News | Nogalis, Inc.

We are living in the digital age, and the best innovations are showing up every day. If your business is stuck in it’s traditional ways, you can get left behind. The problem, though, isn’t the lack of available technology, but the overwhelming feeling of learning and implementing something new. The key to lessen the intimidation of technology is to be smart about what tech to employ and whether you are up to the task of administering and maintaining that technology. There is no rush to change everything to tech, but there is a need to replace legacy systems with newer, (and often times) easier ways of doing things. Keeping up with emerging technology is like a full time job. Software, mobile devices, and servers are constantly advancing, always needing updates. So how do you keep up? Once you learn about your new technology at the very least the basic level, utilize your IT guys and make them the experts of your new technology and your go-to guys for any concerns. Startups and existing businesses today need technology in their organization to stay relevant. If you’re still a bit overwhelmed by this tech talk, consult with a technology expert and see how you can make some technological changes to your business.

02/28/2019

Cloud V11 Couldn’t Trigger Delivered IPA Service

The other day, we configured the delivered IPA service PurchaseOrderApproval, which is supposed to be triggered by releasing a PO. We set up the purchasing companies to require approval, and we made sure the buyers used the company defaults. And still when we would release a PO, the status went to “Released. Not Issued.” instead of “Needs Approval”, and no work units were created.

After verifying all of the settings on the Service Definition and IPA process, we finally realized that the tester did not have any Context Properties attached to her Actor record. Context Properties are found under the Security menu when you log into CloudSuite Financials under the Administration Console role. To assign contexts to an actor, choose “Actor Context”. Search for your actor, and add the necessary context values to the actor. The value will be your company’s Finance Enterprise Group, a value provided to you by Infor.

02/25/2019

4 CRM marketing trends to ignite 2019

Never has the term “customer centric” been more powerful than it is in this era of popular opinion. Thanks to technology, the customer’s voice has become more powerful than ever before. If businesses want to have success, they must cater to their customers and adjust their customer relationship management (CRM) strategies to cater to today’s ever-important customer needs. Sugeshni Subroyen, marketing guru for the Mint Group of Companies, shares 4 CRM marketing trends to tap into in 2019.

Tapping into the millennial market – This demographic is taking over the “norm” and catering to this group can make or break your business. Millennials gravitate to brands with purpose; therefore, a big focus for 2019 is marketing products that stand for something and solutions that give back to society.
AI and data-driven insights – CRM technologies that make use of artificial intelligence to build rich 360-degree views of customer life cycles across multiple business disciplines unlock further customer possibilities.
Social engagement – Sales and marketing teams need to monitor and understand customer sentiment and need to remain close to their customers on a regular basis. Most CRM systems enable sentiment-analysis monitoring through social engagement, which allows sales and marketing professionals to be proactive in engaging with their customers to increase customer retention rates.
Mobile/voice search and voice assistants – Voice search and digital assistants are the new trends that are fast becoming the primary mode of search (i.e. Cortana, Alex and Siri) By 2020 more than half of all searches will take place via voice search. Organizations should enhance their campaigns to cater to user search intent which is either informational, navigational or transactional.

BONUS: 5. Dynamics 365 for trend adoption – Cloud-based CRM technologies, such as Dynamics 365, comprise intelligent applications that drive sales productivity and improve the value of marketing efforts through social insights, business intelligence and campaign management. Dynamics 365 can easily cater to the trends mentioned above as well as any future developments.

As we continue to evolve in this digital age, businesses need to stay closely connected with customer expectations on an ongoing basis. Therefore, your CRM strategy should be based on a system that can seamlessly adapt to trends.

02/22/2019

Other Authentication Options for Infor Lawson Applications

On March 1, 2019, Infor will no longer support LS/STS authentication configuration for Lawson applications. The Infor recommended configuration will be to use Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) for Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication. To learn more about ADFS, check out our other articles on the topic:

What are our other options?

If your organization chooses not to move to ADFS at this time, you have two other temporary options.

Use Kerberos for authentication

Kerberos is another authentication type provided by Windows, and also works with your Active Directory. This authentication type is supported in Infor Lawson 10.

