Infor Positioned as a Leader, for the Second Consecutive Time, in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Multienterprise Supply Chain Business Networks

For the second time in a row, Gartner Inc. has positioned Infor as a Leader in its Magic Quadrant for Multienterprise Supply Chain Business Networks. Infor was positioned in the Leaders quadrant for its ability to execute and completeness of vision. Per the press release, Gartner wrote in the report that, “Multienterprise supply chain business networks (MESCBNs) are an essential technology component to a successful high-maturity, digital transformation. Executives must understand that their company needs to operate within such networks to stay competitive – in other words, minimize risk, increase efficiency, reduce cost and capitalize on opportunities.” Heidi Benko, VP of solutions strategy for Infor Supply Chain Management, said, “Companies are looking for a new level of speed, agility and resiliency in their supply chains and multienterprise business applications (MEBAs). We believe this is where Infor separates from other network providers. Organically developed for complex multi-party, real-time collaboration and process automation, companies on our Infor Nexus platform can overcome typical business network challenges across the physical and financial supply chain.”

 

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5 Unique CRM trends to watch in 2020

According to the London School of Business and Finance, there are 5 customer relationship management (CRM) trends we should pay close attention to in 2020.

Catering to preferences. CRM systems categorizes clients based on their location, product choice, and purchase bracket or price preferences. This information helps allocate account managers to dedicated clientele groups, and allows them to understand their preferences for offering customized solutions and service options.

Cutting down sales costs. Customer acquisition can be costly – it requires consistent marketing efforts, advertising, and branding initiatives. To reduce new client acquisition costs, businesses often focus on cross-selling and renewal opportunities within the existing clientele base. Also, a CRM system helps in recognizing the right leads by identifying untapped or potential opportunities with existing customers.

Improving response time. As response time is greatly important in today’s business environment, CRM software helps send quick replies to enquiries through standard email templates. This also allows businesses to maintain a consistent voice across communication channels.

Integrating AI. Integrating AI with CRM will continue to be invaluable for automating manual and routine tasks, devising recommendations to improve marketing campaigns, and managing any customer complaints. AI integrated with CRM allows businesses to analyse client data through purchase preferences, previous calls, and by generating a client profile. This all allows sales reps to understand their clients better and have a more focused, individualized approach to their communication.

Bonus:

Mobile CRM. Mobile-based CRM solutions are becoming more important owing to the ever-changing work environment and a growing global workforce. With pressure to drive revenues, sales representatives will greatly benefit from mobile CRM solutions to access data without security hassles, gain access from various platforms, and make client interactions more seamless.

 

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LDAPS Certificates

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We’ve been getting a lot of questions about the certificates needed for LDAPS.  This article will provide some general information about working with certificates, and the specific requirements for LDAPS.

To create a certificate, you need to retrieve it from a certificate authority (CA).  An example of a CA is a site such GoDaddy, but there are many, and your networking team probably already has a CA that they use.

The certificate needs to have a Subject Alternative Name, and it needs to be exported as PKCS12 with a private key.  When you or your networking team retrieves the certificate, they will apply a password to the private key.  They will need to provide you with the “.pfx” certificate file with the private key exported, and you will need that private key password.  You will need the file and the password so that you can import the certificate to the AD LDS service account.

The requirements for your LDAPS certificates are actually pretty standard.  It is important to note that the certificate must be created with a Subject Alternative Name.  That is becoming more standard, but we’ve seen plenty of certificates that don’t have a SAN, so just make sure yours does.

You can view the properties of your certificate in the Microsoft Management Console.  You can do this on the server, or from another computer as long as you have network access to the server where the computer resides.

To view certificates in MMC, click start and search for “mmc”.  Select “mmc.exe”.  This will open the Microsoft Management Console.  From there, click File > Add or Remove Snap-In.  Choose “Certificates”.  Select “Computer Account”.  If you are on the server where you want to view the certificate, select “Local Computer”.  Otherwise, select “Another computer” and enter the server name:

Click Finish and then Ok.  The certificates for that server will populate in MMC.  Typically, you will be looking in the personal store.  Simply double-click on the certificate that you want to review, go to details, and look at the properties for the certificate.  You can see all the properties, including the Subject Alternative Name.

