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Hi all,

 

Just seeking opinions and what others are implementing when it comes to systematic client/customer integrations or your own system to systems.

To date we have used IFS Connect and Connectivity to both send and receive various content to and from IFS. However we are now investigating and looking at other tools and technologies to create something a little more flexible, reusable, scalable etc. We also have a need to possibly interface with products that don’t have any obvious access such as direct database connections or any end-points like API’s etc.

What we’ve done recently is start to look into the Microsoft Azure stack and related services. We have created a proof of concept using Azure Integration Services, specially focused around logic apps etc. We have successfully got emails being read, parsed, and fed into IFS via queues (to handle possible downtime but ensure delivery).

We are also starting to investigate how Robotic Process Automation (RPA), specially the use of Microsoft UI Flow can help us remove double keying and increase efficiencies for those systems we have little access into. We have started a proof of concept in this area also, but the IFS client in apps 8 is proving more tricky to work when compared to other windows applications. This is something we are continuing to investigate.

Just wondered what else the community was up to in this area?

  • Are you using any of the above technologies from Microsoft? With IFS or without?
  • Are you using similar products from other vendors?
  • What is your opinion/experience to date?
  • What IFS systems are you running? Has Apps 10 with the API improved integration for you?

 

Happy to share our experiences in return.

Tom,

 

Have you investigated any low/no-code technologies? Novacura is a low-code integration and mobile application development platform for IFS. We are using this technology at customers today to integrate with systems such as Procore. I think some of the benefits of the low-code integration path is the  speed, flexibility and scalability of the solution. Phase 1 of the integration below was worked on for less than a month. Novacura has connectors into IFS through both the .Net Access Provider and the new RESTful APIs.

 

 

In my opinion, RPA is that it has its place where APIs are not supported. OCR and AI tools can be utilized as a service to significantly increase productivity and can be utilized through APIs. So I think where someone may have legacy systems, RPA has a place and UI Flow is a decent tool, but there are other powerful tools on the market (UI Path, Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere). Great examples of this can be used in invoice automation for finance or travel and expense reporting with receipt recognition. We’ve also utilized object detection AI to perform quality inspections.

As for your question on IFS Apps, UPD 8 provides the new API Explorer to expose IFS REST APIs through the integration framework and supports http basic authentication. This is a step in the right direction to utilizing the new integration architecture. But most partners of IFS can communicate through other means as well so there are options. 

 

I always welcome chatting on the use cases of RPA, AI and integrations. Feel free to direct message me if you want to chat further.

 

 

IFS has partnered with Dell Boomi (https://www.ifs.com/corp/solutions/boomi/) to provide simple integration using the RESTful APIs. Something worth looking at I think. 

Thank you both for your valuable feedback.

 

However I was really hoping to get some discussion going from existing customers out there in the wilderness to discover any pros or cons to the paths that were taken. Anyone out there willing to share their experiences so far?

I’d also be interested in seeing what others use. We are looking at ways IFS can be integrated with other applications, and Boomi has been one solution suggested to us.

I see Mulesoft is another big player in this space.

Has anyone compared Mulesoft to Boomi for IFS?

As @anmise commented above, IFS and Dell Boomi announced our partnership earlier in the year with an intent of delivering solutions which help IFS customers leverage the benefits of Boomi’s low code iPaaS platform.  I work at Dell Boomi and am responsible for the relationship between Boomi and IFS.

 

As well as the core benefits of our low code, cloud native solution this partnership will deliver IFS specific integration capabilities.  IFS are using the our connector SDK to build initially 2 Connectors - one for IFS Apps 10, and one for IFS Connect.  As it’s IFS building the connectors themselves, you can be reassured that they’re designed to work with IFS’s API in the most effective way, leveraging the inner workings of the APIs.  We expect these Connectors to be generally available very shortly.  At this point, they’ll appear in our platform as a publicly available connector - any licensed Boomi user will automatically have access to them.

I’d be more than happy to answer any specific questions anyone has about the Boomi and IFS integrations and how Boomi can help IFS customers.

Hi

 

We have intergration with Jasper Reports in similar manner as Crystal Reports. There are some complications with standard IFS java libraries but it works.

 

BS

Piotr

W're looking at a possible integration with MS Azure Integration Services (AIS). Anyone any experience with AIS to/from IFS?

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