Insight eNews
A Monthly Newsletter from AVF Consulting, Inc.
Microsoft Dynamics NAV Solution Center &
Microsoft Gold Certified Partner
February 2008
- In
this edition:
From the President: What's News for 2008
AVF News & Events: AVF Welcomes New Employees, New Customers!
Matriks Mail: E-mail Management for NAV 5.0
From the President: Andrew Fass
What's New for 2008
After
a bit of a hiatus, AVF Insights eNews has returned along with our
marketing manager, Karen Tran, who was on maternity leave. Welcome back
Karen! We’re glad to have you and the newsletter return!
Thanks to AVF’s record sales achievements in 2007, we are extremely busy
with new client kick-off meetings, go-lives and implementations. As our
sales grow, so does our staff. We've added to most of our
departments in 2007 and we are looking to hire more NAV experienced
staff in 2008. Amidst
our new client and employee additions, we are diligently working with our established
customers on improved functionality, upgrades, training and add-ons such
as Jet Reports and ChargeLogic.
AVF has long held expertise in the
distribution, retail, service and not-for-profit industries, and we are finding
opportunities to create standardized enhancements and add-ons to NAV.
Over the years, AVF has developed add-ons such as LM-2 and FEC reporting
for unions and political campaigns, Student Billing for independent
schools, PDF Pro and Spellcheck for all NAV users, and ChargeLogic for
retailers and distributors. We are currently working on add-ons
specific to Pennsylvania School Districts (PASD) and Retail.
Pennsylvania School Districts have very specific reporting needs as well
as HR and Payroll functionality. We are facilitating a consortium with
our PASD clients in order to develop specific functionality to
NAV. We plan to have a majority of the PASD add-on completed in 2008.
AVF
has had strong success with our add-on product, ChargeLogic, an electronic
payment processing software created specifically for retailers and
distributors that need to process credit card and other payment types. ChargeLogic attained the “Certified for Microsoft Dynamics NAV”
status in late 2007, which is a prestigious certification achieved
through rigorous testing. There are over 50 ChargeLogic customers and 20 NAV
VARs that offer ChargeLogic to their prospects and customers.
Besides our industry specific add-ons, we work closely with many of you
to make NAV function to fit your organization’s needs. We also have
partnerships with other NAV solution centers that have already created
add-ons like Jet Reports, Cost Control’s Job Manager, Wilcomp’s Project
Pro and Field Service Management, and Serenic’s Navigator and Donor
Management. These partnerships help us deliver cost effective
solutions to you more quickly. We are looking forward to working closely with all of you
in 2008, whatever your needs are. If you have any questions or
feedback, please contact me at 410-296-5100.
AVF Welcomes New Clients: In the past six months, we have had
seven new organizations become AVF clients. We would like to welcome
these new customers!
Ø Retail Distributors: LeSportsac, Inc., www.lesportsac.com, sells and distributes designer handbags and travel accessories including lines by Stella McCartney. They have over 10 stores and are rapidly growing. Kidstown, www.kidstownusa.com, is a full service children’s department store with seven locations throughout New York City and New Jersey.
Ø Pennsylvania School Districts: Central Bucks School District, www.cbsd.org, is located in Bucks County, just north of Philadelphia, PA. The district is the third largest in PA with over 21,000 students and 23 schools. Tuscarora School District, www.tus.k12.pa.us, is located in south-central Pennsylvania and has over 2,600 students in six schools.
Ø Distributors: Baltimore-based Smarterville, http://hooked-on-phonics.com, is the maker and distributor of Hooked on Phonics, an educational system that helps children learn to read. Moroso USA, www.moroso.it, manufactures and distributes high-end, designer furniture from Italy.
New AVF Team Members: Please join us in welcoming Jodi Hiebert, Terry Williams, Lori Ricard and Stephen Helm.
Ø Jodi Heibert joins AVF as a Consultant on our Implementation team with over 10 years experience working directly with NAV. Jodi previously held key positions in the accounting and finance departments of such companies as Regional Retail Concepts, Carleton Technologies and L. Keeley Construction Co.
Ø Terry Williams rejoins AVF's Customer Care department after a year hiatus. Terry has over 10 years NAV experience and we are very happy to have her back.
Ø Lori Ricard is the Administrative Assistant for the Operations department. A graduate of Harvard University, Lori joined AVF to support her efforts in completing her doctorate in Anthropology.
Ø Stephen Helm, a recent graduate of Towson University, joins AVF as the Marketing and Sales Specialist.Matrix Mail, E-mail Management for NAV 5.0
Matriks Mail E-Mail Management for NAV 5.0
Now there is an easier
way to connect and log your emails in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Matriks
Mail creates the foundation for a secure and controlled e-mail
correspondence through the use of an e-mail switchboard, established
teams, and archiving in the Dynamics NAV database.
All
communication takes place on regular e-mail clients like Microsoft
Outlook or Gmail. Company e-mails are conveniently saved in Dynamics
NAV, precisely where team members will expect them to be located.
Users can continue working with the same logical routines
they have become familiar with in Microsoft Outlook and Dynamics NAV.
Incoming e-mails are routed via an e-mail switchboard
directly to the relevant team. If the sender is known and has a contact
person assigned, the e-mail is sent directly to that contact person.
Matriks Mail enables a qualified and available team member to manage
incoming company e-mails.
Matriks Mail Teams
Teams can be made up of individuals who have expertise in
a particular area and share similar daily responsibilities and
professional relations with external partners.
Managing e-mail communication utilizing teams promotes
efficiency and minimizes errors by ensuring that correspondence
reaches available individuals with the relevant expertise.
If a team member does
not respond to the communication within the scheduled timeframe, a
`late reply´ alert e-mail will be generated and sent to the team member
for action. If the designated team member has signed off, the
correspondence is routed to another team member.
Each team can define its
team members’ roles and priorities to make sure they only receive e-mail
communication that concerns them.
Security
Matriks Mail is robust as it relies on the
infrastructure of Dynamics NAV. Matriks Mail uses the NAV database to
file e-mails. In addition to the user security and accessibility that
exists in Dynamics NAV, Matriks Mail has introduced a dialog security on
the team level. Dialogs can only be read by members of the team in
question. When users back up their Dynamics NAV data, they will
simultaneously back up their e-mail communication.
Switchboard
The
switchboard identifies and distributes the company’s incoming e-mails.
If the sender is known to Dynamics NAV when an e-mail arrives, the
e-mail will be given a dialog number and filed. If the sender is known
and has a contact person assigned, the mail is sent directly to the
contact person. If the sender is not known, the e-mail is routed
directly to the appropriate team, without the creation of a dialog. The
internal priority setup determines which team member will handle the
e-mail.
Matriks Mail integrates
Dynamics NAV and the company’s regular e-mail clients, making it simple
to read and follow-up on another team member’s correspondence and
provide faster and better service.
Key
Benefits
· Efficiently distributes company e-mails to teams.
· Better utilizes staff competencies, availability, and knowledge of clients through the use of teams.
· Automatically saves contact, customer and vendor e-mails on their cards.
·
Handles e-mails related to order processing.
Requirements
· Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0
· E-mail client, Outlook 2007 or Gmail.
Contact Jeremy Fass for more information on Matriks Mail for Microsoft Dynamics 5.0.
443-279-1019 or jfass@avfconsulting.com.