Microsoft Great Plains or current ERP name is Dynamics GP has various modification tools and SDKs. Your diligence duty is to review them on the top level to understand which tool will do the best job in the specific case.
Let’s begin reviewing tools in brief one by one, being sort of a bit technical, so it should be targeted to IT people, programmers and DBA:
1. GP Integration Manager. IM has long evolution from pure OLE server to more modern and advanced technologies and connectors. For GP version 10.0 you have rich collection of eConnect integrations. eConnect in turn is the set of encrypted SQL stored procedures, which are working a way faster than traditional connectors (OLE Server, using GP workstation forms and fields to validate integrating business logic).
2. Text and CSV files integrations. It seems like Text and CSV integration drivers were sort of released in beta testing phase in 2003 and 2004, so if you are using Advanced ODBC integration with union SQL constructions – you may receive strange error messages about saving integration format for text tab or comma delimited files. There is work around, however outside of the scope of this article, call as for assistance
3. eConnect. As you already know from ready the topic above, IM deploys eConnect connectors, however you can program eConnect methods directly in MS Visual Studio directly, being C# or VB developer. This is especially helpful if you are dealing with eCommerce integration, sending data to GP ERP backoffice
4. eConnect limitations. This nice tool works on the level of master records: customer, GL account, vendor, employee, project, contract, etc. and work transactions: SOP invoice, POP receipt, GL transaction to give you few samples. However eConnect doesn’t post batches or transactions (with single exception – it posts Bank Reconciliation documents, however it is not a big help for e-commerce integration). If you really need automatic posting of GP batches from e-commerce website application, you should consider deploying Alba Spectrum posting server
5. SQL data feeding. This is when you create and deploy SQL stored procedures or insert statements. If you plan something like that, you should be really familiar with GP data distribution on the table level – please review GP SDK, which could be installed from Dynamics GP CD #2
6. Great Plains Dexterity. If the case when your integration should address custom tables and logic, created in turn by past developers in GP Dex, please consult with Dex programmers or GP ISV partner to understand your options
Dexterity Customization for Dynamics GP Evaluation Level Paper
When you are developer it is always a good idea to read technical manuals. But if you was just assigned to the IT team to decide if Dexterity is the right tool to customize your ERP application then first you need something which is in style of ‘easy reading papers’ or FAQ
Planning Dynamics GP Customization in Large Corporation
If you are reading this page then chances are high that you were not able to find ISV add-on and need customization project. Let’s talk about planning, quality assurance and future event such as version updates.
Dynamics GP Invoice Logo Attributed to Specific Company or Crossing the Borders of Three SOP Forms
Initial Great Plains Dynamics architecture had three SOP Invoice forms: Long, Short and Blank. Modern GP is popular in scenarios where you have more than three companies under one business entity umbrella
