Dynamics GP Translation to Foreign Language

Earlier versions were available in some of the European languages, such as German, Polish, Russian.  There is Arabic version.  If you are thinking about implementing Great Plains for your overseas subsidiary, we assume that you do understand what Corporate ERP localization is and that it includes not only language support, but also compliance to local country tax code and government regulation.  If you are now confident that all you need to do is translate several screens and reports to enable limited foreign data entry and print outs, here are some details below:

1. Dexterity limitations.  This is architecture and it is very difficult to break through its restrictions.  It is restricted to ASCII compliant international alphabets only.  Alphabets, where Unicode is required, typically the ones with hieroglyphs: Chinese, Japanese, Korean are not supported in Dexterity.  There are limited options – NJ Star (allowing you entering Chinese symbols and save them in parallel tables), more details below.  You might be surprise to find out that such alphabets as Arabic, Persian, Dari are ASCII compliant (they are all based on Arabic characters and the number of characters is limited and one byte of ASCII standard is sufficient to handle all of them)

2. SQL Server company database collation.  When you have your database installed for your foreign branch, be sure that you change SQL collation to support foreign alphabet.  Also the easiest way to enable saving characters with collation in Great Plains user interface is install Windows Vista or Windows 7 user workstation in foreign country version (for example Brazilian Portuguese or Russian)

3. Chinese version shortcut.  There are several utilities available, which intercept Dexterity form popup on your computer screen and replace all the String resources into Chinese.  Then you can combine such add-ons with NJ Star to enable characters entry and saving.  You can always consider adding reports, designed in Crystal, where all the alphabets are supported (to produce nice SOP Invoice form in Chinese)

4. OK, what if my language doesn’t have existing translation?  Then, you can consider translating String resource in GP on your own.  We will describe two methods: Modifier and Dexterity

5. Modifier.  This method we consider as very elegant, where you do not really do such bug prone things as Dexterity custom programming, you are just translating String resources in Modifier (however it requires Modifier license for translation and Customization Site Enabler on each user to open translated Strings).  How does it work?  Open Dynamics GP -> Tools -> Customize -> Modifier.  Here in Modifier, in menu Resources pick Strings.  Now find the String that needs to be translated and simply change its Description (be sure to select Series, for example Sales).  If you would like Customer Name fields in SOP Transaction form to be shown in your local language, change series to Sales, find Customer Name String resource and change it here to your local equivalent.  Dexterity will show it in your local language if your native Windows 7 is installed in local country version

6. Dexterity String translation.  We saw two flavors of Arabic translation, one, the older was done in Dexterity with some localization programming and the second was newer one done in Modifier.  Methodic is the same – translate String resources in Dex (try to keep the number of characters in your local translation the same or smaller, comparing to original String in English, as Dexterity seems to be packing the dictionary – you do it in Dynamics.dic file).  In Dexterity there might be situations where you can disrupt its business logic and introduce annoying software bugs

7. Translation feasibility or flea check.  It only makes sense, where you have very limited operations in the foreign country and you do not expose your subsidiary to local financial audit, VAT, GST or Sales Tax audit.  If your subsidiary is exposed to local regulations, we recommend you to check with your local CPA, who is familiar with national and international GAAP.  In some situations in smaller countries the regulation doesn’t deviate from international GAAP, as government is committed to attract foreign investment.  In the case of larger countries, such as Russia, China, India, Germany, France, Brazil this rule doesn’t work, as such countries typically have rich flavor of local legislation which deviates from international GAAP.  Historically our company pioneered with localizing Great Plains in such countries as Brazil (we were approached by Microsoft to do this job, however later on MBS decided to favor Navision over GP and even more later Axapta) and Russia (where we had localized version 4.0, available in Moscow for Corporate ERP market in Russian Federation; with acquisition of Navision Software Microsoft pulled GP out of the Russian market)

8. What to do if we have GP as Corporate ERP in USA Headquarters and would like to find localized overseas ERP for our Russian, Chinese, Brazilian subsidiary?  Well, the answer depends on the budget and functionality scope.  If you are Microsoft shop and have large manufacturing or distribution facility overseas, take a look ad Dynamics AX (formerly known as Axapta).  If you have small operations, we recommend you to look at the competition, for example SAP Business One is localized for the majority of foreign countries and regions and it is available in such languages as Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese (it is not available in Arabic by understandable reasons).  In some cases you can see strong dominance of local accounting packages, such as 1S Bukhgalteria in Russian Federation and to some extent Microsiga in Brazil.  In Brazil SAP Business One expansion and success seems to be more encouraging comparing to Russia

9. New markets with strong international funding.  Here we are talking about such countries as Afghanistan, potentially in the future Iran, former Soviet Central Asia: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan with oil and gas natural resources.  Local languages: Dari, Farsi, Uzbek, Kazakh are based on Arabic, Russian or Latin alphabet, and Dynamics GP could be recommended for screen translation via Modifier method.  Plus, we believe, even if it might be difficult to lure out consultants to travel onsite, modern Web Session technologies, such as Gotomeeting, Web Ex, Skype could change the attitude of the Great Plains consulting community to switch into competing for these foreign market mode

10. Some observations about international implementation of Microsoft CRM.  We recommend it for all your international subsidiaries, this is the only CRM solution from Microsoft and it is translated and supported Worldwide

11. 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, Chinese