or adjudicate human bias? Or, does it actually reinforce it? >> Yeah, that's a very good question, and obviously very pertinent to today. I think, a couple of things. So, the assessment I'm speaking of, we would never rely on the machine to make a decision. So, it's telling you, as a manager, here are some of the gaps that a particular individual has towards the role that you are planning to hire them for, but we suggest that you ask these interview questions, and make a decision for yourself. So, you really can't replace that human intervention in the process, that human judgment, their sense from an interview, but it really helps them hone the interview in on the things that they really should focus on. Figuring out, are we comfortable with those gaps? Does the person realize they have those gaps? And, really, for both the candidate and the manager to make the right decision. So, in the assessment it's always, we never rely on the machine to make a decision. But, it is incumbent on us to make sure that as we're designing these tools, as we're designing the technology behind them that we have as much diversity in the people who are designing them as possible. To make sure they're being designed in a way that doesn't have bias built into them. And, that's why it's so important for us to have diversity in technology. Why we're doing SB code. Why we believe in bringing up people from all backgrounds to participate in technology, 'cause it's so important to have that diversity, as we're building this stuff. >> Can't take the humans out of the equation, yet. >> There's still some gut check, right, there's still some intuition that has to come into play here. >> Yeah, absolutely, and that's one of the attributes of humans that we, machines can't replace yet. So, that ability to empathize, the ability to show all the emotional skills, we know machines can't do that today, maybe someday they will. But, today they can't, so humans will bring that. But, I really think that the power comes in the combination of AI, and machines, and humans. And, that's what we're talking about here around human potential. It's the power of the combination of the two. And, I think we will see that that combination will be required for a very long time, before machines take over the world (laughs) >> I always tell the story, John and I interviewed Garry Kasparov. >> That was great. >> The great chess champion. >> Chess master. >> When he lost to the IBM supercomputer, instead of giving up he said, "I'm going to beat the supercomputer", so he took machines plus humans to beat the supercomputer, so to this day the greatest chess player in the world is a machine and a supercomputer. So, that is a great example of augmentation. Now, it probably doesn't work so well for autonomous vehicles, but-- (all laughing) >> Well now, thanks for being with us. Thanks for sharing the story. We appreciate that, the time. And, if you see our application come down the pike-- >> Okay (laughs) >> Flag us where we're deficient, if you would, please. >> You'll be welcome, you're welcome. >> Excellent (laughs) >> Thanks for having me. >> Thank you, Anne Benedict, thanks for being with us. We'll be back with more here on theCUBE. We're live in the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. >> That was awesome. >> Thank you. (upbeat electronic music)
SUMMARY :
Brought to you by Infor. We're in the Washington Convention Center here before it goes out to the market. and functionality that are coming out to our customers, and how does that work in terms sharing that design the product management team So, you may be more receptive to experimentation there. and to the product as well. of the Senior H.R. of just being able to identify a problem, How do you asses the Infor HCM capabilities? and I'm not just saying that. of getting the process right before you get Yeah, and not a lot of configuration required, that these attributes lead to performance. is that depending on the role And, that's true. how is technology being the glue in that process? and the behavior, and the strengths that you have. that human intervention in the process, to come into play here. So, that ability to empathize, the ability to show I always tell the story, the greatest chess player in the world Thanks for sharing the story. We're live in the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. Thank you.
