Welcome to Partner Power France !
Absys Cyborg is the French organization and co-owner of Partner Power International. When
we work locally in France, we work as Absys Cyborg, when we are working with international
customers, we are Partner Power France.
The story shows how Microsoft Dynamics NAV could be tailored to meet the needs of
a demanding business with unique production processes. But more importantly, the
article praises our experience and our professional, phased approach.
The Partner Power headquarters – Partner Power International A/S - is located in Copenhagen, Denmark close to the MS EMEA headquarters. Our organization is one of the world's largest MBS Partner entities with more than 4000 installations. We are represented in 53 countries with more than 168 offices worldwide and 3000+ employees.
We work closely with Microsoft Business Solutions on both corporate
and national levels and a majority of our local offices are Microsoft Gold Certified
Partners.
At Partner Power we are dedicated on providing professional services on target, on
budget on time to any international customer based on Microsoft Business Solutions,
wherever they may be geographically located and throughout all industries. Our offerings
also include a broad range of services, quality support and industry-specific verticals.
So whether you need cross-border, cross-company and/or multi-language implementations
– then Absys Cyborg/Partner Power France is the partner to meet your request.
Contact us or visit the global Partner Power Site.
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What we do :
If you run your business internationally or globally, and you are in need of a partner
who understands your business issues then Partner Power is the right partner for
you !
Partner Power is the world’s largest global Microsoft Dynamics partner with more
than 4000 installations!
We focus 100% on providing top professional services on target, on budget on time
to any international customer based on Microsoft Dynamics, wherever they may be
geographically located and throughout all industries.
So whether you need cross-border, cross-company and/or multi-language implementations
– then Partner Power is the partner to meet your request. And our offerings also
include a broad range of services, quality support and industry-specific verticals.
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Solutions :
With Microsoft Dynamics, we offer industry-specific in-depth knowledge and centrally
coordinated projects that serve the needs of headquarters and subsidiaries.
A solution from Partner Power means a solution which is scalable, suitable for international
or global roll out, designed with respect for local requirements as well as corporate
standards.
Our solutions are always built upon the highest quality standards to deliver crystal
clear return on investment on target, on time and on budget. Multi site implementations
with global scale do require a dedicated partner with an anchored methodology that
has proven its value and accuracy. That’s exactly what you get with a solution from
Partner Power.
Partner Power has carefully chosen and further developed the right software, the
right methodology, the right professional services and not the least the right people
to meet the challenges and realize the full potential in an integrated global Microsoft
Dynamics environment – together with you.
Microsoft Dynamics-NAV
This section is intended for parent companies with subsidiaries or divisions
Integrate your business efficiently following the Microsoft Dynamics-NAV hub and
spoke philosophy.
Navision has an excellent concept named "hub and spoke", supporting parent companies
that need to integrate their business management software solution with that of
their subsidiaries or divisions. The articles on this site will help you understand
how Microsoft Dynamics-NAV can be the ideal solution to use in your subsidiaries
or divisions. You will also find the answer to how Microsoft Dynamics-NAV can offer
standard functionality, yet still meet local needs.
Also, go through the six most common integration scenarios that parent companies
often face with their subsidiaries or divisions, and how Microsoft Dynamics-NAV
helps companies handle these situations efficiently.
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What is the Hub & Spoke Concept?
The hub and spoke concept refers to a parent or holding company that uses one business
software system (the hub), which is integrated with the systems used by its individual
subsidiaries or divisions (the spokes). This concept is a metaphor, which uses the
image of a wheel with a core component (the hub) and many sub-components (the spokes).
Together, the hub and spokes form a whole that can progress forward as one unit.
Similarly, in the world of business management software, the IT system of the parent
company (hub), must work together with the systems of its subsidiaries (spokes)
in order to reach its destination, or business goals.
How can Microsoft Dynamics-NAV be the ideal solution to use in your subsidiaries
or divisions. In particular, how can it offer standard functionality while still
meeting local needs?
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Why the Hub and Spoke Concept Is Relevant for Your Company!
The idea of one standard system that requires no integration of data between corporate
headquarters and its subsidiaries certainly has its appeal. In the real world, however,
companies must deal with integration between corporate and subsidiary systems. Subsidiaries
or divisions tend to have very different needs than the parent company. Microsoft
Dynamics-NAV is a standard solution that still has enough flexibility to meet the
varied needs of local subsidiaries or divisions, regardless to their size, location
or type of business. It has a low total cost of ownership because it is relatively
inexpensive to acquire and implement, and easy to use and maintain.
