On April 30, 2024, Infor will retire multi-tenant (MT) Infor Ming.le. Infor is doing this in favor of the new Infor OS Portal which has an improved user experience. It may sound like a harmless change, but are you aware of the consequences this may have on your M3 solution?
In this blog we will provide you with an overview of the change and what you need to be aware of to have a seamless transition to the new Infor OS Portal. If you are using Infor on-premises solution, click here.
Why should you pay extra attention to this change?
At first this change could seem like a mere change of how you navigate Infor OS and use your Homepages, which are now renamed to Workspaces, but the change to the new Infor OS Portal also has consequences for your M3 client. In fact, the H5 Classic client will not work with the new Infor OS portal, and therefore you must make the shift to the “new” H5 Angular before end of April 2024.
Moving from H5 Classic to H5 Angular client will make minor changes to the look & feel of M3 for users, but the main challenge will be to ensure that all your H5 scripts are written in a language that is compliant with the new H5 Angular client. For many companies, this will complicate the seemingly easy migration from Ming.le to Infor OS Portal.
What are the benefits?
Luckily this is not one of those impactful changes where you get to do a lot of work and seemingly get nothing out of it. If you are still running Infor Ming.le and H5 Classic, you can look forward to a whole array of potential benefits waiting for you after the change.
The new Infor OS Portal brings a whole new user experience
- Strongly improved navigation capabilities
- Configurable Workspaces which is an improvement of Ming.le Homepages
- Expanded contextual capabilities with the new “Smart Panel”
Infor has produced a 5-minute video providing a good overview of the main features of the new Infor OS Portal. Watch here.
When enabling the H5 Angular client you will get:
- Access to the new M3 Experience Designer which is an easy to use, no-code app development tool
- Access to a set of prebuilt Experience Designer Application Workbenches
- A look & feel that is better aligned with the Infor OS Portal and other Infor applications
How do you prepare for the change?
The end-goal is obviously to have all users moved on to the H5 Angular and the Infor OS Portal before the end of April, and this is how you get there seamlessly:
- Begin using the new user interface versions
Get used to how you navigate the new Infor OS portal and H5 client try out the new capabilities they provide to get prepared for communicating the change for your users. You do not need to make the switch for all users tenant-wide and you can even switch back and forth between the versions, so you can get started quickly! - Review and fix your H5 Scripts
As I mentioned, this is where the largest challenge in making the switch may lie. With H5 Angular, scripts must also be compatible with the new Angular framework, which means they must be written in either Typescript which is recommended, or alternatively Javascript. Make sure the updated scripts are all tested properly in both versions of H5 to allow an easy transition. - Prepare and train your users
With technical prerequisites in place you are now ready to train your users in navigating the new Infor OS Portal and H5 Angular, preparing them for the final transition. Bear in mind that navigation of the Infor OS Portal is significantly different from navigating Ming.le, so make sure to cater for it even if your users use Ming.le minimally today. - Turn on the H5 Angular for all users and migrate to the Infor OS Portal
With thorough preparations, testing and training completed you are ready to finalize the move for H5 Angular and Infor OS Portal.
There is plenty more help to get
In addition to the high-level overview I shared in this article, Infor is providing plenty of resources to guide you through both the move from H5 Classic to H5 Angular, as well as the migration from Infor Ming.le to Infor OS Portal.
Resources for the move from H5 Classic to H5 Angular:
- Scripting guidelines
Infor has provided a guide and a tool for how to review and convert scripts to be compatible with both frameworks, and hence work for users both in H5 Classic and H5 Angular that you can find in the M3 H5 Scripting Guide (Concierge KB 1909067) - Infor M3 - Early Announcement (AWS)
An early Announcement of changes requiring advance customer actions has been issued from Infor, guiding on technical details of the move from H5 Classic to H5 Angular. See concierge KB 2065737 - The Infor Community for Developers
Infor has a community forum with many active users helping each others with various challenges, questions and issues related to Infor products.
Resources for the migration from Infor Ming.le to Infor OS Portal:
- Youtube videos
To get a quick overview without having to read through a lot of documentation, Infor has created a series of short videos describing the Infor OS Portal and how to perform the migration - Detailed step-by-step guide for the Infor OS Portal Migration
On concierge Infor has published a knowledge base article walking through the details of the migration from Ming.le to Infor OS Portal. Read through KB 2277419 to get the step-by-step guide
With only a few months until the forced deadline and a lot of activities to work through, you may feel a need for assistance. Columbus has skilled consultants with experience in assisting on this transition; analyzing and converting scripts, and providing training on navigation and new features that can help you gain value from all these efforts. So do not hesitate to reach out for help getting through the transition.