The control and monitoring of economic assets and the associated financial transactions is one of the core processes of virtually every company and is therefore given corresponding priority. The challenge begins with defining what an asset actually is. Depending on the industry, these can be intangible assets, such as software licenses, ship-through goods that are simply stored and forwarded, or complex production chains in which high-quality products and services are created from a large number of subcomponents.
And that's just the beginning. Despite all attempts at standardization, every company still operates in its own unique way. On paper, the processes sound the same: purchasing, warehousing, order creation, invoicing—we find these disciplines in every company. But how these processes are implemented differs from case to case. And the devil is not only in the details.
Ultimately, this can only have one consequence: the ERP software in question needs to offer maximum flexibility and adaptability in order to reflect the individual characteristics of the respective company in the best possible way. Characteristics that, in many cases, exist for good reason. Characteristics that—if you have to adapt to a rigid ERP system instead—often lead to inefficiencies and friction losses in process flows and thus to reduced overall performance of your company.
With MD-Premium ERP, you can largely eliminate this risk. The ERP module is the most comprehensive and feature-rich module in MD-Premium. The ERP module combines more than 30 years of development and successful practical use in a wide variety of industries and economic sectors, and thus has mastered the craft of Enterprise Resource Planning from the ground up. What sets MD-Premium ERP apart from other systems though is its unmatched flexibility and sustainability
The entire business logic and every function can be customized and expanded. New functions can be added effortlessly. Communication with the outside world takes place via flexibly customizable interfaces and data formats such as REST or EDIFACT. And you can combine selected functions into automatically running function chains to establish customized no-touch processes in your workflows. All of this is based on the principles of the application framework, the technical foundation of MD-Premium. Flexibility and expandability are not afterthoughts, but are firmly integrated into its core and are therefore available to all function modules based on it.
Don't compromise when it comes to your ERP system. With MD-Premium ERP, your individual notions on how to do business are not a weakness but a strength, because they reflect the established corporate culture of your company. MD-Premium ERP not only respects this, but also actively supports you in integrating your uniqueness and condensing it into a tailor-made digital process landscape. If you want an ERP that adapts to you instead of the other way around, MD-Premium ERP is your choice.
Order Handling
The most essential ERP process of them all is the processing of customer and supplier orders. Since an ordering process depends on the respective company and involves many phases and decision paths, an ERP system must be able to customize the order process so that it can cover all possible scenarios.
MD-Premium ERP uses so-called order codes for this purpose. Each order code represents a phase of the order process. You can individually specify which phases may follow next, which documents/reports should be generated, and which actions should be executed in the system.
MD-Premium ERP comes with a comprehensive set of predefined order codes that should cover most business requirements, whether for trading companies, distributors, or manufacturing companies, including price inquiries and quotations. Of course, customers can also add their own order codes if their ordering process requires it.
For recurring orders, such as service contracts, periodic orders can be stored in the system and automatically processed at the set time. The system also provides separate processing phases for web shop orders. If you link your order processing to a sales project, you will automatically receive up-to-the-minute evaluations of your company's current sales numbers.
The larger your customer base and the more orders you have to process each day, the more urgent the need for automated order processing workflows becomes. Thanks to the unlimited expansion options offered by the MD-Premium Application Framework, you can combine individual functions into automated function chains. The REST interface of the Webservice Application Framework can integrate external data sources, which can also be queried and processed automatically, while the EDIFACT interface ensures automatic data exchange with customers, suppliers, and other business partners.
By taking advantage of all these options, you can integrate a customized no-touch process into your order processing, where human interaction is only required when circumstances demand it. This reduces errors in order processing, noticeably reduces the workload on your staff, and achieves productivity gains you may never have thought possible.
Electronic data interchange
The digitization of business processes continues to advance, and the exchange of electronic data between business partners is almost a must in the 21st century if you value efficient and smooth processes.
For this reason, MD-Premium ERP has taken up the cause of EDI and made it one of its core competencies. An extremely powerful and flexibly expandable in-house data format based on XML forms the basis of MD-Premium's EDI strategy. Any type of business information can be extracted from the database using this format and forwarded to the relevant recipients.
Due to the expandability and transformability of XML files, the in-house format can be expanded to include additional aspects and converted into any target format conceivable. This transformation into a target format is part of the EDI process, and the system can be configured for each recipient to determine which target format is used.
The best-known global standard for electronic data exchange is UN/EDIFACT. MD-Premium ERP is fully compatible with this standard. Data exchange takes place using the in-house format, which is received by the EDIFACT clearing house and converted into the respective target format. MD-Premium is already integrated into several well-known clearing houses, and customer or supplier connections can be established very quickly via these partners. However, thanks to the clear structure and comprehensive documentation of the in-house format, other clearing houses can also be integrated without any complications.
