Dynamics GP Order Fulfillment Add-On as Part of Great Plains WMS

Light Assembly or Discrete Manufacturing and all these processes (as you expect) should be based on Barcoding technology, we recommend you this small orientation level publication.  In the past Microsoft Dynamics GP was known as Great Plains Software Dynamics (eEnterprise as its luxury edition).  There are several approaches to implement Warehouse Management System for generic ERP application.  First one would be to implement external and stand alone WMS and then program (or deploy existing) connectors to ERP distributions modules: Sales, Inventory, Purchases.  And second approach is to enable ERP screens for Barcode scanning in either real time or batch mode integration:
1. External WMS pluses and minuses.  Pluses are these in our opinion.  You can rely on the WMS coming from established SCM vendors, knowing that their Distribution system is implemented (beta tested and debugged with very high QA quality) for numerous customers.  However stand alone WMS requires integration to Dynamics GP or whatever is your Accounting back office.  Integration often requires additional consulting hours: setup, testing, pilot project, custom processes mapping to name a few to consider.  As additional minus we would consider the fact that often you already paid for WMS functionality in your Corporate ERP system.  If it is Dynamics GP - Sales Order Processing module has all the required for implementing WMS Order Fulfillment - all you need to do is to enable individual order or SOP orders batch for fulfillment via Barcoding.  And if you have to do it in external WMS - in our opinion you are paying twice for the same software functionality
2. WMS add-ons to Corporate ERP pluses and minuses.  Pluses - you are enabling your ERP screens for Barcode scanning.  By doing so you are avoiding WMS integration to your ERP system phase (you are paying only once for ERP software licenses).  Before moving to minuses we would like to stress, that WMS integration to Microsoft Dynamics GP Great Plains might take a while (or even several months in good case scenario or years in worse case).  Especially for mid-market segment, where you are watching the budget closely.  OK, now minuses.  Specific ERP market is typically lesser that 20 percent for the market niche in the industry.  This means that External WMS system has roughly 500 percent higher number of installations and is more cleaned (all the possible bugs are fixed, industry compliance reporting is already addressed, and thing like that)
3. Warehouse and Barcoding system implementation internationally - concerns and optimism.  Well, as economy is booming in China, Arabic World (Oil producing countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, UAE), Russia (oil and natural gas drilling), Brazil (Biofuel: Alcohol based fuel, distilled from Sugarcane) - sometimes we are hearing concerns from prospective Dynamics GP Barcoding customers, that larger market players are not willing to travel internationally, that they do not have consultants, speaking in the language of the targeted country.  We are happy to help you implement WMS for Dynamics GP or SAP Business One internationally and our SCM consultants peak English, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, Ukrainian.  We are also happy to help you with Barcoding project in Kabul Afghanistan, as our Moscow office consultants speak Farsi (Tajik)
4. Further help.  The best option is to visit our Booth on Convergence 2010 in Atlanta, where we are demoing WMS integration with eCommerce module for Great Plains.  If you already missed this trade show, please feel free to call our office: 1-866-528-0577, internationally 1-630-961-5918, skype albaspectrum or email help@albaspectrum.com