Thormod Berger
It isn’t hard to see why. When it comes to software, cloud models offer a whole host of benefits over traditional on-premise solutions. They’re easily scalable, speedy to implement, and with regular updates being handled automatically on the vendor side, you can be sure you’re always using the latest, most secure version of your software.
Infor first introduced the cloud version of Infor M3 (M3) a few years back. With more companies than ever before favoring software-as-a-service solutions for enterprise applications, we at Vince expect to see a rapid increase in the number of M3 customers migrating to the cloud in the coming years.
Infor M3 in the cloud is both flexible and agile, and it’s great that Infor is offering their customers this option. But while the benefits are clear, there are a few consequences of taking Infor M3 online that users need to be aware of. Chief among these is how mass data updates are handled.
With an on-premise M3 solution, mass updates are typically managed with SQL. While making updates directly to the database can be a little risky (and let’s face it, who hasn’t messed up an M3 update using SQL at one time or another), this method is a convenient result been widely adopted.
But for companies using the Infor M3 cloud solution, it’s no longer possible to carry out mass updates using SQL. This leaves users with two options: either roll their sleeves up and do mass updates manually or use APIs.
For the vast majority of businesses, this is going to be an easy decision. That’s because manual updates aren’t feasible for most companies. The sheer amount of data involved means manual updates would take a prohibitively long time for all but the smallest of companies (for whom Infor M3 would likely be overkill in the first place), and the resource investment required would be considerable.
API`s
So, that leaves us with APIs.
APIs—which represent the foundation of communication in the cloud—is a great way to make mass updates in Infor M3. And Infor has done a truly fantastic job of introducing a wide variety of APIs to their cloud solution, with users also able to update APIs and add new ones as their needs demand.
So, problem solved?
Well, not exactly. The problem is, APIs are relatively complex from a technical standpoint, requiring a great deal of know-how and expertise to implement effectively. All this external connectivity also introduces a whole new set of security challenges. This is, after all, a completely new way of connecting to M3. Some companies will be prepared to work their way through these challenges alone or happy enough to bring in external consultants to assist with setup and maintenance. But at Vince, we believe we have a much better solution – Vince Excel (VXL).
VXL allows users to extract and maintain M3 data directly in Excel. This makes mass updates incredibly straightforward, update your data in Excel, and then apply the cloud changes with a single click. You can update data from multiple sources or carry out several updates at once. VXL also comes with a whole host of other great benefits too, helping you get more out of your ERP by giving you the ability to generate charts and tables or map trends and analyze your historical data.
There’s no complex technical implementation either—installation takes mere minutes, and since VXL utilizes Microsoft Excel as its front end—a program many of your staff will use regularly—we can train your teams in under one day.
Whichever approach you decide to take, don’t forget that you need to consider how you will handle mass updates when upgrading to M3 in the cloud. With a bit of planning, your transition can be a smooth one!
If you’d like to learn more about VXL, click here to view our product page.
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Infor M3 – How to ManageMass Updates in the Cloud