Stay in an unsupported authentication configuration

As of March 1, 2019, Infor will no longer be releasing Lawson patches that take LS/STS authentication method into account. This doesn’t mean your current versions of Lawson applications will stop working if you fail to move to ADFS at this time. It just means that you won’t be able to upgrade past a specific ESP for each product (10.0.9 for Lawson). When Infor sunsets the product versions that allow LS/STS, you will then be on an unsupported product version. It is looking like this will happen sometime early 2021.

Have more questions? Contact us and setup a free, no obligation call with our installer to answer all your questions.

02/20/2019

Five Things You Need to Know About Implementing ADFS For Your Infor Lawson Applications

On March 1, 2019, Infor will no longer support LS/STS authentication configuration for Lawson applications. The Infor recommended configuration will be to use Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) for Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication. To learn more about ADFS, check out our other articles on the topic:

Five Things to Know About Implementing ADFS

Here are some pro tips to help you prepare for your ADFS implementation.

Version compatibility is important

Before you begin your ADFS implementation, it is important that you verify component compatibility. Check the Lawson compatibility matrix for which version of ADFS is compatible with your versions of Lawson and Ming.le. You must also verify that the version of ADFS you are installing is compatible with your version of Active Directory. Additionally, you will need a minimum Windows Server version of 2012R2 on the server that is hosting ADFS and your domain controllers.

You might need a new server(s)

The ADFS installation for Infor Lawson applications also requires Infor Federation Services (IFS) to be installed on the same server. If you are not prepared to host IFS on a shared ADFS server, you will need to stand up a new Windows server dedicated to ADFS/IFS for Infor applications.

There will be small changes in user maintenance

ADFS is an authentication method, and user maintenance will change slightly. For instance, you will be able to disable users right in ADFS rather than having to do it in Lawson Security. Also, there will be a new identity to maintain in Lawson Security. When you implement ADFS, you will need to import all your users into IFS. However, implementing ADFS will not change the user authorization tools. You will still use Lawson Security Administrator (LSA) or Infor Security Services (ISS) to maintain users and roles, and those roles will work the same.

SSL is required for Infor Lawson applications

All of your Lawson web applications must use HTTPS to be able to implement ADFS. If your web applications are not currently using HTTPS, it is recommended that you make this change prior to implementing ADFS. You will need to choose a certificate authority (CA) and install certificates at each endpoint.

You need a SQL Server to host IFS databases

IFS will create new SQL Server databases, so you will need to have a SQL Server to host those. You can use a shared database server for this, such as your server that hosts Ming.le data or the server that hosts your Lawson data.

Have more questions? Contact us and setup a free, no obligation call with our installer to answer all your questions.

02/20/2019

Infor Healthcare Continues to Experience Significant Growth

With the positive outcome at HIMSS 2019, Infor continues to be successful in the healthcare sector. With the continued adoption of Infor CloudSuite Healthcare growing over the past fiscal year and with expanding relationships with applications specific to healthcare, customers are seeing a wealth of success upgrading their systems to the newest iteration of Infor CloudSuite™ Financials & Supply Management. Infor also plans to release its next major update to the Infor Cloverleaf Integration Suite in Winter 2019. The newest iteration, version 19.1, will help healthcare organizations, health information exchanges (HIEs), medical device manufacturers, and hospital information system vendors handle their most complex integration and information exchange challenges. Mark Weber, senior vice president at Infor Healthcare, comments of their continued success and growth, “Organizations continue to choose Infor because, above all else, we understand that the healthcare industry is ever-evolving, and that our software solutions need to evolve with it. We listen to the needs of our customers and are constantly updating our solutions to make them relevant to their current and future needs, so we can help them provide the highest level of patient outcomes while facilitating business sustainability.”

02/19/2019

Seven Myths About Implementing ADFS For Infor Lawson

On March 1, 2019, Infor will no longer support LS/STS authentication configuration for Lawson applications. The Infor recommended configuration will be to use Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) for Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication. To learn more about ADFS, check out our other articles on the topic:

What is ADFS?

Active Directory Federation Services is a Single Sign-On service provided by Microsoft. It runs on Windows Server, and provides users with the ability to sign on with one set of credentials across applications.

How does ADFS work with Lawson?

Why change our authentication method?

