Industry Insight: Why ERP Data Stays Siloed, and What to Do About It

Most manufacturers don't have a data problem. They have a connection problem.

Production data lives in one system. Sales and customer data lives in another. Finance runs somewhere else entirely. Each system does its job well on its own, but without a way to connect them, the organization never gets the full picture, and neither do the people trying to run the business.

Why This Happens
ERP systems are often the core of a manufacturer's operations, but they rarely operate alone. Over time, businesses add third-party software for CRM, e-commerce, warehouse management, EDI, and more. Each addition solves an immediate need, but without integration, it also creates another silo.

The result is familiar across manufacturing: teams end up manually re-entering data between systems, waiting on reports that should be immediate, and making decisions without visibility into what's happening elsewhere in the business.

Integration vs. Enhancement
There are two ways to close this gap, and they solve different problems:

1. ERP Integration connects your ERP to the third-party software you use every day, creating a single source of data instead of several disconnected ones. Whether it's a one-way, two-way, or complex systems integration, the goal is the same: eliminate errors, reduce manual entry, and give everyone access to the same real-time information.
2. ERP Enhancement goes a step further, creating new functionality or modifying existing functionality within the ERP itself, so the system matches how your business actually operates rather than forcing your business to adapt to the system's limitations. Done right, enhancements use parameter-co

For years, paper work instructions have been a standard part of manufacturing. They were easy to distribute, simple to update, and familiar to operators.

But manufacturing has changed. Products are more complex, customer expectations keep rising, and as experienced employees retire, new hires often need to become productive faster than ever before. As a result, many manufacturers are rethinking how information is delivered on the shop floor.

The Challenge with Paper

Paper work instructions create several common challenges:

• Multiple versions of the same document
• Outdated instructions remaining at workstations
• Time spent searching for the correct information
• Longer training periods for new employees
• Inconsistent processes between operators

On their own, none of these seem like a major problem, but together they add up to real quality and productivity issues.

A Shift Toward Digital Work Instructions

One trend we're seeing across the manufacturers we work with is a move toward digital work instructions. Rather than relying on printed documents, operators receive the latest approved instructions directly at their workstation, along with supporting images, videos, and other visual aids. This helps ensure every operator is working from the same information, every time.

Manufacturers making this shift are also gaining new capabilities they didn't have with paper: capturing production data directly from the shop floor, improving traceability, and supporting standardized work across shifts and facilities.

What Manufacturers Are Reporting

For many manufacturers, ERP has been the foundation of their business for years. It manages orders, inventory, production, purchasing, and financials. But as technology and business demands continue to evolve, many organizations are beginning to ask a different question:

Is our ERP environment ready for what's next?

For some, that conversation includes cloud migration. For others, it's about integration, visibility, analytics, or supporting future growth.

The good news is that modernization doesn't have to start with a major migration project.

Start with the Business, Not the Technology

One of the biggest misconceptions about modernization is that it begins with selecting a new platform.

In reality, the most successful projects begin by understanding the business challenges you're trying to solve.

Questions worth asking include:

Why this matters

Many integration challenges come from systems that don’t communicate effectively. Data is often duplicated, delayed, or manually transferred between applications, creating inefficiencies and limiting visibility.

What this solves

Infor ION provides a structured way to connect applications and enable consistent data flow across your environment, helping reduce manual processes and improve how information is shared.

How it works

Infor ION acts as a central integration layer, allowing systems to communicate using standardized messages.

In Infor LN, ION is natively integrated, enabling streamlined data exchange across applications.
In Infor LX environments, ION can be used as part of an integration strategy to connect ERP with external systems and platforms.

This enables:

Why this matters

In MRP inquiries, limited visibility and paging behavior can make it difficult to review data efficiently—especially when working with larger datasets or modern web interfaces.

What this solves

This enhancement enables full compatibility between MRP320D Master Schedule Detail Inquiry and the WebTop Grid, allowing users to view and work with complete datasets more effectively.

How it works

If your company already uses Avalara for tax compliance, you can integrate it directly with your Infor ERP system.

Crossroads RMC has developed integrations that connect Avalara’s automated tax calculation and compliance platform with Infor ERP environments, allowing tax calculations, reporting, and compliance processes to run seamlessly within your existing ERP workflows.

This integration helps eliminate manual tax processing, improve accuracy, and ensure tax compliance as your business grows.

If you’re already using Avalara and want to streamline tax automation within your ERP, Crossroads RMC can help you connect the two.

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INSTALLBMR

• Installs BMR Explosions from *SAVF or *LIB
• Installs objects after backing up replaced objects
• Installs source after backing up replaced source
• Installs Webtop Metadata
• Installs /InforBMR subdirectories
• Writes all activity to log file and spooled file report
• Optionally runs DBUPDATE command

DBUPDATE

• Installs new or updates existing database tables, views, indexes, triggers, procedures, logical files.
• Installs source for above objects
• Sets authorities to replaced objects based on previous object settings
• Sets journalling on replaced objects based on previous object settings
• Installs Priming Data
• Installs SSAOVR updates
• Installs message file updates for core message files
• Installs message file updates for NLV message files if included in explosion

This enhancement reduces the time required to install BMR Explosions. There still may be manual steps required after the processing completes, but the overall time required is dramatically reduced.

Access to Order Entry/Maintenance has traditionally been controlled by using LX Program Security to grant or remove authority to ORD700. LX Company Security and LX Warehouse Security further control which transactions a user is allowed to create or maintain. A separate 8.4.2 enhancement allows security managers to control which types of transactions a user is allowed to create or maintain, through LX Order Type Security and LX Order Class Security. Building on these LX transaction security features, the Order Entry Action Code/Function Key Security enhancement allows security managers to further control what actions a user can take regarding an authorized transaction.

Security managers can now control the actions each user is allowed to be restricted from in the Order Entry job stream. The benefit is easily illustrated by some examples:

• Regular users can be allowed to create and revise customer orders but are restricted from deleting an order.
• Salespersons can be authorized to full authority with quotes and can be allowed to create customer orders but not to revise or delete them.
• Or, salespersons could be restricted from 1=Create in Order Directory, with the result that they could only create an order by copying a quote, if they are authorized to 3=Copy in Quote Directory.
• Only selected customer service users can be allowed to create RMAs, by controlling 1=Create in RMA Directory. A different group of customer service users who handle the actual returns can be authorized to create the return orders or credit memos from those RMAs, by controlling 3=Copy in RMA Directory.