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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 Tip of the Week: What is the LN Report Designer and what is required to use it?

Kathy Barthelt 0 1430 Article rating: 5.0

The main purpose of the Report Designer is to enable changes to the design of a 4GL application report, without modifying the standard report or using an external reporting solution. The changes are stored as personalizations. Therefore, the effort that is required to implement changes, after the standard is updated, is reduced.

You can also generate new reports that are based on a selection of fields from the application data model. These reports are generated in the extensibility package. You can personalize these reports in the Report Designer, or modify them in LN Studio.

  • The Report Designer is available with LN 10.5 and later.
  • Enterprise Server 10.6 is required.
  • The Report Designer is only supported in LN UI.

Note:  On LN 10.5 you must re-compile the reports once with Enterprise Server 10.6 to enable them for the Report Designer.

OTTO - On-Time Ordering: Q&A with an MIS Manager from a metal fabrication manufacturer

George Moroses 0 429 Article rating: 5.0

OTTO  A Q&A with an MIS Manager from a metal fabrication manufacturer:

1. How difficult was it to initially install OTTO?

"We loaded OTTO on our AS/400 on a Friday morning and demonstrated OTTO's capabilities with our own data that afternoon. That really impressed me from an IS perspective because it was so easy to load and run."

2. Would you install it on a test system or on the production system?

"We installed on the production system in order to use live data. OTTO resides outside of the ERP system and builds its own databases so it is not detrimental to any other system."

3. How difficult was it to implement OTTO, was there a negative impact on daily operations?

"Some reports were being used on the first day of the evaluation. There was only positive impact on our operation. For example, shortages in our final assembly area were eliminated within 30 days of the demonstration."

4. Comments?

"I was greatly surprised OTTO fit so well with our operation. OTTO has worked well in our company (we substantially increased on time shipments at the same time our business was seeing a 3 fold increase), but each company has to judge for themselves how well OTTO fits in with their organization."

Contact us to learn how OTTO can help your company!

Analytics Dashboard News: What is a CFOs Biggest Concern?

Crossroads RMC 0 388 Article rating: 5.0

If you ask CFOs about their biggest concerns, most of them will tell you that increasing cash flow is a high priority.

In order to succeed at this, you have to keep an eye on your accounts receivable. Many companies, however, do not have the means or data to find out where they currently stand.

What if you could have that information at your fingertips?

Learn more about Analytics Dashboard for Infor LN/Baan >

Learn more about Analytics Dashboard for Infor LX/BPCS/M3 >

Your Enterprise Resource Planning software lies at the heart of your business

Infor LX & BPCS

George Moroses 0 12191 Article rating: 5.0

How Infor LX & BPCS is utilized is critical to operating a stable, well understood and effective business system. Knowing the current state of your system will enable you to make decisions to either better utilize your current ERP version or upgrade.

Crossroads RMC’s Utilization Review helps you flush out issues and areas for improvement. Our findings have resulted in minor procedural changes to a full reimplementation, or system upgrade to Infor LX.

If your business requirements and your resources have undergone major change since your original implementation, it is time to take a look at your ERP system to see if it is being utilized properly. The Crossroads RMC Utilization Review is designed to work with your people to identify the best way to apply the powerful capabilities within the Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Financial modules within the LX/BPCS software to best suit the needs of your business, not only today, but in years to come.

Learn more>

Infor LX & BPCS Tip of the Week: How do I restrict over-shipments to customers - LX 8.4?

George Moroses 0 1289 Article rating: 5.0

This enhancement prevents over-allocations and resulting overshipments to customers. Attempted over-shipments can present an error message to the user, or there is an option to automatically adjust the user’s request to the allowed quantity.

Since over-shipments result from over-allocations, Infor LX provides an optional validation during the four processes where a user can attempt to over-allocate. Note: Infor LX never over-allocates or over-ships; this always results from a user’s action. This enhancement provides three options regarding over-allocations and over-shipments:

  • Continue current process with warning message.
  • Show error message.
  • Automatically change allocation quantity to match quantity available for shipment.

If the over-ship quantity change is acceptable, internal procedures may require that the order quantity be revised so that pricing, promotions, credit checking, load planning, and other processes reflect the actual quantity.

The programs or areas impacted include:

  • ORD820D, Order Entry System Parameters
  • ORD720D2, Order Allocations
  • ORD725D, Order Entry Allocations
  • ORD570D5, Pick Confirm Inventory Confirmation
  • ORD700D2 / ORD700DA / ORD710B, Order Line Validation

Your Enterprise Resource Planning software lies at the heart of your business

Friedman | MAPICS | XA and more

George Moroses 0 24144 Article rating: 5.0

How your ERP is utilized is critical to operating a stable, well understood and effective business system. Knowing the current state of your system will enable you to make decisions to either better utilize your current ERP version or upgrade.

