Infor acquires Predictx for retail-focused machine-learning-in-the-cloud

Retail to become increasingly focused on machine learning and analytics to set prices and target customers

Business applications specialist Infor is to acquire Predictix, the cloud-based machine-learning services provider targeted at retailers. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Predictix uses big data analytics to help retailers analyse some of the most complex challenges they face, and the company will be absorbed into Infor's CloudSuite Retail, a new suite of enterprise applications delivered in the cloud and targeted at the retail market.

The acquisition comes six months after Infor announced an investment in Predictix.

The company, based in Atlanta, Georgia, claims a 40 per cent growth in software-as-a-service subscriptions in 2015, and Infor claims that the company is now growing even faster - at around 60 per cent in 2016, following Infor's investment.

Predictix manages more than $60bn in weekly forecasts, with customers including The Home Depot and Whole Foods Market as well as five of the top 15 global retailers. LogicBlox, the company's technology platform underlying all Predictix applications, revolutionises the development of next-generation predictive and prescriptive applications, and has attracted funding from DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

"The past six months of collaboration between Infor and Predictix has delivered innovation at a pace never seen before in retail software," claimed Predictx CEO Molham Aref. "Becoming part of Infor will further accelerate our retail revolution by providing scale, and integrating two teams that sit at the intersection of cloud, analytics, machine learning, and self-service."

Indeed, Infor CEO Charles Phillips highlighted the "synergies" that already exist between the two companies.

"The ‘synergies' between Infor and Predictix were greater than we could have hoped, and we've come to appreciate a great cultural alignment where both teams have passionate people who work hard and want to make a difference in retail and beyond," said Infor CEO Charles Phillips.

He added: "Buying out the other Predictix investors makes sense to bring the teams together and provide the scale and resources needed to accelerate the retail revolution."

Greg Girard, programme director of omni-channel retail analytics at IDC Retail Insights, suggested that machine learning and big data analytics will be the way forward for retailers, who need to both price more keenly and target customers more acutely.

"Long-in-the-tooth time-series approaches to forecasting and analytics that inform pricing, assortment, promotion, and other demand shaping tactics have run their course. They fall far short of what's needed today," said Girard.

He added: "They were designed and tuned for a different era - before elastic, scalable, subscription cloud environments, operationalised machine learning, inexpensive data storage, and the complexities, scale, and speed of omni-channel retail. Going forward, leading retailers will take advantage of these advances for financial benefits, operational efficiencies, and customer loyalty."