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Infor LX Tips, Infor LN Tips, BPCS Tips, Baan Tips, Infor M3 Tips & Infor ERP News

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Infor ERP Tips & News from the Experts

Infor LX | Infor LN | BPCS | Baan | Infor M3

Infor LN & Baan Finance Tip: MPS Planned vs. MRP Planned

Kathy Barthelt 0 59727 Article rating: 5.0

What items should be MPS planned, and what items should be MRP planned…

Master Scheduled Items are those items that are finished goods, or service items, that receive their requirements either specifically from Independent demand, or both Dependent and Independent demand.

  • Independent Demand is...

Crossroads RMC Welcomes Robert Brown!

Crossroads RMC 0 17917 Article rating: 5.0

Crossroads RMC Welcomes Robert Brown, as a Sr. Business Consultant!
Bob brings 30+ years of shop floor and project management skills to Crossroad RMC. He is a self-starter that has progressively mastered the Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Finance modules within Infor LX. Bob will get started with EDI/ECM set up for new trading partners and within the Supply Chain ranks. Bob is a great addition to the Crossroads RMC team, and we look forward to his leadership expertise on implementations and upgrades in the near future.

You can benefit from a business process review only if...

Infor LX | BPCS | Infor LN | Baan

Crossroads RMC 0 20861 Article rating: 5.0

Did you implement your ERP system 5 years ago… or maybe 20 years ago? At the time, it was like a brand new car… sleek, fast, top-of-the-line, and fuel-efficient. And although it may have needed a few minor “adjustments”, overall you were very pleased. Fast forward to today. Does it still have that new car smell? Does it run as efficiently as it used to? Do you know how to fix a problem when it occurs?

While ERP systems are certainly designed to last, over time, your business changes, your customers’ needs change, employees change and you are left with a system that may run “fine”, but you certainly don’t feel the same way about it as you did when it was brand new.

So the good news is that you CAN restore that “new car smell” with a utilization review, or business process review.

What is a Utilization or Business Process Review and Why Do I Need One?
Simply put, a business process review is an...

Dashboards vs. Reports – What do they offer and which do I need?

Crossroads RMC 0 26654 Article rating: 5.0

Companies are collecting oceans of data, and struggle with transforming it into usable information. Most businesses focus on two methods of sharing data - the report and the dashboard. While these two terms mean many things to many people, it is important to understand what these terms mean and how the report and dashboard have similar features but they are not the same thing.  

What is a Report?

A report is meant to be used to gather detailed intelligence on the operations within an organization, thus a report can be either very broadly covering a wide scope of related information, or narrowly focusing on details of a single item, purpose, or event. All of this information, while presented in a report, is meant to be a snapshot in time.

Quite often, a report is built within the ERP system itself and often is constrained by the graphical and user limitations within the ERP. More often than not, large amounts of data are exported to Excel where added features allow for better manipulation of the data to a format that is digestible by users. Regardless, the data is only valid for that moment and time.

What is a Dashboard?

A dashboard is a graphical interface that provides at-a-glance views revolving around answering a central question. For example, an executive may ask you for up-to-the-minute details on "how the business is doing?". The answer to that question is as complex as the organizational structure of the company, but it is probably very simply measured with approximately 10 metrics. Those 10 metrics can likely be analyzed in chart form, and can and should be combined into one chart when the numbers are relatable or are on a similar scale. All these things should be considered when building a dashboard.

Dashboards, similar to the one in your vehicle, display critical data. Imagine driving down the road and having to push a bunch of buttons to find out how much fuel you have left, or having to pull over and pop the hood to check the oil pressure. It would be dangerous and a waste of your precious time. Your car's control panel or dashboard displays the most crucial information in an easy-to-use, graphical way.

How do Dashboards and Reports differ?

Infor Customer Meeting: LX, XA, and System21 All-Hands Call

Live Webinar for all Users - Wednesday, April 20 2022

Crossroads RMC 0 18538 Article rating: 5.0

Infor Customer Meeting: 
Live Webinar for all Users

Wednesday, April 20
11:30am - 12:00pm EST

Please join Infor leadership, who will discuss the exciting future strategy for our LX, XA, and System21 customers in the Americas. In this session, we will cover our stated direction, product future, and how this will positively impact your business.  Additionally, we will discuss the driving forces behind these changes and how our study group of customers has been reacting.  Whether you are a long-time customer or a relatively new customer of Infor’s, we welcome you to join this brief update of the future of your ERP solution and introduce you to the Infor team that will service and support your organization.