Crossroads RMC’s Utilization Review helps you flush out issues and areas for improvement. Our findings have resulted in minor procedural changes to a full reimplementation, or system upgrade.

If your business requirements and your resources have undergone a major change since your original implementation, it is time to take a look at your ERP system to see if it is being utilized properly. The Crossroads RMC Utilization Review is designed to work with your people to identify the best way to apply the powerful capabilities within the Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Financial modules within your ERP software to best suit the needs of your business, not only today, but in years to come.

Learn more>

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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

Previously, Material Requirements Planning (MRP) preferred practices meant that the component's due date was the same as the parent's shop order release date. Because MRP trends have changed, the preference for this due date is the day before the release date of the parent. Although Infor LX already has this functionality in Shop Order Maintenance programs (SFC500), users could not change how due dates were determined for lower-level shop orders in Multi-Level Shop Order Release, SFC530D.

This enhancement provides an additional parameter for Multi-Level Shop Order Release. This parameter allows the user to change how the due date of the child components is determined. The Multi-Level Shop Order Release, SFC5302, has a new parameter for shop orders. The Due Date of Children = Release Date of Prent (Due Date of Children) field allows the user to set the due date determined for multi-level shop orders.

This feature uses different exchange rates in the user's inventory processes by using new macros in Post Inventory to G/L, INV920D. INV920 used macros limited by the Override Exchange Rate parameter set on the book in Book Definition, CEA105D3. If the Override Exchange rate parameter is set to No, the macro uses the Rate Type of the Book. If the Override Exchange parameter is set to Yes, the macro uses the Rate Type of the Order Company. This enhancement provides macros that use the Rate Type of the Order Company. This enhancement provides macros that use the Rate Type of the Warehouse Company, Order Company, or the Book regardless of the Override Exchange Rate parameter in the Book.

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Tips: LN | Baan

Is Your Infor ERP System the Elephant in the Room?

The Infor ERP Elephant in the Room That Must Be Addressed

In a recent survey of Infor ERP customers, we discovered that 50% of respondents said that they did not know whether or not their ERP system had the features and functionality required for their business.  50%....1 out of every 2……not good.

Why is this the case? Well, the causes can be traced back to one of the following reasons:

  • A key-person has retired or left the company and their knowledge left with them.
  • Systems were implemented based on how the previous system worked.
  • Upgrades and implementations were viewed as a “technical upgrade”, meaning that the upgrade was done to get off an old or outdated platform. All the new features and functionality weren't researched so they are unknown and no one could be trained on them.


You may say “So what? Who cares if our team doesn’t know what else is available, or how the rest of the ERP system functions? Does it really matter?” It matters more than you think.

If you rely on an Infor ERP system to get your job done, you need to not only know what sessions to run, what fields are required, and what reports provide results, you also need to understand how the transactions impact the rest of the system. Without that understanding, you are inadvertently creating a departmental silo which can have a negative impact on the performance of the ERP for the rest of the company. 

Not knowing the functionality of the ERP results in limited use of the system as a whole. In my 25 years working with ERP systems, I have seen many cases where a company becomes frustrated with the limitations of the system only to discover that they were only utilizing 10-20% of the ERP system's capabilities. The system didn’t impose the limitation…it was the use of the system, or shall I say the lack of it, that was the culprit.

To be competitive in today’s economy, an ERP system should be able to move in lockstep with a business as its needs change. In order for this to happen, the entire company needs to be willing to change too. Part of this change involves taking advantage of the best practices that are built into the Infor ERP system. If you're not sure how to do that - you are not alone! Fully understanding your Infor ERP requires a team of capable users in each key department of your organization to marry the capabilities of the ERP system with your business objectives. Sounds complicated? Well, it doesn't stop there. Your team of capable users needs to communicate between the key departments to make sure one department's procedures don't handicap any other department. Once this level of understanding and communication is established, decisions can be made to take advantage of the most effective way to minimize costs, increase efficiency, improve quality and deliver the highest level of customer service possible…everything you invested in the Infor ERP system for in the first place, is now unleashed.

Not sure where to start? Crossroads RMC's consultants have this exact expertise and the skills to get you through tough times. Our expertise comes from years of experience, and best practices to evaluate your business processes and identify areas where improvement is needed. Whether you need to increase the return on your ERP investment or have no idea what to do next, our comprehensive ROI business case, cost estimates, benefits, and a plan of action will supply you with the information you need to add value to your business.

Request a free phone consultation>  or contact us to learn how to get started> solutions@crossroadsrmc.com  |  800.762.2077

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