In addition to the EDIFACT standard, MD-Premium ERP also supports other electronic exchange formats, which are becoming increasingly important, particularly due to the EU's e-invoicing initiative. These include, in particular, the ZUGFeRD, XRechnung, and ebInterface formats. But basically the system can understand any format based on the UBL or CII standards.
The EDI interface is highly configurable. You can specify individually for each customer or supplier whether documents are to be exchanged in electronic form, in which format this exchange is to take place, and at which stage of the ordering process. This means that some customers can receive invoices in ZUGFeRD format, while others receive order confirmations, delivery notes, and invoices via the EDIFACT interface.
Centralized EDI management allows you to keep track of current EDI transactions and also archives all historical transactions for troubleshooting and traceability purposes. The EDI interface can be integrated into automated processes via individual function extensions, making it an important building block for end-to-end automation across the entire supply chain..
Article & Warehouse management
MD-Premium ERP offers extensive options for specifying and managing items and the associated item stocks in the master data. MD-Premium can handle physical items—i.e., items that are typically kept in stock—production items, and intangible items such as licenses, services, and support.
Thanks to comprehensive categorization options, you can describe and specify each item precisely. Accurate item descriptions, product images, and documents are just the beginning. Different product and price hierarchies enable precise classification of each item. You can also integrate classification standards such as eClass.
To avoid having to use separate item numbers for near-identical items that differ only in minor details, you can store variations under one item number, e.g., differences in size or color. These variations are displayed transparently throughout the entire ordering and delivery process, including your in-house B2B web shop.
If you want to combine several thematically related items into an order package, you can define a so-called sales set and attach a corresponding bill of materials to it. The price of the sales set is either calculated automatically from the cumulative individual prices or can be specified separately. If a sales set requires additional effort in production or assembly, a production set can be defined instead. Production sets are controlled via production orders. These orders can be carried out in-house or outsourced to an external service provider. By segmenting production into sub-orders (set-in-set), even complex production orders can be mapped. You are free to decide whether or not you want to include the working hours incurred in the pricing of the finished item.
MD-Premium's warehouse management can cover all scenarios that may occur in companies. Starting with small storage areas to internationally distributed production and delivery warehouses. Warehouses themselves can be divided into any number of storage locations. Individual dimensions, weight specifications, and package sizes can be stored for each storage location. In addition, freely definable storage location types can be assigned to each storage location, for example, if a special security tray for chemicals is available or similar.
Assign each item individually to one or more warehouses or storage locations, with individual minimum and maximum stock levels and delivery times. As an alternative to a fixed storage location assignment, MD-Premium also allows dynamic (chaotic) warehouse management. Or you can dispense with storage locations altogether and leave the micromanagement entirely to the local warehouse staff.
Batch/serial numbers
The complete recording and linking of batch and serial numbers is absolutely essential in a quality-assured supply chain.
The item management feature in MD-Premium ERP allows you to specify for individual items whether they are relevant for batch or serial numbers. This data is recorded when goods are received and is permanently stored in the system.
Goods withdrawals for batch or serial number items are carried out either manually or automatically using a FIFO (first-in, first-out) procedure. This ensures that goods that have been in storage for a longer period of time are used first for customer orders. This procedure is highly recommended, especially for perishable goods. If desired, the system can also be set to a LIFO (last-in, first-out) procedure.
In addition to the batch number, the system also stores any best-before dates associated with the respective batch and automatically warns you about goods that are about to expire or blocks goods that have already exceeded their best-before date. Thanks to this transparent end-to-end storage of batch and serial numbers, you always know which items were delivered by which supplier and to which customers they were passed on. The traceability of items in the event of a quality defect or recall is ensured. You can locate the affected customers in a targeted manner and initiate appropriate measures.
You can also use the serial number to better handle warranty cases and maintenance requests.
Product information included
Traditional ERP systems typically do not bother with the management and provision of extensive product information. This data is typically outsourced to PIM software and distributed to customers and partner companies via a catalog interface or content delivery network.
MD-Premium ERP saves you this additional, costly component in your IT landscape. The ERP data model includes extensive options for describing your products and assigning attributes to them. You have complete freedom to define which attributes you want for your product range and how you want to assign them to your products. The system allows you to store product information in multiple languages, making it accessible to an international audience.
In conjunction with basic product data such as item number, EAN code, and customs tariff number, as well as the ability to provide standardized classification data based on eClass, MD-Premium ERP offers everything you need to define product catalogs and make them available to trading partners or web shop operators. Of course, MD-Premium's in-house B2B web shop also accesses this data..
