Posts Tagged ‘dynamics ax’

What is Sales and Operations Planning and Why Should we Worry About it?

Monday, May 24th, 2010

By: Donald Clark CFPIM, CSCP

Balancing demand with supply is the basic objective of every single enterprise. This is easy to state but as it turns out, not so simple in practice. Some organizations meet this balance well, while others survive through crisis management.

Those that do not bring supply and demand into balance suffer the consequences. Excess inventory, disrupted production schedules, missed deliveries, etc., become the norm. All of these conditions create a huge amount of waste and then the finger pointing begins, pitting departments against each other. Ultimately, it is our customers who suffer and sure enough, they will begin to go away.

On the other hand, a thorough understanding of demand, along with developing a comprehensive supply strategy to meet that demand, will allow organizations to effectively produce and deliver product, with greatly reduced waste. A vital tool to achieve this goal is the sales and operations planning process.

Sales and operations planning (S&OP) brings together all of the functions of an organization to create a companywide game plan. The output of this plan forms the basis for all of our short-term decisions and activities. Beyond the immediate result of creating this agreed upon plan, sales and operations planning helps in breaking down the barriers that exist between our departments and helps the company to move forward as a cohesive team.

Once a month, at least, the top people from each department work together to review actual performance since the last meeting, identify areas of improvement, determine the next period’s projected demand and then make sure the resources exist to meet that demand.

Dynamics AX 2009 provides users with the tools they need to perform the S&OP processes. It has item forecast capability, resource profiles to see how much work can be done and load profiles to see the effect of operations plans on existing capacity.

If you would like to take a look at it, let us know. Thanks and have a great day.

Tags: AX, ca, california, dynamics ax, erp, new jersey, nj, sales improvement
Posted in Industry Insights, Made-to-Order Manufacturing, Made-to-Stock Manufacturing, Microsoft Dynamics AX, Other | No Comments »

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Food and Beverage Solution

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Adapting standard ERP applications to the demanding needs of food and beverage producers and distributors is usually quite a chore. Work-around processes, add-in modules and continued reliance on spreadsheets are the orders of the day.

Microsoft has changed all of that through the introduction of its Food and Beverage Solution for Dynamics AX 2009. This product delivers the functionality food and beverage producers need to run their businesses effectively.

Here is the product fact sheet – don’t worry because it is not long.

Dynamics AX 2009 Food and Beverage Solution

Take some time to find out more about how the Food and Beverage Solution for Dynamics AX 2009 can help your business improve. Contact our California office at 888-222-8827 if you would like more information or if you would like to see a no-charge demonstration of this product.

Tags: axapta, ca, california, dynamics ax, Food and Beverage, manufacturing, new jersey, new york, nj
Posted in Food Processing, Microsoft Dynamics AX | No Comments »

Continuing Education Keeps our Consultants Sharp and Value High

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

An important part of being a good reseller lies in the skill set of its consultants. The management and consulting teams at Clients First Business Solutions are true believers in the value of education and prove it by continually honing their knowledge and skill sets

We stay current on Microsoft Dynamics and Sage Software product releases and prove it by maintaining current certifications on these products. Microsoft and Sage alike develop these certification exams that test for not only competency, but also mastery of their software. When a new product or version is released, we study it, practice it, and then prove our knowledge through certification. In this way, our clients are assured that we possess the knowledge and skills that help us deliver the latest and greatest products.

Beyond the wide range of software certifications that we pursue and hold, we also embark on educational activities that improve our project management, communication skills, and team building. We do this because we believe that developing these “soft” skills is as important as our technical skill development. This approach brings balance to us individually and as a team.

We spend the time and money in education for our people because we know that the better we are as a group, the more value we can add for our clients. Let us show you how our approach to continuous education translates into a real benefit to you – our clients.

Tags: AX, ca, california, dynamics ax, mas 500, mas200, mas90
Posted in Microsoft Dynamics AX, Other, Sage MAS 500, Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200, Sage SalesLogix, SageCRM | 1 Comment »

Dynamics AX 2009 Technology Enables User Experience Customization

Monday, October 5th, 2009

Dynamics AX 2009’ technology provides the capability for users to modify screens easily in Dynamics AX 2009 to meet their requirements and make their jobs easier to perform and data entry much more efficient.

Here is a screenshot of a standard Dynamics AX 2009 customer record screen, showing the general tab:

AX Morphx_2

The user may find that many of the fields are not needed in this form and that navigating between the needed fields is time-consuming.

This is not a problem because Dynamics AX 2009’s technology makes is a simple matter to change the look of this form (and any other forms) to meet the user’s needs.

The user can right click on an unneeded field, or field group, and one of the options includes “hide” as shown below. Now the user can go through the form and hide any fields or groups that the user does not need.

AX Morphx_1

Here is the same form, after the user has spent some time re-organizing it:

AX Morphx_3

Notice that numerous fields been hidden and that the landscape that the hidden fields used to take up has been automatically rearranged as well. By the way, this change took less than 2 minutes to make. Now the user only sees what needs to be seen, thus speeding up data entry.

Keep in mind that access to this functionality is permissions-controlled and that changes made can be done for individual users or system wide.

Contact us through our website or by calling 888-222-8827 to learn how Dynamics AX 2009’s technology can help to make the user experience more efficient and productive. Ask us also about other features and benefits that Dynamics AX 2009 delivers.

Tags: AX, axapta, ca, california, dynamics ax, new jersey, software, Tips, Tips and tricks
Posted in Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Dynamics AX | No Comments »

Dynamics AX 2009 Audit Trails Enable Tight Control

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Companies often times experience the need to figure out what changed in one of their records, who changed it and when. This can be a laborious, even impossible, task in many systems. Dynamics AX 2009 , through its audit trail capability, enables companies to automatically track changes made in the system and quickly identify who did it and when.

Setting up the audit trails is straightforward. The company simply needs to determine which records – item master, general ledger, sales order, etc., to track in the database log. Then it is a matter of deciding what types of changes to track – additions, deletions, numerical changes – and the company is all setup and ready to track.

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Tags: AX, axapta, ca, california, clients first business solutions, dynamics ax, Microsoft Dynamics AX, new jersey, nj
Posted in Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Dynamics AX | 1 Comment »