Get real-time visibility into the financial health of your global business to drive accountability, profitability, and growth using Dynamics 365 for Finance.
How CFO’s can drive growth and profitability using Dynamics 365 for Finance? Read More »
Business Central All in one management software solution for sales, marketing, operations, supply-chain, financials, customer services, HR & Payroll. Business Central is cloud based ERP that unify the capability of CRM & ERP in one centralized solution
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Introduction : Trident Help Desk Enterprise Solutions – ERP, CRM, BI, and Business Portals – yield business benefits only when consumed efficiently by the uses As businesses grow and scale up, these systems require adaption, enhancements, occasional technical support and the users require access to consultant’s time and mindshare. This document provides the various standard support plans available to Trident customers. Being on one of the support plan brings to a customer the following advantages: Dedicated support & service delivery engineer. Dedicated Project Manager who’ll be working directly with your team Fast issue diagnosis and resolution recommendation Incident tracking in Jira Automatic response when a new incident is created Optimization of the existing processes Answering ‘How to’ ERP related questions Improving work practices through SOPs Automation of recurring tasks Release management & DevOps automation Additional services charged separately System Health Check & report System Performance review & optimization On-site visit for support & training Enhancement and Customization New Report Development New Module Implementation Support Plans Trident offers various Support Plans to customers to choose from – based on the needs of the customer. Following are our standard plans for customers who are Indian organizations, for their Indian operations. Plan A: Full Time Dedicated Resource A dedicated resource is allocated for the customer who remains available 100% to provide the needed support. The scope of this plan includes addressing both Support needs as well as handling Change Requests. If a certain change request requires more resources (over and above the 1 dedicated resource), prior approval is taken from the customer for the additional effort and cost. The customer will be invoiced for the additional effort spent immediately. Under this model a named resource is available to the customer. Minimum tenure for this plan is 1 month. Plan B: Shared Resource Under this plan the customer commits to a minimum 5 days of support need per month. The need may come up at any time during the month, in one or more instances. In case the customer does not utilize all of 5 days during a particular month, the balance days are carried forward to the next month, but lapse at the end of every quarter (March, June, September and December). The scope of work in this case includes both support and change requests. If the work identified requires more than the balance number of days for that month/ quarter, Trident informs the customer and takes prior approval for the additional effort and cost. This additional cost will be immediately invoiced. In this model the Trident consultant is shared with another Trident customer. Minimum tenure for this plan is 3 months. Plan C: Time Package In this model the Customer commits to 200 hrs of support need over a period of 12 months. Response time would be 1 business days after logging of the issue. The support resource will remain a shared resource. The contract period will fall due for renewal either at the end of 12 months period or utilization of hours budgeted. Tenure for this plan is 12 months Scope of Support These Support Plans entitles the customer to avail support during normal business hours (Monday to Friday): 9.30 AM to 5.30 PM (excluding Trident/ public holidays). Support is predominantly from Trident offices and would be provided via e-mail/ Chat. Onsite support may be provided if the situation so demands – based on the merit of the issue – and on mutual agreement. Methodology For Shared Support and Time Package Support Activities for Level1, Level-2 and facilitation for Level-3 Service Request (SR) Logging SR Request Diagnosis Resolution Conceptualization and Solution Build Review and Testing User Acceptance and SR Closure Reporting and Continuous Improvement Trident Customer Support Portal All support plan customers are required to use the Trident Customer Support portal for logging requests, and tracking progress. A single customer login is created and authorized users from the customer can log the issues directly on the site. Both the user and the support team will get informed through email about the issue logged. Tracking of the issue is done through the portal. User can specify the priority and severity of the issue and can also attach screen shots. We can generate periodic reports to monitor the status of various issues.
