NEW YORK - Jul 11, 2017
Infor, a leading provider of beautiful business applications specialized by industry and built for the cloud, today announced Coleman™, an enterprise-grade, industry-specific AI platform for Infor CloudSuite™ applications.
A pervasive platform that operates below an application's surface, Coleman mines data and uses powerful machine learning to improve processes such as inventory management, transportation routing, and predictive maintenance; Coleman also provides AI-driven recommendations and advice to enable users to make smarter business decisions more quickly.
In addition, Coleman acts as a smart AI partner, augmenting the user's work. Coleman uses natural language processing and image recognition to chat, hear, talk, and recognize images to help people use technology more efficiently.
Coleman develops a conversational relationship with the user which can be rendered in Infor Ming.le™, a social collaboration platform, or a synthetic conversational user interface. User efficiency is increased as studies show humans are able to speak and hear 3-4 times as many words per minute as they can type. Processing the vast data in Infor CloudSuite, Coleman automates search and gather functions, which can take up 20 percent of a user's work week, significantly increasing productivity.
"Infor spent many years automating processes that followed clear rules, such as accounting and manufacturing processes. We are now leveraging machine learning and our access to large amounts of data to assist users with less structured processes such as complex decisions, conversations, and predictions," said Charles Phillips, CEO of Infor.
Coleman helps optimize human work potential in four ways:
- It's conversational?interactions are more efficient and natural, and offer a better user experience
- Augmentation?serves as a partner to amplify one's work
- Automation?manages low value tasks like repetitive tasks to enable the user to focus on more valuable work
- Advise?provides intelligent insights to help the user make decisions
"Coleman is so powerful because it takes the mission-critical business data from Infor CloudSuite, coupled with the supplier, logistics, and finance data from the GT Nexus Commerce Network, and analyzes it with the computing power of a hyper scale public cloud," said Duncan Angove, President of Infor.
Some examples of what a user could ask Coleman:
- "Coleman, what is the accounts receivable balance for ACME Corp?"
- "Coleman, what's the next best offer for this customer?"
- "Coleman, who is the sales rep on the ABC Labs account?"
- "Coleman, what price should I charge for a hotel room?"
- "Coleman, what are sales by month for the NW region this year?"
- "Coleman, how much PTO do I have left?"
- "Coleman, create a requisition for item 4321"
- "Coleman, approve the promotion for Nurse Jones"
Elements of Coleman are available today, such as predictive inventory management for healthcare, price optimization management for hospitality, and forecasting, assortment planning, and promotion management for retail. Over the next year Infor is expected to introduce Coleman to Infor CloudSuite industry suites.
"Coleman" honors STEM pioneerThe name "Coleman" was chosen to honor Katherine Coleman Johnson, a physicist and mathematician whose critical calculations helped man reach the moon. Mrs. Johnson excelled at math and science from a young age, overcoming the obstacles of segregation to become an essential figure in the United States Space Program. Mrs. Johnson, whose story was depicted in the 2016 film Hidden Figures, is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She has a passion for STEM (science, technology, engineering, math), and is an inspiration for generations of engineers and scientists.
In a statement, the family of Katherine Johnson said, "We are excited and honored that Infor would choose our Matriarch to help them represent innovation, analytical might, and a continued push for excellence. She symbolizes for many a beacon of resilience, a source of courage, and a promise of what's possible. For Katherine Coleman Johnson, the value is in knowledge shared, not in what is known."
Watch Infor's video tribute to Katherine Coleman Johnson.
About Infor
Infor builds business software for specific industries in the cloud. With 16,000 employees and over 90,000 customers in more than 170 countries, Infor software is designed for progress. To learn more about Infor, please visit www.infor.com.
This announcement reflects the direction Infor may take with regard to the specific product(s) described herein, all of which is subject to change by Infor in its sole discretion, with or without notice to you. This announcement is not a commitment to you in any way and you should not rely on this document or any of its content in making any decision. Infor is not committing to develop or deliver any specified enhancement, upgrade, product or functionality, even if such is described in this announcement and even if such description is accompanied by words such as "anticipate," "believe," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should," "will," and/or similar expressions. Many factors can affect Infor's product development plans and the nature, content and timing of future product releases, all of which remain in the sole discretion of Infor. This announcement, in whole or in part, may not be incorporated into any contractual agreement with Infor or its subsidiaries or affiliates. Infor expressly disclaims any liability with respect to this announcement.
Company: Infor
Company URL: https://www.infor.com
