Infor today announced Infor Flex, a groundbreaking program that gives customers on maintenance a clear, fast and cost effective path to adopt Infor’s latest product innovations. Through a package of software, services and financing, Infor Flex gives customers compelling, low-risk options to upgrade to the latest version of their existing Infor products or exchange to another Infor product, on a like-for-like basis. The decision to upgrade or exchange is completely in the hands of customers based on the needs of their business.

Infor Flex minimizes license and/or transaction fees and offers significant benefits, such as a fast, reduced-fee implementation methodology and incentive pricing on additional users, modules or complementary solutions. Infor Flex is available to qualifying customers with active maintenance agreements.

According to two June 2009, reports titled “The State Of Enterprise Software: 2009” and “The State Of SMB Software: 2009” from Forrester Research, updating key legacy applications was cited as the most important enterprise software initiative for both enterprises (64 percent) and SMBs (55 percent).

Infor Flex makes it easier for customers to take advantage of Infor’s innovative service-oriented architecture (SOA) capabilities through the Infor Open SOA framework, such as Infor MyDay and new component applications to be released throughout 2009 and beyond. In many cases, customers are entitled to these capabilities at no additional charge as part of their maintenance agreements.

Infor Flex provides a rapid, low-cost way for customers to take advantage of these product innovations by making it easier for them to adopt SOA-enabled product releases. By combining reduced fees and rapid implementation services, Infor Flex enables customers to leapfrog to new levels of business agility and functionality at a lower cost and less risk than the rip-and-replace approaches of competing vendors.

“Infor Flex is about delivering value together with innovation, rewarding customers for their loyalty, and giving them ultimate choice and control over the future of their software,” said Jim Schaper, Chairman & CEO, Infor. “Infor is setting the new standard in the vendor-customer relationship, allowing customers to flexibly advance their software capabilities without disrupting their business or abandoning existing investments. Our goal is to be their vendor of choice for a lifetime.”

At a time when many IT budgets are flat or decreasing, Infor Flex provides Infor customers with strong incentives to upgrade their software, which positions them for future business agility through Infor Open SOA when the economy rebounds.

“Our business has been running on the Infor ERP BPCS solution for over 20 years, and we recently renewed our maintenance contract with Infor after being inactive for several years," said Wayne Gale, CEO, Stokes Seeds. “With this program, as well as the long-term product strategy, Infor has shown us that they are committed to their customers and helping us move forward, on our terms and on our timetable."

Amidst the backdrop of a global recession and widespread discontent over the inflexible, high-cost maintenance policies of many other major enterprise software vendors, Infor Flex differentiates Infor as the leader in delivering value for maintenance to its customers. Last week, Infor also announced Infor Financing, which, for a limited time, offers qualifying customers a zero percent financing option so they can immediately improve their competitiveness through software that’s available at flexible and favorable payment terms. Infor Financing is also available as part of the Infor Flex program for qualifying customers.