Support & Implementation Plan for Business Central & D365 Read More »
Bel Fuse designs, manufactures, and markets electronic circuits products at 24 manufacturing locations across North America, Europe, and Asia. The company’s existing enterprise resource planning solution was highly customized and expensive to maintain, so it decided to deploy Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. Bel Fuse unified data and can now more easily manage its supply chain operations and finance processes, gaining more agility to respond quickly to changes in the market or its suppliers. “With Dynamics 365, we save nearly USD2 million per year in IT service and support fees compared to our previous, highly customized solution.” Mark Hodkinson: Vice President of Finance for the Bel Power Solutions Group Essential step in the supply chain A typical consumer might interact with Bel Fuse products and not even know it. The manufacturer makes the components that power, protect, and connect electronic circuits in products we use every day. Bel Fuse is usually in the middle of the supply chain, relying on smaller parts from its suppliers before passing components on to the manufacturers that create finished products. Founded in 1949, the company has grown significantly in the last 20 years through acquisitions. It has seven business groups, including Bel Power Solutions, which it acquired in 2014. Bel Power Solutions makes the power conversion products for server and storage networks at large server farms and in industrial products like the power sources in hybrid electric vehicles and trains. To manage its enterprise resource planning (ERP) processes, Bel Power Solutions used a legacy version of Oracle that was highly customized and difficult to update. The version was outdated and the month-to-month costs and support for the solution were expensive. With different business units using different ERP systems, Bel Fuse wanted to find an affordable solution to unify the company’s finance and operations processes, starting with Bel Power Solutions. Bel Fuse also needed a solution that would support its material requirements planning (MRP) process, a production planning, scheduling, and inventory control system to manage its manufacturing processes. “Our MRP processing goes in both directions—we require a full dataset and forecasting of what’s coming to us and what’s going out,” says Scott Hasterlik, Director Global IT at Bel Fuse. “We have power assets with 500 components and 65,000 SKUs, so we needed a robust solution to share nonstandard information quickly.” An integrated solution for finance and operations After careful evaluation, Bel Fuse found that Microsoft Dynamics 365 had the right capabilities at the right price for the company’s needs. With Dynamics 365, Bel Fuse had a single system for the first time, the ability to report globally, and a solution that was intuitive to use and easy to add users. Bel Fuse uses Dynamics 365 Finance to automate its financial operations, monitor performance in real time, predict future outcomes, and make data-driven decisions. For operations, the company deployed Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, which includes an MRP function and AI to improve visibility across its global supply chain and to improve manufacturing productivity. To aid the quick, seamless deployment process, Bel Fuse worked with Flintfox, a Gold competency member of the Microsoft Partner Network. “Flintfox jumped in, understood what we wanted to accomplish, and helped us move forward on budget,” says Hasterlik. “Flintfox has been a fantastic partner and is still our partner of record.” A wide range of Bel Power Solutions employees now rely on the Finance and Supply Chain Management business applications. Users include staff in customer service, quality assurance, demand and product returns, manufacturing and supply chain ordering, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and engineering. “From decision makers to factory floor managers, everyone is working in Dynamics 365, staying connected and accessing valuable data,” says Stefan Naude, General Manager, Slovakia, at Bel Fuse. Reduced costs, disparate systems eliminated Bel Fuse accomplished its central goal—to reduce the high costs of its previous ERP system while bringing data together in one solution. The company built the capacity it needed without a lot of customizations, helping ensure that the solution would stay flexible in the future. “With Dynamics 365, we save nearly USD2 million per year in IT service and support fees compared to our previous, highly customized solution,” says Mark Hodkinson, Vice President of Finance for the Bel Power Solutions Group at Bel Fuse. Bel Fuse also reduced costs because it now has the tools to fulfill more of its own finance needs internally. For example, a Bel Fuse engineering and distribution site in Italy previously paid an outside firm to do its accounting. “It was easy to move the Italy site into Dynamics 365 and transfer all that work internally to our team in Slovakia,” says Hodkinson. “Now our own team manages the facility’s day-to-day finances even though they aren’t located in Italy. With a common system, we have better access to