Infor and Elvenite Expand Cooperation in Nordic Food Industry

Infor recently announced its collaboration with alliance partner Elvenite to deliver a combination of modern technology and successful, reliable implementations for food producers and the grocery trade in the Nordics based around Infor CloudSuite Food & Beverage. Having worked together since 2009, this strong partnership aids in Elvenite’s growth plan, with the goal to double turnover in three years. Per the press release, “The collaboration with Infor gives us access to the latest technology. This means we can combine Infor’s industry-specific CloudSuite with our knowledge of the food industry’s challenges, business and business processes, a combination that is extremely valuable for our customers,” says Mathias Dyberg, CEO of Elvenite. Jörn Berg, group IT applications manager at Mowi, said: “Elvenite has unique knowledge and experience of successful implementations of Infor’s products in the food industry. With their help, we have developed a global platform that we can now roll out to all our units around the world. The delivery exceeds our high expectations, both in terms of quality and results.”

 

For Full Article, Click Here

Top 10 BI Tools in 2020 to Enhance Business Productivity

Business Intelligence (BI) tools allows enterprises to lessen the time-consuming tasks of combining data manually. Finding the most data harnessing and business intelligence tool is necessary. Analytics Insight has compiled a list of 10 top BI tools best suited for your business.

Microsoft Power BI helps people create and share interactive data visualizations across global data centers, including national clouds to meet your compliance and regulation needs. You can meet both your self-service and enterprise data analytics needs on a single platform while accessing powerful semantic models, an application lifecycle management (ALM) toolkit, an open connectivity framework, and fixed-layout, pixel-perfect paginated reports.

Infor Birst® is a native cloud business intelligence (BI) and business analytics platform that helps organizations understand and optimize complex processes in less time than traditional BI solutions. Built with patented automation and machine learning technologies, Birst’s “networked BI” approach connects teams and applications across the enterprise via a trusted network of analytics and insights to inform smarter decisions.

SAS Business Intelligence software provides the most comprehensive, integrated, and easy-to-use reporting and analytics features. You can explore all your data, discover new patterns, and create rich visuals and share insights. You can quickly gain insights using automated analysis backed by machine learning, with easy-to-understand natural language explanations. Visually explore all relevant data, and quickly spot hidden relationships.

IBM Cognos Analytics is an AI-fueled business intelligence platform that supports the entire analytics cycle, from discovery to operationalization. You can visualize, analyze, and share actionable insights about your data with anyone in your organization. You can also deploy where and when you need it with support for multi-cloud environments – public, private, on-premise, and on IBM Cloud Pak™ for Data.

Qlik Sense is a complete data analytics platform that sets the benchmark for a new generation of analytics. With its one-of-a-kind associative analytics engine, sophisticated AI, and high-performance cloud platform, you can empower everyone in your organization to make better decisions daily, creating a truly data-driven enterprise. Qlik Sense is for all – executives, decision-makers, analysts, and others. It enables any BI use case and let users freely search and explore to uncover insights they won’t find with query-based BI tools.

Sisense data and analytics platform is a complete end-to-end BI platform that empowers data engineers, developers, and analysts to build analytic apps that deliver highly interactive user experiences. The Sisense data and analytics platform dramatically accelerates the time it takes to build, embed, and deploy intelligent analytic apps that unleash user creativity and engagement.

Looker’s uniquely powerful data platform helps companies get real value from their data. With Looker’s BI solution, everyone in the business can ask sophisticated questions of the data and get insights that make sense. Looker’s powerful explore section gives users of all levels a drag-and-drop experience so they can go beyond pre-made dashboards and reports to ask their unique questions. This flexible interface allows users to iterate on questions in real-time and better understand their piece of the business.

Tableau can harness the power of your data and unleash the potential of your people. It can help organizations address every step in the cycle of analytics—data preparation in Tableau Prep, analysis and discovery in Tableau Desktop, and sharing and governance in Tableau Server or Tableau Online.

