Selling inventory items from SOP in another GP company
Today we started thinking about ways that we could sell items from one company's inventory using another company's SOP module in Dynamics GP.
Problem outlined
We have two mail order companies selling, for example pet care items and a DIY store selling tools. We have a desire to offer some of the overlapping items to both companies putting sections in the websites and printed catalogues of items from the other company. All the items are held in the same physical real warehouse but are held in the respective company’s inventory module in GP. Both companies are on the same instance of SQL server.
Example: Some DIY customers might like to buy a rabbit hutch as it is sort of on the edge of that stores proposition. The pet store might want to offer small tool kits to help with fitting cat flaps etc.
Ideas
We have thought of creating a inventory enquiry screen in SOP document entry of GP that looks at a union of the two inventories to bring back stock levels and details. Thus the sales staff can see the stock no matter which company it is in.
To raise a sales order for a customer users could enter a non-inventoried item into SOP as a drop ship order against the other company as the supplier.
We could then use eConnect to create a purchase order and sales order in the other company for the items that were ordered. This integration would have to also handle if items are cancelled or quantities changed on the order -hmmm.
Fulfilment
We have a custom solution in our warehouse that I wrote that handles fulfilment. This could produce a consolidated pick list across the two companies for orders that have been created this way. Users could fulfil both the drop ship sales order and the normal sales order when the consolidated pick list is fulfilled. Thus to the customer the fact that two different companies are fulfilling the order would be transparent.
What do you think?
Have you done something similar before, or got other ideas/products that would help, if so leave a comment…