Storegga Selects New Financial Management Solution to Support its Growing Project Portfolio

Carbon reduction pioneer Storegga has chosen a suite of Infor applications to be implemented by Infor gold channel partner Progressive TSL for its development of net zero infrastructure. Privately invested, Storegga is progressing a range of multi-partner, net zero infrastructure initiatives, including as lead developer of the Acorn Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Hydrogen Project in north east Scotland. Per the press release, Storegga selected Progressive TSL to implement the Infor SunSystems, Infor EAM (Enterprise Asset Management) and Infor OS (Operating Services) platform. Infor SunSystems and Infor EAM will provide Storegga with a powerful financial management and procurement solution, Progressive TSL will also configure Infor EAM to include other features such as Asset Maintenance as Storegga’s operations develop.

 

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Consolidating Two Item Masters

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Looking for reduction of your item master by identifying duplicate items? Here are some tips to consider when consolidating two item masters.

  1. Different ERP systems can have multiple ways of identifying an item. Many items are manufactured by different companies and they really are the same inventory item as they are interchangeable in your warehouse.
  2. Use the main manufacturer information on your item master – or the manufacturer information that your main supplier uses for the item.
  3. If different vendors provide different manufacturers items for the same item, then using a vendor item cross reference can assist with keeping track of that. Lawson does that on PO13.
  4. If there are multiple manufacturers or vendors for the item, then having a way to compare those is also important. Lawson does provide the ability to store manufacturer information in multiple ways – on the item master, on the item location record if a particular item for a location was being purchased from a different Vendor , and on the Vendor Item record. That means there are potentially multiple ways to store and find the manufacturer information for a particular item.
  5. POs are another place where manufacturer information for an item is stored so even if you are not storing the manufacturer information on the item master, you might still be able to create a cross reference by looking at your PO line data as well.
  6. Once all the options for manufacturer information are exhausted, then the remaining items will need to be matched item by item by description. This can be very time consuming especially since Lawson has a small description field which often requires considerable abbreviation of words in the description.
  7. Some additional considerations are to use the any of the other ways items might be classified This includes: generic name, Inventory classes, GL Categories, commodity codes and possibly SKUs if any of these are being stored.

 

CAF Selects Infor to Power Parramatta Light Rail Project

CAF Australia has selected Infor Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) for the Parramatta Light Rail project. Infor EAM will help CAF, a market leader in the design, manufacturing and implementation of comprehensive transport systems, manage and maintain a diverse portfolio of assets. Per the press release, the Parramatta Light Rail will create new communities, connect great places and help locals and visitors move around and explore what the region has to offer. It will connect Westmead to Carlingford via the Parramatta central business district and Camellia, with a two-way track spanning 12 kilometers and is expected to open in 2023. The deal is a long-term contract spanning 11 years for which Infor will provide a range of cloud-based asset management solutions. Infor EAM will help CAF establish a centralized asset strategy encompassing asset acquisition, control and maintenance to comply with the contractual requirements of TfNSW. The deployment will ensure FRACAS (Failure Reporting, Analysis and Corrective Action System) processes are followed appropriately, using system capability for ensuring overall asset performance and cloud technology such as automation, Internet of Things, and telemetry integrations.

 

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The 8 Latest Trends Of CRM

Customer relationship management (CRM) has become a vital part of a company’s competitive advantage. It is an opportunity to stay in the know about CRM trends for your business to manage relationships with their customers. An article on Modern Diplomacy written by Newsroom showcases the latest trends in CRM that give businesses the competitive edge.

  1. AI Is Becoming A Key Part Of CRM Systems. “Artificial Intelligence continues to disrupt businesses across industries. As a result, we continue to consume more AI daily for business and at home.”
  2. Social CRM Keeps Rising. “By looking at CRM and social media together, businesses seem to gain a more powerful overview of what customers post about them on social media. As a result, managers can access first-hand information on their brand sentiments.”
  3. Voice And Conversational UI Will Start Integrating With CRM. “Voice technology is key for the evolution of SaaS tools. It makes accessibility easier but also supports tech by making it easier and enjoyable to use. CRM will continue the adoption of voice assistant technology to support processes and interfaces.”
  4. CRM Automation. “In 2021, automation and CRM are going to be more synonymous. Automated email and the use of chatbots to communicate will be on a steady rise. Automation helps businesses to enhance business efficiency by offering high-quality services to customers.”
  5. CRM Is Interweaving With IoT Technologies. “There is going to be a continued rise in IoT devices worldwide. The use of cybersecurity scanners, smart home devices and wearable health monitors continues to grow. The technology helps businesses monitor and serve their clients in better and proactive ways that have been unimaginable for many years. The data that is generated from IoT devices are used to improve customer experience.”
  6. Consumers Expect Companies To Know More About Them. “Today, business-to-customer relationships become more and more important, just like any other human relationship. Companies need to remember their conversations with clients, understand their expectations, needs, and be able to adjust communications accordingly.”
  7. CRM Growth Will Come From New Markets. “In previous years, over 50% of CRM buyers were from real estate, distribution, consulting, and insurance. However, this market is shifting in 2021, and the growth will be in healthcare, manufacturing, insurance, and finance.”
  8. Mobile CRM On The Rise. “In the COVID era more and more businesses demand CRM solutions that are compatible with mobile UIs. With this CRM trend, sales teams can work beyond office hours and will be able to access customer data even from deep in the field without having to get back to the office.”

 

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Delete Lawson HTTP Endpoints

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This article will walk you through the process of deleting endpoints in Lawson.  You may need to do this if you decommission an external server and need to add a new server as an endpoint, or if there is an issue with your endpoint and you need to redo it.  First, you will unassign the endpoint from all its services, then you will delete it.

 

From LID or a command line window (with the environment variables set), type ssoconfig -c.  Log into ssoconfig with the appropriate password.

 

First, unassign the endpoint from all the services to which it is attached.  (You can see which services it’s attached to in ssoconfig Manage Lawson HTTP Endpoints > Export HTTP Endpoints and HTTP Endpoint assignment to Service).

 

Go to Manage Lawson HTTP Endpoints > Unassign HTTP Endpoint from Service

Enter the FQDN of your endpoint, the HTTP port, and the HTTPS port.  These are identifying values, and must be entered exactly as they are stored.  Enter the service name that you are unassigning (this will typically be either SSOP or the service you use for the thick client login).

Repeat this process with all the services that this endpoint is attached to.  Some examples are IOS, BPM, and LSADMIN.  Again, you can find out for sure by exporting the endpoint/services configuration.

Next, select “Delete existing HTTP Endpoint”

Enter the FQDN of your endpoint, the HTTP port, and the HTTPS port.  These are identifying values, and must be entered exactly as they are stored.

You must recycle Lawson after making these changes, as these types of security configurations are stored in the security caches.

 

The Top 3 Benefits of Using AI-Enabled ERP Systems

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have becom a staple to modern business models today. The digital revolution has given it an even greater boost in capability and necessity. What’s next for ERP? Two words: artificial intelligence (AI). The need for AI-enabled ERP systems stems from the many advantages in automation and decision-making from modern AI systems. AI can be used with ERP as an tension to the system’s applications. Prangya Pandab shares an article on EnterpriseTalk.com highlighting the top 3 benefits of using AI-enabled ERP systems for your business. According to Pandab, using AI-enabled ERP systems has various advantages, all of which stem from the following three characteristics:

Reduced Data Entry. “Businesses can automate almost any interaction that involves manual data entry with the implementation of AI-enabled ERP, enabling employees to focus on activities that have a greater impact on the company. These AI-enabled ERP systems can decipher data from various sources, such as online invoices and order types, using natural language processing (NLP), without requiring employees to type in data from various sources. This also reduces the risk of incorrect entries.”

Intelligent Data Processing. “ERP systems are ‘intelligent to a degree and can perform small calculations. AI-enabled ERP systems can use data from one module to make a decision in another module autonomously. This means that humans aren’t required to perform repetitive calculations or make repeated references to various ERP modules.“

Data Analytics. “While most ERP can only produce reports based on historical data, AI-enabled ERP can conduct predictive analytics to improve the certainty of decision-making processes on both an operational and strategic level. This greatly improves business agility and allows them to solve problems based on reliable data.”

 

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Alva Industries Chooses Infor CloudSuite Aerospace & Defense

Alva Industries has chosen Infor CloudSuite Aerospace & Defense as its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system running on AWS, and will be implemented by consulting partner Midport Scandinavia. Since 2016, Alva Industries has established itself a visionary Norwegian company that develops electric motors and generators for electric propulsion applications. They also produce motors for the industrial drone market. Per the press release, Midport Scandinavia uses Infor’s implementation methodology where process owners at Alva Industries, together with Infor and Midport, go through the processes that end up with a fit/gap analysis. This means that the solution can largely be activated at an early stage in the process. Tommy Andersen, chief financial officer at Alva Industries, says of the collaboration, ” Both in the defense industry and aviation, there are strict and absolute requirements for subcontractors, and it is a clear advantage that Infor can deliver a cloud solution that satisfies these requirements.”

