Dynamics AX Product Configurator

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Dynamics AX Product Configurator

 

The Dynamics AX Product Configurator allows you to dynamics create bills of materials for unique products using your existing products as a base. Murray Fife at Dynamicscare.com continues to provide excellent guides to using AX. AX is a sophisticated ERP system that can be configured to meet the requirements of a variety of manufacturing scenarios.

These are the steps that Murray so nicely lays out:

Creating a Constraint Based Product Master

Creating a Product Configuration Model

The Product Configuration Models, “contain all of the rules and definitions that you will use to tell Dynamics AX how to build your new product BOM’s.”

Adding Configuration Attributes

“The way that the configurations are personalized are though Configuration Attributes which the user will update as they are building their product variation.”

Grouping Related Attributes

“If there are attributes that are related to each other then you may want to show them together in the configuration dialog box. To do this we need to change the way that they are displayed within the UI.”

Adding Conditional Display Options

Conditional rules, “allow you to show and hide attributes based on conditions.”

Adding Constraints to your Configuration Model

Constraints, “are rules that allow you to restrict what values are allowed to be entered in the attributes based on the values of other attributes.”

Configuring BOM’S Based On Attributes

“Once you have all of your attributes configured, with their values, and constraints, you can now create the rules that will allow Dynamics AX to use them to create dynamic BOM’s on the fly.”

Using Table Based Attribute Values

“The Product configurator has the ability to look up the values directly from the database, allowing you to dynamically update attribute values.”

Using Attributes as Variables

“Attributes do not have to be values that the user enters. You can use attributes as variables within your configuration model.”

This level of sophistication in a product configurator is rare in an affordably priced ERP system. Often times functionality like this has to be acquired in a significant add-on product to your ERP system.

You can get more information about Dynamics AX here. Filter on “Industry Solutions” to get even more targeted results.

Murray’s full article is available here.

If you want to try out Dynamics AX for yourself, start a free trial here:

Dynamics AX Free Trial

 

Image via allconfigurators.com

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myGPcloud Mobile for iPhone Windows Phone 7

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myGPcloud Mobile for iPhone Windows Phone 7 is a free add-on service to myGPcloud. myGPcloud Mobile is a set of five Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that monitor your business data in the myGPcloud ERP system, and displays those KPI’s on your mobile phone.

Registering for the service is quick and you can easily download the app for either the iPhone or Windows 7.

You can restrict the specific KPI’s that users can have access to.

The KPI’s are continually updated as transactions are processed in myGPcloud.

This is a screen shot that shows the KPI’s currently available:

myGPcloud Mobile for iPhone Windows Phone 7

 

Click here for more information.

This is a quick slide show that walks you through myGPcloud Mobile:

iPhone:

 

Windows Phone 7:

 

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Six Ways to Boost the ROI of Your ERP System

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ROI ERP ImplementationROI simply stated is the arithmetic quotient of the benefit you expect to receive from a project divided by the investment in the project. The benefit is the numerator and the investment is the denominator. To improve the ROI quotient, find ways to increase the numerator and/or decrease the denominator.

Based on my experience, these are the ways that an organization implementing and maintaining an ERP system can boost the ROI on their ERP investment:

Choose wisely. Decide exactly what you want the system to do and document it. If you can’t identify and quantify real benefits, stop right now and invest somewhere else. Be committed to this. Do the work. Do not start by cutting and pasting bits and pieces from RFP’s you find on the Web. Benefits ↑ Investment ↓

Commit to a thoughtfully designed implementation plan utilizing system experts. Make sure you give everyone on the team enough time to execute their parts. This will increase your investment but increase the benefits as well; far greater than 1/1.  Benefits ↑ Investment↑

Be actively involved in the implementation project. Do some of the heavy lifting. This greatly increases your knowledge of the new system, reduces implementation costs, and strengthens your commitment to the project’s success. As system implementers, we really like to see this. Users that know the system get much more benefit out of it. Benefits ↑ Investment ↓

Implement the new ERP system in phases. Don’t jump all at once from QuickBooks into a fully integrated manufacturing system with demand planning and MRP. Investment ↓

License the ERP system on a subscription basis and host it in the cloud. This avoids much of the typical upfront costs of a new system. Investment ↓

Invest and reinvest in user training. An ERP system is a business tool used by humans. If the humans don’t know how to use the tool, there will be no benefit. Benefits ↑ Investment↑

Extend the ERP functionality and information into other parts of your business, and to other users. Revisit your original project analysis to make sure you are receiving the benefits you had anticipated. Benefits ↑

Keep you system up to date with new version upgrades. This reduces downtime due to system errors and lets your employees be more productive. Benefits ↑

Expand the functionality of your system in ways that continue to provide benefits that exceed the related investment. The quotient for each added bit of functionality must be greater than 1/1. Benefits ↑ Investment↑

An ERP system has no intrinsic value. It is a business tool. It is designed to provide benefits. Investing in an ERP system is just one of many investments you can make. Do your homework, make a decision, and commit to it.