- Size: Subsidiaries typically do not need the same level of complexity
in their system as the parent company. Furthermore, they may not have the resources
necessary to acquire and maintain a system that was designed for a larger company.
Microsoft Dynamics-NAV is an excellent choice for subsidiaries because it was designed
for small to mid-sized businesses.
- Location: Subsidiaries located in different countries will need
a business system that reflects their local legal requirements as well as the business
practices dictated by their location. Microsoft Dynamics-NAV is a business software
solution with 40 localized country versions around the world, and with multi-language
capabilities. Thus, it is a standard solution, but one that still meets varying
local needs.
- Type of business: Subsidiaries may have specialized functions that
they perform because of the nature of their industry, their way of doing business,
or the way that they do business together with their parent company. Microsoft Dynamics-NAV
is flexible by nature. It is straightforward to adapt the standard functionality
in Microsoft Dynamics-NAV to meet the specific requirements of subsidiaries or divisions.
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How Microsoft Dynamics-NAV meets different needs!
Tools supporting a variety of business needs
There are several tools that support local needs without disrupting daily business:
- Minor adaptations save time in daily work
- Industry-specific templates and vertical solutions reduce service costs
- The upgrade tool and methodology make it easier to move to a new version
Minor adaptations like changing forms are easy to carry out in Microsoft Dynamics-NAV.
Swedish-based EuroFlorist, for example, used the built-in tools in Microsoft Dynamics-NAV
to add shortcuts that helped cut order-entry time by 30 to 40 percent.
In addition to the inherent adaptability of Microsoft Dynamics-NAV, there are also
Microsoft Dynamics-NAV Industry Specific Solutions Tools. You can use industry templates
for divisions with similar functions, and you can find vertical-industry solutions
for more specific business needs from the extensive network of Microsoft partners.
So, for example, if you have a number of divisional sales offices with similar functions,
you might want to apply one industry-specific template to all your spokes. If, however,
you need a solution for, say, the shoe manufacturing industry, then you might want
to implement an industry-specific solution based on the Microsoft Dynamics-NAV platform.
The extensive catalog of industry-specific solutions and the industry templates
can help reduce service costs and make it faster and more efficient to implement
the solutions at your divisions or subsidiaries.
Finally, the upgrade tool and complete upgrade methodology in Microsoft Dynamics-NAV
helps give you a smooth transition to new versions of your solution, without losing
any specific modifications made for your business. It provides a tool and a framework
to help you make sure you can continue to work with the solution with which you
are already familiar, while still benefiting from new releases.
Figure 1: The figure shows a corporate headquarters, which is using a given business
management system that is integrated with Microsoft Dynamics-NAV solutions at its
various subsidiaries
Varying Needs, One Common Purpose
Parent companies and their subsidiaries need different solutions because they have
different business needs. Yet, they are all part of the same organization, and still
need to function as a whole unit. If the system used at the subsidiaries is flexible
enough, it can meet the needs of the individual subsidiaries or divisions (the spokes).
In order to move forward as one unit, however, it is not enough to meet the needs
of the spokes. The spokes must function together with the hub (the parent company).
In order to do this, the system used at the spokes must not only be a flexible solution,
but it must also have the right tools to function together with the system used
at the hub.
In the next section, you can follow six common integration scenarios, which
are dictated by the business needs of the parent company and its subsidiaries. We
will start with the most basic and common scenario. Then, we will go on to see how
the more a parent company's business processes are intertwined with those of their
divisions or subsidiaries, the greater the level of integration that they will need.
Each scenario will explain how integration between Microsoft Dynamics-NAV at subsidiaries
and another solution at the parent company can help the entire organization function
more efficiently.
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Six common integration scenarios: How Microsoft Dynamics-NAV helps increase efficiency!
- Scenario 1: Consolidating Financial Data
Any office that functions as headquarters must get a consolidated view of its finances
that includes the financial reports of local subsidiaries. You need to consolidate
finances in order to run your business, and you need to do so in order to meet increasingly demanding international standards, such as Sarbanes-Oxley and IAS 2005 (International
Accounting Standard).