 

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Moving to CloudSuite Financials? How will you archive your Lawson data?

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It’s official, you have finalized the project to move to Cloudsuite and are ready to begin your journey to the cloud. But wait! What will you do with all your Lawson legacy data? By now you probably know that you can’t take it all with you to the cloud without a massive undertaking. Even then, your data retention policies may not allow you to turn off your Lawson 10x (or 9.0.1) servers just yet. Looks like you have more work to do.

Keeping those servers around for another 7 years is not an option. You’re likely running several Windows 2012 servers, or worst yet, Windows 2008, AIX or AS400 iSeries. Not to mention the database servers, file servers, co-location, Disaster Recovery servers and more. It’s enough to keep the most seasoned IT manager awake at night. What if the hardware fails? What if the old OS has a vulnerability we can’t patch? What if our server admin who knows how to maintain Lawson leaves? All these what-ifs are just the tip of the data retention iceberg.
One option is to park the data in a data lake and bury it under a rug for the time being. But unless your users are data analysts with some sophisticated BI tools and skills, then the data lake might as well be a Crater laker.
What if there was a way to completely remove the Lawson footprint from your data center but still provide fast, secure, and intuitive access to all the data to your users in a way that didn’t require any servers or maintenance? The APIX Serverless Framework is just that solution. Based on the AWS serverless stack, APIX has opened up incredible possibilities for inquiry only applications never before possible without a substantial investment in infrastructure. Clients can now provision a web based, lightweight, data archive solution and migrate all their data within days rather than months and at a fraction of the cost of the other solutions with none of the risk. Find out how the APIX serverless framework can help you meet all your Lawson data archive needs and eliminate the legacy servers for good.

BSI Tax Factory 11 SAAS Update and what you need to know

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At some point this month (May 2021) BSI turned off their cloud version of TF10 in favor of their TF11 offering. Even though notifications were sent out to customers in advance, many clients did not make the move in time and were therefore left with an non-functional payroll system when their Lawson payroll could not connect with TF10. Fortunately this only affected the cloud customers. Unfortunately, BSI does not offer an extension of the TF10 product for their SAAS customers and therefore the only option is to move to version 11. The catch is if the client did not have a full backup of their TF10 environment, they may be out of luck with figuring out any custom payments, calculations or tax codes. This was the case with a few of the clients we worked with this week to get them back on track. If you’re dealing with this very issue, keep reading because although there is no easy fix, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Here are the steps we recommend you follow

  • Contact BSI to let them know you’re dealing with this issue and make sure they are aware of the problem.
  • Update your local Lawson environment to the minimum requirements for BSI TF11. There is a specific patch for BSI TF11 that varies depending on your environment version (JT-1219557). This will require down time.
  • Update your local Lawson application to the minimum requirements for BSI TF11 (JT-1179406). This will likely require a database reorg.
  • Download the TFDSFILE.exe utility from your BSI portal
  • Use the executable to generate a new TF11 xml file
  • Add the following environment variables TF11_DATASET and TF11_DATABASE
  • Download the new server side drivers for the new TF11 version that corresponds to you cloud instance
  • Change the message maintenance for PRTF to reflect the new version
  • Recompile PRTF and test
  • Setup the default mappings within your BSI version
  • If you’re using custom calcs, codes, and payments you will need to set those up again unless you have a backup of them. There are ways you can discover what they may have been but that can take additional resources and time.
The above steps should get you operational but make sure to test thoroughly before running your next payroll or you will have a hard time later making corrections. As always, if you need help with any of the above steps, feel free to reach out to us via the contact us link on our site.

French Clothing Manufacturer Lemahieu Chooses Infor for Growth

French clothing and underwear designer and manufacturer Lemahieu has chosen Infor’s multi-tenant cloud ERP solution Infor CloudSuite Fashion for implementation. Founded in 1947, Lemahieu was established as a family business with a strong local identity. With its know-how and its responsible brand image, the company has embraced each of the successive revolutions linked to technological innovations, particularly in IT. Per the press release, since the 2019 takeover Martin Breuvart and Loïc Baert, Lemahieu has experienced significant growth, and is engaged in a project to restructure its production processes based on the Infor CloudSuite Fashion solution. Restructuring is necessary for the fashion brand as Lemahieu wishes to better respond to the dynamics of the market and to the requirements of quality and social and environmental responsibility. This is an ambitious project for Infor as the tech giant must demonstrate the ability of an enterprise solution to meet the demanding requirements of a company whose relatively modest size contains an abundance of business processes as numerous as they are complex.

 

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