Microsoft Dynamics Navision- An Overview

Navision Attain® Overview 3.60

NOTICE

This material is for informational purposes only. Navision a/s disclaims all

warranties and conditions with regard to use of the material for other

purposes. Navision a/s shall not, at any time, be liable for any special, direct, indirect or consequential damages, whether in an action of contract,

negligence or other action arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of the material. This material is subject to change without

notice.

According to Danish copyright legislation it is against the law to reproduce

any part of this material in any form or by any means without the

permission of Navision a/s.

The software described is supplied under license and must be used and

copied in accordance with the enclosed license terms and conditions.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Copyright 2002 Navision a/s, Frydenlunds Allé 6, 2950 Vedbaek,

Denmark. All rights reserved.

TRADEMARKS

The trademarks referenced herein and marked with either TM or are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Navision a/s or Navision

Development a/s. However, the trademarks Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, SQL Server and BackOffice are either registered trademarks or

trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other

countries.

Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved.

The trademarks of Navision a/s and Navision Development a/s are listed on this Web site: http://trademarks.navision.com

The Arial font was used.

Published by Navision a/s.

Published in Denmark 2002.

DocID: AT-360-SST-001-V1.00.W1W1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1.

INTRODUCTION 1-1

1.1 About Navision Attain Overview Course 1-2

1.2 Installing Navision Attain 1-4

CHAPTER 2.

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 2-1

2.1 General Ledger 2-2

2.2 Sales & Receivables 2-12

2.3 Purchases & Payables 2-18

2.4 Fixed Assets 2-24

2.5 Resources 2-28

2.6 Jobs 2-33

2.7 Human Resources 2-35

2.8 Review Questions 2-40

CHAPTER 3.

SUPPLY CHAIN COLLABORATION 3-1

3.1 Inventory 3-2

3.2 Warehouse Management 3-11

3.3 Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) 3-

14

3.4 Manufacturing 3-18

TABLE OF CONTENTS

3.5 Capacity Requirements Planning 3-26


CHAPTER 4.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT 4-1

4.1 CRM – Marketing & Sales 4-2

4.2 CRM – Service 4-8


CHAPTER 5.

TECHNOLOGY 5-1

5.1 C/SIDE Development Environment 5-2

5.2 Server Options 5-7

5.3 Navision Attain Application Server 5-10

5.4 Multilanguage Functionality 5-12

5.5 Commerce Gateway 5-15

5.6 Commerce Portal 5-18

5.7 User Portal 5-23


Appendix A. I

INDEX 1

PREFACE

Navision Attain is a cost effective, end-to-end business solution that is

integrated, upgradeable and adaptable for all mid-market needs. It’s

intended for companies with annual revenue of 5 - 250 million US dollars. It includes functionality to help organizations reduce the burden of daily

administrative tasks and optimize internal and external communication and interaction.

This course is a general overview of all application areas in Navision Attain.

Below you can see the curriculum for Navision Attain:

This course is designed for students who want to pass the Navision Attain Overview test and enter into the Navision Attain Certification Program.

Preface

Chapter 1.

Introduction

This chapter describes the overall structure of the

Navision Attain Overview course and how to install Navision Attain on your computer.

The chapter contains these sections:

1.1 About Navision Attain Overview

1.2 Installing Navision Attain

1-2 Navision Attain® Overview

1.1 ABOUT NAVISION ATTAIN OVERVIEW COURSE

This Navision Attain Overview Course is primarily a self-study course

designed to give you an overview of all application areas in Navision Attain.

Course Organization

The course consists of the following chapters:

• Financial Management

• Supply Chain Collaboration

• Relationship Management

• Technology

• Appendix A: Cronus International Company History

Target Audience

The course is primarily aimed at new NSC employees who want a general overview of Navision Attain either for the purpose of demonstrating it to

customers or as a basis for going on to further specialist training. It can also be used for end users.

Course Prerequisites

None.

Course Objectives

The course gives a basic introduction and overview of Navision Attain to new NSC employees.

Course Overview

Chapter 2, Financial Management, introduces you to the General Ledger,

Sales & Receivables, Purchases & Payables, Fixed Assets, Resources,

Jobs, and Human Resources application areas.

Chapter 3, Supply Chain Collaboration, provides you with information about

the Distribution (including Inventory and Warehouse Management), Manufacturing, and Capacity Requirements Planning application areas.

Introduction 1-3

Chapter 4, Customer Relationship Management, introduces you to the Relationship Management and the Service Management application areas.

Chapter 5, Technology, introduces you to the C/SIDE development

environment, the GUI interface, the Multilanguage features, the application server and the server options (databases) available. Furthermore it

introduces you to Commerce Portal, Commerce Gateway and User Portal.

Course Duration

The course is primarily designed as a self-study course. We recommend that the course is taught in one day.

Dates

The dates in the course material are in the American format. In order to avoid confusion when reading the material, it is a good idea to change the

date format in Windows before starting the training session.

The working date is set at 01/25/01 (January 25, 2001).

Demonstration Data

All demonstration data in Navision Attain are based on a fictitious company, CRONUS International Ltd. The demonstration data required is sometimes

set up only in one location. To make sure that you have access to the relevant data, you must log on using the appropriate location as the log on

name. You will learn how to do this as part of the course.


1.2 INSTALLING NAVISION ATTAIN

Before beginning the course, you must install Navision Attain on your

computer. Your installation CD contains the required Navision Attain granules.

The installation procedure is described below. The browser will automatically load the install file when you insert the CD. If the browser

does not load the install file, you can open it manually:

1 On the Start menu, click Run...

2 In the Run window, in the Open: field, enter x:\startcd.exe (replace x

with the letter that represents your CD-ROM drive) .

3 Click OK.

Then follow this procedure:

1 Insert the CD-ROM. The browser displays your options.

2 Click Client. A new window appears.

3 Click Navision Attain Client for Windows® 98, Windows NT™ 4.0 (Intel) and Windows 2000. The installation now begins.

4 In the File Download window, click Run this program from its current location to select it and click OK. A security warning appears.

5 Click Yes.

6 The Navision Attain W1 Installation Wizard window welcomes you to the setup wizard. Click Next>.

7 In the User Name: and Organization: fields enter your customer information. Click Next>.

8 Click All users or Only for me to select the desired option. Click

Next>.

9 Click the Complete field to select the setup type and click Next>.

10 Click Install to indicate that you are ready to install the program.

The installation process begins.

Introduction 1-5

11 Click Finish to complete the installation of Navision Attain.

Chapter 2.

Financial Management

This chapter contains an overview of the features

in the application areas included in the Financial Management product suite.

Before you can take further specialist training and certification in this area, you must pass the

Navision Attain Essentials Test. Then you can take the Financial Management course.

This chapter contains the following sections:

2.1 General Ledger

2.2 Sales & Receivables

2.3 Purchases & Payables

2.4 Fixed Assets

2.5 Resources

2.6 Jobs

2.7 Human Resources

2.8 Review Questions


2.1 GENERAL LEDGER

The General Ledger application area is the center of the company’s

accounts. It gives you an overview of the financial situation of your company.

This application area contains the features that are used with a company’s general ledger: The chart of accounts, general journals, account schedules,

budgets, bank accounts, multiple currencies and consolidation and all the

reports and registers related to the general ledger.

In addition to account schedules, the General Ledger application area

provides other tools for analyzing financial information using dimension information. These let you identify income-generating areas or products,

avoid losses, adjust unrealistic budgets and so on.

For reporting to customs and tax authorities, the program provides the ability to calculate and report VAT and sales tax, and can also assist in

completing INTRASTAT reports required in the EU.

Setting Up a Company

You must enter certain basic information before the program can be used for the company’s daily accounting work.

The information you must record in the General Ledger application area is:

• The company’s name and address

• The chart of accounts

• Posting groups

• VAT information

• The opening balances and entries for all accounts

Depending on the features you plan to use in Navision Attain you may need

to enter additional information.

Chart of Accounts

The core of a company is the chart of accounts, that is, the list of the G/L

accounts to which all G/L entries are posted. You use the Chart of Accounts window to enter and view your G/L accounts and account

Financial Management 2-3

balances. The drilldown features in the program allow you to see the ledger entries that make up the balance of an account.

You create the chart of accounts in the same way you create new G/L

accounts. You can set up new G/L accounts in the Chart of Accounts window (displayed below) or in the G/L Account Card window. Click

General Ledger, Chart of Accounts to see the Chart of Accounts window.

General Journals

General journals enable you to post transactions to general ledger

accounts and other accounts, such as customer accounts, vendor accounts, and bank accounts.

The entries can be directly posted from the General Ledger application area, but they can also come from the Sales & Receivables, Purchases &

Payables and Fixed Assets application areas. The information contained in

these journals is temporary and can be changed before you post the journal. Some journals are also posted as part of a batch job routine. This

is common in the Jobs and Inventory application areas.

Once a journal is posted, transactions cannot be deleted, but you can

reverse them by posting additional entries.

Tracing Transactions

All transactions that have been posted are stored in registers. The tracing

feature enables you to trace the origin of all entries using either source codes or reason codes. You can also easily trace all related entries that

were posted with a specific journal by using the Navigate feature, which shows you all entries (grouped by type) that are related to a user-selected

entry.


Managing VAT

When you post a journal line in the General Ledger application area and

the entry contains a VAT code, the program creates a VAT entry. You can

see the VAT entries by choosing General Ledger, Registers and opening the Registers window, then clicking VAT Entries.

Several VAT calculation types required for trading in the EU and other countries are available. These include normal VAT transactions, reverse

VAT transactions and full VAT transactions.

The program also contains some special tables to manage the tasks

necessary for settling VAT and reporting to the customs and tax authorities.

You can use these tables to have the program:

• Calculate the VAT due for a period.

• Prepare and print a VAT statement, which can be copied directly to the giro form.

• Print a list of sales to EU countries (on paper or to a diskette).

Account Schedules

You use account schedules to analyze figures in G/L accounts, to compare G/L entries in different periods, or to compare G/L entries with G/L budget

entries. For example, you can view the G/L entries as percentages of the

budget entries.

Account schedules can be used to make both simple and complex

customized financial statements and management reports. By utilizing the analytical capabilities of the company dimension features, you can analyze

your G/L accounts in even greater detail.

You can also export your account schedules to Microsoft Excel. This

allows you to:

• Further format your financial data using the formatting options in Microsoft Excel.

• Distribute your customized financial statements and management reports to parties that do not have access to the program.

The demonstration company comes with some example account schedules

such as the account schedule below, which performs the “acid-test” analysis (to see the window click General Ledger, Account Schedules):


Budgets

You can create budgets in the general ledger application area by using the Budget window. You can create as many budgets as you like. You can

create simple G/L Account budgets for specific periods. You can also use the company dimensions features when entering the budget to create

detailed budgets. With dimensions, it is possible to create detailed sales budgets by customer or item for each sales account in the G/L. If you want

to limit a budget so that it applies only to specific dimensions or business

units, you can set a filter using the Filters tab in the Budget window. Then you can enter your budget figures.

You can also export budgets to Microsoft Excel and import budgets from Microsoft Excel. You can import many Excel files into the same budget.

The export feature allows you to distribute budget information to parties

that do not have access to the program. Likewise the import feature allows you to consolidate budget information from parties that do not have access

to the program.

Here is an example of the Budget window (click General Ledger, Budgets

to view the window):


Dimensions

The dimensions feature in Navision Attain helps you answer questions

about your business. By using dimensions on posted entries and budget entries, you have the ability to monitor how individual units (for example, a

responsible department or region) are performing and to compare performance with other units (such as previous periods and budgeted

amounts).

You can ensure the consistency of data by setting up rules for dimensions. You determine how dimensions are combined in order to make sure that

they reflect company policy. You can also support the way your business operates by defining default dimensions. Default dimensions may be set up

for all accounts including G/L accounts, customer and vendor accounts. For

each default, you can define posting rules that determine the way dimension information may be posted. This ensures quicker data entry with

fewer errors.

You can change existing dimensions to reflect your business processes:

• You can name them in a way that reflects your company’s reporting practices and the requirements of your employees.

• When you no longer require a particular dimension, you can simply block it from use.

• You can structure values in a hierarchy that mirrors your existing reporting structures.


• You can change dimensions (or add new ones) as often as you like – without changing your accounting structure.

Traditionally, analysis of financial information in the general ledger has

been made possible by creating a detailed chart of accounts with many accounts. By using the analytical capabilities of dimensions, you can

reduce the need to create a large number of detailed accounts in the chart

of accounts.

Analysis Views

Using dimensions in Navision Attain, you can create analysis views. Each analysis view provides a unique way of gathering and viewing G/L entries

posted with dimensions based on specific criteria. This information can be

filtered for certain accounts, periods, budgets, and dimension values, for example. From an analysis view, you can drill down to the exact G/L entries

that have contributed to the view you are seeing.

You can easily create a library of views for the reports you use in your

company, and manipulate and scrutinize analysis views to investigate possible trends that can affect the way that you do business. You can

reproduce all of this information in printed reports, web reports in HTML

format, and Excel, using account schedules.

An example of dimension analysis using the CAMPAIGN analysis view in

the demonstration company can be seen below (Click General Ledger, Analysis by Dimensions.)


Bank Accounts

You can manage any number of bank accounts with any number of

different banks. These accounts can be either deposit accounts or loan

accounts. You can set up a bank account in the local currency or in a foreign currency. The program also provides the ability to reconcile the

bank statement transactions with the entries in the bank account.

