Infor VISUAL

Functional Overview
Version 9
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................... 4
Standard Features ..................................................................................................................................... 5
VISUAL Solution Footprint ............................................................................................................................ 5
Optional Features ...................................................................................................................................... 7
Sales ............................................................................................................................................................. 8
Opportunity to Cash................................................................................................................................... 8
Manufacturing Window .............................................................................................................................. 9
Quoting and Estimating ........................................................................................................................... 10
Sales Order Entry to Invoicing ................................................................................................................. 11
Order Management ................................................................................................................................. 13
Product Configuration .............................................................................................................................. 14
Price Book ............................................................................................................................................... 15
Return Material Authorization (RMA) ...................................................................................................... 16
Electronic Data Interchange .................................................................................................................... 17
Customer Relationship Management .......................................................................................................... 18
VISUAL Contact Center........................................................................................................................... 18
VISUAL CRM Enterprise ......................................................................................................................... 20
Infor CRM ................................................................................................................................................ 22
Infor Back Office Connect ....................................................................................................................... 23
Manufacturing & Engineering ...................................................................................................................... 24
Manufacturing Window ............................................................................................................................ 24
Production Control ................................................................................................................................... 26
Engineering Change Notice .................................................................................................................... 27
VISUAL CADLink ..................................................................................................................................... 28
Plant & Equipment Maintenance ............................................................................................................. 29
Infor Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) ............................................................................................ 30
Capacity Management ................................................................................................................................ 32
Concurrent Scheduler.............................................................................................................................. 32
Common Sense Throughput for CEOs ................................................................................................... 34
Easy Lean ................................................................................................................................................ 36
Mobile Scheduling Dispatch .................................................................................................................... 37
VISUAL Time & Attendance .................................................................................................................... 38
Material & Labor Barcode Transaction System (BTS) ............................................................................ 39
Material Planning ........................................................................................................................................ 41
Master Scheduling & MRP ...................................................................................................................... 41
Advanced Material Planning .................................................................................................................... 43
Supply Chain & Inventory Management ..................................................................................................... 45
Request for Quote to Payment ................................................................................................................ 45
Purchase Management ........................................................................................................................... 46
Inventory Management ............................................................................................................................ 48
Interbranch Transfers .............................................................................................................................. 49
Dimensional Inventory Tracking .............................................................................................................. 50
Lot & Serial Traceability........................................................................................................................... 51
VISUAL Project Management ..................................................................................................................... 52
VISUAL Project Core ............................................................................................................................... 52
VISUAL Project – Aerospace & Defense ................................................................................................ 53
Infor Quality Management ........................................................................................................................... 54
VISUAL Financials ................................................................................................................................... 57
Financial Management ................................................................................................................................ 57
General Ledger ........................................................................................................................................ 57
Accounts Payable .................................................................................................................................... 59
Accounts Receivable ............................................................................................................................... 60
Cash Management Window .................................................................................................................... 61
 Cost Accounting ...................................................................................................................................... 62
VISUAL Global Financials ....................................................................................................................... 63
Multi-entity and Multi-site ......................................................................................................................... 64
Performance Management.......................................................................................................................... 66
VISUAL Dashboards ............................................................................................................................... 66
VISUAL Business Intelligence ................................................................................................................. 67
VISUAL Lead-time Performance Management ....................................................................................... 68
Core Solution Reporting .......................................................................................................................... 69
Solution Framework .................................................................................................................................... 70
Workflow .................................................................................................................................................. 70
Document Lifecycle Notifications ............................................................................................................ 71
VISUAL Messages .................................................................................................................................. 72
Activities .................................................................................................................................................. 73
VISUAL Query Tool & Data Source Lookup ........................................................................................... 74
Configuration & Modifications .................................................................................................................. 75
Infor ION ...................................................................................................................................................... 77

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 3

Introduction
Order-driven manufacturing is complex enough—
you don't want to guess every time you quote a
price on a job or promise a delivery date. You
need to see, at a glance, the impact of every
order, constraint, and bottleneck in your
organization so that you can have confidence in
your delivery promises and revenue projections. assurance program that ensures superior results
With Infor™ VISUAL, you can eliminate every day. You can make quality intrinsic to your
guesswork, by being able to visualize the effects process from design to delivery. Whether your
on production and revenue projections along the customers require quality certification, they
way. When you have a tool that lets you stop deserve a quality product, and you can drive
guessing, you can start delivering consistently quality with VISUAL. .
profitable results.
VISUAL’s intuitive navigation, full-color graphic
Infor VISUAL gives manufacturers the ability to interface, point-and-click drill-down capabilities,
bring order to your orders. Your business doesn’t and robust search options help you to make
ask for chaos, but you get it every day. Every time decisions and act on them immediately. High-
the phone rings, customers are making changes, level warning indicators with top to bottom drill-
machines are breaking down or vendors are late. down functionality provide quick access to root
Any of these challenges makes managing your causes. With VISUAL, you get easy access to
manufacturing more difficult. Doing the best you the crucial information you need to perform your
can isn’t good enough anymore. What if you could job.
react easily to any change or request?

When you visually see the effects of changes as

they happen, everyone in your company will
instantly know what to do next, and you’ll
accomplish everything faster. Infor VISUAL
gives you visibility to your progress now. No
longer do you need to search through screens
and reports. With Infor VISUAL all decision
making information is at your fingertips.
Winning teams can’t afford to wait until after the
game to adjust their strategy. You can’t either.
Basing tomorrow’s strategy on financial
statements from last week, last month, or last
quarter is a formula for failure. Make adjustments
while you’re in the game by seeing the key
statistics you need to run your business. Infor
VISUAL helps you respond effectively to all
surprises so you can achieve consistently great
performance.

Infor VISUAL supports your manufacturing

production strategies including engineer to-
order, make-to-order, assemble-to-order, make-
to-stock, job shop, and mixed mode
manufacturing.
Regardless of your manufacturing method, Infor
VISUAL helps you drive quality throughout your
organization. You can use VISUAL to cultivate
lasting customer loyalty by building a quality

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 4

VISUAL Solution Footprint

Standard Features  Customer Consigned Inventory

VISUAL CRM Procurement
 Contact Management  Request for Quote
 MS Outlook integration  Supplier pricing
 Call tracking  Requisitions
 Prospect Management  Purchase Orders
 Receiving & Inspection
Sales
 Interbranch Transfers
 Quote to Cash  Outside service dispatching
 Prospect Management  Supplier Consigned Inventory
 Estimating & Quote Management
 Sales Order Management Financials
 Shipping & labeling  General Ledger
 Invoicing  Multi-Entity
 Cash Receipts  Multi-Currency
 Capacity to Promise  Consolidation
 Material Availability  Allocations
 Price book  Budgets
 Delivery lines with delivery schedules  G/L Dimensions
 Sales document lifecycle 360 view  Account Groups
 Demand Supply allocations  Accounts Receivable
 Electronic Data Interchange  Accounts Payable
Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 5
 Cash Management  Serial Number Control
 Cost Accounting  Lot Control
 Project Accounting  Dimensional Inventory
 Financial Reporting  Physical Inventory
 G/L Report Writing
Capacity Management
Performance Management  Resource Management
 Dashboard Analytics  Outside service management
 User Defined Dashboard Analytics  Concurrent Finite Scheduling
 Supplier Performance  Rate-based Scheduling
 Throughput Management  Graphical Scheduling Window
 Document Lifecycle  What-if drag & drop scheduling
 Lead-time Performance  Mobile Production Dispatch
 Financial Reporting  Labor Reporting

Manufacturing & Engineering Solution Framework

 Engineering Master – combined multi-level  Messages & Alerts
BOM and routing
 Document Workflow
 Manufacturing Window
 Macro extension builder
 Graphical WO status
 API Toolkit
 WO Cost Estimate, actuals, and
projections  Drag & Drop Query generation

 Purchase to job  Advanced Enterprise Search

 Material availability  Document Activities with Alerts

 Engineering Change Control  Lifecycle Notifications

 Graphical document lifecycle

Inventory Management & Planning  Context Sensitive Help

 Item Management  Feature Video Library

 Warehouses & Locations  Interactive table/column data dictionary

 U/M Conversion  Report Designer

 Inventory Costing – Actual, Average,  Document Management

Standard, FIFO, LIFO
 Material Requirements Planning (MRP)
 Master Scheduling
 Forecasting
 Material Planning Window – Supply Demand
Netting

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 6

Optional Features Infor Extensions
 Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)

VISUAL Options  Infor CRM

 Aerospace & Defense / Project Management  Back Office Connect (Salesforce)

 EasyLean / Drum-buffer-rope Scheduling  Birst

 Plant & Equipment Maintenance  ION

 Multi-Entity Multi-site  Query & Analyze

 Advanced Planning  CADLink

 Global Financials  AutoCAD

 Payroll and Human Resources  AutoCAD Electronics

 Business Intelligence (Synoptix)  Altium

 Shop Floor Automation  CATIA

 Time & Attendance  Creo

 Material – WO, adjustments, Transfers,  DxDesigner

shipping, receipts, Physical inventory  Inventor
 VISUAL CRM Enterprise  Nx
 Sales  Solid Edge
 Service  SolidWork
 Help Desk
 Marketing
 Infor Quality Management (IQM)
 Suppliers, Customers, Employees
 Preventative Maintenance
 Calibration Maintenance
 Advanced Product Quality Planning
(APQP)
 Production Part Approval Process (PPAP)
 Inspection Plans
 Document Management
 Process Management
 Data Collection
 Non-Conformance
 Corrective Action
 Audit Management
 Cost of Quality
 SPC, Study, Reports

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 7

Sales
Opportunity to Cash

From opportunity to cash, VISUAL’s sales document lifecycle provides a full 360-degree status from anywhere in
the sales process.

Infor VISUAL is fully integrated from the point of view, linking supply to demand on the sales side.
customer quote through cash receipt, providing From the sales lifecycle, employees can drill to a
complete drill-through functionality to all related specific supplying material order and its full
documents of the sales lifecycle. Service lifecycle all with just a point-and-click. No more
representatives have a complete 360° graphical jumping from menu item to menu item searching
view of all documents related to the entire sales for information.
process along with the file attachments and
activities associated with each document. With Infor VISUAL all functional areas of your
organization are linked together as a tightly woven
This innovative lifecycle puts order status and fabric.
performance at your fingertips with the ability to
drill down to any level of detail. For example, if a
job is projected to exceed estimates, reducing
your profit margin, users can drill directly into the
supplying production order showing variance to
estimates, with further point-and-click drill down to
the lowest levels of details contributing to the
issue. For time and material jobs, you can keep
your customer up-to-date so that there are no
surprises. For fixed bid jobs, you can take
immediate action to prevent further reductions in
profit margin.

The user interface for each document in the

lifecycle is identical in layout, making VISUAL a
powerful yet intuitive solution during
implementation and when training new hires within
your organization.

Likewise, your procurement cycle from request for

quote to payment follows the same 360° graphical

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 8

 Manufacturing Window

The Manufacturing Window is at the core of the Infor VISUAL solution. It not only representing the master engineering
component driving production, but also provides an immediate and ongoing indication of delivery and cost
performance for your customer’s orders.

