Infor licensing is the set of contracts, policies and technical controls under which Infor supplies its industry-specific business software. Infor’s current offer is built around Infor CloudSuites: suites of cloud applications for particular industries, with an ERP at the core and products such as product lifecycle management, supply chain management and warehouse management around it.[13] The ERPs at the centre of these suites include Infor LN, Infor M3 and Infor SyteLine. M3, for example, began as Movex at Intentia, was renamed Lawson M3, and came to Infor with its 2011 acquisition of Lawson.[14] Many customers still run these products on premises under older perpetual licences, so a licence manager usually deals with two regimes at once.
The first regime is the multi-tenant cloud subscription. Infor hosts the software, and the customer contracts under an Order Form and the Agreement that governs it.[5] The second is the perpetual on-premises licence. It is governed by regional On-Premises Software Terms and Conditions, published for North America, Asia Pacific Japan, EMEA countries and Latin America in several languages.[2] Both regimes count users. The on-premises side also has its own licence managers and audit process.
Editions
Infor does not sell editions in the sense of good, better and best tiers of one product. It sells industry suites, individual applications and platform tiers. The commercial units that the public documents describe are these:
| Offering | How it is licensed | Deeper article |
|---|---|---|
| Infor CloudSuite (multi-tenant) | Annual subscription under an Order Form; user subscriptions plus usage-based rights for storage, non-production environments and programmatic access[5] | CloudSuite and Infor OS subscriptions |
| Infor OS | Tiers (Foundation, Essentials, Professional, Enterprise) with licensed quantities per service; Essentials is included with most multi-tenant CloudSuites[7] | same |
| Infor Velocity Suite | Flat-fee AI package that pairs with any CloudSuite[15] | same |
| On-premises LN, M3, SyteLine and others | Perpetual licence for internal operations, subject to user restrictions in the Order Form, plus annual Support[3] | On-premises terms and licence audits |
| User licences inside the products | Named, concurrent, server, instance and desktop licences in Solution License Manager; tokens in SyteLine; limited users in M3[10] | LN, M3 and SyteLine user licensing |
Metrics
Infor’s audit FAQ sums up the basic on-premises metric family. From the data it collects, Infor will “produce counts of named or concurrent users”.[1] The product documentation names the units in more detail. For LN and other products licensed through Infor Solution License Manager (SLM), the licence types are Concurrent User License, Named User License, Server License, Instance License and Desktop License.[10] The same documentation says that “Depending on the Infor pricing strategy, a restricted set of license types can be assigned to a specific application”, and that the licence type for each application is stated in the Software License and Support Agreement.[10]
Other product lines have their own units:
| Product line | Units | Catalog rows |
|---|---|---|
| Infor SyteLine (cloud) | Licensed modules for a number of users per site, enforced by snapshot audit, not by the software[11] | SyteLine usage-tracking license |
| Infor SyteLine (on premises) | Named user licences or concurrent logins per license module | SyteLine named user license, SyteLine concurrent login license |
| Infor M3 | Users, with a limited license user type restricted to a set number of programs[12] | M3 limited license user |
| Infor Public Sector | Named user or concurrent user per module, plus server licences[16] | Named, concurrent |
| Infor OS | Logins, API executions, integration megabytes and documents per day; storage per contract; concurrent runtime users[7] | API executions, SSO logins, non-database storage |
The scope note for this wiki assumed that Infor uses enterprise metrics such as revenue or employee counts for some cloud subscriptions. None of the public Infor documents retrieved for this article states such a metric, so the catalog does not record one.
Counting / floors
On premises (November 2023 terms). Infor grants a perpetual licence for the internal operations of the customer and its Affiliates, “subject to applicable user restrictions stated in the Order Form”.[3] A security program or code “may prevent the On Premises Software from operating … for more than the maximum number of users specified in an Order Form”.[3] Infor nevertheless warns that “You cannot rely solely on the security key to ensure compliance with your license agreement”.[1] Catalog proof: Security code may enforce the Equipment and user maximum; Licence keys are not adequate assurance of compliance.
Named users in SLM. SLM checks a named user together with the desktop the user runs on. A user may be allowed several desktops, but “Each desktop on which this user runs the application decreases the number of licenses by one”.[10] Catalog proof: Each extra desktop of a named user consumes a licence.
Concurrent counting per module. In Infor Public Sector, a user who logs in adds one to the concurrent count of every module licence assigned to them, whichever modules they actually use.[16] Catalog proof: Public Sector concurrent users count once per assigned module.