Each bank account has a card containing a variety of information. Here is

an example of a bank account card (click General Ledger, Bank Accounts to view the window):

Foreign Trade and Multiple Currencies

The foreign trade features in Navision Attain allow you to handle foreign currencies.

You can manage:

• Foreign currency transactions with your customers and vendors

• Posting of foreign exchange gains and losses

• Keeping track of foreign exchange rates

Here is the Currencies window, which you use to manage foreign currency

gains and losses and keep track of exchange rates (click General Ledger,

Setup, General, Currencies to open it):


Additional Reporting Currency

You can also select a second currency, in addition to the local currency, to be used for financial reporting.

For companies in EMU countries, this enables you to report results in both your local currency and euro. Companies in non-EMU countries may also

wish to use euro as an additional reporting currency, if they regularly trade

with EMU countries. The additional reporting currency also enables foreign subsidiary companies to report financial information in the currency of the

parent company.

Consolidation of Financial Information from Subsidiary Companies

For companies with subsidiary companies, it is possible to consolidate the financial information into a parent company in Navision Attain. Subsidiary

companies are set up as business units in the parent company. The

program can also consolidate foreign subsidiaries since the currency can be defined for each business unit.

You can consolidate information from a company in the same Navision Attain database or you can consolidate information for a subsidiary from a

file. As long as the file contains the necessary information and is in the

required format, you can consolidate information from subsidiaries using different accounting software.

Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL)

Navision Attain offers you the advantages of producing reports using

XBRL. Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is a global financial reporting initiative that has been undertaken by numerous ERP

Software products and international accounting organizations. The main

purpose of this initiative is to provide a standard for uniform reporting of


financial information for banks, investors, and any other users of financial information. The goal of the initiative is to create a method for exchange of

financial information in a global market place and provide a format of

consistent financial information for analysis across companies.

INTRASTAT Reporting in the EU

EU companies must report their trade with other countries. The program

contains some special tables to manage the tasks necessary for reporting to the customs and tax authorities. You can use these tables to have the

program:

• Prepare and print the monthly INTRASTAT report, which can be copied directly to the form provided by the tax authority.

• Print a list of transactions with EU countries (on paper or to a diskette).

Converting to the Euro

Navision Attain is euro compliant. An additional tool, called the Euro Conversion Tool, is available to perform the following conversion processes:

• Convert all the company's local currency amounts to euro

• Convert EMU currency amounts and open documents for customers and vendors to euro

• Convert EMU currency bank accounts to euro


When you convert the company's local currency to euro, a history of the transactions in the original local currency may be kept if required. For

customers, vendors and bank accounts, a history of the transactions in the

original EMU currency is always kept.


2.2 SALES & RECEIVABLES

You use the features in the Sales & Receivables application area to

manage sales and accounts receivable through individual accounts for each customer.

This application area contains all the features that are used with a company’s sales: Customer cards, sales and cash receipt journals, quotes,

orders, invoices and credit memos, as well as reports, documents, entry

registers and posted documents related to sales.

The Sales & Receivables application area is fully integrated with the

general ledger. This means that when you post a transaction (an invoice, for example), the program automatically posts all necessary transactions to

the sales account, the receivables account, and possible discount and VAT

accounts.

Sales & Receivables has facilities for complete customer and sales

management in an international environment.

Customer Cards

You use the customer card to set up information on all your customers.

You must set up a card for each customer. On the card you enter basic

information, such as name, address and discounts available to the

customer. To open the window, click Sales & Receivables, Customers:

Invoicing

When you post a sales invoice, the program creates a posted sales invoice.


You can view it by clicking Sales & Receivables, Posted Invoices:

Partial Shipping and Invoicing and Combined Shipments

Partial shipments are shipments of parts of an order. This occurs when some of the ordered items are in stock and others are backordered. The

backordered items are then shipped in a separate shipment. In Navision Attain, there are no limits on the number of shipments that can be made for

an order. Partial invoicing is when you invoice for a partial shipment before the remaining units have been shipped.

It is also possible to combine the shipments of several orders into one large

shipment using the Combine Shipments feature.

Alternative Invoicing and Shipping and Drop Shipments

You can invoice a different customer than the person or company that ordered the goods. In Navision Attain, the sell-to customeris the customer

that ordered the goods or resources. The bill-to customer is the customer to

which the bill is sent.

In some cases, you may want to sell an item that you do not have in stock

and have one of your vendors ship the item directly to the customer. The program can easily handle these drop shipments due to the integration

between the Sales and Receivables and Purchases & Payables application areas.


Item Discounts on Sales

Navision Attain has three types of item discounts:

• Quantity discounts – discounts that apply when a customer buys more than a certain quantity of an item

• Invoice discounts – discounts that can apply to specific customers and can require a minimum invoice amount

• Customer/Item discounts – discounts that apply for certain combinations of customer and item

Below is an example of the Customer Invoice Discounts window. To

open it from the customer card, click Sales, Invoice Discounts:

Cash Receipts

You use the cash receipt journals to register payments from customers.

Cash refunds given to customers may also be handled using the cash receipt journal. A cash receipt journal is a type of general journal, so you

can use it to post transactions to G/L, bank, customer, vendor and fixed

assets accounts.

The program allows you to apply a single cash receipt or refund to several

outstanding sales invoices and sales credit memos. You can apply the cash receipt or refund at the same time as you post it or you can apply the

cash receipt after you have posted it.

The program also enables you to set up payment discount terms offered to your customers to encourage early settlement of outstanding invoices.

To open the Cash Receipt Journal window, click Sales & Receivables, Cash Receipt Journals:


Sales Credit Memos

You can create a sales credit memo when a customer returns an item, but

you can also use it to compensate a customer with a sales allowance or to correct an erroneous sales invoice. You can apply a credit memo to a

specific invoice, reducing the amount outstanding for the invoice, including

the possible payment discount.

To view the Sales Credit Memo window, click Sales & Receivables, Credit

Memos:

Reminders

Reminders are used to highlight accounts where customer payments are overdue.


You can define an unlimited number of reminder terms to accommodate the various reminder procedures that may be required. To open the

Reminder window, click Sales & Receivables, Periodic Activities,

Reminders:

Finance Charge Memos

If a customer has not paid an invoice on time, you may want to charge

them interest on the overdue payment.

A finance charge memo is the document created by Navision Attain

containing the details of the overdue payment and the finance charges that

have been applied. To open the Finance Charge Memo window, click Sales & Receivables, Periodic Activities, Finance Charge Memos.


Tracking Packages

You can use Navision Attain to access the Internet and track shipments.

The automatic tracking function can be activated only for a posted

shipment.

Integration with Other Application Areas

The Sales & Receivables application area is also integrated with the Jobs, Resources and Fixed Assets application areas. All job sales and resource

sales must be performed through the sales invoice. You can also sell fixed assets in sales invoices and sales orders.


2.3 PURCHASES & PAYABLES

You use the features in the Purchases & Payables application area to

manage your purchases and accounts payable through individual accounts for each vendor.

This application area contains all the features used with a company’s purchases: Vendor cards, purchase and payment journals, requisition

worksheets, quotes, orders, invoices and credit memos, as well as reports,

documents, entry registers and posted documents related to purchases.

The features in the Purchases & Payables application are similar to the

features in the Sales & Receivables area.

Vendor Cards

You use vendor cards to set up information on all your vendors.

You must set up a card for each vendor. On the card, you enter basic information such as name, address and the kinds of discounts that are

available. The vendor card looks like this (click Purchases & Payables, Vendors to open the window):

Purchase Invoicing

You can register purchase items in the program and update both inventory

and the general ledger by filling in and posting a purchase invoice. The

Purchase Invoice window looks like this (click Purchases & Payables, Invoices to open the window):


Alternative Shipping and Invoicing

You use alternative purchase invoicing when you receive the invoice from a different vendor than the person or company that you ordered the goods

from. The buy-from vendor is the vendor you placed the order with, while the pay-to vendor is the one you pay. You enter information about the pay-

to vendor on the Invoicing tab in the Purchase Invoice window:


Partial Receipts and Partial Invoicing

Partial receipts occur when you receive the items from a purchase order in

more than one delivery. If the vendor invoices you for each partial receipt,

you can register the invoice by creating a partial invoice.

Item Discounts on Purchasing

There are three types of item discounts on purchases:

• Quantity discounts - discounts that apply when you buy more than a certain quantity of an item

• Vendor/Item discounts - discounts that apply for certain combinations of vendor and item

• Invoice discounts - discounts from specific vendors that can require a minimum invoice amount

Here is the Vendor Invoice Discounts window. The discount is calculated automatically when you fill in a purchase invoice. To view the window, go to

the vendor card and click Purchases, Invoice Discounts.

Cash Payments

You use the payment journals to register payments to vendors and other

outward payments. Cash refunds received from vendors may also be handled using the payment journal. A payment journal is a type of general

journal, so you can use it to post transactions to G/L, bank, customer,

vendor and fixed assets accounts.

You can make manual payments or you can have the program suggest

vendor payment amounts. You can also use the program to make


payments using printed computer checks.

The program allows you to apply a single payment or refund to several

outstanding purchase invoices and purchase credit memos. You can apply

the payment or refund at the same time as you post it or you can apply the payment after you have posted it.

The program also enables you to keep track of payment discount terms offered by vendors to encourage your early settlement of outstanding

invoices.

To open the Payment Journal window, click Purchases & Payables,

Payment Journals:

Purchase Credit Memos

You can create a purchase credit memo when you return an item to a

vendor, but you can also use it to record a purchase allowance negotiated with your vendor or to correct an erroneous purchase invoice. You can

apply a credit memo to a specific invoice, reducing the amount outstanding for the invoice, including the possible payment discount.

To view a posted credit memo in the Posted Purchase Credit Memo

window, click Purchases & Payables, Posted Credit Memos:


Item Reordering and Inventory Replenishment

If you have inventory items with relatively constant turnover rates, you can use the requisition worksheet features to keep track of when to order. The

requisition worksheet can be used to suggest which items to reorder and quantity of items to reorder. You can then use the requisition worksheet to

create purchase orders based on the suggestions. To view the requisition

worksheet, click Purchases & Payables, Requisition Worksheets.

Integration with Other Application Areas

The Purchases & Payables application area is also integrated with the Jobs and Fixed Assets application areas. You can purchase items for use in a

job with a purchase invoice. You can also purchase fixed assets with


purchase invoices and purchase orders.


2.4 FIXED ASSETS

You use Fixed Assets to obtain an overview of your company’s fixed assets

and to ensure correct periodic depreciation.

This application area includes all the features necessary to manage fixed

assets, such as fixed asset cards, insurance cards, FA journals, FA G/L and FA reclassification journals, insurance journals, and reports and

registers related to fixed assets.

Fixed Assets gives you a comprehensive resource for organizing, managing and accounting for your company’s fixed assets. It also enables

you to keep track of your maintenance costs, manage insurance policies related to fixed assets, post fixed asset transactions and generate various

reports and statistics.

Fixed Asset Cards

For each fixed asset, you must set up a card containing information about

the asset. Buildings or production equipment can be set up as main assets with component lists.

A fixed asset can be split up into several fixed assets, and several fixed assets can be combined into one. If a fixed asset is partially disposed, it

must be separated into two fixed assets, and then one of them can be sold.

Fixed assets can be grouped in various ways, for example, by class, department or location.

You can set up budgeted assets. This makes it possible to include any anticipated acquisitions and sales in reports. You can see fixed asset

cards by clicking Fixed Assets (to get to the Fixed Assets Main Menu), and

then Fixed Assets. The window looks like this:


Depreciation

The Fixed Assets application area provides several different depreciation

methods such as straight line and declining balance as well as the option of

creating customized depreciation methods. You can set up multiple depreciation books to accommodate different kinds of depreciation. A batch

job is used to calculate periodic depreciation. To see the FA depreciation books for an asset, click Fixed Assets, Fixed Assets, find the fixed asset

card for the relevant asset and click Fixed Asset, Depreciation Books. The window looks like this:

Maintenance

For each asset, you can record maintenance costs and the next service

date. Keeping track of maintenance expenses can be important for budgeting purposes and for making decisions about whether to replace a

fixed asset. You register maintenance costs in the Maintenance Registration window. To open it from a fixed asset card, click Fixed Asset,

Maintenance Registration:


Insurance

Each fixed asset can be attached to one or more insurance policies. You

can therefore easily verify that insurance policy amounts are in accordance with the value of the assets that are linked to the policy. This also makes it

easy to monitor annual insurance premiums. You keep track of your

insurance policies on the insurance card. To open it, click Fixed Assets, Insurance.

Posting Transactions:

You do all posting in the Fixed Assets application area from journals. There are four different journals:

• The FA G/L journal

• The FA journal

• The FA reclassification journal

• The Insurance journal


Statistics and Reports

For each fixed asset depreciation book, there is a statistics window that

provides a quick overview of the book value, depreciable basis,

accumulated depreciation, and gains or losses on sales. Each main asset has its own statistics window.

There are several reports available. Some of these can be tailored to meet specific needs.


2.5 RESOURCES

In the Resources application area, you define resources, which can either

be personnel or machines. You may link the individual resources to resource groups.

This application area contains all the features that are used with a company’s resource management: Individual resources, resource groups,

capacity planning, resource journals, as well as reports and registers

related to resources.

Resources is the application area for optimal management of personnel

and/or machines.

Resource Cards

You set up new resources on resource cards. To view the resource cards,

click Resources (for the Resources Main Menu), and then Resources. The window looks like this:

Resource Groups

You can work with resources as individual entities or as groups. Any

number of resources can be assigned to a resource group.

