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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

What is preventing you from upgrading your Infor LX or BPCS ERP System?

George Moroses 0 29439 Article rating: 5.0

Your answer to this question is likely customizations… customizations that were once the best thing since sliced bread but now have become the bane of your existence.

There is something you can do about it! 

Crossroads RMC has many options for LX & BPCS when dealing with customizations:

What is preventing you from upgrading your Infor LN or Baan ERP System?

Kathy Barthelt 0 31798 Article rating: 5.0

Your answer to this question is likely customizations… customizations that were once the best thing since sliced bread but now have become the bane of your existence.

There is something you can do about it! 

Crossroads RMC has many options for dealing with customizations:

The Importance of an Integrated System

Crossroads RMC 0 37488 Article rating: 5.0

I recently came across an article from CIO Magazine that talked about the various ways that your ERP system could be hurting your business. The single most important item on that list referenced ERP systems that weren’t integrated with other systems that housed mission-critical business data.

Having data in two (or more) systems that don’t talk to one another is like baking a pizza crust in one oven and the toppings in another. Once baked, you may have some good food to snack on, but it sure isn’t pizza! Pizza requires the cheese and sauce and spices to bake with the crust. One takes on the flavor of the other and when you take a bite, you get a complete representation of the flavors.   

That’s the value of an integrated ERP system. When you take a bite, you get a complete representation of the flavors…meaning, you get one version of the truth. Everything comes together to allow you to analyze critical business data in an efficient way with no disconnects.

Crossroads consultants have spent years developing integration expertise to tie countless different systems to Infor ERPs.

Here are some examples…

The largest independent bottling company in the United States announced a successful Go Live

George Moroses 0 28779 Article rating: No rating

Polar Beverages, Inc. of Worcester MA has just announced a successful ‘Go Live' that brings their Adirondack Beverages division, in Scotia NY into a corporate environment running on the Infor LX platform. All business functions will be handled through the Infor LX platform, including Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Financials. 

In early 2017, 2 divisions of Polar in Worcester MA and Fitzgerald, GA began utilizing Infor LX. Crossroads RMC partnered with Polar by providing technical and application support throughout the duration of the project.

Is it time to reinvigorate your ERP system?

Crossroads RMC 0 33309 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. What is a utilization review? It's an opportunity for someone, outside of your organization, to evaluate the “what”, “how”, “who” and “why” related to the software that you use to run your business. Our consultant reviews current usage and related business processes of your entire ERP system, or a particular area like Finance, Manufacturing, Materials Management, or Technology to make recommendations that will reinvigorate your ERP system and those that use it.

Stop avoiding the warning light that indicates a serious problem and get started with a FREE 1-hour phone assessment to determine if your business can benefit from a utilization review!

Request Free Assessment>

A utilization review can be performed 100% remotely via phone or web meeting, or in person, following safety guidelines. 

4 Tips to Enhancing Productivity in Manufacturing

by Robotics & Automation News

Crossroads RMC 0 38885 Article rating: 5.0

Regardless of the size of your business, continuous improvement in productivity is essential to enhancing gross profits and maintaining competitiveness.

Here are a few of the best tips to help you improve the productivity of your manufacturing facility as presented by Robotics and Automation News >

Infor M3 Webinar: Consumer Use Tax 101: What's all the fuss about for manufacturers and distributors?

Frank Petrasio 0 28909 Article rating: 5.0

You are invited to a Zoom webinar.

Date/Time: Wednesday, October 14th 10:00 a.m. CDT / 11:00 a.m. EDT
Topic: Consumer Use Tax 101: What's all the fuss about for manufacturers and distributors?

Your business makes a purchase and you notice the seller doesn’t collect sales tax. So it must be tax free, right? Wrong. Consumer use tax may still apply, and if you’re not actively tracking use tax obligations, you could be making a costly mistake.

Put simply, use tax is owed on a purchase when the seller does not collect sales tax, or when the use of the product/service (or the location of consumption) results in more tax being owed. Sound complicated? It is, and that’s what makes use tax one of the most mismanaged compliance issues for businesses.

We brought in our partners at Avalara to dive in. For this session, learn more about consumer use tax, what it is, and when your business may be on the hook to pay it.

  • The events that can trigger consumer use tax requirements
  • The most common consumer use tax management challenges
  • The impact of economic nexus laws on consumer use tax
  • How your business can step up compliance to avoid being audited


This will be one ‘use-ful’ webinar that you won’t want to miss!

Register Today>

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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

TECHNOLOGY: Facility Security Ranges

Previously, a user could complete the Cost Transfer (CST920) process for any range of facilities regardless of their security settings established in SYS600. This enhancement verifies the user security settings set up in SYS600 before processing cost transfers for a range of facilities in CST920. If the user has authority for a facility range, but there are facilities within that range that are not authorized, the program skips those facilities and completes the cost transfer process.

FINANCE: Expiration Date for Quotes and RMAs

A Cancel-by-Date has been added to the Quote Header and RMA Header panels. This optional field can limit how long a quote or authorization to return items for credit is valid.  

For quotes, this enhancement provides an optional end date for the quote. For RMAs, it provides an optional date by which the customer must return the items to receive the credit listed on the RMA.