our own internal talent.” Increased visibility and agility With Dynamics 365, Bel Fuse gained a more global view of financial data and can perform more accurate forecasting. “I always view orders and revenue from a global perspective because the locations are all connected and have so many intercompany transactions,” says Hodkinson. “I rely on Dynamics 365 to help me make sense of complex financial histories to stay on top of complicated billing and payment processes at multiple sites.” With ERP data now centralized and easy to access in the cloud, Bel Fuse can respond with more agility to complex, changing circumstances. When employees in Italy, China, and other countries needed to work from home during the COVID-19 crisis, the company was able to effectively run remote finance and supply chain operations. “We kept all our finance functions moving forward even though we don’t have anyone physically in the office,” says Hodkinson. “We were impressed that our team was able to get everything done while working from home for the first time, and I think that speaks to how intuitive Dynamics 365 Finance was for our team.” As a mid-chain supplier, Bel Fuse is committed to continuing its operations on time and not
The launch of BC has posed this question to all the users of Navision as ERP what is the future? Should they upgrade or stay on the current version? Upgrading brings up thoughts of cost, pain, business disruption, and maybe even limited reward for all the effort. But it’s still something that one will have to evaluate as currently NAV solution might be still meeting the needs now, however eventually support for the version will end, there will be more challenges around integrating with other applications and systems as they advance, and one can fall behind the competition because they’re taking advantage of the latest technology has to offer. Stability, Performance and Security Data security is top-of-mind for most IT professionals. The Microsoft Cloud is synonymous with security and stability. With over 3,500 cyber-security professionals on staff, Microsoft is an industry leader when it comes to protecting, detecting, and responding to cyber threats. With so many IT experts in your corner, your IT staff can become more productive without having to worry about managing servers and ever-changing security regulations. Cost Effective Essentially, moving to the cloud is a financial shift that reallocates ERP spend from infrastructure, costly servers, and upgrades to licensing fees. In fact, transitioning from Dynamics NAV to Dynamics 365 is the final ‘upgrade’ you’ll ever have to pay for. Once you have implemented Dynamics 365, updates happen frequently, and at no cost, ensuring you’re always on the most recent version. Integrated Modern Platform Dynamics 365 Business Central features an intuitive look and feel that will help reduce training and ramp-up time for users because it’s easy to use and similar to other Microsoft solutions. Additionally, Business Central can be accessed anywhere, at any time – giving users the flexibility to work no matter where they are. The deep integration with the Business Central Cloud solution and O365 is the best starting point on your journey to consider the move from NAV to Business Central Cloud creating best work from Home Solution. Digital Transformation With Dynamics 365, businesses can easily embrace the benefits of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to become more efficient and reduce manual processes. Machine Learning can help with equipment monitoring, spam filtering, ad targeting, image detection, forecasting, and much more. Microsoft’s Power Platform, made up of Power BI, Flow, and Power Apps, gives you better data that is more accurate and timely to help you make better business decisions.
Why Business Central – Migrating to Dynamics 365 Business Central Read More »
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is an all-in-one business management solution that helps businesses manage financials, sales, service and operations easier and faster from day one. This e-book explores how the solution integrates with Office 365 to connect business processes and personal productivity like never before, bringing insight and efficiency to your daily tasks[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Reinvent business productivity with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Office 365 Read More »
Run your business anywhere with Microsoft Business Central Choose cloud or on-premises. Business Central runs where you need it, offering the same user experience no matter how you deploy. Take your business on the go. The mobile version supports both cloud and on-premises users with a consistent experience across Windows, Android, and iOS devices. Remove language barriers. Business Central supports 25 languages to help increase your productivity. Store and transmit data across your systems. Help protect your data from unauthorized access with automatic Microsoft datacenter encryption Read more about Business Central Capabilities Manage your financials Make informed decisions using connected data from reports, charts, and Microsoft Power BI dashboards across finance and