Posting Resource Usage

You post usage and sales of your resources for internal use and statistics

in the Resource Journal window. The entries do not have any connection to G/L accounts and cannot be posted to the general ledger (in contrast to

job entries).


Resource Capacity

You may need to increase the capacity of resources (for example,

technicians) regularly over a period.

A resource’s capacity indicates how much of the resource is available in a specified period.

You can assign or modify capacities to your individual resources or to resource groups. For example, for employees you might want to enter the

available man-hours. For machines, you could enter the production capacity for a time frame. It is possible to enter capacity by day, week,

month, quarter, year, or accounting period. You can record resource

capacities in the Resource Capacity window. To view it, click Resources, Resource Capacity.

Allocating Resources to Jobs

You can allocate a resource or a resource group’s capacity to one or several jobs.

You can do this either from the Resources application area or the Jobs application area.

You use the Resource Allocated per Job window to view and change the

amounts of measuring units for resources allocated to the various jobs in different time periods. To view the window, go to the Resource Capacity

window and click Planning, Resource Allocated per Job.


Resource Allocated per Service Order

You can use the Resource Allocated per Service Order window to view

the amounts of units of measure for resources allocated to the various service orders in different periods. To view the window from the resource

card, click Planning, Resource Allocated per Service Order.

Resource Availability

The Resource Availability window shows a scrollable summary of resource capacities. The window is divided into lines showing the entire

capacity, the quantity allocated to jobs on order, the capacity assigned to

jobs on quote, the availability after order and the remaining capacity after all jobs on quote or order. To open the window from the resource card, click

Planning, Resource Availability.

Modifying Resources

You can update resources and resource groups on the resource card. You

can delete resources from the Resource Group window.


Resource and Job Integration

The Resources application area and the Jobs application area are

integrated.

You can allocate the capacity of a resource or a resource group to one or several jobs.

Resource Journals

The Resource Journals feature enables you to keep track of your use of

resources and their profitability.

You can post usage and sales of your resources in the resource journal,

and you can generate statistics from this information for internal

management purposes. To see a resource journal, click Resources, Resource Journal:

Resource Statistics

You can see all of the transactions recorded in job journals, resource

journals or (with some limitations) sales documents in the Resource Statistics window. To open the window from the resource card, click

Resource, Resource Statistics.


2.6 JOBS

You use the Jobs application area for detailed planning and management

of the costing for any long-term job or project activity. You can also use it for many types of services and consultancy tasks.

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

This application area contains all the features that are used with a

company’s job and project management: For example, Job cards, job budgets, job journals, as well as reports and registers related to resources.

Job Budgets

You use the Job Budget window to set up a budget for a job. You can set

up a budget for each job. The budget is used to plan the resources you

allocate to a job.

The budget can be either very general with few entries or it can contain

more entries that are divided into activity levels. Click Jobs, Budgets to view the job budgets.

Job Journals

You can use the job journals to:

• Post job usage of resources, items and general ledger resources.

• Apply job ledger and item ledger entries.

• Assign entries to phases, tasks, and steps.


• Reconcile resources.

You can view the job journal by clicking Jobs, Job Journals. The window

looks like this:

Job Sales

The integration with the Sales & Receivables application area allows you to perform job sales. All job sales must be performed using the Sales Invoice.


2.7 HUMAN RESOURCES

Human Resources is a fully integrated application area that enables you to

register and update personnel information about employees effectively.

This application area includes all the features that are used in the human

resources department of a company: Employee cards, absence registration, and reports related to employees.

This makes personnel management more effective through the optimal use

of employee data.

Employees

You use the employee card to register all employee information. To view the window, click Human Resources, Employees:

Absence

Absence codes help you keep track of the absences of employees and the cause of the absences. To open the Employee Absences window from

the employee card, click Employee, Absences. The window looks like this:


Grounds for Termination

You use the Grounds for Termination window to set up reasons that employees might leave the company. To open the window, click Human

Resources, Setup, Grounds for Termination:

Employment Contracts

You use employment contract codes to set up the types of contracts the

company has entered into with its employees. To open the Employment Contracts window, click Human Resources, Setup, Employment

Contracts. The window looks like this:


Qualification

You enter qualification codes to specify various employee qualifications. To

open the Employee Qualifications window from the employee card, click

Employee, Qualifications:

Relatives

You enter codes for relatives to register the precise relationship of an

employee’s relatives or close contacts to each employee. To open the Employee Relatives window from the employee card, click Employee,

Relative.


Miscellaneous Articles

You can set up codes and descriptions for the benefits your employees receive and articles owned by the company that are in the possession of

individuals. You do this in the Misc. Article Information window. To open the window from the employee card, click Employee, Misc. Article

Information:

Confidential Information

You use confidential information codes to register confidential aspects of

an individual’s employment, such as salaries, stock option plans, pensions, and so on. You record confidential information about an employee in the

Confidential Information window. To open the window from the employee

card, click Employee, Confidential Information. The window looks like this:


2.8 REVIEW QUESTIONS

1 These questions are for self-study, to ensure that you have

understood the material in this chapter.

2 What are the five things you must do in the General Ledger

application area before you can use the program for accounting work?

3 Describe the VAT-related tasks that the program can perform.

4 Explain what you use account schedules for.

5 How many budgets can you create in Navision Attain for a single company?

6 Explain the advantages of using dimensions.

7 What can the foreign currency features in Navision Attain do?

8 Explain the difference between the sell-to customer and the bill-to

customer.

9 Describe the three different types of discounts you can use with

customers.

10 Describe a partial receipt.

11 How do you open the FA Depreciation Books window for an asset?

12 Which window do you use to modify or assign capacities for

resources?

13 Describe the different ways you can view resource allocation.

14 Describe what you can use job journals for.

15 Describe the types of information you can record in Navision Attain about employees.

Chapter 3.

Supply Chain Collaboration

The Supply Chain Collaboration product suite

includes the Manufacturing and Distribution application areas. Distribution covers the

Warehouse Management application area in the Navision Attain main menu.

If you want to take further specialist training and certification in this area, you must first pass the

Navision Attain Essentials Test. After that you

can take the Distribution course and the Manufacturing course.


3.1 Inventory

3.2 Warehouse Management

3.3 Warehouse Management Systems (WMS)

3.4 Manufacturing

3.5 Capacity Requirements Planning



3.1 INVENTORY

The Inventory application area contains all the features that a company

needs to manage its inventory: item cards to record and maintain information about individual items, item and BOM journals to register

changes in inventory, and reports and registers related to items and BOMs.

As the inventory application area is integrated with other Navision Attain

application areas, the inventory is automatically updated when transactions

of inventory increase and decrease are posted from any operational area in the company. This provides flexible inventory support across the entire

organization.

Item Cards

You use item cards to enter basic information about an item in your

inventory, such as item number, description, unit of measure, as well as invoicing, ordering and reporting information. There is one card for each

item. Each card contains several tabs with different types of information about the item. To see an item card, click Inventory, Items.

Stockkeeping Units

Stockkeeping units do not replace item cards, but they are related to them.

Stockkeeping units allow you to differentiate information about an item for a specific location (such as a warehouse or distribution center) or a specific

variant (such as different shelf numbers and different replenishment information) for the same item.

It is important to note that the information on the stockkeeping unit card has

priority over the information on the item card. To see a stockkeeping unit

Supply Chain Collaboration 3-3

card, click Inventory, Stockkeeping Units.

Nonstock Items

The Nonstock Item table contains information about items that your

company sells but does not carry in inventory. You would usually handle the sale of a nonstock item in one of two ways:

Drop

Shipment

The item is shipped from the vendor directly to the customer. You

buy and sell the item but do not handle, stock or deliver it.

Special Order You purchase a nonstock item from the vendor especially for a

customer, receive it at your warehouse and ship it to the

customer, either by itself or in combination with other items on the

sales order.

To see a nonstock item card, click Inventory, Nonstock Items:


Item Journals

You use item journals to adjust inventory in connection with purchases,

sales, and positive and negative adjustments.

The information you enter in the item journal is temporary and can be changed as long as it is still in the journal. When you post the journal, the

information is transferred to entries on individual accounts. To open the Item Journal window, click Inventory, Item Journals.

Item Reclassification Journals

You use item reclassification journals to adjust inventory when you transfer

items between different locations. To insert lines in the item journal, click

the first empty line and fill in the fields.

When the journal is filled in, you can choose to post, post and print a report,

or print a test report only. To open the Item Reclass. Journal window, click Inventory, Item Reclass. Journals.


Physical Inventory Journals

You use physical inventory journals to maintain an up-to-date record of

your inventory at different locations. The physical inventory feature can also assist you in taking a physical inventory by comparing the actual quantity

on hand, as determined by a physical count, with the quantity on hand

calculated by the program. If there are any differences, you must record and post them.

When you post the journal, the program creates a physical inventory ledger entry for every journal line and an item ledger entry for each journal line on

which the actual quantity on hand, as determined by the physical count, is

different from the quantity on hand calculated and recorded by the program. To see the Phys. Inventory Journal window, click Inventory,

Phys. Inventory Journals:


BOM Journals

You use the BOM journals to produce bills of material (BOMs).

To produce a BOM, you must enter it into the BOM journal and post it from

there. The program automatically makes a negative adjustment to inventory for the items that are included in the BOM and a positive adjustment for the

BOM. To open the BOM Journal window, click Inventory, BOM Journal.

Revaluation Journals

The inventory value of an item can change over time, for example, as a result of damage or age.

If you want to change the inventory value of an item or a specific item ledger entry, you must use the revaluation journal.

You can also use the revaluation journal to correct incorrect posted

documents.

The revaluation journal lets you see the existing value of an item and

assign a new value to it. To open the Revaluation Journal window, click Inventory, Revaluation Journals.


Item Substitution

You can substitute an item with another when the desired item is out of

stock. You can also use this feature when the alternatives are cheaper and have a higher profit margin. You must fill in substitution information for an

individual item in the Item Substitution Entry window. To open the

window, go to the item card for the relevant item, then click Item, Substitutions:

Item Cross-References

You can identify your customers’ preferences by cross-referencing any

customer code, internal code, or vendor code. You do this in the Item Cross Reference Entries window. To view the window, go to the item card

of the relevant item, then click Item, Cross References.


Location Transfers

Sometimes you need to transfer items from one location to another, so that the receiving location can fill a customer order. You transfer items from one

location to another with a transfer order. To open the Transfer Order window, click Inventory, Transfer Orders:

You can track the movement of inventory between different locations whenever you want to:

• Get an overview and report inventory in transit

• Apply and trace additional costs

Item Tracking

The item tracking setup consists of three elements; item tracking codes

setup, serial and lot number setup, and item setup. An item tracking code


defines which item parameters (serial number, lot number, or both) the program will use to track the items and in which operational areas. When a

company wants to assign serial and lot numbers to items automatically, it

needs to set up number series that the program will use. To be able to track a specific item, a company must first set it up for item tracking by

applying a particular item tracking code.

You set up item tracking codes in the Item Tracking Codes window. To

open the window, click Inventory, Setup, Item Tracking Codes:

Web Access to Information and Data Exchange with Customers and Vendors

In the Web Sources window, you can see the search engines that you can use when accessing information about your contact companies on the

Internet, such as Yahoo. If your Web source is a Web site, you cannot search for a search word. To view the Web Sources window, click

Relationship Management, Setup, Company, Web Sources.

Order Promising

In Navision Attain, the date calculation functionality and the Order

Promising feature are the cornerstone of managing sales orders. The program calculates the delivery and shipment dates that meet the dates

requested by customers based on availability dates.

The program operates with two concepts:

• available to promise (ATP), and

• capable to promise (CTP).

ATP is used in connection with the date calculation functionality and is


based on the inventory reservation system. When the ATP function is used, the program performs the availability check of the uncommitted

(unreserved) portion of a company's inventory in terms of planned

production, purchase, transfers and sales return. Based on the availability date of the items, the delivery date is calculated.

CTP is used to perform “what if” scenarios. If no items are available in inventory and there are no inbound orders scheduled, the program can

calculate the earliest date that items can be available if they are produced, bought or transferred from another location. From the availability date of

the items, the program calculates the delivery date at the customer, creates

order lines for this date and reserves the inventory.

With the date calculation functionality, companies can also make estimates

concerning the expected dates for order receipts from their vendors.

To handle sales, purchase and transfer orders efficiently and to calculate

the exact and believable dates for receipt, delivery or shipments, the

program offers the company a calendar feature. When scheduling dates, the program offsets warehouse handling time and the shipping time against

non-working dates and holidays specified on a calendar.


3.2 WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT

The Warehouse Management application area helps you organize the

receipt, put-away, assigning, picking, and shipping of items to and from your warehouse.

Item Flow

The flow of an item through the warehouse can be described by the

activities you perform with the item. The five basic warehouse activities

each have a separate menu item in the Warehouse Management menu:

• You use a receipt document when you register items received at the warehouse. When you post the warehouse receipt, the items are registered as part of your inventory.

To open the Warehouse Receipt window, click Warehouse Management, Receipts.

• In a put away document, you plan the task of putting away items that have been received and registered. When items have been put away and posted, they are available to be picked.

You put away items in the Warehouse Put-away window. To open the

window, click Warehouse Management, Put-aways.


• A shipment document is used by the warehouse manager to make a request for items to be picked from inventory for shipment to specific customers. The manager can optimize the organization of the pick activity by applying filters to the shipment lines.

To open the Warehouse Shipment window, click Warehouse Management, Shipments.

• In a pick document, you locate your pick request and then sort it, if necessary, for example, by customer, due date, shelf/bin number, or any other filter option.

