09 March, 2023 Our VISUAL ERP team is composed of 8 industry veterans, located across the US in Texas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Washington, California, Tennessee, and Kentucky. They have worked across a diversity of industries within manufacturing. These include: Aerospace and Defense, Semi-Conductor Capital Equipment, and Computer and Software. We are pleased to welcome Ken Kellenberger to our team. He joins us as our new VISUAL ERP Technical Consultant. In this role, he will provide software and implementation project expertise to new and current clients. ICG offers the following VISUAL services:VISUAL Upgrades – Many customers have not upgraded the software in...

22 February, 2023 We often hear feedback about the lack of functionality from their legacy ERPs, Fourth Shift and VISUAL. But there are hundreds of companies worldwide, of all sizes and industries, who use it to run their operations. Though they may have workarounds to fill gaps in functionality, often these gaps are more perception than reality. If Fourth Shift or VISUAL truly no longer meet the needs of your business, then you should start looking for a replacement. This is especially true given the legacy status Infor has associated with the products. However, before starting your search, determine critical...

22 February, 2023 Fourth Shift 8.00x supports current platform technology – both from the server side and from the client side. If you’ve not upgraded lately, it’s probably past time you do so. This is especially true if you are on versions of SQL Server or Windows Server that are no longer supported by Microsoft. This includes SQL 2008 R2, will soon include SQL 2012, and includes all the older versions of Windows Server. Infor adds small amounts of new functionality with each software release. You pay significant fees for maintenance & support to Infor for the latest Fourth Shift...

22 February, 2023 Many years ago, SoftBrands chose to support the Microsoft SQL database engine with Fourth Shift.  One benefit is the power of the SQL database manager. Users can create and use SQL Views to access all information stored within the database in real-time. This is a significant improvement.  SoftBrands expanded this capability by including Foundation Business Views. This provides predefined access to data like the old Data View Definition (DVUD) method. However, there are many benefits of SQL Views over DVUDs:Execute SQL Views in real-time; DVUDs must be referenced by Fourth Shift batch tasks that create dBase, Excel,...

22 February, 2023 Time and again we have talked with people at companies using Fourth Shift who have modules they don’t know how to use. Or worse yet, they have no idea what modules they do or don’t have. How can this be, you ask? Let’s go back in time to look at how Fourth Shift was initially licensed and then move forward as SoftBrands and Infor made business decisions that impacted those companies running Fourth Shift. When it was initially sold, and for a very long time, Fourth Shift was licensed on a module-by-module basis. For example, System Administration...