At the core of VISUAL is the Manufacturing  View up-to-date actual costs with projected
Window, which graphically represents the build job costs, highlighting all negative variances.
structure of your product. Whether quoting a new
job or placing a customer order, it’s the build  Determine any changes to anticipated gross
definition created through the Manufacturing profit based on cost projections.
Window that is the catalyst for material planning,
cost accounting, and production scheduling.
 View the complete production schedule of the
order
The full-color user-configurable graphical user
interface provides a complete multi-level view of
all operations and materials required to complete  Drill-down to all levels of production and cost
the job, indicating individual operation, material, or details
assembly status, along with detailed delivery and
cost projections. Everything you need to know  Review all drawings or attachments
about a customer’s order is at your fingertips in associated with the customer’s order.
the Manufacturing Window.
 View the complete orders sales lifecycle
Through this patented manufacturing design
concept, sales representatives can:  View the lifecycle of all material being
purchased to complete the job.
 Perform “what-if” capacity and material
checks for determining potential new order
delivery dates.

 Check on the delivery status of an existing

order based on its current positioning within
the live production schedule.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 9

Quoting and Estimating

Create quick, accurate quotes for common products, custom jobs, and everything in between with the Estimating
Window.

Infor VISUAL‘s Quoting and Estimating  Copy a quote from another quote, a work
capabilities allow you to create professional and order, or Engineering Master and then make
comprehensive quotations, determine realistic modifications as necessary.
delivery dates based on material and resource
availability, and, more importantly, convert quotes  Choose your material pricing source from a
into sales orders and work orders when you win one-time quantity price table, the engineering
the business. Because your quoting effort is master, supplier quote, or standard cost.
retained, you can compare as-quoted costs and
information to as-built. You can create quotes  Use a what-if analysis to verify material
quickly and easily by copying from another quote, availability and production capacity to
an existing work order, or the Engineering Master, determine a delivery date, with the option to
then modifying the new quote to match the reserve this capacity.
customer’s specifications. For highly configurable
products, a rules and parametric configurator is  Print the pro-forma, quotation, and overall
cost /budget report for the estimate.
also available. Infor VISUAL computes multiple
quantity cost estimates based on complete
 Automatically generate supplier RFQs
material, labor, burden, and outside services, with
(Request for Quote) for material required.
variable markup options to determine selling price.
When awarded a contract, you can easily create
 Import quotes from Microsoft Excel templates.
both a sales order and a work order from the
quote.
 Create, view, and modify quotes quickly and
easily using a graphical display and point-and-
click

 Specify separate markups for material,

services, labor, burden, and GSA.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 10

Sales Order Entry to Invoicing

Document to document standardization simplifies the learning process and makes accessing information intuitive.

With Infor VISUAL’s sales order to invoicing  Generate customer orders from quotes to
process, you can easily generate each sales automatically create order line item details
document, while attaching business documents within firmed work orders
like the customer’s purchase order, product
drawings, and contracts. Internal personnel can  Access online information including customer
record activities such as emails, meeting notes, open order balance, open receivable
invoice collection information, or any other dialog amounts, last payment date, average
or attachments that would otherwise be stored in payment days, last order date, and total
remote disparate data islands of information. This payments.
provides customer service representatives with a
complete 360-degree view of the entire customer
 View clear signals of credit limits, aged
order.
receivables, and item availability when
entering customer orders.
Infor VISUAL’s sales order is fully integrated from
the point of customer quotes through customer
order entry, engineering, production, costing,  Access information about customers
shipping, and customer service. Customer service including, but not limited to, customer price
representatives can use this information to take lists, discounts by item and customer, as well
action on credit problems, reschedule as customer item numbers, descriptions, and
requirements, and release orders in time to meet drawing numbers.
required shipment dates. This interconnectivity
provides access to crucial data including general  Calculate sales tax by order or by individual
customer information and credit status, order line item.
backlog, material and resource availability, order
acknowledgments, commissions, percentage of  Specify sales commission splits with variable
completion, and shipping information. percentages.
Comprehensive sales analysis reports help
decision-makers track everything from customers  Print pre-formatted sales orders, sales
to sales representatives. acknowledgements, invoices, and shipping
labels, as well as comprehensive sales

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 11

 analysis reports by product code, customer, or
sales representative.

 Create multiple delivery schedules and

shipping addresses, allowing quick and easy
entry of Blanket Orders for customers.

 Record and process RMA (Return Material

Authorization) information for orders.

 Use train-of-thought drilldowns to track and

view status of customer orders from this
window, drilling directly to the supplying
manufacturing orders for a complete picture of
status and cost projections.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 12

Order Management

The Order Management window unites order entry, customer order history, and shipping functions in one
easy-to-use interface

Use Order Management to manage a large  Define primary and alternate warehouses for
volume of customer orders and meet varied each customer.
fulfillment objectives. The application helps users
manage customer order allocation and new  Track inventory easily.
product deployment planning throughout the
supply chain.
 Reserve inventory for priority customers with
future ship dates.
You can use Order Management to achieve
optimized fulfillment, rapid order processing
cycles, cost-effective sourcing of inventory to
customer orders, and increased revenue with
capabilities such as substitution, cross-selling
items, and Value Added Services.
 Save time processing orders with easy-to-use
Windows features and Drag-and-Drop
capabilities.

 Improve customer support, order monitoring,

and order maintenance with access to
detailed order status information.

 Confirm current inventory availability and

future availability.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 13

Product Configuration

Extend VISUAL’s estimating and sales process with the Product Configurator when products that you sell contain any
number of dimensions and options.

The Infor VISUAL Product Configurator is a  Define complex, user-defined formulas for
development tool for manufacturers of complex, weight, quantity, and length calculations.
highly configurable products with numerous
standard and available options. Your sales force  Configure your product ‘s features and options
can use the Product Configuration to correctly dimensionally.
customize and configure your product and quickly
and easily create quotes and customer orders in
 Maintain product, data, and price information
Infor VISUAL. The Product Configurator is
quickly and easily.
sophisticated and includes a compatibility engine
that handles all requests for changes to the base
specification through an easy-to-use Windows  Create a quote and production order
interface. The result is a product specification that automatically from an engineering design.
has been fully checked for component
compatibility and completeness.  Enter catalog numbers easily with Product
Code Nomenclature.
The VISUAL Product Configurator includes a
rules-based engine enabling accurate point-of-  Integrate various toolkits for use within the
sale customization, configuration, and pricing as Configurator.
well as a parametric engine allowing for the setup
and creation of Bills of Material and Engineering
Masters based on user-defined criteria.

You can create a set of options and assign a

series of complex formulas which, in turn, define
the possibility of custom items, configured and
priced based on the customer’s needs.

Create engineering designs for complex engineer-

to-order or configure-to-order products using
rules-based parameters.
 Define engineering rules for including,
excluding, and combining features.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 14

Price Book

Use VISUAL Price Book to define pricing for your products, discounts for your customers, and commissions for your
sales staff in one, centralized interface.

VISUAL Price Book is a flexible pricing and

commission tool that further extends VISUAL’s
core pricing. You can easily group products in
support of pricing changes and promotions. You
can create formulas to address just about every
pricing scheme imaginable.

 Establish price breaks based on cost or

quantity (e.g., spend $100 and get a 20%
discount, or buy two and get 20% off).

 Set up prices by customer, item, market,

commodity, or groups.

 Adjust prices across the board to eliminate

manual and redundant price changes.

 Use custom formulas to create any

combination of prices or discounts.

 Define commissions for sales staff.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 15

Return Material Authorization (RMA)

Use the Return Material Authorization window to quickly address customer returns and replacements while accurately
tracking your costs.

Infor VISUAL allows companies to manage Return

Material Authorizations (RMAs), documents that
control the return of items previously sold and
shipped to a customer. The RMA document
contains the ID, status, and other identification
about who is returning the material and for what
purpose.

Costing issues become complicated when you

have repairs and replacements, especially when
taking into consideration that the original customer
order may not exist in the system, or that the
items being repaired originate from another
source. Use Infor VISUAL’s RMA process to
evaluate all costs associated with repairs and
replacements.

 Maintain documented control over the return

of items.

 Track information that will improve both your

customer service and overall item quality.

 Receive material returns for customer credit

or exchange.

 Issue repair or replacement orders for

returned materials.

 Support cross-shipping of replacements (ship

replacement prior to receiving returned goods)
for minimal customer downtime and optimal
customer service.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 16

Electronic Data Interchange

Use VISUAL EDI to reduce paperwork, conduct business transactions in a timely manner, and eliminate redundant
data entry.

Manufactures supplying products to Tier 1  Manage releases and ship schedules from
manufacturing companies or big box retailers are your customers.
all too familiar with the need to receive and send
information electronically. VISUAL’s Data  Maintain fabricated and raw material
Interchange feature can help you reduce authorizations.
paperwork and administrative lead times, send
timely business transactions, access information
 Cross-reference Customer Item IDs to Infor
quickly and easily, and eliminate redundant data
VISUAL Item Numbers.
entry. These benefits allow your enterprise to
adopt more efficient practices such as Just-In-
Time, Quick Response, and Direct Store Delivery.  Create outbound data files for ASN‘s, vendor
PO‘s, warehouse ASN‘s, material receipt
To achieve the maximum benefit of implementing notices and invoices.
EDI, you must integrate this business process with
your existing enterprise systems. Infor VISUAL  Track and enter orders using features such as
Data Interchange helps you accomplish this task ship-to by line item and delivery schedule line.
by providing a link between your EDI exchange
service data and your Infor VISUAL solution. You  Operate your integrated EDI processes
can import firm demand to customer orders, track manually or in unattended or hands off mode.
cumulative quantities, and maintain fabricated and
raw material authorizations. In addition, you can
use customer order import to automatically access
and update pricing, units of measure, contact
information, terms of sale, and ship-to information
if needed.

 Create standard transactions to meet EDI

requirements of your trading partners.

 Convert inbound EDI documents into

customer orders and forecasts.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 17

Customer Relationship Management
VISUAL Contact Center

Use VISUAL CRM’s Contact Center to track important information about your customers and their colleagues.

Contact Center integrates virtually every customer  Send emails, letters, and documents easily
touch-point from one central location. All business with direct integration with Microsoft® Office.
contacts, customers, prospects, and leads are
available instantly. The Contact Center helps to  Use the Mail Merge feature to instantly send
automate marketing and sales activities to track information to multiple contacts.
performance and generate more revenue.
 Schedule and assign tasks and activities, and
Contact Center is offered as part of the standard track details such as driving directions and
functionality within Infor VISUAL. It helps you meeting notes.
retain your existing customers and acquire new
accounts by tracking everything there is to know
about your prospects and customers.  Convert prospects to customers automatically
without redundant data entry.
You can easily view histories, tasks, and other
sales data for every contact, at every account.  Track calls, meetings, and To Do tasks with
You can also access important back office data Calendar Management.
such as accounts receivable, current item
inventory, return material authorization (RMA)  Customize views and classify contacts or
status, estimates, sales orders, credit status, accounts with user defined fields.
shipments, and more.
 Create organizational charts to easily track
 Access your company, product, and pricing account decision makers.
events with the fully customizable CRM Today
Electronic Bulletin Board.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 18

 Develop on-the-fly custom reports or view
important data using the standard reports
included in Contact Center.

 Customize the Navigation Explorer Bar to

execute other applications that you use daily.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 19

VISUAL CRM Enterprise

Deploy VISUAL CRM Enterprise to track your sales pipeline from opportunity to closed sales, and to manage post
sales activities with help desk and services.

