Group companies, have a multitude of external forms to send to trading partners, banks, authorities etc.
These forms are often bundled e.g. Packing slip and invoice go together and are distributed through a number of media including print, e-mail and EDI. .
Gardner defines output management as: “middleware that drives the output process and supports the automated creation and delivery of business process and ad hoc documents.”
Output management generates a data stream from a source system, then formats the data based on business logic, and renders the data in a predefined output format and transports this rendered output to the chosen destination.
So in simple words you can capture the print output form your erp system and format it better outside of the system e.g in Word, and then distribute it with more options e.g fax, email, xml, to archive etc.
This greatly simplifies maintenance. It greatly reduces consulting time for report formats especially when you want to change these wholesale
Its easy to update e.g. a tel number via a template word document across multiple commercial documents.
When you upgrade the report formats don’t need to change the final document just the data mapping.
Its much easier to have different versions e.g a sales order with item bar codes for on client, with item pictures another and plain for another, or to do things like add a page total or a different sort order.
Why Use 3rd Party Output Management?
Clearly, if you are a small business with limited needs for formatting you external print, you’ll probably be better off using what is already provided by your ERP or CRM system, but if you are a larger enterprise with multiple brands across multiple geographies with a large portfolio of documents, then output management is worthwhile.
If you have ever tried to design and build an invoice layout in Dynamics AX (or any other ERP system for that matter) that supports the needs of multiple subsidiaries with multiple brands in many countries, then you know what I mean. It is time-consuming, and needs testing and fine tuning and often leaves everyone slightly disappointed with the results.
Output management has a number of advantages:
◾External forms look far more professional.
◾It avoids modifying reports or precision forms in Dynamics AX.
◾It has significantly more intuitive form layout capabilities.
◾It is specifically designed for the job.
◾Less expensive in the long run.
◾Provides efficient and flexible distribution of documents to multiple destinations.
And perhaps for customers the most important feature is that they can make changes in most cases immediately without need for consultant expertise.
The most important advantage of output management is the ability to give the business what it needs, when it needs it. External forms are “the public face of the business”, and their branding in a market or region. It should not be held up by long-winded change control governance processes and spend control procedures and extended development and testing . By using output management with multiple overlays, you achieve this agility without taking significant risks.
If you have multiple systems in your solution landscape, output management can help harmonise the way forms look form those different sources and how they are produced and distributed across the business. This is often an advantage when some documents derive from the CRM system, others from ERP or Pyrollssytems and yet more from the eCommerce solution.
Is AX Up for the Job?
Microsoft made a significant improvement by introducing Print Management. With Print Management we were able to set up multiple destinations for each document type. Since then, not much has happened, actually. It would be great, if we were able to write conditional scripts, so we could base the print destination on a number of conditions e.g. Brand, Product, Customer Group etc. also, it would be ideal, if it was possible to “bundle” documents. This way you could for instance automatically print labels with the packing slip.
As with most erp systems scripting and conditional formatting in SSRS is not so easy for precision forms with lots of lines and columns.
What Solution ?
Well some good ones don’t come with a connector for Ax
We offer Lasernet from FormPipe which is very common in Scandinavia from where Ax of course originates. So they have a long history together. The solution is closely integrated with Dynamics AX i.e.its embedded within and provides Print preview capabilities. Lasernet also offers some input management capabilities, so if you are after an easy-to-implement solution without too much complexity this solution is a good bet.
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