Data Migration From Great Plains To Dynamics Ax

Both Corporate ERP applications belong to Microsoft Dynamics family, their user interface navigation is similar. However they have different tables structure and there is no direct data migration utility to switch from GP to AX. Easiest way is probably through Excel Import, where you have to fill in formatted Excel file for each transaction or master record type. Excel Import is recommended for small scale data migration project where number of records in each Excel table is below ten thousand. If your project has millions of records to bring over look at other options, SSIS for example. Lets now take a look at data discovery and export from all versions of Great Plains, including archaic DOS:

1.Dynamics GP on MS SQL Server. Exporting data from SQL Server is easy. However you need to know which table to export. Simple way to review architecture is in user interface: Tools -> Resource Description -> Tables. For example, if you plan to export historical Sales invoices you should be able to identify two tables: SOP30200 document header and SOP30300 document lines. If you were able to identify these the rest should be simple. If not, try to practice more GL20000 holds posted General Ledger entries for open year and GL30000 stores all GL transactions for historical years. If you do not like the idea to open user interface each time you need to get new table name to convert you can print table relation diagram from Software Development Kit

2.Great Plains on Pervasive SQL 2000 or Btrieve. If you are switching over to Axapta chances are high that you are on the very old version and you do not see advantage to recover GP licenses and upgrade to the most recent version 2010 (we are compiling this paper in July of 2011). These releases were 7.5, 7.0, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, 4.0. We usually recommend two methods to extract records. First one is by creating custom report in Report Writer, where you base your report on the table that you would like to export. Then place in the report body the fields at your discretion and print report into text file. Next step would be process the text file in Excel. This method is good as it doesnt require programming skills, but it is only feasible in case when you need just few tables to extract. If you need all the tables to be at your discretion, here is the second method ODBC connection to Btrieve database. You will need DDF files (Data Definition File). These files are required by Pervasive SQL ODBC driver. These files could be produced by dragging and dropping GenDDF.set on Dynamics.exe (if you do not see GenDDF.set in your Dynamics user workstation folder you need to install the option from Great Plains 7.5 or whatever is your version CD). When DDF files are produced you can connect to your company database by copying DDF files into your company folder on the server (usually Dynamics folder where company subfolder has the same name as company ID). Use Pervasive SQL Control Center, where you can use SQL Select statements to export. Or feel free to use another ODBC connection tool, such as for example Microsoft Access (use linked tables via ODBC)

3.Great Plains Accounting for DOS, Mac or Windows 9.5, 9.2 or earlier. Sometimes our consultants get confused, as prospect calls and ask to help him with exporting data from Great Plains. We return the call with somebody who is certified in Dynamics GP, formerly known as Great Plains Dynamics. And then it turns out that it is GPA for DOS. This archaic Corporate ERP system was popular in earlier and mid 1990th. There was warning that it might be not complied with year 2000 date computation. Later on year 2000 issue was forgotten and we still help large number of GPA customers across the USA and internationally. Ok after this historical excurse lets return to our data extraction project. GP Accounting resides in Btrieve database, however the majority of existing customers switched from Novel or Windows NT servers with Btrieve to Windows 2003 or 2008 (including Microsoft Small Business Server 2008) 32 bit on Pervasive SQL Server 2000. Please, note that you have to stay on 32 bit version, as Pervasive SQL 2000 database in time was not compatible with 64 bit computing. You will need DDF files to connect to its database. There are instructions on how to produce them. You can find DDF generation procedure in ODBC manual, available in PDF format on installation CD. If you do not have original media, feel free to contact our office. We know how to connect to the database via MS Access or Crystal Reports via ODBC driver. However the challenge is in the GPA architecture, where several tables are hosted in the same file. This is why we believe that the best data extraction tool is Pervasive SQL Control Center, where you can issue subset of SQL Select statement (there are some restrictions of Pervasive SQL)

4.Some notes to international customers. Dynamics AX is available worldwide and it supports Unicode characters, making it available in such countries as China, Korea, Japan. Business acquisitions are normal in modern society, leading to the cases where company headquarters emigrate from USA to China, Brazil, Russian Federation, France, Japan. If you are moving your Corporate ERP application to foreign country former Axapta is positioned to be a good option to consider. AX has such cool feature as Process Manufacturing, which could be used in oil and gas drilling, mining, food processing, textile. All these industries are popular in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, China, Brazil, developing world

5.General Data Conversion recommendations. It is good idea to restrict data migration project to bringing over just master records: employees, addresses, vendors, customers. Then you enter GL beginning balances and start using system at the beginning of the new fiscal year or period. Historical transactions migration is something that consulting firm typically try to discourage you to do. We are ready for discussion of consulting in this theoretical area

6.Please call us 1-866-304-3265, 1-269-605-4904 (for international customers, where our representative pick up the phone in St. Joseph, MI call center). help@efaru.com We have local presence in Chicagoland, Southern California, South West Michigan, Houston and Dallas areas of Texas. We serve customers USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil nationwide and internationally via web sessions and phone conferences (Skype is welcomed). Our consultants speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese.