June 17th, 2010 by Bharath Lanka
Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB) have unique requirements for their enterprise resource planning (ERP) needs. The industry-leading companies that most benefit SMBs are those that assist companies in aligning their ERP solution with their strategic goals.
Microsoft offers a complete suite of interconnected applications designed with SMBs in mind. While Microsoft Dynamics GP is clearly focused on the smaller enterprises, over the years, our work with Microsoft Dynamics NAV has shown it to be a more robust and cost effective enterprise solution for the middle market. Dynamics NAV is simple to use and very adaptable but it generally requires the assistance of an external service provider to ensure an optimally performing implementation. Maintain a relationship with an external service provider with NAV expertise is particularly important in light of the constant improvements that Microsoft makes to the platform.
Recently, Microsoft unveiled Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2, with significant upgrades in platform architecture, built-in integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and online Payment Service. The release will be available in the fourth quarter of 2010, a timeframe that introduces the release more quickly than scheduled.
According to Microsoft, Dynamics NAV 2009 R2 will include the following enhancements:
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration. In its continued effort to ease the sale of CRM to its ERP base, Microsoft is providing built-in integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Benefits of customer relationship management (CRM) integration include eliminating redundant data entries, keeping information up to date in both ERP and CRM solutions, and providing salespeople with the ability to quickly access detailed business information about contracts, pricing and product availability. Customers can choose between integration to on-premises Microsoft Dynamics CRM or Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online with the option to migrate to either option over time.
- Online Payment Service for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. This enables customers to process payment transactions from the Microsoft Dynamics NAV interface across multiple channels, including e-commerce, point of sale and call center transactions. The Payment Service works with leading payment processing services and all major credit cards.
- Role-Tailored interface access for remote or roaming users. Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2 supports direct access from the Microsoft Dynamics RoleTailored experience over the Internet. This allows for remote or roaming users to take advantage of the richness and Microsoft Office integration of the RoleTailored interface and the many integration features connected to local resources, such as the operating system and Microsoft Office. This reduces the complexity and overhead compared with using other applications such as Citrix Systems and Terminal Services, especially for hosting partners offering cloud-based Microsoft Dynamics NAV deployments.
- Microsoft Application Virtualization support. The Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2 Role-Tailored interface can be deployed using Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) technology, which is relevant for both on-premise and hosted solutions. This provides a better experience for the end user as all integration with local applications is done on the desktop. It also cuts IT costs by centrally managing Microsoft Dynamics NAV client installations with automatic deployment to the desktop after an update.
- Windows 7 user experience improvements. Through Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2, jumplists can be used to open recently accessed customers and vendors for increased business productivity and efficiency, and the icon overlay functionality provides information on system events and status streamlined with the Windows 7 user experience.
We believe that these important advancements in the NAV solution will broaden the platform’s market presence by making it more attractive to middle market enterprises in vertical industries that might not have considered it before.
January 19th, 2010 by Bill Martin
There are few things in the world that management and staff of an organization dread more than taking a physical inventory. While it is an expensive and time-consuming process, it remains absolutely necessary to achieve accurate balance sheet information, efficient use of sales resources and effective inventory management. Physical inventory is a particularly important process for most manufacturing and distribution businesses. It provides an opportunity to clean up inventory, identify discrepancies and make any adjustments to align what is on the books with what is in the warehouse.
As we developed our roadmap for creating add-on modules to address functionality gaps in Microsoft Dynamics NAV platform, improving the physical inventory process emerged as a key area for investment. While we can’t remove all the pain associated with the physical inventory process, we have addressed several key areas that allow enterprises using NAV to shorten and simplify the process. American Unit’s Physical Inventory for Microsoft Dynamics NAV assists organizations in increasing the accuracy of their inventory balances, system quantities and purchasing amounts, driving a minimization of inventory holding costs, identification and rectification of possible theft issues and a more accurate reflection of balance sheet asset values.