accounting, sales, purchasing, and inventory. The late payment prediction extension helps you reduce receivables. View charts and reports in real time through built-in reports, Excel, or Power BI. Use unlimited dimensions for your data to identify patterns and trends. Accelerate financial closing and reporting by using the integrated accounts receivable and payable capabilities. Streamline the process with approval workflows and Microsoft Power Automate integration. Track financial performance with custom general ledger (G/L) and account schedules reporting. Evaluate cost, revenue, or profit reporting in the cost accounting module. Learn more about financial management capabilities Optimize your supply chain Predict the best time to replenish stock using built-in intelligence. Use sales forecasts and expected stock-outs to automatically create purchase orders. Get a holistic view of your inventory, and use the same costing method or different methods for your inventory items. Freely move items between locations, and control the quantity on hand using cycling counting. Engage with your suppliers proactively and cost-effectively. Register potential suppliers, send inquiries, and convert the best offers to orders. Configure required approvers to help ensure compliance with internal and external policies. Use system-generated suggestions to replenish inventory based on actual and forecast demand and availability. Learn more about supply chain management capabilities Accelerate your sales process Prioritize leads based on revenue potential. Keep track of customer interactions and get guidance on the best upsell, cross-sell, and renewal opportunities throughout your sales cycle. Optimize revenue and address customers’ needs, with flexible pricing and discount structures for individual customers and customer groups. Keep an overview of agreements with sales order and blanket sales order processes. Quickly give customers details about prices, discounts, delivery dates, product availability, and fulfillment status. Address customer returns with sales return order management, including credit notes, repairs, or replacements. Learn more about sales management capabilities Deliver projects on time and under budget Create, manage, and track customer projects using timesheets and advanced job costing and reporting capabilities. Develop and modify budgets to ensure project profitability. Manage resource levels by planning capacity and sales. Track customer invoicing against planned or actual costs on orders and quotes. Make effective decisions using real-time insights on project status, profitability, and resource-usage metrics. Learn more about project management capabilities Run your warehouse efficiently Optimize your storage facilities by setting up bins and zones in Business Central to reflect the layout of your warehouse and its racks and shelves. Streamline receiving and storage by using a template to determine the best placement of items based on type, size, and bin capacity. Get recommendations on where to move items to optimize the space and the picking process. Speed up shipments and reduce friction caused by cross-docking. Use real-time data on every item’s zone, bin, and quantity to better fulfill your customers’ orders. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]
How Microsoft Business Central is Powerful & All in One Business Management Solution Read More »
Toyota Industries Corporation improves service operations to maximize uptime for their customers Toyota Industries Corporation (“Toyota Industries”) is Toyota group’s head company, with 90-plus years of history, and offers products that account for the world’s largest shares of the following three fields: forklifts, compressors for auto air conditioners, and air-jet looms. Toyota L&F Company, which develops, manufactures, sells, and after-sales services forklifts, plans to improve the quality of their after-sales services by leveraging telematics and IoT for visualizing service operations. The company promotes the project and the introduction of Global Mobile Service Solutions (GMSS), together with Microsoft Enterprise Services. GMSS uses Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service, and with telematics linked to Microsoft Azure to improve preventive maintenance and move further towards predicting failures. We strive to provide uniform, quality after-sales services in a global partnership with Microsoft. Going forward, I want to create a mechanism to collect forklift data by using IoT and telematics to prevent failures. Mr. Michio Yonezawa: General Manager, Services Department Toyota Industries Corporation Maximize Uptime by Leveraging Forklift Data Toyota Industries aims for further growth in the business of industrial vehicles that have grown into a business that accounts for 60% of the company’s. Mr. Michio Yonezawa, General Manager, Service Department, spoke of the significance of maximizing forklift utilization by offering after-sales services that meet the business needs of their forklift customers. “The mission of the Service Department is to improve our after-sales services and establish strong relationships with our customers, so that we can receive additional orders from