Setting Up IFS Bootstrap For LDAPS

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Our article “Configuring Lawson for LDAP Signing” takes you step-by-step through configuring your environment for the new LDAPS requirements being enforced by Microsoft later this year.  That article discusses how to configure IFS for LDAPS, but after we got a few questions about the procedure, we decided to clarify it further.

When IFS is installed, a “Bootstrap” parameter is created to link to the root of your active directory.  This parameter is only utilized to bring users from AD into Lawson.  It should look something like this:

To configure IFS for LDAPS, you will need to update your Bootstrap to use the host name of one of your domain controllers, and you will also need to provide the credentials of a user that has authorization to search the AD tree.  This bootstrap connection is not actually used for authentication, so it shouldn’t be a problem that you have multiple DCs.  It is only used to bring users into IFS from Active Directory.  As long as the user connecting to that DC has the ability to search the tree for users, you should be fine.

Your URL is going to look something like LDAP://server.company.com:636/DC=company,DC=com.  Essentially, you just need to add the server name and port to the bootstrap value.  Remember that the protocol is “LDAP” not “LDAPS”.  To change the IFS parameters, just click into the boxes, and start typing.  Click the “Save” button at the top when you are done.

To make sure your settings are working properly, click the “Test” button, and you should receive this message:

Working from Home: 4 ways to Optimize Productivity Using Your CRM

Even as lockdown measures are starting to ease up, many of us are still working remotely. Many businesses are still temporarily closed and managers must rely on their limited resources to stay open. Marketer Lauren Fowles shares an article on CustomerThink of the various ways to optimize productivity using customer relationship management (CRM) while working from home.

Ownership and Accountability. “When a new lead enters your CRM system, make sure that ownership of that lead is automatically assigned to a member of the team through an automated flow or use of a custom Power App. Lead ownership will ensure that none of your leads slip through the cracks and will make your whomever was assigned the lead accountable for the outcome of that opportunity.”

Activity Tracking. “By making sure that your team are logging all of their outbound sales activity (emails, phone calls, LinkedIn messages etc.) against the prospects profile on your company’s CRM system, you can better monitor their productivity. Having this transparency in activity will also ensure reaching daily outreach targets is at the forefront of everyone’s mind.”

Avoid Pipeline Decay. “To ensure that no lead remain within a sales member’s pipeline longer than it should, set a workflow within your CRM that flags any leads that can surpassed this average conversion period. Remember that during lockdown and as restrictions continue to be reduced, conversion periods may be more erratic than usual with radio silence followed by a sudden flurry of interest.”

Custom Dashboards. “By creating leadership boards on your CRM dashboard or through a tool within the same ecosystem like PowerBI, not only will you be able to see who your best achievers are – so will the other members of the team. If you wanted to further increase the competitive element, implement a reward system of the greatest number of sales.

 

For Full Article, Click Here

Simple Trends That Will Continue to Drive ERP

Darren Roos shares an article at Manufacturing.net about the impact that enterprise resource planning (ERP) has for organizations. When paired up with other strong technological players such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), open APIs and the cloud, ERP systems can be so powerful. Roos shares the following trends and their impact on ERP.

APIs Open for Business
“Open APIs allow a wide range of client-side functions to be integrated into systems easily and quickly. They allow development to happen at pace because there are no hidden complexities, and they permit inbound and outbound connections to the digital core with the greatest possible flexibility and speed.”

Success in the Cloud
“Only by going fully cloud can organizations really reap the benefits. In doing this organizations will allow themselves to take full advantage of the AI and open API trends already noted.”

At Your Service
“Expect the term ‘servitization’ to become much more widely known as the business approach it describes takes a firm hold. Traditionally, manufacturers make ‘goods’ which are sold to customers by intermediaries. That is changing, and manufacturers are moving closer to their customers.”

