ERP Software Blog

Recent blog posts regarding the “real” differences between Microsoft Dynamics NAV and AX have been popular submissions. The level of interest indicates that additional analysis may be beneficial.

First, let’s set aside one of the biggest hindrances to receiving an unbiased analysis from your Microsoft partner: your Microsoft partner. Your partner’s comfort level with a product—based on issues like bench strength, industry knowledge, product expertise, and technical savvy—may cause them to champion a product that is right for them, but not necessarily the best solution for your business. 

I’ve asked my colleague Thom Doss to help write this series because of his impressive background in business, technology, and ERP software. I’m sure Thom’s unbiased analysis will give you a lot to chew on regarding the dramatic differences between Microsoft Dynamics NAV and AX.

Before we start this series, Thom would like everyone to know that he Loves NAV!  As a customer shopping for ERP software in early 2000, he found the combination of comprehensive business logic, ease of use, and extensibility of the product to be a perfect fit for the manufacturing company that he ran IT for.  But the IT landscape has changed since then, and the competition is a lot better than it was before.

Given the recent direction and progress of both NAV and AX, it is getting increasingly difficult to find situations where “when all things are considered,” there isn’t a clear and obvious right choice in ERP software. The problem is that all things are rarely considered. That’s what we’ll be doing here over the next few weeks—widening the scope beyond the obvious and taking a hard look at the long-term cost of ownership of customizable (source-code) ERP.

Customization Comes with a Price

Before we get into the product comparisons, though, let’s take a look at issues facing customers who choose source code products for the ability to tailor the solution to their business,  companies who need to preserve the ‘secret sauce’ that has made them successful.  Many of these companies have been successful modifying ERP packages to support unique business requirements, but that success has come with a price. Here are just a few of the technical issues facing customers who need to modify their ERP:

1. The extent of the customizations can complicate upgrades.
2. ERP developer rates are typically higher than C# or VB programmers, and there are fewer of them. Programmers move around and companies want options when sourcing development.
3. Agile development with many ERP packages can be difficult:
   1. The development environment in many packages does not seamlessly support industry best practices when it comes to development, maintenance, and documentation.
   2. The state of the art in software development has changed significantly in recent years. Tools that allow for sophisticated analysis and modeling before any coding are commonplace in .Net shops, but rare in ERP development.
   3. The lack of business modeling capability has led to a ‘code first’ mentality in many ERP developers.
   4. For multi-national organizations, the effort to support localized development can be significant.

These aren’t just NAV or AX problems; they apply to any extensible ERP. While there are many businesses that will never completely avoid ‘modifying’ their ERP solution, modifying the source code to an ERP should always be seen as a last resort when you consider the TCO of a given ‘customization’.

Because of issues like these, many companies are re-thinking the way they approach customizing ERP solutions:

1. They need to customize in a way that allows them to upgrade more easily and more often to take full advantage of investments the publisher is making in the product.
2. They need to leverage external tools that can extend the business logic and collaboration to people who may not have the ERP client, or may not have access to the client all of the time.
3. They need actionable business intelligence that tells them what exceptions to focus on.
4. Multi-national organizations with distributed development staffs need to be able to work effectively and efficiently between those groups.

The industry is moving toward multiple options to solve business requirements.  Even though it is possible to solve most problems using procedural logic in an ERP, it is often not the best long-term solution. Lowering your TCO on a customizable ERP requires bringing the right tool to the table for different requirements. To do this, you need a product that gives you multiple options for extending both the functionality and reach of the application.

Next week we will look at two horizontal technologies customers should consider critical when evaluating ERP software: workflow foundation and SQL Server Reporting Services.

I am looking forward to a lively discussion.

Peter Joeckel is the President and Founder of TurnOnDynamics a Microsoft Dynamics Partner servicing Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas (TOLA) manufacturing firms. TurnOnDynamics has extensive experience with Microsoft Dynamics GP, NAV and AX.

TurnOnDynamics focuses on the strategic concerns of executives and owners with a uniqueDynamic CFO Service.

Thom Doss has a long and distinguished career in the ERP software field. He has worked in the partner (VAR) community, at Microsoft, and has been on the customer side of the fence. He is a certified developer on a number of platforms, including Dynamics NAV and Dynamics AX. He is also a MCSD, a MCDBA and works with clients and partners to leverage SharePoint and Dynamics CRM in the context of their ERP implementations.

