[Amber Bell]

I was hoping someone could give me some ideas for Add-on products that help with products that my client has that have multiple items that are related to one item.

Let’s say the item is 100XLG (the old green phone in Fabrikam).

In our scenario, the client setup 100XLG in their system (years and years ago as just “Phone”). When they sell the item, they are adding a comment that gives the details of the item (Green, Wireless, etc.).

They have a pretty extensive catalog now, and their customers do not like ordering a generic item and having no record of exactly what they ordered. (unless you drill into Extender data stored on the Sales Invoice).

The issue now is that they want to have a specific item for each configuration…which is a step in the right direction for some of the issues I am helping them with…I just don’t want to send them down this road if anyone knows of a better solution that would allow for the details they need. They are going to end up with a GIANT catalog of items (which is what they truly have)…but the management of those items is going to be crazy!

I remember (years ago) seeing an add-on at Convergence that was designed for this type of thing…and I can’t remember who made it and what it was called.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

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Amber Bell
Training Dynamo LLC
Email: amber@trainingdynamo.com
Website: http://www.trainingdynamo.com
Twitter: @trainingdynamo
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[Windi Epperson]

Hey Amber,
Compass Technologies used to have an Item Matrix product that did what I think you’re looking for – but I’m having trouble getting to their website.  I think Horizon Manufacturing has one as well.   Willoware has a ton of great inventory tools – not a matrix, but a really nice next numbering tool and an Item Process Tracking product that might be able to be used in a way that might help.
Just a few to get you started.
Windi

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Windi Epperson
President/GP Senior Consultant
Advanced Integrators, Inc.
Norman OK
405-946-1774 Ext 102
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[Amber Bell]

Thanks Windi….I will check them out!

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Amber Bell
Training Dynamo LLC
Email: amber@trainingdynamo.com
Website: http://www.trainingdynamo.com
Twitter: @trainingdynamo
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[Leslie Vail]

Amber,
You might consider using Kits, if this really boils down to a single inventory item. You could use the new item number as the kit item number and then the kit would include the old green phone as its component. That way, all of the transaction detail would still be available in one place for the green phone.
Kind regards,
Leslie

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Leslie Vail
Accounting Systems Consulting, Inc.
Dallas TX
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[Wally Dodds]

Amber,

Sounds like your client needs/wants a Configurator which would allow for a generic (base) item and then they would make select from various options (color, length of cord, add-ons), these options would probably drive the price and to your point the description of the item being purchased.  I personally would steer clear of trying to configure the description of the item based on the options selected.  GP has a configurator available in Mfg but that is probably overkill, but maybe not?  Alternatives would be Experlogix which has a fantastic configure (it will come at a hefty price though) and SalesPad also has a Configurator.  If you go the SalesPad route then your Order Entry users won’t be in GP they would be in SalesPad, but those licenses are less expensive than a GP license.  The generic Kit approach would work as well but the user will then need to delete and add items to the Generic Kit on the Order.  When you print the Order I would either display or hid the Kit Components based on the type of Order they print (Blank, Other, Long) or use a UDF on the Order to dictate printing the components or not and then print or suppress the data based on the users UDF selection with a conditional field on the document.

Another route sounds like your client owns Extender and they are probably already using it, on the line of the SOP Trx you could have the Extender window popup after they navigate off a certain field (this could get you a rudimentary configuration window), but I can’t tell if that is what they already have or not.

Either way I wouldn’t try to deal with the history as that would likely be a long project for possibly very little value.

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Wally Dodds
Dorado Solutions
West Chester PA
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[Zubin Gidwani]

Amber,

Compass’ website mysteriously seems to be in stealth mode, but I was able to find a few snippets that will give you a feel.

Hopefully the company is supporting and enhancing these solutions.

Here are some links for Compass 
1) Matrix Inventory:
http://compasstechnologies.com/Products/MTX/supported.aspx

2) Inventory Cross Reference
http://www.compasstechnologies.com/Download/ViewDL.aspx?id=e7a7dff0-1c07-4954-b457-eacb7c0954e8

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Zubin Gidwani
Founder
Dynamic Budgets
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