AWS Lambda Environment Variables

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When setting up a lambda function there will most likely be secure information that you don’t want to put into your lambda functions. This is when you want to use environment variables. When declaring environment variables inside the code of your lambda function, add the string “process.env.varable_name” where “variable_name” is any string. Once you’ve declared all your environmental variables, go to your was lambda  function console, and scroll down to the environment variables section. Then add all your “variable_names” to the left side text boxes and on the right enter in the actual value of the variable. You can then, if needed, encrypt the environment variables by using the encryption configuration.

Where is CRM Headed in the New Decade?

The future of business technology is here and one of the major game players is customer relationship management, or CRM. Companies that use this software know how big of a role it has on data, relationships and day-to-day processes. We’ve seen what CRM can do for our company and know there is much more potential for CRM. PYMNTS.com shares a few insights of where CRM seems to be headed in the next decade and beyond.

 

David and Goliath?

Research done by PYMNTS other data sources show the increasing important of CRM offerings that offer better customer service and more personalization features. The many talks of integrated artificial intelligence with just about any program – CRM especially – is going to become a norm (maybe in the early 2020’s) rather than continued discussion. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning-supported systems are at the cutting edge of CRM, and the audience and market for AI-related solutions is growing. “Some estimates claim that AI-enabled CRM software is on course to increase global business revenue by as much as $1.1 trillion from 2017 to 2021. Using such technologies to enhance CRM capabilities allows quick-service restaurants (QSRs) to provide customers with AI-enabled screen access at select QSR drive-thrus and other retail locations, offering personalization that would be impossible to match by relying on traditional Excel spreadsheet analysis.”

More Data

As businesses grow, people spend money and years go on, data continues to grow. CRM’s capabilities in data management will grow with it. Data is very important not just for operations and finance, but for the relationships with customers and vital information to help continue those relationships. The article states, “The general idea is to provide an omnichannel experience that applies to the 2020s. Birnbaum defined that experience as a “single-thread conversation around a topic where you can converse with your customers in any channel you support.” That requires a tight focus on customer service, and via personalization as well.”

 

CRM is just getting started so we should expect more companies implementing this solution in 2020 and beyond.

 

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Ground-breaking New Battery Development Centre Selects Infor

Infor recently announced that ground-breaking UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) has selected Infor Cloudsuite Industrial Enterprise. The enterprise resource (ERP) platform will underpin business and manufacturing processes at the new center in West Midlands – the most advanced facility of its kind ever created in the UK. UKBIC aims to help industrial partners design, test and commercialize next-generation battery technologies when it officially opens in spring 2020. The center is expected to expand across more industries over time. The UK based company selected Infor because of their incredible cloud ERP solution. Per the press release: the decision was based on Infor’s ability to provide a single platform to support all aspects of the business from quality control, traceability, production and finance to HR, talent management and analytics – as well as its long-term partnership approach. Infor MES, a solution to manage shop floor operations, could be deployed on-premise and work seamlessly with Infor CloudSuite Industrial Enterprise, which is a huge benefit. HCL Technologies will lead the implementation for UKBIC.

 

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Migrating ERP to the cloud

The most common trend in enterprise resource planning as of late is migrating their solutions to the cloud. Dave Ives, Digital Advisory Executive at Altron Karabina, shared an article on IT Web Africa about how this migration is beneficial to organizations. With the arrival of mult-national data centers in the country, more organizations seen the benefits of the cloud and making it a standard business practice in South Africa. The business value in making the move sooner rather than later cannot be ignored. There are some challenges, however, that require a lot of obstacles to successfully run ERP in the cloud. Ives explains a couple and how to overcome it.

  • Governance rules – Ives explains, “ERP operates in a highly governed environment. This means that any business must undergo several internal processes, including streamlining redundant and outdated processes, before committing to an upgrade or migration. With this decision comes the migration of legacy data and ensuring traceability of past transactions. Migrating from an on-prem to a cloud version requires a deeper assessment. Diagnostic tools are available from certain vendors to assess the impact of upgrading, while in some cases a refactoring of the solution, adaption of the interfaces and significant process changes may be required. The tools and assessments are typically run by a trusted partner who can align to a client’s organisational requirements. The resultant diagnostics also enables the partner to understand how the ERP application has been configured for an on-premise environment and what can be adapted for a cloud-based deployment. This enables the partner to either natively port the ERP processes or reconfigure them for a cloud solution.”
  • Overcoming challenges – Says Ives in his article, “The cloud might provide the same features natively that companies had to tweak in their on-premise solutions, thereby foregoing the need to customize anything online. This is where an assessment forms an integral part of the migration plan. Tools and libraries that are available, such as the American Productivity and Quality Centre (APQC), provide standard process classification frameworks and assist in aligning to standard processes.”

 

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AWS SES Template Creation

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AWS has SES (Simple Email Service) which is used to help developers create notification emails. In order to use this feature, you must create a template for an email and then you can send emails. Currently, there is no way to create a template in the AWS console. One of the ways to create one is by using a Node script. You first need to have:

  1. Node installed on your computer
  2. An AWS account with access & secret keys

You will want to enter your account information where the red highlights are. Then you must add a template name (name you will be using when calling template), htmlPart (text in the email in html form), subject (the greetings), and text part (The email body that will be visible to recipients whose email clients do not display HTML).

 

Run the script and check if your template is in your AWS SES dashboard.

