Microsoft Dynamics GP is also referred as Great Plains Dynamics by GP user community. In Retail business you typically have such challenging requirements to your future Corporate ERP system, as POS (Point of Sale terminals, usually cash register with barcode scanner, coupon printer, credit/debit card, check and cash processors, POS screen for the customer to see the progress of scanning, etc.), merchandise barcode scanners in such automations as Sales Order Fulfillment, Inventory Replenishment, Increase/Decrease adjustments, Cycle Counts (these functions are typically implemented in Warehouse Management System software). Sometimes you also do assembly on order, which might be realized in such simple manufacturing modules as Bill of Materials, or even on the Kits level in Sales Order Processing. Lets review the highlights on how Retail business could be automated in Microsoft Dynamics GP. This publication is intended primarily to IT director, it is not overloaded with programming and technical terminology:
1.Dynamics GP and Retail external products or add-ons. If you like to have only very limited POS functionality and open Great Plains Sales Order Transaction entry to barcode scanning, there are several Dynamics GP Add-ons to consider. One of them is Compass Technologies extension. However, if you plan to do more advanced level of Retailing, such as supporting multiple stores, reorder merchandise, having mobile stores (where you are following seasonal retail trends, and rolling out your Flowers, Landscaping or Farmer Market outlets on the parking lots of the supermarkets), you may consider to implement external Retail application to automate these processes. As Dynamics GP is part of the Microsoft offer, we recommend you to consider Microsoft RMS (Retail Management System) for the upscale POS and Retail solution
2.POS extension versus external RMS. Obviously this is a decision, which should be done internally, as it defines your future direction advantages and disadvantages. If you pick POS extensions for Dynamics GP route, you do not need data synchronization phase, as POS add-on works directly with Great Plains transactions and master records. External POS system gives you the advantage of rich Retail business logic, but there are drawbacks, such as the necessity to synchronize POS transactions with Dynamics GP Sales Order Processing or Receivable Management documents, as well as Retail system originated Purchases and Inventory Adjustments and Transfers with similar transactions in Great Plains
3.Dynamics GP and Barcoding. You may try barcode scanning integration directly in GP windows, but this is not very efficient (especially taking into consideration such powerful barcode scanner options as batch mode documents scanning, and then batch mode upload to your ERP application). Normally we recommend you to purchase either external RMS or POS extension to GP, where barcoding is integrated. And when you need Barcoding on the warehouse floor, we recommend you to consider WMS (Warehouse Management System) add-on for GP, where you have such features as Sales Order Allocation, Inventory Adjustments, Transfers and Physical Counts, Merchandise Restocking
4.POS and Barcoding hardware. When you are in process of the next Corporate ERP system selection for retail business, it is important to review your Barcoding, Cash Registers on the subject of being compatible with the prospective Retail software. Please, note that barcode scanners and printers are progressing. For example in Barcode scanner selection dilemma you have multiple luxury or rather budget oriented options: having graphical user interface, or support only few lines of text in scanning, power of the internal processor, memory size, wireless protocols, etc. Microsoft RMS and Dynamics GP Workstation should be compatible with modern Microsoft Windows computer (where for cash register you probably want to minimize the hardware and software cost and in order to achieve these goals you may prefer to pick something which is rather at the minimums)
5.Sitting in your Headquarters and watching the numbers. Here we are coming to the topic of designing financial reporting, such as Balance Sheet, P&L, Statement of Cash Flow, plus probably consolidated versions of these reports (when you would like to consolidate sales results for several stores or all the stores to compare them to the last month or last year results to give you an idea). Here you have the privilege to capitalize on the power of Microsoft Dynamics GP reporting options. If you implement current version 2010/11.0 you should implement financial reporting in Microsoft Management Reporter. For the customers on the older versions: 10.0, 9.0, 8.0, 7.5, 7.0, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, 4.0 you have FRx Financial Reporting. Both tools in our opinion are equally powerful
6.Supply Chain Management or going beyond POS and Retail features (talking about Logistics and Distribution). SCM is the term, which is considered to be broader than Warehouse Management System. It may include such features as merchandise consignment, truck delivery route optimization. If you think that such classic concepts as POS/Retail application, Warehouse Management System doesnt do the job in your case, you should consider to discuss your concerns with Dynamics GP Consultant or Partner. Microsoft Dynamics GP is definitely capable to address custom business processes requirements, but there is the cost of doing it either programing in Great Plains Dexterity, or eConnect and even Microsoft Visual Studio SDK for GP
7.Opening your operations for Electronic Commerce. Here you would need to consider such technical features as ecommerce shopping cart (Magento, ASP.Net Storefront or similar) integration with your ERP sales module, in the case of Dynamics GP with Sales Order Processing transaction, likely Invoice or Sales Order with customer deposit (Credit card payment). We recommend Alba Spectrum ecommerce add-on for Dynamics GP
8.Dynamics GP and International business. Multicurrency is supported in all the modules of Great Plains. We recommend you to review Corporate ERP localization concept, where ERP application should be translated to the local language, plus (and in our opinion it is more important) it should comply to local country business legislation. Dynamics GP is localized for most of English speaking countries, and plus for Spanish speaking Latin America (except Brazil, where they speak Brazilian Portuguese). At this time Dynamics GP is not localized for such languages as Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, however translated interfaces are available, please call us for details
9.We are ready to serve you USA and Canada nationwide. Local service is available in Western Michigan (St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Holland, Saugatuck, New Buffalo, South Haven, Grand Haven, Ludington), in Southern California: Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Houston Area of Texas, Chicagoland: Naperville, Chicago downtown and all the nearest suburbs
10.To request further support, please call us 1-866-528-0577, Retail industry is really complex and each customer might have know-how or business secrets to stay competitive. We need to discuss your cards in order to recommend you the best solutions, which is not contingent to our preferences