Dynamics GP Integration and Remote Support

And due to required technology exposure, these services are often outsourced to nationwide technology partners, specializing in Dexterity, Integration Manager, eConnect SDK programming, Extender, SQL Stored Procedures, VBA with Modifier.  For such firms it might be not practical to serve local ERP market only, they have to provide services USA nationwide and internationally in order to justify the practice.  In this small publication we would like to give you some ideas on the services and how integration could be implemented:

1. Remote Support.  There are various technologies, such as Web Sessions, VPN connections with Remote Desktop to the server (or without VBN, if the server is on the public IP address).  Such method as Web Session (Gotomeeting, Webex or another popular brand) allow both the user and remote consultant to share computer screen, mice and keyboard, making it pretty much the same as if you would sit in the same cubicle with consultant.  If you are located internationally, it is popular to use Skype or similar VOIP technologies to reduce telephone conference cost, where you can optionally deploy video if connection bandwidth permits.  We also see the trend that even your local VAR often prefer to connect to your computer via web session, instead of driving half an hour to your office and back

2. Integration Technologies and Tools.  First we would like to mention Integration Manager, where you can import data from text file (comma, tab or custom character delimited).  Plus you can do Advanced ODBC data queries, based on such objects as distributed SQL View.  If you are SQL programmer you probably know that it is possible to join MS SQL Server tables as well as cross platform databases, including MS Access, Excel, Oracle, MySQL, FoxPro, etc.  There are numerous eCommerce extensions for Great Plains, however old-good-days Integration Manager could be often deployed instead.  Ecommerce shopping cart often goes into SOP Order or Invoice with customer credit card deposit/prepayment.  This scenario is described in IM sample integrations.  eCommerce integration could be scheduled to fire automatically every half an hours or it could be being called on demand every few hours by the user.  Next tool, we would like to mention is eConnect Software Development Kit with various technology layers above it.  One of the popular ways to send documents to GP is to include eConnect libraries into MS Visual Studio project (where you could have your own Windows or Web user interface, data extraction from something like ftp, EDI or ecommerce database, précising it and sending into GP by calling eConnect methods).  If you would like to call integration directly from Linux/MySQL PHP eCommerce application, you could consider creation Web Services based on eConnect methods, as you know Web Service and SOAP is computer platform neutral (here Linux versus Microsoft Windows).  Next method, obviously very powerful but at the same time with high data compromising potential is SQL Stored Procedures.  If your favor direct SQL statements, be sure that you are testing them in test environment and you are aware about GP tables structure and data flow

3. Customization methods and tools.  Traditionally one of the most popular is Microsoft Dexterity.  It is in fact the architecture of Great Plains Dynamics, introduced in earlier 1990th as the shell, coded in C++ with its own abstracted DB access methods (in SQL cursor manner).  Dex might not be recommended for internal IT department programmers, as it commands yearlong learning curve, which is only possible if you are dedicated programmer in one of the technology consulting firms.  In contrast to Dexterity, Modifier with VBA is pretty simple way to modify existing screen (and extend them with VBA dialogs), especially if you feel that as programmer you are comfortable to code Visual Basics for Applications.  If you plan just extend existing screens (not modify them), there is the tool, named Extender, originally developed by Australian VAR and ISV eOne

4. Some words on custom Reporting.  Here we first recommend you classify the intended report either as Financial or as Managerial.  Prior to version 10.0 and 2010/11.0 Financial Reporting (Balance Sheet, P&L, Statement of Cash Flow and consolidated versions of these) were done in FRx.  In 2010 Microsoft introduced Microsoft Management Reporter as replacement to FRx and we expect mass migration from FRx to MMR in 2011/2012.  There were numerous publications about FRx incompatibility with 64 bit Windows 7 or Vista platform (user workstation) and SQL Server 2008.  There are some error messages in installation and deployment, however we were able to deploy FRx on 64 bit platform so far for several customers (who decided to stay with FRx for a while having some skepticisms about MMR in its first releases).  Managerial Reporting (such as custom Sales Commission report) is recommended to be designed in SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), Crystal Reports.  Plus traditional Great Plains has such reports as SOP Invoice, POP Purchase order in ReportWriter with the option in 10.0 and 2010 to deploy Microsoft Word Templates within the same security model .  There is also such powerful tool – Smarlist, where you can select data from most of the tables and export it to Excel, Word

5. Remote Support and your Great Plains Version.  If you are calling to the support provider ranked by internet search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing), chances are high that you are so-called orphan customer without active contract with Microsoft Business Solutions.  If you recognize your case, contract reactivation might be associated with penalty and outside of the budget scope for your organization.  Good news is that support is available through the specialized partners.  But we do not recommend large scale customization or integration for historical releases, as the cost of customization upgrade is higher and there is no option to appeal to Microsoft technical support in case if something goes wrong.  Here is the list of versions: 2010/11.0, 10.0, 9.0, 8.0, 7.5 (this version and earlier were available on MS SQL Server, Pervasive SQL 2000/Btrieve and Ctree, the versions above are exclusively on MS SQL Server), 7.0, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, 4.0.  Prior to Great Plains Dynamics GPS also was successful in selling and implementing Great Plains Accounting on DOS, Windows and Macintosh platforms: 9.5, 9.2, 9.1 and earlier.  GPA was Btrieve based mid-market Corporate ERP application.  Support is not available directly from Microsoft, we have Great Plains DOS knowledge base and some expertise and should be able to help with popular support topics, such as new company reg key issuing, database recovery, mounting it on Windows 2003 or Windows 7 32 bit Operating Systems on Pervasive SQL 2000.  We are also specializing in GPA data exporting for the following conversions to such applications as SAP Business One, QuickBooks

6. Small Business Financials 9.0, 8.0, 7.5 (this and earlier releases were known as Small Business Manager), 7.0.  MBS decided to terminate this small business ERP application and have the terminal available version 9.0.  In the past this Accounting application was popular upgrade route from Great Plains DOS.  Typical support cases for SBF are Graphical Report Writer report (you would need to export report into the package, then edit it in Dynamics GP licenses version, then export and reimport in SBF), unlocking stranded user, help with Advanced Business Financial Balance Sheet or Profit and Loss reports.  There is migration path from Small Business Financials to GP Business Ready 9.0 and then all the way to Business Ready 2010/11.0.  From the technology standpoint SBF is Dexterity programmed application, however the demand on Dex customizations was weak, at least in our practice

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, Arabic, Chinese