The Threat Against Cloud Storage: Protecting Digital Systems

Cloud storage has revolutionized the data space. This managed service offers a range of benefits including cost savings, improved data accessibility, and offering robust backup and recovery options. With this however, cloud environments are also becoming more complex and challenging for businesses. Having all this sensitive information in the cloud could be a vulnerable target for cyber attacks if we don’t properly secure our data in the cloud. To address these risks, it is paramount that companies ensure their security measures are strong.  An article on Technology Magazine shared by tech expert Amber Jackson shares the insights of executives from KPMG, IBM, Kyndryl and Persistent Systems as they comment how the current cybersecurity landscape is evolving in line with cloud storage developments.

Adapting to a changing security landscape. “The cloud landscape keeps changing and becoming more complex, with legacy systems unable to handle today’s new threat environments. With AI adoption continuing to rise and data being central to enterprise success, data security is becoming a more significant concern for businesses. In response, the security landscape is evolving in tandem with these cloud storage concerns, with organizations moving to protect the data of its workforce and clients. As Nataraj Nagaratnam, Global CTO for Cloud Security at IBM, explains, concerns like data theft are currently a leading cloud security threat. ‘Effectively addressing and preventing data theft requires a data-centric security, compliance and resilience strategy,’ he says. ‘Cloud providers have a responsibility to not only monitor the threat landscape but provide their clients with the necessary technology to protect the data they are entrusted with.’ Additionally, Ben Scowen, Vice President UK&I Cloud & Core Leader at Kyndryl, notes that businesses must evolve to embrace new cloud-based technologies – which involves changing the benchmarks for security. ‘The cybersecurity landscape has significantly expanded to accommodate evolving IT environments,’ he explains. ‘Although organizations have invested in layered, in-depth security point solutions, the siloed approach makes it difficult to grapple with the growing sophistication and frequency of cyberattacks.'”

Embracing data regulations. “‘We have moved into a data-centric world,’ Nataraj explains. “Enterprises need to stay on top of regulations that focus on data privacy and data resilience. As businesses attempt to manage the complex regulatory landscape, they can employ a sovereign cloud approach to ensure their data can remain in-country, up and running at all times, assure data privacy or comply with the latest regulations.” Additionally, Scowen notes that businesses need to be mindful of these regulations when they’re designing or implementing new systems, ensuring they adopt a “secure by design” mindset. ‘Data protection in data processing procedures is best adhered to when it is already integrated into the technology.'”

Leveraging cloud storage to gain insights. “With a robust data foundation, businesses can leverage analytics to gain insights from data sources such as the Internet of Things (IoT). ‘IoT devices collect huge amounts of data, only some of which is ordinarily used for analytics,’ explains Adrian Bradley, Head of Cloud Transformation at KPMG. ‘Cloud storage and analytics hold the key to unlocking the valuable insights in this data. This may be on pricing, customer behaviour and competitors, while also supporting preventative measures against fraud and ransomware.’ However, having a clear cybersecurity strategy remains important to protect sensitive IoT data that can be exploited. ‘Choosing the right cloud service provider is key, ensuring businesses can efficiently store, manage, and access vast amounts of data,’ Barath Narayanan, Global BFSI and Europe Geo Head at Persistent Systems, suggests. ‘Optimizing data placement ensures that information is stored as close as possible to where it will be processed, minimizing latency and enhancing overall system performance.’

 

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Lawson Security – No Programs Found with All Securable Types enabled

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In Lawson Security, you may come across a problem where no programs are found with any securable types enabled. This is a simple fix. Follow the steps below to learn how to fix security not registering Lawson (when given all securable types):

When editing the class select Add Rule, then in the Securable Types Online, add all top system codes (HR, AP, TE etc.) as shown below:

Next, you will need to validate that the objects are added:

Clear Server cache in LSA, Clear IOS cache in Portal.

Logout then log back in and test again. This should enable all and solve the issue.

 

This sort of task is commonly handled by a Lawson functional resource. Many organizations opt to engage a team of Lawson consultants who provide managed services for a fixed monthly fee. These consultant teams possess extensive expertise and diverse knowledge, making them suitable for large-scale enterprises. However, they are equally beneficial for smaller organizations that do not require a dedicated Lawson employee onsite. Nogalis provides such services, and we welcome you to reach out to us through our contact page.

