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Smart Routes to the Cloud -What You Missed at the Infor M3 Users Network (IMUN) Conference
May 15, 2014
There has never been a greater choice of ways to provision IT, making the decisions facing IT management harder than ever. Managed in-house or managed services? Private, hybrid or public cloud?
Much of the IMUN Conference focused on how to determine the right combination to complement your available resources and business needs.Held over two days, the IMUN Conference brings together users of the M3 product from Infor. Thanks to our cloud and hosting capabilities for M3 users' Power and Intel infrastructure, the event is a must-attend for Team Computing and our partner SASIT. While the conference concentrates on M3, the issues covered have much broader appeal, so we thought you'd like to know a little more about the topics covered in-session, as well as what we heard loitering around the coffee machine.
A highlight of the event was the customer-eye view that Tony Staub of Sheppard Cycles offered. His organisation's ongoing journey to the cloud has been largely stress free and very cost-effective thanks to opting for a managed services agreement. Staub's explanation of how he made the decision and what made it work was enormously valuable to those considering this route.
Among the factors that a person exploring a cloud plan should consider are:
- What are the legal requirements that relate to storing my data?
- What resources do I have available and how can I get the best from them?
- What economy of scale can I gain?
- What skills are financially viable to recruit in-house for new developments?
- Do I need 24/7 support?
- Do I need to be able to scale fast to cover new projects or seasonal variation in demand?
There was consensus among delegates that the drive is to make infrastructure, however it is provisioned, a facilitator not a focus. For the Power Systems users we work with, this close alignment to solving business problems is a familiar priority.
In more M3-specific sessions, speakers from R.M.Williams and Patties Foods gave presentations about getting the best from M3 v13.2 and data management in a physical stock environment. For those with similar considerations or looking for real-life workflow management experiences, the presentations are worth checking out online.
Other topical customer presentations included Fully Functional CRM (K-Mart Tyre & Auto) and Integrating e-Commerce Solutions in Real Time (Zodiac). We're especially proud of our involvement in the CRM project with K-Mart Tyre & Auto and delighted to hear of the positive impact this has had on business efficiency.
Let us know if you'd like a detailed rundown on any of the conference topics or a chat with one of our experts about what cloud path might suit your own situation.
Imun - Customer Stories:
http://www.imun.com.au/customer-stories/