If you are in the phase of new Corporate ERP selection, business processes mapping and if your company is in the mid-market by its size, we recommend you to review Microsoft Dynamics GP ( formerly this Accounting, MRP and ERP application was known as Great Plains Dynamics, eEnteprise and it had some common features with its earlier DOS, Windows and Mac application Great Plains Accounting).
Microsoft Dynamics GP is part of Microsoft Dynamics family together with AX (former Axapta), NAV (former Navision), SL (Solomon), RMS (Microsoft Retail Management System), CRM. Dynamics GP has pretty robust Distribution and Logistics set of modules: Inventory Control, Sales Order Processing, Purchase Order Processing, and others. It also is good fit for mid-size nonprofit organization with Grant Management Module (based on Analytical Accounting) and other modules. Project Accounting module covers Project organization needs with sophisticated budgeting and detailed profit and loss tracking by project slices. For those of you, who is involved in light or heavy production, GP has Manufacturing Suite with good fit for Discrete Manufacturing (if you are in large food and meat processing or another Discrete manufacturing business, please consider Dynamics AX Axapta first, as Microsoft Business Solutions positions AX for process manufacturing). If you in scheduling engineers or technicians service oriented business - consider GP Field Service Suite, also referred as Service Management Suite. OK, let's now move to probably the question why you are reading this article:
1. Where to download Great Plains Dynamics GP evaluation version? In mid-size and large organizations, where you are Microsoft oriented (versus Java, Oracle, Linux, Unix oriented), you typically have MSDN subscription go to Subscriber Downloads and Product Keys, then Microsoft Dynamics and download current Dynamics GP version 10.0 (as we are writing these lines in September 2009). These CDs are the same as the ones used in production installations, however in production installation you have Dynamics GP registration key, which is valid for your Company name, and usually you have to be on service pack or patch level. If you do not have MSDN subscription, please email us or give us a call, if you are organization - we will give you access to download Dynamics GP CDs from our ftp site
2. Evaluation Period. As you install GP from CDs downloaded in #1 - you will not have Great Plains Registration Key, however you will have evaluation period, normally 60 days (depends on version and current Microsoft Business Solutions policies). We recommend you to work with Lesson Company - Fabrikam (database TWO). If you have Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or 2000 Standard or Enterprise license, great! If you don't - you can deploy GP evaluation version on MS SQL Server Developer Edition. In Fabrikam you will have access to virtually all GP modules and sample data, at this phase we recommend you to identify the functionality which is absolutely required, plus possibly needed and what is sort of luxury add-ons (as you would like o be conservative in purchasing licenses for something that you may use very rarely or maybe never)
3. Dynamics GP 10.0 evaluation installation known issues. As OEM Dynamics GP CD was issued in the time of Windows XP Service Pack 2, if you are on Service Pack 3, or if you deployed Microsoft Office 2007, you may need to review work around on how to install Dynamics GP 10.0 Workstation, please, review this articles: http://www.albaspectrum.com/news/000001378.html and call us for downloading DexSkipDotNetCheck.mst and skipdotnetcheck.ms
4. Dynamics GP Presentation. If you need Executive demo or technology related presentation, we are more than happy to provide it to you, assuming that you are representing company management team or IT decision making group. If you are university or college student, we recommend you to work with your college IT group first to get access to MSDN and download and install Dynamics GP evaluation - this should be good help for ERP, MRP, EDI, Accounting Application study course. If you are student , please note that at this time, 2009 and 2010 we are not offering internships and summer projects, we apologize for inconvenience, we recommend you to call to Dynamics GP Partners who are publicly owned
5. Situations where we do not recommend Dynamics GP as Corporate ERP. If you are looking for ERP solution for your overseas international subsidiary, please be aware that GP is localized in English speaking countries: USA, Canada (including French Canadian version for Quebec), Australia, New Zealand, UK, South Africa, Pacific, South East Asia (where English is official language of business), and Spanish speaking Latina America: Mexico, Central America, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, plus English and Spanish speaking Caribbean: Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Cayman Islands, etc. If you are looking for ERP for such regions as Brazil, China, Continental Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Republic of Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Baltic States, Japan, Korea - Dynamics GP is not localized and in case of UNICODE language (hieroglyphs) - you cannot even translate GP screens to local language due to Dynamics GP Dexterity restrictions. If GP is not localized for targeted country, we recommend you first to consider SAP Business One (also referred as SB1) or Dynamics AX, then you should consider other options (such as popular locally coded and supported Accounting packages, in Brazil it is something like Microsiga, in Russia 1C Accounting)
6. How to get help? Please, feel free to call us: 1-866-528-0577, outside of USA: 1-630-961-5918 or email us help@albaspectrum.com We are very technical and real Dynamics GP Dexterity, SAP Business One SDK programming gurus. We have Great Plains Software Development Factory and could support unlimited Dynamics GP Customization and Programming needs. Plus we speak English, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and not only as native speaking sales folks, but as real technical consultants. If you prefer skype: albaspectrum
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