Extend VISUAL’s Contact Center to fit your Field Service

business needs with VISUAL CRM Enterprise.
• Manage service orders, warranty and
From managing your sales pipeline and marketing
maintenance contracts, dispatch scheduling,
campaigns, to help desk and product servicing,
RMAs, inventory, and billing.
VISUAL CRM Enterprise will help enhance your
customers’ experience by streamlining the entire
pre-and post-sales processes.  View maintenance schedules and assign
appropriate technicians to service orders.
Sales
• Trace issues by Item ID, serial number, or
 Develop price quotes and accurately service contract.
configure products using the optional
Parametric Configurator. • Auto-generate invoicing and assign charges
to the General Ledger.
 Convert quotes to estimates and orders
automatically without redundant data entry. Help Desk
• Track customer calls and create a
 Develop sales plans to chart the next step in a knowledge base of issues and resolutions.
sales cycle.
 Log calls based on Item ID, serial number,
 Develop and analyze revenue pipelines. product categories, and service contracts.

 Assign quotas by sales representative, • Prioritize calls and assign them to

territory, business unit, branch, or division specialists for resolution.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 20

• Track the history of each resolution attempt,
complete with a time, date, and user ID
stamp.

• Track and invoice billable hours.

Marketing
• Track the effectiveness of your campaigns
and events.

• Maintain catalogs of marketing literature and

automate literature fulfillment.

• Plan targeted strategies and increase your

overall marketing ROI.

Admin
 Create custom applications as standalone or
linked to an existing application with App
Builder

• Extend existing applications with User

Defined fields

• Secure user access to the navigation bar,

applications, reports, menus, records and
fields with Security.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 21

Infor CRM

When ease of deployment, scalability, and mobility is required, Infor CRM is the next line of defense to satisfy your
CRM needs.

Infor CRM is the platform of choice for companies Ultimate flexibility

strategically focused on customer engagements.
Attain unparalleled flexibility and control in how
Robust functionality, deep integration, and high
you deploy, use, and pay for your CRM solution.
flexibility in how you use and deploy your solution
Cloud, on premise, hybrid, and mobile options
result in a solution that works the way you need it
accommodate your business needs. Buy, finance,
to.
or subscribe while maintaining full control of your
data. Select from and mix multiple license types to
CRM for the mobile world
lower TCO and align diverse user requirements.
Infor CRM Mobile extends rich functionality to
smartphones and tablets, giving your mobile
workforce a strong competitive advantage.
Interactions with native device features such as
mapping, dialing, and email further streamline the
mobile user experience. Receive over-the-air
updates automatically at no additional charge.

Better interactions
Rich customer profiles and sales productivity tools
help users identify opportunities and streamline
sales activities. Simultaneously, sales
management tools, analytics, and proactive alerts
drive accurate forecasting as well as effective
team and territory management. Best-practice
process automation recommends and performs
winning actions that drive results

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 22

Infor Back Office Connect

For companies with an existing investment in Salesforce, deploy Infor Back Office Connect to give sales
representatives access to customer-related information within VISUAL.

If you use Salesforce as your CRM solution, you Through Infor‘s unique partnership with
can use Infor Back Office Connect to easily share Salesforce.com, we have developed new
real-time data between VISUAL and Salesforce. functionality, fields, and screens specifically for
Your sales teams have up-to-the-minute Infor ERP customers. With Infor Back Office
information about the status of their customers Connect you can:
‘orders, shipments, invoices, and payments. With
a greater understanding of each account, your  Accelerate your CRM implementation by
sales and service teams take a more consultative leveraging existing ERP information
approach to qualify better, run more credible sales
cycles, and lower your total cost of sales.  Bring ERP and CRM together to create a
more responsive and effective enterprise
With Infor Back Office Connect, your ERP
applications can leverage a market-leading CRM
 Put real-time ERP information in the hands of
solution in a way that truly makes sense for your
your salespeople
business. Your marketing, sales, and service
teams get ERP-managed information and
You can also provide customer-facing personnel
processes. Your order fulfillment operations group
with a complete customer profile that includes
gets accurate sales forecasts.
ERP-managed customer information, such as:
Infor Back Office Connect is an Infor ION
technology-enabled solution that gives you a 360-  Customer contact information
degree view of your customers. By connecting
your front and back office systems with ION  Customer logistics such as ship-to, bill-to, and
technology, the same middleware framework that pay-from addresses
seamlessly integrates other strategic solutions
with Infor VISUAL.  Detailed customer transactions including
quotes, orders, shipments, invoices,
payments, and returns

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 23

 Manufacturing & Engineering
Manufacturing Window

The Manufacturing Window turns your engineering plans into products and sales through seamless integration
with work order and quote creation.

The Manufacturing Window is the master • Choose your view for the Bill of Material and
engineering and production management routings, either graphical, text, or grid, single
application for Infor VISUAL. The Manufacturing or multilevel, hierarchical, or split-window. Or,
Window provides master process definition, work you can define up to six custom views with
order creation, and the seamless integration to color-coding and size options.
scheduling, material planning, purchasing, and
order management needed to realize the • Display full dynamic production and material
manufacture of products. Comprehensive tracking costs with estimated, actual, variance, and
tools provide complete as-planned and as-built projected costs.
data from the highest level of summarization to
the lowest level of detail for each individual • Perform what-if scheduling, availability
transaction. This powerful window is the catalyst checks, and material netting with the option
for material requirements, cost accounting, to generate purchase orders.
capacity planning, production scheduling, and
more. • Maintain revision history for the manufactured
product.
You can use the full-color, graphical interface to
quickly and easily create manufacturing • Create quotes and work orders automatically
engineering plans coupled with Bills of Material from the engineering master.
(BOM), then use the design to automatically
create a quote or work order. The display and • Drill down to view labor and inventory
reporting features of the Manufacturing Window transactions without leaving the
provide an at-a-glance view of the materials and Manufacturing Window.
operations involved in the engineering process.
• Evaluate the progress of each aspect of the
• Create, view, and modify engineering plans work order with completion meters. You can
with a graphical display with point-and-click see the status of the work order, individual
technology. operations, materials, and outside operations.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 24

• Drill to the customer’s order lifecycle to see
the progressing of a production order from
quote to cash.

• Drill to material supply orders to see the

entire lifecycle of incoming material used to
produce the manufactured item.

• Add one-time purchased items without

requiring an item ID, which ensures that you
do not clutter the item master file with items
that will never be used again.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 25

Production Control

VISUAL offers a full range of screens and reports to help you drive and analyze your production.

Infor VISUAL offers you complete production  Ensure accurate inventories by linking
automation and control through seamless purchased materials to work orders.
integration of all its features, including inventory
control, material and labor tracking and reporting,  Manage material requirements by the job, by
purchasing, and production scheduling. Infor stocking levels, or a combination of both.
VISUAL’s tightly integrated features eliminate
redundant data entry, ensures consistency and
 Manage and conduct your business based on
accuracy throughout the shop floor, and makes
up-to-the-minute information, a result of
navigation intuitive and easy to use. With Infor
seamless integration of order entry, inventory,
VISUAL you can:
production, shipping, and invoicing.
 Generate work order travelers that include
 Create dashboards showing historical and
work instructions, linked files, design
projective analysis.
documents, pictures and bar codes for
reporting labor and material.

 Capture and analyze all labor, material,

burden, and service costs charged against
each work order.

 Schedule orders individually, by a selection

set, or collectively to monitor the load on your
shop floor.

 Dispatch work to each resource through

onscreen, printed, or mobile devices.

 View the immediate status of completion for a

job.

 Receive to stock or ship from the floor.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 26

Engineering Change Notice

Use VISUAL’s Engineering Change Notice feature to track changes to your engineering processes and bills of
material, notify interested personnel of impending changes, and ensure that your products are manufactured to
your specifications.

Establish controls and manage the process of  Maintain a comprehensive audit trail of
making changes to documents and drawings, changes to the Bill of Material and routings.
items, Bills of Material (BOMs) and routings, work
orders, and projects with VISUAL’s Engineering  Apply engineering changes to some, or all,
Change Notice (ECN) module. relevant in-process work orders.

 Create an ECN process flow with multiple  Prevent transactions against items and in-
ECN user groups and notification systems. process work orders while they are under
ECN control and notify engineers and
 Generate and track ECN tasks and apply production personnel of pending changes.
electronic signatures for approvals and task
completion.  Update item or document revision levels
automatically upon incorporating changes.
 Track ECN and revision history on all items,
documents, bills of manufacture, work orders,
and projects.

 Maintain an audit trail of changes to the ECN

record throughout the change process.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 27

VISUAL CADLink

VISUAL CADLink provides a two-way integration between Infor VISUAL and the most popular CAD systems

Don’t waste valuable engineering resources with  Inventor®

laborious data re-entry tasks. With VISUAL
CADLink you can make your preferred CAD  Creo® (formerly Pro/E®)
platform a natural extension of the Infor VISUAL
solution you rely on to optimize your
 SolidWorks
manufacturing operations. As result, you’ll be able
get more done with less effort and free up
engineers to do what they do best. Improve  Cut design costs, speeding design
engineering focus for better results. throughput.

By combining Infor VISUAL with CADLink and  Reduce cycle time.

your preferred CAD package, you’ll be able to
ensure a vastly higher degree of accuracy  Improve information flow reducing data entry
between your design process and manufacturing errors eliminating Engineering Master
operations. That’s because you’ll eliminate error- inaccuracies.
prone manual steps required to reconcile
information between the systems. You’ll also  Eliminate engineering ERP clerical work.
improve your ability to make plans and execute
those plans, because all relevant systems will  Ensure drawing data is consistent.
contain consistent, accurate, up-to-date
information. Put all that together and you get
faster performance and better results.

 CADLink provides a two-way integration

between Infor VISUAL and the most popular
CAD systems, including:

 AutoCAD®

 NX™

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 28

Plant & Equipment Maintenance
 Maintain multiple task schedules for a single
piece of equipment (daily, weekly, monthly,
annually).

 Generate work orders for maintenance tasks

and remove production equipment from the
schedule while performing maintenance.

 Schedule labor resources to perform tasks.

 Use current labor reporting and material

handling principles already in place.

 Plan for maintenance items before you are out

of stock.

 Assign service tasks to Regional and Branch

locations
Use VISUAL’s Plant & Equipment Maintenance to
schedule maintenance tasks seamlessly with your  Bill customers quickly and easily.
production schedule.
 Log and track reported problems into the
Plant and Equipment Maintenance improves your intuitive Call Center display window.
ability to schedule routine maintenance for internal
or customer-owned equipment in a single system.  Record detailed information about unplanned
You define the resources that are performing the maintenance activities including Fault Type
maintenance and which product equipment is and Fault Codes, Urgency and Escalation
affected by the maintenance. You define the types Codes, and response Remedy Type and
of activity, what materials are needed, and how Remedy Codes.
long they should take to complete. Pictures and
detailed instructions guide maintenance personnel
through the required tasks.

Regularly scheduled maintenance usually

prevents most equipment problems from
occurring, but unfortunately, unexpected problems
do arise. Plant and Equipment Maintenance also
helps you respond quickly to unplanned repairs
with minimal effect on production and delivery.
You can classify unplanned repairs by urgency
and escalation, and you can record the cause and
remedy for the unexpected maintenance.

You use the same tools for labor reporting,

material planning for spare or replacement items,
purchasing, inventory control and scheduling as
you do for production. You don’t need to learn
another system to perform maintenance.