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Microsoft Dynamics ERP Manufacturing

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Microsoft Dynamics ERP ManufacturingMicrosoft Dynamics has several options for ERP manufacturing. You can select from very basic to very sophisticated.

Dynamics GP probably includes the most basic manufacturing functionality and Dynamics AX probably the most sophisticated.

Sometimes there’s a tendency to choose a new system that has all the features one could imagine. The thinking is that this will be a good way to go because one’s then covered for everything. Sounds good, but can lead to long implementation timelines and difficult to use systems. It’s also a good idea to implement a sophisticated new system in phases that will match your employees ability to adapt and adopt.

If all you want is a bill of materials and a production order, start with a basic system. Dynamics GP is a good choice. If you’re ready to dive in and totally control a high volume and complex manufacturing operation, choose Dynamics AX. You’ll have access to lean manufacturing processes, master planning, quality management, time & attendance, a product configurator, and advanced supply chain features like warehouse management, trade and logistics, etc.

Here’s some helpful information on ERP manufacturing that you can get for free. Check it out here.

If you have requirements for a formula-based manufacturing solution in an industry like chemicals, food, or beverages, you will want to check out Vicinity Manufacturing. Here’s a case study about one of their customers:

Microsoft Dynamics ERP Manufacturing

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Dynamics CRM Complex Workflows

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Dynamics CRM Complex Workflows gives you a lot of flexibility in automating your internal business processes.

I use Dynamics CRM workflows in my daily work, for marketing, and as part of our automated systems, www.myGPcloud.com and www.goERPcloud.com

For my daily work, CRM workflows help me keep on top of open opportunities that I’m tracking. I have it scheduling follow-up phone calls and sending follow-up email messages. this helps make sure that I am following up on the prospects, opportunities, and tasks that are part of my daily work. This also helps me maintain a record of the contact that I’ve made with individual accounts.

For marketing I have developed a couple of long term nurture plans that are powered by CRM workflows. This allows me to include new contacts in an appropriate nurture campaign when I initially find out about a lead. I’ve actually developed some nice content, and the CRM workflows slavishly deliver.

Our automated systems include a fair amount of delivered content. CRM workflows send the content bases on predetermined schedules. These workflows are initiated automatically and don’t require any process intervention by me.

This is an example of a workflow that sends email messages and schedules calls:

Dynamics CRM Complex Workflows

Here’s a quick video that shows how to use this functionality:

If you want to try out Microsoft Dynamics CRM with one of the Dynamics ERP systems, you should start a 30 day free trial here:

Dynamics CRM Workflow

What is Dynamics NAV?

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Dynamics NAV

 

Dynamics NAV used to be called Navision. NAV is a well integrated mid-range ERP system that has a lot of functionality right out of the box and can also be customized to meet your specific requirements.

Microsoft describes Dynamics NAV as follows:

“Microsoft Dynamics NAV gives small and midsize businesses like yours complete control over your core business processes, the precision to perfect your supply chain, and the insight that employees need to perform at their best.”

• Streamline financial practices. The intuitive RoleTailored interface delivers personalized access to the information and tasks most relevant to your role—including key financial processes. With immediate access to the data you need, you can respond quickly and effectively.

• Get a clear view of your financials. Increase financial transparency with integrated systems, shared data, and drill-down capabilities that give you visibility into your transactions and audit trails.

• Provide self-service reporting tools and real-time business intelligence. Help your people make fast, informed decisions using powerful business intelligence data and significantly reduce ad-hoc requests to the IT department for reports and other information.

• Identify and target your top customers to drive new sales opportunities. Use predictive analysis to identify sales opportunities with your best customers, and focus on your most profitable products by analyzing product information with Treemap analysis.

