Microsoft Dynamics GP has several modification tools and SDK available – if you are software programmer, who needs to select the tool of choice to do specific job, please read this small publication to understand your programming options and pluses and minuses of each tool.
Also, please take into consideration the fact, that Great Plains ERP was introduced to the market in earlier 1990th as Great Plains Software Dynamics and at this time it is matured system, which is pretty stable, but considering its size and all the available business logic – it might be too complex to do modification without external consultant help. OK, let’s go on and review the tools:
1. Microsoft Dexterity. Former product name is Great Plains Dexterity. Dex has its own scripting language Sanscript and it is in fact Integrated Development Environment and architecture, which is a shell, written in C programming language in turn. Dex is virtually all-mighty, when you think about modifying GP business login and changing programmatically this ERP application. However you should understand that Dexterity was designed back in late 1980th, when such popular concepts as Object Oriented Programming (OOP) were not yet implanted. So, in fact Dex is procedural language and so, it requires more codes and it is not overly easy to debug Dexterity scripts. From time to time we hear from the customers, that they would like to put one of their in-staff programmers to lead and perform GP Dexterity customizations – we think this is not practical, as again Dex requires relatively long learning curve (several years), which should be supported by programmer exposure to different GP modifications scenarios, which is typically impossible for internal employees
2. eConnect. This SDK and development tool was dedicated initially to eCommerce programmers, who were considering to use GP as back end ERP for e-commerce web applications. eConnect heart is written in SQL stored procedures (they are encrypted and you can not alter their logic directly). There are various opinion on eConnect, in our opinion – it is replication of Dexterity logic with some OOP improvements. If you are comfortable in programming for .Net platform: SQL, C# or even VB.Net – eConnect is what you need to invest your time into, instead of trying to get “experienced” in Dexterity
3. Direct SQL scripting and .Net programming. Of course you can use direct SQL views and stored procedures and call them via ADO.Net technology. We recommend you first to try eConnect approach, and if direct SQL call is easier and there is no risk to violate GP business logic, then go ahead and call SQL script directly – especially in reading information from master tables: customer or vendor master for example
4. GP Integrations and integrating tool selection. Again here we say that you can use multiple tools, when you are considering integration, please review GP Integration Manager module first, as it is now rewritten in eConnect and it boosts IM performance
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
