Technological innovation continued to make its presence known in 2022 and the trend continues to move at an increasing pace coming into the new year. This year and in recent years impactful tech such as the Internet of  Things, 5G, and Augmented Reality (AR) paved the way. Chuck Brooks, Global Thought Leader in Cybersecurity and Emerging Tech, shares an article on Forbes of some mind-boggling technology advances we should look forward to in 2023.
  1. Artificial Intelligence (AI). “We are now on the cusp of AI emergence and AI is no longer just found in science fiction movies. AI systems seek to replicate human traits and computational capabilities in a machine, and surpass human limitations and speed. It is already happening. Artificial synapses that mimic the human brain will likely direct the next generation of computing. The components may differ, it may be analog or digital, and it may be based on transistors, chemicals, biological, photonics, or possibly quantum components.”
  2. Cognitive Computing Technologies. “Futurist Ray Kurzweil said that mankind will be able to “expand the scope of our intelligence a billion-fold” and that “the power of computing doubles, on average, every two years. Recent breakthroughs in physics, nanotechnologies, and have brought us into a cognitive computing reality that we could not have imagined a decade ago.”
  3. Robotics. “Robotics are often viewed as the face of emerging technology, especially with the growth of capabilities in humanoid type machines that captivate our attention. They have also been used for decades in automating manufacturing, farming, warehouse functions, hospitals, security, etc. for mostly routine programmable functions. Now aided by machine learning, machine vision, AI and advanced sensors, robotics has become transformative in many industry verticals.”
  4. Advanced Materials Science and 3-D Printing. “Applications for advanced materials are part of the new world of discovery enabled by AI, and advanced analytics. As with AI, it applies to the fusion of working in concert with other emerging technologies. New materials are now being developed that can be stronger, lighter, handle extreme environments, and often can function at a higher rate of efficiency. They include, (among other categories) electric materials, biological materials, composites, polymers, and nanotech.

The societal, scientific, and economic impact of these 4 technology areas will be harvested in the coming year and into the foreseeable future. I have just provided a glimpse of a few of their potential applications. It could be a very promising, likely disruptive, and probably a wild ride in the quest for actualizing new technologies of the Fourth Industrial Era.

 

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Innovation is a key formula to maintaining success in today’s business landscape. One of the easiest way to bring about innovation to your company is utilizing technology and the many advancements its given to businesses of every sector. While a business leader may be hesitant to bring about technological change because they don’t quite fully understand the right technology to introduce to their companies, they can still lay a technological foundation to invite change. Many times, it’s about having the right minds and leaders on your team. Daragh Mahon, Forbes Technology Council Member and EVP and CIO of Werner Enterprises, shares an article describing how technology can support a culture of innovation for your business.

  1. Position IT as collaborators. “Because innovation and tech are so intertwined, your IT department will play a crucial role in driving your innovation culture. They will be the builders of departmental designs and solutions, so their expertise in providing recommendations will be vital.”
  2. Invest in diverse tech leadership. “Technology is the primary tool of the modern world, and leaders need to have a solid understanding of how it can best benefit their business.”
  3. Reassess and revise your tech. “Legacy technology has been a stumbling block for many organizations as they try to modernize. Many businesses opt for building intermediate solutions between old and new solutions as a quick workaround. However, long-term costs need to be considered as well. Time and labor spent creating solutions to integrate with older systems are resources taken away from any forward-looking innovation. Newer talent may not be versed in an older system’s framework or language, making them harder to maintain as time goes by.”
  4. Create an idea-testing process. “Developing a standardized process for creating, building and testing ideas—whether technical or not—is imperative for an innovative culture. You must set clear boundaries around time, budget, resources, testing and scalability.”

 

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Common error with conversion upload file: “CSV Read Error: Bad Field Data Format for Fld: 5 on Record Nbr 1”.

 

This could happen for example when running say PR530 in Lawson.

 

There are a couple ways to resolve this issue:

 

Resolution #1:

Fix the headers of the file by removing spaces or bad characters that the program doesn’t like in the file you’re using for upload.

Also keep in mind that if there are problems with the header records, you will be able to see the exact errors in the examine log after you run the job (Job Scheduler > Completed Queue > click on completed job and then select ACTIONS from the menu and highlight Examine Log). This gives more detail as to the exact CSV Header Read errors.

 

Resolution #2:

For the job that’s throwing this error, in LID, go to jobdef and enter the username and jobname

Move down to the form field >> F6 >> C. CSV File Attributes (PR530 is the example below):

Turn off File Header and Xlt Header Names and save.

When you run the job again, it will ignore the headers and process the data so make sure the columns are correct. This has to be done per user that runs the job.

 

Good luck!