MicroStrategy provides the technology to make it happen. MicroStrategy’s powerful analytical engine, comprehensive toolsets, variety of data connectors, and scalable, open architecture ensure you have everything you need to extend access to analytics across every team and business function.

Zoho Analytics is a self-service BI and data analytics software that lets you create visually appealing data visualizations and insightful dashboards in minutes. It can transform huge amounts of raw data into actionable reports and dashboards while tracking your key business metrics, see longtime trends, identify outliers, and unearth hidden insights.

 

For Full Article, Click Here

How Blockchain Will Revolutionize Healthcare

For over a decade, blockchain technology has made its way to the center of various industries, including, finance, gaming, healthcare, engineering and agriculture. By 2023, it is predicted  that the blockchain (and cryptocurrency) industry will reach well over $23 billion. Tech expert Joshua Esan shares an article on cointelegraph.com of the many ways this technology will revolutionize the healthcare industry.

Blockchain eliminates breaches in doctor-patient confidentiality. Patient confidentiality has been a long standing issue for many years. With the adaptation of blockchain technology, records can be safe and secure on digital ledgers, with patients given the option of who can access their personal information. Esan explains that this way, responsibility is maintained by the health professional, any breach of patient health information can be easily traced, and unauthorized third-party access to sensitive information can be eliminated.

Blockchain prevents medical errors. A study published by Johns Hopkins patient safety experts suggests that in the United States, over 250,000 people die every year due to medical errors (computer glitches, deleted/lost information or human error). Blockchain tech can only be added, not erased and that is a good thing. With this technology, Physicians can access the historical medical records of their patients from their very first hospital visit. Esan comments that Blockchain has come to effectively dissolve the dilemma of errors and digitize patient health records.

Blockchain improves research in medicine. The field of medicine is vastly dynamic, with health professionals constantly seeking new ways to improve patient care and satisfaction. However, there hasn’t been a centralized system for sharing research data. Embracing blockchain technology, a secure digital system, can help researchers worldwide, with patients’ permission, to have access an extensive database of information that would help accelerate improvement in healthcare.

Blockchain can help manage and prevent future pandemics. Esan explains the outbreak of COVID-19 puts the healthcare system to its biggest test in nearly a century. The World Health Organization is coming under increased scrutiny, false information is on the rise daily, and developing and sharing triage procedures has been tedious. The Center for Disease Control has already set up a project to use blockchain to track, store and disburse sensitive information in real time to health centers for effective and uniform management of pandemics. With this tool, ravaging epidemics like COVID-19 can be stopped sooner than expected.

Blockchain will help reduce health cost. According to a report published by Bisresearch, the adoption of blockchain in the healthcare industry is estimated to save up to $100 billion yearly by 2025. Via tokenization, the industry would take a tremendous drift toward complete transparency and accountability, and ultimately save money for both patients and healthcare companies. The inevitability of blockchain in every industry is gradually catching up with the healthcare industry. Without a doubt, both the medical practitioner and the patient stand to gain the most from this revolution.

 

For Full Article, Click Here

Don’t Make These 15 Common Mistakes When Building Your Company’s ERP

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are the ideal tools to help a company run more smoothly. ERP systems can integrate all the important business processes including HR, sales, marketing, finance and supply chain. This readily accessible tool can save time and money, but only if implemented and used correctly. To help you on your journey to building an ideal ERP, be sure to avoid these 15 mistakes noted by the members of Forbes Technology Council.

  1. Over-Customization
  2. Making Technology-Out Decisions
  3. Not Incorporating Automation And Data Analytics
  4. Failing To Capture Historical Institutional Knowledge
  5. Not Aligning Business Needs And Operational Goals
  6. Only Viewing ERP As An Asset Management Tool
  7. Ignoring Opportunities To Re-Engineer Business Processes As You Build
  8. Trying To Fit Your Business To The ERP
  9. Straying Too Far From Your Core Functionality
  10. Over-Dependence On ERP
  11. Failing To Define Workflow Processes For Each Department
  12. Not Testing Your Proof Of Concept First
  13. Overlooking Data Governance
  14. Underestimating The Required Time And Resources
  15. Excluding End-Users From The Decision-Making Process

 

For Full Article, Click Here

How to choose a Managed Service Partner

, ,

In today’s fast changing IT landscape, you need a managed service provider (MSP) that understands your needs and whose business model is aligned with your organization. Keep in mind the following areas when choosing a managed service provider for your business.

