{"id":10353,"date":"2025-05-21T11:59:57","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T10:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fortude1.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/pump-tank-tap-a-framework-for-near-real-time-infor-m3-reporting\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T06:02:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T05:02:31","slug":"pump-tank-tap-a-framework-for-near-real-time-infor-m3-reporting","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/fortude.co\/blog\/pump-tank-tap-a-framework-for-near-real-time-infor-m3-reporting\/","title":{"rendered":"Pump, Tank &#038; Tap: Real-Time Infor M3 Reporting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At Fortude, we\u2019ve been exploring innovative ways to bring near real-time reporting to businesses using Infor M3 Cloud. One solution our team recently implemented is what we call the <strong>Pump, Tank &amp; Tap<\/strong> framework \u2014 a simplified way to think about the complex journey of extracting, storing, and visualizing M3 data.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Pump \u2013 Getting data out of M3 Cloud<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Getting data out of Infor\u2019s multi-tenant cloud isn\u2019t straightforward. For this, you need <strong>Infor OS Data Fabric Stream Pipelines<\/strong> \u2014 a separate license from your usual M3 Cloud bundle. Think of this as the \u201cpump\u201d that pushes your operational data outside the cloud boundary.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udca1 Usage tiers start at around $13K\/year excluding cloud egress limits (e.g., 3TB\/year on Essentials tier).<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Tank \u2013 Storing the data<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong><\/strong>Once out, where do you store the data? Your options include Postgres on Amazon Aurora or Azure, or Snowflake. For our pilot, we chose <strong>Azure SQL<\/strong>, which cost us around $3K\/year for a basic setup.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udca1 We used an \u201cupsert\u201d method instead of traditional inserts \u2014 it&#8217;s more efficient and ensures you&#8217;re always looking at the latest data snapshot.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Tap \u2013 Visualizing the data<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong><\/strong>Finally, it&#8217;s time to make the data useful. We tested tools like <strong>Power BI<\/strong> and <strong>Qlik Cloud<\/strong>, with Power BI outperforming in terms of refresh speed. By building SQL views in our database, we enabled real-time dashboards without needing to wait on pre-modeled data flows.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Overcoming manual setup<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong><\/strong>Unlike Infor\u2019s built-in ETL tools, Stream Pipelines require manual configuration. But our team automated the toughest parts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They developed a tool to extract table structures from Infor\u2019s Atlas metadata and load them into Postgres.<\/li>\n<li>We also built an automated flow using our regression testing tool, Fortest, to streamline pipeline creation in Infor OS.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>With these tools, we exposed <strong>200+ M3 tables<\/strong> for real-time dashboards \u2014 accelerating delivery and improving data access.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fortude.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Blog-Pipe-Tank-Tap-Web-Image-01-3-scaled-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Written by: <\/strong><\/p>\n<h6><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/prabhath-dasanayake-66471721\/\">Prabhath Dasanayake  <\/a><\/strong><\/h6>\n<p><strong>Chief Architect<\/strong><br \/><strong>Fortude<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15459,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":""},"industry":[14,13,11,16,12],"service":[75],"class_list":["post-10353","blog","type-blog","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"blog_render_type":"legacy_acf","sections":[{"section_title":"Introduction","section_content":"<p>At Fortude, we\u2019ve been exploring innovative ways to bring near real-time reporting to businesses using Infor M3 Cloud. One solution our team recently implemented is what we call the <strong>Pump, Tank &amp; Tap<\/strong> framework \u2014 a simplified way to think about the complex journey of extracting, storing, and visualizing M3 data.<\/p>","section_image":"","table_rows":null,"pro-tip":""},{"section_title":"Pump \u2013 Getting data out of M3 Cloud","section_content":"<p>Getting data out of Infor\u2019s multi-tenant cloud isn\u2019t straightforward. For this, you need <strong>Infor OS Data Fabric Stream Pipelines<\/strong> \u2014 a separate license from your usual M3 Cloud bundle. Think of this as the \u201cpump\u201d that pushes your operational data outside the cloud boundary.<\/p><p>\ud83d\udca1 Usage tiers start at around $13K\/year excluding cloud egress limits (e.g., 3TB\/year on Essentials tier).<\/p>","section_image":"","table_rows":null,"pro-tip":""},{"section_title":"Tank \u2013 Storing the data","section_content":"<p><strong><\/strong>Once out, where do you store the data? Your options include Postgres on Amazon Aurora or Azure, or Snowflake. For our pilot, we chose <strong>Azure SQL<\/strong>, which cost us around $3K\/year for a basic setup.<\/p><p>\ud83d\udca1 We used an \u201cupsert\u201d method instead of traditional inserts \u2014 it's more efficient and ensures you're always looking at the latest data snapshot.<\/p>","section_image":"","table_rows":null,"pro-tip":""},{"section_title":"Tap \u2013 Visualizing the data","section_content":"<p><strong><\/strong>Finally, it's time to make the data useful. We tested tools like <strong>Power BI<\/strong> and <strong>Qlik Cloud<\/strong>, with Power BI outperforming in terms of refresh speed. By building SQL views in our database, we enabled real-time dashboards without needing to wait on pre-modeled data flows.<\/p>","section_image":"","table_rows":null,"pro-tip":""}],"bottom_sections":[{"section_title":"Overcoming manual setup","section_content":"<p><strong><\/strong>Unlike Infor\u2019s built-in ETL tools, Stream Pipelines require manual configuration. But our team automated the toughest parts:<\/p><ul><li>They developed a tool to extract table structures from Infor\u2019s Atlas metadata and load them into Postgres.<\/li><li>We also built an automated flow using our regression testing tool, Fortest, to streamline pipeline creation in Infor OS.<\/li><\/ul><p>With these tools, we exposed <strong>200+ M3 tables<\/strong> for real-time dashboards \u2014 accelerating delivery and improving data access.<\/p><p><strong>Written by: <\/strong><\/p>","section_image":14247,"table_rows":null,"faq":null,"pro-tip":""},{"section_title":"Prabhath Dasanayake","section_content":"<p><strong>Chief Architect<\/strong><br \/><strong>Fortude<\/strong><\/p>","section_image":"","table_rows":null,"faq":null,"pro-tip":""},{"section_title":"","section_content":"","section_image":"","table_rows":null,"faq":[{"question":"What does the Pump, Tank & Tap model help businesses achieve?","answer":"It provides a simplified approach to enable near real-time reporting with Infor M3 Cloud, helping businesses extract, store, and visualize operational data efficiently for timely insights and decision-making."},{"question":"What technologies are used in this framework?","answer":"The framework leverages Infor OS Stream Pipelines for data extraction, Azure SQL for storage, and Power BI or Qlik Cloud for visualization. It also uses \u201cupsert\u201d methods and SQL views to maintain data freshness and dashboard performance."},{"question":"What innovations has the Fortude team introduced?","answer":"Fortude automated key manual steps by developing tools to extract Infor Atlas metadata and generate Postgres table structures. They also integrated Fortest to streamline pipeline creation in Infor OS, enabling faster setup."}],"pro-tip":""}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v27.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pump, Tank &amp; Tap: Real-Time Infor M3 Reporting | Fortude<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover Fortude\u2019s Pump, Tank &amp; Tap framework for real-time reporting on Infor M3 \u2014 simplifying data extraction, storage, and visualization.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fortude.co\/blog\/pump-tank-tap-a-framework-for-near-real-time-infor-m3-reporting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pump, tank &amp; tap: A framework for near real-time Infor M3 reporting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Discover Fortude\u2019s Pump, Tank &amp; 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