Xometry Finds Scalable Solution for Custom Manufacturing with Infor

Xometry, an on-demand manufacturing platform, has selected Infor Cloudsuite Industrial to help the company increase agility and alignment with the fast-changing industry. The 4 year old company developed a software platform to enable product designers and engineers to upload 3D files and receive instant prices, expected lead times and manufacturability feedback across a wide range of manufacturing technologies. In the past year, Xometry has grown from having 100 manufacturers to over 1,100 manufacturers, serving over 10,000 customers seeking suppliers, including BMW and General Electric. With the rapid growth, Xometry needed to invest in a third-party solution to help them manage a large amount of small orders. Enter Infor Cloudsuite Industrial Solution. The Cloud based software offers Xometry an end-to-end solution for greater network visibility, and provides contextual analytics and collaboration tools designed to help with customer service.

 

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Can Brain Hacking Impact your CRM Program?

Technology has reshaped almost every industry today. Tech-savvy leaders and CIOs attempt to supplement productivity by incorporating cutting-edge business processes such as reward systems to drive customer engagement. Incentive systems release dopamine into consumers’ brains, which engages them to work more toward future rewards. Marketers leverage this drive to improve their existing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) programs. If CIOs can prioritize potential customers, they can leverage these new age technologies without any complications. Companies should use data to customize and improve users experience with their existing CRM program.

 

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The Value of Artificial Intelligence in CRM

When Artificial Intelligence, as most other new technologies were introduced years ago, it was not met with a positive response. Today, people are wondering when AI will be more utilized. With immense potential, AI is making its presence felt in across many industries, including Customer Relationship Management (CRM). The marriage between AI and CRM can provide endless potential to any business. AI can assist CRM with customer engagement via web, phone, mobile applications, and more. With AI’s quick data analysis capability, all individual customer profiles can be analyzed in a fraction of second with greater accuracy reducing time and enabling better interaction. Recognizing AI’s ability, top companies like Microsoft, Oracle, and Salesforce expect to see huge differences with this technology’s merger with their CRM programs.

 

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4 Valuable Lessons From Major ERP Fails

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems can bring immeasurable benefits to any company. It is the backbone of any organization, playing a crucial role in keeping all operations running smoothly. Though, like any part of a business, it is susceptible to complications, leading to costly mistakes and lasting damages. Unfortunately, no company is immune to the devastating impacts of an ERP failure. In 2000, Nike lost $100 million in sales due to a failed supply chain project. Right before Halloween in 1999, Hershey’s was unable to distribute $100 million worth of chocolate because the company’s ERP implementation failed. In 2004, A buggy ERP implementation prevented nearly 27,000 University of Massachusetts students to register for classes or collect financial aid checks.

The good news is that ERP failured can be avoided. Below are lessons learned from ERP failures of the past to ensure future implementations run better.

  1. Expect Extended Timelines and Plan Accordingly
  2. Set Realistic Budget Expectations
  3. Be Patient and Prepared to Problem Solve
  4. Know What You Really Need

 

While most businesses make setup for ERP systems a breeze, it can be easy to get overwhelmed by the challenges thereafter. ERP systems, even the best of the best, come with their fair share of complexities. Keeping in mind the lessons learned from past failures, your next ERP implementation can drive efficiency and security in your business and improve operations management.

 

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Capital Region Medical Center Gains Greater Functionality with Infor

Capital Region Medical Center (CRMC) has selected Infor Cloudsuite Healthcare and Infor Cloverleaf Clinical Bridge to aide in increasing operational efficiencies and improving patient outcomes. With the implementation of a new electronic health records (EHR) system, the medical center, an affiliate of University of Missouri Health Care, needed a software platform to better integrate operational and clinical information from disparate systems. Infor was selected because of depth and breadth of functionality embedded in the platform. The Financial and Supply Chain Management functionality will support more strategic and accurate decision making for CRMC. Infor Clinical Bridge gives CRMC a proven, pre-built adaptor for connecting Infor business applications and key clinical systems throughout the many departments across the entire organization.

