Merit Matters Blog

The August edition of the Merit Momentum monthly newsletter is now available. In this month's issue:

What's New? Microsoft Dynamics News that Matters.

Product Spotlight: Microsoft SharePoint 2010 makes it easier for people to work together.

Advanced Distribution Shared Solutions: This program is designed to help Partners win and implement Microsoft Dynamics AX distribution opportunities.

Feature Spotlight: Drive sales productivity, user adoption and consistent best practices with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Sales Force Automation.

Upcoming Webinar:Ten Things to Plan for in ’11 is designed to help distributors confront the obstacles they will need to overcome in the next year.

Tips and Tricks: Get rid of the Customer Experience Improvement Program Tasks in Microsoft Dynamics GP.

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When everything goes smoothly with these so-called enterprise resource planning projects, the ratio of savings to dollars invested typically increases over time. When plotted on a graph, the return on investment looks something like Nike's trademark "swoosh," plunging as the firm spends more than it saves early on, but then moving upward as the company becomes a leaner, more efficient entity.

Why does enterprise resource planning, or ERP, work so well for some companies and not for others?

After studying dozens of these projects over six years, we concluded that executives need to think more broadly if they want enterprise resource planning to pay off. Too many executives see ERP solely as a technology project, believing that if they buy a new software system, inefficiencies will magically disappear. It's no surprise that it doesn't work that way. Instead, they need to treat ERP as a transformation effort involving three areas of their business: processes, technology and spending.

Continue reading the story at the Wall Street Journal Online:
Diets That Don't Work: Where Enterprise Resource Planning Goes Wrong

We've been asked the same question from a couple of our customers, so here it is... How to get rid of the Dynamics GP Task “Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP)” if you don’t want to participate:

First, click on the task as if you are going to perform the task:

Once the task window opens, click on the “Name”

This will open the Customer Experience Improvement Program participation window:

Click No, then Click OK. Once you are back on the Task window, click Delete to remove the task:

Then close the task window to get back to the main GP window. On the main GP window, click the “Refresh” button, and the task should be gone:

Task is removed (see example below):

Superior Supply Chains in the Food and Beverage Industries In a challenging environment full of new opportunities, food and beverage manufacturers must advance their supply chains beyond traditional buy-and-sell relationships to retain existing business and capture emerging markets. Without a strategic focus on supply-chain management and collaboration and the resources, best practices, and systems to support that focus—such as ERP, CRM, and BI solutions—operations throughout the supply chain can rapidly deteriorate, putting quality, profitability, and lives in jeopardy. In contrast, strategic supply-chain performance ensures that the right products hit the right markets at the right time, reducing waste, lowering inventories and costs, and improving customer satisfaction.

Is your food and beverage company ready to achieve world-class supply-chain management and collaboration?

View the White Paper:
Superior Supply Chains for the Food and Beverage Industry

Are you a Microsoft Dynamics GP customer in the market for a CRM solution?

Then we would be proud to introduce you to Microsoft Dynamics CRM through a special offer: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online at a 60% savings over regular subscription rates.

Eligible Microsoft Dynamics GP customers can receive Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online at a subscription rate of only $19 per user, per month. Where else could you get a complete sales, service and marketing suite within a native Microsoft Office Outlook experiences, supported with robust functionality like mobile access, offline data usage, powerful workflow, 5 GB of storage, a 99% financially-backed service level agreement (SLA) that can be integrated into your GP system?

Extend the Value of Your Microsoft Dynamics GP Deployment with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online!

Contact Merit Solutions for more information.

Efficiently managing a distribution business is a struggle in any market. Too little inventory causes delayed orders, creating missed deadlines. Too much inventory gives you dead weight and comes at a high cost to your warehouse. Finding that balance in an economy is an art form coupled with precision analytics.

Six-time best-selling Distribution Management Author – Brent Grover

Learn about Managing A Wholesale Distribution Business in the Muddle Through Economy with six-time best-selling distribution management author, keynote speaker and 20+ year veteran to the distribution industry, Brent Grover.

A muddled market can mean more obstacles to overcome, such as:

• Cautious and timid customers, suppliers and lenders.
• Potential government intervention with interest rates and tax rates creating sceptics.
• Managing the risk of deflation while managing the return of inflation.

Download the article now:
Managing A Wholesale Distribution Business in the “Muddle Through Economy”