Infor Performance Management helps manufacturers navigate globalisation and increase profitability

Infor has highlighted the benefits of Infor PM for manufacturers, who seek to optimise performance amidst the mounting challenges and opportunities of globalisation.

Infor PM 10, a suite of integrated business performance management applications and analytics, provides specific functionality to help manufacturers gain insight into performance at the plant and corporate levels, more accurately forecast future performance and decrease the time it takes to consolidate financials from disparate global business units.

Infor is conducting a webinar on May 22, 2008 to highlight the benefits of PM. Registration is available at http://www.infor.com/company/events/pmfeiwebcast0508.

        Manufacturers face global competition and downward pricing pressure as well as other challenges such as rising commodity and energy costs, compliance and regulatory mandates, and demands from customers for rapid turnaround of products. While most mid- to large-sized manufacturers have focused on improving their core technology systems to address operational areas, many still struggle with outdated, spreadsheet-based approaches to reporting and analysing operational and financial data, which is fundamental to measuring and improving their overall performance. Additionally, the off-shore manufacturing trend means that many manufacturers must align financial processes across multiple countries, and often across different ERP systems due to mergers and acquisitions. 

        Too many manufacturers are dealing with spreadsheet chaos, which gives the finance organisation headaches waiting for updated financial data and leaves management without the real-time information they need to make sound business decisions, said Christina McKeon, director, Product Marketing, Infor Performance Management solutions. Infor PM 10 provides them with the functionality they need to improve visibility into operational and financial performance, allowing them to align the business with strategic goals, faster and with greater ease. Infor PM also has other bottom-line benefits, such as the ability to identify overlooked costs that are squeezing profitability. 

Infor PM 10 provides manufacturers with an integrated suite of business process applications for planning and budgeting, financial consolidation, forecasting, and strategic management. With Infor PM Planning and Budgeting, manufacturers can create a sales budget, which flows into an inventory budget and finally into an operations budget based on a single version of the truth that accounts for each plant or facility. Infor PM Planning and Budgeting can track from beginning to end what the company will manufacture and sell, what impact that will have on inventory levels, and how it affects warehouses. Using Infor PM Forecasting, manufacturers can integrate the actual, budget and forecast data in a single application, and then perform side-by-side comparisons of data from multiple plants around the world. Users can adjust the forecast mid-cycle, which is critical for providing better guidance to investors based on changes in the business environment.

Infor PM Financial Consolidation provides manufacturers with more visibility into and more control over their financial consolidation process across multiple entities, such as headquarters and manufacturing sites around the world. VF Corporation, a manufacturer and marketer of some of the worlds best known apparel brands including Lee and The North Face, uses Infor PM Financial Consolidation to seamlessly interface with multiple systems and general ledgers, including its SAP ERP system. The secure database that underpins the Infor PM 10 suite helped the company reduce its number of databases from 37 to just one. Infor PM Financial Consolidation enables VF Corporation to consolidate hundreds of reporting units from around the world, adhering to local and global accounting standards and reporting requirements.

We used to spend hours just receiving and loading data at the headquarters each month using our old system, but that is now available for access on demand with Infor PM Financial Consolidation, said Renee Martin, manager, Corporate Accounting, VF Corporation. With the single database, we can maintain central administrative duties and strengthen our internal controls. The software automates so many of our monthly reporting processes that it gives us more time to spend on analysis as well as the ability to quickly respond to management inquires.      

About Infor

Infor delivers business-specific software to enterprising organisations. With experience built in, Infors solutions enable businesses of all sizes to be more enterprising and adapt to the rapid changes of a global marketplace. With more than 70,000 customers, Infor is changing what businesses expect from an enterprise software provider.