Find The Human-Technology Balance To Champion Your Customers

Technology is undoubtedly a huge part of the way we live, learn, and work. It doesn’t take long to come across a new story focusing on the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation and its potential impact on jobs. A study from McKinsey finds that by 2030, an estimated 800 million jobs could be lost worldwide to automation, with data-centric roles like accounting biggest hit. Technology is introducing new tensions as well as opportunities for the finance industry to transform the way business is done. Though, instead of fearing technology will take over our jobs we should embrace it. Technology will be able to do our basic tasks more efficiently, but the human side of business is best done by humans. Finding the human-technology balance in your business is the sweet spot that will give your business more satisfied customers.

Use tech to improve human relationships – The importance of customer service to financial organizations is a great example of how human-technology balance works for your business. Customer service agents use AI and machine learning to respond to customer requests because these technologies can allow them to quickly identify customer needs and spend more time solving problems and maintaining a human touch.

Refocus on becoming people-centric – While many businesses consider themselves customer-centric, they should really be focusing on being people-centric. When people are placed at the center of your organization, adopting innovations will always focus on solving real human problems. While new technology is changing the way accountants work, these developments are providing new opportunities for them and their clients to thrive.

The true power of “human technology” is taking advantage of the latest technological advances, while still prioritizing the unique things that only human interactions can deliver.

 

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IPA – LSF Server Configuration Recommendations from Infor

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Infor Process Automation should be configured correctly to ensure proper functioning of other Lawson System Applications. Here are the official best practice IPA-LSF Server Configuration recommendations directly from Infor. (KB 1946828)

Recommended Configurations

  1. JT-973173

    This JT resolves a memory leak issue in the Event Manager Java Process. Not having this JT means the Event Manager Java Process will slowly grow in size and if left unchecked, can consume all RAM and even crash the LSF Server.

  2. Remove lpsMaxHeap=XXXXX and lpsMinHeap=XXXXX from LAWDIR/system/bpm.properties

    These settings are only required when using JNI.

  3. Set useLPSBridgeSocket=true in LAWDIR/system/bpm.properties

    NOTE: The use of the LPS Bridge Socket connection means LSF batch/online programs will no longer initialize a JVM, it will simply make a socket connection to the Event Manager process to make the request.

  4. Set Windows pagefile on LSF server to 32 GB

 

Additional Recommendations for Infor Cloud Clients

  • Verify and ensure that lpsHost=inforbclm01.inforbc.com
  • NOTE: If this setting is not pointed at the internal domain, a grid session memory leak can occur in Event Manager on the LSF server
  • NOTE: Changes to this file should be made by executing pfserv config lps and they require a restart of LSF Process Flow and LSF Web Application Servers.

Additional Recommendations for LSF on LINUX

  • Ensure LSF JT-875069 is applied to the LSF system
  • Add “useLPSLocalServices=true” to LAWDIR/system/bpm.properties
  • Follow KB 1936921 which has two process definitions files used for synchronizing services from IPA/Landmark to LSF
  • In the GEN data area of the Landmark Rich Client, navigate to ConfigurationParameter BusinessClass and add: Component=ipa, Name=useRMIWebServlet, Value=true
  • Configure LSF to look at IPA Services in the LOGAN database instead of connecting to IPA. This requires LSF JT-875069 which allows you to add “useLPSLocalServices=true” in bpm.properties. This also requires the use of a ServiceSyncFlow to move the services from IPA to LSF. To implement this procedure, please follow instructions on KB 1936921.

5 ERP Trends in 2019

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems can help your business integrate procedures from many different departments, save time, reduce costs, and increase efficiency. An article in The Future of Things highlights 5 ERP trends that you should watch out for in 2019. 

  1. Additive Manufacturing – also called 3D printing, is making creating large-scale, complex, high-volume products faster and less expensive, benefiting the Manufacturing ERP field.  
  1. The Internet of Things – Also in manufacturing, the Internet of Things (IoT) can make other aspects of business more efficient. You can use smart equipment to automate many actions and cut costs. Connecting these IoT devices to your ERP will give you access to convenient summaries and help you make the right decisions.
  1. Mobility and Flexibility – With many business processes migrating to the cloud, ERPs will become more accessible for everyone in your business. Employees can access the software from different locations in real time. This leads to better communication, profitable choices, expanded business, and adaptions to changes in regulations, supply, or demand.
  1. Better Analytics – ERPs are improving their analytics abilities to make management decisions quicker. ERP will eventually become a comprehensive data tool that informs decisions at all levels, from the factory floor to the executive suite.
  1. Industry-Specific Solutions – Many ERP solutions can provide industry-specific features. They let businesses avoid paying for additional software or customization. They can also provide a variety of different functions tailored to specific industries.