In addition to this catalog data, MD Premium document management allows you to assign a wide range of documents to each individual item, which you can then make available to customers and partners. The selection ranges from marketing and advertising materials, data sheets, and user instructions to multimedia content such as sales and training videos—unless you want to make these available via a public video platform.
Take advantage of the opportunity to transfer these documents to a cloud via S3-compatible storage and make them available globally via a content delivery network without overloading your ERP installation with excessive data traffic.
Other Features
Deposit/empty container management
Deposit/empty container management
Items that generate empties that must be taken back (e.g., chemical drums) are specially marked. A log records which items were delivered to which customers in order to arrange for the corresponding returns, including financial aspects (reserves).
Approval process
Approval process
You can integrate a flexible approval procedure into the quotation and order process in order to obtain approval from a higher authority for defined order phases. The need for approval can be linked to conditions (e.g., order amount)
Best price finding
Best price finding
The system automatically searches all price models applicable to the respective customer (including promotional prices) for the most favorable one and applies it. This prevents a promotion from overriding a special customer price, even though it is lower.
Order-related supplier orders
Order-related supplier orders
Creation of supplier orders for non-stocked goods directly from a customer order. Combination of several individual orders into one collective order.
Fresh deliveries
Fresh deliveries
Short-term (next-day) deliveries of fresh goods thanks to automated ordering processes, including bundling and prioritization of supplier orders and breakdown of consolidated deliveries into individual customer orders.
Order-related returns
Order-related returns
Return orders for unused goods are compared with the delivery volume to prevent more goods from being returned than were originally delivered.
Tax administration
Tax administration
Automatic calculation of various taxes and fees, such as ARA, ERA, and various material surcharges (copper and aluminum surcharges), automatic forwarding of billing data to the relevant tax authorities.
Contract management
Contract management
Transparent management of supplier and customer contracts. Monitoring of order quotas and reallocation of unused volumes. Supply contracts with multiple price levels, allocation of the appropriate price level according to customer price sensitivity.
Digital delivery notes
Digital delivery notes
Delivery notes can be signed on site using a mobile client and immediately stored in the system. This speeds up order processing and completely eliminates the tedious task of digitizing signed paper documents.
Cash register connection
Cash register connection
Connection of electronic cash register systems, including setting up a signature and registration with the tax office, start receipts, daily, monthly, and annual financial statements.
Mobile warehouse recording/inventory
Mobile warehouse recording/inventory
Special functions and processes for mobile inventory and goods recording in the warehouse, including connection to mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, scanners)
Accounting interface
Accounting interface
Interfaces for data exchange with financial accounting software. Pre-integration with the accounting systems of Schmidhuber GmbH, BMD, and Diamant. Other financial accounting systems can be connected on a project-specific basis.
Deposit/empty container management
Deposit/empty container management
Items that generate empties that must be taken back (e.g., chemical drums) are specially marked. A log records which items were delivered to which customers in order to arrange for the corresponding returns, including financial aspects (reserves).
Approval process
Approval process
You can integrate a flexible approval procedure into the quotation and order process in order to obtain approval from a higher authority for defined order phases. The need for approval can be linked to conditions (e.g., order amount)
Best price finding
Best price finding
The system automatically searches all price models applicable to the respective customer (including promotional prices) for the most favorable one and applies it. This prevents a promotion from overriding a special customer price, even though it is lower.
Order-related supplier orders
Order-related supplier orders
Creation of supplier orders for non-stocked goods directly from a customer order. Combination of several individual orders into one collective order.
Fresh deliveries
Fresh deliveries
Short-term (next-day) deliveries of fresh goods thanks to automated ordering processes, including bundling and prioritization of supplier orders and breakdown of consolidated deliveries into individual customer orders.
Order-related returns
Order-related returns
Return orders for unused goods are compared with the delivery volume to prevent more goods from being returned than were originally delivered.
Tax administration
Tax administration
Automatic calculation of various taxes and fees, such as ARA, ERA, and various material surcharges (copper and aluminum surcharges), automatic forwarding of billing data to the relevant tax authorities.
Contract management
Contract management
Transparent management of supplier and customer contracts. Monitoring of order quotas and reallocation of unused volumes. Supply contracts with multiple price levels, allocation of the appropriate price level according to customer price sensitivity.
Digital delivery notes
Digital delivery notes
Delivery notes can be signed on site using a mobile client and immediately stored in the system. This speeds up order processing and completely eliminates the tedious task of digitizing signed paper documents.
Cash register connection
Cash register connection
Connection of electronic cash register systems, including setting up a signature and registration with the tax office, start receipts, daily, monthly, and annual financial statements.
