How to use your CRM to create better emails

Email marketing expert Kevin George shares his insight on how to utilize customer relationship managment (CRM) for email campaigns with an article written on Business Matters Magazine. George explains, “CRMs and email marketing have overlapping applications, and both of them leverage relevancy for better results.” As people are getting used to consuming more content via digital platforms while staying at home during this pandemic, email marketing campaigns are the target outlets for businesses to stay relevant in the minds of their customers. According to George, these are the top six areas where CRMs are used in email marketing:

  1. Segmentation And Personalization. With the implementation of CRM automation features, you can categorize the customers without investing time or efforts by collecting data periodically. CRM lets you adopt the personalization strategies, such as adding the name of recipients in the subject line or body of email. It also pools the data sourced from other digital platforms to give suggestions for email copies.
  2. Lead Nurturing. To generate more leads, you need to know what they value the most. CRM provides features to know the customer activity, i.e., whether they have opened your message or not, which CTA  they clicked, along with other metrics.
  3. Customizable Email Marketing Templates With Social Media Integration. Customer Relationship Management software solutions come with the feature of creating unique email templates. You can create templates with high-end graphics easily using the drag-and-drop feature. You can even integrate social media buttons in emails and allow users to engage on other platforms.
  4. Campaign Analytics. You can analyze the success of an email campaign through data visualization.
  5. Lead Scoring And Sales Funnel. Lead scoring allows your marketing and sales teams in allocating their time in a fruitful way. They allow you to send tailored messages to leads depending upon their immediate position in the sales funnel. The message will also differ as per the source of first communication and customer demographics.
  6. Automation. Sending an automated welcome email when they signup on your website will boost your brand image and also an emphatic way to make them familiar with the brand.

 

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Infor Expands Cloud-Based Construction Solution to Support Industry’s Push into Property Management

Infor recently announced the launch of Infor Construction and Property Management, a cloud-based solution that lets construction businesses, serving the healthcare and public sector industries, digitize their entire operations and expand into property management roles. Infor Construction and Property Management offers embedded business intelligence and analytics, simplified navigation, and enhanced security and SaaS capabilities to help businesses manage the entire building process, from scaffolding to lease management. Per the tech giant’s website, Infor Construction and Property Management is tailored for construction businesses serving customers across the healthcare industry and public sector. The solution offers construction businesses enhanced financial management with on-demand centralized data, role- and user-based secure access, simultaneous cash- and accrual-based accounting, and real-time insight into operational accounts receivable. Infor’s cloud-based property management and construction applications are designed to deliver industry-specific capabilities without the need for extensive customizations. Its cloud-based architecture means businesses benefit from automatic software upgrades that continuously improve functionality, and users can access data and meet complex reporting requirements while working seamlessly from any device.

 

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How to delete a recurring Journal Entry in Lawson

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Though this is a fairly simple task, it typically requires higher access (sometimes temporary access as some organizations only want users deleting journal entries once or twice a month).

  1. Login to Lawson portal and go to GL70.1
  2. Enter the company and journal entry number, hit Inquire.
  3. Click the “New Entry” button
  4. This will take you to GL70.2 and contain the same company/entry number (if not, enter again and hit inquire).
  5. After inquiring again, hit Delete and confirm the journal entry has been deleted.

 

And you’re done!

3 Steps for Getting B2B Sales Back to the ‘Not Normal’ Normal

COVID-19 has challenged the ‘normal’ way of doing business. The ‘new normal’ isn’t normal at all. Instead, a better term could be ‘not normal’ normal. The way we communicate, operate, manage sales and customer relations must be altered and adapted accordingly. In B2B sales, it’s a bit more complicated to continue ‘business as usual’, but it’s still attainable. Harry Datwani and Daniel Worthen from Deloitte Consulting LLP wrote an article for Destination CRM on how to get your B2B sales back to the ‘not normal’ normal.

  1. Up-level personalization. Now more than ever, sellers need to deliver the right engagement and interactions at the right times, and companies will need an ecosystem of digital capabilities to help enable these interactions successfully. CRM software needs to match current customer needs for tailored interactions and customized offerings.
  2. Prepare for long-term remote and digital sales models. Most sales moved to remote models during the early peak of the pandemic, and companies should maintain and strengthen virtual sales operations for the foreseeable future. People will remain wary about in-person interactions even after organizations return to their offices.
  3. Work even closer with marketing to support sales. To help add value to clients and prospects beyond just the offerings you are selling, work with your company’s marketing team to create new assets and resources.

 

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How ERP Bridges The Gap Between Logistics And Finance

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are often viewed as the hub for various back-office processes such as accounting and inventory management. For many small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) an ERP hasn’t always been necessary (or within budget). However, in the world of eCommerce, ERP is a great tool for businesses of any size. Not only will it help with day to day processes, ERP can assist in other areas such as logistics and finance. An article on PYMNTS.com explains how ERP bridges the gap between these different departments.

Surging Volumes – Largely driven by the pandemic, eCommerce volumes are surging and there’s a rapidly growing opportunity for the ERP to guide businesses through the growth, especially when it comes to inventory management.

The Logistics-Accounting Connection  – The value of wielding an ERP that can not only help eCommerce firms manage their inventory and streamline shipping, but connect those workflows to others within the ERP, like accounting. ERPs can also support the scaling of workflows like shipping and accounting as the eCommerce business evolves into a mid-sized firm.

