Supply Chain & Reverse Auctions

Navision supports many top supply chain solutions. Microsoft’s BizTalk, for example, is a supply chain solution that work’s well between Navision and virtually any other top accounting system or ERP solution. Briefly stated, an electronic supply chain solution allows your accounting system to communicate with your suppliers/customer’s accounting system automatically. Rather than phoning, faxing or mailing your PO information to your supplier, an electronic supply chain solution allows your accounting system to send the PO directly to your suppliers system electronically. As a result, communication is almost instantaneous and keypunching errors are virtually eliminated. Administration and labor cost are virtually eliminated.

The advantages offered by an electronic supply chain can be enormous. Consider that Wal-Mart used superior supply chain technology to send their competitors (K-Mart, Federated Department Stores, Macy’s, and others) into bankruptcy. Today Wal-Mart stands alone not only as the world’s largest retailer, but as the world’s largest company period. When Wal-Mart first committed itself to establishing a superior electronic supply chain, technology was at its infancy and the Wal-Mart solution often cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to each supplier who wanted to supply goods to Wal-Mart. Today, an electronic supply chain is far easier and far less expensive to establish. For example, to set up a BizTalk supply chain solution in your organization, all you need to do is call Microsoft and set up a BizTalk account. Microsoft will supply you with some basic information which is entered into the Navision Commerce Portal Setup Screen shown below:

This Commerce Portal Setup window is used to set up the basic rules to be used in the Commerce Portal application area, on your Web Portal, and in the communication between the two. On the General tab, you specify the currency, country, language and decimal symbol you want to be used on your Web Portal. On the Communication tab, you establish communications between Navision and your Web Portal, such as the data source and initial catalog. On the Numbering tab, you specify the number series that will be used for pictures, contacts and reverse auctions.

Reverse Auctions - The Reverse Auction screen shown above allows you to create reverse auctions. A reverse auction is a process in which you desire to purchase products or services through Internet commerce. You can invite vendors to participate, and they then respond to your auction by making bids on the Web portal, stating delivery time and quantity. Finally, you choose which of the vendors you want to buy from, or the system can be set up to make the choice for you based on the criteria you specify.

Start by entering general information about the item you want to list for auction and other relevant information. (Most information about the item can be copied from the item card when you enter the item number on the reverse auction.) On the lines, you enter information about the vendors you want to invite to participate in the reverse auction. When you have finished filling in the reverse auction, you then release it to be synchronized to your Web portal.

Public Reverse Auction - It is up to you whether the auction should be public or not. A public reverse auction results in an open reverse auction, where participating vendors are able to follow the auction progress. All vendor bids are made public for the rest of the vendors to view and react to. However, not all information about a vendor is made public to the other vendors. The vendors name or other information about the vendor is not displayed on the Web portal. Each reverse auction document in Navision lists one item for auction. The specific information used in the reverse auction is as follows:

Field	Comments
No.	A unique number to identify the reverse auction.
Item No.	The number of the type of product you want to buy.
Quantity	The number of items that you wish to order.
Unit of Measure Code	The code for unit of measure.
Description	Description of the item you want to buy.
Web Site Code	Web site that you want your reverse auction to be allocated to.
Closing Date	The deadline for when you want the auction to close for more bids.
Closing Time	Time of day for when you want the auction to close for more bids.
Public	Allows you to want to make the reverse auction public.
Status	Enter the status of the reverse auction. To submit the reverse auction to the Web portal, choose Released in this field.
Purchaser Code	Enter the initials of your company's contact person.
Expected Receipt Date	Enter the date for when you expect to receive the items.
Selected Vendor No.	The number of the vendor you have chosen as the winner.
Order No.	The order number that is connected to the Purchase Order.

Releasing a Reverse Auction - When you have filled in the reverse auction, you must release it to be shown on your Web portal. The Status fields for each Vendor on the subform will be automatically updated when you have submitted the auction. Then, all vendors on the subform are invited to participate. Once you have released the auction you can no longer edit fields and comments in the Reverse Auction window. The screen above shows where vendors are selected for participation.

Automated Reordering via Reverse Auctions - With the batch job option, you can create a reverse auction for reordering items so that you can maintain the required quantities on inventory. The batch job processes all the item cards and determines whether each item should be reordered. The calculation is based on the contents of the Inventory, Reorder Point, Maximum Inventory and Reorder Quantity fields on the item card. The quantity in the Inventory field is compared with the Reorder Point field, the result shows the quantity of the item that the batch job suggests for reorder, and a reverse auction is automatically created.

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