To open the Warehouse Pick window, click Warehouse Management, Picks.


• Ship is where you organize the shipments that are about to leave the warehouse. You can apply a number of filters, for example, shipping agent, shipping method or due date.


3.3 WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (WMS)

WMS is an advanced edition of the basic Warehouse Management

application area. It helps you handle items and warehouse routines at zone and bin level, when receiving, putting away, picking, and shipping items to

and from your warehouse. It also establishes routines to optimize the use of space within the physical parameters of the warehouse.

The item flow is identical to that of the basic warehouse functionality. The

difference between basic Warehouse Management and WMS is noticeable when you set up the warehouse for the first time. There are multiple

functionalities on the location cards to handle items at zone and bin level.

Location Cards

You set up a location card for each location. To view the location card, click

Warehouse Management, Setup, Locations. The Zones and Bins tab looks like this:

To activate the WMS functionality for the current location, click the Use Zones and Bins check box to add a check mark. The Receipt, Shipment, Adjustment, Production and Cross-Dock fields contain the default bins the program uses when creating a new document within these activities.

On the Zone and Bin Policies tab you can fill in additional information about how the program should handle pick and put away.


There are worksheets for pick and put-away to optimize these activities.

Moving Items within the Warehouse

WMS allows you to move items within the warehouse without a source document. Movement is a two-step process. To move an item you must make a request from a movement worksheet:

1 To open the movement worksheet, click Warehouse Management, Movement Worksheets.

You must fill in the request with the items to be moved, as well as information on where to take and place the items with detailed zone and bin information.

2 When you are finished filling in the movement information, click

Functions, Create Movement. The movement document is created and can be viewed in the Warehouse Movement window. To view

the window, click Warehouse Management, Movements.


Bin Replenishment

Bin replenishment optimizes the use of space within the warehouse. The

program uses bin ranking to suggest optimization. When setting up your

warehouse, you assign ranking numbers to your bins to indicate which bins have priority over the others when picking and putting away. Bin

replenishment operates from the movement worksheet, running a batch job calculating (according to bin ranking and minimum and maximum defined

quantity for the individual bin) where to optimize.

Internal Pick and Put-away

Internal pick and put-away allows you to make picks and put-aways without

a source document. You access these from the main menu by clicking Warehouse Management, Internal Picks and Warehouse Management,

Internal Put-aways.

A Bin Creation Tool

You can use the Bin Creation Worksheet to simplify setting up and

maintaining your bin creation procedure. To view the worksheet click Warehouse Management, Periodic Activities, Bin Creation Worksheet.


You can run a batch job from the worksheet to create multiple bins. To run the batch job, click Functions, Calculate Bins and fill in the Calculate Bins window:


3.4 MANUFACTURING

Navision Attain for manufacturing helps you respond quickly to rapidly

changing customer demands.

Basic Manufacturing

Orders

The manufacturing application area includes features for processing sales,

purchase, production, service and transfer orders.

Production Bills Of Material (BOM), including Phantom BOMs

Manufacturers use production BOMs to monitor usage of items and

components that go into a parent assembly. The BOM shows the quantity of each component required to assemble the item. The products to be

manufactured consist of individual items, subassemblies and other

production BOMs (phantom BOMs). Subassemblies are used at the next level of the production BOMs to build other assemblies. You work with

BOMs in the Production BOM window. To open it, click Manufacturing, Production BOM:

Version Management of BOMs and Routings

The version principle enables you to manage several versions of

production BOMs or routings. The structure of the production BOM or

routing version corresponds to the structure of the production BOMs. The production BOM version consists of the production BOM version header

and lines, and the routing version consists of the routing version header


and routing lines. The basic difference is in the time validity of the versions. The validity is defined by the starting date. You can see version information

in the Version No. and Active Version fields in the Production BOM window.

Production Orders

You can manage all your production with Navision Attain. You can plan for material and capacities by creating production orders.

Simulated production orders are simulations or examples of production orders. A simulated production order has no influence on the planning of

orders.

You usually create planned production orders when you run the Calculate Plan and Make Orders from Planning batch jobs, but you can also create

planned production orders manually.

Note that planned production orders are deleted during every regeneration

of the planning worksheet, unless you change the status of the production

order from planned to firm planned. This is why we do not recommend that you create or modify planned production orders manually.

You can create firm planned production orders directly from a sales order. Firm planned production orders are included in the calculation of the net

requirement.

You use released production orders only to post consumption and output.

The Calculate Plan batch job does not automatically create released

production orders. You can release a production order by changing the


status of the production order. You can also take a sales order and immediately turn it into a released production order.

A finished production order is the last phase of a production order. The

production is finished, the cost is calculated and the finished items posted to inventory. You cannot change any information in the fields of the

Finished Production Order table because you can no longer post to the production order. To view the Finished Production Order window, click

Manufacturing, Finished Prod. Orders.

Planning of Production Orders from Sales Orders

Sales orders created in the Sales &Receivables application area can be

turned into production orders. This allows you to generate a standard production order, a project order, or a multiline production order.

Reservation System for Hard and Soft Allocation

You can reserve items for production orders.

You must distinguish between reservations for production order lines and production order components

You reserve items in the Reservation window. To open it, first click

Manufacturing, Planning Worksheets, to open a planning worksheet. Fill in a line specifying the item to be reserved and the due date, then click

Functions, Reserve. The window looks like this:


Blanket Orders

A blanket sales order represents a framework for an agreement between

you and a customer. When you have finished filling in the blanket sales order, you can convert it to one or more sales orders.

Serial and Lot Number Processing

When you set up items with lot tracking, you can assign the lot number

series and the serial number series to the item by filling in the Serial Nos. and Lot Nos. fields on the Item Tracking tab of the item card:

Flexible Costing System

The program uses FIFO as the default costing method if you do not

manually fill in the Costing Method field on the item card for each item.

You can also choose the LIFO, specific, average, or standard costing method.


Your choice of costing method determines the way that the program calculates unit cost by making assumptions about the flow of physical items

through your company.

Multi-dimensional Tracking and Pegging

With the order tracking functionality you can trace the connection of a

supply to its corresponding demand. This is useful when you want to find the original demand that created a specific production order or purchase

order. You can also use this functionality to see the production order or purchase order that supplies a particular demand.

You can, for example, track from either a purchase order or a production

order to find the sales order that causes the demand. You can also track from a sales order to find the production order or purchase order that

supplies that demand.

The order tracking feature shows the interdependence of sales orders,

production orders, and purchase orders. To view the Order Tracking

window, go to the desired order and click on the relevant line to highlight it. Then click Functions, Order Tracking:

Forward, Backward and Manual Flushing Supported

You use the forward flushing method to have the program automatically calculate and post consumption. It automatically reduces the inventory of

components before they are issued, at the time a scheduled receipt for their parents or assemblies is created via a bill-of-material explosion.

The backward flushing method also automatically calculates and posts the

consumption. It automatically reduces the inventory of components after completion of an activity on the components' upper level parent item that is


based on what should have been used as specified in the bill of materials.

You use the manual flushing method if you want to post consumption

manually by using the output journal. You select the flushing method in the

Flushing Method field on the Manufacturing tab on the item card (click Inventory, Items to view the item card).

Consumption and Output Journals

You use the consumption journal to post consumption to production orders

manually. In a consumption journal, you enter the relevant information, such as the posting date, production order number, item number and

quantity. The information you enter in a journal is temporary and can be changed as long as it is in the journal. To open the consumption journal,

click Manufacturing, Consumption Journals:


Production Reports

The Manufacturing application area includes several reports related to

production, for example the Where-Used List report, which displays a list of

the BOMs that the selected items are components of. To print the report, click Reports, highlight the line with Where-Used(Top Level), fill in the fields

on the tabs and click Print:

Order Promising

The order promising function is a tool for calculating the earliest possible

date that an item is available for shipment or delivery. It also creates requisition lines for those dates that you accept.

With the order promising feature, you can promise the best possible

shipping and/or delivery date for an order.

Multiple Locations in Planning

The multiple locations means that you can manage and handle inventory in more than one location (for example, warehouses in Atlanta, New York,

and Los Angeles) from one database to:

• Gain a complete real-time business overview.

• Create cost and profit centers.

• Manage inventory levels and item costs differently at each warehouse.

Forecast and Master Production Schedule (MPS)

You can set up a production forecast for different time intervals. You do this by clicking one of the buttons in the lower left-hand corner of the

Production Forecast window: 1 (Day), 7 (Week), 31 (Month), 3 (Quarter),


12 (Year) and three horizontal lines (Accounting Period).

You can calculate a master production schedule (MPS). The results of the

MPS calculation appear in the planning worksheet as order proposals, and

you can edit them. Afterwards, you can calculate a materials requirement plan (MRP).

Intelligent MRP Scheduling

When you calculate a net change plan, the program plans only for those

items that have had the following types of changes to their demand-supply pattern since the last planning.

When you calculate a regenerative plan, the program plans for all items.

This might be necessary if there have been changes to the standard data or capacity since the last planning, which would affect the total plan and,

therefore, all items.

Action messages occur when the program detects a problem or a potential

problem in the balance of supply and demand.

Simultaneous Planning of Materials, Capacities and Costs

In the Manufacturing application area, you can use the planning features to

plan the use of materials, capacities and costs for production orders.

Item Availability Windows Allow Planners to View the Results of MRP Immediately

You can check item availability by period, by variant, and by location.

Multiple Worksheets for the Review of Various Production Options

In Navision Attain, you can work with multiple worksheets and hold a planning run open at the same time. This lets you compare two or more

versions of a plan. The results of the newest planning appear as positive adjustments, if any adjustments are needed.


3.5 CAPACITY REQUIREMENTS PLANNING

Machine Centers

The Machine Center is used to record information about all your machine centers.

Managing capacities is an important part of managing the manufacturing process of the company. In Navision Attain, you use the Machine Center table to do this. This table contains information used by a range of facilities

that can help you with your capacity requirements planning, for example, the available capacity, and the default values for process, setup, wait and

move times.

Each machine center must also have an identifying number. When you

enter the machine center number elsewhere in the program, the program

will automatically use information from the card for that particular machine center. The information in the Machine Center table is displayed on the

machine center card. To open the window, click Cap. Reqts. Planning, Machine Centers:

Work Centers

In Navision Attain, a work center comprises a number of machine centers.

Managing capacities is an important part of managing the manufacturing

process of the company. In Navision Attain, you use the Work Center table

for that purpose. The Work Center table contains information used by a range of facilities that can help you do your capacity requirements planning,

such as calculating available capacity and efficiency.

You can assign different machine centers to each work center. For each

machine center that you want to assign to a work center, you must enter


the number of the work center in the Work Center No. field on the machine center card.

Every work center must also have an identifying number. When you enter a

work center number elsewhere in the program, the program will automatically use information from that particular work center's card.

By assigning a subcontractor to a work center you can manage external work related to the manufacturing process. To see the work center card,

click Cap. Reqts. Planning, Work Centers.

Routings

Manufacturing companies use routings to show the production process.

The routings form the basis of production planning and control. Routings

include detailed information about the method of manufacturing of a particular item. It includes the operations to be performed and their

sequence. You can also include information about tools, personnel and quality measures. For each product, routings contain a step-by-step set of

instructions that describe how the product is made.

Navision Attain allows you to specify the production process in either time

or capacity, and it supports the production of part families, that is, the same

or similar items can be manufactured with a single routing.

The routing is the basis for process scheduling, capacity scheduling,

material need scheduling (production-synchronized planning) and the production documents.

In order to be able to work with routings, you must set up the capacity

planning standard data first.

The routings are assigned to the items in the item's standard data.


You fill in routing information in the Routings window. On the routing lines, you enter the data for the machine or work center that processes the

product. To open the window, click Cap. Reqts. Planning, Routings.

Capacity Journals

You use capacity journals to adjust capacity in connection with production orders and positive and negative adjustments. In a capacity journal, you

enter the relevant information, such as the posting date, work center or

machine center number and time used. The information you enter in a journal is temporary and can be changed as long as it is in the journal.

After you post a journal, the journal will be empty (unless the journal is a recurring journal), and the transactions will be posted to the work center or

machine center. You can view the results of posting a journal in the ledger entry windows and register windows. To open the Capacity Journal window, click Cap. Reqts. Planning, Capacity Journals.


Finite Loading

If you want to assign finite loading instead of the default infinite load that

other resources accept, you can set up capacity constrained resources for those areas that you regard as critical and mark them to accept a finite

load.

Shop Calendars and Work Shifts

You use the shop calendar to preset capacity availability. This presetting is

done in steps and is systematically refined up to the final calendar date of the specific capacity.

You can set up many different shop calendars and then assign a shop

calendar to every work center.

You must assign a work shift to every calendar day. Normally, one work

shift is used per calendar, however, if you need to, you can enter several different work shifts in one calendar.

‘Send Ahead’ Functionality for Just-in-Time (JIT) Production

The send ahead quantity is the minimum quantity in an operation that you

want to process in order to start the next operation. If you enter a quantity

in this field, the program overlaps the current operation at this machine center with the next operation. The purpose of specifying the send-ahead

quantity is to optimize the lead times of the production order.


Routing Link Codes

You can assign BOM line positions and/or routing lines to a routing link

code. In this way, you can make the necessary changes in one place in the

program without changing all the BOM positions.

Scrap and Stop Codes

Scrap codes are used to identify why an item has been scrapped. After you have set up the scrap codes, you can enter them in the posting lines of the

output journal and the capacity journal.

Stop codes are used to identify why a machine center has stopped. After

you have set up the stop codes, you can enter them in the posting lines of

the output journal and the capacity journal.

