As we discussed last week, one option for filling gaps in your organization’s technical department is to purchase a managed services offering, whether for Perceptive Content or any other ECM, ERP, or enterprise software solution. It can be overwhelming and expensive for an internal team to manage and optimize these complicated solutions, or even to handle upgrades, while also taking care of other important work duties. This is one reason why RPI Consultants includes a project manager in all of...

Let's talk through what a CloudSuite HCM project looks like from the perspective of the implementation partner. RPI has been involved at executive management level on a lot of them, so we've seen what helps a project become successful, what the common roadblocks are, and some of the things you can do today to help you get there. We're also going to address the why, what, where, when, who, and how of moving to the multi-tenant cloud.

If you've been following this blog (or my podcast), then you would know that I refer to myself by the title "Chief Unicorn." This idea stems from the magic of bringing technology to bear on complex business processes, which creates an automation that really frees humans to do more pleasing things like thought-centric activities and not always the mundane. If we let the robots and the technology do the mundane, the humans can go off and have more meaningful experiences that are much more gratifyi...

If you can't already tell, we really love to discuss the recent evolution of ERP and its technology. As a delivery organization, something we're constantly trying to figure out is how can we best support our customers in this constantly shifting landscape. New systems and capabilities are constantly emerging, and we are faced with the challenge of trying to get our customers to change their mindset about the systems. Everything's had to change on the vendor side: the training system, the support...

Pivoting away from general CloudSuite knowledge, let’s take a deep dive into one of its most exciting features, the new Configuration Console. Of course, this application has been around for a long time in the rich client, but Infor has made it available on Web UI. There's a lot of new functionalities that we want to highlight and showcase in this tech series.

Supporting multiple enterprise systems, including ERP and ECM software, is a challenge for many organizations. This is particularly true when knowledge is siloed, or when it is unclear which resource to reach out to internally to solve a particular issue. While many have heard of managed services support options, there are lots of people unclear about what exactly it does or does not consist of (or how it can be tailored).

In recent weeks, our focus has been on addressing various ways to correct data within the GHR system. Some topics have included canceling future actions and understanding the total scope of a correction, so let’s continue by looking at audit inserts.

My recent discussions on this blog have focused on parsing through the information you will encounter when researching cloud-based ERP systems. This area has witnessed an explosion of new systems and functionalities over the past two decades, and while this is an exciting time for the industry, it can be very overwhelming for the average customer to sift through everything to determine if this platform is right for their organization’s business needs.

We covered some of Yoga Content’s EDI & OCR processing capabilities last week; now, let’s look at one of the ways it can help users manage documents. When it comes to spaces where users can interact with each other within enterprise content management solutions, there are some good workflow-centric use cases that may not be handled well by Infor Process Automation (IPA) or other case management flows. Having robust options for interaction within your ECM software can help to cut out much of ...

Every organization is different when it comes to their data and what needs to be brought over during a cloud migration project. Although we don't recommend bringing over more than a year's worth of historical data, some may require more than that for certain business processes or legal requirements, so it's important to take stock of your data before getting started so that you can avoid the transfer of unnecessary data.

Our introduction to Yoga Content last week provided a brief overview of some of what this premium service can offer. EDI capabilities are another cool feature, so let’s take a look at that. Something we add when converting documents through Yoga is an EDI image generator. This allows us to send in EDI files (anything from an EDI 8.10, 8.55, 8.60) and then generate images to return those back to IDM. Not only are we getting those images back, but we can also process the untranslated images. Thi...

Last week, we covered how you can add value to the core system delivered with the Infor Government Essentials program. For a public sector entity, the consideration should be on your resources that are outside the core system, so think something like utility billing. Where do you want to be able to start focusing more resources? Where do you want to direct someone’s time & attention who was previously working solely with the legacy system?

There’s so much information to sort through when you are preparing to move your ERP off a legacy system. It often becomes difficult to “see through the clouds” and understand what moving to the cloud really means. To help you out, the Tech Pro Unicorn will render his opinion on cloud ERP – the good, the bad and the, well… evolving.  Depending on where you search, you will range from the cloud is a panacea for everything to the idea that it introduces elements of risk and opportunit...

We have already introduced you to the Infor Government Essentials program and discussed how it encompasses the core scope of an ERP project. We’re going to dive into this further from an HCM financial perspective to explain what this “core” is and what sort of extended functionality could be implemented or deployed downstream.

In our ongoing conversation around data correction within the multi-tenant payroll system, we discussed how the effective dated queue impacts the total scope of the correction. When you change an effective date in the queue, you can only change a future effective date to another future date – a current or past date will not be accepted by the system.

We discussed how we use IDM Capture last week, but we also work with Kofax Express to capture documents. Built with scanning in mind, it is a lightweight software that can be installed on a single desktop. This solution doesn’t require server administration, and it can be a great addition to some technology stacks because it has a very small footprint.

Last week, we introduced you to the 60/30/10 concept for implementing ERP systems. Let’s move on to how to approach this project from a delivery standpoint. Looking at this from an ERP SaaS standpoint, the biggest challenge we have encountered in talking to hundreds of customers before they move to the cloud is that there is a mindset shift that the customer needs to have about taking what the vendor delivers out of the box. It may not be exactly what they have envisioned, but it's going to wo...