Thom is available on interesting projects that concern manufacturing, sophisticated but troubled Microsoft Dynamics NAV implementations, and Dynamics NAV to AX projects. He can be contacted directly by leaving a note here or on his LinkedIn page.

ERP Software Blog Repost 

FRx rides into the sunset at the end of a glorious career. I for one am a little sad!

First, some history, I sold FRx back in the 90’s when it was the property of Platinum (now SAGE). How Platinum lost the exclusive rights to the use of FRX is a great story. Those were great days! We could sell copies of the Advanced Platinum General Ledger package by showing people FRx and never showing them a SINGLE screen of the actual GL!

People would actually say, “I want to buy that software with the (pick one) cleaver/drill”.

At one point I had two consultants that did nothing but write FRx reports for clients 40 hours a week after week after week. That is also known as the good old days. So now it feels like an old friend is being sent to the assisted living home…and we have to wonder if we are far behind.

But enough nostalgia, the question for Microsoft Dynamics users is now what? The answer from Microsoft is Management Reporter and from all I have seen it will be a worthy successor being more technically and functionally robust. There is a ton of great information available on the product; several examples on this site (just type FRx or Management Reporter in the Search box located in the upper right hand of this post).

For me, the issue with Management Reporter just like FRx before it is that most people are most comfortable working in Excel. It is great that there are so many tools available so that data ENDS UP in Excel but why not START there? That is why we have been working with our clients with a great Excel add-in tool from Global Software called Spreadsheet Server (note: it DOES NOT require a “server”…it serves up data into Excel…great software, so-so name).

What is great about the Spreadsheet Server product for me is that you create your Excel reports directly in Excel by linking to the Microsoft Dynamics GP data. There is no other tool to learn. That dramatically cuts down on training time and increases the number of folks in an organization likely to use it.

But wait…don’t buy now…there is more!

I have seen the products several times now and here is how I see the functionality at a high level. There are five components to the software and I am going to give you a potential scenario for each:

·         Spreadsheet Server - (serves data…does not need an additional hardware “server”). If you do any of your financial analysis/reporting in Excel this creates reports by linking directly to the GP database. Reports are instantly refreshable with drilldown capabilities. This alone is worth the price of admission for most companies.

·         Executive Dashboard – combine data from ANY database in a refreshable Excel spreadsheet for reporting and KPI capabilities.

·         Enterprise Budgeting – set up, manage and control your budgeting process in Excel. Budgeting for most folks is out of control as they try to manage multiple spreadsheets.

·         Distribution Manager – determine who, when and in what format all your reports are distributed in.

·         Write back – write data from Excel directly to the GP database. Imagine if you had to do a mass price update to thousands of inventory items. Export to Excel…do a global 10% price increase and write back to the inventory file. Priceless.

The common denominator here is that there is no rekeying or data manipulation that takes up a lot of time and creates tons of errors. The product has been around a long time in the Tier 1 (Oracle, SAP, etc.) world and we are bringing it to the GP marketplace.

Since Spreadsheet Server links directly to the SQL database all information is current and up to date, just hit the refresh button. But what about the drill you say? That is the best part to Spreadsheet Server…you can drill down into your data directly from your Excel spreadsheet.

Peter Joeckel is the President and Founder of TurnOnDynamics a Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly Great Plains) partner servicing the Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas (TOLA) manufacturing firms. Perhaps most uniquely, TurnOnDynamics focuses on the strategic concerns of executives and owners with a unique Dynamic CFO Service.

ERP Software Blog

Microsoft Dynamics GP is the perfect manufacturing solution for small to medium sized manufacturing companies!

Oh really? I can almost hear the cries of outrage (or laughter) from the vertical manufacturing software publishers and even from the NAV and the AX crowd.

Stay with me for a minute, I have sold Dynamics AX and implemented much more expensive and sophisticated software, so let me explain.

My practical experience tells me that most manufacturing software deals in the small and mid-market are horribly oversold in the frenzied RFP/demo sales cycle that leaves everyone behind the eight ball. Customers’ expectations are sky high, their heads swimming with advanced functionality that they will never be able to implement and the VAR/consultant/reseller has set the expectations bar so high that the only possible result can be disappointment or a failed implementation (nobody has ever had one of those…right)?