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Dan Barnhardt, Infor | Inforum DC 2018
>> Live, from Washington D., it's the Cube. Covering Inforum DC 2018. Brought to you by Infor. >> And welcome back to Inforum '18. We're live here in Washington DC as Inforum has brought its show to our nation's capital. I'm John Walls along with Dave Vellante. It's now a pleasure to welcome Vice President of corporate communications Dan Barnhardt. >> Thank you. >> Hey Dan, good morning to you. >> Good morning to you. Good to see you again. >> We were kidding before we got started about why you're here in Washington. We think it's for the weather, right, because it's so nice. >> It's gorgeous. >> But there is a reason. I mean, you've released a federal product today, have an announcement we'll get to in just a moment. But about coming to Washington. You've been in New York before, you've been in New Orleans. Why DC, why now? >> Well, it's important for us to make sure that our customers can access the event. We've got more customers that came this year than came previous years, certainly, than last year. And it's important to be in a city where it's accessible for our customers not just in the US, but also from Europe and Asia Pacific, Latin America and Washington DC's very accessible. We also are one of the largest suppliers to public sector organizations. That's, uh, local, state, and federal government. We've got a particular focus on federal government and fed ramp compliance this year, which we achieved. And, so, we're here so that we can show off some of that new technology that you just mentioned. >> Yeah, what about the significance of that? Of reaching the compliance goal. And what does that mean to the business going forward? >> Well, it's yet another example of the benefits of our cloud strategy and working with the AWS beginning in 2014. Infor was the first large ISV to embrace a public cloud. And Amazon and Amazon web services in particular has been very helpful in achieving fed ramp. They have a lot of federal customers. They've got a very large federal agency with three initials that is a customer and they require compliance with all of the federal regulations that continually change and the utmost security for customers and we're able to offer that to our customers as well. >> Yeah, we were talking on the kick off about that - how you guys can draft the AWS innovations and things like fed ramp and other compliance. They were first, they were way ahead of anybody. You as an ISV, you don't have to worry about all that stuff. I mean, you've still got to connect to it, but they do a lot of the heavy lifting, so that's cool. You got some other hard news. >> Well we also are able to focus on our products by doing that. We don't have to invest in proprietary cloud infrastructure or data centers or databases. We can focus on delivering innovation in our products and functionality that makes a difference for our customers. Their business is not - their customers don't care what infrastructure they're running on, they care how they're able to provide goods and services. So Infor focuses just on delivering better goods and services for our customers. >> What Charles said at the keynote this morning - our strategy, we didn't want to compete with Google and Amazon and Microsoft for scale of cloud. That made no sense. It also made the point that when we were an on prem - exclusively on prem software company, we didn't go out and manage servers for our clients. So we don't want to do that. So, big differentiator for sure, from some of the other SAS players. >> And it's paying off now in a way that our competitors are starting to come after us when they used to not want to acknowledge us. One of our larger competitors - on premise legacy vendor - had an anti-Infor ad on their homepage. They've got cabs outside of here. >> We're talking about- - Yeah >> And then Charles said, ya know if you're - we're welcome the competition here if you'd like to see innovation in enterprise software, this is the place to be. >> Well, congratulations, right, 'cause, well, you know, when Oracle's coming at you, it means you succeeded - that's good. Um, other hard news that you guys had this week - you got true cost accounting in healthcare and some other things, take us through those. >> Well health care has been a major focus industry for us, just along with government, which we mentioned. Um, seventy plus percent of large hospitals in the United States are automated using an Infor software. And healthcare has been an industry that's undergone a lot of disruption, obviously, for the last ten, twelve years, with the Affordable Care Act and others. And we're trying to figure out - we as a society are trying to figure out - how to deliver better care to patients, that's the goal for healthcare organizations. And to do that, they need to better understand what's the cost of care. So the Infor true cost, which we announced in January and have now delivered and have customers implementing, will help our customers understand better what is the cost of the care that they're giving so that they can give better care to their patients and allocate their resources in a way that will help more people heal better and feel better. >> We heard on the intro to the keynotes today, Turing, Edison, and Coleman. It sounded like it was Charles' voiceover. I don't know if it was or not, but >> It was. >> It was. He's got the smooth, mellifluous