Infinium Software e-business A collaborative approach to success in the 21st century Introduction In business, information is essential. Communication is a catalyst. Knowledge is power. Whoever is able to rein in the power of these wins. The establishment of the World Wide Web gives business organizations greater access to more information and knowledge than most of us dreamed possible just a few years ago. It shrunk the world of business, putting potential customers, suppliers, and partners as near as any computer despite their actual location. But the Web s potential for revolutionizing business couldn t be realized because organizations didn t have the underlying software and groupware necessary to exploit the Web for true business advantage. At least until now. e-business Defined With IBM s strategy for electronic business via its IBM AS/400e computers, Lotus Domino groupware technology, and Infinium Software s e-business Extensions, business organizations now have the tools they need to exploit the potential of the Web. Together, IBM, Lotus, and Infinium give organizations the ability to collaborate as an enterprise with the information, communication, and knowledge necessary to win in today s competitive marketplace. IBM was among the first to recognize the importance of collaboration and instant communication for success in the 21st century. According to Lou Gerstner, Chairman of IBM, The new mantra is growth globalization, cycle times, and competitiveness. What we keep saying to our customers is that e-business is not a technological change. It s a fundamental change in the way business will be done in their industries aided, abetted, supported, and enabled by technology. e-business is the use of an intranet, extranet, or the Internet to conduct business both internally and externally. It can mean electronic commerce, in which products are sold directly to the customer via the Web. While there s certainly value in that functionality, e-business is more. Much more. It s the ability to communicate quickly and directly across a business operation with those stakeholders involved in issues that need immediate action. It s the ability to proactively initiate business actions on-line, track business processes, and connect valuable information to the people that need it to make decisions crucial to the organization s success. It s the sharing of knowledge among employees, customers, and third party partners vendors, suppliers, and consultants that gives an organization a strategic edge over the competition. IBM, Lotus, and Infinium are supporting the e-business initiative, using the advanced technology of their hardware, software, and services to give organizations real business value with both existing and new technology. IBM s success with e-business requires not just the strength of the AS/400 64-bit RISC architecture, but on Native Domino groupware developed by Lotus, and on applications created by leading software providers such as Infinium. Infinium Software e-business Extensions 1
Domino Defined Lotus Domino is a Web application server that creates new value for businesses on the Internet by unleashing the full power of the Web. Domino, native on the AS/400 RISC systems, encourages interactive, collaborative use of the Web. Unlike traditional Web servers designed primarily for publishing, Domino was conceived as an application development environment and deployment server for interactive business Web applications. Domino allows organizations to derive the benefits of secure, interactive Web applications that are less expensive to develop, faster to deploy, and richer in capabilities than any other solution on the market today. Many companies are now discovering not just the limitations of their current Web sites, but that these sites are also becoming expensive to maintain particularly if they want to develop an infrastructure that supports interaction. As a Web application platform, Lotus Domino integrates the critical services and technologies required to establish that infrastructure. It is a robust, scalable and costeffective server for departmental and corporate Internet and intranet Web sites. Using the Web for Collaboration Lotus and IBM classify most Web-based networked business applications as providing content, commerce, or collaboration. The most common are content sites, which are specifically designed to publish information. There is limited interactivity involved in such a site. Commerce sites, on the other hand, are intended to carry out business transactions, handling payment for goods and services. Such sites might also deliver the goods in digital form over the network. Of course, a good commerce Web site must also contain relevant content. Collaboration sites handle the activity that occurs among people and the information that they handle. Typical collaborative activities include discussions and brainstorming, review and approval cycles, human resource employee reviews and candidate interview processes. The evolution of Web technology is directly focused on supporting collaboration as a standalone activity and as it supports the creation and maintenance of content and how it influences the success of commerce. It is this collaboration for which Domino was specifically designed. Collaboration in the Lotus Knowledge Management Framework High Interaction Low Interaction COLLABORATION Innovation Competency Personal KNOWLEDGE Responsiveness Productivity Organizational Return on knowledge investment is greatest when the expertise and output of individuals and teams are leveraged throughout the company, via collaboration. Knowledge created or leveraged in one quadrant adds to knowledge learned or reused in another. Source: Lotus Development Corporation Lotus/IBM have adapted a knowledge management framework as a plan businesses can implement to achieve success as we enter the new millennium. Business organizations can exploit these new technologies to tailor their knowledge management activities with sharply defined strategic goals, improving responsiveness, productivity, and competency as the means of reaching those goals. Infinium Software e-business Extensions 2