Following our discussion around inputting historical payroll data, we want to go over correcting data within the GHR system. Our general approach is to first identify all the data and subsequent actions or processes that may have been affected by this error. You might have implications down the road for absence management or benefits where somebody changed eligibility. Now you need to end their benefit plans or stop deductions out of the export. Other issues like incorrectly transferring someone...

ERP systems for the public sector have come a long way in the past two decades, so let’s go over some of the improvements that have been made. If you wanted to change the user interface on a legacy system that an AP clerk or an HR person would use, a programmer would be required to rewrite the code behind the screen to determine what fields were visible and how they act when data is uploaded. The Essentials package is more configurable through power users that write queries for their departmen...

If you have taken your organization through a pre-planning exercise before migrating to a cloud-based ERP system, then you already know all the resources you need in advance of starting the project – the files, the systems, the scope, any necessary cleanup. In theory, you could internally get started on clearing any roadblocks so that you can save even more money. This implementation will require a redesign of your general ledger, which should strike excitement into the hearts of the accou...

In our ongoing conversation around Payroll History Import, we spoke last week about how to handle purging tables. I’d like to bring your attention to the purge process that Infor provides within the GHR system. If you find yourself in a situation where you haven't run your pending payments, or there's still an outstanding pending payment, or perhaps none of them has been processed, there is still a way to purge that data. Infor recommends you purge pending payments first, so once you click the...

We have previously discussed Payroll History Import and the way it processes pending payments. Let’s take a closer look at how that works within GHR. The system takes all pending payments and creates a bunch of tables, a payroll payments record, as well as a payroll register. If you process that Payroll History Import, it will prompt you to create checks (also known as a payroll registry). Once these have been created, all wages and deduction tables will be updated. This process creates the bi...

Last week, we discussed the pros & cons of using Spreadsheet Designer Plus to convert historical documents for migration from a legacy on-premises system to a cloud-based environment. A second option for how to enrich data for this type of task is to use an IPA flow for data enrichment and mapping. Both of these methods will still use the Infor Document Manager Bulk Import Utility Tool post-data enrichment. For this method, first the data is uploaded to IDM and then it is important to update eac...

It takes a while to evaluate all your data before spawning a couple of queues to process all that data. Keep in mind that if you are processing like 800,000 records, it will take several hours to process that data. That's why we recommend only bringing the first 10 or 20,000 records over at first. Then you can process that load as one file and make sure that they are within the payment master before bringing up your record types.

When it comes to converting historical documents to IDM, the first option we’re going to recommend is Spreadsheet Designer Plus, a bulk import utility tool provided by Infor with CloudSuite. The process is a relatively manual one. First, we’re going to index data from our historical documents, and then we're going to query data from Infor FSM. We’ll manually pair that index data in Excel or an equivalent database before formatting it. Finally, we’ll export our documents out of Percep...

We have already covered loading time & deduction records from an S3 environment to the cloud, so let’s dig into the flow we built to automate this. Essentially, this builds the email footer. Using that parameter, it extracts that data and produce a file. The key thing is the SQL, which is what RPI built to automate the whole extract and populate those three record types in the system. For each parameter, we extract the file and move it to the SFTP server for CloudSuite, and then use it again l...

I spoke last week about my strategy when assisting a client with a digital transformation project. I’d like to continue that discussion by bringing up another interesting observation to be cautious of, which is the myth of “standardization,” otherwise known as cost reduction.

One of the things that Infor has done over the last several years is invest heavily in a move from on premise ERP to the cloud. Most vendors in this space are doing this and there's a couple of reasons for this. It’s profitable for the vendors and it gives the vendors themselves the capability to enhance and improve the products.

"Whenever we engage with teams that have done their homework ahead of an implementation, it makes things move so much more smoothly. The level of resource that you need to bring to the project is going to be impacted by the clarity of the scope and timeline. In addition to what's being implemented and in how much time, understand that you're calibrating to how much resource you're going to need. If you're planning to implement everything under the sun in 9 to 12 months, you will need a huge amou...

Let’s say you're moving to Infor Financials and Supply Management (FSM), and you're planning your migration. Part of what you need to consider is your historical data. That includes your invoice transactions, general ledger data, purchase orders, and everything in your existing system today that you're going to migrate. An important consideration is how to get those images out of your legacy content management system into Infor Document Management (IDM) so you can see those transactions in con...

Here are some tips & tricks for using Payroll History import that we have accumulated through our experience with the tool. Our team has been doing this for a while, so maybe this information will save you any trouble that may arise as you use the product. When we extract the data, we use the period end date field on all S3 records or stables. Basically, when it comes to your payment master, PR time, and pay deduction, we use this period end date(year/month) as a selection criterion for extracti...

In my time consulting with companies across industries, I have come to several conclusions. First, everyone is trying to achieve digital transformation, but few really understand what that really means. Secondly, almost everyone I have come across is doing it in a silo. Thirdly, there are similar and uncoordinated efforts to “transform” happening across all organizations and sectors.

Among the many governmental challenges during the COVID-19 crisis, loss of revenue and the necessary transition to remote operations have been two of the most common. Additionally, recruiting and retaining quality government workers is a greater challenge than it ever has been. In response to these ongoing issues, the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 includes $350 billion in State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) for state, local, territorial, and tribal governments.T...

Last week, Justin Braun addressed how vital is it for an organization to prepare their team for the level of change brought on a CloudSuite migration project. A task that is much easier said than done, Justin has some advice on how leaders can approach this conversation.