ERPs are becoming more user friendly, according to a Tech Pro research survey. With seamless integration and quality data running through the software, ERP will help you grow your company.

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IFS Installer Fails with No Error Message

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During a recent IFS install we encountered an install failure and the error message/return code was blank. The setup_log.log file said “Error: IFS -DoInstall failed with a return code of”.  We noticed that the setup_log.log claimed that it had created the new database successfully, but the database was not there. After much troubleshooting, we finally realized that we needed some inbound/outbound firewall rules for our IFS database instance. The interesting thing is that the install wizard made it past the database connection screen, but once we added those firewall rules, we were good to go.

How integrating CRM and ERP can increase revenue and profitability

One of the main reasons that enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations fail is that businesses try to lever ERP into a system that it’s not been designed for. While ERP can automate and manage many back office functions for a company, it does not solve or replace other aspects of the business. One such area is customer interactions. This is where customer relationship management (CRM) systems come in. Using a CRM system enables a company to learn and act upon every single customer interaction – something ERP is not designed to do. Integrating both ERP and CRM systems to work side by side could open many possibilities for a company. With such an action, a company has a single view of all customer interactions including contact details, meetings, emails, quotes, orders, products purchased and warranty details. A significant reduction of errors or repeat data means a much more efficient process. In order to get the best out of the two types of software, the most efficient approach is to take an example of each and get them working together. It’s important to note that CRM and ERP are two very different systems. But it’s apparent that with some time and effort, successful integration of the two systems can produce an efficient and cost-effective way of working.

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Managing Groups in IFS

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Active Directory groups can be added in IFS to use for synchronization and automated role assignment. To add a group to IFS, navigate to Manage > Groups. Click the add button to add a group, or click on a group in the list to update it. Selecting the “Sync users” checkbox means that users from that AD group will bey synchronized with IFS each time a sync is done. You can also auto-assign roles to users in the AD group by going to Manage > Master Data. Select Security Role, then Details. On the left side, select the role you want to assign. On the right side, click the Groups tab, and select the add button. Choose the group(s) for which that role should be assigned. Select Apply and/or Ok, then click the save button at the top. The next time you have a scheduled sync, all users in that AD group will be assigned the role(s) you defined.

Infor Knowledge Base (KB) and Documentation Search Tips and Tricks

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Troubleshooting Infor/Lawson issues can be tricky at times due to the scarcity of resources online. Finding an Infor specific solution through a standard Google search is usually fruitless. In these cases, the absolute best help usually comes from an Infor Knowledge Base (KB) article or actual Infor documentation as the instructions there are coming straight from the horse’s mouth.

Unfortunately, it can be quite tricky to use the search to find what you are looking for. Even when I know exactly what I’m looking for, I have seen the search results display wildly irrelevant articles. Even when I type the exact title of the KB article, the results sometimes do not show it.

Here are some tips and tricks to help you search through Infor’s Knowledge Base (Full article: KB 1182904)

  1. Do you know the ID Number?
    If you have the incident number, KB article ID, or Documentation topic ID on hand, there is no need to mess with search terms at all. Simply search the number and just the number itself to find your article.

    YES
    NO

  2. Try to favor Singular words over Plural in the Search Phrase
    Infor recommends using singular words in your search phrase for better search results.
  3. Using Wildcards in the Search Phrase
    There are two wildcard characters (* and ?) available to use in the search phrase to expand your results. Wildcard characters serve to complete a word when you are not sure of the entire word. Wildcard characters apply to single words and not the entire phrase.

    • Asterisk (*): Adding this to a word will add zero or more characters to the word to look for all words that include the characters provided. For example, searching for term “account*” will return results that start with account but can end with any number of letters after account. Words such as accounts, accounting, accounted would all be included in the search results.

    • Question mark (?): Adding this to a word will add one character to the word to look for all words that include the characters provided. For example, searching for term “?ate” will return results that end in ate but can start with any one letter. Words such as late, date, rate, gate would all be included in the search results. If it was an asterisk instead (*ate), words such as elucidate, satiate, plate would also be included.

    Note: if you use the * in a word in the search phrase and the search engine finds too many matches, you may get no results returned.

  4. Using Special Characters
    The only special characters that are considered by the search are:
    • slash (/)
    • dash (-)
    • underscore (_)

    All other special characters (such as !,@,#,$,&) will be replaced by a space when the search is performed. These are not searchable.

  5. Types of Searches
    If your search contains just one word, regardless of the setting of the Search Exact Phrase checkbox, an “Exact Phrase” search will be performed. Only those KB articles/Documentation topics that include the word, a form of the word, or a synonym for the word, will be included in the search result. If your search phrase is “execute”, you should expect to see KB articles/Documentation topics including: execute, executed, executing, run, runs, and running in the search result.

