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Chapter 9: Browse other Application Areas

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CHAPTER 9: BROWSE OTHER APPLICATION AREAS Objectives

The objectives are:

• Outline marketing features. • Outline features for jobs and resources. • Explain service management features. • Outline manufacturing features. • Outline features of the warehouse management system. • Review features for human resource management. • Examine the business notification solution. • Outline Commerce Gateway.

Introduction Microsoft Dynamics® NAV 2009 is an ERP product that includes dedicated application features for all typical business activities and for a number of special industries.

Apart from the basic application areas covered, this course introduces all the other supported areas with brief introductions and outlines of the included features. For detailed information on the included areas, refer to the wide selection of special application training offered for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009.

Anyone training to become a product specialist of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 needs to become familiar with which other application areas are supported before deciding on their next step in the training.

Microsoft Official Training Materials for Microsoft Dynamics ® Your use of this content is subject to your current services agreement

Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics® NAV 2009

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Marketing Marketing is a powerful sales tool for companies with sales and marketing teams. The marketing features of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 are integrated with Microsoft Outlook.

The marketing application area gives the user complete and accurate information to improve the quality of every business interaction with a contact.

For detailed information on marketing functionality in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, refer to the "Relationship Management in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009" course.

Contacts

With Contact Management, users can maintain an overview of contacts and record contact information for all business relations. For each contact, they can specify the individual contact people at the contact company. The system automatically alerts users if they enter contact information that already exists. Users can categorize contacts based on their own profiling criteria. Contact Management allows users to personalize their approach to contacts.

To view a contact card, go to: Departments > Sales & Marketing > Marketing > Lists > Contacts. From the Contacts lists, double-click a contact to view it.

FIGURE 9.1 CONTACT CARD IN CRONUS



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Use the contact card to record information about contacts. Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 is integrated with Microsoft Telephony Application Programming Interface (TAPI). By using TAPI compliant telecom devices, users can call a contact simply by clicking a button on the Communication tab of the contact card (the small telephone icon next to the telephone or mobile phone number).

Contacts are tightly integrated with the Sales application area. This means that, for example, users can issue quotes to prospects or create sales documents for specific contact persons.

Contact Search

The Contact Search feature allows users to find a contact in the database even if they cannot remember the exact details of the contact. Even if users misspell a search string, they will still find the contact.

This feature is available from the following places:

• Sales & Marketing menu (under Marketing) • Wizards • Contact list • Contact card

To limit the search, users can search across different fields, such as:

• Name • Address • Telephone No. • E-mail Address

Users can also search across different tables, such as:

• Contact • Interaction Log Entry • To-do • Opportunity • Rlshp. Mgt. Comment Line

Alternatively, users can search across all tables.



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Tasks

Task Management allows users to organize campaign, marketing, and sales tasks.

Users can perform the following functions with Task Management:

• Create to-do lists that can be linked to contacts and/or campaigns. • Assign tasks, composed of several to-dos, to other users or teams of

users recorded in the program.

The No. of To-dos window allows users to view existing to-dos in a number of ways. For example, they can choose to view the number of to-dos or the contact number involved, grouped by campaign, salesperson, team, or contact.

Contact Classification

Contact Classification classifies customers based on criteria specified by the user, for example, to group contacts in terms of revenue.

This feature helps users do the following:

• Plan critical information for campaigns • Target contacts more specifically • Streamline sales and marketing messages

A contact rating system helps users set up specifically tailored ratings which reflect, for example, the importance or loyalty of customers, vendors, and partners. Users can have the ratings displayed on the contact card for quick reference and update.

Campaigns

Campaign Management allows users to organize campaigns based on market segments they create and offers users benefits in the following areas:

• Segmenting contacts • Reusing existing segments • Mail-merging identified segments

Users can segment contacts based on specific criteria, such as sales, contact profiles, and interactions. Additionally, they can perform the following:

• Reuse existing segments by specifying whether these segments are to be updated every time new information on the contact is entered or not

• Freeze the group for follow-up activities, such as direct mailing.



