The convergence of digital technologies like cloud computing, analytics, networked supply chains, and artificial intelligence was on full display at Inforum 2018, where the theme of human potential explored the impact of these technologies on people and productivity.

Attendees at Infor’s flagship customer event Sept 23-27 in Washington, DC, learned how Infor CloudSuite, which integrates Human Capital Management and mission-critical ERP by industry, is uniquely able to help customers empower and engage employees to work smarter, easier, to be their best, most-productive selves. Infor also showcased a strong line of new products and demonstrated how Coleman AI and its robotic process automation can optimize and predict business outcomes.

Infor announced the general availability of the Infor Coleman Digital Assistant, bringing artificial intelligence to the workplace, and a conversational user experience to Infor OS and the Infor CloudSuite product line. The Coleman Digital Assistant, which automates many mundane tasks, such as data collection, embodies the Inforum theme by enabling users to focus on more valuable work – using artificial intelligence to help maximize human work potential.

The company is innovating on top of the Infor GT Nexus commerce network, unveiling the Infor Control Center, a next-generation supply chain visibility and intelligence solution that enables supply chains to be data-driven, self-learning, and consistently reliable. Control Center combines the data from the Commerce Network with Coleman AI capabilities to empower supply chain leaders to predict future supply chain issues and react earlier and faster.

Infor will be delivering new capabilities for IoT, drawing from Birst and Infor EAM, to enable companies to use their Internet-connected devices and sensors to improve the management of their assets, with wide-reaching consequences for reduced energy consumption and increased performance reliability. This Infor IoT solution was on display in the Hub, with real-time sensors on buses in DC feeding condition monitoring data to Infor EAM, such as tracking of GPS location with altitude, acceleration, illumination level, ambient temperature, and more.

As more work is done outside the office, Infor will be introducing new products to improve productivity for a mobile workforce. The first is Infor Go, a one-stop mobile application with single sign-on for all Infor applications. Infor Go will help users orchestrate their work with ease while on the move, with a common in-basket for tasks, alerts, and notifications. The company also announced Infor Expense, a new native mobile solution to optimize expense tracking and reporting for today’s business traveler. As a mobile companion to Infor XM, Infor Expense will serve users by making business expense tracking and reporting easier, more intuitive, and travel-friendlier.

Also announced: delivery of Infor TrueCost, an application Infor announced in January to help healthcare companies better understand the cost of patient care; the expansion of Infor’s partnership with ADP to help provide access to payroll products and services to Infor’s global HCM customers; and Infor Fashion PLM Cloud, a new cloud native multi-tenant solution to support the rapid roll-out needed by today’s fashion companies as they grow and evolve.

Government Forum was part of the event, and Infor announced a new product for the US federal government, Infor CloudSuite Federal Financials & Supply Chain Management, developed with defined legislative and statutory federal requirements to modernize and improve budget management and financial performance while remaining compliant.

The annual Infor Partner Summit preceded Inforum on Sunday and Monday, where Infor announced its 2018 partner award winners.

Infor’s efforts to expand human potential manifest in more ways than simply through its products at customer sites. The company announced an exciting new project in partnership with CNN host and commentator Van Jones and his #YesWeCode team. This new initiative is called GenOne, and it seeks to inspire and educate underrepresented minorities, so that everyone can realize their future in technology. The GenOne initiative, which is managed by the Infor Education Alliance team, begins this fall with a pilot group of students in the New York City area, enabling hands-on experience that will help prepare them for careers at companies like Infor. The long-term goal for the GenOne initiative is to expand the program nationwide and impact more than 100,000 students over time. Infor has benefitted greatly by its employees’ diverse backgrounds and ideas, and helping ensure the next generation of talent is even more diverse will help the company continue to deliver innovation that drives progress for humanity.