 

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Infor Asset Management Solution Selected by Genesee & Wyoming

Rail Freight and Logistics Leader Genesee & Wyoming (G&W) has selected Infor Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) in the Cloud as its global asset management software. G&W owns or leases 122 short line and regional freight railroads worldwide, and with Infor EAM once live, they will gain the support in both linear assets, such as railroad tracking, and rolling stock assets, such as locomotives and railcars. This will enable G&W to gain access to deeper, more timely insights, which will facilitate more tailored maintenance planning. “The cloud-based, mobile-enabled capabilities inherent within Infor EAM will allow us maximum visibility across all of our key assets, delivering greater precision in our planning for optimum service at the lowest cost,” comments Tim Shakerley, European Engineering and Safety Director of G&W’s Freightliner subsidiary.

 

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Crusaders Harness Power of the Cloud to Increase Fan Base

Since their partnership, New Zealand Super Rugby Team the Crusaders have seen significant increase in ticket sales for the 2017 season, a 10 percent surge thanks to Infor Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and campaign management software. The Crusaders are the world’s most successful non-international professional rugby team. With an ever-growing customer fan base of 120,000, the Crusaders face two key challenges – how to improve data management, and how to more efficiently and effectively communicate with current and future customers. The eight-month implementation enabled the Crusaders to leverage Infor CRM software to centralize customer data, analyze and better segment customers, delivering an overall improved customer experience.

Key results from the implementation include:

  • An ROI of 7.66 or $7.66 for every $1 invested (outperforming the target ROI of 6)
  • A reduction of 12% in spend on the 2017 season membership program
  • An increase of 10% in 2017 ticket sales

Warren Goddard, General Manager Commercial, The Crusaders, shares how they hace the competitive advantage by being able to engage with their fans in real time, and tailored for their unique customer experiences.

 

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Infor Announces New Financial APIs in its Infor OS Platform

Infor recently announced new application programming interfaces (APIs) for Infor CloudSuite Financials & Supply Management in the Infor ION API Gateway. These APIs can provide access to a variety of integration possibilities to mobile, cloud, web, and server-based applications for vertical industries which Infor serves. Well-designed open APIs provide the flexibility to be more agile, and help adapt to the changing needs of an organization, without compromising existing experiences. With the APIs now available as part of the Infor ION API Gateway, it can act as a key hub of the digital enterprise, providing access internally and externally to applicable web, mobile or server-based applications. This gateways aims to provide market-leading capabilities within finance and supply management, as well as serves as part of an end-to-end ecosystem of Infor and non-Infor solutions for the enterprise.

 

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Top 10 ERP Implementation Best Practices For Manufacturers

New Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems get implemented and modified often because of constant business growth. When an ERP implementation starts with a clear business objective combined with insight, expertise, and knowledge of internal systems the probability of success exponentially increases. The following are ten ERP Implementation Best Practices on how to successfully implement an ERP system:

  1. Have clear business goals supported by project-based and operational analytics, metrics, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)?
  2. Benchmark current operations to get a baseline of performance to measure progress against.
  3. Rely on an organized stage-gate process that the project lead owns to keep customization requests to the implementation of scope.
  4. Consider hiring an experienced independent ERP consultant to add to your bench.
  5. Create, implement and track how communications and change management plans are working.
  6. Identify and reward the power users/super users who will be resources and trainers for the team.
  7. Celebrate team successes and explain how these wins will impact the company’s future.
  8. A project team may evolve but should never end.
  9. Avoid trying to “boil the ocean” when it comes to operations technology.
  10. Understand that Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Industry 4.0, and smart manufacturing adds another dimension of complexity that needs to be evaluated relative to business goals.

Just as every aspect of a manufacturing company contributes to customer satisfaction and delivering value, the truest indicator of a successful ERP system is that it provides stability and growth of the business for years to come.

 

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4 CRM Hacks Every Entrepreneur Should Be Using

When starting a business, entrepreneurs all have one thing in common – to give their customers the best product/service they can offer. Brands depend on personal relationships to turn leads into customers, and customers into long-term customers. Personalization comes from customer data – which usually means using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. As important as CRM is to a company, many businesses either stray away from such a complicated process, or in the case of budding businesses, often don’t know how to execute and leverage it properly.

Here are four tips to get more from CRM systems and turn it into a powerful weapon.

  1. Tell the software what to streamline.
  2. Make sales and marketing play nice.
  3. Use robots to make CRM adoption easy.

Most entrepreneurs know they need a CRM, but they use time, cost, and training as an excuse not to implement. When used correctly, a CRM system can go from an operational necessity into a competitive advantage.

 

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