 Maintain schedules for preventative

maintenance tasks for plant equipment,
internally-used products, and customer-
purchased products.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 29

Infor Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)

Infor Enterprise Asset Management is an business functions from within a single web-based
advanced asset management solution for solution.
organizations what require best in class control of
their assets. Infor EAM provides companies that have small or
no IT departments with a full featured solution that
Capital assets often generate unseen costs that delivers unparalleled insight into operations and
turn profit into loss. If you don‘t pay attention to can fully integrate with additional enterprise
the total cost of operating capital assets, you may applications, advantages typically reserved for
be passing up the opportunity to ensure the applications designed for large, multinational
success of your business for months or years into corporations. The security model is also
the future. Successful companies know that uncomplicated, reducing installation time even
effective enterprise asset management (EAM) further. System users access the features and
does more than add to the bottom line—it also functions of web-based Infor EAM software
reduces risk and gives your business a measure through a browser, working with an easy-to-use
of stability that makes a big difference in volatile graphical user interface.
business conditions. Infor EAM delivers a time-
tested solution that helps your company increase Features
the life and value of assets, optimizes asset
utilization, decreases costs of operation, and  Graphical User Interface
improves decision-making. It also gives you an
easy-to-use solution that you can implement  Predefined Reports
quickly.
 Key Performance Indicators
Infor EAM is a powerful enterprise asset
management solution that enables small and mid-  Web Architecture
size organizations to control critical functions such
as work orders, purchasing, inventory, and
 Minimal Hardware
preventative maintenance, without the investment
and extended implementation time required for a
larger-scale installation. Designed for companies
with single or multiple sites, this solution increases
productivity while reducing downtime by enabling
organizations to manage several essential
Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 30
Modules
 Assets

 Work Management

 Preventive Maintenance

 Materials Management

 Purchasing

 Mobile

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 31

Capacity Management
Concurrent Scheduler

Use VISUAL’s Concurrent Scheduling functions to help you manufacture products efficiently today and to accurately
plan for long-range opportunities and changes.

Infor VISUAL‘s Concurrent Scheduling feature  Choose finite or infinite scheduling; optionally
includes two powerful tools, the Global Scheduler set individual work centers to infinite within a
and the Scheduling Window®, that work together finite schedule.
to ensure the most efficient use of your materials
and resources and provide the information you  Verify material availability along with capacity.
need to deliver your product on time.
 Use forward and backward scheduling
Infor VISUAL was the first software system to capabilities to make the most efficient use of
feature Concurrent Scheduling, which considers your resources.
both material and capacity constraints when
generating your shop schedule.
 Calculate and display critical path and
determinant path time lines.
The Global Scheduler develops a schedule for all
firmed and released work orders based on due
dates, priority, and resource and material  Perform a capacity analysis to determine
availability. The Scheduling Window shows your when too much or too little capacity has been
schedule in a full-color, graphical format. You can allocated to a work center, and when you
zoom in to closely focus on a portion of the have excess capacity for a resource.
schedule, or zoom out to see the long-range plan
of operations. You can quickly adjust your what-if  Run what-if scenarios to determine the effects
schedule by dragging and dropping scheduled of changes in capacity, load, or timing.
operations.
 Use Drag and Drop to make scheduling
Unlike other schedulers, the Global Scheduler changes quickly and easily.
gives you detailed visibility on each scenario or
attempt it makes to schedule a job. This gives you  View the comprehensive audit trail of
the most visibility in the industry into your scheduling attempts and results.
scheduling constraints.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 32

 Create shop views to focus in on your area of
responsibility.

 Drill to work order details (Manufacturing

Window) to view the overall status of a work
order.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 33

Common Sense Throughput for CEOs

Use VISUAL’s Common Sense Throughput to identify ways to make your business more profitable.

Throughput is a measure of productivity that  Create throughput data for an unlimited

considers the contribution of a job or product number of schedule simulations.
toward company profit. It is calculated as the price
of goods sold minus the cost to produce it. Infor  Obtain accurate measurements of absolute
VISUAL Common Sense Throughput™ is a profit contribution.
strategy for using this information to aggressively
increase the profit of a manufacturing company by
 Graph throughput inquiries at a daily, weekly,
working a schedule that will increase throughput.
or monthly level.
Through the use of the Common Sense
Throughput strategy, Infor VISUAL uses  Drill down to view shipment, costing,
measurements not commonly found in ERP and allocations, or work order finish date
MES systems. VISUAL uses the Throughput information.
Window to access a variety of reports and
inquiries: Actual or Expected Throughput reports,  Compare and match customer orders with
and Utilization, Contention, and Material work orders.
Constraint inquiries. These tools provide the
information to be discussed at the daily Common  Choose to include unavailable or on hold
Sense Throughput meetings. inventory in inquiries.

CEOs can use Common Sense Throughput to  Determine the ten most frequently used
avoid incorrect decisions based on allocations and resources by schedule, load/ capacity ratio,
theoretical profit of a piece. incidents of highest severity of contention, or
user-defined time span.
 View an audit trail that reliably identifies
potential resource and material bottlenecks,  Create trend graphs by shop resource.
both primary and secondary.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 34

 View the past orders that have generated
maximum throughput for time spent at
bottleneck resources.

 Determine the orders in the future that should

generate maximum throughput for time spent
at bottleneck resources.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 35

Easy Lean

Use VISUAL’s Easy Lean feature to keep inventory levels low without compromising your response to your
customers.

Infor VISUAL Easy Lean is a fast-to-implement subassemblies, replacement items, and finished
solution that provides you protection for your goods.
planning and execution processes. It is a
scheduling method that delivers significant results  Protect your ability to deliver on time every
within 30-90 days. With a few small changes to time; protect pre-production, production, semi-
your traditional planning methods, such as setting finished goods, and finished goods.
up shipping and inventory buffers, you can gain
visibility into your materials and production. This  Manage market constraints and increase your
visibility allows you to make better decisions, ability to compete in the global marketplace.
release inventory at optimal times, and smooth
production flow. It helps you avoid chaotic
 Gain visibility into your materials and
situations on the production floor, take on
production, allowing you to make more
increased business, and ultimately drive more
profitable decisions.
money to your bottom line.

Whether you operate as a make-to-order or make-  Respond to the market quickly.

to-stock company, Infor VISUAL Easy Lean can
protect your on-time deliveries through shorter  Reduce on-hand inventory and shorten lead-
lead-times and provide the critical information you times.
need to overcome market constraints and
increase business and profits. Unlike traditional  Keep flow throughout production and stay
scheduling solutions, Easy Lean focuses on efficient with lean business processes.
pulling materials through the shop (Simplified
Market Pull), which helps keep your inventory at  Avoid stock-outs and misappropriation of
optimum levels. goods.

By incorporating shipping and inventory buffers  Quote shorter lead-times with supreme
into scheduling, you can protect both customer confidence and go after sales opportunities
due dates and constraint resource schedules, and requiring aggressive deliveries.
guard against low and high availability of raw
materials, purchased items, common

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 36

Mobile Scheduling Dispatch

With mobile dispatch your entire operation knows what to work on next and if all materials, tools, and fixtures are
available to complete the operation.

With VISUAL’s mobile scheduling dispatch feature  View the planned delivery date of incoming
you have direct access to all actives on the shop purchase orders that are needed to start or
floor. Production foreman have a real-time view complete a customer’s order.
into available capacity, backlog, and status of
individual work orders or resources. Machine  View all drawings and attachments associated
operators know what to work on next as with a work order.
determined by the VISUAL Scheduler, and where
to locate the material to begin the job.
 Drill to all labor, material, service receipts, and
receipts to finished goods associated with a
 Setup status boards around the plant showing work order.
current workload within that work cell.

 Use displays at a machine or resource to

indicate what to work on next.

 Check on the status of a work order remotely

from a mobile device.

 Remotely identify available capacity at a

resource, resource group, or product line
operation to determine potential delivery of a
new order.

 Determine where in the shop to find the

material required to begin an operation.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 37

VISUAL Time & Attendance

Use VISUAL Time & Attendance to track your employees’ time, whether they are hourly workers, pieceworkers,
exempt employees, or non-exempt employees.

With Infor VISUAL Time & Attendance you can  Take advantage of paperless manufacturing
track employee attendance, manual time sheets, labor data via Kiosks and mobile devices.
and manufacturing labor. Configure each shop
floor Kiosk to accept any or all types of tracked  Define holiday and payroll frequency
transactions. User definable compensation rules calendars, along with paid or unpaid breaks
allow for flexible work cycle and pay calendar and meals.
definitions, multi-level premium rules, and shift
differentials, among others. Infor VISUAL Time &
 Generate standard work schedules based on
Attendance fully supports both piecework and
shift definition parameters with auto-updates
incentive pay.

Infor VISUAL Time & Attendance uses the  Apply message trigger options to alert users
compensation rules when calculating earnings, to specific events or milestones.
and exports the data to multiple third-party payroll
processors.  Synchronize your Infor VISUAL systems data
to reduce redundant data entry.
You can track information for all types of
employees: hourly workers, pieceworkers, and  Enable total time accounting to comply with
both exempt and non-exempt salaried employees. DCAA collection methods.
You can set up employees to report their time with
timesheets instead of the Infor VISUAL Time &  Define different clock in and clock out
Attendance Kiosk clocking functionality. rounding rules with the ability to override
actual times with the scheduled time if
You can set up electronic time approval and needed.
electronic signature capabilities for your
supervisors so that time is approved before  Assign employees to multiple user-defined
employee earnings are calculated. groupings to enhance report filtering.

 Create extensive audit trails and employee

information histories when changes are made
to timesheets.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 38

Material & Labor Barcode Transaction System (BTS)

For timely and accurate reporting of material and receive work orders to stock using mobile
labor activity on the shop floor, you can deploy the devices.
optional VISUAL Radio Frequency (RF) Barcode
Tracking System (BTS) for harsh environments, or
the Smart Device solution extension for less
rigorous environments.

With BTS you can automate your complete

material and labor tracking processes, print
industry-compliant barcode labels, and eliminate
data entry errors.

Infor VISUAL BTS offers three optional modules:

Automated Material Tracking, Automated Labor
Tracking, and the Labor Kiosk (Wedge) station to
help streamline your production workflow. Each
offering includes unlimited mobile connections for
material or labor when a minimum BTS or Labor
Kiosk seat count is reached.

A label print utility, which seamlessly integrates

Infor VISUAL and Loftware® Print Server,
provides barcode label design and printing
technology. The utility integrates directly with
industry-leading Loftware label design and print
software.

Material Barcoding (BTS)

 Perform PO receipts, as well as issues to/from
work orders.

 Track and ship inventory in a timely and cost

effective manner.
Easily transact work order material and labor on
 Perform physical inventory counts more the shop floor using VISUAL BTS on RF
quickly, easily, and accurately. handheld devices, or on smart device using the
mobile extension.

 Optimize warehouse operations by keeping

inventory flowing smoothly between locations.

 Print barcode labels from any of the industry-

standard barcode thermal printers.

 Ensure inventory accuracy.

 Improve customer service and decision

making with real-time information about
inventory and locations.

 Issue material to the work order, perform

inventory adjustments and transfers, and

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 39

Labor Barcoding (BTS) Labor Kiosk (Wedge)
For companies requiring the flexibility of a full
screen PC, Infor VISUAL offers the stationary
Wedge Labor Kiosk for extended labor
functionality.

 Enter data quickly and accurately using

barcode or QCode scanners.