One of my many favorite sayings during the manufacturing sales cycle is that a lot of small and medium sized manufacturing companies would get a lot more out of a $1.98 padlock on their raw materials area than from an MRP system that never gets implemented.

The broken MRP/Demo sales cycle (aka Vendor Olympics) produces an endless cycle of increased functional competition between vendors vying for that rare new system sale. The market is flooded with boilerplate RFP’s that include a wide range of sophisticated manufacturing capabilities that are best suited for a Fortune 500 Company. And if it is in the RFP response then the pressure is on the vendor to “check yes” or risk being eliminated early on in the decision making process.

In a market that has been essentially dead for many years, how many vendors look at an RFP and tell the prospect, “Hey, not sure why shop floor control and parameterized scheduling is on your RFP, probably not going to be able to get that implemented”? My guess is not many. And so a company that does not have work centers or routings and sometimes not evens a bill of materials ends up with inflated expectations and a bunch of software destined to sit on the shelf forever.

That brings me to one of the great reasons why Microsoft Dynamics GP is a perfect manufacturing solution for the small to mid-sized manufacturing company: simplified “back flush” manufacturing capability using Quick MO’s.

By implementing a manufacturing solution that utilizes a bill of material along with a simple back flush manufacturing process a manufacturing firm can get 80% of the critical inventory and production control that they need for 20% of the cost and effort. In a back flush environment we keep accurate track of raw material, work in process (WIP) and finished goods. Inventory counts and product costing are accomplished with a simple two step manufacturing process:

·         Step 1 - manufacturing orders are in production. Raw materials are moved into WIP.

·         Step 2 – manufacturing orders are completed. WIP becomes finished goods and production costs are allocated.

The key here is that this system tells us quickly and easily what inventory is in raw material, WIP and finished goods at all times. It does not tell us where in a production cycle WIP is at any time. While that is great to know, and Microsoft Dynamics GP has the functional capability to answer that question, the great majority of small and medium sized manufacturing companies do not have the resources or data needed to implement software and procedures to answer that question.

Next time let’s look at some of the other reasons why Microsoft Dynamics GP is “the perfect manufacturing solution” and let’s dig a little deeper into Quick MO’s and simplified back flush manufacturing.

Peter Joeckel is the President and Founder of TurnOnDynamics a Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly Great Plains) partner servicing the Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas (TOLA) manufacturing firms. TurnOnDynamics focuses on the strategic concerns of executives and owners with a unique Dynamic CFO Service.

TurnOnDynamics is pleased to announce that we have been invited to participate in the ERP Software Blog. This is our first post for that site.

Microsoft Dynamics GP Manufacturing – Blog Qualifications and Thanks

First and foremost I would like to thank two wonderful ladies without whom I would not have the opportunity to post on this exciting site. Barbara Pfeiffer from Nurture Marketing suggested that I might be a good candidate to blog on here and somehow I was able to convince Anya Ciecierski the ERP/CRM SoftwareBlog Co-Founder that she was right.

Barbara has done a terrific job of helping Microsoft partner’s fine tune their social marketing skills and her programs are worth their weight in gold.  Anya has already provided invaluable insight to me on web site design and how to write an effective blog (this probably does not conform). In her spare time Anya is also the Marketing Manager at CAL Business Solutions a respected Microsoft Dynamics GP VAR based in Connecticut.

Both have had to put up with an inordinate number of questions from me as I try to figure out what I am doing here.

Thank you!

When I read a new blog I always wonder what qualifies the writer to offer up his opinions on the particular subject matter at hand. Does he have credibility based on a substantive body of work or is this regurgitated marketing fluff intended to increase SEO and sell stuff? Well I assume that you would wonder the same.

What am I planning to write about, and what are my subject matter credentials?

First, I plan to write about mid-market ERP software: how to buy it, install it and how to avoid project failure. Of particular interest to me because of my experience is manufacturing software for small to medium sized companies.

Second, my software bias, because no one is unbiased, is towards Microsoft Dynamics ERP but I have a wealth of industry experience with a broad range of other vendors’ products and I will temper that bias based on facts not opinion. As a total aside, how cognitive bias affects the selection of complex software solutions is a fascinating topic for me and may the topic of a future post.

I believe that my experience level in this subject matter is unique from an educational and work experience perspective.

My course work in earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University in New York dealt specifically with topics that directly relate to optimizing manufacturing plants, operations and processes. How many people trying to sell you manufacturing software can explain the multivariate linear equation techniques used to solve MRP calculations? (I probably can’t do it any more either but I thought it would sound impressive)..