Infor recently announced that Snellman, the Finnish and Swedish ready-made food and meat processor, will implement their cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to support its future growth and new business development. Per the press release, Infor CloudSuite Food & Beverage will help simplify Snellman’s IT environment and improve the use of in-house resources. This new CloudSuite system includes automated version updates, secure maintenance and scalability of the cloud environment, as well as the ease and straightforward ability to add modular extensions as needed. Additionally, it was the industry-specific ERP system for the food industry and the advantages brought by a genuine multi-tenant cloud solution that helped Snellman chose to move from Infor M3 on-premises to the Infor cloud. Snellman will also use the Infor Factory Track functionality for logistics automation and the Infor Birst BI solution that comes with the Infor OS platform for presenting and analyzing operational data.

 

For Full Article, Click Here

Here are a few mitigation procedures to use when Landmark applications are crashing or performing very slowly and throwing core dumps on the server.

 

First, check the environment.properties file.  Validate that file is pointing to the correct version/location of Java.  Sometimes, Java is updated on the server, and the environment.properties file is not changed accordingly.  It’s not a guaranteed issue, but should be validated and resolved if found.

 

Secondly, make sure there is adequate heap space provided to the jvm.  Here are some examples for heavy processing:

 

com.lawson.was.nodeagent.jvm-init-mem=1024

com.lawson.was.nodeagent.jvm-max-mem=3072

com.lawson.was.dmgr.jvm-max-mem=4096

com.lawson.was.dmgr.jvm-init-mem=2048

com.lawson.was.<app Server>.jvm-init-mem=3072

com.lawson.was.<app server>.jvm-max-mem=12228

 

àThese values will be deployed every time a CU is applied, so you don’t have to keep updating them

 

Be sure to recycle the Landmark application server once these changes are made.

 

Note that clustering Landmark WebSphere would not do any good.  Landmark applications behave very differently from Lawson applications, and it would only waste resources to vertically scale.

 

Digital transformation, when done in a smart, planned out way, can be the key to growth for your business and team morale. Giuliana Corbo, CEO of remote-first nearshore tech solutions company Nearsure and Forbes council member, shares an article on how to improve executive leadership during periods of digital transformation in your business. Corbo states that best leaders pursue customer and team transformation not simply for the sake of embracing new technology, but to improve the customer experience, the cohesion between teams and build a resilient business that can thrive in the long term. With her own experience at Nearsure, Corbo outlines key steps that can help ease the transition into this new style of leadership.

Invest in people. “Throughout my career, I’ve found that the most important element of success is your team. By carefully selecting employees based on their cultural fit and technical abilities, companies can consistently improve the quality of their digital transformation initiatives and improve cohesion between departments.

Remember that transformation is more than technology. “I know that the most successful changes occur when new technology is integrated into the company’s larger mission statement and long-term goals. This helps improve the quality of software and ensures that the transformation helps improve teamwork, enhance leadership and solidify company culture.”

Secure stakeholder involvement. “The best executives will not only include managers, engineers and customers in the brainstorming process—they’ll also solicit feedback from regular employees. This type of leadership helps regular employees feel like their voices are being heard and are vital for maintaining a strong business culture and succeeding in the remote work age.”

Corbo concludes that those executives interested in building off of outstanding technology and promoting a culture of innovation can assist their organizations in this mission by leading from the front. This means investing in people, thinking about technology and how it fits into the bigger picture, and involving all stakeholders in the planning process.

 

For Full Article, Click Here

The adoption of “mobile” anything is an increasing trend each year. This year is no exception as 2022 say more than 5.31 billion mobile users globally. With the rise of wearables and smart devices, the demand and availability of mobile applications is a norm in our everyday and professional lives. Back End News shares an article listing the top mobile technology trends that more or less defined the way we used our devices and ran our businesses.

  1. Artificial Intelligence
  2. Mobile Security
  3. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
  4. Mobile Apps for Small Businesses
  5. IoT (Internet of Things) apps
  6. 5G Network
  7. Rise of M-Commerce
  8. Wearable App Integration
  9. Development of Cross-Platform Apps
  10. Personalization

Mobile technology is here to stay, and it will get more and more advanced this year and the next.

 

For Full Article, Click Here

A user accesses their inbasket they can see the workunit and the associated data, however when they approve the requisition it leaves their inbasket view in portal with a success message.  The workunit does not move on, nor does it show action has been taken within the workunit.

 

Also, no actions can be taken from that workunit.