 Choose between single and multiple job

modes, and define either a time or cost basis
for prorating multiple jobs.

 Create on-screen macros to perform company

specific call-outs or updates.

 Enter required quality measurements when

used with Infor Quality Management.
When a full screen labor Kiosk is required, deploy
VISUAL’s wedge barcode solution.
 Call up associated work order prints,
drawings, or attachments.

 Report labor to the work order to capture

accurate cost details.

 Automatically update the projected hours

remaining on on work orders for up-to-date
job status and scheduling accuracies.

 Report Serial Number and Lot Control

information as part of the build process.

 Enter deviation quantities with reason for

deviations.

 Move work to another resource to capitalize

on open capacity to improve efficiencies.

 View work order prints, drawings, and

attachments. (mobile)
Employees can use VISUAL’s Mobile device
extension for easy reporting of labor to the work
order.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 40

Material Planning
Master Scheduling & MRP

Use VISUAL’s Material Requirements Planning features to ensure you have the items you need to meet customer
demand. Material Planning Window provides a 360-degree view into an item demand and supply netting.

Manage the balance between supply and demand  Explode all assembly schedules into
with the Material Requirements Planning (MRP) component requirements and choose
module. The MRP module provides a between including or excluding firmed,
comprehensive analysis of your material situation, released, unreleased, closed, or canceled
including the suggested action to restore balance. requirements.
It suggests when to release supply orders (for
either purchased or fabricated items), based on  Review and implement rescheduling
the most up-to-date supply and demand recommendations for work orders and
information available. MRP helps reduce purchase orders based on actual production
inventory, increase manufacturing productivity, and demand schedules by severity
and ultimately facilitates cash flow. exceptions.

Working with MRP, the Master Production  Choose regenerative processing or net
Schedule (MPS) module translates your business change for level-by-level processing.
plan, including your forecasted demand, into a
production plan using firm planned orders in a true  Peg MRP planned orders to the next and top-
multi-level, optional component scheduling level assemblies.
environment. With MPS driving the manufacturing
process, you can avoid shortages, costly  Generate material reports with options for
expediting, last minute rescheduling, and netting methods, various sort orders, and
inefficient allocation of resources. other filtering options.

 Integrate forecasts, master schedule items,  Generate MRP by independent warehouses;

sales orders, and firm-planned orders for view supply and demand separately in these
MRP processing. warehouses.

 Choose between various planning policy  Consolidate planned items within the Master
options including discrete, minimum/maximum Production Schedule.
order quantity, fixed period, period supply, etc.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 41

 Produce master schedules and forecasts for
any level in the Bill of Material for any kind of
item.

 Maintain separate forecasts by customer.

 Visualize everything you need to know – in

one place. The Material Planning Window
gives you visibility into both Purchasing and
Production plans.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 42

Advanced Material Planning

Use VISUAL’s Advanced Material Planning toolset to create planning calendars with projected need within each
planning timeframe with drill-down to daily inventory positioning within the planning timeframe.

The Infor VISUAL Advanced Material Planning Calendars (i.e., daily, weekly, monthly, etc.)
module helps you manage material requirements and multiple warehouses.
by showing summarized Supply, Demand and
Forecast information. Summarized information is  Drill down to view item details for customer
shown in buckets of time that you define – orders, work orders, purchase orders, and
anywhere from 1 day to 1 year. Because the data planned orders while viewing summary
is summarized, you can plan for the big picture information by time period.
without the need to manually read and analyze all
the details. But when you need the details, they  Drill down to the daily inventory positioning for
are just one click away. a precise view into demand and supply
netting.
You can add color-coding to demand fences that
you set up. You will know at-a-glance if the
 Master schedule planned items from the
demand is real, forecasted or a combination of
Master Production Schedule window,
both. Multiple forecasts can be managed and
including manipulation/consolidation of
displayed providing additional insight in the
customer forecast data.
planning process.

Originally designed to accommodate the needs of  Be alerted to exception conditions and view
make-to-stock and repetitive manufacturers, the system-recommended remedial actions.
Advanced Material Planning window provides
practical functionality for the make-to-order  Firm multiple planned orders for a variety of
manufacturer with the bulk release of planned items for a specified date range.
materials. These planned materials, whether for
production or purchase, can be consolidated or  Define Planning Bills of Material that include
further delineated in released orders. sub-assemblies for real or planned items.

 Facilitate intelligent planning, viewing, and  Create alternate Master Production Schedule
managing of items with multiple Planning scenarios via Planning Forecasts.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 43

 Identify multi-level item relationships and
specify the percentage of each subordinate
item to the parent.

 Generate MRP by independent warehouses;

view supply and demand separately in these
warehouses.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 44

Supply Chain & Inventory Management
Request for Quote to Payment

Visually determine where an item is in the supply chain. Has it been ordered, received, in transit, issued to the work
order, or paid?

The Infor VISUAL document lifecycle provides a

graphical view of the supply side, with complete
drill-through functionality to all related documents.
Users can add attachments, copy in emails,
record comments, and schedule follow-ups or
reminders associated with a document or previous
activity. You can automatically send notifications
to internal and external stakeholders when an
event occurs. For example, a shop floor
supervisor can be notified when a critical material
for a job is scanned in at the receiving dock.

From any document within the supply chain a user

can “click-through’ the entire lifecycle, including
drilling directly into the work order requiring the
material.

No more jumping from menu to menu to get

answers. With Infor VISUAL the relationship of
the documents is graphically depicted with an
easy point-and-click to all levels of detail,
improving efficiencies across the organization.

Infor VISUAL’s core feature set includes request

for quotation through to cash disbursements, with
approvals and three-way matching rules to
prevent errors and enforce accounting control
points. Companies can also determine what
document data elements that want to audit for
changes, indicating who change what and when.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 45

Purchase Management

VISUAL’s Purchase Order Entry window handles all types of purchases: inventoried items, supply items, outside
service operations pertaining to a manufacturing order, and subcontracted items that require sending components to
the vendor.

Maintain control of inventory, enhance your cash  Enter purchase orders, order receipts, and
flow, and shorten delivery times with Infor returns in real-time and let Infor VISUAL
VISUAL’s purchasing module. Infor VISUAL helps automatically calculate the adjustments to
you to easily coordinate material purchases by POs.
providing online decision support that simplifies
record keeping. Use Infor VISUAL to handle all  Purchase one-time materials directly to a job
types of purchases, including inventoried items, without having to assign internal item
supply items, outside service operations numbers.
pertaining to a manufacturing order, and
subcontracted items that require you to send
 Link a PO line item to a specific job requiring
components to the vendor. Drop shipments can
that item for complete visibility and flow-
include specific locations other than the primary
through of all related costs to the job.
ship-to address, such as various warehouses or
customer locations.
 Automatically issue material pegged to a
Infor VISUAL‘s purchasing module provides specific job, eliminating double entries.
standard form reports such as purchase orders,
acknowledgments, and order lists for purchasing  Specify multiple item lines on a PO, each
personnel, as well as analytical accounts payable having its own multi-line delivery schedule for
related reports, including purchase order lists and time-phased delivery based on production
accrual reports. schedules.

 Establish approved vendor lists for each item,

including quantity discounts, lead-times, and
the vendor‘s and/or manufacturer‘s item
number for cross-referencing.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 46

 Generate vendor RFQs (Request for Quote)
that can be easily converted to a Purchase
Order.

 Create vendor purchase requisitions, with

routing through approval processes with point-
and-click purchase order creation from
approved requisitions.

 Use standard reports and on-screen views to

review all requirements not covered by
purchasing; compare on-hand, on order, and
allocated levels at a glance; and view
suggested purchase dates by item, product,
or commodity.

 Automate purchase accruals for product

received but not yet invoiced.

 Maintain Blanket Purchase Orders, supporting

multiple delivery schedules and shipping
addresses.

 Easily view vendor and item history, including

last price paid, previous suppliers, and
delivery performance.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 47

Inventory Management

Use the Material Planning window to perform in-depth, time-phased, netting evaluations of your complete supply and
demand situation for your items.

Take control over your inventory with Infor  Stock goods in one unit of measure while
VISUAL. You can easily access accurate, up-to- purchasing, selling, and/or consuming on a
date information about your inventory throughout work order in another unit of measure.
your company. Infor VISUAL automates the
process of tracking items by adjusting inventory  Assign multiple warehouse locations for an
whenever you create a transaction involving an item and/or multiple locations within a single
item. warehouse.

Inventory items can be designated as purchased,  Easily transfer items between locations or
manufactured, stocked, or non-stocked so that warehouses.
you can immediately place a purchase order or
issue a job order when an item is in demand.
Infor VISUAL also allows you to easily track  Automatically issue materials by work order,
material and costs on a per-job basis. The operation set, resource, or sub-assembly.
Material Planning window provides an online, in-
depth, time-phased, netting evaluation of your  Consume floor stock items automatically as
complete supply and demand timeline across all steps are completed.
items and warehouses. The extensive on-screen
visuals and reporting capabilities of Infor VISUAL  Set up specialized item pricing such as
provide complete profiles of any item in the quantity and discounted pricing, contract
system. pricing, etc., for both purchasing and selling.

 Assign comprehensive item definitions  Perform automated physical inventories, cycle

including variable length item numbers up to counting, and ABC analysis.
30 characters long, extended item
descriptions, user definable fields, and  Capture costs at actual, standard, FIFO, LIFO
supplier information. either by part or part location.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 48

Interbranch Transfers

Use VISUAL’s Interbranch Transfer feature to accurately track the movement of item quantities between
warehouses.

Use Infor VISUAL’s Interbranch Transfers (IBT) to

accurately track the movement of item quantities
between warehouses. IBTs have their own
shipping documents that include detailed shipping
information. You can assign supply to outgoing
IBTs and demand from incoming IBT lines, and
ship and receive IBT quantities.

 Enter detailed shipping information.

 Assign supply to outgoing IBTs and demand

from incoming IBT lines.

 Track inventory between warehouses.

 Receive up-to-the-second information about

items and quantities.

 Enter, ship, and receive transfers quickly and

easily.

 View and control IBTs in the Material Planning

window.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 49

Dimensional Inventory Tracking

Use VISUAL’s Dimension Inventory Tracking features to view your inventory by height, weight, and other dimension
characteristics.

Infor VISUAL‘s Dimensional Inventory Tracking  Define up to three dimensions and an

feature provides you with an added level of control unlimited number of dimensional records for
over your inventoried items. Instead of simply each item.
seeing the total inventory quantity and stocking
unit of measure, you have a view into the  Specify Unit of Measure conversions for
dimensional characteristics of the item. You can materials.
issue a specified number of pieces by dimension
and then let the system make the necessary  Calculate purchase costs automatically.
conversions to issue the correct total order
quantity.  Issue/return from WIP as well as adjust in/out
for drop management.
Using Dimensional Inventory Tracking, any
transaction involving an item causes all  Receive partial pieces that differ in size than
associated values to be immediately adjusted. those listed on the originating purchase order.
You can purchase, receive, and enter a material
requirement simply by entering the number of
 Track inventory by location of pieces within
pieces of material, the required dimensions, and
the plant for managing drops.
the warehouse location. Dimensional Inventory
Tracking can also perform a physical inventory
when you specify the number of pieces and • Take a full physical inventory by specifying
dimensions of those pieces. the number of pieces and their dimensions.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 50

Lot & Serial Traceability

Use VISUAL’s Lot and Traceability feature to track items from receipt of materials from the vendor through delivery
to the customer.