All preparation for an ERP implementation in the public sector is irrelevant if you don’t make change management a priority from the beginning. Whether it's a migration or net new, change management touches everything and everyone involved in a project. It’s crucial to institute this at appropriate levels internally and consider the fallout from an organizational perspective.

Recently, we’ve been highlighting the things that can constrain your time and resources for a CloudSuite project. It’s not just about implementing technology – what we're really talking about is a combination of functions, processes, and data that will transform your business processes for the better.

One of the most critical items to address before embarking on a CloudSuite implementation is making sure there are procedures in place for scope management. It’s easy to deal with scope creep where there are a lot of little changes to the solution that ultimately impact the success, complexity, and ability to test the system. Much like issue management, scope management has to be identified and resolved at the right levels.

As Jeremy Stoltzfus, one of our Principal Technical consultants, pointed out to our readers last week, there are a lot of new tools to teach you how to develop effectively for CloudSuite. One of those tools is not a programming language per se, but rather a management technique. When you are going through a CloudSuite implementation, it's so critical to have these items built out in a short period of time.

When it comes to the project schedule, we love to incorporate contingency time into the project schedule without necessarily telling you about it. Hiding it is a good strategy because everyone will work towards the same completion schedule. There's two ways to do contingency planning: one is to add additional time in each of the project steps within a given phase, while the other is to give two or three weeks of time at the end of the project or phase (called a “contingency”).

Healthcare ERP is such an exciting space right now. From the advances to Supply Chain & Global Ledger applications to the advances in intelligent automation, it is a far cry from the systems that we were familiar with just a decade ago. There is even a push for predictive HR, meaning that we can tell you if a candidate is the right fit for a position or perhaps where they would be better placed. We can have data help point to why turnover is so high. There are a lot of companies in the field, ...

In terms of technical development ahead of a CloudSuite implementation, let’s discuss some of the things you can do today to prepare. The first thing is to figure out all those technical development items that you're currently maintaining and make sure you understand not just why they're there in the first place, but also what business processes they enable. Are they going to be required for CloudSuite? Do they represent a unique business requirement that CloudSuite probably isn't going...

When it comes to successful implementations, one of the key things to consider is the timing resolution of project decisions, critical issues, and critical risks. There are a lot of things that might impact a project during implementation, which is why certain decisions need to be made in a timely manner with the right people in place at the right point in time. They need to be documented and not revisited because otherwise people tend to pick apart decisions that were made three months ago. Whe...

Over the last two weeks, Jean provided great information about what is really going on during a conversion. Hopefully, that conversation gets you thinking about all the of work that needs to happen on the client side, as well as all of the work that's involved with data validation and reconciliation. As he mentioned, it's important to get a handle on the data conversion scope. IT leaders that are out there reading this might have to negotiate about this with the business. It’s hard for busines...

If your organization is embarking on a CloudSuite journey, it's important that your IT & business teams are up to speed first. Put them in a position to guide your business through a successful transformation to CloudSuite with RPI's CloudSuite Bootcamp. This is an in-person training hosted by RPI's Infor certified consultants at the RPI world headquarters in Baltimore, MD. Limited slots are available on a first come, first serve basis so don't miss your chance!

It is the week after HIMSS 2022 in Orlando, Florida. Booths have been broken down, everyone has traveled home or is enjoying the vacation they tacked on to their travels. As we reflect back on the event that boasted attendance numbers ranging from 18,000 to 28,000, there were a lot of things to be excited about. HIMSS did a great job ensuring everyone was either fully vaccinated or had been tested prior to attendance, and as such attendees generally went without masks. It was a welcome vision ba...

Reports are another opportunity to evaluate your system and determine if it is still meeting the needs of your organization. Many people are still running Crystal (even if they deny it, I guarantee I’ll find some Crystal reports somewhere) while still using Excel or Access as key parts of their processes. I can’t talk about reporting without talking about enterprise content management. Where is your information and how do people access it? Now is the time to address this problem,...

Barbie Hunley: The last characteristic we’d like to discuss around projects is connected to the project itself. Joe Hoover: We've talked about the people, processes, systems, and now projects. From this perspective, one of the most important aspects or characteristics of a successful implementation has to do with the deliverables. When I say deliverables, those are the work products that are reviewed and approved formally by the project team. Those deliverables will range in design document...

I’ve been working at RPI for the last three years, but I have 36 years of IT experience and specialize in data conversion. In order to have a successful project, you want to be sure you have the proper resources, so conversion is one of them. You'll need key expert on your side that knows Infor Process Automation (IPA), as well as someone that knows all the applications on the database side that can do a data assessment, data validation, and all your resources on HR benefit and Payroll. Also, ...

At the core of its processes, Infor Document Management (IDM) is a document repository. While it is not required to have a record in CloudSuite Financials to link to the document, we see the most value having that record in FSM linked to the and appearing in that contextual viewer. To achieve that though, what we have to do is attach that unique identifier when we upload those documents. That way the system knows when I'm looking at this invoice, it's matching to this invoice image.

The last element of GHR Multi-Tenant Payroll that I want to cover is the integration between payroll and finance. Once payroll has been closed, you will have a finance interface appear, which are all the payrolls that are closed. You can see they're posted and that this interface run group has been interfaced over to finance to tie them together. After this, the general ledger interface and accounts payable import into the new system.

