Microsoft has updated their authentication protocols to no longer include basic authentication effective October 1, 2022.

What does that mean to Infor CRM users? Not much as Infor uses SMTP which is not changing.   But it will impact companies using KnowledgeSync and Office 365 and to continue to authenticate with the Office 365 all KnowledgeSync users will need to upgrade to the newest v10.5 to continue to use the integration with the Infor CRM under the new protocol requirements.

Here is the article from KnowledgeSync on the authentication change

Deprecation of Basic Authentication in Exchange Online Affects KnowledgeSync On-Premise

Contact Simplesoft for additional information or to request an upgrade to your KnowledgeSync!

The full article from Microsoft can be found here.

Basic Authentication Deprecation in Exchange Online – September 2022 Update – Microsoft Community Hub

If your company is not ready to make that change due to potential impact on software other than Office 365 then you have a small reprieve as they are allowing a on-time protocol rollback that will allow basic authentication until Dec 31, 2022.  After that date, ALL basic authentication for the Office 365 (Exchange Online) will be blocked completely with no rollback.  You can find the temporary configuration steps in the article above.

Simplesoft Solutions, Inc. is a customer relationship management (CRM) business consulting and software development firm in Cincinnati/Dayton OH surrounding areas. We provide implementation, integration, development and training for Infor SLX CloudSuite CRM. We have built our business on an ability to creatively adapt CRM to meet the varying needs of our customers’ businesses. We have been helping our customers develop stronger relationships with their customers through improved sales, marketing, customer service, and support processes since 1994.

We have the newest version of Infor CRM!  We have installed this with several customers and have been very successful!

General Enhancements

1. SData portal performance has been enhanced.
2. IIS configuration now supports versions of IIS above version 8.
3. The service used for integration is now run as a job through the Job Manager.
4. The SData Synchronization Server is no longer required.
5. The Remote Sales Client deployment now includes SData configuration.
6. Desktop Integration has been separated into Office Integration and Outlook Integration. Outlook Integration is now part of Infor CRM Xbar for Microsoft Outlook. Both can be downloaded by users from the Web Client Tools, General tab.

Web Client Enhancements

1. Account Hierarchy provides ability to view a hierarchy view of the parent and all children and grandchildren of an account from the Account detail view, access to a quick view of frequently used entities (contacts, opportunities, sales orders and activities).
2. The Administrator can configure certain pick lists to support multiple languages.
3. Showing groups has been replaced by group Favorites. Favorites determine which groups display as tabs on list and detail views.
4. Export to File and Export to Excel have been combined and renamed “Export” in the Common Tasks pane and from the right-click menu.
5. Contour integration provides the ability to map contact and account addresses in order to view contacts and accounts that are near one another.
6. The Local Pricing feature allows you to choose, on a per entity basis, between the ERP Pricing Service or local Infor CRM pricing which allows users to modify product pricing and discount amounts in Infor CRM. (for non-ERP integrated systems)
7. Improvements to Reporting performance.
8. Creating an ad hoc group with a large number of records now uses the Job Manager.
9. New common task on the Group Manager view to determine which groups will be marked as Favorites by default for new users.
10. Integration with the LinkedIn Sales Navigator enables Infor CRM users who have a LinkedIn membership and have subscribed to the LinkedIn Sales Navigator feature tab on the Infor CRM Account, Contact, and Lead Detail views.
11. The version of Contour provided with Infor CRM v8.4 is compatible with Microsoft Bing. If your installation includes
    a version of Contour provided in Infor CRM v8.3 Update 03 or later, your Contour integration with Google will still function, however it is no longer visible in the UI.