Infor VISUAL Lot & Serial Traceability feature is  Track raw material lot numbers.
designed for manufacturers who require more
stringent control over product tracking. Lot &  Use the description, expiration date, and user-
Serial Traceability provides this control by defined fields to track information for each lot.
establishing trace profiles for each lot number,
serial number, or other grouping of an item, and
 Assign serial numbers to finished products
by automatically tracking each item as it flows
and components used within a Bill of Material.
through your plant. You can assign additional
information including a description, expiration
date, and other user-definable attributes required  Trace a customer shipment back to the raw
by your organization or customers. material lot or serial numbers used to produce
the finished item--cradle to grave traceability.
Lot & Serial Traceability tracks the item from
cradle to grave, from receipt of materials from  Perform online inquiries by item for lot
your supplier through delivery of the product to the numbers and serial numbers received or
customer, as well as all intermediate levels. As shipped as well as inventory balances.
jobs move through the plant, operators can be
prompted for additional information when
consuming material or completing operations. You
can use inquiry capabilities to review the flow of
material lots and serialized items as they move
through the manufacturing process.

 Customize item traceability requirements and

specify special tracking requirements by item.

 Assign alphabetic and numeric properties to

trace items.

 Assign lot numbers for purchased materials at

receipt or for finished products coming from
the shop floor.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 51

VISUAL Project Management
VISUAL Project Core

Use VISUAL Project to consolidate multiple enterprise wide activities and work orders into a single control point to
capture costs and manage overall deliverable.

Your project-oriented customers need complex Project Warehouses, and Customer-Owned

goods built to specification and delivered within Material Control.
budget. Your project managers need real-time
integrated tools to track revenues, expenses, and  Project Profitability Tracking by Project and/or
profitability. VISUAL Project automates workflow, Business Line.
increases efficiency, and, most importantly,
promotes customer satisfaction. VISUAL project  Bi-directional integration with Microsoft
helps facilitates teamwork and encourages the Project.
exchange of information.
 Project scheduling capabilities with visibility to
Infor VISUAL Project helps you control project
linked Production Orders.
lifecycles with tools for:

 Separate Request for Proposal capabilities

with specific project references for each
estimate.

 Multiple Project Billing/Invoicing Methods,

such as Milestone, Shipment, Progress, and
Time and Materials.

 Project Budgeting and Costing by Work

Breakdown Structure, allowing time phased
comparison and variance reporting.

 Project Inventory Management, including

MRP by Project, Commingling Options, Virtual

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 52

VISUAL Project – Aerospace & Defense

Project Aerospace and Defense features support complex contract tracking, audit, and reporting requirements.

Infor VISUAL Aerospace & Defense (A&D)  Multiple Project Revenue Recognition
solution expands the VISUAL Project functionality Methods, such as Cost Plus Earned Fee,
in Infor VISUAL with additional contract and Shipment, Percentage of Completion, and
reporting features for the Aerospace & Defense Milestone, including multi-currency
industry. capabilities.

A&D customers have complex requirements and  Managing and controlling Complex Overhead
regulations. Their contracts and financial Rates, including multi-year rates, waterfall
managers need real-time integrated tools to track burdening, and retroactive rate adjustment
revenues, expenses, and contract compliance capability.
requirements. VISUAL A&D automates
procedures, increases visibility, and most  Project Costing by Work Breakdown
importantly, promotes customer satisfaction. This Structure, including Earned Value Reporting.
solution facilitates teamwork and information
reporting.
 Project Funds Tracking.
Infor VISUAL A&D helps you control contracts,
project lifecycles, and financial reporting with tools  Bi-directional integration with Microsoft®
for: Project.

 Project/Contract Administration, including  Accounting Records compliant with DCAA,

flowing down of terms and conditions. FAR and CAS.

 Separate Request for Proposal capabilities

with specific project references for each
estimate.

 Multiple Project Billing/Invoicing Methods,

such as Milestone, Shipment, Progress, and
Time and Materials.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 53

Infor Quality Management

Infor Quality Management helps address all your quality needs, from incoming, in process, and outgoing product, to
devices used and skill set of employees. Eliminate having to go through another painful audit by implementing IQM.

quality performance management across all

Increasing productivity while maintaining and
aspects of your business.
improving quality is one of the primary goals for
every manufacturer. When you have effective Infor Quality Management provides tools to help
systems and processes in place, quality and you automate associated design, pre-production,
productivity don’t have to be competing goals— production, and post-production activities.
each can reinforce the other in your efforts to Expertly manage business performance and
improve long term results. Infor Quality easily collect, control, and analyze quality system
Management brings control, consistency, and data.
predictability to your product lifecycle and supply Engineering and Product Management:
management activities, so you can bring products
to market faster, with superior quality Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP)
performance. and Production Part Approval Process (PPAP)
Manage engineering processes from concept and
Leverage experience design through all phases of product
development.
Establish, track, and manage every engineering
activity and supply chain expectation, while
Engineering Project Management
supporting business growth and profitability goals
with a functionally rich, easy-to-use quality Initiate and drive short- and long-term engineering
management system that extends and integrates activities such as new product development, new
OEM projects, and other critical activities.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 54

Product Data Management (PDM)
Unite item master information, Bill of Material
detail, design characteristics, and key production
specifications into one database environment to
achieve complete control over products.

Document Management
Centralize the location, change history, and
document audits for electronic and physical
documents.

Inspection Plans, FMEAs, and Control Plans

Use IQM to work with teams of your employees, your
Maintain critical product and process
customers, and your suppliers to establish, track, and
specifications with associated equipment, device, manage every engineering activity and supply chain
inspection, and control charting as defined in expectation.
Product Data Management and Process
Management.
Integrated Process Management (IPM)
Create inspection plans linked to statistical Identify problems that can positively or negatively
process control (SPC) for engineering review and impact operations before the product reaches
evaluation. shipping or material review board personnel.

Equipment and Tooling Management Process Capability & Statistical Process

Control (SPC)
Use tools for preventive and reactive
maintenance, including equipment and tooling Prepare control charts and perform management
lists, integrated ERP and Preventive Maintenance direction, planning, gage capability, process
scheduling, work order generation, spare part and control and capability analysis, sampling plan
equipment usage, Preventive Maintenance preparation, and process detail documentation.
records, and more.
Supply Chain Management:
Calibration and Device Studies Customer, Supplier, and Employee
Document, schedule, and track devices and test Communication
equipment for calibration. Involve suppliers, customers, and employees
through documented and addressed feedback,
advanced quality planning, and individual or team
training.

Skills, Training, Qualifications, Productivity,

and Performance Tracking
Develop, track, inventory, schedule, and perform
time-consuming tasks involved in managing
human resources.

Skip-lot and Vendor Performance Management

Manage either manual or automated ERP/Regular
incoming and ERP/Skiplot inspections for
Use IQM’s robust control charts to maintain critical customer-specified and internal receiving
product specifications and analyze test data. requirements.

Automated Preventive Maintenance (PM)

Scheduling
Schedule and track all preventive and reactive
maintenance.
Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 55
Nonconformance’s (NCM) and Quality
Traceability
Detect, assign, and track continuous improvement
activities using complete problem-solving details.

Corrective Actions and 8 Discipline (8D)

Reports
Manage assignments and performance with the
system-wide task manager.

Cost of Quality and Audit Management VISUAL Quality Management tracks the tasks
assigned to employees so you and your staff can
Assess and control overall business performance see their to-do lists at-a glance. You can access
and establish best direction for bottom line the modules you need to complete the tasks
improvement. directly from the to-do list.

Task Management Workflow Tools

Email Integration
System-wide Task Management and Enterprise
Team Collaboration Employ email messaging in conjunction with direct
database driven notification and activity tracking
Use the single point-of-reference window, My To for individuals inside and outside the company.
Do List, to analyze all activities within the system,
access employee work overload conditions, re-
assess priorities, and assign additional human
resources.

Projects Management
Record, schedule, and track resource usage and
project assignment completion.

Multi-Vendor Workflow
Manage your end-to-end business strategy from
product conceptualization to multi-site worldwide
distribution with the manufacturing business
process as the central point.

Use VISUAL Quality Management to continuously

improve your products and processes.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 56

Financial Management

Use VISUAL Financials fully integrated, single database, multi-entity multi-site solution to efficiently address all your
enterprise’s accounting needs.

VISUAL Financials drill-down to all levels of detail. Information is

accurate and current, and eliminates the need for
Infor VISUAL Financials provides a total repetitive data entry. Each of the Infor VISUAL
enterprise solution for your accounting needs. Financials modules is a fully functional system
Infor VISUAL Financials helps you compete in the within itself—together they comprise a powerful
global marketplace by offering multi-currency set of tools for addressing the total accounting
capabilities and handling consolidation of needs of your business.
disparate charts of accounts between subsidiaries
as well as differing system currencies. You can
General Ledger
automatically create vouchers, generate invoices
and credit memos, write checks on-the-fly, create  Define a Chart of Accounts that mirrors your
customized reports, and post and create journal enterprise structure.
entries.
 Select from multiple graphical display options
Infor VISUAL Financials includes Accounts to review the G/L, including multi-level drill-
Payable, Accounts Receivable, General Ledger, down from sub-ledger batch to transaction
Cash Management, and Cash Book, that are fully levels
integrated with Infor VISUAL ERP, providing a
seamless transfer of information with complete

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 57

 Select the G/L reporting calendar method;
Monthly, 4-4-5, 13 Period, or a user-defined
value.

 Create multiple financial entities for

consolidated reporting.

 Take advantage of Infor VISUAL’s full multi-

currency support.

 Utilize account groups and dimensions to

further extend you consolidation and reporting
needs.

 Create recurring journals, reversal journals,

and rules based allocations.

 Post to multiple fiscal periods (including the

future year), subject to definable controls.

 Review financial information by printing

standard G/L reports.

 Create customized financial reports with the

G/L Report Writer; including alternate G/L
structures based on user defined groupings,
multi-periods, and budget comparisons.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 58

Accounts Payable

With complete visibility of the entire purchase lifecycle, workflow, automated alerts, and three-way matching,
VISUAL Accounts Payable ensures cost accuracy and enforces accounting safeguards.

 Implement three way matching with variance  Create and maintain multiple remit-to
safeguards to prevent the saving and posting addresses.
of invoices with large purchase order out-of-
policy variances.  Allow for a flexible payment schedule
negotiated with any of your vendors.
 Create vouchers automatically through
POs/receipts matching, including Sub-total  Write checks on-the-fly in support of
and Grand Total amount details. immediate payment of invoices.

 Apply credit memos to open vendor invoices.  Record value-added tax and report duty.

 Create recurring vouchers and specify the  Track landed costs and freight charges.
frequency.
 Identify and drill-down to payment history in a
 Assign vendor accounts to specific A/P control variety of ways, including Vendor Inquiry and
accounts on the G/L. Document Lifecycle views.

 Print vendor checks for invoices scheduled for

payment.

 Review extensive A/P information available on

standard A/P reports.

 Create individual document postings or

summarized postings to the General Ledger
for all accounts payable processing.

 Post miscellaneous charges to a work order,

such as installation services, shipping
services, or other non-material related
charges.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 59

Accounts Receivable

You can create customer invoices in a variety of ways – automatically during the shipping process, as stand-alone
invoices, or recurring invoices.