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• Mail-merge the identified segment with a Microsoft® Office Word document or send any other file type to the contacts in the segment.

• Send copies of the same document to people of different nationalities, each of them receiving the document in their native language.

Information about a campaign is entered on the campaign card.

Document Management and Interaction Log

Document Management and Interaction Log gives users the following benefits:

• Logging interactions with contact • Keeping track of documents • Retrieving documents

Users can log the interactions with contacts, such as a telephone call, a meeting, or a letter.

If an interaction contains a document, users can save it under the relevant contact, and Document Management helps them keep track of the document in question.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV documents that are sent to a contact, such as sales orders or quotes, can be logged and retrieved to be used at a later stage. Users get an accurate and up-to-date account of all interactions with the contact.

Opportunities

With Opportunity Management, users can keep track of sales opportunities. As a result, salespeople have an overview of what is in the pipeline and can plan ahead accordingly.

FIGURE 9.2 OPPORTUNITIES WINDOW SHOWING MULTIPLE FILTER OPTIONS



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Opportunity Management helps users divide a sales process into different stages. For example, opportunities can be managed in the Opportunities window, which allows users to view existing opportunities in a number of ways, such as by their value (calculated in a variety of ways), or grouped by:

• Campaign • Salesperson • Contact

Outlook Client Integration

Most employees in sales and marketing build relationships with their contacts using calendar and task management tools, and much of the external communication takes place through Microsoft® Office Outlook®. Therefore, integration between Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 and Outlook is vital to the CRM user's performance.

With the Outlook Client Integration feature, users can perform the following tasks:

• Schedule meetings in Outlook. • View the to-dos in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 before the

meeting. • Log the meeting in the Interaction Log Entries window as an

interaction. • Plan and execute assigned to-dos with the scheduling tool. • Create activities for customers and contact persons.

Whenever information, such as a to-do or a contact, is entered, this information is automatically updated in Outlook. There is no need to update the same information twice in two different applications.

E-Mail Logging for Microsoft Exchange

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 is integrated with the Microsoft Outlook e-mail service. All e-mail correspondence, both inbound and outbound, can be logged automatically or manually in Microsoft Dynamics NAV and can be shared with colleagues. This ensures that they have instant access to the latest communications with business contacts.

This solution is server-based and requires Microsoft Exchange Server. Making the solution server-based ensures that e-mails are kept in their natural environment instead of lowering performance by storing the e-mails on the application server. The integration with Outlook further allows users to use the built-in features in Outlook. For example, they can set up rules in Outlook that direct certain types of e-mail to specific folders for subsequent, automatic logging in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009.



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Jobs and Resources Use the Jobs application area for detailed planning and management of the costing for any long-term job or project activity. Also use it for many types of services and consultancy tasks.

FIGURE 9.3 SCHEMATIC OVERVIEW OF JOB PROCESSES

Successful job management requires an up-to-date overview, detailed planning, and the ability to carry out follow-up analysis using objective data.

The Jobs application area contains all the features that are used with a company's job and project management, including:

• Job cards • Job tasks • Job journals • Reports • Registers

For detailed information about jobs and resource management functionality in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, refer to the "Jobs in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009" course.



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Job Tasks

Job tasks are used to set up, manage, and budget a job.

Users can set up the job tasks almost like the chart of accounts. Job planning in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 has two layers. The first layer consists of job task lines, which are mandatory to enable users to post the job. The second layer consists of planning lines, which specify the detailed use of resources, items, and various G/L expenses.

To view job tasks, go to: Departments > Lists > Jobs > Related Information > Job > Job Task Lines.

FIGURE 9.4 JOB TASK LINES EXISTING IN CRONUS

The integration with the Sales application area allows users to invoice jobs as any other sales invoice.

Job Journals

Job journals are used for the following tasks:

• Posting job consumption resources, items, and general ledger resources.

• Applying job ledger and item ledger entries. • Assigning entries to phases, tasks, and steps. • Reconciling resources.

