How To Choose A Managed Service Provider For Healthcare

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Managed services are now one of the fastest growing sectors of the enterprise technology landscape. Many companies now turn to Managed Service Providers (MSPs) for help. MSPs have economies of scale on their side, allowing them to charge for basic IT services less and offer a wider range of expertise. Sources: 2, 9

 

In order to keep pace, optimize system performance and improve patient care, healthcare providers are increasingly working with MSPs. As managed IT services offer the right mix of security, scalability, reliability and flexibility needed to transform IT, healthcare organizations under pressure to maintain their own IT services on tight budgets are increasingly looking to these MSPs to manage some of their IT operations. Many healthcare providers take a “managed IT service” approach and work actively with these service providers. Sources: 7

 

If you do not have an IT department to manage your own technology, you can still benefit from hiring a (MSP). Whether you have your own IT department or not, companies are finding that they can save time and money and increase efficiency and effectiveness by signing contracts with an MSP to strengthen their existing IT staff.

 

Your business is special, your goals are important, your needs are important, and your MSP should treat you with the respect that your business deserves.  You should never feel like you’re just another number in a new customer book of IT managed services providers.

 

Once you have interviewed a managed service provider, you should consider whether it offers traditional managed services or next-generation managed services. This is especially true for managed service providers who end up with complete administrative access to your entire network. The offerings will vary, but with next-generation database managed services providers, you can place greater emphasis on accessing strategic partners who can help you accompany your data journey, taking into account the mentality that traditional database management service providers offer. Sources: 5, 10

 

Your MSP is your IT protector, intermediary and Sherpa, grouped into an IT service provider that supports your business to the extent that suits your specific needs. Your MSP gives you access to remote support staff, infrastructure management, health monitoring, scheduled on or off-site support.

 

Here are some tips and advice for the information age to help IT executives choose a managed service provider and get the best out of them. It feels as if the term “managed service provider” (MSP) has existed since the dawn of computer technology. In short, a managed service provider is a company that outsources or manages parts of an organization to its platform. Sources: 1

MSPs are growing in popularity: according to the 2017 IDC Application Services Survey, 30% of managers outsource the management of their organizations “infrastructure and application portfolios, rising to 41% in the next five years. Sources: 1

Database-managed service providers, also known as MSPs, manage the technical infrastructure, databases and systems of customers. The services offered by an MSP include managed infrastructure, data and cybersecurity. As technology changes, database management service providers must have a wide range of resources at their disposal to develop their services and software to provide their customers with the best possible service. Sources: 10

 

In response, US hospitals may consider using services from an MSP as an MSP can help your institution recruit experienced clinical talent, simplify your work process and get an invoice from one contact. Many will present you with a list of services they can offer you at a price. Sources: 3, 6

 

Choosing the right MSP is not as simple as comparing the list of services they provide and going with the provider with the lowest cost. Gain an understanding of the MSPs of your organizations by evaluating your IT environment. Your MSP is more likely to see you as a partner, and your success will depend in part on you. Sources: 0, 6

 

A potential MSPs scope of business may not be as laser-focused as a top-tier MSP, and they may not deliver the focused attention and dedication your business deserves. An effective managed service provider is one that explores more information about your business, your needs, your challenges and your goals. An MSP needs to know who you are and where you want to go, from monitoring your technology to expanding your business. Sources: 0

 

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Troubleshooting WebSphere Plug-ins GSK Error – Part 1

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When attempting to access Lawson applications hosted in WebSphere, you may encounter a 500 service error that gives very little details. If there are no exceptions in any of the LAWDIR/system or WAS systemout.log, go you should also check the http_plugin.log in WAS/plugins/logs/<web_server>. If you discover GSK error message, this indicates that there is something wrong with your certificates or IBM security.

The error message will typically look like this:

[Thu Apr 01 09:47:45 2021] 00002574 000025a8 – ERROR: lib_stream: openStream: Failed in r_gsk_secure_soc_init: GSK_ERROR_BAD_CERT(gsk rc = 414) PARTNER CERTIFICATE DN=CN=test.company.com,OU=certs,O=company,L=anywhere,ST=California,C=US, Serial=2d:7b:d0:29:00:08:00:00:5e:22

[Thu Apr 01 09:47:45 2021] 00002574 000025a8 – ERROR: ws_common: websphereGetStream: Could not open stream

[Thu Apr 01 09:47:45 2021] 00002574 000025a8 – ERROR: lib_stream: openStream: Failed in r_gsk_secure_soc_init: GSK_ERROR_BAD_CERT(gsk rc = 414) PARTNER CERTIFICATE DN=CN=test.company.com,OU=certs,O=company,L=anywhere,ST=California,C=US, Serial=2d:7b:d0:29:00:08:00:00:5e:22

This can mean that the web server certificate is expired or invalid or not matching the certificate on the trust or key stores. Another thing to try is to set “AutoSecurity=false” on the Web Server plug-in custom properties.