 Generate A/R invoices automatically from  Create journal entries for Infor VISUAL
shipping activities in Infor VISUAL, emailing Financials General Ledger because of A/R
invoices directly to customers. processing.

 Assign customer accounts to specific A/R  Share A/R customer payment and credit data
control accounts on the G/L. with a variety of stakeholders, including
customer service reps and sales reps.
 Report customer prepayments and have Infor
VISUAL automatically deduct the amount of  Manage credit risk customers with Collection
the prepayment or credit from the invoice Schedules.
total.
 Create collection activities to provide diary-
 Generate credit memos from returns in Infor tracking capabilities with follow-up
VISUAL. notifications.

 Create credit memos for price adjustments,

then apply them to open invoices.

 Apply cash receipts to specific customer

invoices and determine how overpayments
and underpayments should be handled.

 Review extensive A/R information available

on standard A/R reports, such as Aged
Receivables, Customer History, and
Customer Statements.

 On-screen review with drill-back capabilities

using Document Lifecycle views or Customer
Inquiry.
Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 60
Cash Management Window

Use VISUAL Financials’ Cash Management window to develop accurate cash flow forecasts and review actual cash
flow data.

 Predict future cash flows based on actual Cash Book

trends using the online real-time capability of
Cash Management.  Mirror the bank statement and filter the Cash
Book display to view only those items that
correspond to the period covered.
 Filter cash plans by specific corporate entity
or combine multiple entities for a consolidated
view of your organization’s cash position  Post bank adjustments to the G/L during the
and/or forecast. reconciliation process.

 Create unlimited cash plans.  Set cleared items individually, by range or by

group, and mark as cleared.
 Integrate actual cash performance, as well as
projected and forecast data.  Add multiple or single line adjustments with
the click of a button.
 Use the Setup Wizard to guide you through
the creation process.  Drill down and open any item in its native
context, simply by double-clicking on the
desired record line.
 Choose between multiple view capabilities to
turn off/on actual, projected, and forecasted
data.  Balance display control totals to easily check
and compare to bank control totals.
 Customize your window with various graphical
display capabilities.  Generate standard reports, including Cash
Receipts Register, Cash Payments Register,
Cash Book and Bank Reconciliation.
 Generate standard performance reports for
payment, receipts, and shipments.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 61

Cost Accounting

View real-time cost information directly in the Manufacturing Window to see if your jobs are coming in on budget.

The Cost Accounting features within Infor VISUAL  Automatically update stockroom and WIP
support both actual costing and standard costing, inventory records in real-time.
providing you with the flexibility to choose the
method that works best for you. Infor VISUAL  Link work orders to customer orders to
captures costs as changes occur, ensuring up-to- measure true margins based on costing
date and accurate costing. You can also link method.
purchases directly to existing work orders through
the Purchasing or Manufacturing module,
 Calculate actual costs for a one-time or limited
earmarking costs specific to the appropriate job. run production without having to add item
numbers for both end item and component
Additionally, you can link work orders to specific parts.
customer orders, which allows you to know the
true margin earned for each customer order. Infor
VISUAL automatically charges work order costs  Apply supplier invoice costs directly from
for customer orders to the Cost of Goods Sold accounts payable for non-direct production
upon shipment to the customer. costs such as shipping fees, installation
charges, and any other expense related to the
overall cost of the job.
 See up-to-date multi-level comparisons of
estimated and actual costs with variance and
projection of the final cost.

 Analyze major cost categories, including

material, direct labor, overhead, and outside
services.

 Link POs to work orders to capture costs for a

job, including variances due to changes in
price and landed costs.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 62

VISUAL Global Financials

Use VISUAL Global Financials to manage your multi-country, multi-currency accounting and cash management needs.

Infor VISUAL Global Financials is designed  Segment financial information into appropriate
specifically to meet the requirements of entities and business components for
companies operating multiple entities, divisions, improved tracking and reporting.
sites, and subsidiaries around the world.
 Work within a multi-company and multi-
Infor VISUAL Global Financials enables currency environment with support for global
companies to work within a multi-company and consolidation.
multi-currency environment with support for global
consolidation. You can document all production  Create Consolidated and Consolidating
and warehouse-related financial transactions and Financial Statements.
segment financial data into appropriate entities for
improved statistical and budget tracking and
reporting. Infor VISUAL Global Financials  Import/Export data through the Consolidation
promotes faster, accurate, real-time transactions Process and/or Microsoft® Excel
and provides managers across all levels of the
company with the information they need to make  Define Supplier/Customer groups for
more informed business decisions. enhanced report filtering capabilities.

Infor VISUAL Global Financials is an advanced

application to help manage all your company’s
accounting and cash management demands.

 Real-time processing of financial transactions

within a single database or across multiple
VISUAL ERP databases.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 63

Multi-entity and Multi-site

Implement multiple entities and sites within a single database to simplify intercompany transactions, consolidation
and financial reporting.

With Infor™ VISUAL Multi-entity Multi-site, you  Separate manufacturing sites for WIP.
can view business transactions across multiple
business entities and sites from a single vantage  Easy movement of inventory between entities
point. It is built from our years of experience or sites.
helping companies like yours meet their toughest
challenges, including the need to simplify multi-
Sales, purchasing, and inventory
site, multi-entity management within one
enterprise.
management
By having the ability to use one database to track
Companies with multiple organizations or separate estimates, sales orders, RFQs, purchase
business units can easily maintain accounting orders, and RMAs by site, you have the
records and financial statements for each entity, foundation for an exponentially more efficient
while quickly and automatically rolling up the enterprise. Infor VISUAL Multi-entity Multi-site
information to the parent company for enterprise- makes it easy to automate orders and move
wide reports. You can control inventory, work in material between sites through quick stock
process (WIP), planning, scheduling, and costing transfers online. You can also buy and sell
for all of your sites from a single, centralized between and within accounting entities with
location. minimal manual record-keeping. Engineering
Masters, Quotes, and Work Orders are site-
You'll see benefits in various areas, including: specific as well, so you can have clear visibility of
these details by location.
 Multi-entity and multi-site all in one database.
Planning and scheduling
 Consolidated financial reporting. Because each site has its own production
schedule within Infor VISUAL, you can quickly
 Financials from each site rolling up to the view plans and schedules for multiple sites
entity.
Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 64
simultaneously. With this scheduling visibility, you Contact management
can make better decisions and eliminate
bottlenecks. For example, if one of your sites You gain support for more than 3,200 addresses.
provides component items to five other sites within Instead of being keyed to the customer name, for
your enterprise, you can see this clearly and plan example, contacts are their own unique master
work orders more intelligently. The sharing of record with associations to customers. This
master data across all sites means only having to provides greater ease and flexibility in managing
enter the component item IDs once, rather than your contact base from a centralized location.
five times, saving on cost and eliminating errors.
Security management
Financial management You can assign users at three levels—allowable,
All accounts for all sites share the same chart of viewable, and default. The system administrator
accounts. You can easily filter the chart of assigns users to their allowable sites, while users
accounts to view activity by site. You can also can decide which of their allowable sites are
generate consolidated reports across entities, viewable and which site is their default site.
even if the entities use different financial Because users can only access data belonging to
calendars. You can use the reporting calendars to their allowable sites, you have tight security
set up custom reporting timeframes within an between sites. By the same token, employees can
entity, such as by quarters or years. The result is enter labor tickets for any site they are permitted
that you have greater control and clearer visibility to use, but not for any other sites that restrict
into your financial status than ever before. them.
Compliance is easier. Manual reporting is virtually
eliminated. And a detailed, real-time picture of Equipment maintenance
your financials are at your fingertips whenever and You also assign site IDs to equipment to more
however you need it. In addition, by centralizing easily manage equipment maintenance—either
payment of A/P invoices and cash receipts for A/R planned or unplanned. This also ties directly into
invoices, you eliminate duplication of effort, further scheduling, so you know if or when equipment is
streamline operations, and reduce costs. scheduled for down time by location. This is
critical knowledge for manufacturing companies
Vendor management today.
Create vendor IDs that have unique information
such as accounting or payment details. Then you
can group related IDs for easy management of
payments. For example, you can make a payment
at the vendor group level and apply the payment
to invoices for individual vendor IDs.

Customer management
Create customer IDs that have unique information
such as VAT, billing, bank, credit limits, bill-to
addresses. When individual IDs are grouped
together, you can receive payment at the group
level and apply the payment to invoices for
multiple customer IDs in multiple sites. This is a
valuable time-saver, especially if you provide
products to multiple locations of one company,
invoice separately for those locations, and get
paid with one check for multiple invoices. No
more manual workarounds to account for these
payments. You can now manage these
consolidated payments quickly, easily, and
accurately.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 65

Performance Management
VISUAL Dashboards

Use VISUAL Dashboards measure the overall health of the business or your area of responsibility.

Using the built-in VISUAL Dashboards feature, • Create and test analytics in your test
users can create informative analytics and views, database, importing into production when
accenting both positive and negative business complete.
trends. VISUAL Dashboards contain several
predefined analytics that cover procurement, • Create dashboards, set security, and deploy
sales, finance, and production. And don’t worry: if to your end users.
you need specific views into the business data,
you can create your own. • Change analytic filtering and search criteria
on the fly, and save formats for the next time
• Create one or more dashboards per user you sign in.
based on their needs; for example, one for
sales and one for production. Or, combine • Dashboard data updates dynamically as
both into one. information is being entered in the system.

• Drill from graphical view to detailed grid, with • Access data from VISUAL and outside data
complete drill-down to all documents – sales sources
orders, work orders, purchase orders, and all
other transactional information to perform a
more detailed analysis.

• Critical information, such as late orders or

projected costs exceeding estimated costs, is
highlighted in red, directing you to those
items that might require immediate attention.

• Select from a wide variety of predefined

analytics or create your own.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 66

VISUAL Business Intelligence

Use VISUAL Business Intelligence for your extended dashboard and reporting needs.

Infor VISUAL Business Intelligence (VBI) offers  Collect metrics about multi-site operations and
pre-packaged views, as well as in-depth worldwide sales statistics and combine this
customizable management views and reports that data into a single Information View.
you can use to analyze key performance metrics.
VBI’s powerful reporting tools provide clear  Create custom reports that include exception
answers about what is happening with revenue or highlighting, calculated fields, rankings, and
operating costs and, more importantly, highlight other features.
the factors that reveal why situations occur.
Managers can use this information to make more
 Choose to use eDeployment; VBI’s Web
strategic and profitable business decisions.
Client, that offers full OLAP, graphing, and
reporting functionality. Access eDeployment
When you deploy VBI across your enterprise, you via a network, the Web, or email.
can take advantage of complete OLAP (On-Line
Analytical Processing), graphing, and reporting
functionality. By manipulating and viewing shared  Access key performance indicators and
multidimensional information, you can pool scorecards and drill down to specific
information in VBI from across VISUAL and other information using an executive dash-board
in-house applications. VBI also collects metrics (Excel-based graphical display). VBI sends
about multi-site operations and worldwide sales email alerts to notify personnel when the
statistics and combines this data into a single indicators exceed a defined threshold.
view. With improved access to critical information,
and by avoiding the time and cost associated with  Receive a clear picture of revenue or
creating and distributing reports, you can save operating costs and understand the factors
money and focus on continuous improvement. that reveal why situations occur; get a clear,
comprehensive view of your business
 Perform in-depth business data analysis using performance.
query and reporting tools.
 Make more strategic and profitable business
decisions with accurate data available at the
click of a mouse.
Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 67
VISUAL Lead-time Performance Management

Utilize VISUAL Lead-time performance management tools to help in your Six Sigma and Continuous Improvement
initiatives.