Back Office Integration enhancements

1. Infor CRM can now be set to function as the authoritative system of record for Opportunities in an integration between Infor CRM and a supported ERP system through Infor ION.
2. Normalize Base Currency provides an option to store data published by an ERP in terms of the Infor CRM base currency. This allows customers who opt for this service, to work in Infor CRM using the Infor CRM base currency even though the integrated back office ERP system uses a different base currency. Changes in this release Infor CRM v8.4 Release Notes 63
3. ION Workflow enables Infor CRM users to initiate a workflow defined in ION from within Infor CRM. The trigger can be defined as conditional or manual in Infor CRM and the trigger can be extended to other entities.
4. Discrete Address provides the option to use a discrete type of address if it is passed from an integrated back office ERP system.
5. New logging and exception handling for Price and Availability in the Infor CRM Web Client.
6. Master Data Consolidation is an optional feature that:
   1. Consolidates duplicate accounts with the same CustomerID, which can result from host systems such as ERP-M3, ERP-LX and ERP-Visual, into a single Infor CRM account record. This applies to Accounts, Ship Tos, Bill Tos, Pay Froms, Contacts, Persons, and Products.
   2. Adds a filter icon and logic for each of the integrated transactional master data tabs; Account Quotes tab, Account Sales Orders tab, Account Shipments tab, Account Invoices tab,
   3. Account Receivables tab, Account Returns tab, Ship To Sales Orders tab, Ship To Shipments tab, Ship To Invoices tab, Ship To Receivables tab, Ship To Returns tab, Bill To Sales Orders, Bill To Invoices, Bill To Receivables and Bill To Returns. The new tab filter control supports filtering the tab content by Accounting Entity and/or by ERP Status. If the ERP integration is later disabled, the Quote and Sales Order filters revert to showing the Infor CRM status.
7. The Local Pricing feature allows you to choose, on a per entity basis, between the ERP Pricing Service or local Infor CRM pricing which allows users to modify product pricing and discount amounts in Infor CRM. Using local pricing is only recommended for entities that are not synchronized to an ERP system.
   Improvements for customizing and upgrading customized BOD mappings and BOD field mappings which previously could not be upgraded.
8. A new Language Code option for supporting integrated content in a localized environment.
9. The Account Invoice Aging tab provides summarized past due invoice aging content. All host ERP invoices with past due payment due dates and an ERP status of Open or PartialPaid are included in the summary values presented in the new Account Invoice Aging tab.
10. The Account Invoices tab contains a new Days Late column, enabling users to see past due invoices for a given account.
11. Users can now refresh pricing for sales orders and quotes when using a price service.
12. New Test Link button on the Price Service detail view enables testing the price and availability end points.
13. The Account Detail View ERP Details tab now contains a notes field which displays notes published by the host ERP system. Notes display in descending date sequence. This field is read-only.

Ming.le Integration enhancements

For implementations that include integration with Infor Ming.le:

1. The following new Ming.le Widgets are available:
   1. Infor Ming.le Funnel Chart widget.
   2. Infor Ming.le Top Prospects widget is a list of my prospective accounts.
   3. Infor Ming.le Infor CRM Opportunities widget of associated quotes for each opportunity.
   4. Infor Ming.le Infor CRM Contracts widget which provides a detailed view of the contract and associated contacts.
   5. A new Dashboard widget for Group Lists (Infor.CRM.GroupList -v1.0.6.3.zip)
   6. A new Dashboard widget for Opportunity Status (CRM.opportunity.Status.zip) is available. You must execute the *Master Data Consolidation* conversion option in the Conversion Utility if your implementation contains pre-existing ERP data content. Content is dependent upon the Infor CRM instance being integrated to a back office host ERP system publishing invoice content. Access to this feature must be granted to users. For more information, see the Web Client online help topic “Enabling Refresh Pricing”. Infor CRM v8.4 Release Notes Changes in this release 64
   7. A new tool simplifies the Infor Ming.le provisioning process.
   8. An updated WebProvisioningUI.exe adds provisioning information to the Virtual File System (VFS).
   9. Users and roles are now synchronized between Infor CRM and Infor Ming.le.
   10. It is possible to share records and notes and history items
   11. It is possible to create and manage bookmarks
   12. Links in Infor Ming.le link to Infor CRM.

Web Client Administrator enhancements

Administrators and users with appropriate roles can access the following new features and functionality:

The following roles are now default permissions in the Admin User Role. In prior releases, they were not assigned to a Role and had to be manually added: Pick Lists, Users, Roles, A/C/I, Departments, Exchange Rate, Lead Source, Literature, Resource, Standard Problem, Standard Resolution, Security Manager, Ticket Activity, Ticket Area Owner, Qualification, Package, Office Profile, Country Code Mappings, Competitor, Campaign, Entity Manager.

1. Create multi-regional pick lists with different list items for each language. The contents of a multi-regional pick list will depend upon the user’s language setting.
   Set a default language for multi-regional pick lists.
   Set the desired language on the Name Prefix and Name Suffix so that users can select a language on the Contact Detail view Details tab in order to change the list items in the Prefix and Suffix, pick lists.
2. A new Office Profile Error Notifications tab allows enabling the Error message e-mail link feature and specifying one or more e-mail addresses that will automatically populate the email To: field. When the Error message e-mail link feature is enabled, users who encounter an error message can send an e-mail to the specified address that contains a link that will display Event Viewer information. The Event Viewer information is only available to administrators or users granted access to the ErrorLookupService/View secured action.
3. New secured action for Account Hierarchy – Entities/Account/Hierarchy.
4. New secured actions for the Job Manager job schedules and triggers.
   Steps for configuring Sales Intelligence, including the displaying the purchase likelihood score options.
5.  New Custom Settings list view and Custom Settings detail view to manage group export settings, CreatePivot and MaxExportRecords.
6. New Office Profile Groups tab that allows you to set a limit for the number of groups that can display as tabs on list and detail views. All standard groups will be marked as Favorites by default.
7. New Adminutil.exe enables the Administrator to see which users are logged in to Infor CRM and how many times each user is logged into the various Infor CRM applications. Administrators can filter based on type of user and status. It does not track SData logins.

Mobile enhancements

The following enhancements have been added to the Infor CRM Mobile Client since version 3.4.