From school I went directly into the Tier 1 manufacturing software implementation consulting world with Price Waterhouse which at the time was one of the “Big Eight” they are now the big two or three…which gives you an idea as to how long I have been at this). There I learned about the level of expertise and project management that is required to implement complex multi-million dollar ERP systems.

I was in the workplace when PC’s hit the scene and was fascinated with their potential for running smaller manufacturing companies with emerging software products like ACCPAC and Macola.

In 1986 I started my first mid-market ERP software sales and Implementation company. The first sale was a complete act of faith on the part of the customer. There was no installed base, no references and no track record of success for me to point to. My guess is that was and will be my best sales job ever. I also think that is why I focus on what a software package has instead of what it is missing.

The rest as they say is history. Since that first day I have been helping companies select, install and run mid-market ERP software solutions. While, the industry has and continues to change dramatically, what has not changed is that I have always tried to represent the best products available at any particular time and help companies implement them with a high degree of expertise and credibility. Over the years those products have included ACCPAC, Macola, Syspro, Platinum, SAP and various iterations of SAGE products. Today I am an unabashed fan of Microsoft Dynamics GP and AX (formerly Great Plains and Axapta respectively) and hope to be able to effectively pass along the reasons for that

The intention of this blog therefore  will be to pass along what I have learned to hopefully help in the process of selecting, implementing and running a world class manufacturing system not just as a tactical tool but as a strategic weapon.

I am looking forward to the discussion.

Peter Joeckel is the President and Founder of TurnOnDynamics a Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly Great Plains) partner servicing the Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas (TOLA) manufacturing firms. TurnOnDynamics focuses on the strategic concerns of executives and owners with a unique Dynamic CFO Service.

Today's post is going to focus on some exciting announcements that we have to make at TurnOnDynamics.

The catch phrase “Leveraging the Microsoft Technology Stack” has its genesis in our philosophy to not just build another “Dynamics VAR” but rather to focus on those technologies and services that turn a tactical ERP system into a strategic business advantage. At that point you add “bottom line” value to a business, its owners and the “C-Level” executive.

To that end I would like to make two exciting announcements that are going to further our ability as a company to provide high level products and services to our clients:

• The addition of James Creech to our management team as CFO and Vice President of Financial Consulting Services.
• Dynamic CFO Services (DynamicCFO), a “fractional CFO” service that will offer executive level capabilities at an affordable price to smaller and medium sized companies.

In the role of Vice President of Financial Consulting Services, James will be responsible for building our Dynamic CFO Services business.  James bring tremendous value due to his extensive financial executive experience, proven track record of infrastructure development / building, sell and buy side transaction preparation and work in preparation for IPO’s.  James has spent most of his executive career utilizing a team approach, best practices and experience to create or improve business process and performance resulting in improved scalability and sustainability.

This type of experiences is invaluable to growing small and midsize companies but normally not affordable as a permanent internal resource.  These “fractional CFO” services, coupled with our existing software implementation capabilities, will result in becoming strategic partners with our clients rather than simply software consultants.

Peter Joeckel is the President of TurnOnDynamics and has spent almost thirty years selecting and implementing ERP systems.

If you need to write a check to a vendor prior to receiving the invoice, there are 2 possible ways to handle it.

1. If you plan on just hand writing a check, you can enter that check as a manual check (Purchasing – Transactions – Manual Payments) without applying it to an invoice.  After the invoice is received, just enter it and post it as usual.  Then apply the prepayment to the invoice using Apply payables Documents (Purchasing – Transactions – Apply Payables Documents).  Enter the Vendor ID and select the prepayment document number.  Check the box beside the invoice that the prepayment was written to pay. 
2. If however, you want to print the check rather than handwriting it, here is the procedure to follow.  Go to Purchasing – Transactions – Edit Checks.

• A new payment number will be created and the rest of the information will be blank except for the apply date which defaults to your current user date.  Enter an existing batch ID if you wish to write the check with a batch that you have already created.  Or, if you enter a batch ID that doesn’t exist, you will be asked if you wish to add the batch.  If you say yes, you can select your check book and enter the desired check date and posting date.  Click Save to save the batch and return to the Edit Checks screen. 
• Select the vendor that you would like to pay and enter the amount of the check in the unapplied field.  When you tab off the unapplied field, you will notice that the check amount field contains the same value as the unapplied field.  You will of course not worry about applying the amount at this time as you have no invoice to apply it to.  Instead, you will follow the same scenario as above to apply the payment to the invoice after the invoice is received and entered.  You can now proceed to print your check(s) as you normally would.

