Microsoft Dynamics GP, or how it was historically known Great Plains Dynamics, is very robust mid-market Corporate ERP application, with rich Distribution business logic. It should be a good fit for the company with extensive and even complex Logistics and Warehouse related operations. We will review Distribution modules, typically deployed in Warehouse Management day-to-day routines and how they could be opened for barcode scanning
If you are relatively new to the topic and making your first steps,
we also recommend you to read our earlier publications on Warehouse Management System typical functionality, plus probably read some theory on the WMS from independent sources
1. Sales Order Allocation or Fulfillment in Dynamics GP. This is done in Sales Order Processing transaction entry screen. By default when you enter SOP Order or Invoice line, it is allocated automatically – and this is what you need to change, if you send warehouse worker to pick and pack the Sales Order. You create special SOP Order or Invoice type, where allocation is manual. In this case WMS worker could go downstairs to the warehouse and allocate either by picking and keying in the quantity directly to Dynamics GP SOP screen or use barcode scanner (see Warehouse Management System realization in Great Plains below)
2. Inventory Transfers, Stock Count, Adjustments. Dynamics GP has Inventory Transfer and Adjustment forms, where you do these routines, as well as Inventory Cycle Count (which works the same way as adjustment, but allow you to do mass adjustment based on the counted quantities – typically every month end or the quarter)
3. Stock Replenishment is done in Purchase Order Processing module, where you have POP Purchase Receipt transaction. Optionally you can match item received again open Purchase Orders, or just allow PP Receipt without negotiation with your suppliers via Requisition, followed by Purchase Order. If requisition logic and hierarchical approvers structure (typically in large publicly traded corporation), we recommend you to review Requisition Management module, available in Dynamics GP Business Portal (web based application, where BP user licenses are normally lower in cost and you can involve RM for larger number of purchasers, who are not necessary Dynamics GP User)
4. Warehouse Management System or how to open Dynamics GP Distribution logic for barcoding. In our paper we recommend you to deploy WMS add-on, which has client application, running directly on your barcode scanner (in graphical mode of Windows Mobile, or in text mode – when you are OK with cheaper version of the scanner without graphics) and it talks to WMS server, which in turn pulls and pushes records from/to Dynamics GP SOP, POP and Inventory modules
5. Where Sales and Purchase Orders are Originated: eCommerce, EDI, Manual Entry and sent to you via Fax, etc. Manual orders are simple and out of question, however EDI (Electronic Document Interchange) might require some custom logic. We recommend reasonably priced (or even budget) EDI solution, where we use add-on with setup logic to configure EDI protocol, FTP address, submitted/processed files directories. EDI originated orders are ready for Warehouse workers for picking and packing (order fulfillment). If you wish your B2B or B2C ecommerce orders to be automatically submitted to Dynamics GP and being ready for fulfillment in the warehouse, we recommend ecommerce add-on, which works with major ecommerce shopping carts, such as Magento/PHP, ASP.Net Storefront and others
6. Second opinion in Dynamics GP implementation for mid-size distributor. As you may know Microsoft Business Solutions has several levels of Dynamics GP Partners (Certified Partner, Gold Certified, etc.). However Great Plains is Accounting application with Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Payroll with HR, Manufacturing and Distribution set of module (not the full list of module, just for illustration). Corporate ERP application resellers use pretty strong sales techniques, where they might go over their current certification and experience and sell something, where they expect to allow some learning curve. This is probably one of the typical reasons for Dynamics GP implementation to end up in limbo, especially in such technology oriented (barcoding, POS, RFID, ecommerce shopping carts) environments as Warehouse Management for nationwide distribution company. We are comfortable to provide second opinion in Great Plains technologically challenging projects, where you may expect moderate or heavy Dexterity Customizations, eConnect programming, Integration Manager data conversions, SQL data integration, EDI coding
7. Current Version of Microsoft Dynamics GP. Version 2010 (also sometimes referred, especially in About Microsoft Dynamics GP screen as version 11.0) was released in April 2010 just in time of Microsoft Convergence 2010 tradeshow in Atlanta. At this point of time (September 2010) majority of the customers are on version 10.0, and lesser number are on version 9.0. Earlier versions, such as Dynamics GP 8.0, 7.5, 7.0, Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, 4.0 and Great Plains Accounting for DOS, Windows and Mac are no longer supported. If you think that your organization is committed to Great Plains Dynamics GP Corporate MRP platform, and considering the fact, that Warehouse Management System software licenses, hardware (mostly barcoding scanners and label printers) and implementation consulting/programming hours are comparable to Dynamics GP user licenses cost – we recommend you to be on the current version, prior to jumping into WMS and Barcoding for Dynamics GP World
8. Dynamics GP WMS implementation for the International subsidiary. We recommend you to give us a call to understand if Great Plains Dynamics is localized and available for the targeted country or region, the options to enable Dynamics GP for international users (we often recommend to host Great Plains on the Microsoft SQL Server bearing Windows Server in the Headquarters in USA/Canada/UK or wherever it is located and provide user access via Citrix or Microsoft Terminal Server). In some countries, especially with the alphabet, requiring Unicode (Hieroglyphs – Chinese, Japanese, Korean) there is the challenge to enter and store hieroglyph characters in Dynamics GP interface directly, you need to deploy Asian characters add-ons for Dynamics GP, such as NJ Star. This example should illustrate Dynamics GP possible issues, when you are trying to deploy the same software licenses for your international branches - so expect some homework
9. How to contact us. Please call us 1-866-528-0577, or email us help@albaspectrum.com We are happy to give you Dynamics GP Presentation, specially designed to reflect your business processes. We serve you USA and Canada nationwide and internationally via remote support and web sessions. Local service is available in Illinois, Michigan, California, Texas
