Hello!
Please join us for the PLUG meeting scheduled on Thursday, October 16th in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. We have an awesome day of education and networking planned for you starting at 8:00am thanks to our meeting sponsors; Allari, Denovo, Esker, GSI, & Redfaire and lunch sponsor iLearnERP.

Don't miss this opportunity for some great education and for networking time with other members of the PLUG group!

* AGENDA FOR MEETING **

8:00am – 8:30am – Breakfast

8:30am – 10:00am – Inside the Mind of a Hacker: Real Cybersecurity Lessons for Everyday Business

Cybersecurity isn’t just a problem for IT anymore — today’s attackers target people, processes, and businesses of every size. In this engaging session, Greg Crowley, CISO of eSentire — the authority in Managed Detection and Response, and former head of cybersecurity at WWE, will pull back the curtain on real-world cyber incidents, from ransomware attacks to social engineering scams, and share what really happens behind the headlines.

Attendees will learn how cybercriminals operate, the biggest threats facing businesses like theirs today, and practical steps every individual can take to protect themselves and their company. Greg will also explore how AI is reshaping the threat landscape — both for attackers and defenders — and what that means for the future of security.

This isn’t a technical deep dive — it’s a candid look at the stories, lessons, and strategies that every organization should know to avoid becoming the next victim.

10:30am – 11:30am – Orchestrator-Enabled Business Process Automation presented by the Esker team; Nick Carpenter, Mike Nortman, and Chris Graves

This session explores how IT teams can modernize and extend their JD Edwards ERP investment using Esker’s AI Automation Suite and native Orchestrator integration. Built to support the Office of the CFO, Esker’s platform enables seamless automation across Finance, Procurement and Customer Service — reducing manual effort, integration complexity and operational silos.

We’ll explore how Esker’s JDE Orchestrator-enabled solutions simplify complex workflows, enable real-time data exchange, and support multi-format, multi-channel, and multi-ERP environments. Attendees will gain insights into Esker’s end-to-end Source-to-Pay (S2P) and Order-to-Cash (O2C) capabilities, including AI-powered tools for accounts payable, procurement and customer inquiry management processes.

With over 3,000+ customers worldwide and recognition from Gartner, IDC and Forrester, Esker offers a proven path to digital transformation for JDE-driven enterprises.

11:30am – 1:00pm – NETWORKING BREAK / LUNCH sponsored by iLearnERP @ Noon

1:00pm – WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS

1:15pm – 2:15pm – BREAKOUT SESSIONS

Option A
Blueprint for JD Edwards Brilliance: A CIO’s Journey from Legacy to Legendary presented by Sherri Conrardy from Redfaire

What happens when a legacy JD Edwards meets a fearless CIO with a mandate to modernize? You get high-octane transformation of JD Edwards from a 2005 workhorse into a 2025-ready digital powerhouse.

In this session, the CIO of Yoyodyne, shares the technical blueprint behind her team’s bold modernization of a decades-old JDE environment. With Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, low-code/no-code accelerators, and AI-driven orchestration at the core, this strategy session is a masterclass in agility, scalability, and intelligence into a legacy platform.
Expect deep dives into:

Business challenges with a modernization project
Infrastructure modernization and cloud migration architecture
AI-powered automation: from “alert, analyze, act” to “detect, decide, do”
Sustainability Framework and Reporting
Power of Orchestrations and AI when used together
Enhancements that drive adoption and reduce friction

This isn’t just a theoretical roadmap, it’s a field-tested, battle-proven account of how to align IT execution with business goals, gain stakeholder buy-in, and deliver measurable outcomes. Whether you're optimizing your current ERP or planning a full-scale overhaul, this session will arm you with the tools, tactics, and confidence to lead your own transformation. Come for the tech. Stay for the strategy. Leave with a playbook.

Option B
Optimizing Object Usage Auditing Through Integrated Data Tracking and Analytics presented by Julie Morrison from Denovo

This work presents a comprehensive approach to auditing object usage by leveraging a robust data collection and tracking framework. The process begins with configuring object tracking mechanisms that capture detailed usage patterns across systems. These configurations feed into structured data tables, enabling the generation of high-fidelity datasets that reflect real-time and historical object interactions. By integrating analytics tools, the framework supports deep insights into object behavior, usage frequency, and performance metrics. This methodology not only enhances visibility into system operations but also empowers stakeholders to make data-driven decisions for optimization, compliance, and strategic planning.

2:15pm – 3:00pm – NETWORKING / BREAK

3:00pm – 4:00pm – BREAKOUT SESSIONS

Option A
Managing Identity Sprawl: How to Reduce Waste and Improve Security presented by Craig Crawford from Allari

Enterprise systems like Oracle, JD Edwards, SAP, and PeopleSoft are often burdened by “identity sprawl”—orphaned and inactive user accounts that inflate costs and create security risks. In this session, we’ll share real-world data showing how identity sprawl drives 20–25% license waste and discuss practical steps to reduce costs, close security gaps, and achieve measurable ROI.

Option B
Streamlining Workflow Creation from Scratch in JD Edwards presented by Bud Shaw from GSI

Learn how to build efficient, automated workflows in JD Edwards from the ground up. This session walks through practical techniques to design, configure, and deploy new workflows, without unnecessary customizations, so you can accelerate processes, reduce errors, and empower your team to respond faster to business needs.

4:00pm or when sessions are over – GIVEAWAYS

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* AGENDA FOR MEETING **

PackerLand User Group October 2025 Meeting