Implementing Microsoft Dynamics GP in Wholesale Industry

Obviously every Corporate ERP package has standard Accounting features, such as General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable.  Great Plains as mid-market solution also has Distribution set of modules (includes Sales Order Processing or SOP, Inventory Control and Purchase Order Processing or POP) – this is where Wholesaler has its core business logic.  If you are distributing in Healthcare industry – you may take a look at Inventory Items Serialization or Lot Numbering (to comply various regulation codes).  If you are doing small assembly or discrete manufacturing (assembling on order, picking and packing) – take a look at Bill of Materials module as extension to Inventory Control or even into Dynamics GP Manufacturing Suite.  If you are doing Process Manufacturing – there are several Dynamics GP Add-ons to do the job.  However, besides the modules available in the Native Dynamics GP suites or Add-ons we would like to give you the picture on Warehouse Management operations in Dynamics GP, especially when you have to rely on Barcoding and EDI (Electronic Document Interchange):
1. EDI is very important in wholesale industry, as you would like to have the cost of every new order from existing customer as minimal as possible to be competitive and have the order to be placed via EDI interface automatically.  Electronic Document Interchange had its established standard back to 60th and 70th of XX Century: Precisely coded text file with fixed length fields.  The standard had the definitions for the Header, Lines and Trailer.  This standard is still seen to be followed in traditional EDI networks, however new formats were also introduced, such as XML EDI for example.  Currently popular ways of placing and processing EDI files are via FTP, Email, Http posts and some others more proprietary (outside of the scope, but possible for being implemented in Dynamics GP).  We offer special EDI add-on for GP, which helps you with ftp EDI files handling and EDI fields mapping and we are feeling comfortable to help you with EDI custom solution, as we have done this numerous times via exporting and importing Dynamics GP POP and SOP transactions in EDI complain format via precise SQL Select or Insert statements and in eConnect
2. Barcoding as the key technology for Warehouse Management, Logistics, Supply Chain Management.  This is one of the components to be considered as Critical for the Wholesale business.  We have seen some point of views where Dynamics GP consultants were expressing the idea to arm Warehouse worker with Netbook with Dynamics GP client loaded and cheap USB compliant barcode scanner connected.  In theory – we agree with these ladies and gentlemen, as if your Warehouse worker is trained in opening appropriate Dynamics GP screen, SOP Transaction for example and tab through the fields (assigning new invoice number, selecting the customer from the list or tying in customer ID, selecting default currency) and then positioning cursor in the SOP Line Item field – next action is to scan Item Barcode label and this will work.  In our opinion this simple approach has its rights for the existence but probably not very realistic.  WMS is the module, that allows you to automate Barcode scanning activity and upload it into your Corporate ERP in the Batch mode or in real time but with minimal user interaction.  We have Dynamics GP WMS extension module and if you have questions, we are here to address them
3. Manufacturing on Order in Wholesale Business.  Production in the wholesale scenario is often very simple (we are not a manufacturing mill!), such as picking and packing (picking and barcode scanning parts from the Warehouse bins and putting them as assembled unit into the same box or container).  Dynamics GP Inventory module has Kit object, we recommend you to explore its features, however often we see customers to prefer Bill Of Material module, or even picking GP Manufacturing Suite of modules.  In any chosen scenario we expect Wholesale customer, engaged in Manufacturing activity to be wishing as much Manufacturing Order automation as possible.  We specially developed Posting Server with Workflow to address these issues
4. Placing Wholesale Orders via eCommerce.  This is another and growing method and technology.  We recommend the approach, where eCommerce requests are integrated in real time as Dynamics GP SOP Invoices with Customer Credit or Debit card deposit (sale on account is also supported).  SOP invoices are set for manual fulfillment on the warehouse floor (SOP type where you disable automatic allocation).  If the ecommerce placed Sales Order meets payments criteria and should be considered as ready for Order Fulfillment, it is automatically seen in our Warehouse Management Extension module and warehouse worker begins his/her barcode scanning routines
5. Industry Compliance.  Most of the industry compliance calls came from Healthcare, International wholesalers.  We are not the lawyers, we are participating in the Corporate ERP implementation business USA, Canada nationwide and internationally.  We are just reporting you on the trend
6. How to get further information.  Please call us 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 or email us help@albaspectrum.com  We are serving you across the nation, and we are available for travelling to your location.  If you are absolutely committed to picking local Corporate ERP partner we serve you locally in Chicago, Houston, San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange County California, Southwest Michigan