Eliminating non-value added steps and time in the  Use VISUAL’s automated mode to collect
delivery process not only increases your revenue lead-time data, or create macros to collect
potential, but helps increase customer satisfaction company-specific detailed step data.
by shrinking delivery time. Using Infor VISUAL’s
Lead-time Performance Management, companies  Drill-down to see the actual start, stop, total
can measure performance across product and hours, and percent complete information for
functional areas of the business, identifying ways each step within a sales order’s lead-time
to improve overall performance. lifecycle.

VISUAL’s Lead-time Performance is an invaluable  See projected lead-time based on what’s

tool for those companies focused on continuous complete and what’s remaining.
improvement. It provides real-time insight into
what steps in the process are consuming
excessive time.

 Measure product and functional performance

against established standards or goals.

 View the current and projected performance

of an order in real-time with estimated and
actual performance against each step in the
delivery process – from quote to cash in the
door.

 Add lead-time performance measurements to

your VISUAL Dashboard, gaining a global
view of performance across product or
functional areas of the business.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 68

Core Solution Reporting

Run one of the many function-centric reports throughout VISUAL to provide an overview of activity and identify positive
and negative trends.

Infor VISUAL contains hundreds of predefined

multi-selection criteria reports that provide insight
into all functional area features of the solution.
Whether in sales, purchasing, finance, or
production, you can choose from several built-in
reports. All reports can be viewed onscreen,
emailed, or sent to file (Excel or PDF).

 View reports on-screen, print, or send to a file.

 Modify the output format of all reports,

moving, adding, and deleting data elements
for the report that fits your need.

 Utilize the flexible selection criteria to retrieve

only the information you desire.

 Output reports to Excel or PDF for emailing.

 Print reports for single or multiple entities or

sites, for easy consolidation of information.
(Requires the Multi-Entity Multi-site feature)

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 69

Solution Framework
Workflow

Use VISUAL Workflow to design the processes you want your employees to use as they perform their day-to-day
business tasks in VISUAL.

Automate your processes and integrate your  Route documents throughout the
policies and procedures into Infor VISUAL with organization.
Workflow. Workflow is a business process
management tool that allows information to pass  Create automatic email notifications.
from one person or department to another through
a process cycle. Predefined rules dictate courses  Shorten the lifecycle of otherwise lengthier
of action. Use Workflow to ensure a logical, manual processes.
repeatable flow that is specific to the unique
architecture of your business.  Create workflow tasks for users.

After defining a workflow, companies can release  Initiate approvals for workflow steps.
this design into the Infor VISUAL system where it
operates behind the scenes. Various mechanisms
 Track individual workflow documents
notify users of tasks and activities that require
throughout the process.
action. The system can route information, such as
customer orders, purchase orders, or engineering
changes, to internal and external participants in  Ensure consistency and compliancy to rules,
the business process, incorporating approval policies, and procedures.
functions along the way. Users can also,
conveniently track and monitor the status of
documents using Workflow.

 Automate business processes.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 70

Document Lifecycle Notifications

Easily create and send notifications when a document is created or edited, letting customers, suppliers, or employees
know that the event occurred.

Keep tabs on orders, shipments, and payments • Create standard notification email templates
with VISUAL Notifications. You can follow entire for each type of business document.
sales or purchase orders, or individual lines, and
receive emails when an event occurs, such as a • From the order, view the notification history
shipment. You can also email customers and indicating who was notified, what the
vendors after an event, eliminating the need to notification was, and when it was sent.
remember to notify a key stakeholder when
something important in the delivery or receiving • From the notification history, drill down to the
cycle occurs. You can set up notifications for subject document related to the notification.
individual business documents, or you can set
them up globally for at the customer or vendor
level.

• Establish notification rules and recipients at

the customer or supplier level for recurring
automation and as part of the standard
operating procedure.

• Set notifications at the order level when you

prefer using notifications for exception level
reporting.

• Notify both internal and external

stakeholders.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 71

VISUAL Messages

Use VISUAL Messages to create event notifications based on customized queries.

Infor VISUAL Messages is a powerful workflow  Direct messages to company email, Internet
communication tool for your manufacturing email, user workstations, pagers, cellular
business. It transmits important information to the phones, printers, and fax machines.
appropriate person, either within or outside of your
company, using the familiar features of email. For  Choose between multiple event types,
example, you can automatically send an email including user-defined queries.
message to your customer when you ship their
order. In addition to email, Messaging also
 Request status information on messages.
delivers alerts to user workstations, pagers,
cellular phones, printers, and fax machines.
 Setup automatic database queries.
You define the important events within the
business processes that trigger Infor VISUAL to
create and transmit messages to key personnel.
This allows your employees to focus on other
business without the necessity of constantly
checking in, while ensuring that they will be
informed of, and can act on, critical information.
 Generate and route automatic messages to
one or more recipients based on events that
occur within Infor VISUAL.

 Specify standard messages, or define your

own variable content message.

 Include binary data, pictures, bitmaps, and

text documents.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 72

Activities

Use VISUAL Activities to record information related to documents such as emails, phone conversations, and meeting
notes.

Infor VISUAL Activities provide an important  Set up reminder dates for activities requiring
capturing point for information related to a sales or follow-up, such as a collection call or checking
purchase order lifecycle, such as emails, phone on the status of a delivery.
conversations, meeting notes, and related
attachments. With VISUAL Activities, all important  View all activities associated with a customer
information for an order can be maintained within or supplier prior to calling so that you have a
the enterprise business system. Eliminate complete understanding of all customer
disconnected systems and data islands by related “activities” as well as financial position.
implementing business procedures using activity
functionality.
 Review activities directly from the graphical
document lifecycle screen. You can view all
With VISUAL Activities, you can add additional activities associated with a particular sales or
control to your business processes and assign purchasing lifecycle.
activities to employees as tasks or follow-ups,
making sure nothing gets missed or forgotten.
 Attach activities to any business document
(sales orders, purchase orders, cash receipts,
etc.) as well as master files such as items,
customers, and suppliers.

 Define activity categories and types as part of

your business strategy and standard
operating policies.

 Create and assign activities to employees for

tasks that need to be completed. Activities
are added to employee to-do lists.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 73

VISUAL Query Tool & Data Source Lookup

Use the VISUAL Query Tool to learn the database table structure and build and deploy queries using the drag-and-
drop query builder functionality.

The VISUAL Query Tool provides companies a

comprehensive path to building simply queries  Use the Query Tool drag-and-drop feature to
against the VISUAL database, assigning security automatically create database queries
to queries created, and publishing to the end user.
In addition, as queries are being created the  Save queries that you created to the database
VISUAL Query Tool identifies the table and assign them to end users via icons on
relationships in the VISUAL database, making it their personalized toolbar.
the perfect tool for understanding the database
schema.  Drill directly to documents and master files
identified on the query. For example, if a
As a companion to the Query Tool, users can point- customer’s invoice is listed in the query, users
and-click on a major document data field, such as a can drill directly to the invoice from the query.
sales or purchase order, to identify the table and
column in the database containing that information.  Specify selection criteria for the query.
Eliminate the guess work associated with your report
 Use the free-form query option to create the
building needs using the VISUAL Query Tool.
exact query and format you desire.

Click a data field to determine where the

information is maintained in the database.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 74

Configuration & Modifications
Every company has unique requirements, from  Build your own reports if the one you need is
what and how information must be captured, to not included in the VISUAL Report library.
the appearance of the marketing documents sent
to customers and suppliers. Object Nationalizer
Whether a minor system behavior, minor tweak in
screen appearance, or a sizable customized
extension, Infor VISUAL provides the tools you
need.

User Preferences & Formatting

Modify VISUAL screens to match your business

needs using the Object Nationalizer, helping to
streamline flow and increase productivity.
 Eliminate non-mandatory data elements from
the screen.

From screen size, position of form on the screen,  Design the screen layout to fit your needs,
or how the application itself behaves, Infor moving fields, adding borders and colors, and
VISUAL can be tailored to both your business and changing labels.
visual needs based on a combination of drag-and- Macros
drop positioning and individual control selections.

Report Builder

Create in-line Marcos that execute calculations,

open auxiliary applications, run data checks,
populate data fields, and much more. VISUAL
Customize standard VISUAL Report outputs or Macros help streamline company specific
build your own reports using VISUAL’s powerful business processes by assuring all business
Report Builder tool. requirements are met and information is entered
accurately.
 Move, delete, or add information to standard
VISUAL reports.

 Format report layouts to fit your business

needs, such as invoices, purchase orders,
and other marketing documents.
Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 75
API Toolkit

When custom integrations or extensions are

needed, a full set of VISUAL API’s are available,
eliminating the complexities associated with
having to understand the database schema and
business logic.

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 76

Infor ION
being slowed down by information that only
Infor ION Connect gives the tools you need to
applies to the work of a different application.
make more informed decisions and take effective
action immediately.
See the results – Infor ION Connect gives you a
complete, end-to-end view of your business and
Connect in minutes - Few businesses can operate
combines that view with the tools you need to
successfully with only a single, monolithic
make more informed decisions and take effective
software system. Every company with more than a
action immediately. It also gives you vastly
handful of employees needs an assortment of
improved reporting capabilities to help you monitor
software solutions, each of which yields the best
performance and make better plans and forecasts.
possible results for a specific purpose, such as
In today‘s volatile market, ION Connect gives you
manufacturing, warehouse management, finance,
the ability to respond with the speed and flexibility
or HR management. Each of those best-of-breed,
you need to overcome new challenges and take
industry-specific applications needs to interact
advantage of opportunities as they arise.
with all the others to bring the entire business up
to a high-performance level. Infor ION Connect
applies a fresh approach to making multiple
disparate software systems work as a unified
whole, while also accelerating your end-to-end
business processes and reducing risk.

Trust a global source - Infor experts bring decades

of highly focused experience to an assortment of
industries. We’ve embedded the critical details of
that knowledge in our portfolio of software
solutions. Now we’ve added the most important
piece of the puzzle—the ability to integrate best-
of-breed, industry specific solutions to address
your entire business process in a way that best
suits the unique requirements of your business
and industry. Our goal in creating Infor ION
Connect was to create a uniquely powerful
connective framework that makes your software
systems work together for maximum speed and
efficiency, so you can be an industry leader.

Accelerate your business – Infor ION Connect

serves as the engine that drives all the other parts
of our innovative ION technology stack. Based on
open source technologies, ION Connect takes a
unique approach to business software integration
that includes enough breadth and flexibility to
support integration services, cloud services,
mobile services, and advanced reporting services
within a single, elegant framework. Rather than
trying to bolt multiple applications together with
clumsy point-to-point database integrations, Infor
ION Connect enables each application to transmit
and receive small XML documents, called
Business Object Documents (BODs), into the ION
Connect framework. Each application can
subscribe to the BODs that relate to its task and
ignore all others. That way every application gets
access to business-critical information without

Infor VISUAL Functionality Overview 77

About Infor.

Infor is the world's third-largest supplier of

enterprise applications and services, helping more
than 70,000 large and mid-size companies improve
operations and drive growth across numerous
industry sectors. To learn more about Infor, please
visit www.infor.com.
Infor Corporate Headquarters
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specified enhancement, upgrade, product or functionality, www.infor.com
even if such is described in this document.