Once ‘just’ an ERP specialist, once an industry-specific ERP specialist with extended supply chain specialism – and now, all of the above plus a broader ‘industry cloud’ specialist with user experience (UX) competencies. It seems Infor isn’t too busy rebranding its company descriptor tagline to forget about winning new customers and expand its existing customer remits.
Galvanising a positive charge and powering up a new surge with current-fuelled sparks at the coalface (Ed: enough already, it’s an energy client, right?), Infor has announced that UK-based battery cell technologies company Britishvolt has selected Infor CloudSuite Automotive to manage business operations at its £3.8bn, 38GWh gigaplant in Cambois, Northumberland, UK.
Phase one, power-on
A new customer to the Infor platform, Britishvolt will use 2022 to progress phase one of the software rollout, comprising finance, procurement and HR.
The current plan will charge engineers to progress phase two to complete in 2023 and encompass production, planning, inventory and warehousing, with 300 core enterprise resource planning (ERP) users supporting 3,000 employees.
Britishvolt recently announced backing for its gigaplant from the UK government’s Automotive Transformation Fund, as well as an agreement with strategic partner Glencore to build a battery recycling ecosystem in the UK.
“Our key drivers are sustainability and innovation, which also apply to our business management systems,” said Britishvolt CIO, David Threlfall. “Our decision to invest in Infor CloudSuite Automotive matches our overarching ethos of employing systems and platforms capable of dynamic evolution, using proven modern technologies that deliver competitive advantage, sustainability and reliability.”
Out-of-the-box industry-specific
Britishvolt says it chose Infor CloudSuite Automotive for its out-of-the-box industry-specific capabilities, including the software platform’s automotive and supplier exchange functionality.
This is a function designed to streamline collaboration with all types of automotive customers and suppliers.
Threlfall talks of using Infor to facilitate what will be a ‘seamless digital interaction conduit’ with customers and suppliers throughout the supply chain. Perhaps drawing upon old school 1980s business-strategy terms, Threlfall is on the record saying that Infor’s out-of-the-box industry-specific capabilities will enable his team to ‘hit the ground running’ no less.
The Britishvolt team has high hopes and suggests that with their new IT stack in place, they will create a data-rich environment to enable full traceability from raw material to end user.
This, they say, is a core component of the company’s mission to create a genuinely circular economy.
“Infor CloudSuite Automotive is proving itself to be the go-to solution for businesses operating across the automotive industry,” comments Anwen Robinson, Infor GM and SVP for UK & Ireland.
Britishvolt itself works on battery cell technologies with a significant research and development arm. The organisation is working to develop the future of electrified transportation and sustainable energy storage, producing low-carbon, sustainable and responsibly manufactured lithium-ion battery technologies.
Energy software-specifics
So Infor didn’t disappoint after all ie there was plenty of mention of industry-specific out-of-the-box best-in-breed goodness to draw upon here.
But perhaps what really matters is how Infor works to provide software specifics to an organisation in the power sector. Firms in this space will want scalability when they need to be able to ramp up the power (figuratively, literally and electronically), but they will need – in this modern age of climate change and so much more – to be able to evidence sustainable scalability and eco-awareness throughout.
That thread seems to be evident here ie Britishvolt has marked out Infor for its crystallised capabilities aligned to serving the needs or enterprises in the energy space. What all that means is, when we’re at home about to slam a packet of sweet potato fries (other baked and fried snacks are also available) into the oven, you know that the UK power backbone is working as effectively as possible.