At Convergence 2011 held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Microsoft announced that it is “All In” on the Cloud for ERP.

Predictably there has been a lot of chatter on the web regarding this announcement. As is the case with most software announcements, there are a lot of folks ready to point out the flaws in the strategy.

As an interested participant in Microsoft being successful in the cloud I have been following the conversations and there is an issue that has struck me as particularly annoying: the “benefits” of single-tenant versus multi-tenant cloud solutions.

For a good explanation of single versus multi-tenant concepts check out this post: CLOUD ERP - IS MICROSOFT JUST CONFUSING EVERYBODY?

Additionally, if you have an specific interest in ERP for manufacturing take a look at this video: FRANK SCAVO ON MANUFACTURING IN THE CLOUD.

(As an aside, why do people always want to listen to experts that have forgotten more than you remember…seems counterintuitive to me…just saying).

If you read the blog entry carefully it establishes the opinion that if you are going to get ERP in the cloud it is best to get it from a vendor that has “done it right with software that is multi-tenant”. It even gives you a handy list to tell if your vendor’s software is multi-tenant. The clear implication is that multi-tenant = bad and single-tenant=bad. (I smell vendor bias here but then I am old, cynical and biased myself).

I would never argue the technical benefits of true multi-tenant software versus traditional applications delivered via the cloud in a single-tenant environment, but I don’t think that is the issue. If it is then once again we have confused what is good or elegant from an IT standpoint versus what works for the end user, the ultimate customer.

It is my experience that your typical functional application user could care less if their software is single tenant, nth tenant or beamed to them via gamma rays from space aliens. They just want to enter their batch of reversing journal entries as quickly and efficiently as possible. The key is, and always will be that business processes are managed in the best possible fashion. Can anyone remember the last successful business application designed and implemented by the IT department?

That is why in some cases it is better to have a tried and true business application like Microsoft Dynamics GP with rich and deep functional capabilities than a less complete “web 2.0 technology application” delivered to you via the cloud to run your business, regardless of the single versus multi-tenant issue.

The Frank Scavo video gives a great example of how the newer cloud based systems force companies (in this case he is discussing manufacturing companies that do typically need more customization) to decide if a software product that does not meet all of their needs is acceptable. The new technology is not very well suited for customization so the decision has to be made if the cloud pricing and model is better than a traditional on premise solution that has the capability to meet more functional requirements, even if that application can be perfectly delivered from the cloud albeit in a single tenant mode.

In my experience the back end architecture on how a solution is delivered should not be a factor in the buying decision. The ONLY decision factors should be cost and functionality. The single-tenant versus multi-tenant discussion is all about technology that impacts the economics for the software provider. It only impacts the customer if a technology decision is made that ultimately saddles the customer with a lack of functionality.

Peter Joeckel is the President of TurnOnDynamics and has spent almost thirty years selecting and implementing ERP systems.

Microsoft Convergence 2011 held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia just finished and according to a lot of the “buzz” this is the year that Microsoft is “all in” on the Cloud for ERP.

Specifically, “Make no mistake, when it comes to the cloud, Microsoft's all in,” Ballmer noted. “We believe that ERP and CRM should really be for everyone, not just the technology elite.

As is the case with a lot of ERP advancements at Microsoft these days a lot of attention is focused on Microsoft Dynamics CRM and AX. Dynamics AX 2012, previewed at the event, will allow customers to run the application both on premises, in a traditional model, online, or as a hybrid. That agility across the cloud could be a game-changer, Ballmer noted.

All of this talk about being “all in” makes me think that they have been playing a bit of No Limit Texas Hold’em back in the offices in Seattle, which reminds me of a story. Back in the day, arguably the nicest and toughest poker room in Vegas was in The Mirage and the majority of games were still limit. One night there was a huge buzz in the room because Bill Gates himself was playing.

Legend has it, as told by Bill, that he was quite the card shark in college and that he supported himself nicely with his poker winnings. So here he was, the richest man in the world playing at a $1-3 table (ask a friend that plays). Word quickly spread that he was “weak tight” and might as well have been playing with his hole cards face up (same style as my good poker playing, Microsoft Cloud offering David Greer).