If your search contains more than one word and Search Exact Phrase = unchecked, an “All of the Words” search is performed. If there is at least one result that contains all of the words in the search phrase, then the results are displayed. If there are no results that contain all of the words in the search phrase, then an “Any of the Words” search will be performed and all of the KB articles/Documentation topics that contain at least one word in the search phrase will be displayed in the search result.

If your search contains more than one word and Search Exact Phrase = checked, an “Exact Phrase” search is performed. If there is at least one result that contains the exact phrase, then the results are displayed. If there are no results that contain the exact phrase, then an “All of the Words” search is performed. If there is at least one result that contains all of the words in the search phrase, then the results are displayed. If there are no results that contain all of the words in the search phrase, then an “Any of the Words” search will be performed and all of the KB articles/Documentation topics that contain at least one word in the search phrase will be displayed in the search result.

Refer to the Search Terms Match filter on the search result page to see what type of search was performed:

  1. Search Exact Phrase Checked vs Unchecked

    If Search Exact Phrase is selected:
• Automatic spell correction is not performed. The search terms are searched as-is.
• “Noise words” are not removed from the search phrase.

    If Search Exact Phrase is NOT selected:
• Automatic spell correction is performed. There will also be a “Search instead for” option to search the original phrase with no correction.
• “Noise words” are removed from the search phrase.

  • You can surround a word with double quotes (“”) to avoid auto spell correction and noise word removal.

    • The numbers zero through nine (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) are also considered noise words.
  • The individual letters of the English alphabet are also considered noise words.
  1. Infor General Recommendations
  • Use the Advanced Search options on the search criteria page only if you know for certain that the search result should include results with only those criteria.
  • On the search criteria page, select multiple product lines if you are unsure where an issue might originate.
  • When conducting a search, start with a simple search phrase and if too many results are returned, try adding more words to constrain the search result.
  • On the search result page, only use the filters on the right if you are certain that the search result should be filtered by those selections. If you are uncertain, you might consider modifying your search phrase.

Sudima Hotel Group digitizes with Infor for Expansion

New Zealand Sudima Hotel Group recently partnered with Infor to deploy the Infor Hospitality Management Solution (HMS) across its hotel chain to streamline its rapidly-growing hotel operations. With hotels in Auckland, Christchurch and Rotorua, and three new hotels across New Zealand set to open in the next fourteen months, Sudima Hotel Group needed a realiable cloud-based solution that scales easily, integrates seamlessly with existing booking platforms and provides on-going service support.  They have embedded Infor HMS which will support a complex ecosystem of software, data and support systems as the business continues its rapid expansion. Michael Chinnery, Group Financial Controller at Sudima Hotel Group, says of Infor, “Infor HMS is a proven property management system (PMS) and we are confident that our partnership with Infor enables our business to spend less time on paperwork, provide greater insights on customers, with the knowledge that we are able to easily scale these solutions as new locations are launched.”

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Setting Up LSF Java User Permissions for IPA

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When working with Infor Process Automation (IPA), code or programs can be executed remotely on the Lawson System Foundation Server through these four nodes:

  1. System Command Node
  2. File Access Node
  3. Resource Query Node
  4. Resource Update Node

These nodes work by making a connection (via RMI call) to a java.exe process running on the Lawson System Foundation Server. Therefore, it is vital that the process owner has the proper access to run these commands.

Follow the instructions below to configure your LSF system so these processes will be owned by a user that has the necessary access:

  1. Create two files (pfrmi.cfg and pfem.cfg) in %LAWDIR%/system directory. The next time the process flow is restarted, the java.exe process will refer to these files to specify which user will start the java.
  2. Both files should be identical and have just two lines each:
    line 1: LAWSONUID DOMAIN\accountname
    line 2: 

LAWSONUID DOMAIN should be replaced with your own domain and accountname should be replaced with your own account name. This is the user you are designating to run the java command. This user needs to have the proper access to run those commands. This domain/accountname combo needs to be a valid user defined in the LSF Environment Service Identity.

The second line needs to be a blank line. (Only if LSF system is running on Windows. No blank second line needed for UNIX)

line 1/line 2 are there to show you the line numbers. The actual words “line 1” and “line 2” should not be in the files.

How to Edit the Infor Initial Portal Log-in Screen

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There are several reasons why one would want to customize the initial Infor portal log-in screen:

Maybe you don’t like the color scheme or would like to replace the logo with your company’s logo. Maybe your users are forgetting their passwords and you would like to include a “Forgot your password?” link on the page. Maybe the log-in box area is too small for your liking.

Whatever the case, you can use HTML to edit this log-in page as needed. The HTML page will be in IBM/Websphere directory. You will be able to locate login.html in the …\sso.war\v4 directory.

Open up login.html in an IDE of your choice and create HTML changes accordingly.