Integrating with outside inventory control

system · May 22, 2009, 1:39pm

Many thanks to Nigel and Karen- good ideas and direction! Would it be ok
if I contact you offline and ask a few more detailed questions about
your solution?

Thanks again for the help!

- leAnn

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Karen Schoenung
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 7:28 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Re: integrating with outside inventory control

Hi LeAnn,

The last place I worked also had a similar situation to Nigel's - 3rd
party warehouse, EDI transactions. We also had either 943s or 944s and
947s - those were for inventory adjustments and movements...

Epicor and/or consultants did develop the Service Connect workflows - so
they may be available also from Epicor. As far as I know, those were
brand new when we were using them, so they should be improved now.

FYI,

Karen

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> ] On
Behalf
Of Nigel Kerley
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 9:21 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [Vantage] Re: integrating with outside inventory control

Hi leAnn,

First, have you looked at the additional warehouse/picking capabilities
of v9? I believe there's a webcast on the Epicor website showing some of
them.

We have a "similar" situation, except instead of using a seperate
inventory control app, we use a third-party logistics company for some
of our picking. So we have to get the orders from Vantage over to them
and get their picks back into Vantage for invoicing.

This is probably way over the top for you - as we carry out these
processes using EDI - but maybe it'll be of some help:
* We output Sales Orders to interim files using standard Vantage
processes - RDDs set to "outbound edi".
* We pass these files through mapping software - eVision from Tie
Commerce, not cheap but quite good. For us this produces EDI 940 files
but it can produce any type of output file including csv's or Service
Connect files.
* We transmit these to our logistics company.
* They send us back EDI 945 documents. We pass these through eVision to
get mapped to Service Connect files.
* We got a Service Connect workflow written for us to take these files
and create Customer Shipments from them.

We're not expecting too much issues when we upgrade to v9 - much later
this year or even next year - because we're using "standard" Epicor
stuff. The file output from Vantage should upgrade ok and, assuming
there's not much change to the background webservices, the 945 workflow
should upgrade as well. Famous last words, I'm sure, as I haven't tested
yet!

HTH,

Nigel.

--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> ,
"leann_37" <lmarruffo@...> wrote:

>
> All,
> My company uses an inventory control app other than Vantage, but we

need Vantage to integrate. Process goes like this:

> * sales order release comes due to ship
> * vantage releases for picking
> * inv system manages picking process
> * inv system notifies vantage of ready to ship
> * shipping personnel process shipping in vantage
>
> The inv control module literally only controls the inventory- where it

is placed, and how it is pulled, and cycle count. (We needed to manage a
pick face, which added a dimension that vantage couldn't manage well).

> Here's the question: from your experience, should we manage all this

discussion between databases with service connect? Web services? What
does it mean to our ability to upgrade to v9 to use either of these?

> Thanks in advance for your opinions and willingness to share your

experience!

> - leAnn
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Click here
<https://www.mailcontrol.com/sr/wQw0zmjPoHdJTZGyOCrrhg==
Q3CnXS4ZlWVyhlsuq1qgVIUyzi8Nok8KRa7w2vPhlBpHvw==> to report this email
as spam.

This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

system · May 21, 2009, 12:39pm

All,
My company uses an inventory control app other than Vantage, but we need Vantage to integrate. Process goes like this:
* sales order release comes due to ship
* vantage releases for picking
* inv system manages picking process
* inv system notifies vantage of ready to ship
* shipping personnel process shipping in vantage

The inv control module literally only controls the inventory- where it is placed, and how it is pulled, and cycle count. (We needed to manage a pick face, which added a dimension that vantage couldn't manage well).
Here's the question: from your experience, should we manage all this discussion between databases with service connect? Web services? What does it mean to our ability to upgrade to v9 to use either of these?
Thanks in advance for your opinions and willingness to share your experience!
- leAnn

system · May 22, 2009, 10:21am

Hi leAnn,

First, have you looked at the additional warehouse/picking capabilities of v9? I believe there's a webcast on the Epicor website showing some of them.

We have a "similar" situation, except instead of using a seperate inventory control app, we use a third-party logistics company for some of our picking. So we have to get the orders from Vantage over to them and get their picks back into Vantage for invoicing.

This is probably way over the top for you - as we carry out these processes using EDI - but maybe it'll be of some help:
* We output Sales Orders to interim files using standard Vantage processes - RDDs set to "outbound edi".
* We pass these files through mapping software - eVision from Tie Commerce, not cheap but quite good. For us this produces EDI 940 files but it can produce any type of output file including csv's or Service Connect files.
* We transmit these to our logistics company.
* They send us back EDI 945 documents. We pass these through eVision to get mapped to Service Connect files.
* We got a Service Connect workflow written for us to take these files and create Customer Shipments from them.

We're not expecting too much issues when we upgrade to v9 - much later this year or even next year - because we're using "standard" Epicor stuff. The file output from Vantage should upgrade ok and, assuming there's not much change to the background webservices, the 945 workflow should upgrade as well. Famous last words, I'm sure, as I haven't tested yet!

HTH,

Nigel.

--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, "leann_37" <lmarruffo@...> wrote:
>
> All,
> My company uses an inventory control app other than Vantage, but we need Vantage to integrate. Process goes like this:
> * sales order release comes due to ship
> * vantage releases for picking
> * inv system manages picking process
> * inv system notifies vantage of ready to ship
> * shipping personnel process shipping in vantage
>
> The inv control module literally only controls the inventory- where it is placed, and how it is pulled, and cycle count. (We needed to manage a pick face, which added a dimension that vantage couldn't manage well).
> Here's the question: from your experience, should we manage all this discussion between databases with service connect? Web services? What does it mean to our ability to upgrade to v9 to use either of these?
> Thanks in advance for your opinions and willingness to share your experience!
> - leAnn
>

system · May 22, 2009, 10:28am

Hi LeAnn,

The last place I worked also had a similar situation to Nigel's - 3rd
party warehouse, EDI transactions. We also had either 943s or 944s and
947s - those were for inventory adjustments and movements...

Epicor and/or consultants did develop the Service Connect workflows - so
they may be available also from Epicor. As far as I know, those were
brand new when we were using them, so they should be improved now.

FYI,

Karen

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Nigel Kerley
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 9:21 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Re: integrating with outside inventory control

Hi leAnn,

First, have you looked at the additional warehouse/picking capabilities
of v9? I believe there's a webcast on the Epicor website showing some of
them.

We have a "similar" situation, except instead of using a seperate
inventory control app, we use a third-party logistics company for some
of our picking. So we have to get the orders from Vantage over to them
and get their picks back into Vantage for invoicing.

This is probably way over the top for you - as we carry out these
processes using EDI - but maybe it'll be of some help:
* We output Sales Orders to interim files using standard Vantage
processes - RDDs set to "outbound edi".
* We pass these files through mapping software - eVision from Tie
Commerce, not cheap but quite good. For us this produces EDI 940 files
but it can produce any type of output file including csv's or Service
Connect files.
* We transmit these to our logistics company.
* They send us back EDI 945 documents. We pass these through eVision to
get mapped to Service Connect files.
* We got a Service Connect workflow written for us to take these files
and create Customer Shipments from them.

We're not expecting too much issues when we upgrade to v9 - much later
this year or even next year - because we're using "standard" Epicor
stuff. The file output from Vantage should upgrade ok and, assuming
there's not much change to the background webservices, the 945 workflow
should upgrade as well. Famous last words, I'm sure, as I haven't tested
yet!

HTH,

Nigel.

--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> ,
"leann_37" <lmarruffo@...> wrote: