Friday, March 28, 2008

Microsoft Great Plains Furniture & Fixtures implementation & customization highlights

Microsoft Great Plains, former Great Plains Software Dynamics / eEnterprise was introduced in 1993 as first Microsoft Windows and Macintosh based graphical accounting/ERP application for Mid-Size businesses.  Considering the history of furniture retailer and custom assembly lines they showed up on the market about five decades ago and they have automated their business operations with Unix-based businesses in the late 1960th and earlier 1970th. 

Microsoft Great Plains, former Great Plains Software Dynamics / eEnterprise was introduced in 1993 as first Microsoft Windows and Macintosh based graphical accounting/ERP application for Mid-Size businesses.  Considering the history of furniture retailer and custom assembly lines they showed up on the market about five decades ago and they have automated their business operations with Unix-based businesses in the late 1960th and earlier 1970th.  You can find such furniture resale systems as Storis, which is Unidata based application, automating furniture retail outlets.  Lets consider the options.

  • General Ledger.  There is no need to immediate replacement of legacy retail stores automation software.  It is reliable and proved to work over years.  They usually sit in very reliable Unix hardware such as IBM AS/400 or RS6000.  You would need just import General Ledger transaction to the system, where you would have flexible and quick financial reporting.  In this case you need Unidata export and feed it into Great Plains General Ledger.  Use Great Plains Integration Manager or heterogeneous SQL queries.
  • Payroll.  Great Plains would be reasonably priced payroll solution if you process payroll inhouse.  If you have less then 500 employees then Great Plains Standard douse excellent job and software price would be around k$10.  You will have to pay annual maintenance program and receive Payroll taxes and federal magnetic media updates to keep you safe from the payroll taxation errors and miscalculation.  If you cross over 500 employees line Great Plains software price will be around k$30 and you could find cheaper solutions with unlimited number of employees look at Accpac.
  • eCommerce.  If you are replacing your legacy system, then you could build eCommerce upon Microsoft Great Plains Inventory Control (IV) and Sales Order Processing modules.  Looking into the future you should expect increasing portion of you business to come from eCommerce ordering.  Here you deploy eConnect and have your or contracting developers do the job.  If eConnect is too expensive you could appeal to experienced developers, who has set of custom stored procedures to work with SOP10100, SOP10200 and IV00100 tables
  • Commission Reporting.  In Furniture outlet shift manager commission is based on her/his employees-salespersons performance.  And it is usually tiered.  We saw very complex and proprietary formulas.  Our suggestion is to realize it in SQL Stored Procedure and then you could create Crystal Report with parameters to calculate and report commission amounts

We encourage you to analyze your alternatives.  You can always appeal to our help, give us a call: 1-866-528-0577 or 1-630-961-5918, help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), serving Microsoft Great Plains, CRM, Navision to mid-size and large clients in California, Illinois, New York, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Washington, Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan, UK, Canada, Brazil. Mexico

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Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Track Lighting Fixtures

Lighting fixtures are necessary for any household. They are necessary not only for lighting an area but also to accentuate the look and ambiance of the rooms. They are available in various shapes, sizes, designs, colors and power output options. Track lighting fixtures are used in homes, work places, art studios, theatres, cinemas, auditoriums and other public places.

Track lighting has the capability to provide directional and focal lighting. It is a natural choice in lighting, made by many. It provides ideal enhancement for areas with excellent general lighting but which need additional focus on accent features. Track lighting is not the popular choice of interior designers for upscale decorating. It is, however, a popular choice in theatres because standard models feature directional cans and enclose bright spotlights. It is well known that tracks have always been most suited to contemporary styling. Designers are now making innovative use of track lighting in homes, as accent or pendant lighting.

Track lighting fixtures, as the name suggests, are made up of a system of canisters or other lamp fixtures. These are attached to a track or a channel, of any desired length or configuration. The most common shapes are ?L? and ?T?. Power is run through the track, to each fixture. Once the track is in place, the positions of the bulb and the head can be adjusted in any direction. This flexibility is accessible, deepening on the flexibility of the tracks. Track lights are usually powered by 120volt fittings. There are bigger and bulkier transformers built into each fixture. Latest designs of track lighting include line voltage and low-voltage lighting. The line voltage units are more effective for rooms with a high ceiling. The low voltage heads are energy efficient.

It is always advisable to have these fixtures installed by professionals.

Lighting Fixtures provides detailed information on Lighting Fixtures, Bathroom Lighting Fixtures, Ceiling Lighting Fixtures, Outdoor Lighting Fixtures and more. Lighting Fixtures is affiliated with Outdoor Lighting.

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