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5 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Trends to Watch in 2019

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms are an old-school software concept that’s working to stay relevant in the modern world. The new age of smaller, more focused cloud service applications does not match the old-school approach of traditional ERP. Many ERP vendors know that they need to stay relevant to be relevant among competition and with customers. With the ever growing technology, in order to stay relevant, ERP should watch out for these 5 trends in the coming year:

  1. Competition from Disruptors
  2. ERP, SaaS, and Hybrid ERP
  3. Adding Social Media and Digital Marketing
  4. ERP for the Subsidiary
  5. The Internet of Things
It becomes incumbent on customers then to more thoroughly test the capabilities of any potential ERP tool purchase to make sure it will address their feature needs in the future. These trends are what potential ERP tool buyers should consider in 2019.

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Infor partners Artyzen Hospitality Group in improving hotel guest experience

With recent innovation to a European chain hotel, Infor Hospitality Management System (HMS) is making more strides in the Asia division. Infor HMS, along with Infor SunSystems financial management, was successfully implemented at  three hotels in Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai managed by Artyzen Hospitality Group (AHG), which delivered improved guest experience. AHG was established in 2014 and is headquartered in Hong Kong. With 7 operating hotels and 12 in development, its brand line up includes Zitan, Artyzen Hotels and Resorts, Artyzen Habitat and citizenM. Artyzen Habitat Dongzhimen Beijing was the first AHG property in mainland China to deploy the customized integration of Infor HMS and Infor SunSystem about a year ago. Infor worked alongside AHG to bring Infor HMS and Infor SunSystems online at Artyzen Sifang Nanjing in August, and at Artyzen Habitat Hongqiao Shanghai in September. In addition to AHG’s hotels in mainland China, its Macau property, Grand Coloane, also utilizes Infor HMS. Infor HMS offers the flexibility for AHG to deploy localized solutions for its hotels in China utilizing the solution’s open API and webservices, enabling localization to take a shorter period.  Eric Wong, VP Hospitality of Infor Asia Pacific, says of the collaboration, “A fast-growing hotel management group needs the scalability and flexibility in its property management operations to accommodate its business expansion, which itself is inherently a dynamic and fast-changing industry. Infor HMS can offer that scalability to streamline processes and let employees access actionable information on guests to deliver a highly personalized experience, or access work orders, for revenue management and more.”

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Koncept Hotels Optimizes Business Strategy in the Digital World with Infor

Infor recently announced that Koncept Hotels has deployed hospitality cloud solution Infor HMS to support the hotel group’s digital strategy to assist customer needs more efficiently. Founded only a year ago, the hotel start-up won the Digital Leader Award 2018 in July, Germany’s most important award for digitization solutions. Part of its digitization approach includes a focus on fair, mindful and sustainable business management. At “Koncept Hotel zum kostbaren Blut”, located downtown Cologne, there is no reception desk fully staffed 24/7. Instead, guests use smart devices to check in or out in one of the 20 rooms. This removes the need for a night staff at their hotel. Infor HMS is being used for the digital interfaces guests interact with – ranging from room reservations, check-in and check-out, recommendations around the stay, or to help with special requests. Using the Infor HMS app, employees can analyze hotel performance data on-demand and manage the hotel remotely – a key part of Koncept’s strategy to not have to keep managers onsite to manage operations and have them needed elsewhere, especially in light of expansion plans to new locations. Stefan Bezold, Executive Sales Director DACH & CEE for Infor Hospitality, says of the collaboration, “With Infor HMS, we enable hotels to accelerate their digital transformation so they can offer their tech-savvy guests the service they expect. Koncept Hotels is a prime example for a next generation hotel and we are pleased to support their strategy with our solution.”

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User sqlplus with Lawson (Tips and Tricks)

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Most of customers have by now switched over to a Windows / SQL server environment, but we still have several customers who have stayed on Oracle for their Database needs. This mostly stems from having the Oracle skill set in-house as there is really no other advantage to staying on Oracle once you have moved over to Windows.

Often when there are troubles with connecting to the application, it is relevant to test the connection the database from the server itself. Of course there are several ways to do this, but test fastest way is to do so directly from the command prompt in LID as it doesn’t require any additional setup or software. But it is easy to forget how this is done so we decided to write this quick article to document this very simple syntax.
The utility we’re going to use is called sqlplus and it should already installed on your LSF application server. Simply login to the server using LID and on the command prompt type in the following command:
sqlplus <username>/<password>@dbserverName
If you have the correct username and password, and the server is responding, you will get a SQL> prompt on which you can run any query you want. Here’s an example:
However if you type in the incorrect username:
And finally, if you have the incorrect server name or the server is not responding, the prompt will be suspended for several seconds and you will see the following message:
A few small notes about using sqlplus:
  • Be sure to use a semicolon to end your statements. Otherwise the application doesn’t know when to run your query.
  • Make sure the environment variable %ORACLE_HOME% is set correctly. ($ORACLE_HOME on Unix):
  • To exit sqlplus user the “quit” command
  • The SQL buffer contains the last statement you ran, and you can run the previous query again by simply typing “RUN”  and hitting enter.
  • User the LIST command to see a list of your most recently executed SQL commands.
  • “HELP INDEX” shows a list of possible commands
  • To launch a sql script simply put the “@” symbol in front of the file name and execute it. like: @script.sql or even @/path/to/script.sql
  • You can have a multi-line sql statement.
  • The “SHOW USER” command prints the name of the Oracle user you’re logged in as
  • The “SHOW ALL” command prints all the current settings to the screen.

