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Case Studies
Dexterity
Alba Spectrum Technologies
Specialty Food Wholesaler
Situation
Specialty Food Processor/Wholesaler was looking for industry specific solution: similar food components purchased from different suppliers in different containers, cases, etc. Further complication was - the same items from the same supplier may vary in weight and so in final production, measured in pounds. The necessity of strict control was a must, due to presence of retail subdivision, selling from the same inventory location.
Our approach
Due to uniqueness, business systems software market could not offer off-the-shelf solution. We suggested and implemented customization in several Great Plains modules:
- Sales Order Processing
- Inventory Control
- Purchasing
in order to create Variable Weight Items Inventory, Purchasing and Sales System
Technology:
- Great Plains Dexterity (Great Plains proprietary programming tool) customization;
- SQL Stored Procedures to provide instant historical orders info
Results
Business processes were automated by the Great Plains system:
- Accurate inventory of variable-weight components
- Accurate estimation of purchasing needs from suppliers, based on historical information
- Automation of retail sales with strict control
- Order taking over the internet
Industry: Distribution
Applications: Great Pains
Technologies: Dexterity, SQL
Soft Drinks Maker/Wholesaler
Situation
Business System had multiple loosely integrated subsystems, some of them had
obsolete technology, discontinued by manufacturers and with no longer support
available. Meanwhile company needed daily international sales reporting by
multiple criteria. The choice should be made between expensive OLAP/Datawarehousing
solutions, integrated with new Mid-Market accounting package and less expensive
solution, deploying set of relatively flexible Crystal Reports, pulling
information from Mid-Market accounting. Also the complexity of the transition
year was the necessity to address existing legacy system data in reporting
system
Our approach
In order to save money we suggested less expensive and easy to maintain Great Plains and Crystal Reporting solution, based on the distributed queries from legacy database with following year end switch to Great Plains
- Data conversion with Integration Manager and SQL custom queries from legacy accounting to Great Plains on Microsoft Windows 2000 server
- Light Manufacturing automation via Bill of Materials
- Crystal Reports for providing daily sales reporting needs
- Integration Manager for GL and Purchasing data import
Technology:
- SQL Distributed views and stored procs
- Crystal Report, based on distributed queries
- Light Dexterity triggers for Bill of assemblies
- Integration Manager, Frx
Results
- All company operation are now based on one system: Great Plains
- Sales reports do not require additional maintenance, maybe called by request and pull the information from standard Great Plains databases
- Customer requests are processed in real time through Great Plains inquiry screens
Industry: Distribution, Manufacturing
Applications: Great Plains
Technologies: SQL Server: Stored Procs, Views, Dexterity, Integration Manager, FRx
Metal Recycler and Wholesaler
Situation
Client had industry specific requirements to provide bids to its customers with
5 decimals of $ price. Also vendor had requirements to provide Custom Order
status report and several mandatory reports, with 5 decimals of $. In order to
provide real-time quotes to the customer the query, showing historical quoted
price and average current price for the product with immediate drill down to
historical quotes was needed.
Our approach
In order to provide immediate drill down to historical docs and calculate average price/cost, plus provide required reporting we suggested
- Dexterity customization in Sales and Purchasing modules
- Aggregated SQL query to feed information into custom inquiry window
- Dexterity custom report with 5 decimals of $
Results
- All the operations were automated in Great Plains
- All the reporting requirements were met
Industry: Distribution
Applications: Great Plains
Technologies: Dexterity, SQL Server: Stored Procs, Crystal Reports
Industry Specific CRM Vendor with International Support
Situation
Client had turn key system installation plan and support for its customers. The
system had the requirement to show the status of the part of the supported
hardware and it’s history through multiple Great Plains
modules: Sales, Purchasing, Inventory and Fixed Assets by it’s serial number.
Also Clients had support and billing plans with installment payments options and
considering high volume of customer checks – the AR group notification mechanism
was required
Our approach
In order to provide immediate support for the hardware, installed as part of the turn key system and payment notifications
- Dexterity, VBA, SQL and Continuum customization was recommended, addressing several Great Plains modules: SOP, Inventory, Purchasing, Fixed Assets
- SQL queries to provide immediate reporting of customer outstanding invoices and payments history
- SQL and Dexterity triggers, deploying SQL mail to notify AR on customer payments
Results
- Client was able to switch all its legacy systems to Great Plains
- All real-time customer support calls were facilitated, resulting in increasing of customer service quality
Industry: Services
Applications: Great Plains
Technologies: Dexterity, VBA & Modifier, Continuum, ReportWriter, SQL Server: Stored Procs, Triggers, Mail, Crystal Reports
Payroll Funding Company for Placement Agencies
Situation
Company had several hundred clients – placement agencies and needed the system
to bill them and make payroll transfer to their temps. Standard mid-size
accounting application with payroll module can produce payroll checks and direct
deposits. Management decision was to have individual database/company per
client, which resulted in several hundred SQL databases. The addition of new
clients required automatic setup in this case, plus consolidation of accounting
records from these client databases into corporate accounting required
sophisticated SQL integration.
Our approach
Our research confirmed supported management decision to have separate Great Plains company for each individual client and we suggested
- To have SQL Server Data Transformation Package for installing and setup new client
- SQL DTS package for consolidation of client’s companies transaction into Corporate GL
- Dexterity, Modifier with VBA standard Great Plains logic customizations to fit business logic
Results
- Unique business processes were automated within Great Plains
- Client’s IT team got single and reliable database platform (MS SQL Server) as the basis for multiple reporting needs
Industry: Placement
Applications: Great Plains
Technologies: Dexterity, VBA & Modifier, SQL Server: Stored Procs, Triggers
Bank
Situation
Mortgage business line had a need to running account queries on the fly,
aggregating data by multiple accounts in Great Plains, like having summaries by
all the account with
101-XXX-XXXX where X is wild card
Our approach
As this was a need for seamless integration with Great Plains General Ledger account open and historical inquiries screens, we suggested
- Dexterity customization for these windows
- SQL Stored procs for instant data summarization
Results
- Integration of Collection System with Great Plains
Industry: Finance
Applications: Great Plains
Technologies: Dexterity, SQL Stored procs
College Grants Managing company
Situation
There was a need for industry specific project accounting package for billing
participating colleges and students for grants distribution service
Our approach
We suggested deployment Dexterity Program definitions, University and Student billing forms
- Dexterity form for entering program info with link to GL account
- Integration with Great Plains Invoicing module
Results
- Grant distribution service and accounting were implemented in one Great Plains system
Industry: Non-profit
Applications: Great Plains
Technologies: Dexterity
Alba Spectrum Technologies
Phones
Toll Free: 1-866-528-0577
Office: 1-630-961-5918
Cell (consultant-on-duty): 1-630-854-0597
Email: help@albaspectrum.com
Great Plains Dexterity Customizations Dynamics eEnterprise Microsoft CRM Microsoft RMS Crystal Reports SQL .Net C# International