Our GM of the Americas, Bill Vellante, and VP of the Americas, Jay Allison will host this 30-minute session.

RSVP now

Join Event

Infor ERP Tip: Top 5 Ways Modern Analytics Reduces Spreadsheet Risk & Inefficiency

Infor LX | BPCS | Infor LN | Baan

Crossroads RMC 0 27744 Article rating: 5.0

Spreadsheets are often the tool of choice for many organizations to store and arrange information for financial planning, analytics, compliance, and more. Ironically, for many business processes that involve managing data, it creates the exact opposite effect––silos of information and inefficiency. And because it stores organizational data in a readily sharable way, there is a high risk of exposing confidential information.

Read this Infor best practice guide to discover the top five business processes that a modern data and analytics architecture can automate and deliver far more value than spreadsheet-driven techniques.

Infor Best Practice Guide: 5 Ways Modern Analytics Reduces Spreadsheet Risk and Inefficiency

Infor LN & Baan Tip: Cost Component Setup

Kathy Barthelt 0 58394 Article rating: 5.0

To break down an item’s standard cost, sales price, or valuation price, use cost components. With cost components, you can compare estimated and actual costs, calculate production variances, and analyze costs in Standard Cost Calculation.

If cost components are set up in a detailed way, detailed records...

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Tips: LN | Baan

Kathy Barthelt

Infor LN & Baan Tips & Tricks for TECHNOLOGY: Data Sharing Methods (Advantages and Disadvantages)

Depending on the multicompany scenario you choose, an implementation team must decide whether or not tables must be logically linked or if data must be synchronized in another way to achieve availability of data across various companies. 

There are 3 ways in which data may be shared among companies. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of each:

  1. Logical Table Linking - If two companies use the same physical data, the physical table exists, or is used, in only one company: the physical company. Each piece occurs only once: one instance of the same data. If the term logical table linking is used, users from multiple companies use a single physical instance of the data. If the company tables are on the same server, this can be accomplished by logical table linking. Access to specific data can be restricted, if required.

    • Advantages: Logical Table Linking takes place in real time; therefore, the moment a record is created or modified in one company, a record becomes available in all other linked companies as well. The setup and maintenance of logical table linking is easier than the setup and maintenance of data replication. Logical table linking is extremely reliable because this type of linking is independent of network connections and user interventions. 

    • Disadvantages: Table sharing implies that all attributes for a record are the same in all companies. Therefore, suppose you share the item table and, for a particular item in a company, the product class is XXX. In this case, in all other companies, the product class for this item must be XXX as well.

  2. Data Replication - In this situation, each company has exactly the same data, but each company has a unique copy of the data. The same piece of data exists in multiple (physical) places: multiple instances of the same data. The process to copy the data is called data replication.

    • Advantages: Rather than using table sharing by means of the logical linking of tables, you can replicate the content of tables between companies. The advantage is that, on company level, some (non-key) attributes of a record can differ by company. For example, if the bills of materials are replicated instead of shared, for each company, you can link a different warehouse to the bill of material. As a result, the bills of materials can be the same across all companies and only the warehouses differ. Using replication, you can also make only a subset of the records available in other companies. For example, if you replicate items between companies, in a sales company, for example, by means of the item group, you can only make end items available. In addition, you can replicate only a subset of items, for example, depending on the item group. Note that replication also requires that the referenced tables are replicated or shared.

    • Disadvantages: Replication is not in real time, and therefore, for processes that require real-time integrated data as the financial integration processes, replication is not an option. For replication, you also must take into account the sequence in which you replicate. First, you must replicate the child tables and then the parent tables, and therefore first the business partners and then the purchase contracts. During the replication process, the data must be frozen. This point is of particular importance if the replication process takes a lot of time.

  3. Manual Syncronization - If only a small number of records are the same between some companies, you can enter, maintain, and keep the records synchronized manually. Note that the more dynamic data is, the more difficult this process is. This solution is strictly procedural. Therefore, depending on the discipline of the users, the solution is error sensitive: data can be forgotten, updated too late, or typing errors may occur.

  • Advantages - The main advantage is the flexibility so that only the data that really must be shared can be kept synchronized. By manually keeping data synchronized, not all attributes of a record need to have the same value.

  • Disadvantages - The main disadvantage is that this method depends on user interaction. Therefore, the method depends on the user’s time - because the method is not a real time procedure and the user may forget to update the data - and users can make mistakes.

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Kathy Barthelt

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