Infor Announces Plans to Use Microsoft Azure Cloud Platform

Application developer Infor and Microsoft (News - Alert) strengthened their partnership on Monday, reportedly announcing plans develop applications running on Microsoft's Azure cloud platform.

The move "adds momentum to the industry's shift away from on-premises ERP (enterprise resource planning) software," IDG News Service's Chris Kanaracus observes.

Armed with Azure, Infor will help develop next-gen apps for expense management and other processes in 2011. Azure applications will also employ Infor's recently announced ION framework for data sharing between applications and BPM (business process management), allowing them to work in concert with on-premises software, IDG News Service noted.

Additionally, Infor is using Microsoft's SharePoint and Silverlight technologies to build out a new user interface called CompanyOn, which will give its many application lines a common look and feel.

CompanyOn will be a central home for business intelligence reports and dashboards, and provide ties into third-party sources such as LinkedIn.

Monday's announcement "comes a few weeks after Infor said it would essentially standardize product development on the Microsoft stack," Kanaracus noted.