Mobile warehouse recording/inventory
Mobile warehouse recording/inventory
Special functions and processes for mobile inventory and goods recording in the warehouse, including connection to mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, scanners)
Accounting interface
Accounting interface
Interfaces for data exchange with financial accounting software. Pre-integration with the accounting systems of Schmidhuber GmbH, BMD, and Diamant. Other financial accounting systems can be connected on a project-specific basis.
The product matrix shows all MD Premium features and which module must be licensed in order to use the relevant functionality.
Your questions - our answers
Yes, the ERP can also work without a CRM module. It is true that essential information, such as customer and supplier master data, is itself part of the CRM module. However, the licenses of MD-Premium are designed in such a way that all function blocks that are necessary for the correct operation of a module are implicitly unlocked. Even if they are actually part of another module.
Yes, the system can handle both static and dynamic storage location assignments
An order code (ACO) stands for a specific phase in the order process, e.g. submit an offer, create a delivery note, issue an invoice, etc. A large set of parameters related to each ACO is defined (what documents are created, what functions are called, what conditions must be met to achieve this ACO...). In addition, it is determined for each ACO what the possible successor codes can be. So, defining ACOs establishes a flow chart that the user must follow. The standard codes can be supplemented by customer-specific codes in order to be able to map specific characteristics of the respective processing process.
The automation of processes is possible at any time via individual extensions.
No-touch means that there is no need for human interaction during the entire processing process, except in the event of an error. In order to establish a true no-touch process, however, the automation chains must cross the system boundaries and involve other IT systems and business partners. MD-Premium allows tailor-made automations to be stored in the system, and to integrate other systems into the automation via both EDI and REST interfaces.
The in-house B2B webshop is integrated into the ERP database and stores orders there directly as orders. External webshops (e.g. Magento) are connected via a JSON engine, with the help of which orders are transmitted to the ERP and imported.
MD-Premium is fully compatible with UN/EDIFACT and is already integrated with several EDIFACT clearing houses. In addition, the system supports the formats XRechnung, ZUGfERD, ebInterface. Other UBL-based formats can be integrated at any time.
MD-Premium uses a fully defined in-house file format based on XML to extract information from the database in a structured way and transmit it to partners. This in-house format is the basis for all EDIFACT-based data transfers. Once the format is well documented, it can be implemented with manageable effort at new EDI partners or clearing houses. Nevertheless, XSLT transformations can be used to convert the data into a suitable target format in MD-Premium, which is then transmitted.
Yes, MD-Premium supports both fixed and chaotic warehousing
With the help of variants, you can combine a range of similar items under one item number, which differ only in nuances (size, color, décor), which noticeably reduces the administrative effort for such items
A sales set is a logical grouping of several individual items under a single, orderable and priceable item number. This does not change the nature of the individual articles. Sales sets are not stock items.
A production set defines a new end product that is assembled from multiple components in a production flow. These can be simple activities (e.g. assembling PCs) or complex production steps (industrial production). Labor, machine and energy costs can be included in the set price for a production set. Production set are items that can be put in stock by yourself.
MD-Premium allows you to manage any number of warehouses at different locations
Recalls typically refer to specific batch or serial numbers. MD-Premium records which products of a certain batch or serial number were sold to which customers. Accordingly, follow-up can be carried out in the event of a recall.
The accounting software Eurofibu from Schmidhuber GmbH is integrated with MD-Premium at database level. In addition, there are existing integrations of the Diamant and BMD systems.
The pricing logic of MD-Premium allows a variety of possibilities to form a customer/item price pair. The best price determination (optional) ensures that the lowest price is always taken from all permitted prices for the respective customer. This also includes temporary prices in the course of product promotions.
Yes. MD-Premium has a generic approval mechanism that can be used in many places in the system, including orders.
Yes, MD-Premium can connect cash registers. Modern systems are connected via the REST interface, older systems require an individual connection. The cash register data is stored in the system in accordance with RKSV 2017.
Of course, this question is not easy to answer. A greenfield project with a small data pool (warehouse, article master, customers) and no adjustments in the system can be rolled out in SaaS hosting in 1-2 days. As soon as existing systems are replaced, large amounts of data are migrated and individual adjustments are made, the effort increases considerably. Large ERP projects with a high degree of customization can take several months and also require a considerable lead time to correctly capture customer requirements and work out a coordinated concept.
To operate MD-Premium, Microsoft Windows Server 2022/2025 is required, as well as at least 8GB of main memory and 200GB of disk space. The actual values required, as well as the number of processor cores required, depend on the scope of the application.
Updates are provided centrally and can be installed individually by the customer. The update mechanism is highly automated, but must be explicitly triggered by the customer so that there is no downtime during working hours.
Of course. Data migration is one of the core aspects during the implementation phase and is planned and implemented accordingly by Multidata together with the customer.