Selecting the right IT partner to help you with your Merger or acquisition

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You want to work with an IT partner that has functional knowledge in addition to the technological ability to extract and re-map the data.  This allows a true partnership that looks at the process from a high level and keeps an eye on the details at the same time.

You need to look for a partner that has experience extracting data from Lawson and mapping to the format needed to upload set up and transactional data to any system and taking extracted data from another system and formatting it into what Lawson needs and uploading the data.  A partner who uses a repeatable process that allows for tweaking the process if needed through testing cycles and then having the final version ready when you are ready to go-live.

When considering a Merger or acquisition there are many considerations. Some of these are:

  • Will there be a one-time conversion and at the end everyone will be using the same system?
  • Or will there be an on-going interface between the systems for GL data only or other systems as well?
  • Do you need a full training plan?
  • How will the users be trained on the new system or processes?
  • Make sure to start with a BRD – Business Requirement Document – so you have a road map of what is expected throughout the process.  This helps both you and your partner know what is expected from both parties.

With the right partner, you can have a smooth and successful transition.

View Hotels Revolutionises Operations with Infor

Infor recently announced that View Hotels had deployed Infor Hospitality Management Solution (HMS) and Interfaces across its three Australian Hotels. This deployment was done in hopes to better leverage the cloud for data insights, marketing and remote working. Per the press release, View Hotels has already seen tremendous success in just a few months using Infor’s cloud platform, generating valuable customer insights leading to increased revenue. Owners Mimi Wong and Neil Wong of the hotel chain selected Infor for the project as a means to change the hotel’s culture and productivity. Neil says of the decision to choose the tech giant, “We needed a reliable partner that can deliver a central platform that communicates with every department. Every person who uses the system must be able to access the information and use the built-in tools to do his or her job. Implementation and training went ahead virtually, and we clearly see the benefits of Infor.”

 

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Moving to Workday? How will you archive your Lawson data?

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It’s official, you have finalized the project to move to Workday 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 to Workday. 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 lake.

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.

7 Ways Artificial Intelligence is Improving Healthcare

Technology has had a breakthrough in t he healthcare sector and has reshaped the field. Technological innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) has improved the way we monitor, care, and rehabilitate ourselves. An article on visualcapitalist.com shows 7 ways AI has improved healthcare in every step of a patient’s journey.

  1. Prevention. “Wearables and apps track vast amounts of personal data, so in the future, AI could use that information to make health recommendations for patients.”
  2. Early Detection. “Devices like smartwatches, biosensors, and fitness trackers can monitor things like heart rate and respiratory patterns. Because of this, health apps could notify users of any abnormalities before conditions become critical.”
  3. Doctors Visits. “A variety of smart devices have the potential to provide support for healthcare workers. Voice technology could help transcribe clinical data, which would mean less administrative work for healthcare workers, giving them more time to focus on patient care.”
  4. Test Results. “Traditionally, test results are analyzed manually, but AI has the potential to automate this process through pattern recognition. This would have a significant impact on infection testing.”
  5. Surgery / Hospital Visits. “Research indicates that the use of robotics in surgery can save lives. Robotics can also support healthcare workers with repetitive tasks, such as restocking supplies, disinfecting patient rooms, and transporting medical equipment, which gives healthcare workers more time with their patients.”
  6. Rehabilitation. “On the patient level, AI-enabled apps could be specifically tailored to individuals to track progress or adjust treatment plans based on real-time patient feedback. On an industry level, data generated from users may have the potential to reduce costs on research and development, and improve the accuracy of clinical trials.”
  7. Follow-ups and Remote Monitoring. “Virtual nurse apps can help patients stay accountable by consistently monitoring their own progress. This empowers patients by putting the control in their own hands. This shift in power is already happening—for instance, a recent survey by Deloitte found that more than a third of respondents are willing to use at-home diagnostics, and more than half are comfortable telling their doctor when they disagree with them.”

 

For Full Article, Click Here

How To Use Educational Technology Humanely Post-Pandemic

The past year’s pandemic was a true rollercoaster – sudden shock, anxiety, and nervousness at the start. Then as months went by and we got used to this ‘new normal’, things started settling and people accepted change. Now here we are a year later and closer to ‘the old normal’.  However, in areas such as education, students and families have gotten the hang of remote learning. What will happen when the pandemic will be completely over? Will it be as simple as going back to in-person school and remote learning wouldn’t be needed anymore? While we miss human interaction, there were no doubt some positives to working/learning from home. Mike McShane, director of national research at EdChoice, writes a Forbes article sharing three different methods of teaching post-pandemic with some of the best educational technology models.

The Prenda Model leverages technology to quickly, efficiently, and effectively deliver academic content. This frees up more time for collaborative, project-based work. McShane notes the nice balance between personalized learning and collaborative, project-based work. Prenda schools, he explains, offers the best of computer-based instruction (self-pacing, meeting students where they are, allowing for different students in the same class to be learning at different levels, etc.) and using its efficiency to create space for exciting, fulfilling, engaging, and substantive collaborative work.

The Hybrid Homeschool Model devotes to one learning modality or another. This type of model has students work 2-3 days per week with personalized learning software, and spends the rest of the week in school to discuss their lessons, work on projects, play sports and other extra curricular activities done in person. McShane’s EdChoice discovered via polls that there is a huge favor for this school modal. This hybrid model poses opportunities for schools to use facilities, faculty, and staff more efficiently. It could also drive down the cost of education while at the same time providing a richer, more effective school experience, McShane notes.

