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Decide on the total or partial redesign of your information system is a challenge for any company: as they say, “we know where we are starting from, but we don't know very well where we are going to arrive”. That is why, The CIOs who embark on this adventure study existing problems and call on the professionals of IT to support them throughout this process.
This is the case of our client; a French food company specializing in the sale of frozen foods that we supported in the restructuring of its information system. Our teams supported this client in defining its integration strategy, in choosing solutions and in implementing this project. A strategic issue for this company that we have addressed with a methodical and proactive approach.
This article explains the architecture of the data flows put in place to communicate the Infor M3 ERP with the Legacy via Boomi iPaaS.
Faced with the increase in its activity, our client has recently noticed delays in the execution of its processes and wants to strengthen the security and reliability of its ERP, which must constantly adapt to the most recent security standards.
The editor of the old ERP has chosen to highlight its new version in Cloud mode, thus reducing the level of support of the on-premise version. This will cause several problems such as:
In order to avoid these problems, our client has therefore initiated a project to redesign its ERP accompanied by an optimization of all the data flows revolving around it.
Growth means new needs; in this case, those of our client revolve around volume management, the implementation of BI to support logistics and order forecasts,... In addition, technical needs related to Optimizing response times and the type of installation (On-premise).
Our client's CIO and business management must therefore take up the challenge of evolving their IS so that the system can align with their new needs. This ultimately leads us to the choice of replace their ERP with Infor M3, a good compromise because it is capable of meeting the changing needs of the company and of adapting easily to future developments.
It is therefore in this context and to respond to its problems that our client opted for the Infor M3 ERP, designed for cater management of the entire company, including chain management procurement, financial management, production management and human resources management. The solution offers a multi-company, multinational and deployable on-premise platform (on site) or In the cloud, and is suitable for businesses of all sizes and in all sectors.
In addition, the ERP is equipped with functionalities allowing businesses to adapt swiftly to changes in their environment, in terms of trends, business models and of growth in their activities.
By choosing Infor M3, our client had to simultaneously review its integration strategy by choosing the leader in intelligent connectivity and automation; Boomi, a pioneer publisher of iPaaS solutions.
To do this, we supported him to first connect Infor M3 to the existing one: communicate/interface with the VAN (Value-Added Network)/various trading partners for EDI ORDER flows (orders), INVOICE (invoices), DESADV (shipping notices), INVRPT (stock status).
But also create new flows in order to improve productivity (automation of the integration of the management of OF (production order), M3 interface with the balance) and have a more complete view of data thanks to the establishment of a BI flow, which improves decision-making and business efficiency.
Boomi natively offers a multitude of connectors that greatly facilitate the establishment of interfaces between different applications. For example; the integration of customer orders received in various formats, such as EDI, CSV, Fixed Format, Excel, or PDF.
Boomi can process data in real time (Real-time event driven execution) or schedule the execution of processes (Scheduler). The platform natively manages various types of files (various EDI standards such as EDIFACT 96A or even flat file) and offers the possibility of importing custom libraries to process other types (Excel, PDF). It also allows you to perform splitting, format control and file transformation (mapping) operations (Exp: from an EDI file to an xml file). The most important Boomi can simply make Rest API calls to Infor M3 by managing Auth2 authentication (with token refresh management) thus allowing the integration of order data. Use case similar for INVRTP (stock status).
Use case 1: Order data integration
Use case 2: Sending invoices generated by Inform3
To send the invoices generated in xml format by Infor M3 to the customer via the VAN in EDI format, Boomi is responsible for retrieving the invoices from the dedicated SFTP folder and transforming them into the correct EDI format while respecting the requirements/specifications of the end customer (the specifications differ from one customer to another). Use case similar to the DESADV (the shipping notice).
Use case 3: Automation of part of the production chain: Balance interface (management of incoming/outgoing flows of OF data (production order), article recipe...)
Before automation, exchanges between the old ERP and the balance were done by exporting daily and printing OFs (production orders) which must be processed during the day by the manufacturing workshops using the scales. Likewise, in the other direction, at the end of each day, a manual entry is made in the old ERP of data from the balance to translate the day's work. Data that is also present/stored in the scale is programmed manually.
Ce streams thus makes it possible to communicate Infor M3 and the scale via Boomi and thus eliminate all human interventions (risk of error, improvement of productivity).
Boomi is the right choice for this type of flow because it natively manages xlm and CSV formats (reading transformations,...).
Use case 4: Combining/using Infor M3 data for BI purposes
Sharing of Infor M3 data with BI tools allows them to be visualized in a clear and intuitive way, to connect them to other data sources, and to create customized dashboards and reports to monitor business performance and identify opportunities for improvement.
So we keep that an ERP is above all a solution that facilitates operations, performance and customer/employee satisfaction. However, its implementation is often accompanied by major changes in a company's IS.
A project an IS redesign, led by our team of expert consultants, which marks a new business turning point for our client. Something to inspire you to the modernization of your IS!
Do not hesitate to contact us to find out more about what we can do for you.
