Dynamics Gp Consulting: Version Upgrade, Customization, Integration

Dynamics Gp Consulting: Version Upgrade, Customization, Integration

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Finding the right consulting firm to implement and then support you Corporate ERP, MRP and Accounting application is crucial to the success of the project and its longevity. When you begin looking for the implementation consultants, you may find that each has its own specialization. Some of them might be looking for small and mid-size businesses in the local area and offer generic CPA stile methodology and user training in implementation phase. Others might be serving Nationwide, specializing in industry niches. There are firms with emphasis on technology, carrying Dexterity, eConnect, C# Software Development Factories these ones specialize in all kinds of customizations, reporting, interface modification, integration interfaces, data conversions. Other companies might be looking for the customers with Supply Chain Management, Barcoding, RFID, Warehouse Management and Retail/POS needs. As you may conclude from the sentences above it is good idea to do your own research in picking Consulting Partner, versus being caught by telemarketing call and then funneled through the forced sales cycle by local or regional reseller. In this small paper we would like to review such aspects of Dynamics GP consulting as Customizations, Integrations and Version Upgrades. We will use numbered paragraphs paper style:

1.Customizations. If you are mid-size or larger business, it is common to expect that Corporate ERP systems, available on the software market can only cover up to eighty or ninety percent of your business requirements in standard functionality and advanced settings (where custom programming is not required, just such available features as User Defined fields, Options, etc.). For the remaining gaps you need to explore if ISV add-ons are available or decide if you would like to order custom programming to cover the gap. In some situation you may find that Add-On exist but it is too expensive, where you plan to deploy only small fraction of the third party module and do not want to pay for the whole set, and this is why customization approach is feasible. In the case of Great Plains customization tools are eConnect, Dexterity, Microsoft Visual Studio Tools, Web Services, Extender, VBA with Modifier and VBA event driven scripts in Integration Manager

2.Integrations. Modern versions of GP reside in Microsoft SQL Server, which makes them open to such SQL Server tools as SSIS, Linked Servers (for cross platform integration, for example Oracle, Sybase, MySQL, MS Access, Excel to GP, however if you are deploying SQL 2008 64 bit, we recommend you to consider SQL Server Integration Services Packages over Linked Server), Stored Procedures, Ad Hoc Insert or Update statements. However even these options are available, this doesnt mean that you need to rush to exercise them. The reason is simple Dynamics.dic is Dexterity metadata and business logic dictionary and Dexterity has its own way to data validation, which could be easily compromised if you are doing data feeding or updating directly on SQL level. We recommend you to start with Integration Manager, where you can setup integration based on the text files (CSV, tab or custom character delimited), as well as ODBC sources. IM is in our opinion perfect tool in such scenarios as eCommerce shopping cart move to GP as Sales Order Processing Invoice with Customer Deposit, custom retail system daily sales integration (for example such POS applications as Counterpoint allow you to use IM in exporting their store purchases and sales and bringing them into your accounting system - GP). If you are participating in EDI data exchange IM could be used with precisely formatted SQL Select Statement (Advanced ODBC Source based on the SQL View) to parse EDI format (header, lines and trailer). Integration Manager is also extremely popular in one time data conversion (you can purchase time limited license to support your initial data massage and migration)

3.Version Updates. Current version is 2010, as we are writing this paper in mid-April of 2011. Technically every version of Great Plains could be updated all the way to 2010, even such archaic releases as Great Plains Accounting for DOS, Windows or Mac (9.5, 9.2, 9.1 and earlier), Great Plains Select on Btrieve/Pervasive SQL 2000 or Ctree/Faircom (7.5, 7.0, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, 4.0, 3.2 and earlier)

4.New Software Purchase and Implementation. Obviously every reseller should be good in selling youre the software licenses. However, there is Microsoft recommendation to implement it Dynamics ERP applications in Project Management tool, named Sure Step. We recommend you to check if your prospecting Consulting firm is certified in Sure Step 2010 or contemporary version

5.Debates on FRx versus newer tool Microsoft Management Reporter. Microsoft Business Solutions announced that FRx is not supported on 64 bit user workstations, meaning such popular operating systems as Windows 7 64, Vista 64 and Windows XP 64 (if you go to BestBuy it is unlikely that you could find laptop or desktop computer with 32 bit version of the Operating System, except probably tiny computers with Intel Atom processor). But it seems that we are still lucky at this time, as FRx seems to be working OK on Windows 7 64, even you are getting couple of error messages in FRx client installation. However Microsoft made its choice and the future development and support for FRx will be phased out

6.Some words to Great Plains international customers. It looks like mid 2000th were the years of the decision making for Microsoft Business Solutions on which ERP application to promote in the specific region of the World: Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, Solomon. Around the year 2007 MBS decided to have Dynamics AX available Worldwide, while GP, NAV, SL are offered in the regions where they were available in 2007. Microsoft CRM is also available Worldwide. GP is available in USA and Canada. If you are located internationally, Great Plains is localized for Spanish Speaking Latin America and Caribbean Basin. Plus it is available in the majority of English speaking countries: UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Singapore, Philippines and Oceania. There are several localization blends of GP available in Arabic language

7.Please call us 1-866-304-3265, 1-269-605-4904. help@efaru.com We have local presence in Chicagoland, Southern California, West Michigan, Houston and Dallas areas of Texas. We serve customers USA, Canada, Mexico nationwide and internationally via web sessions and phone conferences (Skype is welcomed). Our consultants speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese

About the Author:
Andrew Karasev is Great Plains Certified Master, MVP, help@efaru.com 1-866-304-3265, 1-269-605-4904. He is also the initiator of eFaru project http://www.efaru.com and founder of Alba Spectrum information space



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