eCommerce,Connectors,for,Dynam computer eCommerce Connectors for Dynamics GP and SB1 notes

----------------------------------------------------------Permission is granted for the below article to forward,reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website,offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as longas no changes a Gone are those times when the companies and the organisations didn't need a hi-tech system to handle them. Owing to the considerable increase in the business sector and thus, an enormous increase in the complexity of the organisational struc

In this small publication we assume that you alreadyreviewed existing electronic commerce add-ons (including SAP Business OneeCommerce module and Dynamics GP Business Portal Order Management) and youdecided or inclined to consider approach of simple integration from GP or SBOfrom your ecommerce web site, which is in production and does the job.  This approach is good for both models: B2Band B2C.  In B2B model you should decideif you would like your special pricing model for each of your customer or forspecific customer group to be set in your Accounting (in this case, pricingshould be reprogrammed in ecommerce application to reflect changes made inGP/SB1) or it should be originated in ecommerce business logic and then simplypushed to GP on each of the ecommerce invoice line (in this scenario you simplydo not use GP/SBO Item Pricing functionality and have your ERP application toaccept passively what is coming from ecommerce): 1.       Philosophy.  Instead of aggressive ecommerce out-of-the-shelveproduct selling, we prefer to have as ready for deployment ecommerce productand in addition to this we offer them as customizable "solutions" andconnectors.  Plus, we are in goodposition to help you with integration programming, where your internal softwaredevelopers need help with eConnect, GP and SAP B1 tables structures, GreatPlains batch posting directly from ecommerce application code, helping yourwith barcode warehouse management custom automation logic and ecommercelogistics.  Plus, we are helping you incross platform ecommerce connections, when you may have ecommerce on Linux, PHP/MySQL,Oracle, Java EJB platforms and you need help with heterogeneous ecommerce datafeeding query to Microsoft SQL Server based GP and SAP Business One databases. 2.       Batchmode integration.  This scenario isperfect for small ecommerce retailers. Great Plains and SAP BO have Integration modules: GP Integration Managerand SB1 Data Transfer Workbench. Dynamics GP IM is more advanced, comparing to Workbench, however youhave to purchase it as separate module to GP, and WB is included into your SB1purchase (free stuff is important for small businesses, especially when theyare in startup mode).  Let's first reviewin brief GP Integration Manager.  IM isuser friendly application, where you can setup integration of your newcustomers, new ecommerce invoices and then have IM operator to call thisintegration once per day or every hour. You can also schedule IM - special tool is available from MicrosoftBusiness Solutions or, if you are technology savvy you can deploy Windows macrothird party applications to do similar scheduling.  You can consider exporting ecommerce documentsin tab or comma delimited text files or simply work with SQL Views - in thiscase you use Advanced ODBC Queries in Integration Manager.  Now SAP Business One Data Transfer Workbench- you can export your ecommerce data flies in CSV format, which fits exactly toDTW CSV templates - this will allow you even to schedule DTW jobs via Windowsscheduled tasks.  Second more advancedapproach allows DTW job to work with ODBC connection  to Microsoft SQL Server Views.  MS SQL Server view may call data fromMicrosoft and non Microsoft DB sources, such as MySQL, Oracle, MS Access,FoxPro, etc.  At this time, SAP BusinessOne version 2007 you cannot schedule DTW ODBC based job - it should be calledby DTW operator 3.       Realtime integration.  In this scenario youextend your ecommerce application code with SDK libraries.  Dynamics GP ecommerce SDK( it is eConnect)and SB1 SDK - both of them are open for Microsoft Visual Studio C#, or VB.Netdeveloper (SAP B1 SDK also has reasonable openness to Delphi programmers).  Some comments here: eConnect is coded in SQLServer Stored Procedures and its methods are very fast in execution, where SB1SDK methods are at this time (September 2009, SB1 2007, and former version 2005)slower, expect one invoice in 3-4 seconds, do not expect several thousandtransactions to be integrated in ten minutes (however GP eConnect is that fast,we recommend eConnect only if you are Dynamics GP latest versions: 10.0 or 9.0).  