Japan’s Food Business Giant Watami Deploys Infor Cloud ERP for Business Standardization and Decision-making

Infor recently announced that Watami Co. Ltd. has gone live with Infor CloudSuite Food & Beverage (F&B) – the multi-tenant cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution purpose-built for the F&B industry. This implementation was to improve Watami’s supply chain management (SCM) platform for its sites across Japan. At the same time, Watami will implement data-driven management with Infor Birst cloud-based business intelligence (BI) platform linked to the Infor CloudSuite solution. The Watami Group of companies operates across the food industry in restaurants and meal delivery services. Watami selected Infor CloudSuite F&B for its ability to drive business standardization through industry-specific functions and to build a platform for data analysis. This implementation has helped standardize business processes and data definitions in production management. With that, Watami is better able to advance in cost calculations and production planning.

 

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AWS Lambda and API Gateway

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The following instructions are given that you have a lambda function created that works. AWS has API Gateway which enables developers to create RESTful API endpoints so people can call it and in turn run a lambda function. If you have never set up an API in API Gateway, you must:

  1. Log into the AWS console
  2. Search for “API Gateway” in the services tab
  3. Press “Create API”
  4. Choose REST / New API / assign a name to your api
  5. Once Created, add a resource to you api
  6. Create a method
  7. Add the created lambda function to the api resource

Once you have followed these steps the API Gateway will give you a url where you can call from your code and it will run your lambda function. One last thing you must do is to deploy the API. To do this, go to the resources tab of the API and click the Actions button and then click “Deploy”. Note that you may need to set up CORS if you want to secure your API.

5 ways CRM helps the small retailer

Small business owners understand the importance of serving their customers. Small to mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) should look to customer relationship (CRM) systems to aid in their business dealings and customer relations. According to RetailCustomerExperience.com, a CRM can help your business better understand the needs and concerns and be more precise and deliberate in nurturing those relationships. Take retail, for example. With a CRM system in place, retaining purchase histories, tailoring a marketing strategy to a customer’s interests and retaining valuable information about a client’s wants and needs can all be done under one program. There are powerful features that can give your SME the competitive advantage and continue to grow. Here are 5 ways to use CRM systems:

  1. Improve customer service – One way to improve customer service this is through a CRM helpdesk ticketing system, which allows internal teams to prioritize customers where managers can assign accounts to team members.
  2. Track team efficiency – Most CRM solutions have an integrated field service management feature, which enables you to know what customers your sales representatives have visited with real-time tracking and check-ins.
  3. Manage inventory – SMEs that have inventory needs but lack internal resources can utilize a CRM to manage purchase orders, customer product orders, and even monitor all inventory in multiple warehouses.
  4. Make better decisions – SMEs, just like any other business, have many factors that impact the overall company performance and a business dashboard developed in a CRM presents these factors in easily understood data visualizations.
  5. See the whole company picture – Few CRMs available today also include Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software built into the solution. ERP is a powerful CRM addition that integrates all departments and functions across a business into a single system, while still serving each departments’ specific needs.

With proper implementation and guidance, CRMs can be the secret weapon your SME needs to stay competitive.

 

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Private Variables in Javascript

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If you are writing code and you want a user to manipulate data using methods you create but also don’t want the user to be able to manipulate data directly. One way you can go about this is through functional programming. Say you want to have an object that has the ability to move right and left with a starting position at 0. You might build out something like this:

const walker = {
    position = 0,
    right: function() {
        this.position++
    },
    left: function() {
        this.position–
    }
}

Then you call the function, walker.right() to move right and walker.left() to move left. However the way this is set up, a person can redefine the position variable by just directly changing it I.e. walker.position = 20. This is not good because the walker will be teleporting without ever hitting positions 1-19. So how do you stop a user from directly changing a variable that you don’t want them to change. An easy way to make this a private variable, is to make a function that return an object with only the method you want them to use. For example:

function walker() {
    let position = 0,
    return {
        right: function() {
            this.position++
        },
        left: function() {
            this.position–
        }
    }
}

const ben = walker()
ben.right()

I made a new variable called “ben” from the walker function. The way this is set up a user can no longer directly change the position property.

5 Ways To Give (Thoughtful) Thanks To Your Team

When employees feel valued, they’re efforts and productivity increase. As a team member and leader, it’s important to take the time to recognize efforts and show your appreciation. Janet at Trello wrote a great article about how gratitude makes a positive impact on a person’s moral cognition, value judgement, and theory of mind and how this culture makes for a great work environment. Research show that a culture of gratitude is extremely important to motivate employees to do their best work and have a high level of job satisfaction. According to Janet, here are a few ways to show appreciation to your team.

  1. Provide Sincere And Consistent Recognition – Understanding how your team members like to accept gratitude can go a long way in showing that you truly care about their preferences.
  2. Give A Thoughtful Gift – If you can’t find the words, then give a great gift for that person on your team who deserves that recognition. Wrap that thanks with a bow and show them how grateful you are for their efforts at work.
  3. Get Your Team Involved – Employees feel valued when they can participate in decision-making and their skills are actually being used to the benefit of the company.
  4. Listen With Intent – The best leaders are the ones who take the time to really listen to their employees and colleagues.
  5. Create A Kudos Culture – At the end of the day, your team wants to feel appreciated and valued. This collective approach to expressing gratitude will help the practice become second nature to everyone on your team.

If you’re looking for ways to motivate your team, a simple “thank you” goes a long way.

 

Original Post by Janet Mesh at Trello

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