Let’s talk about the hundreds (or thousands) customizations that many of you have built up over the years. These require a ton of maintenance and often lead to more problems than solutions, but the exciting thing about all the advancements and the move to the cloud, all of that goes away! Whether you like it or not, we will not advise a customer to customize in the cloud. It is rarely necessary with the recent development of all the healthcare specific modules and functionalities.

Barbie Hunley: With regards to technology, the next item we want to discuss is the existing integration with legacy systems. Joe Hoover: Dealing with those legacy systems that are not replaced by the functionality of the new ERP system or the updated migrated system has always been a challenge with ERP implementation. You have to know how to integrate the technology for that integration, but also make sure all of those touch points inbounds and outbounds are thoroughly tested when we get the ...

Let's talk about what we can do before a project starts. The first thing is to start cleaning up the master data in your system. We've talked to a lot of clients whose objective is to move onto CloudSuite with a clean, pristine house. They’ve had data structures kicking around in a legacy system like Lawson for 5, 10, 15 years and cleaning up that data has always been on the back burner. Migrating to the Cloud is the perfect opportunity to finally clean everything up and restructure the data d...

Joe Hoover: The next characteristic around technology we want to discuss is how much data should you convert? Barbie Hunley: Everyone wants all of it all the time. Joe Hoover: Everyone wants all of it. Barbie Hunley: And this... I can tell you, Joe, this can be one of the largest risks in a project if we aren't able to control it appropriately.

I'd like to thank Sarah Concannon, one of RPI's strategic services experts, for coming to our blog to discuss how vitally important change management is to the success of a CloudSuite project. That was some great advice and pointers that people can use to start socializing the changes early so that you can get people prepared for it. Because Sarah is right - people don't like change.

Joe Hoover: We've made it through our conversations around the people and process characteristics to keep in mind for a public sector ERP project. Now let's consider the systems characteristics that help your organization have a successful implementation. The first thing to identify before getting started is the quality of your data.

Another recommendation I have for successful change management is to start thinking about who the key members of your change network are and how you can make sure that they're going to be engaged and supported throughout the project.

Barbie Hunley: The last item for our business processes is the organization actually accepts changes in the business processes. Joe Hoover: What helps in that area is the goal of standardization, right? The more the organization can accept standardization, the more simple and more consistent the outcomes are. When we talk about change management and accepting the business processes, there must be a reasonable balance between understanding those new processes and accepting them.

When your organization is preparing to embark on a CloudSuite migration, change management should be something you start working on well before the project begins. The good news is that awareness and desire, the first two elements of change management, are both things that you can get to jump on ahead of time.

Over the years, RPI has done several key surveys like this - we are happy to share the results so that you can see how the market is doing. Your information and answers are confidential, but all respondents will receive the trends afterwards. Additionally, all who respond will receive a $10 Starbuck's gift card. Thank you for taking a few minutes to complete this survey.

During CloudSuite implementations in the past, we have had several clients ask if we can bring all their historical data over to the new system. The answer is complicated because obviously it is possible, but that isn’t our recommended best practice. You can bring as much data as you want, whether the cost/benefit makes sense. That's a conversation that we have as part of a pre-planning engagement because it’s vital to the project to decide what data you absolutely must have to have correct ...

When you consider the challenges surrounding improving interoperability alongside healthcare’s continued focus on data security, it may not be surprising that it lags behind other industries in the adoption of digital technology. Healthcare providers spend significant resources every year maintaining a library of niche applications and supporting multiple versions of core systems, all to ensure the security of their data. Some of these systems are duplicates in some cases due to the expense an...

Today, we would like to provide an overview of what the roles and responsibilities are on the client side during a payroll implementation. As we discussed recently, it’s vitally important to have the right people at the table doing the work. The biggest reason is that their hands-on involvement will put them in a position to help you during design because they'll already know the pain points.

Last week, I discussed why data security should be treated as an opportunity for the healthcare field instead of an obstacle. It has the potential to become an environment for listening to patient and customer needs and innovating the ways to secure the data for their requests. This is a paradigm shift that has only just begun with the new guard in information security.

Another element of preparing for a payroll implementation is having enough resources involved and making decisions. You have to make sure that the correct people will not only be involved in the project, but that they have the capacity to take on what is required of them for its duration.

The healthcare industry needs to protect patient data as it embraces more digital health technologies, including wearables, diagnostic equipment, telemedicine tools, mobile care apps, cloud applications, and data-driven software platforms. While new technology can increase patient accessibility and satisfaction with their overall care, these digital tools don’t come without risks — most specifically to sensitive patient data.  

So, what does a payroll implementation look like? It’s important to know up front that timelines can vary from 10 to 15 months or so, depending on the size and complexity. However, there are steps you can take ahead of time to mitigate this hurdle. For example, if you do GHR and if you do your finance implementations prior to payroll, then that transformation has probably already occurred. If you make sure to know what your new pay codes and accounting codes will look like, that will also make...

Aside from patient benefits, improving interoperability would also make healthcare providers’ lives easier. It would allow public health officials to access the flow of data and care information for better prediction of and response to major health events. Coupled with the appropriate monitoring, if we could have access to this information before the next pandemic in America, we might be able to act earlier and proactively allocate resources to predicted high-impact areas.  

In our previous posts about GHR payroll, we covered some of the differences from the old version, what reconciling with finance looks like, etc. Now, we’re going to raise the conversation a couple of levels to talk about making the business case for implementing the new payroll solution. In addition to ensuring you have the right budget, we will also cover what a payroll implementation looks like, what resources you will need, and a typical project timeline.