Infinium Software s e-business Extensions contribute significantly to the knowledge management framework, providing business organizations with applications that foster: Innovation and collaboration by bringing employees and others together across the boundaries of time and location to share ideas and create new products and services. Responsiveness by automating communication with the tools that can help an organization detect problems or potential problems and react to them before damage results. Productivity by streamlining business processes, allowing users to spend less time on administrative tasks and more on strategic efforts. Competency by providing users with the information they need to make the best decisions and the best use of their time; and also by delivering critical information so that skills improvement becomes a regular part of the job. Infinium e-business Extensions Infinium developed its new series of e-business applications to extend the value and functionality of its core financials, human resources, materials management, and process manufacturing business applications. Beyond Self Service... Infinium recognizes that the creation of self-service applications began the evolution of utilizing the Web for tangible business purposes. These self-service applications had undeniable benefits. They reduced the amount of time companies needed to spend on non-strategic tasks; allowed certain individuals access to certain information; and removed barriers faced by individuals who work off-schedule or site. But self-service applications did not go far enough in giving businesses the opportunity to turn their enterprises into a truly knowledgeable, connected team. While empowering individuals, self-service applications cannot on their own create a powerful business enterprise. Infinium e-business Extensions take self-service applications to another level, creating complete integration and interaction between whomever the business organization deems appropriate: Employees, customers, suppliers, and vendors. It further fosters a management by exception environment, automatically identifying problems and providing a simple, on-line method of resolution....to enterprise collaboration With self-service, the primary benefit was access, but it was one-way access. Infinium s new e-business Extensions don t just provide access, they foster automated reconciliation, resolution, and collaboration between the organization and its stakeholders. The value of strengthening a company s ties to its customers through an on-line information system was not lost on Cynthia Kovarik, who s company, the Sto Corp., uses Infinium financials, materials management, and process manufacturing solutions. At Sto Corp., our success is dependent on effective customer relations. Infinium s e-business Extensions will link Sto to our marketplace and to the future, Kovarik said. Infinium Software e-business Extensions 3
Infinium s e-business Extensions are components of Infinium s proven series of enterprise business applications for IBM s AS/400 RISC systems. Using Infinium s unique webflow approach, e-business Extensions proactively automate operational chains of events from internal workflow tasks such as purchase order approvals, to more complex supply-chain events that involve employees, customers, and suppliers. Infinium s e-business Extensions significantly increase efficiency by proactively automating the routing and delivery of critical information. By recording business events as they happen, the Infinium e-business solution enables businesses to make wise business decisions based on sound data. The extensions: Eliminate administrative redundancies for a more strategic enterprise-wide focus Automate management by exception Initiate the routing of action forms for key business events Enable collaboration across your enterprise Infinium e-business Extensions significantly reduce the paper processes that overwhelm managers everywhere. The extensions take a cumbersome business action, such as an employee review, and remove the paperwork and hassle for a simple, yet thorough, and timely review. For example, the Performance Review extension automatically notifies managers when an employee review is due and initiates the process by linking them on-line to an evaluation form via Lotus Notes or a Web browser (see above). It encourages thorough evaluation with a simple, on-line method of obtaining supplemental reviews from employee peers, secondary managers, even customers or suppliers. Collaborating with Infinium s Performance Review Extension Executive Reviewing Manager Human Resources AS/400 Employee Reviewing Manager Immediate Supervisor Peer Customer Infinium Software e-business Extensions 4
