Infor, a CRM Solutions company, and Microsoft (News - Alert) will be expanding their partnership as Infor incorporates Microsoft's technology into its unified interfaces. Integrating Microsoft's SharePoint tool, Silverlight RIA, Reporting Services for BI, and Single Sign-On will enable Infor to develop products more rapidly and to solidify its offerings.

With an up-and-coming launch of enterprise resource planning products, Infor will use Microsoft's technology to "help Infor position itself as an easy-to-migrate alternative to Redmond's own Dynamics family of ERP applications, as well as help link ERP with desktop applications," according to an article by Chris Kanaracus.

As "one of the world's largest ERP vendors after Oracle and SAP (News - Alert), with reported revenues in the neighborhood of $2 billion," Infor will be able to implement Microsoft's technology to solidify its portal-based applications.

Infor has also upgraded its application icons which are designed to convey the different aspects of Infor's product and service offers. Released at the FY11 kickoff, the icons represent "the new face of Infor," according to Bruce Richardson (News - Alert), chief strategy officer at Infor, in a recent blog post.

Introducing new icons for Business Solutions, Industry Solutions, Technology, Infor ION, Infor24, Mobility, Community, and User Experience, the company wants to reflect the idea that Infor does more than "sell software," and that it is constantly "working on developing software and services that will span all your core business processes and move out through your supply chain," said Richardson.

The incorporation of Microsoft's technology into Infor's expansion of interfaces also adds to their newly updated Technology icon. The growing partnership will allow for a "dramatically improved user experience" from Infor.

With sights set on the ever-expanding horizon, Infor looks to incorporate social media into its services more and more. With new icons and software development, the company strives to improve "internal business processes as way of building real-time communities with key constituents," whether it be through Twitter, LinkedIn, or its internal Yammer network.