There have been a number of sample databases that debuted with
various SQL Server versions starting from pubs, Northwind, Foodmart and
AdventureWorks
Northwind employees have been in the
limelight for years and it is time for them to retire. Some 9 employees
managed the whole business and now businesses have gone global and IOT
and robots are standing in queue.
In this background Microsoft has introduced the Wide World Importers, WWI for short. You can get an overview
here , or read on.
This is how Microsoft describes WWI's business:
"
Wide World Importers (WWI) is a wholesale novelty goods importer and distributor operating from the San Francisco bay area.
As a wholesaler, WWI’s customers are mostly companies who resell to
individuals. WWI sells to retail customers across the United States
including specialty stores, supermarkets, computing stores, tourist
attraction shops, and some individuals. WWI also sells to other
wholesalers via a network of agents who promote the products on WWI’s
behalf. While all of WWI’s customers are currently based in the United
States, the company is intending to push for expansion into other
countries.
WWI buys goods from suppliers including novelty and toy
manufacturers, and other novelty wholesalers. They stock the goods in
their WWI warehouse and reorder from suppliers as needed to fulfill
customer orders. They also purchase large volumes of packaging
materials, and sell these in smaller quantities as a convenience for the
customers.
Recently WWI started to sell a variety of edible novelties such as
chilli chocolates. The company previously did not have to handle chilled
items. Now, to meet food handling requirements, they must monitor the
temperature in their chiller room and any of their trucks that have
chiller sections."
In an importing and
redistributing business the Workflow is very well defined to address all
exigencies and so it is with WWI as charted by Microsoft:
Workflow of stocks:
WWI creates purchase orders and submits the orders to the suppliers.
Suppliers send the items, WWI receives them and stocks them in their warehouse.
Customers order items from WWI
WWI fills the customer order with stock items in the warehouse, and
when they do not have sufficient stock, they order the additional stock
from the suppliers.
Some customers do not want to wait for
items that are not in stock. If they order say five different stock
items, and four are available, they want to receive the four items and
backorder the remaining item. The item would them be sent later in a
separate shipment.
WWI invoices customers for the stock items, typically by converting the order to an invoice.
Customers might order items that are not in stock. These items are backordered.
WWI delivers stock items to customers either via their own delivery vans, or via other couriers or freight methods.
Customers pay invoices to WWI.
Periodically, WWI pays suppliers for items that were on purchase
orders. This is often sometime after they have received the goods.
You will be hearing more about WWI in my blogs:
http://hodentek.blogspot.com
http://hodentekMSSS.blogspot.com
http://hodentekHelp.blogspot.com
