When you are implementing new Corporate ERP application for the company, engaged in Nationwide distribution, Accounting part of it is simple, and what is really challenging and important is Barcode technology, EDI, Supply Chain Management and Warehouse automation.
Such mid-market ERP as Microsoft Dynamics GP,
or how it was formerly known Great Plains Dynamics is traditionally strong with distribution set of modules: Purchase Order Processing, Sales Order Processing and Inventory Control. If you also do assembly on order, there is Bill of Materials, as well as full featured Manufacturing suite (all kinds of discrete manufacturing are good candidates for GP Manufacturing). If you enable some distribution forms for barcode scanning or scanned documents upload from barcode scanner in the batch mode – then you virtually switch on some or all features of the Warehouse Management System, Supply Chain Management. Also such technologies as SQL server stored procedures, Integration Manager, eConnect allow you to export/import Purchase Orders and Sales Orders in EDI compliant format (except Integration Manager, where you typically import EDI transactions into Sales Orders). Due to Dynamics GP openness to various technologies, you can generate EDI files in legacy text (EDI header, lines and trailer) or newer XML formats, setup ftp, email or http post EDI files for interchange with your business partners. Let’s review parts of typically Dynamics GP implementation in Distribution industry:
1. Warehouse Management System or WMS in popular abbreviation. Some classification experts consider automatic picking and packing via conveyor technology, but we would assume here, that if you are implementing mid-market oriented Dynamics GP, you are probably OK to send your warehouse workers with barcode scanners to do pick & pack. Typical WMS for Dynamics GP includes (Sales) Order Fulfillment (in SOP Sales Order without automatic line allocation, as the allocation is done on the warehouse floor by scanning item barcode label), Merchandise Restocking (in POP Purchase Receipt document, open for barcode scanning) and merchandise move and quantity adjustment (broken, stolen, rotten, lost, etc.) – these features should be realized in Inventory Transfer and Adjustment transactions
2. Supply Chain Management or SCM. This realm of distribution technology typically includes WMS plus it goes deeper and broader in such areas as Truck delivery scheduling and tracking, Warehouse conveyor, Consignments and other features. Alba Spectrum has various products and solutions (where solution is the code, which is available to be tuned for your specific business requirements)
3. Assembly on Order. As we understand that Manufacturing is not the primary activity for Distribution company and you would like to have maximum automation on Manufacturing Order fulfillment and execution, we recommend you to request presentation on Alba Spectrum Posting Server with Workflow, where you can automate MO preparation and push it through the phases (in Workflow logic you can call virtually all programming blocks or programs: DLL, EXE, Dexterity Sanscript, VBA, etc. to enable partial user intervention when required, otherwise have the phase to be executed automatically) and finally post the batch automatically from your external application
4. Electronic Document Interchange. If you are just restocking your merchandise from your nationwide suppliers or manufacturers, we recommend you to create normal purchase orders and then extract them via scheduled SQL job – you can do precise SQL Select statement to extract new not yet processed by EDI interface POs and desired EDI format. If your customers are placing their Purchase Orders via EDI channel, then you can either do Integration Manager IDE integration (to SOP Sales Order or Invoice) or do it via SQL insert statement data feed (requires more experience from SQL programmer, especially in such areas as Dynamics GP table structures and data flow)
5. B2B ecommerce. In addition to EDI order placement channel you would probably like to have ecommerce option available for your Business-to-Business customers. We have ecommerce add-ons working in concert with our Warehouse Management extensions, allowing you to integrate ecommerce shopping carts, such as Magento/PHP, ASP .Net Storefront and others in wizard driven manner. Shopping cart naturally transforms itself into Dynamics GP SOP Sales Order with customer deposit (usually cash/check or credit card payment)
6. Distribution Reporting. Here you may find out that existing Report Writer or SSRS reports do not do the job, due to the fact, that your reports have to be based on custom fields or at least user defined fields, where you are linking transactions from different modules (Sales Commission report, based on partially fulfilled Orders, and reordering is done via automatic Purchase Orders). Here you would need to create SQL View or Stored procedure to link Sales Order Processing and Purchase Order Processing tables. We recommend such industry reporting tools as Crystal Reports, SSRS, where you can even cross the borders of the Microsoft realm and pull data from such ODBC compliant databases as Oracle, MySQL, Pervasive SQL, Ctree
7. To request further help, please call us 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, in Michigan 1-269-605-0330 or email us help@albaspectrum.com If you are large wholesaler or distributor, you may expect that some level of WMS or SCM customized business logic should be programmed to automate your unique business processes. We are available to serve you USA, Canada nationwide, and internationally. Local service in Chicago, Southern California, Western Michigan, Houston, TX