The Cancel-By-Date prints on the Order Acknowledgement and RMA Acknowledgement to inform the customer of this important limitation to the quote or return authorization. 

An Order Entry user cannot copy the quote to create a new order if the Cancel By Date has caused the quote to expire.

OPERATIONS: Default Split Salesperson to Customer Orders

Sales commissions are based on combinations of the Primary, Split, and Line-Level salesperson and the commission codes defined for the customer and item. You can now define the Split Salesperson in the same master files as the Primary Salesperson. While the Primary Salesperson is mandatory, the Split Salesperson is optional. It defaults during Order Create using the identical hierarchy as Primary Salesperson. Using Split Salesperson provides more flexibility in the calculation of sales commissions. The ability to define a default Split Salesperson improves the accuracy of sales commission qualification and calculation and reduces maintenance and adjustments necessitated by corrections.

Previously, a user could complete the Cost Transfer (CST920) process for any range of facilities regardless of their security settings established in SYS600. This enhancement verifies the user security settings set up in SYS600 before processing cost transfers for a range of facilities in CST920. If the user has authority for a facility range, but there are facilities within that range that are not authorized, the program skips those facilities and completes the cost transfer process.

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Tips: LN | Baan

Kathy Barthelt

Infor LN & Baan Manufacturing Tip: Performance Problems in Generate Order Planning (cprrp1210m000)

When the Generate Order Planning (cprrp1210m000) session is run it can take minutes to days to finish the process.

The performance of this session depends on many settings, like the number of plan items, the number of orders, but it also depends on hardware and database setup.

Here are some guidelines on how performance can be improved.

  • Be sure you are always on the latest solutions with the planning sessions. We are constantly improving the software to gain more speed in the Enterprise Planning (EP) sessions.
  • The number of planned items is critical. Try to reduce the number of planned items. Is it necessary that all items be planned via EP? For shop floor stock the TPOP or SIC replenish systems are often more suitable.
  • When you use PCS, be sure to close the projects when they are finished. When a PCS project has status Closed, the customized items will not be planned.

It's better to run Remove Plan Items for closed Projects (cprpd1220m000). This session removes the item planning data for customized items of closed projects.

  • If you run EP with the option, Also Generate Item Master Plan and/or Online Update Item Master Plan, consider if you need an Item Master Plan for all plan items. An Item Master Plan is usually meant for global long-term planning. Again this is not very useful for shop floor stock. Reducing the number of master-planned items improves performance.
  • When you use Resource Master Plans; are all your resources really critical? If a work center is not critical do not create a Resource Master Plan for it.
  • When using Item Master Plans and/or Resource Master Plans, set in Scenarios (cprpd4100m000) the total scenario length as short as possible. For example, if your sales order horizon is 2 years, a scenario end date which is 3 years after the current date is sufficient. During the calculations of the Item Master Plan and the Resource Master, all periods defined in the scenario are checked and calculated. So if you have the end date of the scenario on 2038, EP will do the calculations (for every master-planned item) until 2038.

Defining a rolling scenario will keep your scenario length constant and you don’t have to worry that you run beyond your scenario's end date.

  • Updating the pegging relations has a serious impact on the EP performance. In EP Parameters (cprpd0100m000) you can set the Pegging Horizon in days. Keep this horizon as short as possible. The Update Signals by Item/Planner option also has some impact, but less than the pegging.
  • EP uses the so-called phase numbers to detect the lowest level in which an item is used within a BOM structure or in a supplying relation. If the phase numbers are not ‘up-to-date’, EP will correct the phase numbers during the planning. This takes time during the planning run. If there are loops in BOMs or in supplying relations, this recalculation has a big impact on the performance. Therefore you could run Compute Phase Numbers (cprpd6200m000) on a regular basis. For example once a month. Always run this session with the Generate Report option selected. If loops are detected these are reported. Be sure to solve all the reported errors.
  • When unexpected results occur, especially when the data is imported from external packages, always check the number of records in tables cprpd100 and cprpd120. The number of records should match! Remark: From 10.4 onwards the table cprpd120 has become obsolete so this point not applicable anymore.
  • The number of calendars also impacts planning performance. Then for every warehouse, work center, or BP, and so on, a different calendar is defined. Planning has to read all of these calendars from start to end. This can have a huge impact on performance.
    • If you link a calendar to a work center or warehouse, avoid defining a new calendar for every work center/warehouse. Try to link the same calendar to more than one department.
    • Define the start of the calendar close to the start date of the scenario. For example, the current date is 01-07-2014, the start date of the scenario is 365 days in the past. So a start date for your calendar could be 01-07-2012.
    • Define the end date of the calendar not too far in the future. Depending on the end date of the scenario you could use 5 years ahead.  For example, the current date is 01-07-2014, the end date of the scenario is 3 years in the future. So an end date for your calendar could be 01-07-2022. Do not define an end date past 19-01-2038, which is the last UTC date Infor LN can handle.

Also, the interaction with the database can have a big impact on performance. 
A commonly used way to improve the total run time of the EP run is to start the session in parallel processing. 
See also Knowledge Base Article 22881401 Performance, Tracing and tuning Guide, for more details.

These guidelines are just some hints, and a good starting point because performance is a complex issue.

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Kathy Barthelt

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