them. We think that offering satisfying after-sales service ultimately contributes increase sales.” The company wanted to offer high quality services globally, and decided to introduce Dynamics 365 for Field Service as the primary tool for managing the after-sales service skills and operations for those distributors offering services to forklift customers all over the world. They wanted to improve their operational management accuracy, shift to a paperless process, reduce man-hours, and increase efficiency. They would do this by visualizing business KPIs in digital form, and laying out a framework to help boost their strengths and compensate for any weaknesses in various regions. Mr. Yonezawa explained the reasons for selecting Microsoft Enterprise Services as their partner in achieving their objectives, as follows. “Microsoft has many great accomplishments as a global IT company, and, above all, Microsoft Enterprise Services made an achievement to implement our systems to our European sites. In addition, Microsoft Enterprise Services not only understands the latest technologies, but they also develop systems based upon our after-sales service operations, and they provide global assistance. They will help us achieve our goal of global expansion.” Further, Toyota Industries plans to perform maintenance prior to the occurrence of failures, which also necessitates linkage technologies between the Microsoft cloud and IoT. The company uses Azure to collect machine information of their forklifts in operation. Linking information related to after-sales service from GMSS to the machine information in the cloud is expected to assist the Service Department in performing the right maintenance at the right time, preventing forklift failures from occurring at minimal cost. “Sudden failures greatly hinder the customer’s business activities, and generate extra-budgetary expenses. Previously, we conducted regular inspections in accordance with the guidelines based on how long the machines had been operating. By leveraging the machine information collected via telematics, inspections can be carried out in response to the customer’s usage, thereby reducing their burden,” explained Mr. Yonezawa. Visualization of Business Operations, Improvement in Productivity, and a Shift to a Paperless Process with GMSS Toyota Industries chose Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service – which is already in worldwide use, cooperates with the latest technologies including IoT, AI, and machine learning, and enables practical applications – to visualize and improve after-sales service operations for GMSS development. Mr. Senichiro Kondo, who directs the global expansion of GMSS as the General Manager, Overseas Service Operation, Service Department, stated the reasons for selecting a cloud-based system for improving their after-sales service operations. “Since we manage operations in countries except for Europe and North America, the cloud enables us to facilitate management in a unified manner, and lay out a framework that helps provide the same services world-wide. In addition, Toyota could differentiate itself from its competitors by being first to introduce IoT to the service operations. Our competitors have not done this yet. The Microsoft cloud meets our security guidelines and we did not hesitate at all to use the cloud.” India was selected to be the first country for the deployment of GMSS, which occurred in February, 2018. “One reason we chose to deploy GMSS to India first is that we directly manage the distributors with standard service operations and it would allow us to examine their cost-effectiveness in detail. Another reason is that, if it is proven cost-effective in India, where wages are low, we could promote the deployment of GMSS to distributors in other countries,” said Mr. Kondo. In India, approximately 80 field service technicians had been receiving instructions on after-sales service operations in written form or manually. Technicians’ visit plans had been written on white boards, and material preparation before the visits was time-consuming. “The introduction of GMSS based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Services enabled the dispatchers to prepare and allocate instructions to give to the technicians. A mobile device app scheduled customer visits, periodical inspections and repair work for the technicians. Service reports can now be displayed on a screen, explained to the customer, signed by the customer, and submitted to the technician’s superior in a paperless stream, resulting in a significant improvement in work efficiency,” said Mr. Ryo Makino, a core member in charge of GMSS deployment in India, and Group Manager, Planning Group, Overseas Service Operation, Service Department. Various materials, including service materials, check sheet for maintenances, and visit histories that were used to previously store in separate locations can all be accessed from mobile devices, helping reduce the time taken to prepare them before paying the customer a visit.
Case Study on Microsoft Dynamic 365 from Leading Automotive Industry Read More »
Read here How Microsoft Dynamics 365 helps in Sales, Read 6 strategies to boost sales productivity.
