Transitioning Open AP from one ERP to another

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Things to consider:

  1. Can you pay off all your existing AP prior to transitioning to a new system?
    1. This is preferred whenever possible and start your new ERP with fresh AP
  2. Consider the length of the address fields in your new ERP
    1. Do you need to come up with some abbreviations that work throughout your addresses in the new system?
    2. Have you used abbreviations you no longer need to use and therefore want to undo your abbreviations and make them full words in your new system?
    3. Do you have duplicate addresses that need to be consolidated prior to transitioning? If you are moving off of Lawson, Vendor locations often have duplicate addresses which other ERP systems can’t accept
  3. Cleaning up of inactive Vendors or addresses
    1. This is work that should be done now instead of waiting to the last minute. Paying a consultant to clean up your addresses is expensive.  Hire a temp now and get it done early and less expensive.
  4. Is there anything special about your AP processing that needs to be considered when changing ERP systems?

 

The Strategic Value Of AI In Healthcare

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the disruptive force of healthcare. AI-driven benefits are visible across patient case, clinical research, insurance, and pharmaceutical development. More recent areas that AI is influencing in this sector are clinical care, disease detection, medical image processing, precision treatments, drug creation, and cost reduction. AI is also being leveraged to read imaging data to more accurately diagnose cancers.  Chuck Whinney, Sr. Director Healthcare Strategy for Infor, shares in an article that with the “widespread adoption of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) over the last decade, emerging technologies have evolved to the point of taking the growing volumes of patient clinical data to help physicians and caregivers make more informed decisions on targeted, individualized care.” Whinney continues with explaining the latest AI-enabled capabilities are elevating organizations strategically, which enables them to advance beyond data regurgitation and static dashboards to make better operational decisions. The article further explains that AI would need a more agile environment to work more efficiently and that we shouldn’t let ourselves take the technology that is AI for granted. Rather we should embrace it and help us in more industries.

 

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Technology hubs pushing business innovation

In today’s business world, technology has been the central focus for innovation, development and change for everything from cloud services to internet security. In an article from Tech Radar, as technology continues to evolve at an ever-quickening pace, hubs have become the engines driving implementation and ensuring that products and services with genuine impact continue roll out to market. Hubs are spaces that promote innovation. Business growth and innovation go hand-in-hand in order to survive today. Tech hubs are important as they set an innovative environment for teams and encourages open communication. The article concludes by adding that technology hubs can foster a collaborative and inspirational culture that will be central in shaping the future, not just of individual businesses but of large-scale economies.

 

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BL vs. BR What are the major differences?

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BL vs. BR What are the major differences?

As a summary, BR allows for different billing options that are not only item – Quantity times Price to invoice.

BL allows for creating automatic recurring invoices by running a job that creates the invoices.

BR has jobs that will book the revenue recognition as defined for the contract

 

Feature / Module BL

(Billing)

 BR

(Billing & Revenue Recognition)
Using IC for item tracking Y N
Can bill ad-hoc Items Y N
Can Set up Products for billing Y – in IC Y
Can you Print an Invoice to send to the customer Y Performa only
Interfaces to AR Y Y
Requires Activity Module N Y
Auto Create Revenue Recognition entries N Y
Uses Allocations to create Revenue Recognition Entries Y N
Has an Invoice Entry form that looks like an invoice Y N
Create Recurring Invoices Y for various intervals N
Cost Plus Billing Y – based on pricing Y
Pass Thru Billing Y Y
Time and Materials Billing Y Y
Units of Production Billing Y Y
User-Defined Billing Needs to have an item with Quantity times rate associated with invoiced lines Y
Milestone Billing Y- if there isn’t a system generated trigger for the milestone, any invoice item quantity*Price invoice can be created Y – needs to be triggered by something

 

Infor Drives Digital Transformation in Saudi Arabia

Infor’s presence in Saudi Arabia has made a huge impact across many sectors. According to the press release, following a string of project successes and recent signings, the enterprise software vendor reports its license revenues in the kingdom have increased by 78% between FY18 and FY19, a testament to the escalating interest in digital transformation technologies across Saudi Arabia. Digital transformation is Saudi Arabia’s vision through 2030 and the tech giant Infor is helping them get there. Infor recently signed two agreements with Saudi Bugshan, one of the largest business groups active in the Middle East and North Africa with interests spanning automotive, beauty & fragrance, education, food & beverage, healthcare, and real estate. The implementation of a suite of applications from Infor LN will help with enterprise resource planning efforts. Another recent addition to Infor’s portfolio lies with Almajdouie Logistics Company’s adoption of Infor’s warehouse management system (WMS). These projects join Infor’s already impressive customer portfolio for Saudi Arabia, which includes MEDISERV, Zahid Tractor & Heavy Machinery Co. Ltd, Saudi Diesel Equipment Co. Ltd., and Saline Water Conversion Corporation.

 

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How to Find the Best CRM for Your Franchise

Entrepreneur.com’s latest article by Hayden Field shares a few tips on finding the right customer relationship management (CRM) system that will keep you and your customers satisfied.

Prioritize Ease of Use — for Yourself and Customers.  While it seems like every new company these days is in the technology sector, it doesn’t matter if you’re a franchise, a small business, or a nonprofit – customers still expect good service. a CRM will grant you access to customer information that will help your relationships. In her article, Field suggests, “In today’s world, it’s all about ‘smarketing’ — salespeople market, and marketers sell, so if your CRM isn’t easily integrated with your marketing packet, it can get a little gnarly. Two features to ask about [if your company is in sales]: lead intelligence and lead notifications.”

