Market Perspectives

We are happy to share some insights about Infor drawn from our latest market research, Ventana Research Buyers Guide: Analytics and Data, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

We recently published five Ventana Research 2023 Analytics and Data Buyers Guides, an assessment of technology vendors and products that provide individual and combined analytics and data, augmented analytics, collaborative analytics, embedded analytics and mobile analytics and platform support.

At Ventana Research, we continue to believe that, for most use-cases, there is a clear choice for analytics and data platforms for any use in your organization. We developed five technology assessments and buyers guides to focus on overall analytics and data requirements as well as specific augmented analytics, collaborative analytics, mobile analytics and embedded analytics use-cases.

In all of our Buyers Guides, we utilize a structured research methodology called the Value Index that includes evaluation categories designed to reflect real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal (RFP) and vendor selection process for analytics and data. We evaluated Infor and 21 other vendors in seven categories, five relevant to the product (adaptability, capability, manageability, reliability and usability) and two related to the vendor (TCO/ROI and vendor validation). To arrive at the Value Index rating for a given vendor, we weighted each category to reflect its relative importance in an RFP process, with the weightings based on our experience and on data derived from our benchmark research on analytics and data.

In the overall Analytics and Data Buyers Guide, our analysis classified Infor as a vendor of Merit, ranking 21st in the overall research at 52.5%. Infor achieved the same rank in Product Experience and Customer Experience, ranking 19th in each, at 55.4% and 36.7%, respectively. Its best performance came in Capability, ranking 13th, and was ranked 19th in both Validation and TCO/ROI. Infor partially participated in the RFI process.

Infor’s Product Experience was impacted by its 45.0% performance in Manageability, where it could incorporate better notification capabilities. Customer Experience was impacted by its 38.2% and 35.1% performances in TCO/ROI and Validation, respectively, where it could provide more information and tools for developing a business case.

Infor performed best in Product Experience, notably in Capability, where its 57.5% performance was due to its presentation and mobile functionality. In addition, Infor’s configuration and customization capabilities led to its 59.8% performance in Adaptability. In Capability, it performed well in data modeling and supports a wide variety of data sources. Infor also provides strong interactive visualization and discovery functionality.

In the Augmented Analytics Buyers Guide, our analysis classified Infor as a vendor of Merit, ranking 21st in the overall research at 47.4%. Infor achieved the same rank in Product Experience and Customer Experience, ranking 19th in each at 49.7% and 36.7%, respectively. Its best performance came in Capability, ranking 16th, and was ranked 19th in both Validation and TCO/ROI. Infor partially participated in the RFI process.

Infor’s Product Experience was impacted by its 45.0% performance in Manageability, where it could incorporate better notification capabilities. In capability, it lacks both natural language query and natural language generation functionality. Customer Experience was impacted by its 38.2% and 35.1% performances in TCO/ROI and Validation, respectively, where it could provide more information and tools for developing a business case.

Infor performed best in Product Experience, notably in Capability, where its 16th place ranking was due in part to guided analytics functionality and personalization. Infor also provides automated agents and alerting. In addition, Infor’s configuration and customization capabilities led to its 59.8% performance in Adaptability.

In the Collaborative Analytics Buyers Guide, our analysis classified Infor as a vendor of Merit, ranking 21st in the overall research at 44.9%. Infor’s best performance came in Product Experience at 47.1%, ranking 17th, due to its 13th-place ranking in Capability. In Customer Experience, Incorta placed 19th, due in part to low performance in TCO/ROI and Validation. Infor partially participated in the RFI process.

Infor’s Product Experience was impacted by its 45.0% performance in Manageability, where it could incorporate better notification capabilities. Customer Experience was impacted by its 38.2% and 35.1% performances in TCO/ROI and Validation, respectively, where it could provide more information and tools for developing a business case. In Capability, it lacks assigning and tracking tasks.

Infor performed best in Product Experience, notably in Capability, where its 13th-place ranking was due to in part to its functionality for sharing analyses, including annotations in analyses, monitoring and alerting. Infor also provides discussion group capabilities. In addition, Infor’s configuration and customization capabilities led to its 59.3% performance in Adaptability.

In the Embedded Analytics Buyers Guide, our analysis classified Infor as a vendor of Merit, ranking 21st in the overall research at 54.0%. Infor achieved the same rank in Product Experience and Customer Experience, ranking 19th in each, at 57.4% and 36.7%, respectively. Its best performance came in Capability, ranking 17th, and was ranked 19th in both Validation and TCO/ROI. Infor partially participated in the RFI process.

Infor’s Product Experience was impacted by its 45.0% performance in Manageability, where it could incorporate better notification capabilities. Customer Experience was impacted by its 38.2% and 35.1% performances in TCO/ROI and Validation, respectively, where it could provide more information and tools for developing a business case and better visibility into the investment strategy of the analytics product division.

Infor performed best in Product Experience, notably in Capability, where its 61.1% performance was due in part to robust API and integration functionality. In addition, Infor’s flexible configuration and broad customization capabilities led to its 59.3% performance in Adaptability.

In the Mobile Analytics Buyers Guide, our analysis classified Infor as a vendor of Merit, ranking 16th in the overall research at 56.4%. Infor’s best performance came in Product Experience at 60.1%, ranking 15th, due in part to its 10th-place ranking in Capability. In Customer Experience, Infor placed at 19th at 36.7% due to its low performance in Validation and TCO/ROI. Infor partially participated in the RFI process.

Infor’s Product Experience was impacted by its 45.0% performance in Manageability, where it could incorporate better notification capabilities. Customer Experience was impacted by its 38.2% and 35.1% performances in TCO/ROI and Validation, respectively, where it could provide more information and tools for developing a business case.

Infor performed best in Product Experience, notably in Capability, where its 65.3% performance was due in part to good interactivity on mobile devices, a wide variety of visualizations and support for its augmented analytics and collaboration functionality. Infor is one of very few vendors to offer capabilities to work with analyses offline. In addition, Infor’s configuration and customization capabilities led to its 59.3% performance in Adaptability.

This assessment was based on Infor Birst, Version 2023.04, and was available in April of 2023.

This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of analytics and data software in the industry. Technology buyers can learn more about how to use our Buyers Guide by clicking here and included vendors that wish to learn more can click here. Click below to read the individual reports:

Analytics and Data Buyers Guide

Augmented Analytics Buyers Guide

Collaborative Analytics Buyers Guide

Embedded Analytics Buyers Guide

Mobile Analytics Buyers Guide