 

Infor Targets Business Velocity with Added Process Mining, ESG and GenAI Capabilities

This week Infor have kicked off their Velocity Summit in Las Vegas, NV. They shared updates to its industry-specific CloudSuite portfolio on the first day. Per the press release, each new innovation, including a GenAI Assistant, process mining capabilities, and ESG Strategy Management, meaningfully enhances Infor’s suite of industry-specific products built to drive value. Infor developed its multi-tenant CloudSuite tech stacks with out-of-the-box hyper-specific capabilities, redesigning the way organizations work and helping to reduce risk.  Infor offers industry specific automations, leveraging AI and machine learning, which are pre-configured solutions that customers can easily deploy without disruption to core systems – as a means to further drive value.

Key updates of Infor’s October release include:

  • Turning conversations into business clarity with new GenAI Assistant and additional embedded experiences.
  • Providing enhanced, accelerated visibility into business processes with Infor Process Mining.
  • Helping customers stay on top of new compliance regulations with new modules for ESG Strategy Management and Execution.
  • Industry-specific supply chain management enhancements help improve supply chain accuracy, reduce manual intervention, and speed time to value.

Infor invites businesses to follow along in the conversation at its two Velocity Summit customer events, in Las Vegas from Oct. 1-2 and in Amsterdam from Oct. 22-23 with the hashtag #InforVelocitySummit

 

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Data silos no more

Studies have found that businesses face an average 12% of significant revenue losses due to data fragmentation and silos, which impede productivity and create blind spots. Yoana Cholteeva, chief staff writer, shares an article on ERP Today discussing the challenge of data silos within organizations, which occur when different departments or units maintain separate databases that are not integrated. This fragmentation leads to inefficiencies, as employees struggle to access necessary information, causing delays and miscommunication. Cholteeva emphasizes the importance of breaking down these silos to enhance collaboration and data accessibility. To tackle this issue, she suggests adopting integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems that unify data across various functions, such as finance, HR, and supply chain. These systems promote a single source of truth, allowing departments to share real-time information seamlessly. This integration helps in improving decision-making and boosts overall organizational agility. Furthermore, the article highlights the role of cloud technology, which facilitates easier access to data from anywhere and on any device. The shift to cloud-based ERP solutions is also associated with cost-effectiveness and scalability, enabling businesses to adjust their data needs as they grow. Data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) are mentioned as tools that can be leveraged to gain insights from integrated data, offering predictive capabilities and enhancing strategic planning. Cholteeva concludes by urging organizations to prioritize data integration to not only improve operational efficiency but also to foster innovation and competitive advantage in the market.

Landmark Grid Error: Invalid queue data passed to UserActionManager

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The following error can be seen in the landmark grid log if a user action has action count:0 but has completed because “Timeout” is a system action and does not count as an action coming from the flow.

This error will appear every 30 minutes in the grid log (each time the escalation thread runs)

 

“Landmark Grid Error: LPA: Error: Invalid queue data passed to UserActionManager (workunit: 35854, activity: 2, action count: 0)”

 

Resolution:

Log in through richclient and search on “pfiactivity” in the search bar. Use this menu, find the workunits that are generating the error in the grid log and check each of the activities to ensure that each one has a status of “completed”. If the status is not “completed” you can manually update the status to resolve the error.

The 10 Biggest AI Trends Of 2025 Everyone Must Be Ready For Today

It is no secret that artificial intelligence (AI) has taken over our technological space. From boardrooms to classrooms to our own living rooms, it’s only going to continue to become more deeply interwoven in our personal and professional lives. Strategic business & technology advisor Bernard Marr shares an article on Forbes forecasting some of the biggest AI trends we’ll see in 2025 that everyone must be ready for right now.

