Crazy thought: Do not do that (have your numeric type orderhead.ordernum value represent a contract number):
Â
Instead, add an orderhead.number## field (or better yet: orderhead.character## field so you can use alphanumerics) to hold the contract number. Expose it on all your sales order related apps (simple customization) & related reports and then you can have as many sales orders (and customer PO #s) relate to a single contract number as you might need.
Â
Doing that opens the door for long term blanket contracts that do not require someone (the customer) to essentially guess what qtys, dates, specific products they will need over months/years. A secondary doc (that does not HAVE to be in Vantage) defines the flexibility and terms of the contract to protect both the customer and you from very hard to predict future requirements, provide for price and cost change limits (that may be influenced by currency exchange rate fluctuations if you buy & sell internationally) & thus can act as a predefined trigger on when a contract is OK (by either party) to renegotiate, can drive pricing/discounting (if also expanded into these tables and native, basic Vantage behabiors modified with client customizations or more reliable BPMs) and eliminate the non-value added (and often costly) side effects as long term guesstimates of needs at time of initial contract agreement change over time to match the true reality of
the customers needs - as long as the JIT communicated reality is within the contractual limits of change (which likely will require reasonable frozen zones within which changes can not be freely made by either party).
Â
You would then have the basis for supporting & providing contracts on what is essentially a pull system/kanban style agreement that can greatly benefit both companies (buyer and seller) IF the contract is configured correctly - and that can be a POWERFUL marketing tool that adds value to you and your products relative to your competition & will garner you more business. (At the very least, it gives you an excuse to broadcast communicate with your customers & potential customers and that can never be a bad thing).
Â
Put yourself in the shoes of your own materials & production group and ask them the benefits of not having to guess at long term needs (if their suppliers can support it - and even if many can not now, if they survive they will likely have to support it in the future to continue to survive - as some of their competition will) - and not have to work around the noise of long term (and likely to change) placeholder demand in place because your (or your customers) systems effectively force them to enter long term schedules to get pricing & plan long term capacity needs that can just as easily (actually MORE easily) be handled with a contract that defines the limits & general long term commitments. Think Lean (as your competition - or the ones that will be around longer than others sure are) & less about the (patently false) notion that complex systems can solve all of our problems.
Â
Software can be a powerful enabler but it all too often becomes viewed as a goal unto itself while real process, people, strategy, leadership, marketing channels & innovation issues go unaddressed. Similarly, you still have to live within the reasonable confines of your systems software so OVERsimplification (locking yourself in so one field value means more than intended) can also be dangerous (but, in this case, easily overcome with some out of the box thinking & through implementation of your decision).Â
Â
- OR, put a STRONG review process in place before marking the order as OK for confirmation back to the customer & open for internal processing (as you can change customer ID as long as no activity has occurred against the order) .
Â
- OR, do both (as, frankly, the 2nd suggestion is just a good practice and the 1st is beneficial to all Lean thinking & processing).
Â
The overhead (other than a thorough review of all your apps & reports - some of which may not be Vantage but may be external customer oriented web sites or EDI processes, etc.,) is minimal in the long term.
Â
It sounds like you have boxed yourself in trying to use a sales order number as a never changable contract number (and they are really NOT the same thing) - so add a simple data layer of abstraction to get yourself out of the trap you are in.
Â
I have worked in a lot of industries - from agriculture, textiles, building products, consumer/automotive products, industrial products -Â & no matter how unique you may think you are, such a strategy has application in all with little cost, no down side (if implemented well) & powerful long term upsides.
Â
You do not have to take advantage of everything it can enable at once: Just solve your immediate problem (create the simple foundation) and then over time, roll out the most beneficial things that can be leveraged from it as experience grows & times are opportune - and continue to use it as an ongoing excuse to proactively, en masse keep in touch with your customers.
Â
Differentiate yourself from your competitors and plan to build upon it - adding things that are of real value to both you and and your customers/markets.
Â
From little acorns mighty oaks can grow
From: kayd.indaco <kay.d@...>
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2011 4:29 PM
Subject: [Vantage] How to keep original sales order number set up under wrong customer
Â
Our company uses sales orders as contract numbers. We erroneously applied a contract customer's deposit to the wrong customer ID in Vantage. I know how to remove the deposit from the wrong customer's account, but I need help figuring out how to change the customer ID on the sales order.
Creating a new sales order is NOT an option because the original contract number has already been used in different areas of the company.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Kay Doolin
Indaco Metals LLC
405.273.9200
kay.doolin@...