Automatic Flushing

The forward or backward flushing method in the work center or machine center provides automatic recording of expected output.

You use the forward flushing method to automatically reduce the inventory

of components before they are issued, at the time a scheduled receipt for their parents or assemblies is created via a bill-of-material explosion.

You use the backward flushing method to automatically reduce the inventory of components after completion of an activity on the components'

upper level parent item that is based on what should have been used as specified in the bill of material.

Additional Manufacturing-related Features of Navision Attain

Unit of Measure

With the unit of measure features you can:

• Set up an unlimited number of unit of measure codes.

• Attach a base unit of measure code to each item.

• Specify an unlimited number of alternative unit of measure codes for each item and define a conversion factor for each alternative unit of measure code.

• Specify a default unit of measure code for sales transactions.


• Set up an unlimited number of translations for each unit of measure code (one translation for each language code you have set up).

Item Variants

In Navision Attain you can specify variants of items. This is useful if you have a large number of almost identical items that vary only in color, for

example. Instead of setting up each variant as a separate item, you can set

up one item and then specify the various colors as variants of the item.

Handling of Foreign Items in Inventory

You can use alternative prices to indicate that a certain price should be used when invoicing in a foreign currency.

Availability of Items

If you want to know how many units of an item will be available in the near future, you can view an availability plan.

You can check the availability of an item by period, variant, or location.



These questions are for self-study to help ensure that you have understood

the material in this chapter.

1 Describe the difference between an item card and a stockkeeping unit

card.

2 In which window do you record information about an item that is

always delivered to the customer by drop shipment?

3 Describe the difference between an item journal and an item reclassification journal (in terms of what each is used for).

4 Describe a BOM and how the program adjusts inventory when you create a BOM.

5 What do you use the Item Substitution Entry window for?

6 What do you use the Item Cross-Reference Entries window for?

7 Describe the flow of items through a warehouse and identify which

Warehouse Management window you use in each step.

8 What do you use location cards for?

9 What do you use the Production BOM window for?

10 Explain the difference between simulated production orders, planned

production orders and firm planned production orders.

11 Describe how to open the Reservation window and what you use it for.

12 Explain the difference between forward, backward and manual flushing.

13 Describe the relationship between machine centers and work centers.

14 What are capacity journals used for?

15 Explain what routings are in Navision Attain.

Chapter 4.

Customer Relationship Management

The Customer Relationship Management product suite includes the CRM – Marketing & Sales and

the CRM – Service application areas. They can be used to manage every interaction with your

customers, vendors, consultants, and so on.

You can take further specialist training and pass

the Navision Attain Essentials Test. After that you

can take the CRM – Service, and the CRM – Marketing & Sales courses.


4.1 CRM – Marketing & Sales

4.2 CRM – Service



4.1 CRM – MARKETING & SALES

CRM – Marketing & Sales is a marketing and sales tool developed for

companies with small sales and marketing teams, a limited number of customers, and a sales cycle that is not complex. The front-office tool is

fully integrated with Navision Attain.

CRM – Marketing & Sales gives you complete and accurate information to

improve the quality of every business interaction.

Contact Management

With Contact Management you can maintain an overview of your contacts

and record your contact information for all your business relations. For each contact you can specify the individual contact people you have at the

contact company. Duplicate check automatically alerts you if you enter

contact information that already exists. You can categorize your contacts based on your own profiling criteria. Contact Management allows you to

personalize your approach to your contacts.

You use the contact card to record information about your contacts.

Navision Attain 3.60 is integrated with Microsoft TAPI (Telephony Application Programming Interface). By using TAPI compliant telecom

devices, you can call a contact simply by clicking a button on the

Communication tab on the contact card (the small telephone icon next to the telephone or mobile phone number). Contact Management is tightly

integrated with the Sales & Receivables application area. This means that, for example, you can issue quotes to prospects or create sales documents

for specific contact persons. To view the contact card, click Relationship

Management, Contacts, then click the Communication tab:

Customer Relationship Management 4-3

Contact Search

The Contact Search feature allows you to find a contact in the database

even if you cannot remember the exact details of the contact. You can even

misspell a search string and still find the contact you are looking for. This feature is available not only from the Relationship Management main menu

but also from wizards, the contact list and the contact card. To limit the search, you can search across different fields (for example Name,

Address, Telephone No. and E-Mail Address) and tables (Contact, Interaction Log Entry, To-do, Opportunity, Rlshp. Mgt. Comment Line), or you can search across all tables. To open the window, click


Task Management

With Task Management you can organize your campaign, marketing and

sales tasks. You can create to-do lists for yourself. To-dos can be linked to

contacts and/or campaigns. You can assign tasks, composed of several to-dos, to other users or teams of users recorded in the program. Activities

can be composed from several to-dos.

The To-dos window allows you to view existing to-dos in a number of

ways. For example you can choose to view the number of to-dos or the contact number involved, grouped by campaign, salesperson, team, or

contact. To open the window, click Relationship Management, To-dos.

Contact Classification

You can classify your contacts into different categories and tailor your

marketing messages to suit the individual needs of the customer.

Contact Classification classifies your customers based on criteria specified

by you, for example, to group contacts in terms of revenue. This feature provides crucial information for campaign planning, for targeting your

contacts more specifically and for streamlining your sales and marketing messages.

A contact rating system is provided to let you set up specifically tailored

ratings reflecting, for example, the importance or loyalty of your customers, vendors and partners. You can have the ratings displayed on the contact

card for quick reference and update.


Campaign Management

Campaign Management allows you to organize campaigns based on

market segments you create yourself. You can segment your contacts

based on specific criteria, such as, sales, contact profiles and interactions.

You can reuse existing segments, for example, specify whether or not

these segments are to be updated every time new information on the contact is entered, or ‘freeze’ the group for follow-up activities, such as

direct mailing.

You can mail merge the identified segment with a Microsoft Word

document or send any other file type to the contacts in your segment. You

can send copies of the same document to people of different nationalities each in their native language.

You enter information about a campaign on the campaign card. To open the window, click Relationship Management, Campaigns:

Document Management & Interaction Log

You can log the interactions that you have with your contacts, such as a telephone call, a meeting or a letter. If an interaction contains a document,

you can save it under the relevant contact, and Document Management

helps you keep track of the document in question.

All Navision documents that you send to your contact, such as sales orders

or quotes, can be logged and retrieved and used at a later stage. You get an accurate and up-to-date account of all your interactions with the contact.

Opportunity Management

With Opportunity Management you can keep track of sales opportunities. Salespeople have an overview of what is in the pipeline and can plan


ahead accordingly.

Opportunity Management helps you divide your sales process into different

stages. You can view existing opportunities in the Opportunities window.

The Opportunities window allows you to view existing opportunities in a number of ways. For example you can choose to view the number of

opportunities or the value of the opportunities (calculated in a variety of ways), grouped by campaign, salesperson, or contact. To open the

window, click Relationship Management, Opportunities:

Outlook Client Integration

Most CRM users build relationships with their contacts using calendar and

task management tools, and much of the external communication takes place through MS Outlook. Therefore integration between Navision Attain

and MS Outlook is vital to the CRM user's performance.

With the Outlook Client Integration feature you can schedule meetings in Outlook and see the to-dos in Attain before the meeting, and when the

meeting has taken place, you can log it in the Interaction Log Entries window as an interaction. The scheduling capabilities in Outlook allow you

to plan and execute to-dos you have been assigned, and in Attain you can

create activities for customers and contact persons.

Whenever information (for example, a to-do or a contact) is entered in

Attain, this information is automatically updated in MS Outlook. There is no need to update the same information twice in two different applications.


E-Mail Logging for Microsoft Exchange

This feature integrates Navision Attain with the MS Outlook e-mail service.

All your e-mail correspondence, both inbound and outbound, can be logged

automatically or manually in Attain and can therefore be shared with your colleagues to ensure 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 MS Outlook further allows

you to use the built-in features in Outlook. For example, you can set up rules in Outlook that direct certain types of e-mail to specific folders for

subsequent, automatic logging in Attain.


4.2 CRM – SERVICE

CRM – Service makes it profitable for you to deliver superior customer

service. It helps you take customer satisfaction one step further and exceed your customers’ expectations. You can:

• Quickly and easily access customer service history.

• Anticipate customer needs.

• Maintain real-time records, such as the date, time and technician assigned to each customer order.

Service Order Management

You can register after-sales issues including service requests, services

due, service orders, and repair requests. 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. You can register ad hoc or one-off service orders. You can

access complete service order history, service order quotes and loaner

management through the Service Order Log. You create a service order in the Service Order window. To open the window, click Service

Management, Orders:


Service Price Management

Having a well thought-out service price strategy is one of the means

companies use to gain an overview and control of the costs involved in

providing service, and to eventually increase the profitability of their service operations. We have redesigned the service price management feature in

CRM – Service to give companies an effective tool to support their service price strategy, whether it is simple or complex.

The redesigned service price management allows the setup of service price groups to take into consideration the service item (or service item group) as

well as the 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. For example, this makes it possible to assign specific items included in the service price as well as 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 you to keep track of the

profitability of each service price group.

Service Item Management

With Service Item Management you can create a database for all your service items and parts, including contract information, component

management, BOM reference and warranty information.

You can access the Service Level Agreement for information on, for example, response times.

You can register all items and spare parts with serial numbers as well as any replacement equipment technicians may use, and then link them to the

Service Item Log. You can track all spare parts and equipment. You can

access key business indicators on service items in the Trendscape Analysis feature.

You keep track of service item information on the service item card. To open the window, click Service Management, Service Items.


Service Contract Management

With service contracts you can set up an agreement with the customer

concerning the service level to be delivered. You can access information on contract history, contract renewal, and contract templates in Contract

Management.

Service contracts give you the option to record details on service levels, response times, and discount levels as well as the service history of each

contract, including used service items and parts and man-hours.

With Contract Management you can enable flexible invoicing, contract

profitability measurement, and contract quotes. You set up service contracts in the Service Contract window. To open the window, click

Service Management, Contracts:


Planning and Dispatching

You can assign personnel to work orders with Planning and Dispatching. It

also allows you to log details such as work order status. Service personnel and field technicians can be filtered according to availability and skills. You

can gain an overview of service task prioritization, service loads, and task escalations.

Job Scheduling

With Job Scheduling, you can automate service-oriented tasks, for

example, generate preventative service orders, service contract renewals

or service contract invoicing. You can also set up Job Scheduler to perform automatic checks on whether there are any batches to be processed on a

specific date.

You set up job scheduling in the Job Scheduler Setup window. To open

the window, click Service Management, Setup, Job Scheduler, Setup:





1 Which window can you use to get an overview of campaign, marketing

and sales tasks?

2 Describe how CRM-Marketing & Sales interacts with Microsoft

Outlook.

3 Describe what you can use segments for.

4 What is an interaction in CRM – Marketing & Sales?

5 What is an opportunity in CRM – Marketing & Sales?

6 Describe the different ways you can view opportunities in the

Opportunities window.

7 What do you use the Service Item Card for?

8 What kinds of information can you access in Service Contract

Management?

9 What is the purpose of the Job Scheduler window?

Chapter 5.

Technology

This chapter covers the more technical aspects of

using Navision Attain.

The chapter is divided into the following sections:

5.1 C/SIDE Development Environment

5.2 Server Options

5.3 Navision Attain Application Server

5.4 Multilanguage Functionality

5.5 Commerce Gateway

5.6 Commerce Portal

5.7 User Portal



5.1 C/SIDE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT

The development environment in Navision Attain is called C/SIDE

(Client/Server Integrated Development Environment). The major benefits of C/SIDE are:

• All application areas for Navision Attain are developed in C/SIDE.

• It contains all the tools to build on and customize the application.

• It includes the executables in the program subdirectory on the hard disk.

• It contains the code needed to interpret the application objects, development system tools (editors, debugger, and so on), the database management system (DBMS) and the operating system interface.

C/SIDE consists of three central systems:

• Fourth-generation language (4GL) development system

• Database management system

• Special database functions

Object Designer

The Object Designer enables you to develop applications in C/SIDE. From

the Object Designer, you can run an application object or start an

application object designer, for example, the Form Designer. You use the application object designers to modify the design of an existing application

object or to create a new application object. Note that special permission is required to use this tool.

There are five types of application objects:

• Tables

• Forms

• Codeunits

• Reports

Technology 5-3

• Dataports

To open the Object Designer, click Tools, Object Designer. The following

window appears:

Application Objects

C/SIDE uses object-oriented programming technology. An object is a self-

contained module of data and its associated processing.

All objects in C/SIDE are assigned a number for identification purposes.

• Objects 0-9,999 have been developed by Navision a/s.

• Objects 10,000-49,999 have been developed by Navision Territory Representatives (NTRs).

• Objects 50,000-99,999 are available for Navision Solution Centers (NSCs).

• Objects 1,000,000- 98,999,999 are available for add-on products.

Tables

All information in the database is stored in tables. Each table contains one

kind of information, such as journal lines, posted entries and basic

information.

There are different kinds of tables:

• Normal tables display information that the user can work with. The Customer table is an example of a normal table.


• System tables are tables that the system creates automatically. The DBMS uses the system tables to manage, among other things, system security and permissions. The User table is an example of a system table.

• Temporary tables act as buffers for table data in your C/AL programs. You can do almost anything with a temporary table that you can do with a normal database table. A temporary table is not stored in the database but is held in memory on your workstation until you close the table.

• Virtual tables contain information that the system provides. You cannot change the information that these tables contain. The system computes virtual tables at runtime. The Date and Session tables are examples of such virtual tables.