• Deliver superior customer service with effective service order management. You can quickly create service orders based on customer requests or after-sales issues, and then easily log orders for accurate records and profitability management.

• Build customer loyalty with customer-specific pricing and discounts. Define a variety of sales pricing and discount terms that you can automatically apply to individual order lines, and set up pricing and discounts in local and foreign currencies.

• Conduct business internationally. Use international trade and multicurrency capabilities to maintain your general ledger in different currencies; determine how amounts are rounded and posted for an unlimited number of currencies; and manage customer and vendor accounts in the appropriate currency.

• Connect your remote and roaming employees. Empower your mobile workers with direct access to enterprise resource planning (ERP) data and local resources over the Internet using a rich RoleTailored interface—and get even more from your investment in desktop applications.

• Choose the right solution for you. With flexible deployment options, you can choose the solution that works best for your business—and increase IT flexibility without increasing costs. Microsoft Dynamics NAV supports both on-premises and remote, cloud-based deployments hosted by Microsoft or a Microsoft partner, in addition to hybrid, or partly-hosted, models.

You can get even more information at our Cloud Resource Library. Here you will find case studies, white papers, videos, and ebooks.

And if you want to try it out for yourself, you might want to start a free 30 day trial. You’ll receive your log in information almost instantly:

Dynamics NAV Free Trial

Dynamics AX 2012 Basic Company Configuration

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Dynamics AX 2012Dynamics AX 2012 Basic Company Configuration is nicely covered by Murray Fife over at DynamicsCare. Murray walks through the steps to configure your own company with your data within the Hyper-V image supplied by Microsoft.

These are the steps he identifies:

Configuring the Legal Entity

Configuring a Business Unit

“To make your ledger a little cleaner, it is probably a good idea to create a new Business Unit for your new legal entity.”

Configuring Account Structures

“Before we can define the ledger for the new organization, we need to create some new Account Structures that will be used to manage what can and cannot be posted to our company ledger from within the organization.”

Configuring Company Ledger

“The next step in the configuration is to define the Company Ledger linking the account structures to the organizations chart of accounts, and also to default in some account codes.”

Configuring Automatic Transaction Accounts

“There are a few additional defaults that need to be configured for the organization that will make your life a little easier when the system is up and running.”

Creating a Bank Account

“Finally, while you are setting up the main information for the company, you might as well also create a default Bank Account.”

Murray’s complete post is here. Check it out.

If you want to check out Dynamics AX for yourself, you can start a free trial here:

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Online Accounting Software

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Online Accounting Software

 

Online accounting software frees you from having to maintain your accounting system on-premise. You avoid having to manage backups, service packs, and version upgrades. Plus you can access your system from anywhere.

There are a number of other benefits too. Two of the most compelling are the following:

  • You don’t have to invest in additional equipment, infrastructure software, and IT support just to run an accounting system. With online accounting software you just pay a monthly service fee for all these capabilities and services.
  • You don’t have to pay for all of your software licenses upfront. You just pay for what you need on a monthly basis. You can adjust your user count on a monthly basis if you want to.

The overriding benefit is that you don’t have to worry about it anymore. We’ll do that.

To get more information about online accounting software you should check out our RoseASP brochure. You can get it here.

If you’re thinking about switching to an accounting system in the cloud you can go ahead and request a price quote here. We just need a little bit of information about what you’re looking for:

Online Accounting Software

 If you want to try a free trial of an online ERP system, check out our 30 day free trials here:

Online Accounting Software

Dynamics GP Field Level Security

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Dynamics GP Field Level Security allows you to control user access and edit capability down to individual fields on Dynamics GP screens. The basic user access security in Dynamics GP is based on screen level security. But Dynamics GP Field Level Security gives you control of  individual fields and does not require any coding or scripting. You can set it up right within the Dynamics user interface.

Dynamics GP Field Level Security - Resource Explorer

 

Dynamics GP Field Level Security - Field Security Maintenance

 The Security Mode drop down gives you an idea of the type of control you can specify for any given field. This will give you a lot of control without having to invest in any development time.

You’ll want to make sure that you don’t deny access to required fields or other screen functionality necessary to the operation of the screen. I don’t have any guidelines here. You’ll just have to try it out.

If you haven’t tried out Dynamics GP yet, you may want to start a free 30 day trial at goERPcloud. We also have the new web client available as well. Take a look at it:

goERPcloud Free Dynamics Trials