voice. Um, last year Coleman, Catherine, Coleman, Johnson - you named your AI offering platform after her. Give us the update where you're at today, you've got some other announcements around that as well. >> We do. It's a big announcement for Coleman here. We've got the GA of Coleman digital assistant, which is - enables humans to have - everyone to have an assistant at work with them to help automate certain functions such as search and gather, which can take twenty percent of people's time just collecting the information to make a decision. But now with Coleman digital assistant being live and customers implementing and going live on it right now, they're able - users are able to ask Coleman to fetch information and deliver not only the information but predictions and smart intelligence that helps people make better decisions and be more productive. >> So we had a lot of conversation this morning about robotic process automation, which is really interesting. I mean, essentially, we're talking about software robots taking over mundane tasks to humans. Now a lot of people like to talk about how - and we talked about this in the Cube all the time - how, oh, the machines are taking away jobs, but in speaking to numerous customers about RPA, they're thrilled that they don't have to do these mundane tasks because it makes them more valuable, they're doing more interesting things, and they're getting offers from others that are asking them to do this type of automation for their company. So they're more valuable to their existing company and outside companies. So, RPA - hot topic. You guys are leaning in hard. >> We definitely are. We definitely believe that there are jobs that - there are functions that can be better served by automation, particularly search and gather that we mentioned. There are multiple functions that will always be done by people. Human interaction is not going to change so we are looking to have a digital assistant make productivity better. Productivity is a function of being able to do more, having more workers, and we'd like to do both with this. We'd like people to be more productive using artificial intelligence assistance. And, also, a conversational user experience with software will make it easier and less intimidating for a lot of people to interact with technology at work. And we think that will also help people be able to be more productive in their jobs and have more people able to take more jobs that right now or in the past have required a level of technical expertise that you won't need when you can simply ask the computer to do something for you using your own conversational language. >> Some major data points - excuse me - >> That's okay. that came out of the keynote this morning - one is that there are now more job openings than there are unemployed individuals and productivity, even though the tech spending is booming, it doesn't show up in the productivity numbers. We saw this actually, you know, a couple decades ago in the nineties. And all of a sudden you saw this massive productivity boom. I've predicted that with automation and artificial intelligence you're going to see something similar. It seems like Infor's on a mission - that human potential tagline - on a mission to really drive that productivity and help close those gaps. >> We definitely are. Our tagline is "design for progress" and we are looking to promote progress around the world and do what we can in order to help human progress and the theme at Inforum is human potential and that's what we're looking to do here. We have seen a lot of productivity growth in people's personal lives. I now - I don't know how to set a timer to cook anymore, I just ask Alexa to do it, but we haven't seen that at enterprise yet. So we're bringing consumer grade technology that people have gotten used to in their everyday lives but they don't see at the office. We're bringing it to the office to help make them equally as productive as they are in their personal lives. >> Yeah, that's what I wanted to hit on, actually, was the theme of the show. We're talking about human potential and which Hervan Jones talking about that, you know, from a personal mission statement if you want - that's the way he worded it. But, what's the broad scope of that in terms of how you apply that thematically throughout the company when you talk about human potential, because it's just not you, obviously you're trying to do that for your clients, you're trying to do that for the people they serve, do it for taxpayers, right, through the federal sector. But talk about that from the thirty thousand foot level about human potential - unlocking that and how Infor totally is, I guess, trying to illustrate that or put that in place. >> Certainly. The first thing I would mention is our human capital management. Infor is a very large provider of HR software - there's others that are perhaps better known, but Infor has many customers that are using our HR software, but they're also using our software for other key functions. And by integrating those two things, we're able to help people be their best self at work. Because it's not just the HR management, but the HR system knows what you're working on, they can help with professional development, and talent management, and align that to the business processes that the company has. We're also looking to engage workers. As you mentioned, there are more job openings than there are unemployed people that we