To do this, go to Web Servers > <web server> > Plug-in Properties > Custom properties. Create a new property. The Name is AutoSecurity and the value is “false”. Save the configuration, then generate and propagate the plugins. Make sure that the plugins xml file has the new “AutoSecurity” setting in it. Bounce the WWW Publishing services for the change to take effect and test your application again.

 

Lawson Archive Procurement Module Demo

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Access your historical Lawson data through an intuitive light-weight web interface and stop maintaining old servers and applications! In this webinar we’ll demo our procurement module and answer any questions you might have. You can access recordings of HCM and Financials demo on nogalis.com/education.

 

 

LSFCT Update RUNUSERKEY error

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The LSFCT 10.0.11.x update seems to have a small bug in it where it is not updating the RUNUSERKEY value appropriately. The symptoms of this issue are, after the LSFCT update, run a batch job and the job goes into recovery with the message “Unable to log on RUNUSERKEY Account.”

To resolve this issue, go to LAWDIR/system and edit the lajs.cfg file. Make sure that there is a space or a tab between “BATCH” and the new parameter “MAXRUNTIME”. If not, add the space or tab. Restart Lawson and try to recover the batch job.

What to do if your MSCM install values are incorrect

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When you are doing an MSCM install or update, and you “fat finger” one of the values in the wizard, it can be a real headache. In this example below, the installer defined the wrong port for the WAS connection information. The install wizard threw a java exception during the install. The install.log file indicated an issue connecting to WAS, which led to the wsadmin.traceout file, which showed the culprit as the invalid port.

To rectify this issue, you may need to update the value in two places. The first place you will definitely need to fix the value is in the install.cfg file. This is located at C:/lawson/mscm/<instance name>. The only thing you aren’t going to be able to change here is encrypted passwords. If you have mistyped a password, you will need to uninstall or revert to a backup.

The other place you may need to update the value is in the MSCM properties files. Check for the value in mscm.filter.properties, mscm.ios.peroperties, or mscm.lhc.properties and fix it there.

Now, restart your install and you should be golden!

Calling an API from IPA

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Calling an API from IPA

APIs provide a secure way for unrelated applications to communicate with each other. Infor Process Automation offers tools that allow you to utilize third-party APIs to integrate applications with Lawson. IPA processes can gather data out of third-party systems via API for import into Lawson, or they can generate data out of Lawson and format it for an API request. These integrations can be real-time or near real-time, depending on the capability of the API.

Generally speaking, APIs will be called using a Web Service Node or a Web Run Node. These nodes can be found in the Web/XML/JSON category in IP Designer.

Web Service Node

The Web Service Node is used for SOAP API calls. The authentication information can be stored in a configuration set under the Web Service tab. It is recommended that you create a new configuration set for each interface, and there can only be one Web Service configuration per set. The authentication options are Basic or WS Security. Both accept a username and password.

When setting up a Web Service node in IP Designer, select the configuration set that contains the authentication data. Populate the WSDL tab with a schema file or URL. That way, you can use the “Build” button to generate the SOAP call. You can also type the SOAP call directly into the Activity window.

Web Run Node

The Web Run node is best for APIs that use advanced security, or that don’t require XML input (i.e. the call can be made via query string). Web Run offers authentication types of OAuth 1.0a or Basic. The connection information can be set up in a configuration set, and you also have the option to override the connection in the properties of the node. As mentioned above, it is always recommended that you have at least one configuration set per interface, and bear in mind that there can be only one Web Run configuration per set.

In IP Designer, the Web Program property would be whatever comes after the Web Run URL that you configured in the configuration set, or in the override. You can also pass header strings and POST strings when needed. The third-party vendor should be able to provide you with templates for making calls. It is best to test these calls using a third-party tool such as Postman before attempting them in IPA.

 

Reading Responses

Most APIs will send back a response in either JSON or XML. There are a few methods for reading these responses so that the data can be used later in your flow.

 

JSON Parser

If the response is in JSON, use a JSON Parser node to parse the output. In IP Designer, if you go to the Output tab on the JSON parser and upload a sample document, the “Set Variable” button will show the available variables in the response.

Then, each element can be accessed from in the JSONParser_jsonvar. Each element is represented by name using the syntax [“name”]. If an element can have multiple instances, each instance should be referenced by an index (0-based). For instance, this assignment accesses the first result in the list, element “u_requested_for”, and element “value” of the u_requested_for block:

JSONParser1130_jsonVar[“result”][0][“u_requested_for”][“value”]

 

XML Node

If the response is in XML format, it can be accessed similarly to JSON, by calling each element by name. In the case of XML, it is important to include the Schema information to assist with calling each element. Once the Schema is populated (either by URL or by a xsd file), you can click the “Build” button to display each element and a sample of how it should be accessed. If you prefer working with JSON, another option for working with XML nodes is to use a JSON Converter to convert the XML to JSON. Then you can work with the output from the converter node.

