Dynamics Gp 2010 Version Update, Trying To Be Laconic And Objective

Great Plains Dynamics was long time known as a bit version upgrade painful mid-market Corporate ERP. The risk was often associated with the situation, where your GP consultant was triggering Great Plains Utilities to launch DB side upgrade and failed with strange error messages. If your remember yourself as working for Great Plains Consulting firm as Application or Technical Consultant your next step was to open technical support case with Great Plains Software and later on (when GP was acquired by Microsoft Business Solutions) with MBS Dynamics tech support team. Lets review upgrade process with some details:

1.Dynamics GP Utilities Upgrade Steps. When you insert GP 2010 DVD or better mount 2010 with integrated service pack two DVD image, next step is to install local GP user workstation, where all the required server side SQL scripts will be loaded. Then you are prompted to launch Server Side upgrade, where Dynamics and companies databases are upgraded one-by-one. Finally you are dealing with Modified Forms (if you have Modifier module registered or just Customization Site Enabler)

2.With version 10.0 Microsoft Business Solutions changed the standard upgrade procedure to become service pack specific. For example if you are version 8.0, be sure that your current Great Plains reseller has access to GP 8.0 latest service packs, no longer available for download from Microsoft Dynamics Partner or Customer sources

3.eConnect Customizations and update procedure. eConnect is really a pioneering technology, where Great Plains Dexterity is replicated in SQL Stored Procedures (being encrypted, maybe because Dexterity Source Code is proprietary and is available to chosen technology partners as paid service). Dexterity Sanscript programming projects requires Dex experiences where certification is recommended. Learning curve takes multiple months of extensive coding, or in average several years of work for GP technology consulting firm

4.What is new in the latest version 2010/11.0? First of all we would like to suggest you review data access and browsing. In classic Great Plains Dynamics you would do it via user menu or GP toolbar. In Microsoft Dynamics all its family members enjoy the same data access interface: Navigation Pane (on the left side of the screen), List View (in the central pane), Action Pane on the top and Status Bar on the bottom. The advantages are apparent. Imagine that you would like to switch your organization from Dynamics GP to AX. Here all you need to do is to migrate from GP to AX and train your existing accounting users or have them recognize user interface intuitively

5.Legacy Version Upgrade. If you are living in the USA and got your bachelor or master degree somewhere in the US based college or university, you probably understand that every Corporate ERP version requires participation in its programming cost. The cost factor usually translates into Microsoft Business Solutions annual enhancement program (starting around 16 percent of your modules list price and climbing up to 25 or thirty, where you are getting luxury services, including assigning personal consultant, who is being familiarized with your company GP installation settings, customizations and integrations).

6.GP Customization requests. These are the most famous and perfectly served customers. Microsoft Dexterity is in essence the architecture of Great Plains. eConnect programming in MS Visual Studio (typically C# or VB.Net web or Windows projects, where eConnect libraries are included)

7.Upgrading from Legacy Great Plains versions, such as 8.0, 7.5, 7.0, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, 4.0, Great Plains Accounting for DOS, Windows and Mac 9.5, 9.2, 9.1 and earlier. The key expertise here to find consultant, who is comfortable to do data reading or data repair for Btrieve (via Pervasive SQL 2000 driver)

8.Intellisol, or if you are still remembering these people. Well, if Intellisol is too obsolete this might be true. However we still have requests from customers who are on Intellisol Advanced Purchase Order Processing, usually version 7.5