Troubleshooting External Web Server Issues

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Configuring Lawson on an external web server is pretty straightforward…until you have issues.  The most common symptom I have run across is a 404 error when you open the web page, which typically indicates that external web server can’t find sso/sso.js.  (A quick Fiddler session will confirm that for you).  That is the first time the external web server is reaching out to the Lawson application server, so that error message indicates that you have a communication failure between the two web servers.  There can be many reasons for that communication failure, from bad plug-in files to bad certificates.  Here are just a few things to review:

  1. Make sure your modules are mapped

Navigate to WebSphere > Applications > Application Types > Websphere enterprise applications.  Select the IOS application and click “Manage Modules”.  Make sure all modules are mapped to all servers (web and application).  Do this for IOS and LawsonSecurity.  You can also check RQC and BPM for good measure.

  1. Check Virtual Hosts

Navigate to WebSphere > Applications > Application Types > Websphere enterprise applications.  Select IOS.  Under “Web Module Properties” on the right, click “Virtual Hosts”.  Make note of which virtual host IOS is using.  Then, under Environment > Virtual Hosts, click the host being used by IOS.  Make sure that your External Web Server port is in the host alias list.  NOTE: if your external web server is using the same port as your internal web server, it is best to give explicit aliases for that port.  Add an alias with the fully qualified domain for each server, and the port being used.

  1. Check your plugin-cfg.xml

Make sure the plugin-cfg.xml on your external web server looks right.  On your external web server, you should find the plugin-cfg file at <IBM Plugins Directory>/config/<Web Server Name>

It should have some basic properties.  First of all, it should contain all the virtual hosts that you just checked in step 2.  Secondly, it should contain some Uri’s specific to Lawson (not just the default WebSphere application).  Here is an example of a “bad” plugin-cfg file compared to a “good” one.

BAD – does not have all my virtual hosts

BAD – does not have any lawson-specific Uri’s

GOOD – all my virtual hosts are represented, including the host aliases I set up for duplicate ports

GOOD – there are my lawson-specific Uri’s, including that sso directory that was giving me trouble at the very beginning

The best way to resolve issues with your plug-in file is to regenerate it from your Application Server WebSphere console.  Go to WebSphere > Server Types > Web Servers.  Select your external web server and click “Generate Plug-in”.  You can’t propagate it, because it is on an external server, and it belongs to an unmanaged node.  So, make note of where the config files was saved (at the top in the Messages section).  Navigate to that location on your server and grab the file.  Copy the plugin-config.xml file and the plugin-key.kdb from that location to the plugins location noted above on your external web server.  Restart your World Wide Web Publishing service on the external web server, and test your external URL.

  1. Check the WebSphere certs

If you are having certificate issues in WebSphere, you might be seeing the 404 error in a Fiddler session, but you might also be seeing a 500 error.  Your first stop is the http_plugin.log on the external web server.  If there are certificate errors, they will be noted here.  Look for “GSK” errors.  This could mean your WebSphere certificate has expired, or there isn’t a trust between the application certificate and the external web certificate.

In WebSphere, navigate to Security > SSL certificate and key management > Key stores and certificates > CellDefaultKeyStore > Personal Certificates.  Make note of the serial number on that certificate.  Then go to the CMSKeyStore for your external web server.  Again, make note of the serial number.  If they are not matching, you’ll need to replace your external key store cert with the internal one.

To do that, first import the CellDefaultKeyStore into the web server CMSKeyStore.  In the CMSKeyStore > Personal Certificates for your external web server, click the “import” button.

In the dropdown, select the CellDefaultKeyStore, and click “Get key store aliases”.  This should populate the “certificate alias to import” down below.  Select the correct certificate to import (most likely “default”).

Give the certificate a new alias.  Click “Apply” and save changes.

Now, you need to replace the old certificate with the new one.  Under certificates, select the “old” cert and click “replace”.  Select your new cert in the “replace with” box.  You can choose to delete the old cert at this time, but it’s actually safer to delete it manually after you smoke test.  Restart the application server, or better yet, reboot!

How to Measure The Sales KPIs With Your CRM?

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems are good at extracting insights to track progress by measuring the right metrics for your business. Key performance indicators (KPI) for example are usually associated with statistics/data from CRMs.  An interesting read on finsemes.com shares how one can use CRM to measure sales KPI. They are:

  1. Customer attrition – Also known as Customer Churn, this metric measures how many customers you lost in any given period. It measures customer retention in a reverse way. The lower the customer churn the better it is for your company.
  2. Close rate – It’s a ratio of the number of deals closed against the number of deals in the pipeline, over a given period of time. It’s the simplest of all metrics and used as a measure of a sales team’s success.
  3. Average deal size – Just the close rate does not give you the full picture. This is where the average deal size comes into the picture. To raise this number, you need to close a consistent stream of high-ticket deals. To get more high-ticket deals, you need higher quality deals. This is where the CRM’s Lead Scoring feature can help to extract the best leads possible. It gives a higher score to the leads who can spend more and are ready to buy in the near future.
  4. Upsell rate – When existing or brand new customers buy more from you, it shows that their trust in your brand (i.e. your products and services) is increasing. It is indicated by more than one purchase from the same customer over a given period of time.
  5. New revenue – New revenue is the revenue from new i.e. first-time customers.