Forms

Forms are used to enter and display data. For example, you can use a form

to enter information about new customers or to update and review information about existing customers.

Reports

Reports are used to print information from a database. They can be used to

structure and summarize information, and they can be used to print documents, such as invoices. They can also be used to process data

without printing anything.

You can use the Report Designer to customize and modify existing reports. To create a new report, you must open the New Report window from the

Object Designer. To do so, click Report, and then click New. The following window appears:

Technology 5-5

The report wizard guides you through the design of the report:

Dataports

A dataport is an object type that is used to import data from and export data to external text files, for example, comma-separated files.

Codeunits

A codeunit is an object type that contains functions written in C/AL code.

For more information about the Object Designer, see the manual

Application Designer's Guide.

C/AL – The Programming Language

C/AL is a fourth-generation programming language (4GL) that:

• is used to create functions.

• controls how individual database objects interact.

• includes standard functions for reading, writing and modifying table data.

When you program in C/AL, you use statements. There are the following

different types of statements: compound statements, conditional

statements, repetitive statements, EXIT statements and WITH statements.

For more information about C/AL, see the manual C/AL Programming

Guide or the Navision Attain Programming training material.


The Graphical User Interface (GUI)

The user interface is designed so that it is easy to use if you are already

familiar with Microsoft products. The user interface has many benefits

including the facts that many windows can be open at the same time and that the GUI follows the same design principles throughout Navision Attain.

Special Facilities in Navision Attain

Navision Attain fulfills the requirements of a business management solution

by supplying tools for entering and managing information and always satisfying the current accounting laws. Navision Attain also contains some

very special facilities, which are listed below. Becoming familiar with these

facilities will help you to fully utilize the program in your daily work.

Navision Attain provides:

• direct access from one table to another.

• easy data entry.

• information in multiple dimensions.

• automatic calculation of amounts and quantities.

• information on what is included in a calculated amount.

• filtering of information.

• sorting with one or more keys.

• pictures of items or a company logo on the screen together with the associated information.

• connections to mail merge, spreadsheet applications and presentation graphics programs.

Technology 5-7

5.2 SERVER OPTIONS

Navision Attain has two database options:

• Navision Attain Database Server (scalable up to 128 GB)

• The Microsoft SQL Server Option for Navision Attain based on Microsoft SQL Server (scalable beyond 128 GB)Database Features

Here are some of the features of the two database server options for

Navision Attain:

Navision Attain Database Server Microsoft SQL Server Option

Relational Relational

Version Management Version Management

Commit Rollback Commit Rollback

SIFT Technology SIFT Technology

Client Server Client Server

Optimistic Concurrency

Transaction Logs

Database Level Security

Record Level Security

Some of these features are described briefly below.

For more information about the database features, see the manual Application Designer's Guide.

Sum-Indexed Flow Technology - SIFT

SIFT is the basis of FlowFields. It is a feature in the database that allows

you to have sums calculated very quickly by maintaining SumIndexes. There are columns in which the figures in SumIndexFields are constantly

being summed. When you want a sum calculated, the program does not

have to calculate the sum by going through a large number of entries in the database. The sum is calculated quickly when the program subtracts one


figure in a SumIndex from another. The updated sum can be seen in a FlowField every time you open a window that contains a FlowField, or

when you set a filter on a balance field.

Version Management

Version management builds on a principle that ensures that a user always

starts a task with the latest updated complete version of the data. The user can work with this version of the data, change it, and add new data. After

this, the new data will become part of a new version of the database.

Optimistic Concurrency

Navision Attain uses a technique called optimistic concurrency. With

optimistic concurrency, you always have access to the record you want to work with. Thus, if two or more users try to access the same data in the

database at the same time, they will all be allowed to do so.

Database Level Security

This means the access that the users have to the data in the database can

be defined in terms of the tables that they have access to.

Record Level Security

This means the access that the users have to the data in the database can be defined in terms of the records that they have access to.

The Logical Structures in Your Database

The database is organized in units of fields, records, tables and companies.

This section describes the basic principles of these structures.

Fields

A field is the smallest logical structure used in the C/SIDE database. A

field is used to hold a single piece of information, such as a name like John or an amount like 2,352.00. Any particular field can only contain information

of one specific data type. The C/SIDE database system distinguishes

between 17 different types of data.

Fields are assembled into a structure called a record. On its own, a field is

not very useful, as it can hold only a limited amount of information. By assembling these small pieces of information into records, we get a much

Technology 5-9

more flexible "information-holder" that is better organized, keeping fields together that belong together.

Records

A record is a logical structure assembled from an arbitrary number of fields. It is used to store a single entry in the database. The fields in a record are

used to store information about important properties of the entry. Records are organized in tables. An example of a record is a number of fields with

information about a single customer.

Tables

A table can be thought of as an N by M matrix. Each of the N rows

describes a record and each of the M columns describes a field in the record. An example of a table is the Customer table, which contains a

record for each customer. Each company in a database contains a number of tables.

Companies

A company is the largest logical structure used in a C/SIDE database. A company may be considered to be a subdatabase; its primary use is to

separate and group large portions of data in a database. A company can contain private tables as well as tables shared with other companies.


5.3 NAVISION ATTAIN APPLICATION SERVER

Navision Attain Application Server is a middle-tier server, which executes

business logic without user intervention. With Navision Attain Application Server, it is possible to communicate with external services. Navision Attain

Application Server acts as a client towards a database server and can act as a server for other services. When you start Navision Attain Application

Server, it opens a predefined database and executes C/AL code in a

predefined codeunit.

To understand more about how Navision Attain Application Server

communicates with external services, see the online Help project Development Guide for Communication Components.

No User Interface

Navision Attain Application Server runs without displaying anything on a screen and therefore requires no user interaction. This means that error

messages cannot be displayed to the user. Instead, error messages are logged in the NT event log. The user can, however, interact with Navision

Attain Application Server through the Navision Attain Application Server Manager.

Navision Attain Application Server Manager

You can install Navision Attain Application Server as a service and manage it through the Navision Attain Application Server Manager, which is a

Microsoft Management Console snap-in. With the Navision Attain Application Server Manager, you can see which Navision Attain Application

Server properties you have set. You can also add and reconfigure Navision

Attain Application Server.

Navision Application Server versus Navision Server

It is important to distinguish between Navision Application Server and Navision Server, the latter being a database server. For more information

about Navision Server, see the manual Installation & System Management: Navision Attain Application Server.

Running More Than One Application Server

It is possible to run more than one Navision Attain Application Server with the same database or with different databases, but Windows Installer can

only install one Navision Attain Application Server on each computer. This

Technology 5-11

is because Windows Installer checks for existing Navision Attain Application Server installations.

To install more than one Navision Attain Application Server, you must copy

all files that belong to the previously installed Navision Attain Application Server to another target folder. Which files to copy depends on whether

you are using Navision Attain Database Server or Microsoft SQL Server.

For more information about Navision Attain Application Server, see the

manual Installation & System Management: Navision Attain Application Server.


5.4 MULTILANGUAGE FUNCTIONALITY

The multilanguage functionality in Navision Attain helps your employees

work more efficiently. You can switch to virtually any language on the fly. Every employee can work in the language of his or her choice, allowing

your organization to respond quickly and efficiently to international business opportunities.

Speak Your Employees' Language

Navision Attain helps employees become more efficient by eliminating language barriers among your multilingual workforce.

Users of Navision Attain can work in the language of their choice. For example, a Swiss user can run their version of Navision Attain in German,

French or Italian. The local functionality is, however, still Swiss. If the user

prefers French, but wants to send a report to an Italian colleague, he can do so in Italian. This means that, for example, French and Italian

colleagues can work side by side on the same database or even share a workstation.

What’s more, you can change languages on the fly; you do not have to close down the application and log on again just to switch languages. The

real-time functionality saves you time. It gives you fast access to the

information you need to work more efficiently – in your own language.

Speak Your Customer’s Language

With Navision Attain, your customer service improves because you can do business in the language preferred by your customer. For example, if a

Polish customer wants invoices in his native language, you can easily print

the invoices in Polish from your Navision Attain application. You can therefore communicate more efficiently with both existing and potential

customers and partners around the globe.

Adding a Language Layer

In order to let the user select a certain language from the Tools menu, that language must be present as a granule in the license file. The application

must also be translated to that language, so that you can import it into the

database either as a text file or as a language module. Either you can export all text strings and translate them in a translation tool, such as the

Navision Localization Workbench, or you can enter the translation of the text strings directly in the Multilanguage Editor.

Technology 5-13

Multilanguage Editor

You access the Multilanguage Editor window by opening an object from

the Object Designer, clicking View, Properties to open the Properties window and clicking the AssistButton in the CaptionML property. In the Multilanguage Editor window, you can click the AssistButton in the

Language field and select your language from the list that appears, or you may simply enter the three-letter abbreviation and move the cursor to the

Value field. The system then replaces the abbreviation with the full language description. In the Value field, enter the correct term for this

object in this language. To save your entry, you must click OK before

exiting the window.

Developing Multilanguage-Enabled Applications

When you develop in a multilanguage-enabled environment, it is important to remember the following three rules of thumb:

• Everything has a Name property in (United States) English.

• Text constants replace text strings, such as error messages.

• Everything that the user will see must have a Caption property.

Before you start working in a multilanguage-enabled database, you should set the application language to (United States) English. You do this by

clicking Tools, Languages and selecting English (United States).

In Navision Attain, the code base is English (United States). This means

that the Name property of, for example, an object must always be English

(United States).

The code base in English (United States) includes, among other things, the

following:

• Object names

• Field names

• Function and variable names

• Comments

• Option strings


• Control names

For more information about how to develop multilanguage-enabled

applications, see the manual Application Designer's Guide.

Technology 5-15

5.5 COMMERCE GATEWAY

The above diagram illustrates how Commerce Gateway, together with

Microsoft BizTalk Server, enables companies to share a common language and thus exchange business data electronically. In this diagram, the data is

exchanged over the Internet.

It is often the case that companies store their data and documents in different systems. This can cause problems when they want to do business

with each other. While electronic data interchange (EDI) solutions have been around for decades, this technology has not delivered a common

framework that all companies can easily use.

Commerce Gateway opens up Navision Attain so that companies can electronically exchange trading documents with their business partners

irrespective of each other’s conversion requirements and data formats. This means that companies can streamline their business processes and reduce

transaction costs. Commerce Gateway also makes it easier for companies

Commerce Gateway

SAP

BTS OEM

BTS CG CG BTS

OEM Legends

CG

BTS

OEM

SAP

Commerce Gateway

Microsoft BizTalk Server

3rd Party Products

SAP

E-Mail


to meet the changing demands of their trading partners regardless of the industry they are in, the system that they use or the standards that their

partners require. Commerce Gateway supports the most common trading

documents.

Integration with Microsoft BizTalk Server

Commerce Gateway provides integration with Microsoft BizTalk Server 2000. BizTalk Server is a data and business process integration server,

which facilitates e-commerce business processes. It comprises a document interchange engine, a business process execution engine, and a set of

business document and server management tools. There are also tools for

managing trading partner relationships and for tracking transactions.

BizTalk Server uses the industry-standard extensible markup language

(XML) technology. Using XML, you can map data between virtually any two data formats, including EDIFACT, SAP IDOC and flat files. You can also

map between the documents that you have specified in your partner setup.

This is handled in a graphical user interface, which makes it easy to create new document maps or change existing ones.

BizTalk includes a design framework for implementing standard XML schemas and a set of XML tags used in messages sent between

applications.

New Functionality Integrated into the Navision Attain User Interface

As an integrated part of the Navision Attain user interface, Commerce

Gateway makes it easy to learn the new functionality. For example, users can browse trading agreements by clicking and drilling down in the same

intuitive and consistent way as in the rest of the program. This means that a sales employee or an office clerk can concentrate on the new features in

Navision Attain, and does not have to think about the fact that a BizTalk

Server is running “underneath” the application. Only superusers responsible for setup, administration and maintenance of the BizTalk

Server and the Trading Partner Agreements interact directly with the BizTalk Server.

Commerce Gateway functionality has been added to the Sales & Receivables, Purchases & Payables, and Inventory application areas in

Navision Attain. Furthermore, you can access BizTalk administration items

from the main menu (by clicking General Ledger, Setup, BizTalk).

Technology 5-17

What about Companies that Need EDI Functionality?

The Commerce Gateway solution still provides companies with access to

EDI functionality. The BizTalk Server can convert EDI and IDOCS (a SAP

standard) to XML. EDI was developed primarily for trading transactions, however, so it has a narrower scope of functionality than BizTalk. BizTalk

Server offers the following advantages over EDI:

• It handles all aspects of communication between e-business partners.

• It ensures both reliability and security.

• It offers the possibility of mapping the content between two different XML schemas. This means that e-commerce partners can use their own schemas.

• It offers direct support for a variety of data and information that will be needed in the future (for example, product information and media data such as pictures, sound and video).

BizTalk Server offers EDI users more functionality than Value-Adding

Network (VAN) operators can supply. Also, BizTalk Server enables companies to administer their trading relationships in a much more cost-

efficient way.


5.6 COMMERCE PORTAL

Commerce Portal is an e-commerce solution that enables Web-based

trading, self-service and other forms of collaboration between a company and all its supply chain partners.

Commerce Portal makes it easy for partners - customers, vendors and others - to serve themselves directly from their Web portal – anytime,

anywhere. They can maintain and query data and documents across the

range of functions found in Navision Attain (depending on their particular role and the access rights that have been defined).

