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• Outdated instructions remaining at workstations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

Inventory discrepancies are often identified, but not fully understood. Without clear visibility into where and why variances occur, teams are left reacting instead of improving processes.

What this solves

The Cycle Counting Variances session (whinh8352m000) provides a visual way to analyze inventory discrepancies, helping teams identify patterns and root causes across warehouses and counting activities.

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.

800.762.2077 | Contact Us

You use LN audit features to fully or partially log changes that users make to the LN database tables when they use LN sessions.

The audit functionality is based on the concept of audit profiles. In an audit profile, you define which tables and fields are audited and when, in the context of an audit profile. To bundle profiles in the same functional area, you can relate the profiles to audit categories. You can export and import audit profiles with various options to enable a quick configuration. The audit trail is stored in sequence files, which are generated for each combination of company and table.

Note: For some important parameter tables it is required that auditing is enabled.

You can view or print the history of modifications.

To avoid having to report quantities also at the order level, set the Post to Inventory when Reporting on Last Operation parameter to Yes in these sessions:

• Production Order Parameters (tisfc0100s000) > Planning tab
• Production Settings by Site (timfc0180m000) > Production Order tab

With regard to as-built handling, because JobControl acts as a reporting tool similar to the Machine Work List (tisfc4600m000) session, we recommend these settings in the Production Order Parameters (tisfc0100s000) session (Miscellaneous tab) and Production Settings by Site (timfc0180m000) session (Production Order tab):

• In the Serials section, set the Generate Serial Numbers parameter to On Printing Documents or On Release as the serial number that can be selected in JobControl to report completed or rejected products must have the Valid status in LN.
• In the Serials section, we recommend setting the As-Built Status Handling parameter to Manual as the serial number assignment is performed in JobControl.