Although there will be some work up front to modify your configuration from LS/STS to ADFS, using ADFS for SSO authentication is actually beneficial to your organization. It is more secure because Infor applications will never have access to a user’s password. It is also a bit easier to maintain your Infor users in ADFS, in that you can enable/disable the users right within Windows instead of having to do it in Lawson Security. Additionally, implementing ADFS will open up other Microsoft security components, such as two-factor authentication.

Busting Myths

There are some common misconceptions revolving around the implementation of ADFS for your Infor Lawson application. Hopefully these explanations will help dispel the confusion.

MYTH: We can use our organization’s current ADFS installation

Infor Federation Services (IFS) must be installed on the same server as ADFS. So, you may need to have a dedicated server for ADFS for Lawson. Also, your Infor Lawson applications cannot be hosted on the same server as ADFS. If you are installing a new instance of ADFS, make sure that it is compatible with your current version of Active Directory

MYTH: We don’t need SSL to implement ADFS

ADFS requires all of your Infor Lawson applications to use SSL (Secure Socket Layer). You will need to select a Certificate Authority (CA), and install certificates at each web endpoint. If your current Lawson web applications are not using SSL, you will need to convert them before you begin the ADFS installation/configuration.

MYTH: Our organization has to begin using ADFS for everything

The ADFS implementation is limited to Lawson and does not need to be part of any other application in your organization. A Windows server will host ADFS solely for Lawson and can be segregated to just this specific use without affecting anything else within the organization.

MYTH: The change is transparent to users

The look & feel of your Lawson web applications will remain the same, but the way users log in will change. LS/STS username format is currently “username”. When you switch to ADFS, users will log in with format “[email protected]”. Also, keep in mind that if you have to update to a compatible ESP in any of your applications, there may be some slight changes in what the users see on the forms they use. Make sure this is done well in advance so the ESP can be tested thoroughly.

MYTH: Infor won’t support us after March 1, 2019

As of March 1, 2019, Infor will no longer be releasing Lawson patches that take LS/STS authentication method into account. This doesn’t mean your current versions of Lawson applications will stop working if you fail to move to ADFS at this time. It just means that you won’t be able to upgrade past a specific ESP for each product (10.0.9 for Lawson). When Infor sunsets the product versions that allow LS/STS, you will then be on an unsupported product version. It is look like this will happen sometime early 2021.

MYTH: User maintenance in Lawson Security is going to change

ADFS is an Authentication Method, while Lawson Security is an Authorization Method. So, you will continue to use Lawson Security Administrator (LSA) or Infor Security Services (ISS) to maintain users and roles. The ADFS authentication will not impact these roles at all.

MYTH: We use IPA, so we will have to update Landmark too

Infor Lawson products are actually the only products that allow LS/STS authentication method. So, you will not need to make any updates to your Landmark products, including IPA.

Contact us when you are ready for your move to ADFS. Our expert installers at Nogalis can make the process simple and pain-free.

02/18/2019

Infor Opens New Office in Charleston, West Virginia to Serve U.S. Government Agencies

Infor is not only making strides by growing partnerships with notable businesses, but has expanded their own business by opening a new office in Charleston, West Virginia. This office will run cloud applications for U.S. Government Agencies at the federal, state, and local level, as well as with government contractors in the public sector. The company already has ties with the state, as Infor’s Coleman Artificial Intelligence Platform is named after the inspiring physicist and mathematician Katherine Coleman Johnson, whose trail-blazing work at NASA helped U.S. astronauts land on the moon. Coleman earned her bachelors in mathematics and French with the highest honors from West Virginia State College (now West Virginia State University). Additionally, Infor is partnering with Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, and with West Virginia State University in Institute, West Virginia (just northwest of Charleston), to build a pipeline of skilled talent that is trained in software engineering, cloud operations, and support services related to Infor products. These universities are part of Infor’s Education Alliance Program (EAP), which provides member organizations access to free software used in business computing, as well as hands-on technical training. U.S. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia is pleased to have the software giant selecting the Mountain state to establish a regional office, bringing more than a hundred job opportunities to the state. The 12,000 sq/ft office anticipates bringing in 100 technical jobs to the Charleston area in software engineering, cloud operations, and consulting and support services to support its public sector customers. It is located on the 6th floor of the 18-story Laidley Tower building at 500 Lee Street East in downtown Charleston – one block away from the Charleston Transit Center and next to numerous downtown businesses.