As a job progresses, there is consumption of materials, resources, and other expenses that must be posted to the job. Users can post consumption in three ways: in a job journal, in a Job G/L journal, or from a purchase invoice.



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Project members will post consumption of resources and items in the job journal, and the account receivables administrators will post purchased items and services in a vendor invoice or in a job G/L journal.

Resources

With the Resources application area, users define resources, which can either be personnel or machines. Users can link the individual resources to resource groups.

This functionality contains all the features that are used with a company's resource management:

• Individual resources • Resource groups • Capacity planning • Resource journals • Reports • Registers

Resources functionality is a powerful tool for optimal management of personnel and/or machines.

Resources are set up and maintained on resource cards. Any number of resource cards can be assigned to a resource group.

Resource Capacity

Users might need to increase the capacity of resources, such as technicians, regularly. A resource's capacity indicates how much of the resource is available in a specified period.

Users can assign or modify capacities to their individual resources or to resource groups. For example, for employees, users can enter the available hours . For machines, users can enter the production capacity for a time frame. It is possible to enter capacity by day, week, month, quarter, year, or accounting period. Users can record resource capacities in the Resource Capacity window.



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To view the resource capacity window, go to: Departments > Resource Planning > Tasks > Resource Capacity > Show Matrix.

FIGURE 9.5 CAPACITY OF RESOURCES IN CRONUS OVER TIME

Resources and Job Integration

The Resources application area and the Jobs application area are integrated, so users can allocate the capacity of a resource or a resource group to one or several jobs.

Resource Journals

Resource journals enables users to keep track of the use of resources and their profitability. Users can generate statistics from this information for internal management purposes. Use and sales of resources cannot be posted in a resource journal.

Resource Statistics

In the Resource Statistics window, users can view all of the transactions recorded in the following areas:

• Job journals • Resource journals • Sales documents



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Service Management Service Management simplifies a user's ability to deliver superior customer service. Service Management allows users to:

• Quickly access customer service history. • Anticipate customer needs. • Maintain real-time records for each order, such as

o Date o Time o Assigned technician

For detailed information about service management functionality in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, refer to the "Service Management in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009" course.

Service Orders

Users can register after-sales issues, including the following:

• Service requests • Services due • Service orders • Repair requests

Note that service requests can be initiated, by customers or automatically, according to the terms stipulated in a service contract.

Critical data in service order handling can be entered from a call-center or repair shop. Users can register ad hoc or one-off service orders. They can access complete service order history, service order quotes, and loaner management through a service order log.



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To view a service order, go to: Departments > Service > Order Processing > Lists > Service Orders. Double-click a service order to view its details.

FIGURE 9.6 A SERVICE ORDER IN CRONUS

Notice that the service order has an information pane like sales documents.

Service Prices

Having a solid service price strategy is one way companies gain an overview of service and control the costs involved in providing service. This also eventually increases the profitability of their service operations. The service price management feature in Service Management gives companies an effective tool to support their service price strategy, whether it is simple or complex.

Service price management allows the service price groups setup to take into consideration the following:

• Service item (or service item group) • Type of fault the service task involves

Service price groups can be set up for a limited period of time and/or for a specific customer or currency. Price calculation structures can be used as templates to assign a price to a service task. This makes it possible to assign specific items included in the service price and the type of work included. And to ensure that the right prices are applied, it is possible to assign fixed, minimum, or maximum prices, depending on agreements with customers. Service price group statistics allow users to keep track of the profitability of each service price group.



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Service Items

With service items, users can create a database for all service items and parts, including the following:

• Contract information • Component management • Reference to the bills of materials • Warranty information

Users can access the Service Level Agreement for information, such as response times, and can perform the following tasks:

• Register all items and spare parts with serial numbers. • Register and track any replacement equipment technicians might use. • Link equipment to the service item log. • Track all spare parts and equipment. • Access key business indicators on service items. • Keep track of service item information on the service item card.

