Infor has scooped up marketing resource management vendor Orbis Global in a bid to flesh out the capabilities of its Epiphany marketing suite. Terms of the agreement, which was announced Tuesday, were not disclosed.
The Orbis deal is the latest in a long series of purchases that have built Infor into an enterprise software powerhouse with about US$3 billion in revenue.
CEO Charles Phillips, who is known for his role leading a similar run of purchases while co-president of Oracle, has also sought to modernize Infor's technology stack and approach to development since coming aboard in October 2010.
But buying Orbis, which sells SaaS (software as a service)-based products, is about "building front office capabilities, because that's where the money is," said analyst Ray Wang, CEO of Constellation Research. "One of the areas Epiphany needed was stronger marketing automation."
"Email is one thing, but today, you need to be in multiple channels as customers work in mobile, social, email, in-store, and online," Wang added.
In addition, Orbis has superior marketing analytics than those present in Epiphany, according to Wang.
At the broadest level, Infor's move speaks to the "shift from transactions to engagement [with customers] that most companies are trying to accomplish," Wang added.
Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris' email address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com