Retail Industry and Dynamics GP Integration and Implementation

For mid-size retailer you may come to conclusion that RMS doesn’t do the whole job for you as it is not designed to be accounting application.  This is probably the right conclusion and now it is time to pick Corporate ERP system, which is reasonably simple in its integration with your front end POS and Retail application.  In the case of small retailer we recommend you to consider Counterpoint (from Radiant Software), which has preset exports of daily sales (they are exported to General Ledger) and Store Purchasing (go to Accounts Payable).  If you are growing and Counterpoint is too simple for your retail business, we recommend you to consider Microsoft RMS.  This application has out of the box integration module to GP, plus there are IVS solutions, allowing you integrate RMS with Great Plains Sales Order Processing module (SOP Invoices with Customer deposits).  Let’s review some details:

1. Counterpoint and Great Plains tandem.  This is good option for small retail business, for example deli stores, Asian food, non profit organization, such as national park or forest preserve, Main street retail outlet.  There are two options in integrating it to Dynamics GP.  First one is DTS package (we believe that they are switching to SSIS packages, introduced in MS SQL Server 2005 and also supported in SQL 2008, DTS package support could be enabled in Legacy section of the SQL Server Management Studio).  Second option is in our opinion more flexible as it exports GL and PM transactions into the text file.  From this point you can use GP Integration Manager module to import records, where you can apply such integration altering tools, as VBA script, translation and even Advanced ODBC data sources (consider creating SQL View in MS SQL Server, where you are unionizing records from simple text files, or joining your retail application tables directly)

2. MS Retail Management System and GP tandem.  This tandem could be recommended to mid-market retailers (however please note that it might be too revolutionary recommend it to nation-wide retail chains, where they have high-end Warehouse Management Systems and Retail Application, sitting in Oracle or MS SQL Clusters, or at least covered by SQL Database Mirroring technology).  MS RMS has integration module (programmed in GP Dexterity and distributed as Dexterity chunk file).  In the case when you need more control in Great Plains and would like to process Sales Transactions, Inventory Counts, Transfers, Price Lists, Discounts and Sale Promotion campaigns, we recommend you to take a look at Alba Spectrum RMS to GP Integration Module

3. Enabling GP SOP Transaction to play POS role.  Typically this is seen as a good option for small retail stores: Landscape Supply, Nurseries, Factory Outlets (where you need strong accounting application to run the factory itself).  If you recognize your scenario, we recommend you to look at Compass ISV POS extension to GP

4. Warehouse Management System with Barcode scanning, RFID.  If you are running small store we recommend you to get advantage from your POS and Retail application, such as Counterpoint or Microsoft RMS, where basic WMS functionalities are already automated.  For example MS RMS has Store Operations module and even Headquarters (where you control all your stores and have functionality to do nationwide or international distribution to your franchisees).  If you feel that you need WMS of the higher caliper, you may decide to do your homework to understand what kind of Warehouse Management System could be integrated with your Great Plains Corporate ERP

5. Adding Ecommerce Shopping Cart.  Going online and enabling internet sales sounds like natural expansion, but the technology is so diversified, that you need to expose yourself and do self study.  In Dynamics GP you have such option as Business Portal and Order Management module, which should be considered if you are in B2B ecommerce model.  If you are in B2C ecommerce, and you programmed your ecommerce website internally, we recommend you to consider Integration Management module integration to be setup and scheduled to fire every half an hours or five minutes to provide quasi real time shopping cart integration mode.  If you need control directly from your ecommerce web project in Microsoft Visual Studio (C#, VB, C++) – consider including eConnect libraries.  In the case when you are basing your ecommerce web site in Linux, MySQL database and programming PHP, consider calling GP Web Services (these are in fact abstraction level calling eConnect encrypted SQL Stored Procedures near the core).  If you are deploying such popular ecommerce shopping carts as Magento, ASP.Net Storefront – we recommend you to look for ISV integration modules, for example eCommerce integration module developed and supported by Alba Spectrum

6. Electronic Document Interchange or EDI.  If you bought franchise, you might be required to place your inventory replenishment orders via EDI channel (typically precisely structured text or XML file with header, lines and ending record).  If franchise network is established, EDI application is part of the deal and you should get it.  For the rest of us, EDI order placement in Great Plains could be implemented via precise SQL Select statement.  You could also acquire EDI package, where all or most of the interfaces are available (however the price might be higher, comparing to custom SQL programming solution)

7. Some words to international retailers.  First of all please check if Dynamics GP is available and localized in your country or region.  It is available in most of the English speaking countries, such as UK, Canada, South Africa, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania.  Great Plains is available in Arabic version across the Middle East and Northern Africa.  The countries of South East Asia, where English is used as the language of business also have the version.  GP is also available in South and Central America in Spanish.  It is not available in Brazil, where Brazilian Portuguese is spoken

8. Local and Nationwide Support in USA, Canada and Internationally.  We can do local implementation in the case of consultant driving only in Chicago, West Michigan, San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange County, CA.  We are ready to fly out onsite for initial implementation within USA, Canada.  If you are located internationally, we are happy to discuss the implementation options.  To give you a good example of our flexibility – we are working with the prospects in Afghanistan/Kabul, Paraguay, Canadian mining company trying to implement GP for its newly acquired gold mining facility in Siberia in Russian Federation.  We have WMS customers in Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Cayman Islands, Republic of Palau.  We also helped to implement RMS in Angola, Ethiopia and Israel.  We also discussed Great Plains localization and implementation options with the prospect in Republic of Georgia in Tbilisi.  There was a call from Armenian community here in the United States to help with Armenian company expansion to the US.  One of our customers in Polish company – furniture retail net doing business in Poland, Czech republic and Lithuania

9. For further information, please call us 1-866-304-3265 or email help@efaru.com.  We provide service in USA and internationally via web sessions.  Local service is available in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Houston, Dallas, West Michigan: St Joseph, Benton Harbor, Kalamazoo, Holland, Saugatuck, New Buffalo, Muskegon