Service Contracts

With service contracts, users can set up an agreement with the customer concerning the service level to be delivered. Users can access information in the following areas:

• Contract history • Contract renewal • Contract templates

Service contracts give users the option to record details on the following:

• Service levels • Response times • Discount levels • Service history of each contract, including:

o Used service items o Parts o Man hours

With service contracts, users can enable flexible invoicing, contract profitability measurement, and contract quotes. Set up service contracts in the Service Contract window.



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To view a service contract, go to: Departments > Service > Contract Management > Lists > Service Contracts. Double-click a service contract to view its details.

FIGURE 9.7 A SERVICE CONTRACT IN CRONUS

Planning and Dispatching

Users can assign personnel to work orders with service planning and dispatching features. Planning tools also allow users to log details such as work order status. Service personnel and field technicians can be filtered according to availability and skills. Users can gain an overview of the following:

• Service task prioritization • Service loads • Task escalations

Job Queue

With the Job Queue feature, users can automate batch jobs, such as the following service tasks:

• Generating preventative service orders • Servicing contract renewals • Servicing contract invoicing



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Use the Job Queue to automatically check and launch batch jobs set to start at a specific time. Access it by clicking Departments > Administration > Application Setup > Job Queue, and then selecting a function (for example, Job Queue Processes).

Manufacturing The manufacturing application area consists of numerous fully integrated features to manage how companies plan, supply, produce, schedule, track, and report manufactured goods.

For detailed information about the manufacturing system within Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, refer to the "Manufacturing I in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009" and "Manufacturing II in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009" courses.

Production BOMs

The production bill of material (BOM) shows the items used to make the parent item. The end-result of a production BOM can be a subassembly (used in another item) or a finished good (an item ready for sale). It is possible for an item to be both a subassembly and a finished good, such as when a part sold as a spare part of another item. The items listed on the production BOM are components.

To view a production BOM, go to: Departments > Manufacturing > Product Design > Lists > Production BOM. Double-click on a production BOM to view its details (for example, Bicycle).

FIGURE 9.8 PRODUCTION BOM SHOWING COMPONENTS TO PRODUCE A BICYCLE



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Routings

A routing specifies the sequence of operations to manufacture a product. The operations can be performed at a work center or at a machine center. Work centers and machine centers are referred to as capacities or facilities. Manufacturing companies use routings to manage and show the production process. The routings are the basis for process scheduling, capacity scheduling, and manufacturing documents.

To view a routing, go to: Departments > Manufacturing > Product Design > Lists > Routings. Double-click on an item to view its routings (for example, Bicycle).

FIGURE 9.9 ROUTING SHOWING OPERATIONS TO PRODUCE A BICYCLE

The routings are assigned to the item card in the same manner as production BOMs.

Work centers and machine centers are critical to establishing routings. They are the locations where work is performed, and have their own setup factors that describe the following:

• Capacities • Number of resources • Shift lengths



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Production Orders

Production orders are business documents that represent planned or ongoing manufacturing operations in machine or work centers. They may change status as they progresses through different planning stages, and once posted, they disappear and become historic entries in the same way as purchase and sales documents.

To view a production order, go to; Departments > Manufacturing > Execution > Lists > Released Prod. Orders. Double-click on a released production order to view its details.

FIGURE 9.10 RELEASED PRODUCTION ORDER FOR 27 BICYCLES

The underlying production BOMs and routing provide the component and time requirements that govern production order ending times in a balanced production schedule of multiple ongoing operations.

Production orders and component purchase orders are often generated by the materials requirement system (MRP) as the result of a calculated supply plan to fulfill demand such as sales orders.

Note that there are three types of production orders (Planned, Firm Planned, and Released). Planned and Firm Planned production orders are part of the planning and forecasting process; in other words, the amount of materials, resources, and time that are expected to be consumed and the number of items to be produced within a given production period. Released production orders are approved orders. This means that it is cleared and ready for production. It is at this point where the consumption of materials, resources, and time are recorded.



