This is my second post on this subject, but I think it’s worth mentioning again, because still when I speak to many of my clients they have not yet realized the potential of using the EventHub and EventAnalytics modules in Infor M3. This post will be more focused on different use cases for Events.
I’ll begin with a short explanation of the EventHub and EventAnalytics for those who missed my previous post.
The EventHub is part of Infor M3 and is basically listening for changes to any field in the Infor M3 database and triggers events, similar to a database trigger. It can also be setup to trigger events on batch programs, when it is started, exits, fails etc.
EventAnalytics works as a filter to analyze these events and lets you decide what specific events you are interested in. This could be a combination of multiple field values, to target a specific state and you can make it as granular as you wish with logical expressions. It also allows you to capture the field value before it was changed for even more precision.
An example could be to capture the event of an order allocation for a specific item. Perhaps for some reason you would want to log whenever item “ABC123” is allocated in warehouse 200. Then a rule could be defined in EventAnalytics to fire an event when the Item equals “ABC123”, Warehouse equals 200 and the order line status goes from 22->33 (allocated).
The next step is to define a subscriber to handle this event, and that is where M3 Enterprise Collaborator (MEC) comes in. EventAnalytics will produce an XML file containing Event Data. In this case the values of all the fields for the specific M3 file and record in which the change took place, including their values prior to the change. MEC can easily be configured to pick up this message and use these values to accomplish whatever tasks you wish to happen. Needless to say this opens up a host of opportunities and I’ll mention a few below, but only your own imagination sets the limits.
Automation
Anything that does not need any human intervention or evaluation could be automatically entered updated using the data supplied by an event.
If you for example enter an order for a specific customer, you could automatically populate any customer specific fields in the order and extract that information from the customer master file.
Integration
I always found that one of the limiting factors of creating integrations in M3 to be the reliance of the Media Management and the responsibility of the user to print a document to generate an MBM initiator message to MEC, which then triggers the outbound document.
With the EventHub you now have an alternative, and if you wish you can make the outbound message trigger by a specific field update, such as a status change. An invoice could be sent automatically when an order reaches status 66 (invoiced), and you could also log the information in a separate file of when, what and by whom the invoice was created.
Logging/Traceability
A few customers have asked me how they could easily log a change in a specific M3 field, without turning on the audit functionality in M3.
One example could be an address change for a customer, to log what the address was changed from and to, what date and time and by whom.
This is easily accomplished by setting an EventAnalytics filter on the Customer address lines and trigger whenever any are changed, then use a map in MEC to log this information in a database table.
Approval
Perhaps you wish to extend the approval functionality in M3 and you need a Manager to approve any purchases from a specific supplier, group of suppliers or a specific item. Using EventAnalytics to define this rule, you can setup MEC to put a hold on the order, then send an email message to the person responsible with an external link to M3 to complete the approval.
These were just some applications that I can think of right now, but hopefully by reading these you can come up with many more and I would love to hear about them. Please share how you have made use of EventHub in your enterprise.
If you need any help or assistance we are always willing to help. We work on Infor M3 EDI and integration projects around the world. Contact Mathias or visit us at www.integrationwizards.com.