At the same time, your subsidiaries may have to answer to local financial practices
and standards. These diverse business needs often result in a workflow that is inefficient
and prone to error. The subsidiaries must take their financial information out of
their local system, and retype it into a spreadsheet provided by headquarters. What's
more, this workflow must be repeated for each subsidiary before headquarters can
create a consolidated financial report.
How Microsoft Dynamics-NAV Helps You Consolidate Financial Data
In Microsoft Dynamics-NAV, you can consolidate financial statements for a series
of business units from a single database, other Microsoft Dynamics-NAV databases,
or other programs. You can transfer from different accounting structures to your
own. You can also ensure that financial statements in different currencies are consolidated
trouble-free using the exchanged rate functionality.
Microsoft Dynamics-NAV can also help you consolidate with Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), an XML-based specification. XBRL uses accepted financial reporting
standards and practices to export financial reports across all software and technologies,
including the Internet. With XBRL, you enter information only once, and the same
information can then easily be produced as a printed financial statement, an HTML
document for a website, a raw XML file, or in a specialized reporting format.
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Scenario 2: Gaining Business Insight
In order to maintain control
over your entire organization, you need access to data located in the systems of
your subsidiaries or divisions. You may want a monthly sales report organized by
region and product.
You may want to know how much inventory of a certain item is on hand. Or, you may
want to know how much each country office is spending on advertising. The information
you may need is, in fact, unlimited.
What's more, whereas in some cases, you may want periodic reports, at other times,
you may feel you need ad hoc answers to topical questions. Whatever type of information
you need, however, you will want to receive it in a format that is easy to understand
and to manipulate for your own purposes.
How Microsoft Dynamics-NAV Helps You Gain Business Insight
With the business analytics available in Microsoft Dynamics-NAV, employees at your
subsidiaries can create OLAP cubes based on the data in their system. Business Analytics
is integrated into your existing Microsoft Dynamics-NAV system, giving you the full
benefit of access to your stored data. A Data Transformation Services (DTS) package
pulls data from Microsoft Dynamics-NAV into SQL tables. From here, other DTS packages
transform and structure these tables into multidimensional cubes processed in Microsoft®
SQL Server® Analysis Services.
Employees at your subsidiaries will not need extensive IT support, but rather, can
quickly generate reports based on the relevant parameters.
Because of the Analysis
Services cubes, controllers at headquarters can then access the reports in Microsoft
Sharepoint, Microsoft Excel, or another program that they use in their daily work.
The result is better visibility into your entire organization with faster and more
efficient reporting tools.
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Scenario 3: Sharing Master Data
A parent company and its subsidiaries share certain critical business information,
such as vendor and price lists, and customer data. The data is often maintained
separately in different systems using different formats, which makes it inconsistent.
If, however, the parent company shares master data across the entire organization,
it brings with it a number of benefits:
Time spent sending and re-entering data manually is reduced
Shared vendor data increases opportunities for quantity discounts
Up-to-date and consistent customer data at every point of contact helps increase
customer satisfaction
If the parent company wants to share master data with subsidiaries that use different
systems, then there must be a means of connecting the systems.
How Microsoft Dynamics-NAV Helps You Share Master Data
Microsoft tools for electronic exchange of data allow the entire organization to
share master data. One such tool is XMLports, which are used to create XML documents.
These documents can easily be sent to and read by another application. For example,
an XMLport can be created containing your product catalog and price list. This data
can then be exchanged between a parent company using one system and subsidiaries
using Microsoft Dynamics-NAV. Rather than imposing burdensome requirements on subsidiaries,
which may have limited IT resources, both parties can rely on a straightforward
and efficient means of exchanging data.
If the data you need to exchange with your subsidiaries is greater or more complex,
then you can use an electronic data-exchange solution based on Microsoft BizTalk
Server (Microsoft Dynamics-NAV Commerce Gateway) in combination with the XMLports.
Predefined document exchange functionality together with the XMLports allows the
application to handle XML documents faster.
What's more, the combination of XMLports and Microsoft Dynamics-NAV's BizTalk Server
solution allows you to meet the unique requirements of the subsidiaries. Thus, you
get a standard method of exchanging master data with subsidiaries, yet at the same
time, retain enough flexibility to meet the individual needs of each member of your
organization.
