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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.

IZB Residence CAMPUS AT HOME Moves to Infor Cloud for Better Guest Experience

Infor is introducing Infor Hospitality Management Solution (HMS) and Infor Sales & Catering (S&C) in the cloud at the IZB Residence CAMPUS AT HOME. The hotel in Martinsried on the outskirts of Munich, Germany, plans to optimize its work processes for flexibility and mobility and thus offer its guests the best possible service. According to the press release, introducing a flexible hotel management system that complies with the latest technology standard is the key to operate at high capacity. IZB Residence CAMPUS AT HOME management chose Infor HMS because it allows staff access to guest information to quickly evaluate individual bookings and optimize their stays. The solution suite’s integration with existing operating systems also helps optimize accounting, revenue management, and work order processes. Operating in the cloud enables running a more efficient model and leveraging the use of mobile devices, which also saves resources compared to a conventional on-premises installation. HMS also provides easy integrations with other solutions through a variety of interfaces.

 

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Top 10 benefits of ERP

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all areas of the economy, which highlighted the need form businesses to transform traditional supply chain models. Worldwide, 75% of companies have reported supply chain disruptions as a result of COVID-19. With the appropriate use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) technology, solutions exist that enable business continuity for small and medium enterprise owners in this fragile economy. An article on IT Web by Seidor Africa explains the impact ERP has for businesses fighting to stay running during this pandemic.

According to the article, the benefits of an ERP solution include:

  1. Increased ROI: Return on investment is achieved through integrated information sharing, increased efficiency, real-time data access and governance, improved inventory management and reduced costs.
  2. Improved analytics: Analytics allows for more informative decisions, helping companies to work through stressful times.
  3. Real-time information: Real-time information is available across any part of the business.
  4. Improved productivity: By enhancing business workflows, employee performance is improved.
  5. Increased customer satisfaction: An ERP system helps companies deliver goods to customers faster, improve productivity and implement inventory control. It can foster better customer communication at a time when customer retention is vital.
  6. Compliance and risk management: ERP systems facilitate regulatory compliance.
  7. Flexibility, scalability, longevity: With cloud-based ERP there is no need to go through numerous different software systems and implementations in the future.
  8. Standardisation: Standardised business processes ensure increased control and reliability of information.
  9. Improved reporting: With instant visibility analysis capabilities, companies can manage and monitor financial performance in real-time.
  10. Improved inventory management: Stock availability and location information is available in real-time, whether in transit, in the warehouse, in the online store or in the shop.

 

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Lawson APINVOICE database table contains usernames instead of NTIDs

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You’re being audited or want to review previous invoices and you notice that usernames were being stored in the APINVOICE database table. Usernames of employees that no longer work for your organization or may have had a name change, thus not matching up their NTIDs found in your listusermap. This makes it near impossible to hold previous and existing employees accountable for older invoices.

To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

  1. Download and apply patch CTP-121954 from Infor Concierge cloud portal.
  2. A new token AP900 is added to Lawson Security. Add this token access to an existing class/role.
  3. Login to Lawson Portal, go to AP900, add a new job for each company your organization has.
  4. Backup the APINVOICE table.
  5. Submit the AP900 Job, this job can take anywhere from minutes to hours to complete.
  6. Verify all usernames have been converted to NTIDs.

 

Five questions to answer for a successful ERP implementation

Deciding to integrate and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution is just the first step of the decision-making process. Choosing the best solution and implementing it is a feat of its own. You don’t want to rush it, and you want to make sure it’s money and time well spent. IT expert Steve Brooks shares an article on Enterprise Times that has managers consider five key questions they need to consider and have an answer for when finding and implementing an ERP solution for their company. These questions were derived by an interview with Peter Wong, Senior Director of professional service at Rootstock Software, who believes answering these questions will aid in a successful ERP implementation for your firm.

  1. Why are you looking to replace the old ERP solution?
  2. What are you trying to achieve with the new solution?
  3. Who should you involve in the project?
  4. How should you complete the project?
  5. How long should the project take?

To hear the whole interview, click on the link below for the podcast.

 

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