  • Specific application expertise: There are thousands of managed service providers within the US. Many of them claim to work with dozens of applications. It is important however that your main applications are properly supported, and the expertise of your MSP team exceeds and enhances that of your own internal team. For that reason, we focus mainly on Infor, Lawson and Kronos applications and some of the ancillary applications that are usually installed with them (MHC, BSI, API, ImageNow, Ascend …). Make sure that your MSP partner is in good standing with your software vendor and is certified to deliver services related to those applications.
  • Industry specific knowledge: Every industry has its own special challenges and choosing a managed service partner who has worked with clients in your industry can make a big difference in your level of success. An experienced MSP can also bring best practices from others in your vertical to help you be more efficient.
  • Client references: The best indicator of the quality of an MSP is what their clients have to say about them. Check reviews and ask to speak to their customers before you select an MSP.
  • State-side availability: Many of our clients find it imperative that our staff is not outsourced to foreign countries and all the work is performed state-side. If this is important to your organization, ensure that your MSP partner has a presence where you do your business and will not be impacted by geo-political issues that might otherwise interrupt their services.
  • Methods of engagement: You need to find out ahead of time how your users can engage with your MSP. Some MSPs employ a cumbersome ticketing process that can add hours if not days to the resolution of each issue. We have long adopted a policy of working within whatever ticketing system our clients are already working with so as to remove any friction from resolving issues. We also encourage customers to call or emails us directly if they feel like that will facilitate faster resolution. Be sure to understand the way your MSP works before committing to long term relationships.
  • Avoid long term commitments: Committing to a service provider is a big business decision that can impact your organization significantly. It is always advised to insist on a short-term commitment whenever possible. We don’t lock our clients into long term contracts for this very reason. In reality, if a customer wants to change service providers, it doesn’t make sense to force them to stay, but many MSPs still insist on multi-year contracts in order to break even with long and expensive sales cycles and hefty commissions.

 

Learn more about our managed services page here

Wajax Deploys Infor CloudSuite Equipment to Help Optimize Operations and Improve Customer Service

Infor recently announced that Wajax Corporation (“Wajax”), a leading industrial products and services provider, is deploying Infor CloudSuite Equipment to help optimize multiple facets of its operations and improve customer service. This Ontario-based company is already familiar with the tech giant as Wajax recently implemented the Infor M3 solution in July 2019 at two of their pilot sites. With this newest addition, Infor’s CloudSuite Equipment solution delivers an industry-specific equipment quotation capability, which is designed to enable Wajax to combine its 47 separate quotation systems. Jeff Wayland, senior vice president of consulting services at Infor, said of the collaboration, “One benefit of our multi-tenant cloud solution is that Wajax gets regular access to our latest software updates, which can help them deploy more quickly and can help them innovate continuously.”

 

For Full Article, Click Here

Troubleshooting External Web Server Issues

, ,

Configuring Lawson on an external web server is pretty straightforward…until you have issues.  The most common symptom I have run across is a 404 error when you open the web page, which typically indicates that external web server can’t find sso/sso.js.  (A quick Fiddler session will confirm that for you).  That is the first time the external web server is reaching out to the Lawson application server, so that error message indicates that you have a communication failure between the two web servers.  There can be many reasons for that communication failure, from bad plug-in files to bad certificates.  Here are just a few things to review:

  1. Make sure your modules are mapped

Navigate to WebSphere > Applications > Application Types > Websphere enterprise applications.  Select the IOS application and click “Manage Modules”.  Make sure all modules are mapped to all servers (web and application).  Do this for IOS and LawsonSecurity.  You can also check RQC and BPM for good measure.

