Infor has announced the launch of Infor Loyalty. Unusually for Infor this is a rebadged solution using technology provided by CrowdTwist rather than something it has either developed of acquired itself. Infor Loyalty will become part of the Infor Retail Converged Commerce suite of solutions.
Crowdtwist provides a loyalty and engagement solution that helps drive incremental spend across multiple channels. It is already used by companies including Pepsi, 24 Hour Fitness, and Marvel. It adds Infor to a list of key technology partnerships that already lists Salesforce and Oracle. Its solution tracks and rewards behaviour across more than 100 different types of customer behaviour.
Corey Tollefson, senior vice president and general manager, Infor Retail commented: “Infor has heavily invested in retail technology and converged commerce over the past 24 months, partnering with best-in-class retailers and solution providers, and accelerating R&D, because we believe that converged commerce is at the center of a retailer’s business.
“Through CrowdTwist’s unique capabilities, retailers have more access to the new generation of shoppers. By adding this loyalty and engagement solution to Infor’s Converged Commerce suite of products, Infor strengthens its standing within the market. Together, Infor and CrowdTwist are revolutionizing retail technology.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean?
This a move that extends the Infor retail platform with a leading loyalty solution. Forrester placed CrowdTwist as a strong performer in its Q3 2017 Customer Loyalty solutions Wave report. Based in New York Crowdtwist has raised at least $16 million, not including a 2016 Series B funding round led by BDMI (Source Crunchbase). Will Infor look to buy the company? Possibly, Infor has a larger war chest after Koch re-invested into the company.
However, a partnership may signal a shift for Infor dollars away from retail where it has historically invested in Starmount and Predictix. Recent investments have been focused on the hospitality market or the larger more strategic Birst acquisition. With Charles Phillips CEO signalling his intention to move towards an IPO, a major acquisition is now unlikely in the short term as he looks to stabilise the organisation and prepare it for that event. More partnerships are likely to follow in ETs opinion.