believe seeking employment right now, but they're not very engaged. So we're hoping to have technology and learning management to help engage more workers. And then we'd also like to increase new business creation. One of the things that Charles mentioned that slowed down is the introduction of new businesses and small businesses. We believe one of the reasons for that is that there is so much business automation that goes on that in order to achieve that to be competitive requires so much capital investment that it makes it difficult to start a new business. But if we're able to automate a lot of that business, we're able to make it really easy through Infor cloud suite for new business starting, we feel like we'll be able to help entrepreneurs generate new businesses which will employ more people and offer more engaging and rewarding jobs and help fill some of those gaps that we have. >> We've talked a lot about AI - not just some magic thing that you throw at your business - it has to be operationalized and the likely way in which organizations are going to consume AI is it's going to be infused in applications. And this is exactly what your strategy it, isn't it? >> It is. The artificial intelligence is only going to be as smart as the amount of data that it can access and that it can analyze. It doesn't have a brain, it looks at data and learns from that data and where it tells you. And Infor has access to data that very few companies have - mission critical data, ERP, data manufacturing, distribution - core processes that we're able to put in the cloud, and not just in the cloud, but in a multi-tenant cloud environment where it can be drawn from analytics, from our burst analytics engine. And then, Coleman can make decisions based on that data - not only from within the enterprise but across the network using GT Nexus commerce network. >> Yeah, so we're hearing a lot about HCM, of course, at this show, you know, human potential, fits into talent management, HCM. You guys have a very competitive product there, it's sort of a knife fight with some of the large SAS players, but I was excited to see so much attention paid to HCM as a key part of your SAS portfolio - your thoughts? >> I do, I agree with you and I think one of the differentiating points that we just mentioned was that Infor HCM also connects to Infor systems that automate core business processes. So it's not just about those business processes, but also knowing who the people are that work on them and helping companies navigate. So much time is wasted from what we would call tribal knowledge - an employee getting up to speed or figuring out how to navigate inside an organization, particularly a large enterprise. And Infor HCM can help make that easier, but they can do that while attached to a business process so that everything can move faster and more efficiently for the customer. >> I wonder if you could comment, Dan, on this notion of best of breed versus a full suite. It seems like - so for decades, there's been this argument of oh, best of breed point products will sometimes win but full suite, people want a single throat to choke and that integration - It seems like with your micro-vertical strategy you're trying to do both - be both best of breed and have a full suite across the enterprise application portfolio. Is that right, you know, do you feel like you guys are succeeding at that, uh where do you think you fit in that whole spectrum? >> That is correct, and it's one of the things that we're able to do because of our cloud strategy - is to offer the complete suite and the artificial intelligence that comes on top of it. In the past, when there wasn't an artificial intelligence layer, there wasn't the machine learning that needed to draw from all of that data, best of breed individual applications would work. But now that we're trying to pull data together so that you can make more intelligent and you get actionable insights that let you make more intelligent decisions, that requires an integrated suite. And that can be done now in a multi-tenant cloud environment that couldn't be done before. >> The other thing I would observe - we talked about this, John - is - >> I'd also really quick just add that I think that that's proving to be correct in the amount of growth that we're seeing. Infor is significantly outgrowing from a revenue perspective. Oracle, more than forty percent last year, more than double the rate of growth of SAP and our growth rate for cloud applications is up there with work day which is setting the bar for cloud software companies. >> Yeah, that's true, that's a great point. I mean work day has set the bar and this is an example of what was essentially a narrow point product there to, of course, trying to get into other spaces. Of course, SAP and Oracle always have had a large suite. Your strategy has seemed to be working in terms of being a place where a customer can come in and access a lot of different functionality. The other thing that we heard today - a year in - is the Koch Industries investment. I was noticing that you now see Accenture here, you see Grant Thorton, Deloitte- >> Capgemini >> Yeah, Capgemini - these people are taking notice of - I would imagine Koch Industries does a lot of business with those guys and one of the gentlemen from Koch told me last year - said "Hey, we're going to expose these SI's to the Infor opportunity." It seems like it started to happen and I've heard that there's