  1. Check Virtual Hosts

Navigate to WebSphere > Applications > Application Types > Websphere enterprise applications.  Select IOS.  Under “Web Module Properties” on the right, click “Virtual Hosts”.  Make note of which virtual host IOS is using.  Then, under Environment > Virtual Hosts, click the host being used by IOS.  Make sure that your External Web Server port is in the host alias list.  NOTE: if your external web server is using the same port as your internal web server, it is best to give explicit aliases for that port.  Add an alias with the fully qualified domain for each server, and the port being used.

  1. Check your plugin-cfg.xml

Make sure the plugin-cfg.xml on your external web server looks right.  On your external web server, you should find the plugin-cfg file at <IBM Plugins Directory>/config/<Web Server Name>

It should have some basic properties.  First of all, it should contain all the virtual hosts that you just checked in step 2.  Secondly, it should contain some Uri’s specific to Lawson (not just the default WebSphere application).  Here is an example of a “bad” plugin-cfg file compared to a “good” one.

BAD – does not have all my virtual hosts

BAD – does not have any lawson-specific Uri’s

GOOD – all my virtual hosts are represented, including the host aliases I set up for duplicate ports

GOOD – there are my lawson-specific Uri’s, including that sso directory that was giving me trouble at the very beginning

The best way to resolve issues with your plug-in file is to regenerate it from your Application Server WebSphere console.  Go to WebSphere > Server Types > Web Servers.  Select your external web server and click “Generate Plug-in”.  You can’t propagate it, because it is on an external server, and it belongs to an unmanaged node.  So, make note of where the config files was saved (at the top in the Messages section).  Navigate to that location on your server and grab the file.  Copy the plugin-config.xml file and the plugin-key.kdb from that location to the plugins location noted above on your external web server.  Restart your World Wide Web Publishing service on the external web server, and test your external URL.

  1. Check the WebSphere certs

If you are having certificate issues in WebSphere, you might be seeing the 404 error in a Fiddler session, but you might also be seeing a 500 error.  Your first stop is the http_plugin.log on the external web server.  If there are certificate errors, they will be noted here.  Look for “GSK” errors.  This could mean your WebSphere certificate has expired, or there isn’t a trust between the application certificate and the external web certificate.

In WebSphere, navigate to Security > SSL certificate and key management > Key stores and certificates > CellDefaultKeyStore > Personal Certificates.  Make note of the serial number on that certificate.  Then go to the CMSKeyStore for your external web server.  Again, make note of the serial number.  If they are not matching, you’ll need to replace your external key store cert with the internal one.

To do that, first import the CellDefaultKeyStore into the web server CMSKeyStore.  In the CMSKeyStore > Personal Certificates for your external web server, click the “import” button.

In the dropdown, select the CellDefaultKeyStore, and click “Get key store aliases”.  This should populate the “certificate alias to import” down below.  Select the correct certificate to import (most likely “default”).

Give the certificate a new alias.  Click “Apply” and save changes.

Now, you need to replace the old certificate with the new one.  Under certificates, select the “old” cert and click “replace”.  Select your new cert in the “replace with” box.  You can choose to delete the old cert at this time, but it’s actually safer to delete it manually after you smoke test.  Restart the application server, or better yet, reboot!

How to Measure The Sales KPIs With Your CRM?

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems are good at extracting insights to track progress by measuring the right metrics for your business. Key performance indicators (KPI) for example are usually associated with statistics/data from CRMs.  An interesting read on finsemes.com shares how one can use CRM to measure sales KPI. They are:

  1. Customer attrition – Also known as Customer Churn, this metric measures how many customers you lost in any given period. It measures customer retention in a reverse way. The lower the customer churn the better it is for your company.
  2. Close rate – It’s a ratio of the number of deals closed against the number of deals in the pipeline, over a given period of time. It’s the simplest of all metrics and used as a measure of a sales team’s success.
  3. Average deal size – Just the close rate does not give you the full picture. This is where the average deal size comes into the picture. To raise this number, you need to close a consistent stream of high-ticket deals. To get more high-ticket deals, you need higher quality deals. This is where the CRM’s Lead Scoring feature can help to extract the best leads possible. It gives a higher score to the leads who can spend more and are ready to buy in the near future.
  4. Upsell rate – When existing or brand new customers buy more from you, it shows that their trust in your brand (i.e. your products and services) is increasing. It is indicated by more than one purchase from the same customer over a given period of time.
  5. New revenue – New revenue is the revenue from new i.e. first-time customers.

