The channel program has been substantially reshaped since Abbott started his job in December 2008 and the most changes have taken place since the installation of new management at Infor 18 months ago. Abbott said he has “escorted more than 200 partners out of the program” while building the total. A single partner agreement has replaced 12 separate ones and channel management has been retooled. Infor is also considering establishing a Master Partner program with Affiliates that sounds much like Microsoft’s Master VAR program that is designed to give keep smaller VARs that might be driven out by increasing requirements in the channel. It was clear at this week’s Infor Partner Summit that the company is playing catch up in many areas and that is has a good number of VARs that have become comfortable serving their installed base and are not new-sales oriented. By comparison, the handful of Sage resellers that have picked up Infor’s SyteLine sound much trimmer and more aggressive. Infor is also beating the vertical drum in much the same way Microsoft has for years. However, its VARs are probably more focused already and Infor is emphasizing development of microverticals - which I would call true verticals, such as serving only liquor stores - and getting resellers to develop their own applications. It’s clear that is requiring many to considering a significant change in how they operate. Among the most popular changes is Infor's work to produce faster turnaround on contracts, which are currently manually prepared. Infor wants to reduce that from seven to 10 days to 24 hours.