Ron
As a current customer of INFOR and a former affiliate of INFOR, the previous
MAPICS, Inc. and their predecessor MARCAM, Inc. I can assure you that such
an agreement between your company and INFOR would be illegal unless there is
no longer an affiliate assigned to your territory.
The agreement's with the affiliates are structure such that INFOR cannot
legally offer the product direct at a lower cost than the affiliate can
offer it for. In fact, they are legally required to pay full sales
commissions to the affiliate of record EVEN IF they sell direct.
In addition, it has not, in the past, been legal for INFOR to sell directly
without written notice and consent between them and the affiliate of record.
As for services anyone is legally allowed to provide anyone else with
professional services (consulting). This includes INFOR Professional
Services, the affiliate services and any 3rd party not related to the sale
of the software.
INFOR has been very systematic in removing affiliates that are not able to
service their customers. They carefully monitor the customer satisfaction
of the customers assigned to the affiliate. I know from firsthand knowledge
that they are extremely conscientious and thorough in the gathering of
information and their review of the information with the affiliate. This is
formally done on a quarterly basis and is one of the metrics for permitting
the affiliate to continue to serve as an affiliate. Informally, it has been
my experience that the regional affiliate manager begins or ends almost
every call or meeting with a quick fact check on the latest reports.
One of the metrics that is used is the number of incidences created on
INFOR365. If a customer is constantly creating incidences that reveal that
they have not been properly trained or have been provided incorrect
information, the affiliate is immediately contacted for a review.
If a customer wants to deal direct, they need to show evidence that the
affiliate is incapable of supporting them or has consistently provided false
information. If there is no such evidence, generally they will not permit a
direct relationship. As INFOR still is required to pay the affiliate full
(not discounted) sales commissions, this is general extremely difficult to
do. Usually, they reserve the direct relationship to those companies that
have on site support issues in multiple territories where it is more
difficult (though most affiliates have not issues) to support concurrent
multi-site operations.
In these cases, and as a general rule, the affiliate consultants are
contracted by INFOR Professional Services in each of the areas. This
permits INFOR to provide the maximum service with consistent quality of
services.
I'd like to know a little more about your situation.
Does the territory where you operate currently have an assigned affiliate?
What products? (XA, LN, etc.) What releases? What applications
Thanks
Kevin Fox
kdfox@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----Original Message-----
From: mapics-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mapics-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Ronald Kral
Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 3:12 PM
To: mapics-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [MAPICS-L] Direct vs affailiate customer.
Infor direct customers get advantage from lower prices and better
support. We were switched over to direct 3 years ago and could not be
happier. Our software price negotiations are a thing from the past.
Any commissions that the affiliate normally received is lopped right
off the price from the start now. We have access to all Infor managers
any time we have a problem. Our salesperson keeps us informed all of
the time. Infor always take care of us right away now. When we were
with affiliates we were outside looking in and could never get a
strait story on what we were really buying.
Good luck to your efforts
R.K
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I am wondering if anyone has moved over from being an affiliate
customer to being a direct Infor customer? What was the process and
what are the advantages and disadvantages?
Thanks,
Saffy
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