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Vince Platform and Infor M3

Vince Platform is system agnostic, but it was built by people from the Infor M3 ecosystem, and it understands M3 natively. This page explains what that means in practice and why it matters for an M3 integration strategy.

Five things the platform does for M3​

Native M3 APIsWorkflows call MI programs directly through the ION API gateway. There is no extra mapping layer between the platform and M3 — an MI transaction is a step in a workflow, with its inputs and outputs visible in Execution Logs. See Connecting to Infor M3.
Speaks IONThe platform works with BODs and EventHub events, so a change in M3 can trigger a flow rather than being polled for. See Infor ION and Receive M3 Table Events.
M3 domain expertsVince is an ISV focused on the M3 ecosystem, not a generic tool with an M3 connector bolted on. Component defaults, how-to guides and the integration patterns reflect how M3 is actually used.
Faster to valueReady M3 building blocks — connections, MI calls, event triggers, Data Lake queries — mean less custom code per integration. Most of the work is deciding what should happen, not how to talk to M3. See Combine M3 API Calls.
Upgrade-safeNo modifications are made inside M3. Customer-specific logic lives in the integration layer, so CloudSuite upgrades do not have to be re-tested against custom ERP code.

Keep M3 pure​

The principle behind the last point deserves its own section, because it shapes most integration decisions.

Every customer needs flexibility: a field that means something slightly different, a validation the standard does not have, a sequence of transactions that must happen together. The traditional answer was to modify the ERP. The cost is paid at every upgrade, and in CloudSuite the option largely disappears.

Vince Platform puts that flexibility outside M3, in the integration layer:

  • M3 stays standard. It exposes MI programs and emits events, nothing more.
  • The platform holds the mapping, the validation, the sequencing and the edge cases — as workflows that can be read, tested and changed without touching the ERP.
  • When the business rule changes, the workflow changes. M3 does not.

The result is an ERP that upgrades cleanly and an integration layer that evolves at the pace of the business.

On-prem today, CloudSuite tomorrow​

A common question is whether to wait for the move to multi-tenant CloudSuite before redesigning integrations. Usually there is no need to wait.

ION is available on-prem as well as in the cloud. Integrations can be built now, against today's M3 through ION, and the same flows continue to run after the lift — in most cases the change is the endpoint URL in the connection. This has three practical benefits:

  • The redesign gets its own focus. It does not compete for attention with the lift project itself.
  • Early validation on real data. Users can train, test and approve the new flows against the current system.
  • Less at stake on cutover day. The integrations are already proven when the ERP moves.

From scattered integrations to one layer​

Over the years an M3 landscape tends to accumulate integration methods: SOAP web services here, file transfers there, EDI through a broker, and the occasional direct SQL query into the database. Each one works, but together they are hard to administrate, trace and evolve — and several of them do not survive the move to CloudSuite.

Consolidating them on Vince Platform gives one thought-through design, one way of building, and one place to find the truth:

Source of truthAll flows for a domain — orders, stock, prices — visible and searchable in one place
ModernLegacy SOAP, files and direct SQL replaced by APIs and events
ScalableServerless execution handles peaks and new channels without new plumbing
EvolvableChange or add a flow without redesigning the rest
Start nowBuild against on-prem M3 through ION; switch the URL at the lift

For how to choose between BODs, ION Document Flows, Data Lake polling and streaming for a given flow, see Choosing an Integration Approach.

Further reading​

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