 

For Full Article, Click Here

Nucleus Research Recognizes Infor as Leader in Workforce Management in Latest Value Matrix

Infor Workforce Management (WFM) has been recognized as a Leader among WFM applications in Nucleus Research’s latest Technology Value Matrix for WFM. Per the press release, “At Infor, we are excited about the amount of time and innovation that has been put in to develop our WFM solutions and how they have the ability to drastically benefit our customers across multiple industries,” said Matthew Bragstad, Infor vice president of product management. “Our teams are proud of this Leader recognition by Nucleus Research, as it further validates this work and our commitment to workforce planning, execution and analysis.” Infor CloudSuite™ Workforce Management helps companies address relevant aspects of their labor compliance and performance functions with time and attendance, demand-driven scheduling, workforce scheduling, and absence management software tools. WFM can  be used to help mitigate the risk of potential compliance errors and help reduce costs, while encouraging employees to focus on activities that generate more value.

 

For Full Article, Click Here

Why You Shouldn’t Use Port 636 to Bind to LDAP Signing

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The normal LDAP Signing ports are 636 and 3269.  Port 636 is the default signing port, and 3269 is called the Global Catalog Port.  Here is why you should only use port 3269 (if possible) when updating your LDAP Bind for LDAPS.

The default port (636) is used for searching the local domain controller, and it can search and return all attributes for the requested item.  The Global Catalog Port also searches the local domain controller, but only returns attributes marked for replication to the Global Catalog.  If you don’t need all attributes to be searched and returned (and for Lawson binding, you don’t), then using Global Catalog can be much faster.

If you choose to use the default port, be aware that there might be some performance issues, and maybe even timeouts, when users are logging in.  This can impact you, even if you are authenticating AD FS, because some pieces of the application still authenticate using LDAP Bind.  For instance, IPA nodes that have to authenticate against the Lawson server (such as file access, Lawson Query, etc.)

If users are experiencing latency or timeouts when logging in, you may see a “connection reset” error in your LAWDIR/system/security_authen.log file, similar to the error below:

Another symptom of a slow default port search is IPA processes throwing a login error when trying to make a connection to Lawson.  You might see an error similar to this one in your Work Unit logs.  This exception was thrown on an RM Query Node:

The best course of action if you are experiencing these issues is to update your LDAP Bind to use port 3269 instead of 636.  Check out our article on Configuring Lawson for LDAP Signing for step-by-step instructions on how to update the LDAP Bind.

Infor Positioned as a Leader, for the Second Consecutive Time, in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Multienterprise Supply Chain Business Networks

For the second time in a row, Gartner Inc. has positioned Infor as a Leader in its Magic Quadrant for Multienterprise Supply Chain Business Networks. Infor was positioned in the Leaders quadrant for its ability to execute and completeness of vision. Per the press release, Gartner wrote in the report that, “Multienterprise supply chain business networks (MESCBNs) are an essential technology component to a successful high-maturity, digital transformation. Executives must understand that their company needs to operate within such networks to stay competitive – in other words, minimize risk, increase efficiency, reduce cost and capitalize on opportunities.” Heidi Benko, VP of solutions strategy for Infor Supply Chain Management, said, “Companies are looking for a new level of speed, agility and resiliency in their supply chains and multienterprise business applications (MEBAs). We believe this is where Infor separates from other network providers. Organically developed for complex multi-party, real-time collaboration and process automation, companies on our Infor Nexus platform can overcome typical business network challenges across the physical and financial supply chain.”

 

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5 Unique CRM trends to watch in 2020

According to the London School of Business and Finance, there are 5 customer relationship management (CRM) trends we should pay close attention to in 2020.

Catering to preferences. CRM systems categorizes clients based on their location, product choice, and purchase bracket or price preferences. This information helps allocate account managers to dedicated clientele groups, and allows them to understand their preferences for offering customized solutions and service options.

Cutting down sales costs. Customer acquisition can be costly – it requires consistent marketing efforts, advertising, and branding initiatives. To reduce new client acquisition costs, businesses often focus on cross-selling and renewal opportunities within the existing clientele base. Also, a CRM system helps in recognizing the right leads by identifying untapped or potential opportunities with existing customers.

Improving response time. As response time is greatly important in today’s business environment, CRM software helps send quick replies to enquiries through standard email templates. This also allows businesses to maintain a consistent voice across communication channels.

Integrating AI. Integrating AI with CRM will continue to be invaluable for automating manual and routine tasks, devising recommendations to improve marketing campaigns, and managing any customer complaints. AI integrated with CRM allows businesses to analyse client data through purchase preferences, previous calls, and by generating a client profile. This all allows sales reps to understand their clients better and have a more focused, individualized approach to their communication.