I've already discussed how leveraging intelligent automation throughout the healthcare system could improve interoperability issues, so now let's get into the monumental benefits your patients could experience. Improved Efficiency  Information should follow the patient and be available to all providers, public health officials, and payors. Imagine the downtick in administrative issues if you could cut out the duplicative patient information entries or medical record transfer de...

We’ve already discussed why you need to establish your supervisor structure ahead of taking on a payroll implementation. Something else to keep in mind is that it’s not just about driving decisions makers to understand your organization and the strategies necessary to take it in the right direction. The important thing is making sure those decision makers are empowered.

The COVID-19 pandemic has stressed all parts of the healthcare system. While we are seeing the best of our caregivers and those serving in our communities, we are also seeing more clearly the long-standing barriers to efficient execution of healthcare. Many of these are not simple to fix. Will the American healthcare system take this opportunity to push for change once we have stabilized from the current crisis?  

If you don't have a good supervisor structure in place before you start you project, that needs to be your team's top priority. This is especially true if you are using a time keeping system because they will rely heavily on your supervisor structure for time approvals. The same thing with your position structure. If you currently don't have a strong position structure, start thinking about how you want to restructure it - if you don't, it will have a negative impact on your time keeping, regard...

We have reached the conclusion of our 2021 Winter Webinar Week – it has been a great success and our team has enjoyed the opportunity to present this information to you live & in-person. We have a variety of topics on the slate for today, such as document imaging within CloudSuite, multi-tenant payroll, and Birst. Below is a list of today’s presentations (12/9), along with the link to register. All webinars can be watched on-demand once registration is completed.

For months now, everyone at RPI has been excited about the prospect of coming together in our new Baltimore headquarters to bring you a slate of some of the best educational content around in the format that really helps the topics shine. Yesterday, we kicked our 2021 Winter Webinar week and that excitement was only ratcheted up a notch, as the day was a resounding success!

When it comes to having a successful CloudSuite project in the Public Sector, what do you want to know? On Wednesday (12/8) at 1:00 PM EST, Richard Leigh Stout & Barbie Hunley will tell you everything you need to know about what the Cloud means for Public Sector. If you want to know how to get ready for it and how to be successful, come listen to two of RPI public sector experts discuss projects they’ve worked on, the impacts of the clouds on an organization, and needs in the Public Sector in ...

Is your organization looking down the road at a CloudSuite project? At noon on Wednesday December 8th, RPI partners Keith Wayland and Richard Leigh Stout will discuss common implementation challenges and how to lay the groundwork early to ensure a smooth project. Learn what you and your team can do now to prepare for CloudSuite. Topics include stakeholder engagement, data cleanup, technical development, and pre-planning.

Joe Hoover: Last week, we discussed how the honest assessment of your staff's ability to be involved in the project is critical to its success. Barbie Hunley: Something else that's super crucial is having an efficient and effective decision making process.

Once the project vision and the project goals and objectives have been defined, the right quality and quantity of executive support and sponsorship are established so that when we have major accomplishments, we celebrate those accomplishments with all levels of executive support. It's not a question of setting up the vision or setting up the project goals, rather it's having continuous involvement of executives allowing the project members to get the feeling executive leadership is engaged is su...

Something that's really important when we're talking about an approval process in a software solution is that the application needs to know who has the authority to approve what kind of transactions and who needs to see what kind of transactions. In the past, every approval system that's been bolted on to Lawson, whether it be IPA, On-Base, or a separate imaging system, basically has had to store the logic within its own configuration and its own way. Those systems have been really disconnected ...

When the pandemic hit in March 2020, we had just begun the unit testing for a client's payroll implementation. So everything was from unit testing all the way through go-live was 100% remote for us. We were able to easily adapt to the project. The team lead was their only payroll person. It was her idea to have daily team calls. We had an online Microsoft Teams meeting that was just an open meeting for her and me.

Here is a sample timeline for implementing GHR, although it can definitely be done in a shorter amount of time. Usually, absence and payroll together have a 43 week go-live. During this process, there's a lot of activities occurring at the same time, but the biggest thing to remember is that there will be three payroll parallels. Of course, we'd love to do 100 of them until there's no errors, but that's unrealistic.

Barbie Hunley: With regards to the people and organization, the first characteristic that we advise people is really to ensure that they have the right quality, quantity and availability of their project staff. Joe Hoover: Right, for a successful ERP implementation, it's a people project. First and foremost, you want to identify on your organization team those individuals that will be assigned to the project and the ability of them to dedicate their time to the project will directly impact or...

Regarding system uptime in CloudSuite, anyone that has a subscription is probably on their email notifications list. This means Infor will let you know whenever there's a service degradation across any of the apps, or within any of the CloudSuite portfolios that you subscribe to. We've definitely seen a pretty steady stream of updates lately. So, the other question is how do you prepare for CloudSuite being down unexpectedly?

Let's talk about data migration. Infor does offer data migration services where they take information from single-tenant Cloud to move it to the multi-tenant. They take information from Workday 4 for example. So if your payroll application is on a third party system that is not a loss in system, that will also be migrated from loss in S3.

In order to prepare to launch a CloudSuite project, you should lead your team through a bit of a pre-planning exercise to get yourselves ready. At a high level, that means figuring out the right scope for your organization and your timeline roadmap. Where does it make sense to start migrating to CloudSuite? Should you do the migration in phases if you're talking about bringing over a three-suite Lawson application in your medium to large size entity?

