Freight Forwarding ERP: Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains customization & setup ? overview

Microsoft Great Plains may be recommended for international freight forwarding / transportation company. Great Plains has such features as multicurrency (Euro, Pound, Yuan, Yen, Peso, Real), Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese (and if needed Unicode-specific languages such as Chinese, Japanese). If you have operations in East Europe ? you can have Polish version as well as you can have several screens (SOP Entry, Inventory Item Maintenance, Customer/Vendor Maintenance, etc) translated to Russian, Lithuanian, Latvian. Plus ? if you consider Great Plains as a platform for custom tailoring and developing ? you can have reasonably priced solution for horizontal business, such as freight forwarding, cargo delivery, consignment, transportation. Let's consider industry specifics and the way to implement them in Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains

? Agent Settlement. Freight forwarder usually deploys agents to deliver shipment. And agents are usually paid on the monthly or semimonthly basis. This means that you should have agents as customer.

? Daily Agent MBL invoices/statements. Assuming that agent is handling several shipment with Master Bill of Ladings (MBL) and House Bill of Ladings (HBL) per day ? freight forwarder emails to the agent daily invoices. Then these daily invoices are settled and paid one time per months

? Cargo Tracking System. This is usually custom in-house made system, specific to each freight forwarder or industry specific stand alone software. The important requirement is the integration between Shipment Tracking System and ERP, such as Great Plains

? Accurate in-time payments. Payments are required to stay in highly competitive business, such as freight forwarding

? Bill of Lading report. Where you usually need additional info to standard invoice form: Carrier, MAWB, Airport of Departure, Airport of Destination, Flight #/ETA, Weight in KG, Lbs, number of packages, etc. Technologies and customization tools:

? Great Plains Dexterity. This is Great Plains Software and currently Microsoft Great Plains programming language and IDE. It will allow you seamless integration with Great Plains user interface. You should realize agent settlement screen and inquiry, MBS/HBL profit/loss inquiry form and probably Bill of Lading in Great Plains Dexterity.

? SQL Integration. Integrating with Cargo Tracking/Delivery system should be done via SQL stored procedures. Use ODBC Linked Server to link to your tracking system database (MS SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, Unidata, Pervasive SQL, Ctree/Faircom, mySQL).

? Web Order Entry. Use eConnect to avoid high user license cost in Great Plains. eConnect is SDK to reference Great Plains objects ? you will need SOP and POP orders entry

? Customer/Vendor Consolidation. For agents, who are customers and vendors at the same time use consolidation module. It is available for Great Plains Professional only ? if you'd like to stay with Great Plains Standard ? use Great Plains Dexterity to program the consolidation.

Good luck in implementing and if you have issues or concerns ? we are here to help! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies ? USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving clients in Chicago, California, Texas, Florida, New York, Georgia, Arizona, Minnesota, UK, Australia, Canada, Mexico and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is CMA, Great Plains Certified Master, Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer. You can contact Andrew: andrewk@albaspectrum.com

In The News:


pen paper and inkwell


cat break through


A Simple Guide To Wikis

A wiki is an editable text-based website. But you don't... Read More

My Experience - Making a Vision into Reality

Disclaimer: All the thoughts expressed are my views only! Your... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains IV: Inventory Management

Great Plains Inventory Management (IV) module gives your business a... Read More

How Do I Get Rid Of That Darn Spyware?

Ad-Aware and Spybot are probably the two most well known... Read More

Things You Can Do With Windows XP!

Did you ever give a thought to the number of... Read More

OS 101: Suggestions for Choosing an Operating System

An operating system (abbreviated OS) is essentially the path through... Read More

Artificial Intelligence And Intuition

The intuitive algorithm.Roger Penrose considered it impossible. Thinking could never... Read More

Integrating Microsoft Great Plains Accounting/ERP: RMS, CRM, eCommerce, Lotus Domino ? overview

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains has substantial market share among... Read More

Microsoft CRM Integration with Lotus Notes Domino: Messaging Connector ? Future Directions

IBM Lotus Notes Domino and Microsoft CRM (Client Relation Management)... Read More

HSphere Control Panel Tips and Tricks - Power At Your Fingertips: Part 1

The first topic we are going to discuss... Read More

Getting Patched with Windows Service Pack

Are you one of those people that keeps track of... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains - Microsoft RMS Integration ? overview

Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft Retail Management System (Microsoft RMS)... Read More

Navision Attain C/ODBC Crystal Report ? Customization Example

Microsoft Business Solutions Navision is main ERP application for European,... Read More

Reduce TCO: The Java Database Way

TCO (Total Cost Ownership) is the buzzword in... Read More

Falling in Love With More Than One Screensaver: The Fun Part

Having from five to ten and more favorite screensavers is... Read More

Oracle Development: JDeveloper 10G ? Java, J2EE, EJB, MVC, XML - Overview For Programmer

In 2004 Oracle, Inc. made its new step toward J2EE... Read More

Spyware Statistics -- Whats New in May 2005?

Although statistics often is blamed for various deadly sins --... Read More

Accounts Payable: A Powerful Document Management and Workflow Solution

Accounts payable is just one area of office management where... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains as ERP and Microsoft CRM as CRM

If you have Microsoft Great Plains and support it for... Read More

Editing Your Photos Using Microsoft Picture It Publishing Platinum 2002 - A Great Dinosaur

I started using PIP (Picture It Publishing) Platinum 2002 right... Read More

Five Tips For A Great Software Demo

Whether you need to close a sale, gather end-user feedback,... Read More

Spyware, Adware, etc. -- Terms and Common Sense

When reading an article where some term is used often,... Read More

MSN Messenger Is A Sweet Way To Communicate

MSN messenger is a pretty cool invention. I mean I'm... Read More

Five Reasons for Using an O/R Mapping Tool

So, why should you use any O/R mapping tool? I... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains version 8.5: Upgrade, Customization, VBA, Crystal Reports - Highlights

Microsoft Great Plains is one of the Microsoft Business Solutions... Read More

These Items Are A Must Before Making The Decision To Purchase Any Off-The-Shelf Software

1. What determines the software price? Is it Per Seat... Read More

IT Strategy for Large Corporation: ERP/MRP/CRM, Unix/Linux/Windows, Microsoft/Java

Combining Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains ERP with non-Microsoft Business... Read More

Blind CC (Bcc): Master Its Use When E-Mailing

If you use Microsoft Outlook (or similar applications) for e-mailing,... Read More

Upgrading Great Plains Dexterity Customization ? switching to new technologies: SQL, Crystal, eConne

1. Replace Dexterity cursor with SQL Stored Procedure Dexterity... Read More

Microsoft CRM: Implementation, Customization, Support ? Consultant Overview

Microsoft Business Solutions CRM is present several years on the... Read More

Business Planning Software

Once a business idea is selected, it is highly recommended... Read More

What is Software Piracy?

There are several kinds of software piracy. The bottom line... Read More

How to Upgrade Dexterity Customization ? Tips for IT Manager

If you have Microsoft Great Plains and support it... Read More