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Warehouse Management Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) contains a complete set of features to administrate workflow-based inbound, internal, and outbound warehouse activities in complex warehouse environments. It includes advanced warehouse functionality, such as calculated picks and moves, bin ranking, cross docking, and cycle counting.

For detailed information about WMS for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, refer to the "Warehouse Management in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009" course.

Inbound Items

The system supports the following activities for inbound items:

• Receive • Put away • Cross-dock • Handle serial/lot numbers

To view an inventory put-away list, go to: Departments > Warehouse > Goods Handling Order by Order > Reports > Inventory Put-away List. Click on Preview.

FIGURE 9.11 INVENTORY PUT-AWAY LIST



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Internal Activities

The system supports the following activities for items inside the warehouse:

• Maintain warehouse ledger entries • Move items • Pick and put away internally • Manage shop floor bins • Remove warehouse items • Reclassify warehouse items • Count warehouse items • Set up and use cycle counting

To view a transfer order, go to: Departments > Warehouse > Orders & Contacts > Lists > Transfer Orders. Double-click on a transfer order to view its details.

FIGURE 9.12 A TRANSFER ORDER



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Outbound Items

The system supports the following activities for outbound items:

• Ship Items • Ship cross-docked items • Break bulk when shipping • Pick items with serial/lot numbers

Human Resources Human Resources is a fully integrated application area that enables users to register and update personal information about employees effectively. This application area includes all the features that are used in the human resources department of a company, such as:

• Employee cards • Absence registration • Grounds for termination • Employment contracts • Reports related to employees • Confidential information

To view an employee card, go to: Departments > Human Resources > Lists > Employees. Double-click on an employee name to view more information.

FIGURE 9.13 EMPLOYEE CARD SHOWING RELATED FEATURES



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Business Notification The Business Notification solution is used to generate and send notifications to inform vendors or colleagues from other departments about certain events. For example, users can send a notification when they have placed an order and received some of the purchased items, but they are waiting for delivery of the rest of the order. Sending a notification alerts the supplier that some of the goods have not yet been delivered. When this feature is enabled in the Notification Setup window, the program sends out six predefined notifications.

Notification Types

There are two approaches to generating notifications:

• Time-based • Field change-based

The Business Notification solution offers five time-based notifications that alert the recipient about the following:

• Upcoming deliveries • Items that were not received after the promised receipt date • Purchase order confirmations that were not received • Delayed production orders • Current inventory status

Notification Features

Logging Period

Users can define how long they want to store sent notification entries. They can specify this period in the Notification Setup window and use it as a default for all time-based notification, or they can assign a logging period to each separate batch.

Batches

Batches are used for managing a specific set of notifications. Users can choose to send out up to five predefined time-based notifications for your batch. Field change-based notifications are sent out automatically.



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Sending Notifications

To send notification lines, users must first collect them. Among the lines collected, there might be some notification entries that were sent earlier. If the lines were sent earlier, there will be a check mark in the Sent field for these lines and the most recent time the notification was sent will be posted in the Notification Lines window.

eCommerce The eCommerce functionality in Microsoft Dynamics NAV is performed using Commerce Gateway. The functionality uses NAS and Biztalk.

Commerce Gateway

The Commerce Gateway functionality allows users to set up BizTalk Server partners from within Microsoft Dynamics NAV. After this setup is complete, users can exchange BizTalk documents through the BizTalk server.

The following business documents can be sent and received:

• Sales orders • Sales invoices • Sales credit memos • Purchase orders

To access Commerce Gateway, from the Role Center go to: Departments > Administration > Application Setup > Commerce Gateway.

Summary Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 includes application areas with rich features for all typical ERP processes. Knowing a little about them will help partners and users decide which courses to attend to learn about the application areas of their interest.



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Quick Interaction: Lessons Learned Take a moment and write down three key points you have learned from this chapter

1.

2.

3.



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na2009 enus int_09

Technology

contact card

contact toview

contact company

microsoft dynamicsnav

marketing application

individual contact people

sales application area

service management features