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Dmytro Semenyuk
SAP Business One Consultant |
Most ERP implementation projects involve migration of references from the old system to the new one. Often the functionality of the two systems is not absolutely identical, so some attributes appear that were not entered in the previous program. Or information that was entered in the attribute of the directory “Goods” becomes a self-sufficient directory.
Today I would like to share two tools that can better organize the goods directory (especially if it has several thousand or tens of thousands of items).
For the first case, consider the case where a company buys the same product from different suppliers. In order for the supplier to understand what is being ordered from him – in the client’s system, this product is entered as it appears in the supplier’s database. Thus, actually one product in the system has different product cards. The directory is scaled, and it becomes more and more difficult for the logistician to conduct analytics.
To organize this process, I recommend unifying the nomenclature, and keep the product codes and names in the supplier bases as a separate reference book. For example:
In our database item appears under the SKU I00015 and the name of the toy Robot Sadak. We buy it from two suppliers – Double Toy and Disney & Co. If we order for the first supplier, the printed form of the document will automatically pull the code I15623, understandable to the relevant counterparty. If we order from a second supplier – it will pull up his code “86522”.
Similarly, you can maintain numbers of catalogs and customers, if they in turn require you to issue invoices with their codes.
The second tool is similar nomenclature. It is relevant for goods that have similar characteristics and can be substitutes. For example:
For an item with the code “I00024,” the analogues are two other system units. If the customer orders it but it is not currently in stock, the user can check the stock of alternative products and offer them to the customer in one click.
At the next level of automation, this alternative goods directory can be personalized for each customer. For example, a certain customer can replace a certain product with another one, with a specific analog or with any analog. Or indicate that this customer does not accept analogues for this product at all. This will significantly reduce the time for communication on the order sent to the company and generally improve the customer experience.