  1. Augmented Working. “In 2025, I predict that there will be more thoughtful consideration of how humans can work hand-in-hand with AI to augment our technical abilities while freeing up our time to apply our creative and interpersonal skills to jobs that machines still can’t manage. Rather than simply adding chatbots to everything, this will be the way smart businesses begin to generate real value from AI in the coming year.”
  2. Real-Time Automated Decision-Making. “With businesses beginning to get to grips with the challenges of using AI strategically, those with more mature AI strategies will move toward end-to-end automation of entire business processes. This is likely to take place across logistics, customer support and marketing, where algorithms will make decisions such as how to manage inventory or how to respond to customer inquiries with minimal human intervention. “
  3. Responsible AI. “In 2025 there will be a growing awareness of the importance of developing and deploying AI in a way that’s ethical, secure, transparent, reliable and respectful of intellectual property rights. Though some of this will be driven by legislation, there’s also a growing awareness of the harm that can be caused by the irresponsible use of AI.”
  4. Generative Video. “Imagine being able to type the outline of a movie – or a short section of video, anyway – and see it brought to life in front of your eyes. Think ChatGPT but for moving images. OpenAI demonstrated proof-of-concept with its Sora model this year, and 2025 could be the year it starts to become available.”
  5. Next-Gen Voice Assistants. “AI voice assistants have been a part of our lives for many years now, but their conversational capabilities have traditionally been quite limited. This year, OpenAI demonstrated a new “interruptable” advanced voice mode for ChatGPT, capable of holding a remarkably human-like conversation. In 2025, I think we will see these capabilities appearing in an ever-growing number of devices, enabling more natural and useful voice-to-voice communication.”
  6. AI Legislation And Regulation. “In 2025, we can expect more regulations on AI, with a focus on prioritizing human rights and mitigating the potential for discrimination and disinformation.”
  7. Autonomous AI Agents. “Most AI tools we see in use today work on the basis that they carry out simple tasks, such as generating text or interpreting data in order to make predictions. This could be seen as an important step towards achieving “general” AI that’s able to apply itself to many different types of tasks. However, it also raises complicated questions about the need for AI oversight and accountability.”
  8. Navigating A Post-Truth World. “Dealing with the explosion of fake content and false news that can now be generated thanks to AI will be a major challenge for society as a whole during 2025. In 2025, I expect to see society begin to adapt to deal with this challenge. The change will be driven by governments through legislation, but also through education and at a grassroots level as we learn to become more critical of the information, we’re presented with.”
  9. Quantum AI. “While still in its infancy, quantum computing – which leverages the strange properties exhibited by materials at a sub-atomic level to perform certain computational tasks at unprecedented speed – could revolutionize AI. Enabling algorithms to work at speeds hundreds of millions of times faster than is possible using standard computers won’t just make AI faster. It could also become capable of tackling entirely new tasks, opening up new possibilities in fields ranging from vaccine and medicine development to the creation of new materials and energy sources. Expect excitement to start growing around the mind-melting potential of this during 2025!”
  10. AI In Cybersecurity And Defense. “Cyberattacks will continue to become increasingly frequent and sophisticated during 2025. This means that AI systems will become even more essential when it comes to detecting potential breaches, identifying anomalies, and automating cybersecurity systems to deal with threats before they cause critical damage. With a growing number of threats taking the form of phishing or social engineering attacks, chatbots will play a part by simulating phishing attacks and teaching us how to spot and avoid attempts to trick us into becoming victims.”
  11. Sustainable AI. “There are two elements to this one. First, there’s a growing awareness of the huge power consumption of cloud-based AI systems, and I think we will see a concerted effort to switch to sustainable and renewable energy sources in data centers. Secondly, there’s a huge potential for AI applications designed to improve sustainability and reduce the environmental footprint of other industries. From algorithmically minimizing water and pesticide use in agriculture to more efficiently routing traffic around cities in order to reduce pollution caused by vehicle emissions, 2025 will see AI continue to establish itself as a powerful tool for environmental protection.”

 

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Adding Main Content in Portal 10.1

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Lawson Portal 10.1 Series – Adding Main Content in Portal 10.1

We’ve covered three articles in the Lawson Portal 10.1 series: how to personalize the theme and portal elements of your Lawson Portal, as well as how to add personal bookmarks on the page. In the next part of the series, we will go over how to add main content.

 

In Lawson Portal 10.1, adding content to your main screen is very similar to previous versions.  First, open the left-hand menu and go to General > Content.

Expand the bookmark that has the you wish to add (on the left).  Double-click the subordinate (under the bookmark) that you wish to see on the main content page.  The item will be moved to the right side under Main Content after it is added.  If you don’t see the bookmark you are looking for, check with your administrator to make sure you have access.

Before:

After:

Click Save and Reload Infor Lawson.  Now your homepage will contain the content you selected.

 

The 5 Steps to Easy Cloud Migrations for Financial Companies

“Disruptions to daily operations, unnecessary downtimes, data migration challenges, and time-consuming training for employees are just some of the challenges faced by companies in the finance industry that want to update their existing ERP systems,” says Radhika Ojha, tech expert and senior editor at ERP Today. Organizations who find it hard to migrate from their legacy on-premise systems to the cloud fear that the investment would be too costly or have too many roadblocks. However, there are solutions and providers who make projects like these as seamless as possible.  For example, solutions like SAP S/4HANA are designed to eliminate these uncertainties as ERP and solution providers collaborate to ensure stability and certainty in a firm’s migration to the cloud. Ojha shares an article for Financial companies to take for cloud migrations. For businesses that want to migrate to cloud, it takes five steps to ensure they get a robust and scalable solution:

Step 1: Choosing the right solution and process. “The first step is to choose the solution that meets the business needs rather than the “hot new thing” in the market. At this stage, companies should choose an ERP partner to coach their teams through the migration process. The partner can help them understand the adaptations from their current working style to new methods in Cloud ERP systems like SAP S/4HANA that come with business processes which incorporate standard industry best practices.”

