Looks like Infor want more from the Milch-Cow

We have just received 3 month's notification that our annual cost of support will increase by 6%.

The (new) "Support Account Manager" attempted to justify this hike on the basis that Infor are developing the product. As evidence of this he claimed that Infor have released LN. (Note it took a number messages and a couple of weeks for him to get around to returning our calls)

This will almost certainly hasten our move to another ERP package (MfgPro is the favorite at this stage). We will also reduce our license count by at least 6%.

It will be interesting to see whether this increase is limited to the Australian market or whether it is across the board.

Hi Terry,

Hopefully as a MfgPro user you will be able to enjoy a user forum like BaanBoard as well. Sounds like you guys have already made up your mind.
Good luck with the transition!

Hi Terry,
I think, that MfgPro is more bad choice, than LN. QAD is small company, and are your know, who buy it. LN now core ERP product for Infor, but i am do not sure, that MfgPro should be core product for Oracle, Infor or MS.

...QAD is small company...

Hi Vkpacc, Are you suggesting that size of company should be the main criteria? If that is the case should we all move to Oracle or SAP ?

Although a reasonable size now, Infor is not in the same league as either Oracle or SAP. If you consider that Baan is one of around 20 ERP packages that Infor have then the Baan part of Infor is very small compared to the tier-one guys. (Do they tell the customers of the other 19 or so that they are on dead-end products or do they give them the same "we will never sun-set our products" lines?)

We are a long time user of Oracle Financials (because baan GL does not have adequate functionality) and Oracle RDBMS which we use for Baan and other applications. Oracle is certainly very high on our list.

As for QAD being a small company, that could be viewed more as a positive than a negative. From all reports we have, QAD appear to value their MfgPro customers more highly than Infor appear to regard their Baan customers.

Looks like Infor want more from the Milch-Cow

It will be interesting to see whether this increase is limited to the Australian market or whether it is across the board.

In Hong Kong, Infor also increased the support fee by 6%.

I can understand why Terry want to move to QAD. It should not because of the increase of support fee, but the inadequate support provided by Infor. The feeling of keep paying money for a not qualified service.

I will suggest Terry to send a letter of complaint to someone in the AP or the head office in Atlanta.

...I can understand...not because of the increase of support fee, but the inadequate support provided by Infor. The feeling of keep paying money for a not qualified service...

Yes, we certainly think along those lines. We have used the product and paid the annual support fees for close to 10 years. During that time we have lodged a only handful of support calls. The few we have lodged have not been dealt with at all satisfactorily.

I think that Infor think they have us in a "gotcha" situation and are attempting to wring the last drops from a dying product.

I think many customers share the same feeling as Terry.

I don't want to blame the support people as I know they also under high pressure to serve a broad range of products.

...I don't want to blame the support people as I know they also under high pressure...

Hi tritonbaan,

The people at the coal-face do what they can but I do blame the management level at the branch and region level (especially at AP region that I have had the experience in dealing with over a period) who are clearly not capable of providing customer service we need.

I am sure that Info would be much better off they centralized/regionalised the support. For example, I can see no reason at all for a support group in Australia, any difficult issues are addressed overseas anyway.

Terry

Don't agree that Infor is trying to earn some money from a 'dying' product.

They have taken over Profuse in the Netherlands (with about 180 employees?) which was the biggest Baan partner. Profuse was specialised in Baan. Why doing this if you do not want to let the product die?
Managers of Infor are looking for programmers, they even have posted on this board in order to look for people.

Furthermore I have heard that Infor wants to use Baan more, it could even replace other applications that they support. I agree that we have to wait to see this confirmed.

Han

Don't agree that Infor is trying to earn some money from a 'dying' product...Furthermore I have heard that Infor wants to use Baan more, it could even replace other applications that they support...

Han

If its not dying I think it may just be fairly sick. We do not see accounts of lots of new customer installations or of increased licence count. About three quarters of licence seats are on BaanIV or earlier. These programs are over 10years old. For the users of the process module there is no upgrade available.

As for replacing other applications with baan, why should existing baan customers have to pay for the program developments to make that possible?

Terry

Bit drastic!! Try getting a control on your user numbers and then ask for a reduced maintenance charge. As long as your licenses are perpetual you can do a temp reduction and tell em to long walk, short plank

Bit drastic!! Try getting a control on your user numbers and then ask for a reduced maintenance charge...

Good ideas Manbod

We are continuing to reduce our licence needs by moving reports to a 3rd party reporting product and we use "closeidle" to drop inactive signons throughout the day.

I just can't understand the strategy of Infor (and SSA before them). If we were as comfortable with the company as we are with the Baan application we would have purchased at least double the number licence seats by now.

I can't help but think that Infor may be trying drop Baan in our region. We are one of the largest licence counts they have down here (in top 5) and we have given-up placing support cases so we cost them almost nothing. But they do not seem interested in keeping us.

Way to go, but measuring concurrent sessions is not so easy. Look to your license does it say sessions or users, ....very different.
And watch out for source code on your system, if you dont have a current license it appears you wont get one in furture!! And... if you have dev tools it will get restricted to non baan objects!!
If you are heavily moded that could be critical to future if you lose source or tools. Have a look and start flexing muscles.
I personally would not change, better the devil I know than the one I don't. If I need more licenses then I need more of whatever I have,
One last thought, if you have more users than licenses then the key must be really blowing your operation at times, another and.... do you know if the key really is working OK, when you kill users does it really give you back users in the key. I seem to remember a while back many postings on the subject