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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

Want a way to convert IBM i ® spool files into full-color, professional forms that are output as PDF documents?

Anthony Etzel 0 28736 Article rating: 5.0

Want a way to convert IBM i ® spool files into full-color, professional forms that are output as PDF documents?

Crossroads RMC and TL Ashford can help you get there!

TLAForms provide a reliable, feature-rich, cost-effective forms solution for IBM i, with no programming required!

Contact Anthony Etzel for more info: 1.630.955.1310, x125 or aetzel@crossroadsrmc.com

Join us in St. Louis for inPOWER 2020!

inPower 2020

George Moroses 0 27601 Article rating: 5.0

We can’t wait to see you this May at the PREMIER event for Infor LX & BPCS users! Join us for the conference and a special customer appreciation event!

Why attend?

  • Participate in exclusive training sessions
  • Attend user experience and industry presentations on topics relevant to your business
  • View new product demos to give you the tools needed to tackle issues we all share

Click here to register and please let us know that you will be attending!

What is the right balance of KPIs to make sure your production line is running at peak performance?

Analytics Dashboard

Crossroads RMC 0 31056 Article rating: 5.0

How can we make sure the production line is running at peak performance?

One very effective way is to put the right balance of production KPIs in place. Some of these are leading indicator KPIs that help provide insight into future performance and some are results KPIs that tell you how you have done. It is good to have both.

Check out this list of 21 examples of KPI indicators for 2020 to help improve manufacturing performance.

Analytics Dashboard for Infor LN & Baan
Analytics Dashboard for Infor LX, BPCS & Infor M3

Consulting News: It's Time for the Crossroads RMC Utilization Review

Frank Petrasio 0 38930 Article rating: 5.0

If your business requirements and 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 the Infor LX and BPCS software to best suit the needs of your business, not only today, but in years to come.

Learn more> 

Contact Frank Petrasio today to schedule your review so that you can get 2020 started on the right foot!
800.762.2077

Crossroads RMC Tip of the Week: How to Prevent Your Company From Being a Victim of Ransomware

Crossroads RMC 0 62583 Article rating: 3.5

This is unfortunately becoming a common occurrence in today’s digital society and we are hearing about these sort of attacks quite frequently.

There are a few dos and don’ts when it comes to ransomware as recommended by Norton 360:   

  1. Do not pay the ransom. It only encourages and funds these attackers. Even if the ransom is paid, there is no guarantee that you will be able to regain access to your files.
  2. Restore any impacted files from a known good backup. Restoration of your files from a backup is the fastest way to regain access to your data.
  3. Do not provide personal information when answering an email, unsolicited phone call, text message or instant message. Phishers will try to trick employees into installing malware, or gain intelligence for attacks by claiming to be from IT. Be sure to contact your IT department if you or your coworkers receive suspicious calls.
  4. Use reputable antivirus software and a firewall. Maintaining a strong firewall and keeping your security software up to date are critical. It’s important to use antivirus software from a reputable company because of all the fake software out there.
  5. Do employ content scanning and filtering on your mail servers. Inbound e-mails should be scanned for known threats and should block any attachment types that could pose a threat.
  6. Do make sure that all systems and software are up-to-date with relevant patches. Exploit kits hosted on compromised websites are commonly used to spread malware. Regular patching of vulnerable software is necessary to help prevent infection.
  7. If traveling, alert your IT department beforehand, especially if you’re going to be using public wireless Internet. Make sure you use a trustworthy Virtual Private Network (VPN) when accessing public Wi-Fi like Norton Secure VPN.

Motivate Your Infor LN & Baan Team with Dashboards

Kathy Barthelt 0 34145 Article rating: 5.0

"Using real-time dashboards, you can hold everyone accountable to KPIs on a weekly basis so nothing falls through the cracks. Customers stay happy and you know what's going on at all times while keeping your whole team on the same page." (BrightGauge blog, February, 2018)

Leverage dashboards to help ensure all aspects of your business are covered.Crossroads RMC provides real-time dashboards to display virtually any aspect of your ERP data. Use the standard dashboards, or create your own! 

Learn more about Analytics Dashboard>

Contact Kathy Barthelt to discuss how dashboards can immediately benefit your company this year!

Infor LN & Baan Tip of the Week: Customer Requested Delivery Date – 10.7

Kathy Barthelt 0 46261 Article rating: 5.0

The Use Customer Requested Delivery Date parameter has been introduced in the Sales Order Parameter (tdsls0100s400) session, which is used to track the customer’s requested delivery date.

If this parameter check box is selected, various additional date fields become available to track the customer Initial Requested Delivery Date and the Original Promised Planned Delivery Date.

Why should you consider Crossroads RMC’s data collection solution for Infor LN & Baan?

Let our customers tell you:

Kathy Barthelt 0 25475 Article rating: 5.0

“Improving the efficiency of all our operations is key to our ongoing success. Crossroads RMC’s Data collection solution clearly can help us on an ongoing basis, and it offers immediate improvement and a foundation we can continue to build on." IT Manager, Magnesita

Learn More About Crossroads RMC's Data Collection - WebCollect, formerly RMC3

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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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