In around 2003 Microsoft stated about Project Green that it will be merging several Microsoft just acquired ERPs, such as Great Plains, Solomon, Navision, Axapta into future so-called Project Green, where the best features of Great Plains (more likely financials and Payroll), Navision (Manufacturing), Solomon (Project Organization or project Accounting)
In 2005 Microsoft Business Solutions was renamed into Microsoft Dynamics and its participating ERP/CRM were also renamed respectively into GP (Great Plains), SL (Solomon), NAV (Navision), AX (Axapta) and Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Microsoft CRM). Since Microsoft Dynamics project was introduced we rather see the efforts to advance MS Dynamics products ERP and CRM on its native SDK: Dexterity, CSide, MorphX, MS CRM SDK, and some attempts to bring these products to .Net and especially Microsoft Office and Vista interface compliance. Where Microsoft Dynamics is heading? This is difficult question and we are not Microsoft, but rather independent journalists, so we will be giving your our opinion
Microsoft Great Plains Dynamics GP way. Great Plains Dexterity is still the core of GP design, plus it stays for GP third party modules – a lot of customers USA nationwide and internationally, especially in UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, South and Central America, including Mexico. Our opinion is the following – Microsoft has to revive GP Dexterity in order to advance GP. Dex has now support for Web Services, plus it has window to .Net to use native .Net constructions
GP Reporting. SRS are coming as the replacement to Crystal Reports, however CR are still strong. In the case of both CR and SQL Server Reporting Services or SRS, you should think about reports business logic, which is more likely out of the real CR or SRS and should stay in SQL Server – Stored Procedures or SQL Views
GP Vista Features. This seems to be out of synch with initial Project Green plans, however considering huge time period, since project Green was deemphasized, such vista features as GP IE similarity looks really good and appropriate
Great Plains Dexterity Customization upgrade. As PG is still in transition, old good-days Dex is a good option
VBA Modifier. This is COM legacy tool, and if you think about .Net this is not the one who is .Net compliant, however COM technology is still a player in Vista, so you should be OK to deploy VBA with GP Modifier. Good news that Microsoft published the manual on VBA scripting for GP 10.0
Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum Group, http://www.albaspectrum.comhelp@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, serving GP customer USA and Canada nationwide: local service in Chicago, Houston, Dallas and remote support: Washington, Montreal, Toronto, Miami, Denver, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Des Moines, Vancouver, Seattle, Sacramento, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Kansas City, New Orleans, Austin, Boston, Orlando, Tampa, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Milwaukee. Remote support service is also available in Mexico and Central America, Australia, New Zealand