Interesting that a guy that could have bought the casino with money he dug out of his sofa cushions was playing ultra-conservatively at a “small” table. As an aside, the same night I had a guy call a $2k raise with an inside straight that sent me off to see Siegfried and Roy (the elephant poop story from THAT show is a classic.).

But back to “The Cloud” - if you are interested in Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly Great Plains) and would like to run it as a service or “In the Cloud” then there are many options already available to you today. My suggestion is that you carefully select a partner that has the proper security to ensure the safety of your data.

TurnOnDynamics and our Food and Beverage Industry vertical solution TurnOnFood take advantage of the advanced hosting skills of Microsoft Partner SaaSplaza and their SAS70 Type II Certification.

 SAS-70 is the world leading auditing standard for Service Providers such as SaaSplaza that found its origin in supporting SOX compliancy in the USA. SaaSplaza is SAS Type II certified since 2006 and is only one of the few Service Providers in the world who qualifies for this standard. With a SAS-70 Type II certificate SaaSplaza demonstrate that it has taken measures to prevent adverse effects on customer data caused by flawed processes and IT systems. Conversely, without a SAS-70 Type II statement there is no evidence that relevant management controls operate effectively.

In layman’s terms SAS-70 provides “banking level” of transaction security. If your hosting partner does not have this certification it may be because they decided to be in “the Cloud” by sticking a server in the closet and declaring themselves to be a hosting partner. Make sure that YOUR data is safe by carefully vetting your potential service provider and their systems, processes and people.

Another interesting point is that SaaSplaza literally “wrote the Book” for hosting Microsoft Dynamics GP. SaaSplaza has worked together with Microsoft in the creation of the Microsoft Dynamics GP hosting guide. This guide is intended to help new or existing Service Providers plan and build a Microsoft Dynamics GP hosted service by incorporating the concepts and issues needed to consider when hosting Microsoft Dynamics GP. This White Paper discusses the best practices for planning, building, and deploying a hosting service for Microsoft Dynamics GP.

Peter Joeckel is the President of TurnOnDynamics.

If you regularly have lengthy addresses and feel the need to add a third address line in GP, here is how you can do it.

Customer and Vendor cards in GP have 3 address lines in addition to the City, State, and Zip Code fields.  However, reports such as invoices and purchase orders use only 2 of these address lines by default. 

Print the report to screen that you want to change.  With the printed document on your screen, click the Modify button (requires security rights to use Report Writer).  This will automatically bring up the GP report writer with this document ready for modifying.

Look at the address lines that already exist on the form and make a note of their name.  These are probably calculated fields and you will want to look them up and see what data fields are being used as well as the actual calculation.  To do that, go to the Toolbox on the left side of the screen.  On the Toolbox Layout tab, choose Calculated Fields from the drop down box.

For my example, I am going to use the Bill To address on the SOP Blank Invoice form.  For this address, I will see Bill To Address Line 1, Bill To Address Line 2, and Bill To Address Line 3 listed as calculated fields.  Select one and click the Open button on the Toolbox.

You will see the calculation in the Expressions Calculated box.  You will not be able to see the whole expression in the box as it is too long.  Use the arrow buttons on the side to scroll back and forth.

These calculations usually use the rw_SelectAddrLine function which will look at each address line and omit the printing of any blank lines.  To add a fourth line, you will have to not only add the fourth line, but you will need to edit each of the existing lines.  The calculation for Bill To Address Line 1 is FUNCTION_SCRIPT(rw_SelectAddrLine  1 “”  RM_Customer_MSTR_ADDR.Address 1  RM_Customer_MSTR_ADDR.Address 2 “” “” RM_Customer_MSTR_ADDR.City RM_Customer_MSTR_ADDR.State RM_Customer_MSTR_ADDR.Zio “”).  Bill To Address Line 2 looks the same except that is has a 2 immediately after the function name so that it looks this:  FUNCTION_SCRIPT(rw_SelectAddrLine  2 “”  RM_Customer_MSTR_ADDR.Address 1  RM_Customer_MSTR_ADDR.Address 2 “” “” RM_Customer_MSTR_ADDR.City. The 3^rd address line will have a 3 in that position.  You must edit each of these to add the 3^rd address line and remove the second set of double quotes.  So the edited calculation will be FUNCTION_SCRIPT(rw_SelectAddrLine  1 “”  RM_Customer_MSTR_ADDR.Address 1  RM_Customer_MSTR_ADDR.Address 2 RM_Customer_MSTR_ADDR.Address 3“” RM_Customer_MSTR_ADDR.City RM_Customer_MSTR_ADDR.State RM_Customer_MSTR_ADDR.Zio “”).  To delete the double quotes, place your cursor on it and click the Remove button.  To add the data field for the 3^rd address, you will need to select the Fields tab and select the desired data file from the Resources drop down box.  Select Address 3 from the list of Fields in the data file.  Be sure that you have your cursor in the location where the double quotes was before clicking the Add button so that it will place the field in the proper location. 