A lot of the information we've been discussing throughout this series is global and applies to everyone. However, if you're looking at your organization specifically and asking what the business case for CloudSuite is in my organization, we have a couple of things that we recommend as you go through that.

We've already talked about not having to run all the infrastructure internally. This means you're spending less time and money running a data center, and on the flip side, you are able to basically operate more efficiently. We can do more with less because it takes less human power and input to do day-to-day transactions and push them through.

One of the most important things to do when you're going through an ERP implementation is to outline your business processes as early as possible. Most companies or municipalities will ensure that they also have outlined their requirements in a very detailed fashion, which is a step in the right direction - a level up from that would be doing the same for your business processes.

Everything we’ve been discussing throughout this series goes back to the scope of the ERP. The scope of the ERP is best defined through the strategic vision, which has to take into account business transformation, goals, and objectives in the areas where the organization needs the most improvement. What are the situations? How long does it take us to issue a permit? How does it take us to complete a procurement? How long does it take a business entity to respond to a solicitation? All of these...

I know that for some organizations considering a move to the cloud, there's some hesitation of not being in control of the underlying hardware or data center that they’re running. It feels like maybe there's a bit of a risk here in not managing and owning all the infrastructure. But I feel like there's a false sense of security that can come with this attitude, because even organizations that have invested in a robust disaster recovery plan have discovered that they’re not always as fail-saf...

I think everyone acknowledges that the concept of having a single ERP that handles everything you need has been outdated for a while. It can become difficult and overwhelming having a different solution for each piece, as well as thousands of integrations and interdependencies. This is why it's about finding the right happy medium for your organization, which is something that starts with a foundation that's going to take care of 80-90% of your needs. While it's possible that there are some thin...

One of the most challenging components of an ERP implementation project is project governance. While this aspect starts with the project management, it extends to the executive sponsorship as well as the actual project team members who are implementing the ERP system.

The third principle we talked about is identifying implementation constraints and objectives. What we mean by that is, is it a single phased implementation or a multi-phase implementation? It comes down to how much change management and change readiness the organization can absorb at that time. In terms of business transformation, what are those components that need the greatest impact. Is the organization having issues around the procurement process or employee satisfaction? Ultimately, the str...

Once the strategic vision for an ERP implementation is clear, it will typically evolve and be revised by the second guiding principle: establishing the strategic business transformation objectives and approach. This stage always dictates what the scope of the ERP implementation would look like. When we think about any public sector organization, somewhere there is a plaque that says your mission statement, your goals and objectives, all of which focus on constituencies and how to be a better, mo...

One of the questions that we're asked often from public sector organizations is how do I prepare for an ERP implementation? If you look at it from a strategic perspective and consider what the guiding principles would be, the answer would come down to three parts. The first is knowing the scope of your ERP project, the second is establishing your strategic business transformation strategies and approach, and the third is determining your ERP implementation objectives and criteria.

In general, Infor has incredible reporting capabilities. While a multitude of reports are actually delivered within the system, it also has the capability to extract data into an Excel spreadsheet. One of the great things about GHR is the visibility that managers have into their own employees' data, where they can run a report to see who in their group has a vaccination or has been given a face shield, ect. Anyone who is an administrator can use these company-wide reports, which would be some of...

  TAKE QUICK SURVEY   Over the years, RPI has done several key surveys like this - we are happy to share the results so that you can see how the market is doing. Your information and answers are confidential, but all respondents will receive the trends afterwards. Please take a few minutes to complete this survey - you will be entered for some great prizes including iPads, Rokus, and a host of Amazon devices (Echo Dots, Echo Shows, Fire Tablets, etc.) as we love Tech. The s...

Over the course of the last fourteen weeks, Keith and I have walked you through a high-level explanation of what RPI's pre-planning engagement is and how, together through this process, we can maximize the powerful features of Infor CloudSuite for your organization. Aside from discussing how this assessment helps get everyone on your team ready for a CloudSuite implementation, we also covered the project's scope & approach, how to handle different types of data ahead of a migration, ...

All the work that is involved in a successful pre-planning assessment culminates in the executive summary. This week, Keith takes you through the specific deliverables you will receive in our executive summary. This step is extremely important on the road to CloudSuite, so we relish the opportunity to demonstrate what we can do while providing budget estimates for your organization to consider. Check out Keith’s latest post to find out more information!

A large amount of our customers have been on Lawson for many years, which is another big factor in these pre-planning engagements and projects in general. This familiarity means they've developed very sophisticated flows, integrations, and extensions, so they're concerned about how those are going to migrate forward into CloudSuite. Today we’re going to explain what that effort and future state might look for a client in this situation. This part is actually a big component in t...

The conversion scope and strategy that we decide on during pre-planning has a pretty big impact on the structure of the overall transition project, as does the work effort and direct cost for this implementation. Let's discuss how and what we focus on during this important phase in the pre-planning project, as well as what it means for your overall implementation. There are three different kinds of data that we can talk about in terms of conversion: master data, transactional data, and hi...

A question we often get from clients who are looking to implement CloudSuite is what should an organization do to prepare for an RPI pre-planning event? While I think it’s the same as planning for an engagement, there are basically two things to consider. The first is that the better you both understand and document your current processes and pain points, the better you can articulate them to a consultant. This way we already know what you’re looking to achieve from the beginning ins...