What to Ask About. When committing to a CRM software, consider the following:

    • Time-cost savings – Calculate how much time a product is saving compared to its cost.
    • Communication – Although technology makes our work easier, it still comes with problems. Customer support and service representatives are important considerations tied to CRM programs.
    • Test-drive – Ask for a 30 or 60 day trial to test the software. This will help greatly in your decision-making.

Unexpected Success. A CRM’s data analysis tools can help a firm reevaluate budget dollars being used on customer acquisition versus retention, and increase efficiency up to 50 percent.

 

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Transport for Greater Manchester Makes Travel Easier with Infor EAM

Infor recently announced that Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has selected Infor Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) on a SaaS (software as a service) basis. TfGM is a a local government body responsible for delivering Greater Manchester’s transport strategy and commitments. This new collaboration will be supported by Infor partner Sapphire Systems and is expected to deliver the company a full return on investment (ROI) within five years. TfGM has a diverse asset portfolio, including the UK’s largest light rail network Metrolink, 24 bus interchanges, 12,500 bus stops and 4,300 bus shelters, and a network that hosts more than 5.6 million journeys daily. The company aims to have a more consistent asset management system in place so passengers can access transport facilities when they need them, and those facilities are maintained to a good standard at an affordable cost. Infor EAM will support this aim by allowing TfGM to capture fault details more accurately, issue works faster and complete repairs quicker, as well as make earlier payments to contractors. Mentioned in the press release, the system will be configured to cover a diverse range of functions from buildings and equipment maintenance, to vehicle management and servicing, through to property management and disposals, and will integrate with supplier and financial systems.

 

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Custom Scripting in IPA

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Sometimes complex IPA flows can become cumbersome to maintain, or they can experience degraded performance for large record sets. One way to combat these issues is to create custom scripts within your flows to do the “heavy lifting” of the process. Our favorite scripting language to use is Perl, because it is simple, doesn’t have to be compiled, and is already installed on your Landmark and LSF servers. We use a File Access node to create the script at runtime. This works best because it is more secure and subject to versioning (remember, Perl doesn’t have to be compiled), and you can put flow variables right into your script. To do this type of scripting, you will create your script in a File Access node, and then run it in a System Command node. It is important to note that this will not work in a cloud multi-tenant environment, because system command nodes are not allowed.

3 ways to leverage CRM data to boost retail sales

Email marketing is a great way to keep loyal customers informed of the latest happenings with your brand. However, it’s not the only (and most popular) outlet. It’s no longer as simple as sending an email or buying advertising space, rather brands must change their customer relationship management (CRM) efforts and the way they speak to each consumer. The greatest challenge is understanding when they should, what they should, and how they should talk to each customer. David le Douarin at DigitalCommerce360 suggests to utilize other platforms in addition to email marketing. However, he warns not to use any or every platform available as it would be a waste of your marketing efforts. Instead, le Douarin suggests to Bring performance back with adapted CRM marketing efforts – understand your customers and know what interactions your audience prefers. Below are 3 ways he suggests to leverage your company’s CRM data to boost sales:

  1. Provide an answer to the drop in contact ability – Marketing teams must find new ways to reach out to customers other than their email lists. It’s the digital age and social media is the hottest thing around. By enabling your marketing team to push timely individualized messages to each customer on Facebook, Instagram or Google, brands can thus contact an average of 4X more individuals than they would have with a simple email campaign, increasing their ability to send their message.
  2. Provide a response to the decline in responsiveness – One way to counter the decline in email response is to identify why your are sending a message, to whom they want to convey it to, and the best way they would follow through with your call to action. Encourage the individual to click and go to the website to consider and prepare their purchase. Marketing actions must be taken as soon as possible in the current context of the consumer that we want to activate in order to introduce a relevant discourse that takes into account the offer proposed to them.
  3. An answer to lower conversion rate – Conversion is the most crucial since it carries the final value. Individualized marketing and personalization allow marketers to optimize the conversion rate of their campaigns by offering each of their customers the most relevant offers and products closest to their preferred needs. This includes recommending complementary or similar products. Product customization takes advantage of all the data available to retailers, who can, through artificial intelligence and models, predict the past or current behavior of the customer, what they are precisely interested in today and what could interest them tomorrow.

In order to understand the impact of your firm’s CRM actions, your team must better understand your customers’ new purchasing paths and communication mediums. Mass marketing was a great idea in it’s heyday, but we are now in the age of individualized marketing, so adjust your CRM efforts accordingly.

 

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Saudi Bugshan Barmaja Co. Ltd Partners with Infor for Success

Infor has recently partnered with one of Saudi Arabia’s major diversified business group, Saudi Bugshan Barmaja Co. Ltd as they digitally transform businesses in their home market and overseas. With the help of Infor’s diverse suite of IT solutions, namely Infor LN, Saudi Bugshan is hoping to provide a single integrated digital platform. Saudi Bugshan aims to digitally transform and automate key business functions including human capital management, customer relationship management, finance, procurement, warehouse and supply chain management. The company was formed in the 19s0s as a textile business in Makkah and has since diversifed into consumer brands with 30 businesses spread across 10 countries and 3 continents. Saudi Bugshan is involved in diverse sectors including fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), automotive, healthcare, education and real estate.

 

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