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BC topology : Multi Companies sharing same item database and logistics functionalities

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Posted on by SEMAT

Hello Experts,

I have a little question regarding BC Topology, because my company plans to move from NAV 2013 to BC in Azure.

My company is composed by different legal entities all located in Europe. Let's say: France, Germany and Spain.

Currently, each of these entities is running its own ERP and tomorrow, we would like to use the same (BC). The constraint is that we would like also to share the same Item database, because we are all production entities. Each of them will have its own warehouse but an item must be defined once. Some managers should have the possibility to check where if an item is available and in which location.

That’s why this database must be common.

Reading Microsoft documentation, it seems to me that a topology with one tenant hosting the different companies should be the most suitable because there’s one database by tenant. So I guess that some customer's data (like items definitions but not only, ) can be shared across companies.

What do you think about it and what are your advices?

Thanks for your support and help,

Best Regards,

Jérôme

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JAngle 133 on at

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The biggest limitation you will find is that the current databases are presumably based on specific localisations? If you go for the single DB approach then it has to be one localisation. To give specific local accounting needs you will have to modify. At present there is no easy/defined method for blending localisations into 1 DB.

Given this is more about solving an exclusive scenario you might consider using Azure logic apps to orchestrate an integration. You define a master company in one of the DB’s and have it push out the detail.

The other thing to verify would be what can a local accountant do without all the localisations in place? Are there agreeable work arounds? I’ve dealt with a FR entity where we were able to use account schedules to report to the government in their defined chart of accounts structure. This meant the rest of the entities could have a shared CoA. Little things like this could aid you in having 1 common DB

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SEMAT 25 on at

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Hello,

Thanks for your answer. The fact of having a single database in a sigle location should dnot be really a problem.

The main problem is a data sharing problem, not financial data (I haves seen scenarios where financial data coming from different companies can be consolidated into one DB for reporting purpose.) but production data, i.e : item définitions, BOMs, Routings, Production Orders etc ...

Do you have any experience with production data sharing between different companies ?

Once again, thanks a lot for your help, :-)

Regards,

Jérôme

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Inge M. Bruvik 1,105 Moderator on at

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Maybe this AppSource app can help you:

appsource.microsoft.com/.../PUBID.abakion|AID.99f36df7-4997-45ea-a5c8-f639048e3b63|PAPPID.f2c0288a-73c9-4656-bad0-8fb04657ceec

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Dallefeld 211 User Group Leader on at

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To be clear a single location is not the same as localizations. The localizations are country specific accounting requirements. You will want to be sure these are dealt with.

There are multiple ways to accomplish sharing your data across companies. What Josh was alluding to is that if you need those country specific features and good work around is to have a database that hosts the master data that you want shared to the other country DB/companies. This gets you the best of both worlds; the accounting localizations and a single source of truth for some data.

Inge also provides options in some of the add-ons.

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SEMAT 25 on at

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Hello Kim,

Thanks for your replay and your clear explanations. :-)

Nevertheless, it might be a problem for european companies which have locations in different countries.

According to your post, in this case, the only choice is : one tenant per country i.e one BC database per country and a "master database" for data consolidation.

But, even if some data are shared inot the master DB, the BC application programs are not. So, it is not possible to run/automate transaction across multiple legal entities

If I'm right, the "master" DB is good for reporting purpose (power bi, power automate etc..) but each site is, in a sens, "autonomous".

Am I correct ?

thanks a lot for your time and support :-),

Best Regards,

Jérôme

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SEMAT 25 on at

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Hello NorthW

Thanks a lot for your answer, it is a possibility like Binary Stream app source ;-)

Best Regards,

Jérôme

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Inge M. Bruvik 1,105 Moderator on at

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Hi,

I am not sure what you mean by binary stream in this context. But if you wonder if you can do it all API based you can.

You can have a master company using the http client in AL and have that call API's in all the databases where you want your masterdata to be in sync.

Or you can have the child databases call the master databases API's for updates.

You will still need multiple databases or tenants online to respect localizations if you run BC online. But the data sync between them can be fully API based. This is not standard functionality but can be customized either inside BC or in comination with Azure function.

And Microsoft have now launched a service where international businesses can have several BC tenants just for this purpose.

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SEMAT 25 on at

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Hello,

I meant that in the case of one tenant, app like Binary Stream can be used, but of course not in the case of multi tenants.

Finaly, in a multi tenant topology, and, in order to use transactions across multi legal entities, a workaround could be to use an external module, BC certified, which has the possibility to connect to serveral tenants at the same time.

For exemple, to manage production planning across entities, maybe that an app like Opcenter APS is able to connect to several tenants.

Am I on the right way searching for a multi tenant external app (one for each "domain" like production planning, CRM etc .. ?

Best Regards,

Jérôme

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