Dynamics GP in Wholesale and Distribution: WMS, Barcode Scanning, EDI

These three are fundamentals of so-called Warehouse Management System.  Also you may require additional elements of Supply Chain Management: delivery route and time optimization, for example.  If you require your customers to supply purchase order in EDI (Electronic Document Interchange) format or this is what your major suppliers require from your Purchase Department – EDI integration should be also considered.  As excurse to history – Microsoft Dynamics GP is successor of Great Plains Dynamics and eEnterprise (Microsoft acquired Great Plains Software in late 1990th, earlier 2000th and Microsoft Dynamics GP is pretty much the same, including technology background, such as Great Plains Dexterity, Integration Manager, VBA/Modifier, Extender, except whatever was introduced with the introduction of the new versions, plus Microsoft Business Solutions introduced eConnect SDK, based on encrypted SQL Stored Procedures).  Let’s take a look at Dynamics GP implementation in Distribution in general and your options in phasing in Barcoding, SCM, EDI and ecommerce technologies:

1. Dynamics GP Implementation in Supply Chain Management, Logistics and Distribution.  Here we are talking about standard Corporate ERP system implementation, with such steps as data conversion, user training, pilot month of using GP and legacy accounting system in parallel mode.  In this phase you can probably review general guidelines for the new Corporate ERP implementation.  In our opinion, the most critical and where you may expect your ERP and MRP implementation to fail are Data Migration and Conversion phase and deciding on appropriate level (the less the better) of Dexterity, eConnect, IM/VBA, Extender customizations.  Let’s first speculate about data massage and conversion scenarios and complications.  If you are in budget oriented mode, meaning that you do not like the idea to pay for data migration services (Dynamics GP Technical Consulting hours), consider the plan to enter GL beginning balances (for the new fiscal year or even  new month or whatever is your fiscal period), importing the most critical master records (GL Accounts, Customers and Vendors with their addresses, Employees, plus potentially such master records as Service Contracts, Bills of Material, Manufacturing Routines, etc.).  We do recommend you (in decision on data conversion, massage and migration) to consider retaining the old computer (or probably Novell or Windows NT server) for data inquiry (locked for new transaction entry).  We do believe that paying for the electricity to support the old server is cheaper comparing to complex data conversion

2. Let’s now move on to our next topic: Barcode Laser scanning and data upload to Dynamics GP forms.  Laser Barcode Scanners are available in various models, where you can decide to have basic USB barcode scanner (which is very close in its features to computer keyboard), or to purchase wireless Barcode device.  Currently you may consider smart scanners with Windows mobile ($800 and up) or cheaper version with text mode compatibility (should cost you up to $500, we recommend Symbol PDT 3000 Portable Data Terminal Series).  This paper is written in November 2010, so if you think that it is historical, please make your own research on modern barcode laser scanners

3. Warehouse Management System.  Talking about WMS for GP you can review two routes.  First – external WMS with integration module or connectors to Great Plains SOP, POP, Inventory module.  Good pluses hear are the facts, that these systems have large number of successful implementations USA, Canada nationwide and internationally, they also support large spectrum of Barcoding devices.  As minuses we have to mention high price (where you pay for the functionality in WMS, already available in Dynamics GP), some customers also shared the concerns about difficulties and unexpected budget in implementing integration between WMS and Dynamics GP.  And the second option is Dynamics GP WMS extensions, this is add-on, where barcoding logic works directly with Dynamics GP forms and out of GP tables (integration is not required, comparing to external WMS)

4. Electronic Document Interchange (EDI).  You can find several professional EDI products for Dynamics GP, where all or most of EDI protocols and communication methods are supported.  It is often the case, when yours EDI needs are really modest and you have only one or two protocols and one communication method (probably via FTP or even email).  In this scenario we are helping the customers to program EDI protocol directly in formatted SQL Select (or Insert) statement and we have small utility, which handles ftp communication for EDI documents

5. Business-to-Business ecommerce for Dynamics GP.  B2B ecommerce is picking up as more advanced alternative to EDI, where your wholesale customer could have self-service in placing Purchase Orders.  The nicety of ecommerce add-on for Dynamics GP is its seamless integration with your Warehouse Management Extensions, where ecommerce originated order goes automatically (if required conditions are met, for example it is prepaid or customer credit limit is not exceeded) to the WMS for fulfillment

6. Some practical recommendations.  If you plan to extend your Dynamics GP for the Warehouse Management, EDI or ecommerce, or introduce barcoding interface, we recommend you to upgrade GP to its current version 2010/11.0 or at least to version 10.  Theoretically you may stay with the old version and integrate WMS transactions via Great Plains Integration Manager (assuming that your WMS solution exports transactions into text files or opens its DB via ODBC connection and you are familiar with its table structure and documents flow).  In our opinion, upgrade overhead is not comparable with WMS price and if you would try to implement Warehouse Management System for older Great Plains Dynamics – you will have to pay more down the road, as you will have to find consultants and programmers, who are familiar with legacy technologies, such as Microsoft pre .Net ADO, probably VBA scripting in Modifier or Integration Manager, Great Plains Dexterity.  If you are growing and you are currently on Microsoft Small Business Financials, we recommend you to migrate to Dynamics GP and only then launch SCM, WMS or EDI project (by the way, SBF line is terminated and the last version was 9.0)

7. If you are expanding internationally.  International Corporate ERP market has its rules, where you may feel a bit confused.  Accounting system localization has two aspects: local language support and compliance with local legislation.  There are several flavors of Dynamics GP Add-ons, translating Great Plains to major world languages: Chinese, Japanese, German, Italian, French, etc.  But GP is officially localized only in USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and other English speaking countries (including South East Asia where English is used as the language of business) most of Spanish speaking Latin America (except Brazil, where they speak Brazilian Portuguese).  So, if you plan to invest into new Corporate ERP application for your overseas branch, and if GP is not localized – we recommend you to consider other options – maybe Dynamics AX (former Axapta, this is one step up and it is a bit more expensive) or SAP Business One (for smaller overseas operations)

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