Now let’s discuss the key deliverables a client might receive out of this engagement. We have a written deliverable which covers the scope and approach of our project, as well as the organizational profile. It contains everything gathered during the discovery period; this information forms the narrative of how the Lawson application is used, how well it is meeting the client’s needs, and any other noticeable gaps that we can close wit...

Why would you want to pre-plan for your CloudSuite implementation? In a nutshell, these projects are big and complicated and they disrupt an organization’s business processes for the better by their very nature. Since this undertaking is nothing like an upgrade, you really want to set yourself up to have a successful implementation. Remember, this venture will last the next twenty, twenty-five years – as ...

RPI at the MWLUG Virtual Meeting Join RPI this Thursday, March 18 for the MWLUG virtual meeting. The MWLUG virtual meeting will feature special interst group breakout sessions, a special Infor update by Matthew Bragstad, and a riveting ADDINS Session with Mr. Don Peterson! If you're not yet registered for the MWLUG virtual meeting you can register here.  RPI will be participating in the HR, Technical, Financial and Supply Chain special interest groups and will h...

Mike Gardner, our esteemed, long-time colleague, has officially retired from the RPI ranks and Infor-Lawson community. A sales superhero, Mike had a lengthy career in consulting and sales which outlasted most everyone I know. In addition to working at RPI, he previously owned his own consulting firm, Mid-Point Consultants, and some larger Systems Integrators before that. He was an icon in the Infor-Lawson market, truly a classy guy, and he certainly will be missed.   I will always re...

What Can you Learn About CloudSuite Today?  RPI is proud to announce our next iteration of Tech Talks with our “CloudSuite Series”, which will be 15 progressive sessions on each Friday for the next several months. Continuing our series this week, is: Watch On-Demand: CloudSuite 101: CloudSuite Migrations This is your starting point to the transformative potential of CloudSuite, so let RPI help you get off to a good start with the “secret sauce.”&...

Watch On-Demand: CloudSuite 101: CloudSuite Migrations CloudSuite 102: v11 HCM Differences CloudSuite 103: v11 Financials Differences Future Tech Talks You Can Register for Today: CloudSuite 104: v11 SCM Differences Friday, October 2. 12:00 pm EDT CloudSuite 105: v11 Pre-Planning Friday, October 9. 12:00 pm EDT CloudSuite 106: Global Ledger Sandbox Friday, October 16. 12:00 pm EDT CloudSuite 107: CloudSuite for Healthcare Friday, October 23. 12:00 pm EDT .......

The decade of Hospital 4.0 is here. So far clinical operations may have been the primary beneficiary of the innovations brought by this initiative. But as RPI director Michael Grace explains in his article for ERP News, the robust enhancements and process-driven frameworks of the new generation of Cloud ERP solutions when combined with the exciting potential of robotic process automation (RPA) promises even more transformative outcomes for the digital worker in healthcare.  Read Michael&...

RPI's 2019 Spring Webinar Mini-Series RPI's Infor Lawson Spring Webinar Mini-Series will take place May 14-15, 2019. This time we'll be featuring new information on planning for v11, why you really need a business intelligence strategy and how to get one, and show you why and how managed services can still save you time and money in a Cloud-based world. Featured guests will include Infor's Todd Stratton, and Birst's John Duda. Infor's Top ...................

Where does your organization rank when it comes to BI & Analytics maturity? We agree that most organizations are either Basic (spreadsheet-based analyses and personal data extracts) or Opportunistic (individual business units pursue their own data and analytics initiatives as stand-alone projects, lacking leadership and central guidance); so where do you start if you want to improve your maturity? Don’t reinvent the wheel and make the same mistakes others have, lean on the experts at R...

Take a Tour of the Infor HCM Evolution (& Revolution) Join Infor's head of HCM Product Management, Amy Ihlen, and RPI's Richard Leigh Stout on a tour of what's new, where Infor is headed, some industry trends, and the technology in Infor's HCM (Human Capital Management) Evolution - it's a revolution.    Infor's Next Gen Payroll is Coming: An Update & the Evolution   Join Infor's head of HCM Product Management...

As the current year winds down, RPI is pulling out all the stops for our Winter Webinar Series. We're bringing you topics from HCM, GHR, SCM, and Finance focused around CloudSuite FSM v11 and beyond. Some familiar faces, some new faces and a few special guests will be popping by the studio to help us out. So amongst all the hustle and bustle that the month of December entails, take a little time to join us for some new and informative presentations!

We still have a lot more prizes to give away so don't miss your chance to win! Complete RPI's Infor Lawson community survey and you'll be automatically entered into the drawing for a YETI cooler, an Amazon Echo Show, an Amazon Tap and Starbucks gift cards. You will only be able to take the survey until November 2, so don't wait to participate. RPI Consultants administers this survey to gauge the progress and perceptions of the great Infor Lawson community. The survey cap...

Free Coaching Sessions with RPI at Inforum 2018 - Schedule Your Session Today! Schedule a 30 or 60 minute meeting with RPI while at Inforum. Talk about specific topics or just sit down and have a general conversation with one of our consultants about where your organization is now and where you want to be tomorrow. You've seen our webinars, now spend time with those same RPI experts as they provide coaching on the topics that matter to you most. There is no better way to spend your t...