Having assisted a number of discrete manufacturing companies over the past several years with the Microsoft Dynamics NAV implementation, it became clear that an enhanced physical inventory capability could provide significant value. This led to the investment in developing an add-on module to augment NAV’s existing inventory management functionality. American Unit’s Physical Inventory module eases the creation of physical inventory cards and physical inventory tags for each location, control table and work center. It also makes it easier to assign tags to employees for the physical count of items. The objective in developing the module has been to ease data reconciliation, improve data auditing and simplify the posting of adjustments to physical inventory.
The Physical Inventory module is the fourth release in the American Unit manufacturing suite. More information can be found here.
January 5th, 2010 by Bill Martin
Change management continues to be an important process in the engineered product environment. It has great potential to deliver material benefits but also great challenges in getting it right. Managing engineering change has always been hard as well as a source of inefficiency, but in the ever-escalating pace of business driven by an increasingly global market, it is more critical than ever to improve the process.
Historically, engineering change management has focused on cost control and increasing process efficiency. Competitive pressures are now driving a new agenda for change management, one that targets a reduction in development lead times and, secondarily, the ability to quickly respond to quality issues. This is a very real change in perspective as companies are beginning to realize that a more optimized engineering change management process can provide top-line benefits in addition to reducing costs. In today’s dynamically changing marketplace, speed-to-market can allow companies to overtake, and even leap-frog, their competition.
The other key driver of this new view of engineering change management is the need for an accelerated response to quality issues. There are also the changing market requirements as competition, globalization and concept of “mass customization” have created a demand chain with the customers driving any number of product permutations. Change management’s ability to positively impact quality is important in both the initial product launch and in ongoing product management.
Through our work with discrete manufacturers of all sizes, American Unit has experienced the value of optimized engineering change management. That led to the investment to develop an add-on module designed specifically for that purpose that augments the functionality of Microsoft Dynamics NAV solution. American Unit’s Engineering Change Management for Microsoft Dynamics NAV can handle different types of engineering change requests including bill of material changes, routing changes, and released production orders which are in shop floor and updates these changes automatically. This add-on module is fully integrated with Dynamics NAV’s manufacturing.
The Engineering Change Management module is the third release in the American Unit manufacturing suite. More information can be found here.
December 22nd, 2009 by Bill Martin
One thing that we at American Unit have discovered as a result of our work with many manufacturing enterprises is that most modern quality control programs continue to rely on inspection management systems to ensure product and process quality. As a Microsoft Dynamics NAV solutions provider, we have viewed the lack of that specific functionality in the NAV platform as both a challenge and an opportunity. To that end, as part of our investment in building a unique vertical solution for manufacturing, we have developed a new add-on module for Dynamics NAV to address this gap in the solution. Our application, Inspection Management and Quality Control for Microsoft Dynamics NAV addresses the constant pressure on manufacturers to reach increasingly higher levels of quality.
Working seamlessly with Dynamics NAV, our solution delivers key process benefits that include more accurate inventory listing with individual item inspection information, reduced sampling time, automatic routing of rejected items back to vendor, reduced shop floor scrap, and use of historical vendor quality data to select the appropriate supplier for specific items.
As an example, Item Inspection using Inspection Management in Microsoft Dynamics involves the measurements, tests, applied to certain parameters in regards to an item with or without sampling techniques and skip logic rule. Inspection processes are determined by various characteristics including the timing, duration, and intensity of the collections and the details of the past processing treatment. Poor choices of these Inspection parameters can lead to poor Inspection performance. Proper choices of these parameters can make it easier to integrate the various Inspections into the overall service process. An Inspection is the use of a measurement in an intelligent fashion to drive some corrective action. Inspection might be one of shape, size, or even weight. Inspections need not be restricted to product characteristics.
The following screen shows inspection list that needs to be inspected and created automatically at the time of received.
Vendor quality performance is useful to determine the appropriate vendor for an item. This is a statistical measurement and it uses historic information. The following screen shows item wise vendor quality performance.
More information on this latest add-on module for Microsoft Dynamics NAV can be found here.
December 10th, 2009 by Bill Martin
American Unit is committed to creating very robust vertical industry software platforms built upon Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Dynamics AX solutions. To that end, we have been investing in building IP to fill in key gaps in Dynamics NAV’s manufacturing industry functionality. Our strong background and continuing focus in the manufacturing ERP market, as well as our years of experience in Dynamics NAV, provides a strong capability for executing on this strategy.