15 Technologies That Will Disrupt The Industry In The Next Five Years

These days technology is a core part of how companies do business. Because technology is ever-evolving, there will always be new tech emerging on the horizon. The Forbes Technology Council shares fifteen of today’s emerging technologies that can be expected to be game-changers in the next five years.

  1. 5G Technology
  2. Unsupervised Machine Learning
  3. Robotic Accuracy And Automation
  4. Intelligent Tech Revolutionizing Security
  5. Connected Telehealth Solutions
  6. Augmented And Virtual Reality
  7. Hyperautomation
  8. Edge Computing
  9. Spatial Computing
  10. Quantum Computing And IoT
  11. DataOps
  12. Natural Language Processing
  13. Value Stream Management
  14. Additive Manufacturing
  15. Regulatory Tech Coming To Government

 

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4 Things You Need to Know for Successful Enterprise CRM Integration

With the enterprise IT environment being complex,  it is no surprise that an intelligent customer relationship management (CRM) system in this environment requires specialized insight and know-how to ensure a seamless integration that’s both relevant and current. According to Adam Edmonds at CRMBuyer.com, with today’s functional and technical complexity, heterogeneous integration requirements, and need for scale and security, CRM integration success depends on an enterprise literate technology approach. Edmonds shares the following four considerations to be critical when sourcing intelligent CRM software for enterprise systems.

  1. Flexibility and Context Matter. From automating workflows to eliminating burdensome administrative tasks, the flexibility of an intelligent enterprise solution provides a deeper understanding of the customer, which helps with decision-making processes and simplifies day-to-day operations.
  2. Is It Scalable? Implementing a reliable, fully scalable CRM system in the beginning as part of an overarching business strategy ensures seamless growth down the road.
  3. What are the Integration Capabilities? Is It Upgradable? When CRM integration is an afterthought, failure is inevitable. Instead, the technology must allow for integration with a wide variety of client platforms, data sources and applications, since every organization has different needs.
  4. Deployment Should Be Simple. A purpose-built enterprise CRM software system should make deployment simple. It should be compatible with a variety of open source and common software platforms.

 

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Tanguy Materials Chooses Infor CloudSuite Distribution Enterprise to Rationalise its Management Systems

Infor recently announced that French building materials company Tanguy Materials has chosen to implement Infor CloudSuite Distribution Enterprise to equip itself with the right tools to accelerate the digitalization of its services and meet the challenges and opportunities of a constantly evolving market. Tanguy Materials is a family-owned group that has been developing in the trade and production of building materials industry for three generations (since 1925). About 30 years ago, the group extended its scope and reorganized itself around 17 subsidiaries. Today, it has more than 950 employees for a turnover in 2019 of more than 250 million euros. Per the press release, Tanguy’s goal was to harmonize and centralize three enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and the 70 user interfaces around a single, modern and scalable management system. Infor has a proven track record of successfu deployments in other market players, including Tanguy’s competitors. On a functional level, the solution was a good fit for the company’s issues such as inventory management, supply chain management and pricing. The cloud option offers real advantages in terms of flexibility and scalability on demand, while respecting the company’s needs and financial capacities.

 

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Six ways to lift ERP Lockdown and avoid innovation recession

One of the greatest challenges for businesses during this lockdown is managing the trade-offs between risk and reward. In the same way that we will learn to live with COVID-19 by adjusting our day to day lives, Owen Pettiford believes the same can be done with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to get the right balance between control and innovation.  In his Diginomica article, Pettiford shares six ways you can start to lift your ERP Lockdown:

Knowledge of ERP End to End Processes. Critical to opening the lockdown of any system is knowledge about how that system runs. Organisations who want flexibility and innovation must reclaim this knowledge and manage it in house.

Flexible Run Contracts. Running ERP systems is a commodity task and one that is commonly outsourced. These outsourcing arrangements come with legal contracts that have definitions of the services to be provided and cannot be defined in the wrong way or it can encourage a “no change” mentality to ensure that Service Levels are maintained.

