Graveyard > Magic Quadrant

Frank Scavo, over at The Enterprise System Spectator, reports that Gartner Group has decided that there aren't enough midmarket ERPs left to bother doing one of their famous Magic Quadrant analyses.

Wow.

Will the last one left turn out the lights?

SAP acquires Factory Edge

When your blog is called the ERP Graveyard, with images of tombstones and the stench of death everywhere, there's a tendency, perhaps, to accentuate the negative. Today's news brings a nice example of what appears to be more of a positive, strategic acquisition by SAP: the Lean specialist Factory Edge, which after all got seed funding from SAP's own venture fund.

Managing Automation has the details. Give SAP's Sudipta Bhattacharya credit for telling the story well: "We started out two years ago and said shop floor to top floor is key. Phase one involved support for the ISA-95 standard. Next, we needed Lighthammer to get visibility capabilities and analytics. Now, with Factory Logic, we will give people on the plant floor the ability to have a schedule."

Now, if SAP turns around and buys Infor, as Jim Shepherd at AMR has suggested, I reserve the right to take these nice comments back.

Clock ticking on Infor loyalty oath

Computer Reseller News has this amusing piece noting that Infor partners have been given until December 1 to clear their shelves of competing products. Write your own joke about intra-Infor product competition.

Lots of delicious quotes and anecdotes in this story, but here's my favorite:

Another partner who has received the letter said he and others are trying to get a look at the vendor's new reseller contract to better evaluate the situation.

So we want you to promise total exclusivity and loyal devotion to us, and in return, we'll get you a copy of your contract real soon now!

Very good analysis of PEG-funded graveyard activity

The redoubtable Jim Shepherd and his team at AMR Research have published a research note that lays out a nice overview of the motivations and activity of private equity groups like Golden Gate Capital in the ERP Graveyard market. It appears to be available to the general public here - highly recommended.

He concludes that the most logical exit for Golden Gate investors, for example, might well be a sale to SAP. But I'd prefer their Redwood Shores competitor - because of course, you could then call the company Inforacle. Take a look at their logo - they've already got the big red O.

Infor: No time to diet

As the powerful digestive juices of Golden Gate Capital complete their work on erstwhile competitor SSA Global, the ever-expanding Infor let slip that it also found time to acquire Extensity and Systems Union Group - adding more financial and reporting applications to the stew.

But the real headline seems to be that Infor now has combined revenues of $2.1 billion, which as the press release helpfully notes, is "more than Infor's two largest competitors combined in its target markets." Someone in the Microsoft legal department might want to alert Neelie Kroes (heir to the Brussels throne vacated by Mario Monti), if only to throw her off their scent for a while.

One other fun note on the Infor press release - the largest paragraph by far is devoted to a description of the various credit facilities used in the deals, and the smorgasbord of bankers and lawyers who continue to feed at the Infor trough.