For this example, the proper file is the Customer Master Address File.

After you have edited the existing 3 address lines, you will want to add the 4^th line.  Click the New button to add a new calculated field.  To be consistent, we will name it Bill To Address Line 4. 

Choose String for the Result Type and select Calculated as the Expression Type.  To add the function, click the Functions tab and select User-Defined and System as the Core.  From the Function drop down, scoll down until you find rw_SelectAddrLine.  Click the Add button and it will be inserted into the Calculated Expressions field

Next choose the Constants tab and select the Type of Integer and enter a Constant of 4.  Click the Add button to place a 4 immediately after the function.

Change the Constant type to String and leave the Constant field blank.  Click Add and a double quote will be inserted after the 4 that you just added.  To add the Address data fields, select the Fields tab and choose the Customer Master Address File from the Resources drop down.  From the Field drop down choose Address 1 and click Add.

Then choose Address 2 and Address 3  - click Add after each.  After the 3 address fields, insert another constant of type string that is blank so that another double quote is inserted.  Go back to the Fields tab and select the City, State and Zip fields so that each of those are added to the expression.  The last thing is another blank string constant which will put a final double quote into the expression.  Be sure that the expression ends with a ending parentheses (this should have been inserted when you inserted the function).  Now click OK to save your new calculated field.  You will have to select the new field and drag it onto the report.  You will probably have to move other fields around a bit to make room for it.

For your report, you will have to substitute the appropriate table and fields depending on the report and address that you are modifying.

A Microsoft Word version of this post is available, complete with screenshots, by sending a request to Shirley at: smccutcheon@TurnOnDynamics.com

Shirley is a Master Dynamics GP Consultant at TurnOnDynamics.

Back in the early 80’s at my very first job out of college I was introduced to the world’s first spreadsheet program, VisiCalc, running on an early model Apple computer. By the mid 80’s I was a junior consultant working at Price Waterhouse where I was cranking out spreadsheets in Lotus 123 that in some cases literally were sold to clients for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Interesting historical notes:

• At that time Price Waterhouse was a member of the Big Eight.
• An organization existed where I was the technical resource.
• Mitch Kapor who invented VisiCalc never patented it. Legend has it that the cost of the patent was too high. So the man who invented the software genre that has given us immeasurable increases in productivity and that seemingly no business can live without, basically gets a big historical attaboy while Mark Zuckerberg invents the greatest time wasting machine in the history of mankind, Facebook, and HE is worth billions. Excuse me while I deposit some more real money to buy virtual produce on my Farmville account…but I digress.

So why all the nostalgic ruminations about spreadsheets? If you are about my age you may remember the first time someone told you spreadsheet software would change your business life. I remember that moment, and the more it was explained to me the more confusing it sounded. But the minute I saw my first spreadsheet in action…it was instant understanding and a thousand applications flooded my head.

I see SharePoint in the same way!

It seems that for the last several years every Microsoft meeting that I have attended had some SharePoint pitch when I specifically showed up to see if anyone had finally figured out how to effectively sell and market ERP software and who was hiding all of my leads. No matter how many PowerPoint presentations I saw on the topic I just did not get it.

Worn down by all the hype, I finally decided to take a look and I get it. Just like spreadsheets I see SharePoint as the application that every company will eventually not want to live without.

Dynamics GP(formerly Great Plains) now comes with a wide variety of features that leverage SharePoint in such a way as to turn it into a strategic management tool. At TurnOnDynamics this is one of the primary tools that we use when we leverage the Microsoft technology stack.

Contact us and let us show you how.

Peter Joeckel is the President of TurnOnDynamics.