Step 2: Getting familiar with the new platform. “As soon as access is provided, it helps to familiarize the team with the new platform as soon as possible so that the testing can help the solution provider build on how the cloud ERP will function within the business.”

Step 3: Activating new processes. “This step allows the organization to understand the new processes that a business or division will use. These could include discrete or customized business processes or end-to-end ones. This step helps users to prepare for the shift to full production in a structured manner.”

Step 4: Activating digital features. “In this step, firms add new digital processes like automated “colleagues” (RPA) or advanced reporting, depending on their needs, before launching the system. Systems like SAP S/4HANA add the latest technology like built-in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, robotic process automation, and analytics to make business operations more efficient.”

Step 5: Acceptance and adoption. “At this stage, the teams begin to operate the new system fully. Change coaches ensure that the users are empowered to use the new system and that the change being delivered benefits the whole team. This step also ensures that the new Cloud ERP system unlocks best practices. Data can also be migrated from existing systems to the new Cloud ERP platform by assessing, cleaning, and migrating it so that the new system runs perfectly from the first day and helps in the quick adoption of the new ERP.

 

For Full Article, Click Here

The 5 Biggest Technology Trends For 2025 Everyone Must Be Ready For Now

As we approach the last quarter of 2024, technology experts are already forecasting the technology trends for the coming year. Bernard Marr, strategic business & technology advisor, shares an article on Forbes of the “big picture” ideas that he believes every individual and business should consider now or at least have on their radar. Each of them presents significant opportunities but also creates risks and ethical challenges that can’t be ignored.

  1. The Convergence Of Machine And Human Intelligence. “I believe the most impactful use cases for AI in 2025 will be those that involve fostering the symbiotic relationships developing between humans and machines. This means AI tools that are more closely aligned with helping us in our day-to-day work while also augmenting our human skills and capabilities.”
  2. The Biotech Revolution. “Besides healthcare, biotech breakthroughs will continue to drive new advances in agriculture, enabling the development of disease-resistant and climate-resilient crops that reduce the need for harmful pesticides. Innovations such as lab-grown meat will also gain traction, offering sustainable alternatives to traditional meat production and helping to address global food challenges. Advances like these promise not only to extend our lives but to enhance our quality of life, as biotech continues to play an ever more impactful role in how we live, work, and care for our planet.”
  3. The Climate Tech Challenge. “Technology designed to reduce or even reverse the damage that humans have caused to the environment, as well as assist with progress toward reducing carbon emissions, will be a key growth area in 2025. I believe that 2025 will be a pivotal moment as these innovations and many others are scaled and integrated into everyday life. Of particular impact will be an acceleration in the development and adoption of clean energy storage, with breakthroughs in battery and grid-based technologies set to improve reliability and efficiency.”
  4. Cybersecurity At Global Scale. “Newly developed AI systems will be critical when it comes to detecting and preventing attacks, but the same technology is also likely to be harnessed by attackers to make life difficult. Increasingly, this will be done in pursuit of political aims. For this reason, I believe 2025 will be the year when we come to see cybersecurity as not just a technical issue for businesses to solve, but a critical element of national and global security.”
  5. A Quantum Leap In Computing Power. “The UN has proclaimed that 2025 will be the International Year Of Quantum Science And Technology. And while quantum computing may not have yet hit the mainstream in a way that’s visible to many of us, 2024 saw the emergence of several important real-world use cases. These include drug discovery and solving optimization problems in finance and logistics. With new developments in cloud-based quantum computing potentially making the technology available to many more businesses and organizations, 2025 could be the year that its impact on our lives becomes dramatically more tangible.”

 

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Adding Bookmarks in Portal 10.1

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Lawson Portal 10.1 Series – Adding Bookmarks in Portal 10.1

In the first two articles of the series we went over how to personalize the theme and portal elements of your Lawson Portal. The next article in the Lawson Portal 10.1 Series overview will cover how to add personal bookmarks on the page.

 

In Lawson Portal 10.1, adding bookmarks is very similar to previous versions.  First, open the left-hand menu and go to General > Content.

Double-click from the available bookmarks that you wish to add (on the left).  The Bookmark will be moved to the right side under bookmarks after it is added.  If you don’t see the bookmark you are looking for, check with your administrator to make sure you have access.

Before:

After:

Click Save and Reload Infor Lawson