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Scenario 4: Sharing Responsibility for Services
There are a variety of reasons why an organization might decide to share the responsibility
for certain services with their subsidiaries. The organization's customers might
deal with multiple subsidiaries but wish to receive one invoice from corporate headquarters.
Or, the organization may wish to divide tasks based on local competencies, such
as production or distribution capabilities at the subsidiary level. An organization
might also want to centralize the payroll or procurement process at headquarters
for greater efficiency or to receive bulk discounts.
How Microsoft Dynamics-NAV Helps You Share Responsibility for Services
Depending on your organization's needs, electronic exchange of data based on Microsoft
BizTalk Server or functionality for intercompany postings might be the right solution
for you. You could use Microsoft Dynamics-NAV's BizTalk Server solution (Commerce
Gateway) to map between the hub and spokes' different systems taking into account
any difference in currencies. Whether a purchase order were made via headquarters
or locally at one of the subsidiaries, the experience would be the same for the
user.
If, however, the parent company and subsidiaries work on a closed network (such
as a virtual private network), are controlled by the same legal entity, and do not
need to map the data that originates in the subsidiaries' systems, then you could
use the Intercompany Postings functionality in Microsoft Dynamics-NAV. Intercompany
Postings can help you create all the necessary documents (including sales and purchase
documents and general ledger entries) for the entire workflow, for more than one
company at a time.
The integration between hub and spokes for sharing services can help you achieve
a more efficient workflow that reduces costs. What's more, subsidiaries may be more
willing to adopt shared processes because you do not impose the corporate system
on them. They will have the same user experience they are accustomed to in their
Microsoft Dynamics-NAV system.
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Scenario 5: Enabling Interdivisional Transactions
This white paper has presented a number of scenarios where the hubs, or parent companies, interact with their subsidiaries, or spokes. Sometimes, however, there is also a
need for the spokes to interact among themselves. For example, one subsidiary may
act as distributor of a certain item. Or, as another example, divisions of a government
agency with different competencies may need to interact in order to complete part
of their workflow.
How Microsoft Dynamics-NAV Helps Subsidiaries Perform Interdivisional Transactions
Microsoft Dynamics-NAV can be set up to treat interdivisional transactions as normal
sales and purchase transactions between divisions to support an integrated supply
chain. Just as with the interactions between hub and spoke, which we saw in scenario
4 above, the spokes can interact among themselves using a BizTalk Server solution
to exchange data electronically, or Intercompany Postings, depending on their needs.
If two subsidiaries need to carry out transactions among themselves, you simply
set up a customer account for each of the relevant partners. Microsoft Dynamics-NAV
then treats them as they would any external customer and vendor. The transactions
occur within Microsoft Dynamics-NAV, and time is saved throughout your organization
because you eliminate multiple data entry as well as the sending, receiving, and
printing of paper documents at the various sites.
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Scenario 6: Responding Proactively to Business Events
Every organization is part of a supply chain, and the hub and spokes that comprise
part of an organization's supply chain are as varied as the organizations themselves.
However, to one degree or another, the hub and its spokes are always interdependent.
If certain events occur at the spokes, the hub must react. For example, if a manufacturer
relies on one of its subsidiaries to deliver raw goods, and there is a delay, it
can affect the entire supply chain. The hub must react. How much better though if
the hub were in a position not just to react after the event, but to respond proactively
before a crisis emerged.
How Microsoft Dynamics-NAV Business Notification Helps You React Proactively
to Business Events
You can set up alerts in Microsoft Business Notification that will automatically
generate e-mail messages to inform you of critical business conditions at your subsidiaries,
divisions, or partners. Microsoft Business Notification helps you to improve management
control of your business and the effectiveness of your business processes. It helps
you stay aware of changing business conditions, and keep operations on track. You
can use templates included with Microsoft Business Notification, and you can also
set up your own alerts based on the way you like to run your business.
Conclusion:
Parent companies and their subsidiaries or divisions have different business needs,
and therefore they require different business systems. The data in these different
business systems must, however, be integrated in order for the organization to function
as a whole. A system that is suited for this purpose makes it possible for the organization
to move forward efficiently as one business unit, where the parent company is like
the hub of a wheel, and the subsidiaries are like the spokes.
Microsoft Dynamics-NAV may be the ideal choice for your organization because it
is a standard solution, with effective integration tools, and enough flexibility
to meet the varying needs of different business units.