It has been a quiet time on the acquisition front for buy and build business application provider Infor but it is getting back on board with the acquisition of Orbis Global. Financial details were not disclosed (both companies are privately held) but as the Orbis Global software will be incorporated into the Infor Epiphany CRM Suite, it has the hallmarks of a small, tuck-in acquisition.
Orbis Global is a SaaS provider so it will add to Infor’s burgeoning SaaS offerings which is positive. But Orbis’s marketing resource management (MRM) focus is equally notable because it will make Infor’s CRM offerings more competitive with vendors such as IBM and SAS. Infor does have jointly developed SaaS marketing applications with Salesforce.com however (see here), so there could be some jockeying here. MRM is one of those areas that has never taken off but has seen some stirrings of interest over the last year. It will not make a huge difference to Infor revenue’s but every new stream helps for this global company that hovers just outside the TechMarketView Top 20 UK software providers.