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Â
Instead, add an orderhead.number## field (or better yet: orderhead.character## field so you can use alphanumerics) to hold the contract number. Expose it on all your sales order related apps (simple customization) & related reports and then you can have as many sales orders (and customer PO #s) relate to a single contract number as you might need.
Â
Doing that opens the door for long term blanket contracts that do not require someone (the customer) to essentially guess what qtys, dates, specific products they will need over months/years. A secondary doc (that does not HAVE to be in Vantage) defines the flexibility and terms of the contract to protect both the customer and you from very hard to predict future requirements, provide for price and cost change limits (that may be influenced by currency exchange rate fluctuations if you buy & sell internationally) & thus can act as a predefined trigger on when a contract is OK (by either party) to renegotiate, can drive pricing/discounting (if also expanded into these tables and native, basic Vantage behabiors modified with client customizations or more reliable BPMs) and eliminate the non-value added (and often costly) side effects as long term guesstimates of needs at time of initial contract agreement change over time to match the true reality of
the customers needs - as long as the JIT communicated reality is within the contractual limits of change (which likely will require reasonable frozen zones within which changes can not be freely made by either party).
Â
You would then have the basis for supporting & providing contracts on what is essentially a pull system/kanban style agreement that can greatly benefit both companies (buyer and seller) IF the contract is configured correctly - and that can be a POWERFUL marketing tool that adds value to you and your products relative to your competition & will garner you more business. (At the very least, it gives you an excuse to broadcast communicate with your customers & potential customers and that can never be a bad thing).
Â
Put yourself in the shoes of your own materials & production group and ask them the benefits of not having to guess at long term needs (if their suppliers can support it - and even if many can not now, if they survive they will likely have to support it in the future to continue to survive - as some of their competition will) - and not have to work around the noise of long term (and likely to change) placeholder demand in place because your (or your customers) systems effectively force them to enter long term schedules to get pricing & plan long term capacity needs that can just as easily (actually MORE easily) be handled with a contract that defines the limits & general long term commitments. Think Lean (as your competition - or the ones that will be around longer than others sure are) & less about the (patently false) notion that complex systems can solve all of our problems.
Â
Software can be a powerful enabler but it all too often becomes viewed as a goal unto itself while real process, people, strategy, leadership, marketing channels & innovation issues go unaddressed. Similarly, you still have to live within the reasonable confines of your systems software so OVERsimplification (locking yourself in so one field value means more than intended) can also be dangerous (but, in this case, easily overcome with some out of the box thinking & through implementation of your decision).Â
Â
- OR, put a STRONG review process in place before marking the order as OK for confirmation back to the customer & open for internal processing (as you can change customer ID as long as no activity has occurred against the order) .
Â
- OR, do both (as, frankly, the 2nd suggestion is just a good practice and the 1st is beneficial to all Lean thinking & processing).
Â
The overhead (other than a thorough review of all your apps & reports - some of which may not be Vantage but may be external customer oriented web sites or EDI processes, etc.,) is minimal in the long term.
Â
It sounds like you have boxed yourself in trying to use a sales order number as a never changable contract number (and they are really NOT the same thing) - so add a simple data layer of abstraction to get yourself out of the trap you are in.
Â
I have worked in a lot of industries - from agriculture, textiles, building products, consumer/automotive products, industrial products -Â & no matter how unique you may think you are, such a strategy has application in all with little cost, no down side (if implemented well) & powerful long term upsides.
Â
You do not have to take advantage of everything it can enable at once: Just solve your immediate problem (create the simple foundation) and then over time, roll out the most beneficial things that can be leveraged from it as experience grows & times are opportune - and continue to use it as an ongoing excuse to proactively, en masse keep in touch with your customers.
Â
Differentiate yourself from your competitors and plan to build upon it - adding things that are of real value to both you and and your customers/markets.
Â
From little acorns mighty oaks can grow
From: kayd.indaco <kay.d@...>
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2011 4:29 PM
Subject: [Vantage] How to keep original sales order number set up under wrong customer
Â
Our company uses sales orders as contract numbers. We erroneously applied a contract customer's deposit to the wrong customer ID in Vantage. I know how to remove the deposit from the wrong customer's account, but I need help figuring out how to change the customer ID on the sales order.
Creating a new sales order is NOT an option because the original contract number has already been used in different areas of the company.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Kay Doolin
Indaco Metals LLC
405.273.9200
kay.doolin@...
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]