 

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The Covid-19 Crisis Is A Boost To Educational Technology Companies

While COVID-19 has caused a riff in companies big and small, there is a silver lining for companies with ‘essential’ needs of the current economy. Health and cleaning companies, for example, are seeing a rise in sales of their products. In the education and business sector, remote work and learning has increased the need for technology companies. In particular, the education sector is seeing an increased dependence in remote learning tools such as video conferencing, digital textbooks and class material, as well as virtual learning environments like Blackboard, Moodle and Canvas. According to an article on Forbes written by financial consultant Mayra Rodriguez Valladares, online education has been helping reach underserved populations students as well as students with special needs and disabilities.  Additionally, many parents and educators are likely to use online education to be ready for the next public health or natural disaster. Valladares explains how Khan Academy, the most famous online education tool, has seen higher volumes in this coming school year. Additionally, Edutopia, which is an educational foundation founded by filmmaker George Lucas, is a treasure trove of free information, including on social and emotional learning,  teacher development, and education research on project learning. While these not for profit companies are seeing higher traffic, other for profit EduTech companies are seeing successful profits in this pandemic. Even if we find a vaccine for COVID-19 tomorrow, it will take quite some time before we start sending students back to school. Now more than ever are EduTech companies flourishing.

 

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APMONITOR not found or accessible

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You may need to access APMONITOR for a failed job etc. Its usually as simple as searching APMONITOR in Lawson Portal. Often times its not setup in Lawson security and needs to be added.

  1. In Lawson security, go to the class you want to add APMONITOR to.
  2. Add a new rule and go under Online system code AP and search for token QAPM, grant all access.
  3. Clear server cache and log back into Lawson, search APMONITOR and your user should now be able to access it.

NOTE: As of March 2016, patch (CTP104021, JT-751224) has changed the token for APMONITOR to AP94.

How does ERP benefit from moving to the cloud?

The global pandemic has not only taught us to work remotely, but has clearly shown the benefits of moving enterprise resource systems (ERPs) to the cloud. Computing.co.uk has an article that explains the many reasons for this migration. ERP applications stand to benefit from the advantages of the cloud as much as any other enterprise workflow.  Computing‘s upcoming webinar, ‘The real-world benefits of moving ERP to the cloud’ – sponsored by Unit4 – will discuss the results of research investigating where businesses are in their ERP cloud migration journey, and what those organisations that are keeping their ERP operations on-premises may be missing out on. There is a lot of gain out of migrating your ERP system to the crowd, more importantly the ease of access and adaptability to future business challenges (like COVID) and even more opportunities.

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Leading Financial Services Organizations Continue to Partner with Infor to Transform Financials in the Cloud

Leading organizations across North America are trusting Infor’s cloud and digitalization vision for the banking industry, increasing the tech giant’s customer base in financial services by 400% over the past 12 months. These customers include CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank and SunStream Business Services. In the past 12 months Infor has shown significant leadership in the financial services and banking industry. Per the press release, by adopting a continuous accounting framework, finance practitioners can increase the quality, accuracy, and efficiency of their financial operations. Infor’s CloudSuite Financials applications drive unparalleled levels of usability, connectivity, and insight. With CloudSuite Financials’ critical business applications, organizations can experience automatic upgrades that deliver the latest advances in enterprise functionality, such as maintaining the global general ledger, assisting in close management, access to intercompany billing and streamlining receivables and billing.  Commercial businesses across industries such as financial services understand the benefits that cloud solutions offer in terms of greater operational flexibility and reduced costs.

 

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How to Improve Operational Efficiency During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Many organizations have experienced various difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Whether they are short-staffed due to furloughs or staff in mandatory quarantine, or searching for ways to be more productive while employees are working at home, this may be an opportunity to address some operational inefficiencies within the organization.  Here are some things to consider:

  • Manual processes: All software applications promise automation but few organizations ever achieve the goal.  Infor Process Automation (IPA) offers a workflow-based solution to automate nearly any process in Lawson.  You can use your own business logic to build a process that can do everything from onboarding automation to payroll automation.  This can be a great time and cost saver.
  • Process improvement: In addition to eliminating manual processes, there are also ways to use Lawson more effectively to improve efficiency. Your functional users and support staff cannot be expected to understand every aspect of the software and how to optimize processes within the application.  Hiring a managed services partner that knows and understands the application will be an investment in your future.  Once you can optimize your processes, you will free up time for employees to be more productive.  The initial time and cost will be minimal compared to the eventual benefit.
  • Empowering employees: Many employees have gone from doing 100% of their work in an office setting, to doing 100% of their work at home.  There are many solutions for allowing employees to connect to your network and do their work.  Since Lawson is web-based, it is a prime candidate for providing access externally over the internet.  To maintain a secure application, it would be best to configure Lawson to authenticate using with a secure method such as AD FS, and to implement multi-factor authentication.
  • Managed Services: A good Managed Service firm can help you administer Lawson and other Infor products, and even provide functional assistance, at the fraction of the cost of an FTE.  If you find that your organization is short-staffed during this period, it might be the perfect time to try a Managed Services model.

Lawson Managed Service

For more information about how Nogalis could help your organization save money (including process improvement and managed services), contact us any time.