Together these KPI’s will tell you how well your sales team and your CRM is doing.

 

For Full Article, Click Here

Tips For Managing A Successful Remote ERP Implementation

With this current pandemic urging people to stay home, online shopping has become more of a demand. This may be a good thing at first, but businesses have either shut down, changed courses or forced to find alternative means to operate. Shipping, logistics and supply chain management are more important than ever to maintain. Jay Deakins, Founder and CEO of Deacom, shares an article on Forbes some tips for managing a successful enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation remotely.

Understand Your Team’s Bandwidth. “Every company is different, and only your team can determine if now is the right moment to upgrade your ERP software. It will require an initial investment of dollars, time and resources, but done right, it will streamline all of your operations, from formulation and product development through production, shipping, warehousing, sales and accounting.”

Embrace Technology For Improved Efficiency. Deakins says of his team, “Though our team traditionally managed about 80% of an ERP implementation remotely, until recently, we still sent team members to be on-site at a customer’s facility for three critical events: the project kickoff, the conference room pilot and the go-live launch. We are now conducting the entire process remotely using tools such as GoToMeeting and webcam-enabled tablets, and we have been pleased to discover a few unexpected benefits from this transition.”

Pandemic or not, an ERP implementation is a major undertaking for your entire team, but its return on investment is worthwile. With the help of technology and a strong and motivated team, there’s no reason that you cannot achieve a smooth and successful remote ERP launch.

 

For Full Article, Click Here

5 Best practices in working with Managed Service Providers

, ,

We have been working with dozens of clients over the years as their managed service partner (MSP), managing Infor applications. In 2020, we decided to make a list of some practices that have made our relationship with our clients more successful. You can employ these same practices with your MSP to achieve the same level of success.

  • Single point of ownership – Each member of our staff works with several customers on a daily basis. We often communicate with several managers, IT contacts, and dozens of users within dozens of clients. While this communication is highly efficient and facilitates progress well, it is imperative that communication regarding important decisions are handled by one key person on each side. The most successful model we have found is if one of our managers reports directly with a manager at the client’s end and all decisions regarding projects, progress, personnel, and money are made between those two designated people. Otherwise things my get approved by someone who doesn’t have the proper authority to approve the work, which is never a good thing.
  • Change control inclusion – Including the MSP in your change control discussions is extremely valuable. Your MSP is in charge of several applications and is often the only party within the organization that is aware of the impact of changes to certain applications. It is also important that your MSP understand your change control processes so as to not accidentally circumvent them.
  • Proper planning – Clients who meet with us on a quarterly basis to do forward budget planning and general forecasting have shown a higher level of satisfaction and derived more efficiency from our services. This usually takes the form of a one hour meeting each quarter to look back on the past quarter and look forward to the next three quarters with major milestones and projects in mind.
  • Clear the path – We work with many hospitals, banks, government organizations, insurance companies, schools and retail chains. Our clients have all agreed to a remote method through which we can manage their systems. However, these systems vary quite a bit and some cause more waste than others. Work with your MSP to determine if there is a method which suits their workflow better and that you can also accommodate.
  • Full transparency – Trust in a relationship is built over many years and can be destroyed within a short moment. That is why full transparency is vital to a relationship with your MSP. This spans all facets of your relationship. From proposals, to time sheets and invoices, we go out of our way to disclose every available bit of information to customer so they can have full visibility into our progress, work efficiency, and their overall financial commitment.

 

Learn more about our managed services page here