subject: Dynamics Gp In Retail And Small Wholesale: Implementation, Integration, Barcoding [print this page] Microsoft Dynamics GP fits to the majority of mid-market and smaller enterprises, it has variety of modules, including suites: Distribution, Manufacturing, HR, Financial. Plus in Dynamics GP (formerly it was known as Great Plains Dynamics, prior to Great Plains Software acquisition by Microsoft) there are numerous Dynamics GP ISV add-ons, and even when you think you need custom business processes, Great Plains Dexterity, VBA/Modifier, Integration Manager with VBA scripts, eConnect, Microsoft Workflow and other tools are in your disposition to modify existing processes or create new ones. In this small publication we will try to give you initial highlights on how Dynamics GP could be implemented for distribution company with retail outlets. Expected audience is business owners and IT managers, programming experience not required but could be helpful:
1.Automating Warehouse operations in Dynamics GP. Each business might be unique, however there is general terminology in Supply Chain Management. When you think about automating your warehouse you should review Warehouse Management System concept. In WMS you do at least three things: Inventory Replenishment, Sales Order Fulfillment and Inventory Transactions (transfers, adjustments, cycle counts). There are numerous offers from WMS vendors, you need to speculate about two options external WMS with connectors to Great Plains and the second one is WMS extensions to Dynamics GP. External Warehouse Management System has its advantages and disadvantages. As pluses we would like to mention large number of successful installations across the nation and internationally, typically rich WMS business logic. To mention the minuses: you may found yourself in the position where you have already paid for Distribution functionality in Great Plains and now you are paying for the parallel logic in WMS, some customers also complain about unexpected WMS to GP integration implementation budget. WMS extensions work out of Dynamics GP database and they share the same transactions and master records: Sales Invoice, Purchase Receipt, Inventory Adjustment or Transfer, Customer, Vendor, as if you would work directly with Dynamics GP user interface
2.Retail operation and Dynamics GP. In retail store you expect such features as POS (Point of Sale) or Cash Register with Barcode scanner, Customer Terminal (to show scanned items, price, discounts, coupons and taxes), promotion coupons printer. We recommend you to consider mid-size or small business Retail applications, such as Microsoft RMS (Retail Management System), Counterpoint, or even Compass Dynamics ISV extension to Sales Transaction Entry. These systems have full control over POS, plus they have some or complete offer to automate your Retail Store (in the case of Microsoft RMS it has Store Operations module)
3.How Wholesale operations could be automated in Dynamics GP. The answer depends on the wholesale channels. If you are in the network, where your customers or suppliers require EDI (Electronic Document Interchange), then you should review EDI options in Dynamics GP. There are full featured Edi products for Great Plains on the software market where you have all the EDI interfaces and protocols supported. These products are not cheap, and in order to optimize the cost we suggest you to request the quote to implement only one or few selected EDI methods via SQL precisely formatted select statement. The second and growing wholesale channel is B2B eCommerce
4.B2B ecommerce and Dynamics GP. Ecommerce shopping cart usually transforms itself into Sales Order Processing Order or Invoice with Customer deposit (credit card payment, if you require deposit, retainer or prepayment)
5.Opening Dynamics GP Forms for Barcode Scanning integration. Each Great Plains form, where you can find editable fields, could be opened for the Barcoding. The challenge is to address modern barcode scanner features, such as batch mode scanning on the warehouse floor and uploading all the batches once. Alba Spectrum provides Microsoft Dexterity programming service (where our coders have access to Dynamics GP Source Code program, only few Dynamics GP ISV Partners have access to this program/privillege)
6.To request further support, please call us 1-866-528-0577, help@albaspectrum.com. By the nature of our service we are available for WMS implementation USA, Canada nationwide. Local service is available in Western Michigan: St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Muskegon, Holland, New Buffalo; in Chicagoland, North Western Indiana, Southern California (Los Angeles, San Diego, Irvine, Orange County), Houston and Dallas areas of Texas
by: Andrew Karasev
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