6 strategies to boost sales productivity – Microsoft Dynamics 365 Read More »
Digital transformation is no longer a choice. That’s the key message from the experts who spoke at “How to build a successful restaurant experience in Covid times,” an online event organized by LS Retail and Microsoft. The panel included industry experts from Microsoft and LS Retail as well as Leon DeWet, a CIO with decades of experiences in the F&B industry. The group discussed how restaurants can build competences and resilience to maintain customer loyalty and thrive, now and through the next crisis. This blog is mainly for Restaurant management software & tips for Successful restaurant experience Restaurant Management Software Here are 8 tips from the experts to help you approach this digital transformation, so that you can ride the next wave of change instead of being crushed by it. 1. Rethink every step of the journey Yesterday, you had to deliver convenience and hospitality; today, you must also guarantee customer and employee safety. Many restaurants have added quick fixes, such as covering payment devices in plastic, so they can easily be sanitized. “How often does the reader on the contactless device not work, now that it’s covered in plastic?,” Minicola asked attendees, adding “And how often do restaurants ask me to touch the screen anyway to provide a tip?” The boom of contactless payments, home delivery, drive-thru and curbside is not temporary. Restaurants must step back, rethink the whole journey, and implement solutions that are effective and designed to last long-term. Two examples that were mentioned of additions that will bring a benefit now and tomorrow: Menus that can be accessed via a QR code are useful now – paper menus are hard to sanitize – and will provide a value later on, as they enable restaurants to make quick menu changes without wasting time or printing costs. Software to manage tables and seating plans can help you easily redesign your floor plan, with safely distanced tables and clear tracking of who is seating where and when for contact tracing purposes. In the future, table management software can help you optimize seating space, track the status of each table (who is waiting to order, who has been served) and easily accommodate last-minute guests, all the while keeping your service flawless. 2. Focus on mobility Mobility should be a priority in any digitization project. Running your Point of Sale on mobile devices helps you manage the flow of guests and staff inside the restaurant premises. Your server can take an order from a group sitting on the terrace, and then go to another table, take their card payment and see them out. Service is faster and more convenient for your guests, who can stay seated throughout. At the same time, you reduce the risk of contagion by reducing needless walking around and queuing at the till, and by letting servers using a personal device instead of sharing a standard till. And if your POS offers a two-way connection to the display systems in the kitchen, you get a whole set of extra benefits. “With our restaurant software, when you punch in an order at the POS, the order is sent automatically to a digital display at the correct kitchen station. Your front-of-house staff is spared all the needless back and forth from the table to the kitchen and to the register. The result is less risk of contact, and less time wasted,” said Eric Miller, Regional Director at LS Retail. But this is just scratching the surface. Mobile POS, especially when part of an interconnected technology platform, also enables more precise communication between front of house and kitchen, reduces the risk of production mistakes, and helps speed up table turns. Michael Mento, Surface specialist at Microsoft, described how eagerly restaurants have adopted the Surface tablet devices, which also come with accessories specifically designed for use on the restaurant floor. 3. Build your experiences on a strong technology platform Customers demand consistent experiences, and these can only be achieved through a unified approach to technology. Unified software solutions are increasingly replacing traditional fragmented IT setups. The benefits are well known: Managers geta 360-degree view of the organisation, with all business and customer data accessible in one place. Decision making is faster, as managers can get actionable reports, accounts and statistics exactly when they need them. Implementation and management costs are lower, as you don’t need to integrate separate systems and to maintain these integrations. You can transmit information quickly across the company, from the dishes on today’s menu to recipes, prices and nutritional content. So everyone can always perform at the top of their abilities. And if you run your unified software in the cloud, you can grab opportunities as they arise. As the pandemic hit, companies that run their software in the cloud, and who were not burdened by traditional on-prem infrastructure, investments and timelines, have been able to add innovative technology and transform their business models faster. “For many restaurants, the ability to add systems for pickup, delivery, and curbside made the difference between success and closing up doors,” Miller pointed out. Leon DeWet, former CIO at F&B enterprises Cracker Barrel and O’Charley’s, reminded business to consider how well the selected software and hardware work together. “If one works, but the other one doesn’t deliver, the project fails,” he noted. “Look for a solution that is proven for software and hardware working together.” Mento, from the Microsoft Surface team, echoed DeWet’s words. 4. Track changes in customer behavior With people working from home and stuck in lockdowns, restaurants have seen tremendous changes. They have lost old customers, gained new ones, and seen regulars approach them at different times, with new needs. These are changes businesses must pay attention to. “You need to capture this data, or you have no way to build your strategy on driving loyalty now and into the future,” said Minicola. “You cannot establish and foster loyalty without data,” she added. Access to data that is both reliable and timely is necessary for action. You need to clearly see what is happening to react, and prevent issues and waste. “During the pandemic, many restaurants have had problems sourcing specific ingredients,” said Miller. “With our software, you can do predictive cost analysis, and experiment varying prices, menus and recipes. The system helps you find the sweet spot with optimum benefits. You can then use this knowledge to
8 tips to build a successful restaurant experience in times of crisis and beyond Read More »
Trident Information Systems, is one of the leading global providers of Information Technology services and business solutions with over with a proven track record of over 24 years. We have been consistently adding value to the business bottom line of our global clientele.