 

Error from the lps.log

 

Thu Jun 16 14:19:48 PDT 2016 – Message “com.lawson.bpm.errors.ErrorMessages.com.lawson.rdtech.framework.ProcessFlowException: Unknown security exception has occurred.

at com.lawson.bpm.eprocessserver.grid.ProcessFlowExecutor.getActorContext(ProcessFlowExecutor.java:651)

at com.lawson.bpm.eprocessserver.grid.ProcessFlowExecutor.getActorContext(ProcessFlowExecutor.java:617)

at com.lawson.bpm.eprocessserver.grid.ProcessFlowExecutor.processProcessFlowQueue(ProcessFlowExecutor.java:409)

at com.lawson.bpm.eprocessserver.grid.ProcessFlowExecutor._executeFlowPrivate(ProcessFlowExecutor.java:332)

at com.lawson.bpm.eprocessserver.grid.ProcessFlowExecutor._executeFlow(ProcessFlowExecutor.java:212)

at com.lawson.bpm.eprocessserver.grid.ProcessFlowExecutorProcessorImpl.sweepPrivate(ProcessFlowExecutorProcessorImpl.java:284)

at com.lawson.bpm.eprocessserver.grid.ProcessFlowExecutorProcessorImpl.processMessage(ProcessFlowExecutorProcessorImpl.java:81)

at com.lawson.bpm.eprocessserver.grid.ProcessFlowExecutorProcessorImpl.runPrivate(ProcessFlowExecutorProcessorImpl.java:186)

at com.lawson.bpm.eprocessserver.grid.ProcessFlowExecutorProcessorImpl.run(ProcessFlowExecutorProcessorImpl.java:150)

at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:744)

Caused by: com.lawson.security.interfaces.GeneralLawsonSecurityException: Unknown security exception has occurred.

at com.lawson.interfaces.security.LawsonSecurityFactory.setRunAsUserOnDuplicateContext(LawsonSecurityFactory.java:1549)

at com.lawson.bpm.eprocessserver.grid.ProcessFlowExecutor.getActorContext(ProcessFlowExecutor.java:634)

… 9 more

Caused by: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)

at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)

at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)

at com.lawson.interfaces.security.LawsonSecurityFactory.setRunAsUserOnDuplicateContext(LawsonSecurityFactory.java:1545)

… 10 more

Caused by: com.lawson.security.authen.SecurityAuthenException: com.lawson.security.authen.LawsonUserContextImpl.security.authen.actor_does_not_support_run_as

at com.lawson.security.authen.LawsonUserContextImpl.setRunAsUserOnContext(LawsonUserContextImpl.java:1497)

at com.lawson.security.authen.LawsonUserContextImpl.setRunAsUserOnContext(LawsonUserContextImpl.java:1460)

at com.lawson.security.authen.LawsonUserContextImpl.setRunAsUserOnContext(LawsonUserContextImpl.java:1451)

at com.lawson.security.authen.LawsonUserContextImpl.setRunAsUserOnDuplicateContext(LawsonUserContextImpl.java:1592)

at com.lawson.security.authen.DataCtxUserCtxWrapper.setRunAsUserOnDuplicateContext(DataCtxUserCtxWrapper.java:432)

… 15 more

” not found.

 

 

 

Resolution:

The lawson user does not have Run As enabled.  Infor Security Administrator by default has the enable Run As set to “NO” for the lawson user.  When a change is done on the lawson user and saved in the Infor Security Administrator the run as gets flipped back to “NO” in Landmark.  Go to Infor Security Administrator and change the Enable Run As to “YES” save it.  Restart LPA and Async grid nodes.

 

 

Keywords:

 

Recently, Lippert Components Inc. (Lippert™), leading global manufacturer and supplier of highly engineered components for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), has expanded its use of Infor Configure Price Quote (CPQ) to enhance the digital buying experience for dealers and consumers. The company anticipates an increase in sales conversion and customer satisfaction. Per the press release, the company just introduced its new Solera® RV awning purchase experience through its recently deployed 3D Awning Builder tool, powered by Infor CPQ. This innovative  tool enables customers to build a custom RV awning with the capability of seeing that awning in real time via AR (augmented  reality). Vice President and general manager of Infor CPQ Ron Eismann says of this project, “We appreciate our decade-long partnership with Lippert. The increased demand from buyers for personalized products has made the need for flexibility and highly tailored digital transactions greater than ever. Infor is committed to providing our customers with modern tools to transform their business and accelerate their path to innovation.”

 

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In LID, type in jobdef, select a user and job name, then F6 >> B. Report Distribution

As you can see, this job isn’t being distributed beyond the prt file that is produced in the users print manager:

You have three options to None, direct to a printer, or to a distribution group:

If we use a distribution group, a distribution group consists of a list of users which can all have different printers setup under them within this group:

The printer itself has to be defined in printer definitions (prtdef) as well as setting up in the distribution list group definitions (dstlistgrpdef)

 

In this example, if the job definition (jobdef) was set to BENEFIT distribution group and ran, it would auto print to PRINTER123 under the lawson user.  All other users are not set so it wouldn’t print to them.  That’s it!

If your organization still heavily relies on Lawson recurring/custom jobs and are looking to support or migrate those jobs to IPA, which is harder and harder to find individuals who have all the skillsets to do so, we recommend you look into hiring a Lawson consultant team who offer managed services at a fixed monthly rate.

These Lawson teams have a wider range of expertise and knowledge and are ideal for larger organizations but also are great for smaller ones that don’t need a dedicated Lawson employee on-site that may only be an expert in 2-3 portions of Lawson.