Dynamics,and,Great,Plains,Supp computer Dynamics GP and Great Plains Support, Implementation, Custom

----------------------------------------------------------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

Well, you are not the first and probably not the last one – seek second opinion in Corporate ERP implementation.  In this small publication we will review how Microsoft Dynamics GP could be recovered, including its older versions, known as Great Plains Dynamics and eEnterprise and even such archaic application as Great Plains Accounting for DOS, Windows and Mac.  We are available locally as you can judge from the publication header, however we are service also USA, Canada nationwide and internationally via remote support (web, phone, skype conferences):1.Great Plains Second Opinion.  Through our Great Plains Consulting practice with initial customers served back in 1995, we should assure you that Great Plains, being mid-market ERP, Accounting and MRP application, requires industry expertise (especially in complex cases, where you need industry vertical or horizontal solution to be implemented, such as Warehouse Management System, B2B or B2C eCommerce, Wholesale, Retail, Distribution, Logistics, Consignment, Healthcare, Memberships and Clubs, etc.) with very strong Great Plains technology expertise and multiple yours of exposure to such technologies as Great Plains Dexterity, eConnect, Extender, Integration Manager, VBA/Modifier, Report Writer, Crystal Reports, SQL Queries against Dynamics GP tables.  At the same time, it is not too difficult to launch Dynamics GP Reseller business – you need to pass several GP certifications and you are ready to do your telemarketing and GP Sales presentations2.Great Plains Dynamics Support.  Here we assume that your implementation went OK and now you are in production with GP, trying to optimize Corporate ERP support budget.  If the implementation itself was done by CPA oriented people, now you may shift your focus to technical support cases: Dynamics GP failed batch recovery, FRx installation on the new computer, applying new Dynamics GP Service Pack, Great Plains version upgrade, adding EDI or WMS, or ecommerce module, placing your company logon on Sales invoice form in Report Writer or having minor or major data repair via SQL update and delete statements3.New Dynamics GP Implementation or recovering unsuccessful one.  Here typically you are facing such issues as business processes mapping (where either Dynamics GP ISV Add-ons might be required or Dynamics GP Dexterity programming), plus data conversion from your legacy accounting (Quickbooks, Peach Tree, GPA for DOS, MYOB, Accpac, Macola, or even when you are downsizing from Oracle Financials, SAP R/3 or mySAP)4.Dynamics GP Customizations.  Microsoft Dexterity, while allowing you to have complete control over Dynamics GP business processes and data, requires multiple years of experience from Dexterity programmer to be engaged in the customization project professionally.  We recommend you to check with Microsoft Business Solutions if your proposed Dynamics GP Partner is participant in so-called Source Code program (where their Dexterity programmers have access to Dynamics.dic dictionary with all the Dex Sanscript procedures, functions and triggers available).  If you are deploying Great Plains for many years, chances are high that you have Dexterity customizations, as well as Modifier with VBA custom scripts, Integration Manager with VBA even handlers, Extender modifications, VBA Continuum scripts (where you can switch Dexterity custom dictionary context from Great Plains Dynamics to something like Intellisol Advanced Purchase Order Processing or Project Accounting and then run Dexterity Sanscript code against the switched dictionary)5.FRx Financial Reporting.  We have to say that FRx Financial Reporting is very popular and has interfaces to multiple Corporate ERP and Accounting applications, such as Dynamics AX, SL.  And probably due to its diversification FRX has some settings, that should be done by professional FRx consultant and report designer (usually Sysdata specification set repair, rebuilding GL indexes, FRX version upgrade and service packs, there are also known issues on FRx catalog to be relaying on local computer personal data folders)6.Great Plains Report Writer.  Here you typically have such reports as SOP Blank Invoice form (where you place company logo), POP Purchase Order (to be officially mailed to your suppliers for bidding or participating in the tender).  We saw issues in RW version upgrade, especially when you are on really legacy Great Plains Dynamics Version, such as upgrading from 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 7.5 all the way to Dynamics GP 9.0, 10.0, 11.0 (also referred as Dynamics GP 2010)7.Modifier with VBA.  This technology proved to be the one which passed time test.  If you are not a Dexterity programmer, and you still need to modify Great Plains forms – you can do it intuitively in Modifier, and then attach VBA scripts (where you can interact with GP tables – be sure you known the table you want to address) via archaic pre Microsoft .Net ADO technology8.Integration Manager.  Here you are usually facing such challenges as Data Massage, Migration or Conversion.  IM could be considered as end user friendly tool, where you can quickly setup integration to pull data from text file (tab, comma or custom character delimited file), or if you need more industrial strength integration, you appeal to IM Advanced ODBC data source, where you can select the data from Text file (with aggregations, and preprocessing, comparing to simple ODBC), ODBC compliant DB platform, examples would be Oracle, MySQL/PHP, Progress, MS Access, Pervasive SQL, Ingress, IBM DBII9.Great Plains Accounting for DOS, Windows and Mac.  The most popular versions, where GPA customers were frozen since the year 2000 are GPA 9.5, 9.2, 9.1 (90 percent of the cases where GPA customer is using DOS interface, then 7% where GPA for Windows are in use and the rest goes to Macintosh).  We are one of the few Microsoft Business Solutions VARs who are trained in Great Plains Accounting support and data recovery.  From time to time MBS offers lucrative discounts to upgrade (or virtually walk away from GPA platform to Microsoft Dynamics GP current version 2010 as it is effective on August 2010)10.Microsoft Small Business Financials.  This small business ERP application was introduced as alternative to Great Plains Select on MS SQL Server version 7.0 (and probably even 6.0, but without a great push for sales).  The idea was really great for the time, when Oracle was trying to introduce Oracle Financials in preset package (scaled down small business Corporate ERP), or SAP was in process to purchase and prepare for ERP market competition its SAP Business One.  Later on (around 2008), MBS decided to expire support for Great Plains Small Business Financials and the last version was 9.0, from where you have to migrate to Microsoft Dynamics GP11.Intellisol Advanced Purchase Order Processing or Project Accounting modules fate.  It sounds like it was long negotiation between Great Plains Software and several Great Plains ISV partners to pick on which Add-on to be incorporated into Great Plains native set of modules.  The winner was Matchdata, the company, based in Manila, Philippines, and Intellisol, Australian based Great Plains ISV lost its ground.   There is migration tool, which should convert your Intellisol Advanced POP to Great Plains Purchase Order Processing transactions and master records12.Requesting help?  You can call us 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 or email us [email protected]  We serve you in your local state, plus USA, Canada nationwide and internationally via Web sessions, phone and skype conferences