The following picture illustrates how Navision Attain, together with Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 enables you to access and update data in

Navision Attain over the Internet or an intranet from a Web browser.

This section describes some Commerce Portal features. The following are key features of Commerce Portal:

• Data is maintained only in Navision Attain.

• You can create multiple Web sites.

• You can define the permissions of your Web portal users based on roles.

• You can set up automatic e-mail notifications to Web portal users and colleagues in connection with specific events in the process of handling a sales or purchase order.

Technology 5-19

• You can set up specific language-dependent text and descriptions to be used on your Web portal.

• You can increase the efficiency of your purchasing activity by listing items you want to order on your Web portal and inviting your vendors to participate in a reverse auction.

• Web pages are maintained from within Navision Attain.

• Commerce Portal has full integration with the rest of the Navision Attain application.

• Commerce Portal supports the picture formats GIF and JPG.

Maintaining Data

To work with Commerce Portal, Navision Attain users do not have to

familiarize themselves with a new user interface. From Navision Attain, they can update the Web portal user and item information, handle sales

quotes, sales orders and reverse auctions and conduct similar activities.

Customer information on the Customer card and Contact card can also be maintained from the Web portal, for example, while you are visiting your

customers.

All data relevant to the Commerce Portal is synchronized with (by being

copied to) the SQL Server database so that the data is actually stored in

both the Navision Attain database and the SQL Server database. The system automatically synchronizes the SQL Server database and,

subsequently, the Web pages on your Web portal with the Navision Attain database.

Multiple Web Sites

With Commerce Portal, you can create multiple Web sites. For example,

you can create a new Web site while the old one is still online. Also each

Web portal user or group of Web portal users can be assigned to specific Web sites, which means that they can access only these Web sites. In

addition, you can set up the templates for copying basic information to the different types of users on the Web site. You can also define which

notification processes are to be used for the Web site.

Roles and Permissions

Commerce Portal allows you to create Web portal users, give them roles


and modify the rights of these users and roles from within Navision Attain. This means that several types of Web portal users can engage in business

activities with your company or browse your Web portal. Different roles

have different permissions to perform different activities, such as business, maintenance or administration activities.

E-Mail Notification

In Commerce Portal, you can set up various notifications. These

notifications are used in the following circumstances:

• To notify the users of your Web portal of specific events or the status of their orders and offers, and of their new password and/or user IDs.

• To notify yourself or your colleagues of information entered by users of your Web portal.

During the processing of information entered by a Web portal user, you might want to send information or status reports to that user. This is done

by setting up notifications for each step that the different information types

can go through: for example, confirmation of a sales quote, shipping of a sales order, confirmation of an offer made on a reverse auction or the

creation of a Commerce Portal user ID and password. For each notification, you can write one or more texts that will automatically be sent to the

customer via e-mail. For example, whenever a sales order is shipped, the Web portal user will automatically receive an e-mail saying so.

The same functionality informs your colleagues of the creation of new Web

portal users, new sales quotes or new offers on reverse auctions. One of your colleagues or a group of your colleagues will receive an e-mail, for

example, containing information about the new Web portal user, new sales quote or new offer on the reverse auction.

Multilanguage Functionality

You can set up specific language-dependent text and descriptions to be used on your Web portal when the Web portal user’s language is not the

standard language of your Navision Attain installation. Commerce Portal automatically uses the text and descriptions defined for the chosen

language in the MultiLanguage table and the Item Translation table.

Reverse Auction

You can ease your purchasing process by creating a reverse auction. A

Technology 5-21

reverse auction is when you put a demand for purchasing products to one or more vendors on the Web portal. The participating vendors can then

respond to your auction by placing an offer on the Web portal, stating

delivery time, quantity and price.

Maintaining Web Pages

When your Web portal is up and running, you might want to make adjustments or changes. For example, you may want to change the

welcoming text that greets the Web portal users when they open the first page of your Web portal. This is easily done from within Navision Attain.

You do not have to change the text in the HTML code, nor do you need the

assistance of an ASP programmer. You simply change the text as you would change the text in any other application area of Navision Attain. You

can also change the pictures on your Web pages within Navision Attain.

Integration

The Commerce Portal is fully integrated with the rest of the Navision Attain

application areas.

This means that if, for example, a new customer places an order through

your Web portal, then their customer information is inserted automatically in the Customer table in the Navision Attain database. When you set up your

Web site, you define templates for each of your different types of Web portal users. The information on the templates will be copied to the new

user. The templates can contain basic information that you want all new

users created through your Web portal to have, as well as the permissions you want to grant them.

If an existing Web portal user places an order through your Web portal, they will receive all discounts that they are entitled to. In fact, everything will

work just as if the order was entered manually in the Sales Quote window

in Navision Attain. You can even grant trusted customers permission to create sales orders and you can choose to reject or accept the sales

quotes manually.

By using their user ID and password, each Web portal user can sign in to

your Web portal and view their previously entered information, such as orders, credit memos, offers on reverse auctions and financial statements.

In addition, depending on how you have set up your Web portal, you can

reorder items on the basis of previous orders. It is also possible for Web portal users to monitor the status of their current orders or offers.


There is no separate table for the items you sell through your Web portal. All maintenance and updating uses the item card in the Inventory

application area of Navision Attain. So, whenever you update your prices or

the name or the availability of an item is changed, it is immediately reflected in your Web portal.

An order placed on your Web portal is no different than one created from within Navision Attain; there is full integration with the general ledger

through posting.

A sales order placed by a Web portal user is posted like any other sales

order in Navision Attain, and will therefore result in the same general ledger

entries, customer ledger entries, item ledger entries, and so on.

Technology 5-23

5.7 USER PORTAL

User Portal is a Web solution that gives users a single point of entry to

personal, team, corporate and external information. User Portal enables users to access Navision Attain data from a Web browser, utilizing the

latest Navision technology and functionality from Microsoft Digital Dashboard. User Portal is part of the e-business strategy of Navision a/s to

Web-enable Navision products.

User Portal makes it easy for users to access data in Navision Attain, no matter where they are working. Remote users, such as traveling sales

representatives, can immediately access their personal activity pages. User Portal delivers all the critical information users need to their own activity

page, helping them become more productive. All that is needed is access

to a Microsoft browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or later).

With User Portal, users can have access to all the information that supports

the roles they play in their organization. They can initiate searches for relevant role-based information from any source. For example, when a

sales representative needs information on customer accounts and sales history, they can easily access the relevant and up-to-date information from

Navision Attain.

User Portal enables users to tailor their personal home page to fit their needs. They can select from available Web parts, such as stock tickers,

recent business news and Navision Attain Web parts. Navision Attain Web parts can also be personalized so that, for example, a user can see both

the standard Item Sales Top 10 and the personalized My Item Sales Top

10.

Digital Dashboards

User Portal is based on the Microsoft Digital Dashboard framework. A digital dashboard is a powerful tool that knowledge workers can use to view

their daily activities, collaborate with coworkers and gain insight into the performance of the company. It ensures that knowledge workers have the

information they need to properly assess and act upon business

opportunities.

The digital dashboard concept is derived from the dashboards found in real

life. For example, cars and airplanes have dashboards that aid users in driving a car or flying a plane safely. When you are in the role of a driver,

you need to be able to monitor speed, gas level, and engine temperature

whereas pilots also need to monitor altitude, for example. So the


dashboards are equipped with carefully designed gauges and controls that aid the user in performing the tasks relevant to their role.

In addition, digital dashboards are designed to support a role. The available

gauges are called Web parts and instead of monitoring speed and altitude, they monitor business data, specific tasks and other relevant information.

As with physical dashboards, you must go through a predesign analysis identifying the roles and their workflows when you are developing digital

dashboards.

In User Portal, digital dashboards are used to create activity centers.

Activity Center

An activity center contains all the links and views a user needs when acting in a certain role. Each user has one activity center for each role they are

assigned to.

An activity center contains an assortment of Web parts organized in views,

and will typically contain the user's predefined application role menu called

My Frequent Tasks. This menu provides links to other views and tasks such as My Item Sales Top 10 and Search.

The current User Portal demonstration product contains two activity centers:

• Sales

• Product Designer

Web Parts

The Web parts are the gauges on the dashboards. In other words, activity centers are made up of Web parts. Once a Web part has been designed, it

can be reused in different activity centers.

Web parts are components that contain any kind of Web-based technology.

As described earlier, they are Microsoft Digital Dashboard’s way of

modeling gauges from a real-world dashboard. For example, a speedometer would be considered one Web part.

The Web parts are used to build activity centers. Once a Web part is designed, it can be used in one or more activity centers. Web parts can add

general functionality to an activity center or they can add specialized

Technology 5-25

functionality.

Some general Web parts are:

• Favorites

• Frequent Tasks

• Recently Visited Pages

They add the general functionality to an activity center that you can find on

most Web sites. Other Web parts are highly specialized for one activity center.

Web parts can also contain information from external sources, for example, ticker stock prices, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft NetMeeting and Web sites

with recent business news.

Infrastructure

User Portal uses the dataport feature within Navision Attain as a gateway

for inbound and outbound data.

To facilitate this, User Portal Application Server acts as a middle-tier data

server for the Web server application responding to requests for data and processing updates. You must not confuse User Portal Application Server

with Navision Attain Application Server. User Portal Application Server is

designed specifically for User Portal and you cannot use Navision Attain Application Server for a User Portal solution.

Data and updates are exchanged as XML-formatted messages. A user interface renderer manages the translation of the XML data to HTML

pages.

A portal developer creates dataports in the User Portal Application Server to import and export data in XML format. The developer also creates Web

part handlers in XML format and XSL style sheets that together form the basis for displaying the data in a browser. This is called the meta user

interface (meta UI).

The meta UI is itself an XML format made up of a number of pre-defined

interface components. A renderer then takes the meta UI (in XML format)

and generates the required HTML for the Web browser.


In adopting this model, User Portal:

• Leverages the latest technologies to place Navision Attain information online.

• Allows for fully validated updates back into Navision Attain, observing the business application logic and rules.

• Provides an abstract user interface description, allowing Navision Attain to determine the user interface presentation on the browser and establish an overall product identity.

Technology 5-27




1 Name the five types of objects in C/SIDE.

2 Name the four types of tables in C/SIDE.

3 What is a codeunit?

4 Which database servers can Navision Attain be installed on?

5 Explain what SIFT is.

6 Define/describe the following and the relationship between them: a

record, a field, a table, a company.

7 Describe the features of Navision Attain Application Server.

8 Describe the multilanguage features in Navision Attain.

9 Describe the features of Commerce Gateway.

10 Describe the features of Commerce Portal.

11 Describe the features of User Portal.

12 Define the following: an activity center, a Web part.

Appendix A.

Cronus International Company History

This document recounts the story thus far of Cronus International Ltd., the Navision Attain

demonstration company. It contains the following sections:

Company History

Company Organization

Products & Services

Opportunities & Strategies

A Look Forward

II Cronus International Company History

Company History

In 1985, John Roberts founded and became Managing Director of Cronus

International Ltd. Originally, the company was a subcontractor of cabinets

for Supernova Inc. Supernova Inc. went bankrupt in 1991 and Cronus International Ltd. was reorganized after writing off significant losses

associated with the bankruptcy.

As part of the 1991 reorganization, Cronus International Ltd. became a

corporation with the family of John Roberts as principle shareholders. At that time, management chose Navision Financials to aid them in their

restructuring of the company and help keep tighter control over their

finances, as required by their principal creditors. The company shifted its focus to the marketing and sale of a line of modular office furniture, which

John Roberts, a trained carpenter and joiner, had been working on for some time. The series was called OLYMPIC. The company produced

some of the components in its own factory and some were purchased from

subcontractors. The series was and continues to be a great success and the company has grown steadily and significantly.

In the late nineties, the company decided to further emphasize manufacturing. In this connection, it added manufacturing functionality to

its existing installation of Navision Financials. It also undertook the manufacture of a line of bicycles. Cronus does the final assembly of the

bicycles with parts manufactured elsewhere, as well as in-house

manufacturing of some bicycle subassemblies. A natural development, which has arisen from the manufacturing functionality, is that sales and

distribution have been further emphasized by Cronus.

In the merger-mania business climate of the late nineties, Cronus

International Ltd. acquired a company that manufactures, distributes and

services computer hardware in order to expand its line of products and services. In conjunction with this, Cronus added distribution and service

management functionality to its Navision Financials installation. The added distribution functionality will aid the growing international concern in

distributing all of their various products, not only the new line of copiers. They are now a multinational company with warehouses and stocks in

various locations throughout the world.

Cronus International Ltd. is interested in delving into the rapidly growing e-commerce market. In this stead, it has added a line of interior design items

to complement the OLYMPIC series. The company also added a line of outdoor sportswear to complement the bicycles, which it will now

aggressively seek to sell via the Internet, using Commerce Portal.

Cronus International Company History III

To ensure that individuals not are forgotten in the focus on e-commerce, new product lines and increased marketing efforts, John Roberts has

decided to focus on treating different customers differently. Therefore,

Cronus has decided to upgrade to the new Navision Attain, a comprehensive, integrated business solution that includes Service

Management and Relationship Management functionality for handling customer relationship management.

IV Cronus International Company History

Company Organization

As a rapidly growing company with a diversified product line, Cronus

International Ltd. will continue its traditional focus on selling directly to

consumers, while adding a business-to-business focus to its business strategy.

The company, which went public in 1998, has grown from 60 employees in 1993 to nearly 850 today.

The founder, John Roberts (JR), a trained carpenter and joiner, has become CEO of the company and is responsible for overseeing all of its

operations.