1. Two new files: configuration/development.default.js and configuration/production.default.js enable preserving modifications to default settings (such as Enable Multi-currency) in future upgrades.
2. Field level security settings made for the Infor CRM Web Client using the Infor CRM Web Administrator now cascade into the Mobile Client.
3. Infor CRM Mobile can now use the 24-hour clock. Settings enable the user to manually change between the 12 and 24 hour clocks. The default setting is specified by regional settings.
4. Settings contains two new Offline options: users can clear their Briefcase and clear Recently Viewed records as well as clearing all records and showing record usage.
5. Integrations with ERP LX support ‘Availability to Promise” in Mobile. “Click to check warehouse availability” enables users to verify if the warehouse selected has the requested volume of inventory on hand.
6. Users can look up Contacts based on the Accounts to which they were associated. Changes in this release Infor CRM v8.4 Release Notes 65
7. The Infor CRM Mobile Client supports single sign-on when Infor CRM is integrated with Infor Ming.le.
8. Contour enables searching the Infor CRM database for other accounts that are in a specific geographical proximity.
9. The Infor CRM Back Office Extension (ICBOE) feature contains the following improvements in the Infor CRM Mobile Client:
10. ICBOE is now part of the Infor CRM Mobile Client. It is no longer necessary to install a separate bundle. ICBOE for the Infor CRM Mobile Client enables Mobile Client users to drill through account-related information available in back office integration. When ICBOE is configured in the Infor CRM Web Client, users can see the following entities in Infor CRM for Mobile:
    1. Invoices
    2. Quotes
    3. Sales Orders
    4. Shipments
    5. Receivables
    6. The Working Offline “Recently viewed” and “My Briefcase” features are now available for ICBOE records.
    7. The ICBOE feature in Infor CRM Mobile no longer needs to be activated in the Application Architect.

Breaking changes in this version when upgrading:

1. In version 8.4, screen readers are not compatible with Chrome. Use Internet Explorer.
2. All upgrades must include converting an ANSI database to a Unicode database. The converted database will be approximately double the size of the existing database and the tool to convert the database is included in the software but requires three times the size of the existing database to be able to run correctly.
3. Online help must now be accessed from Infor’s Docs.infor.com site. It is no longer possible to install customized help in your local environment.
4. Outlook Integration and Outlook Sync are now provided with Infor CRM Xbar and must be downloaded separately from Infor CRM v8.4.

We recommend and encourage you to review the update documents to keep abreast of all defects and issues that have been corrected.  Contact Simplesoft Solutions to discuss an upgrade for Infor CRM(Saleslogix), and to review any new features or updates with your version of Infor CRM(Saleslogix).

If you would like to discuss upgrading your system, or to see a free demonstration, please contact Simplesoft Solutions.

Also, if you would like to learn more tips, or have a CRM topic you would like us to write about, please contact Simplesoft Solutions, Inc.

Remember to check our CALENDAR and register for free training, demo sessions, and the Heartland Users Group Events.

Dayton/Cincinnati, OH | Charleston, WV | Charlotte, NC

A recent update from Microsoft has broken the mail merge capabilities for the Office version 365(click-to-run) build 16.0.8730.2046 and higher.  If you have a lower version of the 365 it will still allow mail merge capabilities. Recommendations at this stage are to revert to a lower version of Office or purchase and install the desktop Office 2016. We will update as a resolution is defined.

Errors we have seen in the client during a mail merge process in versions of Infor CRM v8.10 to 8.3.0.09.

1. Mail Merge does not complete for Office 365 build 16.0.8730.2046 with errors on SLXMMGUIW.map
Event Error text: “The map file ‘C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Saleslogix\SLXMMGUIW.map” could not be found.

2. Addition error has come up as a message popup in the client: ‘The result for 1 queries was expected, but no data was returned. There may have been more than 1 HTTP data request active at the same time. The SQL syntax may also be incorrect.’

What we have found in our investigations with Infor Support and development is that the registry items for the Office 365 (click-to-run) have changed and Infor development has to define a new way to interact with this software. Infor is not the only software that is impacted by this intentional ‘break’. We recommend that if you have not currently migrated to the Office 365, don’t. According to Inside information(Microsoft contacts), this change by Microsoft is a ‘planned’ break and the potential for future issues is very high. We recommend purchasing the full Office 2016 product as that is a full install and download and not governed by Microsoft automatic updates and does not have cloud software limitations and control.

We recommend and encourage you to review the update documents to keep abreast of all defects and issues that have been corrected.  Contact Simplesoft Solutions to discuss an upgrade for Infor CRM(Saleslogix), and to review any new features or updates with your version of Infor CRM(Saleslogix).

If you would like to discuss upgrading your system, or to see a free demonstration, please contact Simplesoft Solutions.

Also, if you would like to learn more tips, or have a CRM topic you would like us to write about, please contact Simplesoft Solutions, Inc.

Remember to check our CALENDAR and register for free training, demo sessions, and the Heartland Users Group Events.

Dayton/Cincinnati, OH | Charleston, WV | Charlotte, NC