NEW YORK, N.Y. — Infor announced the expansion of its retail business unit into Europe and the acquisition of Predictix, a provider of cloud-native, predictive, and machine-learning solutions for retailers.
Since the announcement of Infor CloudSuite Retail in late 2015, the company has seen strong momentum in the retail industry, and has more than 1500 retail and fashion customers in Europe including Christian Louboutin, Carrefour and Schiesser. To further support Infor’s commitment to the industry and bring together an expert team to help customers improve operations, drive growth, and quickly adapt to changes in business demand, the company has hired Jason Berry as Vice President of Infor Retail in EMEA, reporting to Corey Tollefson, SVP and general manager of Infor Retail.
“Infor continues to make investments that offer an alternative to the status quo of supporting the retail industry; not only through organic and acquisitive R&D, but, by providing a bright beacon for attracting the best talent in the industry. By expanding our retail team to Europe, a critical hub for fast fashion, we’re better aligned to drive transformative and digital disruption to the retail market,” said Corey Tollefson, senior vice president and general manager, Infor Retail. “Jason Berry continues to expand the ‘retail dream team,’ bringing an authentic, trusted perspective to our customers, and will be instrumental in helping drive next-generation retail experiences across Europe.”
A veteran of the enterprise software industry, Berry brings more than 15 years of management, sales and consulting experience to Infor, and in this new role will provide leadership and guidance to help leading retailers identify, quantify, and realize tangible business benefits throughout Europe. Prior to joining Infor, he was responsible for business development and account management within Oracle’s Retail Global Business Unit and was a consultant in the retail space at CACI Ltd.
“The momentum Infor is experiencing within the retail industry is electric, and the combination of such a smart team, coupled with some of the industry’s most modern technology, has me chomping at the bit to show Europe’s leading retailers how technology can transform their business,” said Jason Berry, vice president, Infor Retail, EMEA. “It’s no surprise that the retail industry needs a makeover in order to keep pace with change, and Infor is the company to deliver the know-how and the tools to bring these organizations to the next-level of success.”
Infor also announced that it has completed the acquisition of Predictix, a provider of cloud-native, predictive, and machine-learning solutions for retailers. Predictix uses next-generation data science and big data analytics to help solve some of the most complex and challenging problems faced by retailers today. Predictix will become part of Infor CloudSuite Retail, a new modern suite of enterprise applications delivered in the cloud and designed for today’s retailing landscape. The acquisition comes six months after Infor announced an investment in Predictix.
“The synergies between Infor and Predictix were greater than we could have hoped, and we’ve come to appreciate a great cultural alignment where both teams have passionate people who work hard and want to make a difference in retail and beyond,” said Charles Phillips, CEO of Infor. “Buying out the other Predictix investors makes sense to bring the teams together and provide the scale and resources needed to accelerate the retail revolution.”
Atlanta-based Predictix experienced more than 40 percent growth in SaaS subscriptions in 2015, and is growing at 60 percent in 2016 following the investment by Infor. Predictix manages more than $60bn in weekly forecasts, with customers including The Home Depot and Whole Foods Market as well as 5 of the top 15 global retailers. LogicBlox, the company’s technology platform underlying all Predictix applications, revolutionizes the development of next-generation predictive and prescriptive applications, and has attracted funding from DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
“The past six months of collaboration between Infor and Predictix has delivered innovation at a pace never seen before in retail software, which is crucial as the industry battles disruption,” said Molham Aref, CEO of Predictix. “Becoming part of Infor will further accelerate our retail revolution by providing scale and integrating two teams that sit at the intersection of cloud, analytics, machine learning, and self-service.”
“From my point of view,” said Greg Girard, program director of omni-channel retail analytics at IDC Retail Insights, “long in the tooth time-series approaches to forecasting and analytics that inform pricing, assortment, promotion, and other demand shaping tactics have run their course. They fall far short of what’s needed today. They were designed and tuned for a different era-before elastic, scalable, subscription cloud environments, operationalized machine learning, inexpensive data storage, and the complexities, scale, and speed of omni-channel retail. Going forward leading retailers will take advantage of these advances for financial benefits, operational efficiencies, and customer loyalty.”
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