Together these KPI’s will tell you how well your sales team and your CRM is doing.

 

For Full Article, Click Here

Tips For Managing A Successful Remote ERP Implementation

With this current pandemic urging people to stay home, online shopping has become more of a demand. This may be a good thing at first, but businesses have either shut down, changed courses or forced to find alternative means to operate. Shipping, logistics and supply chain management are more important than ever to maintain. Jay Deakins, Founder and CEO of Deacom, shares an article on Forbes some tips for managing a successful enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation remotely.

Understand Your Team’s Bandwidth. “Every company is different, and only your team can determine if now is the right moment to upgrade your ERP software. It will require an initial investment of dollars, time and resources, but done right, it will streamline all of your operations, from formulation and product development through production, shipping, warehousing, sales and accounting.”

Embrace Technology For Improved Efficiency. Deakins says of his team, “Though our team traditionally managed about 80% of an ERP implementation remotely, until recently, we still sent team members to be on-site at a customer’s facility for three critical events: the project kickoff, the conference room pilot and the go-live launch. We are now conducting the entire process remotely using tools such as GoToMeeting and webcam-enabled tablets, and we have been pleased to discover a few unexpected benefits from this transition.”

Pandemic or not, an ERP implementation is a major undertaking for your entire team, but its return on investment is worthwile. With the help of technology and a strong and motivated team, there’s no reason that you cannot achieve a smooth and successful remote ERP launch.

 

For Full Article, Click Here

5 Best practices in working with Managed Service Providers

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We have been working with dozens of clients over the years as their managed service partner (MSP), managing Infor applications. In 2020, we decided to make a list of some practices that have made our relationship with our clients more successful. You can employ these same practices with your MSP to achieve the same level of success.

  • Single point of ownership – Each member of our staff works with several customers on a daily basis. We often communicate with several managers, IT contacts, and dozens of users within dozens of clients. While this communication is highly efficient and facilitates progress well, it is imperative that communication regarding important decisions are handled by one key person on each side. The most successful model we have found is if one of our managers reports directly with a manager at the client’s end and all decisions regarding projects, progress, personnel, and money are made between those two designated people. Otherwise things my get approved by someone who doesn’t have the proper authority to approve the work, which is never a good thing.
  • Change control inclusion – Including the MSP in your change control discussions is extremely valuable. Your MSP is in charge of several applications and is often the only party within the organization that is aware of the impact of changes to certain applications. It is also important that your MSP understand your change control processes so as to not accidentally circumvent them.
  • Proper planning – Clients who meet with us on a quarterly basis to do forward budget planning and general forecasting have shown a higher level of satisfaction and derived more efficiency from our services. This usually takes the form of a one hour meeting each quarter to look back on the past quarter and look forward to the next three quarters with major milestones and projects in mind.
  • Clear the path – We work with many hospitals, banks, government organizations, insurance companies, schools and retail chains. Our clients have all agreed to a remote method through which we can manage their systems. However, these systems vary quite a bit and some cause more waste than others. Work with your MSP to determine if there is a method which suits their workflow better and that you can also accommodate.
  • Full transparency – Trust in a relationship is built over many years and can be destroyed within a short moment. That is why full transparency is vital to a relationship with your MSP. This spans all facets of your relationship. From proposals, to time sheets and invoices, we go out of our way to disclose every available bit of information to customer so they can have full visibility into our progress, work efficiency, and their overall financial commitment.

 

Learn more about our managed services page here

Infor Launches Infor Workforce Management Express Program in China to Help Companies Tackle Business Continuity Challenge and Aid Recovery

Infor recently announced the launch of a special promotion program in China to help companies be operationally agile and ease the “back-to-work” phase as companies gradually re-open. The Infor Work Force Management (WFM) solution is a powerful tool with intelligent scheduling that makes it easier for enterprises to re-open their businesses strategically. With the COVID-19 pandemic ‘rushing’ many businesses to work around the clock to stay alive, many organizations are reviewing the options available to better manage and utilize their employees during these times. Per the press release, the Infor WFM express solution can help organizations provide efficient and effective staff scheduling procedures and provide ongoing workforce utilization efficiencies during an evolving pandemic. With Infor WFM, enterprises can build multiple hierarchies of team structure to meet requirements through strong rule-setting and data-separation capabilities. In addition, the Infor WFM shift workbench is embedded with eight predefined shifts, providing human resource function with a simple and unified management tool.

 

For Full Article, Click Here

Altaïr Group to Deploy Infor M3 for International Growth

Infor recently announced that Altaïr Group, a French chemical group composed of six leading companies in the field of cleaning products, fabric softeners, insecticides and repair pastes and putties, has decided to deploy the enterprise resource planning (ERP) application, Infor M3. It will become the standard system for managing processes and sharing information between the group’s various entities. Per the press release, Altaïr Group has entrusted Infor to support the deployment of the M3 solution and outsourcing the IT servers and setting up a data centre in Lille, France, to serve the various entities of the group. This will help centralize information, improve communication between subsidiaries and share best practices. Infor M3 will help manage operations related to purchases/sales, production (manufacturing of chemical formulas and packaging), logistics, quality control and finance.

 

For Full Article, Click Here

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