Cloud quantities. Infor OS tiers carry fixed daily or contract quantities per service. For example, Essentials includes 250,000 API Gateway executions and 15,000 SSO logins per day.[7] Storage usage “takes into account all environments, including the production and all non-production environments”. Additional storage is bought in 1 TB increments for at least a year, and additional non-production environments for at least six months.[5] The Infor Concierge Usage dashboard “displays usage data against limits determined by your licensing”.[17] Catalog proof: Infor OS Essentials is included with most multi-tenant CloudSuites; Cloud storage counts all environments; Additional non-production environments have a 6-month minimum.
Virtualization & partitioning
The on-premises terms tie use to “Equipment”: the hardware, software or system configuration listed in Infor’s Platform Support Guide or Hardware Recommendation Guide, at the locations named in the Order Form. The customer may change the location on written notice.[3] The EMEA version requires only notice.[4] Where a product uses a Server, Instance or Desktop licence, SLM binds it to named machines or instances. The retrieved licence-type descriptions do not say how virtual machines are treated.[10] The retrieved documents contain no core, processor or hard-partitioning rule of the kind discussed in virtualization and partitioning. Catalog proof: On-premises use is limited to the Equipment and the Order Form locations.
Cloud / BYOL
Infor’s cloud offer is a hosted subscription, not a right to bring on-premises licences to a public cloud. No bring-your-own-licence policy was found in the public documents. The bridge between the two regimes is maintenance. Under the lifecycle policy, Infor may provide “Transitional Support” for an existing on-premises licence for up to 18 months, for a reduced fee, while the customer moves to a cloud subscription or a new on-premises offering.[8] Multi-tenant availability credits start below 99.7% a month, and single-tenant credits below 99.5%.[6] The cloud model is covered in CloudSuite and Infor OS subscriptions. Catalog proof: Transitional Support lasts no more than 18 months; Single-tenant availability credits start below 99.5%.
Programs
- Infor Support for On Premises Software. Support runs 12 months from the Order Form Date. It renews for 12-month periods unless either party gives notice at least 90 days before renewal, and it cannot be terminated early.[3] Lapsed Support returns only with Infor’s consent, all back fees and a reinstatement charge (Support reinstatement).[9]
- Mainstream, Extended and Sustaining Maintenance. These are the three lifecycle stages for on-premises releases. Extended Maintenance costs standard pricing “plus 20% premium unless otherwise determined by Infor”.[8]
- Transitional Support. Support for an existing licence for up to 18 months during a move to a new offering.[8]
- Multi-tenant cloud product swap. Once a year, a customer may exchange subscription quantity between eligible products, but a swap may not “reduce the aggregate Annual Subscription Fees payable to Infor”.[5]
- Infor OS Foundation, Essentials, Professional and Enterprise. Platform tiers with rising service quantities.[7]
- Infor CareFor Success. Infor’s flagship support plans, Professional and Enterprise.[19] The SLA sets response targets for each plan alongside the Infor Premium Support Plan.[6]
- Infor Velocity Suite. A flat-fee AI package for CloudSuite customers.[15]
Audits. Infor states that it and its licensors have audited Infor licences since 2001 and have carried out more than 20,000 licence reviews.[1] Under the November 2023 terms, Infor may audit with at least 10 business days’ written notice, no more than once in any six-month period. Any shortfall is paid at the Order Form’s price option for additional usage or, if there is none, at Infor’s then-current rates, together with the associated Support fees.[3] The audit right does not depend on Support being current.[1] Details are in Infor on-premises terms and licence audits. Catalog proof: Infor may audit on 10 business days notice, at most every 6 months; Audit shortfalls are paid at the Order Form price option or current rates; Audit rights continue after Support expires.
Services. Professional Services are performed under Work Orders. Unless a Work Order says otherwise, Infor owns the resulting Work Product and grants the customer a perpetual right to use it internally.[18] Catalog proof: Infor owns professional services work product.
Out of scope
This page does not cover the Agreement that governs Infor cloud Order Forms, which is not published, or prices. It also does not cover third-party products resold by Infor, product-specific lifecycle policies beyond the general policy, or Infor’s partner and reseller programmes. Infor’s website terms of use restrict automated access to its sites, so the sources here are limited to a small set of public legal and documentation pages that were read individually. No court case about Infor licence scope or audits was found with a primary court record available, so this wiki has no Infor case article.