Experience, competence and professionalism at the service of Infor technology: Marco's story

Please tell us about your career path.

My first job was with a multinational food & beverage company, where I joined the IT department as a system administrator and over time became responsible for the entire technology sector. When the company decided to outsource its information systems, the IT team created an ad hoc company which, in addition to managing the original company's information system, also began to approach the wider market, offering the same services to external companies. After a couple of years, we were taken over by a company from Verona, which specialised in Finance but was looking to expand its business in the industrial field. At that point, I started working on a non-proprietary ERP created by an international manufacturer, which is how I came across Infor. This was about fourteen years ago, and since then I have had the chance to gain a lot of experience with this technology. 

After several years, I decided to look elsewhere and change my working environment; as luck would have it, I contacted a US company that was developing its European Infor branch at the very same time. Here, I took on the role of Head of the Technical Team and, in parallel, that of Technical Project Manager, which also gave me a highly enriching opportunity to meet colleagues from different nationalities and cultures. Three years later, Mashfrog arrived: in fact, I chose to follow Enrico Capogrosso on his project to create the Infor Business Unit within the company by collaborating in the development of a new team. Within this BU, I took on the role of Infor's Technical & Education Director, coordinating the entire technology team, from developers to system administrators, while taking care of internal and customer-facing training. 

Why did you choose the Infor technology? 

Initially, Infor was not my choice but a strategic choice made by the company I was working for, which had decided to offer a market ERP with international features. Infor is the world's fourth largest enterprise software manufacturer, and I immediately liked the company as it has a strong innovative component: it invests a lot in new products, keeps its products up to date and is expanding rapidly. In addition, it has made an important strategic choice which is proving very successful, namely of offering its solutions in the cloud. This allows customers to focus on business processes without worrying about the infrastructure management and maintenance side of things. Working in the technological field for many years has allowed me to experience the evolution of corporate information systems: the first important step was that from custom systems to standard market systems and more recently the transition from infrastructures and services managed by customers to complete outsourcing in the cloud. Our work is also evolving in tandem with the technology: nowadays, we focus a lot on the system management and administration as well as integrations while traditional program and installation developments are becoming proportionally less relevant. 

What is the added value of working for Mashfrog Group's Infor Business Unit? 

The most significant added value of working for the Infor BU is definitely its international footprint; what has been really exciting for me and taken me to a new qualitative level (also in human terms) was the opportunity to meet people who, coming from different environments and cultures, bring their own different perspectives. What's more, another shared value in the Infor BU is the attention it pays to people: we are convinced that it is essential for service companies to ensure that everyone, at any level, feels positively involved, motivated and supported on their path in the business and in terms of their individual growth and that everyone gets to work in a peaceful and collaborative atmosphere. This is one of the key features of our Business Unit, where everyone can feel that they are an important part of a team. 

Going into more detail, what exactly do you do for Mashfrog?

Part of my job consists of coordinating the technical teams, where, though I am not directly involved as Technical Project Manager, I still act in a supervisory capacity. On other projects, however, I am involved as a resource coordinator, so I am the client's point of reference when it comes to planning the deployment of both technical and functional consultants. My role is highly transversal, which is why whenever there are specific activities on the system's administrative side, I also perform more technical and operational tasks alongside my role as coordinator and supervisor. 

I am also responsible for training, i.e. I organise training sessions for clients, follow colleagues who undertake certification schemes and work on internal training academies. The last academy we created was the Academy Infor M3, created in collaboration with the University of Belgrade in 2020 and from which we recruited four colleagues, but we are planning to develop more in the near future. 

How do you see the future of the Infor Business Unit?

I believe the Infor BU is right to maintain the international character that distinguishes it: at this moment, the international markets offer business opportunities that the Italian market, although growing, is still unable to express both in terms of size and dynamism. On the other hand, more and more frequently, Italian companies are themselves multinational groups or part of them and seeking partners who, like Mashfrog, guarantee international coverage and experience. That is why Mashfrog must maintain an international outlook and horizon: it's the winning formula.