Sales Manager Peter Schmidt (PS), is in charge of the sales of the OLYMPIC line of office furniture. Because of the increased responsibilities

associated with the new product lines, Mr. Schmidt has been promoted to Vice President of Sales and will oversee the entire sales force of all product

lines.

Foreman Richard Quist (RQ) is responsible for the production of the OLYMPIC office furniture. This includes a close working relationship with

vendors to ensure that supplies are sufficient for production needs.

Juan Hernandez (JH) is responsible for purchases. He works closely with

Richard Quist. He also has been responsible for negotiating the tightened business relationships that Cronus has entered into recently with several of

its vendors.

Interior design consultant Mary Fioretto (MF) has designed the new line of interior decorating items to go with the OLYMPIC series. Because of her

background in clothing design, she also has overseen the design of the line of activewear, which will be sold via the Internet.

The new Sales Manager, Carl Owens (CO), is an expert on relationship

management and will be in charge of sales campaigns. Mr. Lewis has a growing sales force to assist him with the many campaigns.

With the addition of copiers to its product line, Cronus needed a Service Manager, so they hired Kate Decker (KD), to fill that position. She has ten

years of experience in the customer service field and served as an expert consultant for the development of the service management functionality for

Navision Attain.

Cronus’ new focus on e-commerce has necessitated a Web Team, headed by Web Manager, Jason Martin (JM). Mr. Owens, an experienced web

Cronus International Company History V

programmer himself, will supervise the team of writers and web programmers on the Web Team.

In order to properly market the new product lines, Cronus felt it was

necessary to hire a Marketing Manager. Maria Bedford (MB), who has ten years of experience in the sporting goods market, will focus on marketing

the bicycle and activewear lines.

Alice Hart (AH) is the office manager of the headquarters office. She is an

expert party planner and is responsible for all company functions.

VI Cronus International Company History

Products & Services

OLYMPIC Office Furniture

This line of highly successful office furniture is the cornerstone of Cronus’

business. It has enabled Cronus to become the market leader in the domestic market and is ranked number three in two large export markets.

Interior Decorating Items

To complement the office furniture line, Cronus has added a line of interior

decorating items which will be sold via the Internet using Navision Attain solution suite for e-commerce.

Bicycles

Cronus has manufactured bicycles since the late nineties. The company will use their Navision Attain that supports relationship management to

make a targeted effort to sell them.

Activewear & Accessories

In conjunction with the bicycle marketing campaign, Cronus has added a

line of outdoor activewear and accessories. This includes clothing and accessories for bicycling and an active lifestyle.

Computer Hardware

In serving companies’ office furniture needs, Cronus noticed a need in

many companies for quality computer hardware and associated service agreements. They acquired a computer hardware company to fill this need

and will use Navision Attain service management functionality to provide

maintenance and repair services for computer customers.

Cronus International Company History VII

Opportunities & Strategies

As any company which has grown enormously in a short time, Cronus

International Ltd. suffers from growing pains. One of the ways in which it

will meet the challenges is by upgrading its Navision Financials installation to the new Navision Attain, which includes six fully integrated solution

suites for financial management, relationship management, e-commerce, analytics, distribution and manufacturing—everything a company like

Cronus needs. Some of the challenges faced by Cronus International Ltd. include:

Selling the Bicycles

Cronus has been manufacturing bicycles for a number of years but has never made selling them a priority. The sales staff will undertake a sales

campaign, specifically targeting customers who will be interested in the bicycles. To plan and execute this campaign, they will employ the

Relationship Management functionality that is part of their new Navision

Attain installation. This will enable Cronus to target only the potential customers whose profile is included in a segment. Relationship

Management will enable Cronus to ensure that the expenditure of the campaign pays back. Navision Attain will also help Cronus optimize stock

turnover rates by taking sales budgets into account when purchasing and manufacturing.

Distribution

With the expansion in product lines, Cronus has increased interest in issues surrounding distribution. The company will set up Responsibility

Centers, which manage a number of warehouses. This will allow for increased efficiency in shipping and warehousing, so that customers can

receive their goods more quickly by having them sent from the nearest

warehouse. This will be handled centrally by the distribution solution suite, enabling access to up-to-date information on orders and shipments.

Cronus will be better able to handle orders, stocks, and shipments and efficiently handle transfers from one warehouse to another or one country

to another.

E-Commerce

At least two of Cronus’ new product lines—the interior design items and the

activewear and accessories—will be sold directly to consumers via the Internet. Cronus has implemented Navision Attain with its e-commerce

solution suite to fill e-commerce needs. This will allow Cronus to both catalog and categorize the items in multiple configurations, targeting

VIII Cronus International Company History

specific customer wants and needs.

B2B

It has been decided that business relationships with major suppliers should

be tightened in order to save on the handling of orders and invoices, as well as more efficiently handle distribution. Thus, Cronus International Ltd.

has entered into strategic business partnerships with a number of suppliers. One of these partners is the supplier of the interior design items

which will be sold online. Orders and shipments will be made through the Navision Commerce Gateway B2B connection. This will save both

companies time and money and increase the efficiency of orders, stocks

and shipments.

Service Management

With the purchase of the computer hardware firm, Cronus International Ltd. enters into a field where they have little prior experience. The company

has service agreements with its hardware customers. The Service

Management functionality of their new Navision Attain installation will enable Cronus to efficiently honor and maintain these agreements,

providing maintenance and repair services for these customers.

Sales Force

Due to steady growth in the sales force it has been increasingly important to share information within the company on all external contacts. Many

different people in different departments within the organization need to

have access to up-to-date information on all contacts and any correspondence with them. Cronus believes that these contacts should be

maintained on a personal basis. The functionality within Navision Attain that supports relationship management will aid Cronus in building stronger

personal relationships with suppliers and customers.

Cronus International Company History IX

A Look Forward

Things have changed dramatically in the business world since Cronus

International Ltd. started as a family business more than 15 years ago.

The company has changed as well. It would like to prepare for doing even more business online in the future. In order to plan for this, the company is

looking ahead and investigating possibilities for the future.

Expanded Commerce Portal Functionality

Cronus hopes to be able to implement Intelligent Cross-Selling and Product Recommendation features in their e-commerce solution. This would link to

their Navision Attain installation, helping them track customer needs and

target specific customer groups. Customers would get an individual, customized set of recommendations whenever they logged on, based on

their past purchases and based on purchases of similar items made by other customers. Better customer service is among the issues that Cronus

will examine in the near future.

Supply Chain

The company’s Commerce Gateway agreements along with CRM and

expanded distribution functionality are a step towards the supply chain of the future. Ideally, the company will have tightened business relationships

with vendors that will enable a transparency between back and front offices. This will enable Cronus to respond quickly and when needed to

changes in sales opportunities and production needs. It also will give them

greater flexibility in warehousing and shipping directly to customers.

Customer Relationship Management

As outlined above in conjunction with the expanded Commerce Portal, Cronus is interested in establishing closer relationships with its customers.

As a rapidly growing, large international company, Cronus will have to

consider ways of maintaining their CRM strategy as their sales force grows and places increasingly sophisticated demands upon the system--demands

such as the ability for a field sales or service force to have mobile synchronization with the database. When the time comes, Cronus is in

good hands with Navision Attain because of the Navision-Siebel integration for the front office.

X Cronus International Company History

INDEX

account

bank 2-2,2-3,2-8,2-11

customer 2-3,5-23

G/L 2-3,2-4,2-5,2-6,2-28

vendor 2-3,2-6

account schedule 2-2,2-4,2-5,2-7

activity center 5-24,5-25

adjustment

negative 3-4,3-6,3-25

positive 3-6,3-22

analysis view 2-7

available to promise 3-10

bank account 2-2,2-3,2-8,2-11

bill-to, customer 2-13

BOM 3-2,3-6,3-14,3-27,4-10

production 3-14

BOM, journal 3-2,3-6

budget 2-4,2-5,2-6,2-33

job 2-33

C/AL 5-4,5-5,5-6,5-10

campaign 4-5,4-6,4-7,VI,VII

capable to promise 3-10

capacity journal 3-25,3-27

capacity planning 2-28,3-25

capacity scheduling 3-24

card

campaign 4-6

contact 4-4

employee 2-35,2-37,2-38

item 3-2,3-3,3-7,3-8,3-17,3-19,4-10,5-22

machine center 3-23,3-24

nonstock item 3-3

resource 2-28,2-30,2-31,2-32

work center 3-24

cash receipt journal 2-12,2-14

chart of accounts 2-2,2-3,2-7

code

item tracking 3-9

reason 2-4

routing link 3-27

scrap 3-27

source 2-4

Index

stop 3-27

VAT 2-4

codeunit 5-5,5-10

consolidation 2-2

consumption journal 3-20

consumption, posting of 3-16,3-19,3-20

contact 3-9,4-4,4-5,4-6,4-7

contact card 4-4

costing method 3-18

credit memo

sales 2-14,2-15

currencies, multiple 2-2

currency

foreign 2-8,2-9,3-28

local 2-8,2-9,2-11

customer

bill-to 2-13

sell-to 2-13

customer, account 2-3,5-23

customs 2-2,2-4,2-11

dataport 5-5,5-25

depreciation book 2-25,2-27

Designer

Form 5-2

Object 5-2,5-3,5-4,5-5,5-13

Report 5-4

digital dashboard 5-23,5-24

dimension 2-2,2-5,2-6,2-7

discount, item 2-14,2-20

drilldown 2-3

drop shipment 2-13

e-commerce 5-16,5-17,5-18,II,III,IV,VI,VII,IX

employee absence 2-35

employee qualification 2-37

employee, card 2-35,2-37,2-38

employment contract 2-36

EMU 2-9,2-11

EU 2-2,2-4,2-10,2-11

exchange rates, foreign 2-9

filter 2-5,2-7,3-12,4-11,5-8

finance charge memo 2-17

flushing

backward 3-19,3-27

forward 3-19,3-27

manual 3-19

Form Designer 5-2

G/L account 2-3,2-4,2-5,2-6,2-28

general journal 2-2,2-14,2-20

general ledger 2-2,2-3,2-5,2-7,2-12,2-18,2-29,2-33,5-22

human resources 2-35

interaction 4-4,4-7,5-10

invoice

sales 2-13,2-14,2-15,2-17

item

card 3-2,3-3,3-7,3-8,3-17,3-19,4-10,5-22

journal 3-4

nonstock 3-3

item reclassification journal 3-4

item tracking code 3-9

item, journal 3-4

item, nonstock 3-3

job 2-3,2-17,2-22,2-29,2-31,2-33,2-34,4-11

budget 2-33

journal 2-31,2-33,2-34

journal

BOM 3-2,3-6

capacity 3-25,3-27

cash receipt 2-12,2-14

consumption 3-20

item 3-4

item reclassification 3-4

job 2-31,2-33,2-34

output 3-19,3-27

physical inventory 3-5

resource 2-28,2-31

revaluation 3-7

journal, capacity 3-27

journal, output 3-27

machine center 3-23,3-25,3-26,3-27

market segment 4-6,VII

material need scheduling 3-24

measure, unit of 3-2,3-27,3-28

multilanguage 5-12,5-13,5-14

multiple currencies, using 2-2

Navigate 2-4

nonstock item 3-3

Object Designer 5-2,5-3,5-4,5-5,5-13

opening balance 2-2

opportunity 4-7,5-12,5-23,VII,IX

order

production 3-15,3-16,3-18,3-20,3-22,3-25,3-26

promising 3-21

sales 2-17,3-3,3-9,3-15,3-16,3-17,3-18,4-7,5-19,5-20,5-22

tracking 3-18

Index

order promising 3-21

order tracking 3-18

output journal 3-19,3-27

partial shipment 2-13

permission 5-2,5-22

physical inventory journal 3-5

portal, user 5-25

portal, Web 5-18,5-19,5-20,5-21,5-22

price, alternative 3-28

process scheduling 3-24

production

BOM 3-14

forecast 3-21

order 3-15,3-16,3-18,3-20,3-22,3-25,3-26

production order

firm planned 3-15,3-16

planned 3-15

profile VII

quote

sales 5-19,5-20,5-22

reason code 2-4

receivable, accounts 2-12

reminder 2-16

Report Designer 5-4

resource 2-17,2-24,2-28,2-29,2-30,2-31

card 2-28,2-30,2-31,2-32

group 2-28,2-29,2-31

journal 2-28,2-31

revaluation journal 3-7

reverse auction 5-19,5-20,5-21,5-22

role 5-18,5-23,5-24

routing 3-14,3-24,3-25,3-27

sales

credit memo 2-14,2-15

invoice 2-13,2-14,2-15,2-17

order 2-17,3-3,3-9,3-15,3-16,3-17,3-18,4-

7,5-19,5-20,5-22

quote 5-19,5-20,5-22

tax 2-2

sales order, blanket 3-17

segment 4-6,VII

sell-to, customer 2-13

service

contract 4-9,4-11

item 4-10

order 2-30,4-9,4-11

service contract 4-10

shop calendar 3-26

source code 2-4

stockkeeping unit 3-3

subsidiary 2-9,2-10

tax, sales 2-2

to-do 4-5

unit of measure 3-2,3-27,3-28

user portal 5-25

VAT

calculation 2-4

code 2-4

entry 2-4

vendor, account 2-3,2-6

Web part 5-23,5-24,5-25

Web portal 5-18,5-19,5-20,5-21,5-22

work center 3-23,3-24,3-25,3-26,3-27

XBRL 2-10

Microsoft Dynamics Navision- An Overview

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Transcript of Microsoft Dynamics Navision- An Overview