been several large deals that they've helped to catalyze, so it's great to see that presence here. Talk a little bit about the Koch Industries dynamic and what that's brought to the table. >> Well, the Koch relationship for Infor has been so helpful. First, obviously, there's a large infusion of cash from the investment. It was 2.5 billion dollars - one of the largest tech investments that wasn't an acquisition in history. And we're able to use that capital to increase more functionality. Not only that, but Infor has an industrial background. The majority of our customers are in manufacturing or distribution - industries that Koch Industries is a big player in. So not only do we have a great partner, but we have a living lab in one of the world's best and most efficient companies with which to develop our software, implement our software, and test our software. And we've got a willing partner in Koch that can do that and provide a lot of that expertise. >> I was telling Dave that that's what really struck me listening to the keynote was that - yeah - it's this wonderful symbiotic relationship and they gave you money - that's nice, right - but you have an opportunity now to roll out services, products, experiment a little bit. >> We do. >> See how it works within the Koch family, if you will, before you take it out further and so you've got this great test lab at your disposal that you didn't have before. >> And like Infor, Koch is a private company, so we don't feel the same pressure to provide quarterly return to shareholders that public companies do. So we're able to invest more of our revenue in development and R and D in ensuring that our products are going to deliver the best experience and the best functionality for our customers. >> Well, to me, the key for Infor - a key - is you've got a large install base and you're trying to get that install base to come to a more modern, SAS-like, cloud-like platform. To do that, you got to be relevant. So, the stuff like Coleman, the burst acquisition, your micro-verticals - those are all highly relevant. You know, your ability eliminate custom mods because you go that last mile. Highly relevant to companies that have to place a bet. Now, when they have to move to this new world, you know, others are going to try to grab them, so you got to hang on to them. To me, relevance, and showing a road map, and showing an investment, and things like R and D, is critical - your thoughts? >> I agree with you, I think that's the reason that we're seeing those large global system integrators partner with Infor now and develop practices that Accenture and Deloitte, Grant Thornton, and Capgemini, that will implement Infor software at their customers. They're having the demand from the customers that they're working with, including up to the largest of enterprises, for Infor software, just simply because we are able to automate processes and help them get to a level of automation that will let them compete in the digital era. There are companies all over are fearing that they're going to be disrupted by a digital, native competitor or a digitally enabled competitor. And we're looking to help Infor customers become digitally enabled themselves and to be that disruptive competitor in their field. >> Well, Dan, we appreciate the time >> Thank you very much. >> Good seeing you, thanks for having us here. >> Thanks for coming back again. >> Overlooking the show floor, got a great seat - >> Yeah, a lot of activity down there. >> And, uh, good luck with the rest of the show. >> Thank you very much. >> Dan Barnhardt, from Infor back with more. Live on the Cube here from Washington DC at Inforum '18. (bright, electric music)
SUMMARY :
Brought to you by Infor. It's now a pleasure to welcome Vice President Good to see you again. because it's so nice. But about coming to Washington. And it's important to be in a city where Of reaching the compliance goal. and the utmost security for customers and we're You as an ISV, you don't have to worry about all that stuff. and functionality that makes a difference for our customers. It also made the point that when we were competitors are starting to come after us this is the place to be. Um, other hard news that you guys had this week - so that they can give better care to their patients We heard on the intro to the keynotes today, He's got the smooth, mellifluous voice. to fetch information and deliver not only the information Now a lot of people like to talk about how - a lot of people to interact with technology at work. that came out of the keynote this morning - anymore, I just ask Alexa to do it, but we But talk about that from the thirty thousand and talent management, and align that to the is it's going to be infused in applications. And Infor has access to data that very few companies have - so much attention paid to HCM as a key part and more efficiently for the customer. Is that right, you know, do you feel like you guys that let you make more intelligent decisions, that that's proving to be correct in the Your strategy has seemed to be working large deals that they've helped to catalyze, infusion of cash from the investment. really struck me listening to the keynote was that - and so you've got this great test lab and the best functionality for our customers. Well, to me, the key for Infor - a key - that they're going to be disrupted Live on the Cube here from Washington DC
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