When the review is completed, the system notifies the personnel department and updates the AS/400 application data automatically. Other e-business Extensions include Credit Limit Resolution, Purchasing Approval, and Invoice Order Resolution. Credit Limit Resolution Working with Infinium Materials Management, Credit Limit Resolution alerts sales representatives and even customers when a credit limit is reached during a sales order entry. Simultaneously, a credit approval form is routed to a credit analyst who retains or removes the credit hold; the sales representative and customer are notified automatically when the hold has been removed. Purchasing Approval Requisitions and purchase orders that require approval are automatically routed via e-mail to the authorized people via Lotus Notes or a Web browser. The capability to route approvals via e-mail helps business move along the approval process because executives, senior managers, and remote users who do not typically log into the AS/400 system can be contacted quickly. Invoice-Order Resolution The Infinium e-business system automatically catches mismatched invoices, routing them to a designated trouble-shooter as soon as they surface. This enables discrepancies to be quickly resolved and limits delays in the payment process. Detailed information about the invoice problem is routed to the resolvers designated by each business organization and can even include the supplier involved in the order. Access and Security e-business Extension users can take action via e-mail or the Web, whether or not they are connected to Infinium s core business applications. Access to strategic information they need to complete a business action or make a decision is intact. Connection to the Domino Server can be via Lotus Notes or a Web browser. In either case, access to information is only permitted to authorized individuals. Secure agents running on a Domino Server control information exchange with the AS/400. Since there is no direct connection to your AS/400 application data from the end user client, your corporate information is secure. Infinium also provides the ability to audit all access and actions for even greater peace of mind. The IBM/Lotus-Infinium Partnership and e-business The partnership between Lotus and IBM has resulted in what Robert S. Tipton, a noted analyst with Whittman-Hart Inc., describes as a natural marriage. Because many organizations have realized that their collaborative capabilities are almost as, if not just as, important as their transactional systems they need a platform which is secure, reliable, and scalable for collaboration, Tipton wrote in his white paper, Domino for AS/400: Uniting Two Hall of Fame Technologies. The AS/400 s middle names are scalable, reliable, secure: and Domino s middle name is collaboration. It is a natural marriage between the two. Tipton further concluded that any company who prefers either the AS/400 or Domino and requires the ability to do electronic business should take advantage of the possibilities that lay ahead. Infinium Software e-business Extensions 5
Infinium Software Defined The nearly totally portable movement of Domino to the AS/400 should make traditional Domino customers very comfortable in transitioning to Domino for the AS/400. Existing AS/400 customers can take solace in the fact that the full capabilities of Domino will be made available to them and they won t be forsaking anything by running Domino on their AS/400. This makes it a win-win situation for both sides. Domino fans win, AS/400 fans win, and those with both, win BIG! Another analyst, Ed Black, vice president of enterprise business applications for the Aberdeen Group, said that the new AS/400 will allow organizations to focus on business instead of IT issues. As the Internet becomes more predominant as a cross-enterprise networking infrastructure, the AS/400e, as the hub of a network-centric computing solution, increases its potential value even further, Black said. The Infinium Series for AS/400e enables customers to improve collaboration and communication throughout the enterprise, said Roger Koniski, Director of ISV Marketing for IBM s AS/400 Division. Combined with the native implementation of Lotus Domino for AS/400, Infinium s integrated solution allows customers to build and deploy scalable e-business solutions easily. Infinium Software is an experienced provider of market-leading client/server Financials, Human Resources, Materials Management, and Process Manufacturing enterprise solutions. Infinium Software applications are year 2000-enabled designed to accommodate information processing for the year 2000 and beyond. Infinium incorporates Internet technologies into all key aspects of our business, including products, services, customer support, and documentation. Founded in 1981, the company has more than 1,400 customers around the world. These are high-growth, mid-sized companies representing a variety of industries. Infinium defines mid-sized as companies and divisions of larger organizations, in the $100 million to the low billions range. Infinium was ranked number twenty on Business Week s 1997 Hot Growth list. Infinium Software. The perfect fit for mid-sized enterprises. Infinium Software has tried to make the information contained in this paper as accurate as possible. We cannot, however, guarantee its accuracy. In no event shall Infinium Software, Inc., be liable for any damages, including any indirect, special, accidental, or consequential damages, resulting from your reliance of the information contained in this paper. Infinium Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Trade names referenced are the servicemarks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective manufacturer. Infinium Software, Inc. (508) 778-2000 www.infinium.com # 9803311350 Infinium Software e-business Extensions 6