Microsoft Dynamics GP is mid-market Corporate ERP system, which has rich business logic and functionality and from time to time you should expect professional support needs.
Normally we categorize support requests into two mainstreams: functional support (where you need to understand the way to enter, modify, delete transaction, create new customer and similar things, where GP has this logic available, but you don’t know this logic and need training or precise procedure) and technical support (where something happened with the system – your computer crashed and you now have the batch, which is no longer accessible and it needs to be unlocked and posted again, for example). If you have active relations with your Dynamics GP Reseller, you should have phone number to call your Great Plains consultant or technical guru. However, if you are reading this paper we are guessing that you do not know who is your Dynamics GP VAR of record (you may be new in the IT position, or the company went through the restructuring and nobody knows what was going on in the past, etc.) and now you are making your own research on how to resolve Great Plains issues, reported to you by Accounting department. Let’s review the ways to get Dynamics GP support:
1. Microsoft Business Solutions Dynamics technical support channel. There is always the option to call Microsoft tech support directly. If you have active plan each case you can purchase on discounted price (some luxury annual support plans have limited or even unlimited number of support cases included, if this is not your case, have your credit card ready when you call). There are certain restrictions on what MBS supports directly. For example, Microsoft supports only several recent versions of the product (currently in November 2010 they are 2010/11.0, 10.0 and 9.0), and if you are on older version (8.8, 7.5, 7.0, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, 4.0 or Great Plains Accounting for DOS, Windows 9.5, 9.2 or even earlier) Microsoft tech support might probably recommend you to contact one of the Dynamics GP Partners, who are supporting your obsolete version of Great Plains. In any case – this is worth to try this route and you case will be on the way to become resolved
2. Support directly from Dynamics GP consulting community. This way is better geared for long term relations (you probably have family doctor and prefer do not drive to urgent care medical facilities, until it is absolutely necessary). Of course Microsoft provides high quality support, but their consultants have to deal with high volume of support cases from the diversified pool of customers and they probably do not have the resources to get familiarized with your company Dynamics GP implementation specifics, your unique operations and processes automated in Great Plains screens and forms. This is one of the reasons why mid-market Corporate MRP, ERP, Accounting applications are sold, implemented and supported via certified partners channel
3. Company went through the restructuring and now we are growing… This is definitely fantastic news and we are happy for you. The chances are high that when the time was rather very grim, somewhere few years ago, and those days management team stopped to pay Microsoft Dynamics GP annual enhancement bills. If your support contract with MBS lapsed, you can still have support, see paragraphs above, but you cannot add new user licenses or extend the set of Great Plains modules, currently owned by the company. In order to reflect your company expansion in your Corporate ERP system, you should locate your future Dynamics GP Partner, sign Change Partner Form and submit it to MBS. Then, your newly chosen Dynamics GP Reseller will negotiate reenrollment conditions with MBS (Dynamics GP requires annual enhancement program, normally 16 to 24% of the software pricelist). If you are now back in good shape, we do recommend you to upgrade to the current Dynamics GP version 2010/11.0 and only after consider serious changes in your IT infrastructure (such as adding Barcoding based Warehouse Management System, e-commerce shopping cart integration with Great Plains Sales Order Processing transaction, adding high magnitude functionality, such as Manufacturing or human Resources)
4. Some practical advices. If you are small company and your Great Plains Dynamics GP is just accounting application for you (and you are probably on the very tight IT support budget), consider the following steps to try prior to calling your (very expensive) Dynamics GP consultant. Try first to scan through relevant user manual, they are available in PDF format in Documentation folder. If you got IT and Accounting exposure in the college, chances are high, that spending several hours you should be able to find out how to resolve functional question and train your Great Plains users. If this way doesn’t help, please try logging into Dynamics GP Customer Source (MBS web portal with knowledge base) and search the Knowledge Base if something like your issue was reported and already resolved by Dynamics GP technical support team. If you do not have active support contract, then your Customer Source access is blocked, but you still may try to google the internet, as some of the issues are now in public domain
5. Most popular technical support issues. The absolute leader is likely to be the batch interrupted in its posting. Modern office workers like to utilize every minute of their time and when they click Post button on the batch window, they may decide to surf their favorite internet sites and even download some cookies. Internet marketing has its own agenda, which might be in conflict with your antivirus application and the computer might be halted and as the result Dynamics GP batch is in limbo. We strictly recommend GP users to use batch posting time as the opportunity to socialize with your colleagues in the kitchen or assembly room and do not touch the keyboard of your computer. If batch is unfortunately locked, you need SQL scripting rescue (tables SY0500 and SY0800)
6. To request further support, please call us 1-866-528-0577, help@albaspectrum.com We need to discuss your cards in order to recommend you the best solutions, which is not contingent to our preferences. We serve you USA/Canada nationwide via remote support (web sessions and phone/skype conferences). Local service is available in Western Michigan, Chicagoland, Southern California (LA, Orange County, San Diego), Houston area of the state of Texas
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