Knowledge of New Capabilities. One of the interesting features of IT in general is the continuous stream of new capabilities that evolve. Each one follows a hype curve and delivers different value to different industries. Having a team looking at these capabilities and the ones your ERP vendor is baking into your system is key to making sure you catch and exploit each of these waves.

Elastic Infrastructure. The processing capacity of systems has increase many times over, but often ERP systems are locked into infrastructure that was sized and designed years ago. Understanding the modern capabilities to expand and reduce capacity is key to removing “performance” as a lockdown reason.

Tools that provide automation and managed access. Instead of keeping systems safe from overload by locking them down the most flexible ERP solutions now implement real-time monitoring and automation strategies that allow software to flex capacity and throttle demand to agreed SLAs. These solutions mean that the system can be open and guarded at the same time.

DevOps Approach. The catch is that successful DevOps is built on top of the other 5 capabilities listed above as without them DevOps will not deliver its benefits.

 

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Guide to different types of CRM

At its core, customer relationship management (CRM) software offers a practical easy-to-use platform for every business. CRM manages all aspects of a business’s interaction with current and potential customers. Regardless of the type of CRM, all such systems come with basic functionalities, such as a database, dashboards for tracking metrics, and sales and marketing tools. The American Journal of Transportation identifies three fundamental types of CRMs with different functionalities and purpose:

Operational CRM – Operational CRM provides business processes that require no creative human oversight are practically the easiest to automate. While streamlining or fully automating processes is their primary function, many aspects of operational CRM can be further customized for more specific roles.

Analytical CRM – Analytical CRM software seeks to analyze the aforementioned customer touch points and apply optimal models to such data. It can analyze past consumer trends and reliably predict future ones, in addition to factors such as product availability and sales activity.

Collaborative CRM – Collaborative CRM platforms specialize in optimizing communication and collaboration across a company’s teams. It serves as a means of synchronously sharing key customer interaction data to relevant teams, enhancing response times and quality and improving customer satisfaction. This allows a company to maximize profitability from its operations.

 

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How to setup a temporary requisition approver user to start and end at a certain date

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  1. Login into Lawson Landmark via Richclient or the cloud-based Process Server Administrator.
  2. In PSA, go to Configuration >> User Configuration >> Users
  3. Select the user we will be adding the filter to then under User Tasks, select create a new filter. (this will be a backup or temporary filter for the user)
  4. Now create the new task (a new tab may open in your browser):
  5. Type in task name and description, save:
  6. Back under user task, select the newly created filter, select the dates you want and save. For our example today is 3/20/2020, we will be setting the date in the future to activate for 3/23/2020 to 3/27/2020:
  7. Now select your new temporary filter and add your filter keys in which you want to approve for:

That’s all there is to it, this filter will enable on 3/23/2020 and disabled again on 3/27/2020 and is useful for users that take time off and need someone to cover them.

Five ERP Features You’ll See Soon

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) has evolved from a once stiff notion to a more nimble process. This is all thanks to the advancement of resources, especially cloud technology. Moving to the cloud opens up more flexibility for businesses to use this software more efficiently. Toolbox.com shares five ERP features in the works that we should be seeing very soon.

  1. Robust Usage-Based Model Support. “Companies across industries are increasingly looking to develop long-tail subscription revenues by supplementing their main product or service with ongoing services,” notes Jonathan Gross, managing director of ERP consultancy, Pemeco Consulting.
  2. Automation Driven by AI. With AI, businesses can automate a much higher degree of their processes because discovery and setup largely are handled by the system.
  3. AI-driven Bots that Understand Natural Language. Voice is a big trend right now, and many experts predict the revolutionary power of being able to talk to business systems and have them carry out tasks or reply with actionable data. Think Siri or Alexa for industry.
  4. Easier Direct-to-Digital Interfaces. A fully digital business benefits ERP makers, since that raises the utility of the ERP systems that serve as the digital nerve-center for a business.
  5. Natural Inclusion of Experience Data in Business Processes. The feedback loop is getting stronger for businesses because most firms are awash in both customer and operational data.

 

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