Bonus:

Mobile CRM. Mobile-based CRM solutions are becoming more important owing to the ever-changing work environment and a growing global workforce. With pressure to drive revenues, sales representatives will greatly benefit from mobile CRM solutions to access data without security hassles, gain access from various platforms, and make client interactions more seamless.

 

For Full Article, Click Here

LDAPS Certificates

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We’ve been getting a lot of questions about the certificates needed for LDAPS.  This article will provide some general information about working with certificates, and the specific requirements for LDAPS.

To create a certificate, you need to retrieve it from a certificate authority (CA).  An example of a CA is a site such GoDaddy, but there are many, and your networking team probably already has a CA that they use.

The certificate needs to have a Subject Alternative Name, and it needs to be exported as PKCS12 with a private key.  When you or your networking team retrieves the certificate, they will apply a password to the private key.  They will need to provide you with the “.pfx” certificate file with the private key exported, and you will need that private key password.  You will need the file and the password so that you can import the certificate to the AD LDS service account.

The requirements for your LDAPS certificates are actually pretty standard.  It is important to note that the certificate must be created with a Subject Alternative Name.  That is becoming more standard, but we’ve seen plenty of certificates that don’t have a SAN, so just make sure yours does.

You can view the properties of your certificate in the Microsoft Management Console.  You can do this on the server, or from another computer as long as you have network access to the server where the computer resides.

To view certificates in MMC, click start and search for “mmc”.  Select “mmc.exe”.  This will open the Microsoft Management Console.  From there, click File > Add or Remove Snap-In.  Choose “Certificates”.  Select “Computer Account”.  If you are on the server where you want to view the certificate, select “Local Computer”.  Otherwise, select “Another computer” and enter the server name:

Click Finish and then Ok.  The certificates for that server will populate in MMC.  Typically, you will be looking in the personal store.  Simply double-click on the certificate that you want to review, go to details, and look at the properties for the certificate.  You can see all the properties, including the Subject Alternative Name.

15 Technologies That Will Disrupt The Industry In The Next Five Years

These days technology is a core part of how companies do business. Because technology is ever-evolving, there will always be new tech emerging on the horizon. The Forbes Technology Council shares fifteen of today’s emerging technologies that can be expected to be game-changers in the next five years.

  1. 5G Technology
  2. Unsupervised Machine Learning
  3. Robotic Accuracy And Automation
  4. Intelligent Tech Revolutionizing Security
  5. Connected Telehealth Solutions
  6. Augmented And Virtual Reality
  7. Hyperautomation
  8. Edge Computing
  9. Spatial Computing
  10. Quantum Computing And IoT
  11. DataOps
  12. Natural Language Processing
  13. Value Stream Management
  14. Additive Manufacturing
  15. Regulatory Tech Coming To Government

 

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4 Things You Need to Know for Successful Enterprise CRM Integration

With the enterprise IT environment being complex,  it is no surprise that an intelligent customer relationship management (CRM) system in this environment requires specialized insight and know-how to ensure a seamless integration that’s both relevant and current. According to Adam Edmonds at CRMBuyer.com, with today’s functional and technical complexity, heterogeneous integration requirements, and need for scale and security, CRM integration success depends on an enterprise literate technology approach. Edmonds shares the following four considerations to be critical when sourcing intelligent CRM software for enterprise systems.

  1. Flexibility and Context Matter. From automating workflows to eliminating burdensome administrative tasks, the flexibility of an intelligent enterprise solution provides a deeper understanding of the customer, which helps with decision-making processes and simplifies day-to-day operations.
  2. Is It Scalable? Implementing a reliable, fully scalable CRM system in the beginning as part of an overarching business strategy ensures seamless growth down the road.
  3. What are the Integration Capabilities? Is It Upgradable? When CRM integration is an afterthought, failure is inevitable. Instead, the technology must allow for integration with a wide variety of client platforms, data sources and applications, since every organization has different needs.
  4. Deployment Should Be Simple. A purpose-built enterprise CRM software system should make deployment simple. It should be compatible with a variety of open source and common software platforms.

 

For Full Article, Click Here