Infor and Nanyang Polytechnic Partner to Enable Singapore Millennials to be Future-Ready

Infor recently announced its newest collaboration with Nanyang Polytechnic’s (NYP) School of Business Management for the Infor Education Alliance Program (EAP). The collaboration provides partner institutions access to innovative cloud technologies and learning platforms, empowering millennials to be cloud-ready, so as to have a better grasp of next-generation digital technologies. Esther Ho, Director, School of Business Management, Nanyang Polytechnic, says of the partnership, “[the partnership will allow us to] expose our students to the latest industry software and real-world applications, providing an avenue for them to be better equipped with the skills and knowledge that are relevant to the needs of the digital workforce.” As of 2018, the program has trained more than 3,000 students to date in Asia Pacific and is growing across the region, with universities participating in China, South Korea, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. With this collaboration, students will gain hands-on cloud software experience using Infor CloudSuite Industrial, Infor Factory Track and Infor CloudSuite Human Capital Management in their coursework.

 

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Infor Lawson Query Wizard Troubleshooting

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We had trouble with the Infor Lawson Query Wizard either timing out or returning a “No Data Found” message when loading in a .dme query.

This is a compiled list of troubleshooting suggestions for the Query Wizard found on Nogalis presentations/Infor documentation/Lawsonguru forums.

1. Limitations of the Query Wizard

  1. “No Data Found” Message

  1. Try increasing Data Response Timeout value to 9999 (min 30 max 9999) in Set User Preferences (green/yellow arrows)

If this fails, try experimenting with the different options for When encountering error messages

  1. On the Criteria tab, try changing Maximum Primary Records to Return to 0 (default 600, max 65520, 0 defaults to max 65520) and Maximum OTM Values to Return (max 600) fields

  1. Troubleshooting tips from Nogalis LawsonMSAddins PowerPoint

How Technology Can Help Put the “Human” Back in Human Resources

With the emergence of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud technology, big data, and machine learning, many have feared a reduced need for human capital in the workforce. Specifically in human resources (HR), where the department is known as the place to go to for help, with these new technologies, it’s assumed that the “traditional” methods of HR are obsolete. Many employees fear that the “human” aspects of the department and other departments are falling, leaving employees alone to deal with cold user interfaces that offer facts without the personal human touch. Despite these fears and assumptions, leveraging these digital tools can in fact help businesses, and if done right, keep the “human” in human resources relevant. Here are three ways in which modern software solutions can support the optimization of a company’s talent and HR teams.

  • Finding the Right Candidates for the Right Job
  • Investing More Time and Energy in Talent Development
  • Creating a ‘Win-Win’ Strategy for Employees and Employers

Making HR departments more high-tech actually makes the HR experience more human. By leveraging these digital tools, conversations and relationships become more meaningful for HR representatives, and HR skills are further utilized. Human interaction will never become obsolete. In fact, it’s more important now with all these new tools for us to maintain the personal touch for our customers.

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Infor Delivers Comprehensive Suite of Solutions for Corporate Treasury and Finance

Infor recently announced the availability of both Infor Treasury Management and Infor Advanced Treasury Management – two comprehensive product suites designed for organizations to address complex financial challenges by empowering forward-thinking teams to optimize key capabilities for cash and risk management, payments, and working capital strategies. Infor Treasury Management has three core modules, while the Advanced Treasury version includes a fourth:

  • Cash and Liquidity – provides CFOs and treasurers with the visibility and reporting they need to optimize their cash, control bank accounts, and manage liquidity.
  • Transaction Lifecycle Management – enables users to manage and track debt and investments and is integrated with Infor’s cash management, payables, and global ledger to ensure straight-through processing.
  • Payments –  offers global, multi-bank payment solutions. Users can support corporate payment and disbursement workflows, including payment factories and payments-on-behalf-of (POBO).
  • Risk Management (included in advanced treasury only) – offers exposure management, valuations, risk analysis and derivative and hedge accounting. Its embedded market data and trade portal integration delivers complete workflows to support hedging programs and regulatory compliance.

Todd Stratton, vice president, Infor, states, “We are committed to offering innovative financial solutions for our customers so they can continue to keep their focus on their business, not tracking back-end work with manual processes and flows.”

 

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Querying Lawson Drill Around Comments

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WHER ARE MY COMMENTS?!  Many Lawson screens have comment buttons that open a drill-around screen with different comment types.  If you have ever wished to query these comments for reporting or other user interfaces, you may have noticed that they are difficult to find.  Infor has “hidden” them in tables with the “L_H” prefix.  The naming convention is “L_HXXX” where “XXX” is the prefix of the table that feeds screen where you add the comments.  For instance, Requisition Header comments can be found in “L_HRQH”.  And APINVOICE comments can be found in “L_HAPI”.  Join the comments to your main record using the “L_INDEX” column.

I hope this tidbit has saved you some time!!

How to Implement a CRM That Actually Delivers

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems are essential for independent consultants like financial advisors to keep track of their clients and prospects, as well as monitor and effectively boost efficiency and profitability. But the road to this ideal state can have a few speedbumps along the way. The key to a smooth road is the implementation and delivery. Proper implementation is can ensure a well utilized CRM system and can create lasting efficiencies and prevent future headaches. Here are  few things to consider:

  • Start With a Solid Plan
  • Get Staff Cooperation and Buy-In
  • Set SMART Goals for Your CRM System (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-based)
  • Create an Implementation Plan
  • Provide Solid Training and Support
  • Maximize Your ROI in CRM

The key to gain all the benefits that come with CRM is to maximize the rollout and smooth any and every potential roadblocks early on.

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