As a Lawson customer once told me “Their pace suits us – we are into kayaking not jet skiing”. I have called them the “quiet” software company. Every couple of years they would do something exciting like when CEO Harry Debes pronounced SaaS would be dead in 2 years. Come to think of it he said that 2.5 years ago!
So will the Infor/Golden Gate acquisition change much? I doubt it. Infor can make all kinds of exciting promises, but the reality in enterprise software as shown by Oracle, Microsoft and Infor itself over last decade is “fusing” acquired technology and coming up with next-gen products takes way too much effort and time. Besides as Charles Phillips of Infor said in the press release they are buying Lawson to “extend our existing portfolio, particularly in areas such as healthcare, public sector, manufacturing and human capital management”
The other learning from the last decade is acquirers want to keep the maintenance stream going as long as possible with promising words such as “unlimited”. So, don’t rock the boat is a “best practice”
In this case, don’t rock the kayak.