The Lumen Verum Model, inspired by the school in Boston with the same name, limits daily screen time and has a rich set of in-person experiences for students. However, the fact that they will be able to bring passionate, knowledgeable international experts to speak on topics will offer students a unique experience. McShane expresses technology is a tool that educators can use to extend their reach, to help students access things that they otherwise might not be able to in the traditional classroom, to customize and personalize the offerings available to students, and to get through things faster than traditional methods.

Even with cases going down and vaccinations are helping to bring the numbers down, this past year has proved that education technology could be the new normal, and schools are going to need to know how to work with hybrid or fully virtual learning.

 

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Modify AD FS Login Page to Allow Username Without Domain

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Once you convert Lawson to authenticate with AD FS, you may find that your users would really prefer to log in with their normal ID (as opposed to [email protected] format).  You can accomplish this by updating the login method on the AD FS home page.

 

To make these changes, begin by opening PowerShell as administrator on the AD FS server, then follow these steps.

 

Create a new theme based on the default theme:

new-adfswebtheme -name <custom theme name> -sourcename default

 

Download the new theme to a local path:

export-adfswebtheme -name <custom theme name> -DirectoryPath “<local path>”

 

Navigate to the onload.js file in the theme that you just downloaded.  Add the following code to the onload.js file.  The highlighted portion is what you will update with your company’s domain.

 

// Company customization

// accept sAMAccountName

// pass userprincipalName ([email protected])

if (typeof Login != ‘undefined’){

    Login.submitLoginRequest = function () {

    var u = new InputUtil();

    var e = new LoginErrors();

    var userName = document.getElementById(Login.userNameInput);

    var password = document.getElementById(Login.passwordInput);

    if (userName.value && !userName.value.match(‘[@\\\\]’))

    {

        var userNameValue = ‘company.com\\’ + userName.value;

        document.forms[‘loginForm’].UserName.value = userNameValue;

    }

 

    if (!userName.value) {

       u.setError(userName, e.userNameFormatError);

       return false;

    }

 

    if (!password.value)

    {

        u.setError(password, e.passwordEmpty);

        return false;

    }

    document.forms[‘loginForm’].submit();

    return false;

};

}

 

In PowerShell, upload the new onload.js file:

Set-AdfsWebTheme -TargetName TriCity -OnLoadScriptPath “c:\admin\TriCityTheme\script\onload.js”

 

Activate the custom theme:

Set-AdfsWebConfig -ActiveThemeName TriCity

 

Now, when users type in their regular username, it will be appended with “your domain\” when they click the login button.  If users type in the domain themselves (“[email protected]”), the login page will accept that value and log in the user with the userPrincipalName they provided.

DB Schenker Innovates with Infor

Global logistics provider DB Schenker has extended its investment in Infor technology. DB Schenker’s 15-year technology partnership consists of access to Infor Nexus Purchase Order Management and Infor Nexus Control Center as part of a program to help deliver an industry-leading, end-to-end predictive estimated time of arrival (ETA) capability for customers. Per the press release, DB Schenker has already reported better predictive ETA accuracy compared to using carrier GPS-tracking data alone. Trials amongst early-adopter customers have reported industry-leading levels of reliability when predicting the date of goods arrival at final destination, from the point of the original purchase order being raised. Mark Illidge, Infor vice-president and general manager for supply chain in EMEA, says of the partnership, “As one of the first global logistics leaders on the Infor Nexus platform, DB Schenker has a history of innovation and collaborative partnership with Infor. The ability to develop truly industry-leading predictive ETAs is yet another example of this partnership in action.”

 

For Full Article, Click Here

Moving to Oracle HCM? How will you archive your Lawson data?

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It’s official, you have finalized the project to move to Oracle HCM 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 to Oracle HCM. In fact in most cases you’re limited to a small subset of your original data. 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.

Mazule Fuels Growth with Infor SunSystems and Sapphire Anywhere

Infor recently announced that South Africa-based mineral and energy trading company Mazule has selected Infor SunSystems, implemented by partner Sapphire Systems, and hosted on its Sapphire Anywhere SaaS platform. The cloud-based solution is set to streamline accounting processes, facilitate in-depth insights, and expedite reporting for the metals, minerals and coal trading specialist. Per the press release, Mazule identified a need to replace the system it has used since its inception. Having reviewed the market, the trading specialist selected Infor SunSystems based on its ability to support multi-dimensional accounting, and to provide in-depth reporting insights across different product lines, as well as the ability to break down transactions by various analysis codes. Kiara Barker, Mazule’s COO, says of the decision to go to the cloud, “Being based in South Africa, a cloud platform was the best option. The stability and robustness of a cloud model, combined with the reduced resource required to maintain infrastructure, means that we can focus resources on our business, safe in the knowledge that our core systems are being managed by experts, and that we have a single point of contact should issues arise.”

 

For Full Article, Click Here

8 Steps to Create an Effective CRM Strategy

Customers are the lifeline of a business. Keeping them happy is key. A CRM, or customer relationship management strategy put in place will keep your customers connected and boost your sales. Sumit at ScoopByte shares and article with 8 steps to create an effective CRM strategy to keep both your business and customers satisfied.

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