Time is running out to register for the MWLUG IPA Symposium. In this video, RPI’s Richard Leigh Stout and Jeremy Stoltzfus discuss about what you can expect to get out of the event. Check it out here! The IPA Symposium is a collaboration of developers, users, thought-leaders and other community members focusing on how to get the most out of IPA. It is a unique opportunity to share your experience and expertise around this powerful tool as well as to further your knowledge and understand...

RPI's Infor Lawson Summer Sizzler Webinar Series begins on June 4th! As we count down the days until the practical, informative webinars, we're also here to count dow the top 5 things you need to know to make sure you're prepared to experience every bit of value that these webinars have to offer.    5. Log on Early! This may sound a bit underwhelming, but we've all been there — you log on to your webinar and experience the dreaded "technical difficul...

RPI at the KLUG RPI Consultants is proud to sponsor the Keystone Lawson User Group (KLUG) Meeting being hosted at the Wyndham Garden Inn in York, PA on Friday, April 27th. RPI will be the exclusive sponsor of the 2018 KLUG Meeting with over 20 subject matter experts in attendance and 8 sessions to present. Attending from RPI will be Business Analysts, Senior Consultants, Practice Managers and Partners. For more information or to register for the KLUG 2018 Spring Meeting, please visi...

Again this year RPI Consultants is excited to sponsor the 2018 Infor Winter Showcase in St. Paul, MN. For those attending, we would like to help you get the most out of this important event. RPI and WorkOutLoud have teamed up to produce our 2018 version of the Infor Winter Showcase Visitor’s Guide. In this visitor's guide, we’re highlighting some of our favorite restaurants, bars and destinations to visit while attending the 2018 Infor Winter Showcase.

Register now for RPI's Winter Webinar Webinar Series! As current year winds down, RPI is pulling out all the stops for our Winter Webinar Series. We’re bringing you topics from HCM, GHR, SCM, and Finance including AP Automation plus several presentations on CloudSuite FSM v11. A special guest will be popping by the studio to help us out, so amongst all the hustle and bustle that the month of December entails, take a little time to join us for some new and informative presentations! ...

During the Southeast Lawson User Group on September 18th, RPI Consultants matched the donation by the SELUG board to aid the victims of hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The partners, staff and family at RPI Consultants very much appreciated the privilege of being able to match the generous $1,000 donation made by the SELUG to the United Way for hurricane relief. Managing partner Keith Wayland was on hand with VP Sales & Marketing, Bill Geddy, to present the donation to SELUG’s Tanya an...

Why take the time to respond? 1. Prizes! Who doesn’t love prizes? 2. Every respondent will get a copy of the survey results when completed. Get the low-down on what’s happening in the community and see where you stand in comparison to your peers. 3. RPI’s goal is to be the premier source for knowledge-sharing and enablement for the Infor Lawson community. To do that most effectively, we need to know what’s important to you and what you’d like to see in the future educational initiat...

FLUG Spring 2017 Meeting The FLUG Spring 2017 meeting will be held at the Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, FL. Date: Friday, April 21, 2017 from 8AM - 3:30PM Where: Hillsborough Community College Brandon Student Services Center 10414 E Columbus Dr Tampa, FL 33619-7822

This Friday February 24th registration will end for Infor’s Power Training and Winter Showcase taking place March 6th and 7th and then March 8th through the 10th respectively. The Power Training will cover Landmark Security, Process Automation, Technology Foundation, and Infor Security Services. These are some of the most requested training classes and they’re going to be led by some of Infor’s leading instructors. If you’ve had your eye on any of the courses, I can’t recommend strongly enough taking advantage of this opportunity. You get the entire course content condensed into two days which is really going to maximize the time you spend. The training will take place in Infor’s Educational Floor in their St. Paul headquarters which was just renovated and re-opened a couple of years ago, so the facilities are nice, new, and comfortable. I highly encourage you to check it out, especially since time is running short to sign up!

It happens way more often than organizations realize.  Invoices get coded directly to the inventory account – which is no bueno when we are talking about a balance sheet GL account that is purportedly supposed to tie to a sub system (and that system is IC, not AP!)

The following is a clever workaround for receiving a substitute inventory item.

We’ve all gotten the request before…. What was our spend on item 11111 last year? Where do you go to provide them the data behind the request? PO54, MM280, or maybe you get a little crazy and start pulling records directly from POLINE?

It happens way more often than organizations realize. Invoices get coded directly to the inventory account – which is no Bueno when we are talking about a balance sheet GL account that is purportedly supposed to tie to a sub system (and that system is IC, not AP!) So why do we see directly Coded Invoices and Credits for Inventory Items in the first place? Don’t inventory items need to come through a PO to be received in as Inventory in the first place? Yes, they sure do!

RPI Consultants Lawson Candy Apple Webinar Fall Festival! Register today and take home all of your Lawson Festival goodies. www.rpic.com/webinars

Pack up your lunchbox and hit the books on August 18 to learn everything you need to know to ace Lawson 10.

Schedule a meeting with RPI's HCM Practice Manager, Melissa Olson. Melissa is a senior Infor/Lawson Human Capital Management applications consultant with origins in the technical side. She is experienced and certified in Lawson Global Human Resources and Talent Management as well as the Lawson S3 HR applications. Schedule a meeting with Melissa today. www.rpic.com/inforum

We often provide the recommendation to clean-up your users in LSF before running an ISS synch, other than identifying and deleted orphaned records here are some pointers on running an ISS synch.