 

 

Triggering

Interfaces that send data out of Lawson to a 3rd party can be run real-time. There are multiple ways to trigger a process based on some activity in Lawson (see here and here for some examples). It would be tricker to send data from a third-part TO Lawson in real-time. Typically, it’s best to do batch processing, where you reach out to the 3rd party system at some defined interval and gather whatever records are available. If real-time processing is an absolute necessity, you will need to get a little creative since Landmark and Lawson don’t have their own APIs. Some ideas would be to have the third-party app drop a trigger file to be picked up by a file channel, or to have the third-party app trigger a work unit using BPM. In all cases, there will have to be some custom programming involved.

 

Use Cases

User Deprovisioning

We had a request to query the Service Now API for users that needed to be deprovisioned. The flow then removed roles and disabled the user accounts, as well as removing any tasks they had in IPA. Then, it would update the original ticket with a status. This type of interface has many, many applications. If your help desk ticketing system has an API, you can automate tickets for interface failures, user provisioning and deprovisioning, and much more. It is important to note that most ticketing systems are highly configurable, so there should be a lot of planning up front to make sure the interfaces are efficient and leave little room for “accidents”.

The key nodes for these flows are a Web Run node that makes the GET API call with a query string; a JSON parser node that accepts the response from the API call; assignment nodes to access the data in the JSON parser; and another Web Run node that updates the ticket with a POST API call.

 

 

Automating AP Tasks

We have written many flows that reach out to various third-party vendors, such as Guidewire or Expense Wire, over API. These interfaces do everything from adding/updating vendors to creating check requests. Whenever possible, we will gather the data from the API call and put it into a flat file format that can be brought in by a conversion job (such as AP510 or AP520). This assists with error handling, and helps to mitigate points of failure. It’s also more efficient than adding data one-by-one. If a conversion program isn’t an option, it is also possible to use Lawson Transaction nodes to add data to Lawson. We also have interfaces that send data back to the originating application to keep the systems in sync.

The key nodes for these flows are a Web Service node that makes the SOAP API call with an XML request; an XML node that accepts the response from the API call; a file access node that creates a perl script to read the XML response and generate a flat file for a Lawson conversion job; and a system command node that calls the perl script.

 

 

HR Automation

APIs have quite a few applications when it comes to HR Automation. They can be used to get time records from an external system, or benefits data, or they can be used to export such data. This particular use case was for importing employees from an HR system into Lawson as vendors in AP10 so that they can be part of an expense reimbursement program.

The key nodes in this interface are a Web Run node to get the list of new employees; a JSON parser node to read the response from the Web Run; and various assign nodes to access the variables from the JSON parser.

 

 

Bank Transactions

Banks tend to be (rightfully) extra secure, so there is a good chance that the authentication process when you are dealing with a bank’s API may be a bit too complex for the Web Run or Web Service nodes. We ran into this scenario with an interface meant to send out payments to a bank for a program allowing vendors to make their own payments to the client through the bank. To get around the complex authentication methods, we wrote a custom program to handle the API calls. It accepts any payload file and sends it to the bank. We opted to keep the process in IPA rather than going fully custom, because IPA offers quick and simple hooks into Lawson, as well as an easy scheduling interface. Also, it’s often ideal to keep all interfaces in one application for maintenance.

The key nodes for this process are the XML builder, where we build the API request in the required XML format, which is then saved to a payload file. Then, there is a system command node that calls the custom executable with the path to that file, and that is what actually makes the call.

 

 

Check out our webinar, “API Integration with Infor Process Automation” to learn how to use IPA to effectively communicate with third party applications in real or near-real time.

API Integration with Infor Process Automation

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APIs provide a secure way for unrelated applications to communicate with each other. IPA allows you to utilize third-party APIs to integrate applications with Lawson. It is a way to export data such as employee records or purchase requests, as well as importing data such as time records or third-party billing & revenue.

Learn how to use IPA to effectively communicate with third party applications in real or near-real time.

 

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LSFCT Update – LID Port Already Used

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When performing an update of Lawson Core Technology, you may come across the error “LID port xxx already used”. If your services are stopped, and you know nothing is listening on the LID port, you may have to temporarily change the port to get the install to complete.

To change the port, open the command line as administrator and set the environment variables. Then, type the command “laconfig” to open the configuration screen. Change the “lalogin Port” to some other port that isn’t being used. Click “Apply” and “OK”. Continue with the technology update.

After the technology update, go back into laconfig. The port should have been set back automatically (based on the install.cfg file). If it isn’t, you can set it back manually.