You can also review SQL direct programminginto Dynamics GP Sales Order Processing tables: SOP10100, SOP10200 and related,however we recommend you rather use eConnect objects to do the same job.  We do not recommend you to push data directlyto SQL B1 Marketing Documents tables: INV1, etc. as SB1 Early Watch is designedto monitor all the changes to SB1 records done outside of the SB1 application,Work Bench and SDK methods realms 4.       SAPBusiness One and Dynamics GP Tables Structure diagrams.  In the case of SB1, you can read SAP BusinessOne SDK documentation - it has table references.  In the case of Great Plains, please considerinstalling Dynamics GP SDK from CD #2. As quick reference in GP user interface: Tools->ResourceDescriptions->Tables; in SB1 in view menu mark View System Information -when you open SB1 screen, such as AR Invoice, place cursor over the field andread its Table and Field name in left down corner, for example RDN1.ItemCode isthe field for item number on return line. Again, we would like to stress that Tables Structures are in idealscenario for pulling data from GP or SB1 for ecommerce order status report, ifyou need certain level of ecommerce customer self service (and not for pushingdata into your Corporate ERP tables with SQL insert statement, as this practicehas very high business logic violation and data integrity compromise potential) 5.       eCommercewith Custom Logic in GP or SB1.  In thecase of SAP Business One you can create new so-called User Defined Tables andextend existing tables with User Defined Fields.  User Defined Tables have automaticallycreated simply editing interface, where you can add records or modify existingones.  If you would like to add userdefined fields to such tables as Marketing Document Line (including customerinvoice line) - these fields should become immediately available to be placedon Customer Invoice form, plus they will be available for Data TransferWorkbench integrations and in SB1 SDK. In the case of Dynamics GP some of the objects have User defined fieldsincluded and ready for activation.  Ifyour targeted object doesn't have User Defined fields extension, you will needto program it likely in Great Plains Dexterity as table, linked with related originalGP tables by the Primary Key with the same fields 6.       eCommercein International scenarios.  If you aremultinational corporation and you are deploying Dynamics GP in US headquarters,please try first to understand if GP is localized in the country where you planto deploy it as Accounting or in ecommerce. Great Plains version 10.0 is available in English Speaking countries:USA, Canada (including French Canadian Quebec version), Australia, New Zealand,UK, South Africa, Oceania, plus in South East Asia for the countries, whereEnglish is the language of business. With some exceptions it is also available in Spanish Speaking LatinAmerica, Mexico and Caribbean.  By itsarchitecture Great Plains doesn't support UNICODE based alphabets, mostlyhieroglyphs: Chinese, Japanese, Korean. SAP Business One is more widespread, it is available localized in suchcountries as Brazil, Russia, Poland, China, Japan, Korea.  Even if you deploy Great Plains Dynamics inUS headquarters, we recommend you SB1 internationally, where GP is notavailable - SB1 is very simple in data export and consolidation to Dynamics GPvia Integration Manager or FRx consolidated Financial Reporting 7.       AlbaSpectrum eCommerce Products.  We offerOrder Connector, sending transactions in realtime to Dynamics GP Sales OrderProcessing Tables; Posting Server (Autopost), allowing you to post GP batchesdirectly from eConnect application.  Wealso offer Microsoft RMS integration to Great Plains, if your ecommerce isworking from RMS tables 8.       DynamicsGP eConnect and Dexterity programming training. We offer USA and International phone or skype based training, supportedwith web sessions 9.       SAPBusiness One eCommerce integration and programming training.  If you are comfortable to program ecommerceintegration for SBO and you need some guru level help, we offer this servicevia phone or skype conferences, supported with web sessions if required 10.   Howto get help?  Please, feel free to callus: 1-866-528-0577, outside of USA: 1-630-961-5918 or email [email protected]  We are verytechnical and real Dynamics GP Dexterity, SAP Business One SDK programminggurus.  We have Great Plains Software DevelopmentFactory and could support unlimited Dynamics GP Customization and Programmingneeds.  Plus we speak English, Chinese,Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and not only as native speaking sales folks, butas real technical consultants.  If youprefer skype: albaspectrum