This week, we are formally releasing our first module, Shop Floor Control, to the market.
This new Shop Floor Control module allows employees to register information in one easy-to-use system, providing greater fidelity and speed. The system supports the use of bar codes for even faster input of raw materials consumption and time used per individual task as bar codes are automatically printed on all relevant production reports. The solution can further reduce time spent on data input by designating a team leader to manage team member’s registrations. This feature simplifies the process and lowers the risk of data entry errors. Microsoft Dynamics NAV Shop Floor Control also enables the bundling of operations to reduce registration even more. Employees working on several operations can register their time spent on all operations at one time.
The primary benefits of the new module, improving the efficiency of shop floor operations and automating collection of employee time and attendance are enabled by a number of key features and functions that we believe existing customers and prospects will find attractive, including:
- Collection of Employee Time and Attendance Information
- Advanced time profiles for both groups and individual employees
- Automatic profile search
- A work planning tool for setting up shift schedules
- Handling of personnel absences
- Collection of machine time
- Notice Board with individual messages and receipt feature
- Two-step validation procedure available to check time
- Calculation/approval status
- Configurable registration forms
- Password-protected validation
- Direct integration with the production modules
- Overview of the production situation
- Simulation of when operations should be completed based on time allocated
Our goal with Shop Floor Control for Microsoft Dynamics NAV is to significantly decreases the time spent performing administrative tasks, while increasing the reliability of employee time and attendance data and we are confident that the module represents a significant enhancement to the functionality of the Microsoft Dynamic NAV solution while also being very user friendly.
Find more detail on our Shop Floor Control add-on module here.
October 8th, 2009 by Bill Martin
One of the critical challenges enterprises of all sizes face is how to realize the potential of their ERP investment. One avenue towards accomplishing that is to leverage existing customer data resident in a company’s financial system through integration with key external business services provider operations. One such example is for package shipping. UPS WorldShip offers companies the opportunity to integrate their enterprise system seamlessly to make the generation of shipping labels and other shipping forms much simpler.
Once integrated, passing enterprise customer data between the WorldShip application and Microsoft Dynamics NAV occurs in real-time, avoiding additional data entry on both sides of the transaction. Once processed by UPS within WorldShip, shipment data is automatically updated in the NAV sales document. This allows a shipment via UPS to be tracked within the NAV system using the unique UPS tracking number.
Beyond the obvious savings in time and resources, this type of integration increases the speed and accuracy of shipping activities, provides the exact shipping charges for each transaction, eliminates manual data entry and errors, and automatically communicates key delivery information to customers.
Establishing the integration between WorldShip and NAV requires the following steps:
- Install UPS Software, NAV ODBC software and MS-Access on the system. A system DSN should then be created from the ODBC data source and the created data source database should be connected using the NAV license (license should contain ODBC granule)
- Create tables in NAV to store the shipment-related dat required by UPS. Transfer the data in the tables into MS-Access and write the queries to send the required field data to the WorldShip system. Then, create MAPS in UPS WorldShip to import the data into the WorldShip application and export the data back to the NAV system. Map the UPS fields to the Navision fields.
- To import data, write a query with customer-required conditions which when triggered, pass the information to the WorldShip system. Data will be imported automatically into UPS WorldShip by either batch import or keyed import depending on the specific situation and enterprise need.
- To export data to the NAV system, the shipping department selects “End of the Day” in the UPS Worldship system and complete orders will be processed with tracking numbers generated for every package. The generated tracking numbers, shipment cost, shipment address, number of packages, and all other shipment information are automatically exported to the NAV sales database using a MAP which is created specifically to export data from UPS WorldShip. E-mails are then be sent to the customer’s address with tracking number and a pre-defined template.
Leveraging an enterprise’s investment in Microsoft Dynamics NAV can be made much easier by integrating with some of the many software platforms that have been developed by business service providers across all of the key business processes the comprise the modern business.
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