If your organization plans to deploy Microsoft Dynamics GP, formerly also known as Great Plains Dynamics, eEnterprise and its predecessor Great Plains Accounting for DOS, Windows and Mac, we would like to offer you this small introduction level publication. Dynamics GP is good fit for mid-size business, plus it has Corporate ERP solutions for non profit (including Grant Management), discrete manufacturing, project organization, field service, generic Sales Order Processing and Purchase Order Processing, Bill of Materials - these are some of the examples, where Dynamics GP should be considered as proposed Corporate ERP application.
Dynamics GP could be integrated with such systems as Microsoft RMS (for mid-size or smaller retailers),
various eCommerce platforms (both Business 2 Business and Business 2 Customer with advanced shopping cart and credit card processing features), Microsoft Dynamics CRM (in the case of marketing and sales oriented organization). Plus there are numerous Dynamics GP ISV add-ons or third party modules, which could cover your industry niche, and of course you can modify or customize Dynamics GP to fit your unique business requirements:
1. Microsoft Dynamics GP Sales Cycle. You should consider several Corporate ERP candidates and if one of them is Microsoft Dynamics GP, please request demo, see our video presentations, request business processes mapping and modules selection from your Dynamics GP Partner candidate. Currently Dynamics GP is sold with Business Ready licenses, where you are getting set of modules included into user license (Business Ready for narrow set of modules and Advanced Management for richer functionality)
2. Microsoft Dynamics GP Installation. As this is mid-market Corporate ERP, installation should be done by your Dynamics GP Partner (typically you contract the same organization to implement GP from whom you purchased GP software licenses)
3. GP Implementation. This process typically has several phases: Data Conversion (preferably in Test mode, as you may expect multiple iterations), precise user training, related to your Dynamics GP users day-to-day duties (you can also consider send your GP users to generic training centers to help them in GP general interface browsing, plus be familiar with GP functionality on the theoretic level)
4. GP Customizations. As Microsoft Dynamics GP could be considered as Corporate ERP Platform, ready for required tailoring and modification, and especially when your organization is larger company with sophisticated business processes, modifications should be natural and Dynamics GP has multiple tools and customization options: Microsoft Dexterity, eConnect, Extender, Modifier with VBA, Web Services, SDK. In our opinion GP custom programming should be given to professional Dynamics GP developers
5. Great Plains Integrations. Please, review GP Integration Manager modules, as it is user friendly and should cover most of the integration needs, including quasi real time EDI and eCommerce shopping cart integrations. If you would like to call GP integration functionality directly from your ecommerce web application, consider eConnect SDK libraries to be included into your Microsoft Visual Studio C# or VB.Net project
6. Dynamics GP User Training. In our opinion, the most efficient option is precise training, based on GP user procedures and provided by Microsoft Dynamics GP implementation consultant. You may also consider GP technical training for your IT people and even in-house programmers, especially in Microsoft SQL Server Backup and Maintenance Plans, disaster recovery strategies, user workstations installations, FRx client setup. Plus, you can even request Microsoft Dexterity programming training, related to your specific customization goals (might be feasible if you expect large Dynamics GP custom programming project and you would like to develop it inhouse)
7. Microsoft Dynamics GP Deployment Internationally. If your company is expanding internationally: Brazil, China, Japan, Germany, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Italy, France, Thailand, Indonesia, please be aware that Dynamics GP is not localized for these countries (GP is localized for USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, Spanish Speaking Latin America and Caribbean). We recommend you reliable tandem of SAP Business One (overseas office) and Microsoft Dynamics GP (US Headquarters)
8. Microsoft Dynamics GP, Great Plains Dynamics, Great Plains Accounting for DOS, Windows and Mac upgrade. Simplest upgrade is from Dynamics GP 9.0 or 8.0 to current version 10.0 (January 1010, Microsoft Dynamics GP 11.0 should be released in May 2010, version upgrade path is not known at this time, please read our future publications), it requires appropriate Service Pack and one step upgrade. if you are on older version, allow some budget, as you will need two or more steps
