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Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is very popular ERP/MRP applications in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, South Africa, Latin America. Considering high number of new Microsoft Great Plains partners and the desire to subcontract occasional customization, integration and reporting projects, we would like to advise you on Microsoft Great Plains subcontracting guidelines, based on our experience in dealing with Great Plains VARs

Candidates for subcontracting:

o Great Plains Dexterity customizations – Dexterity was and still is the IDE and programming language of Great Plains, especially workstation thick interface. However since Microsoft bought Great Plains Software and formed Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions, later renamed into Microsoft Business Solutions – Dexterity became the candidate to be replaced by C# or VB.Net. The plans are the plans, but the realities of Microsoft Great Plains customization signals that Dexterity will stay another 5-7 years as IDE. However I agree with the strategy that if you are new GP reseller you don’t want to hire Dexterity programmer

o SQL Integration. We see more and more requests for Great Plains integrations with web eCommerce applications, industry specific databases: Freight Forwarding, Distribution, Logistics, Beverages, Jewelry, Furniture, Consignment. Healthcare, etc. The dilemma for the programmer is – should I know all the details of Great Plains table structure model and document workflow – or probably purchase the set of SQL stored procs to help me.

o Integration Manager with VBA/Continuum. These are traditional custom pieces. Integration Manager doesn’t allow you to switch companies during the integration, and so have the work done over night without operator’s involvement

o eConnect – this relatively new SDK from MBS, created primarily for eCommerce developer, has certain restrictions, especially with transferring Sales Order to Invoices and transactions posting. These are the restrictions of Great Plains architecture and to resolve the issue you need set of custom stored procedures

VAR should have some GP customization experience/skills:

o Great Plains Security model. Great Plains allows you to grant access to so-called alternate and modified alternate Microsoft Great Plains forms and reports – this is where you enable our customization to take over standard logic. Please, invest reasonable resources into GP basics, before you get in touch with nation-wide subcontractor

o Central REPORTS.DIC – this is critical to serve mid-size and large clients. Usually you create your custom Sales Order Processing (SOP) invoice form from one of the GP workstations and then place your reports on the server. If you use IT subcontractors – these folks should be trained on installing new Great Plains workstations (or you should insist on working via terminal server/Citrix)

o Remote Support. The best scenario is VPN with remote desktop access (Windows XP Pro or Windows 2000 Pro). VPN will allow SQL Enterprise manager connect over the secured VPN connection. Less desired scenario would be Websession or PCAnywhere.

Good luck with implementation, customization and integration and if you have issues or concerns – we are here to help! If you want us to do the job – give us a call 866-528-0577 or 630-961-5918! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew is Great Plains specialist in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) – Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Microsoft CRM Partner, serving clients in California, Minnesota, Illinois, Washington, Florida, Arizona, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Canada, UK, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Russia

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If you are Great Plains customer and deploy GP ERP in your organization as accounting backoffice, you probably remember that upgrade to version 7.5, later on to 8.0 was very smooth and painless. Update to Great Plains version 9.0 was also relatively simple, however in its upgrade the role of Wizard was increased and if you are Great Plains Consultant, you kind of feel that you lost former control over upgrade process. Well, upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics GP version 10.0 is something more complex with multiple flaws. If you plan upgrade to version 10, we would like to share with you our experience:

1. 64 bit dilemma. eConnect workstation portion at this time, November 2007 is not supported on Windows 64 bit, including Vista 64. Also FRx Sysdata folder should reside on 32 bit version as well. This 64-bit computation boom seems to be rather a problem for software makers: so far new laptops and desktop computers are shipped with Vista 32 bit or even with Windows XP 32 bit. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 seems to be comfortable on Windows 2003 64 bit server, but when we come to workstation side MS .Net components and COM+ objects (WS part of eConnect and eConnect Runtime) – the problem manifests itself. Plus Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Portal is not supported (at this time) on 64 bits

2. New GP Security Architecture. GP security is redesigned and this is good sign for ERP Security administrators: now you can create or utilize existing Tasks (typically small) and Roles (sets of tasks). Roles exists on the Product level: Dynamics GP core DYNAMICS.DIC, Project Accounting, Fixed Assets, etc. When something is revised and redesigned from scratch, you should expect extra work to setup new components and utilize GP consultants time, however there was unexpected upgrade surprise, described in the next bullet

3. GP Security Upgrade failure. In the upgrade manual you are reassured that each existing user security will be translated into users roles and tasks (with user name in roles and tasks descriptions, which is not the best thing to have, probably). However even this security bridge fails in version update process. Microsoft indicated that in order to get security transferred you should remove spaces from Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 workstation installation folder (where spaces are suggested by default installation or upgrade wizard). Hopefully with GP 10.0 Service Pack 1 these annoying issues will be resolved, but for now, please be aware and try to expect and address the issues

4. Other known issues: SY02700 table, this one is located in Dynamics database, we heard issues when upgrade reports this table upgrade failure

5. Purchase Order Processing upgrade seems to be fixed: POP line work and historical tables were known to be the problem makers in upgrade to GP 9.0. With version 10.0 the problem seems to be rectified

6. Integration Manager IM.MDB upgrade issue. If you are upgrading from GP 7.5 to 10, then we are aware about upgrade failures, where Queries and Queries Relations are converted, but destinations and destinations mappings are not

7. Service Pack 1 waiting recommendation. We are optimists by our servicing nature, however we recommend you to decide on the level of acceptable risk. Plus, if you are on GP 9.0 with Service Pack 3 applied, you can not upgrade to 10.0, until GP 10 SP1 is released

If you want us to help with Dynamics GP update, please free to call or email us

Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum Group, http://www.albaspectrum.com – help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, serving customers USA/Canada nationwide: Illinois, California, New York, Quebec, Ontario, Colorado, Utah, Wisconsin, Florida, Texas. Local service is available in Houston & Dallas: Richmond, Sugar Land, Katy, Rosenberg, Missouri City, Pearland, Friendswood, Meadows, Mission Bend, Jersey Village, Fort Worth; serving GP customers in Chicago, IL: Naperville, Aurora, Joliet, Wheaton, Bolingbrook, Romeoville, Lyons, Niles, Downers Grove, Lisle, West Chicago, Barrington, Schaumburg, Elk Grove Village, Lombard, Morris, Ottawa, Marseilles, Seneca, Oswego, Plainfield, Darien, Winchester, Hinsdale.

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Microsoft Great Plains, former Great Plains Software Dynamics/eEnterprise should be considered as ERP platform for midsize and large business, so SQL data maintenance and repair is normal IT procedure, this is why table structure and MRP architecture should be familiar to SQL DB administrator. We will begin with architecture and table name coding and then go down to typical data repair

o Setup Tables. These tables have 4 prefix. IV40100 – this is Inventory Control Module setup table. Setup tables may have only one record, if this is module setup or multiple records, if this is something like Inventory Class setup (vendor, customer class setup to give additional examples)

o History Tables. These tables have 3 prefix. SOP30200 – this is Sale Transaction Header history table. When you post transactions – they go to open (optional phase) and history

o Open Tables. These tables have 2 prefix. GL20000 – this table stores all your open year posted GL transactions. For some of the module open stage is skipped (Sales Order Processing – here transactions when posted go to the history tables directly)

o Work Tables. These tables have 1 prefix. These tables are present in each module: GL, Inventory Control, Invoicing, Receivable Management, Payroll, Payable Management, Purchase Order Processing, Bill of Material. Great Plains has batch posting module – this feature allows you to save and store work (or unposted) transactions in the batch. SOP10100 – this is Sales Transaction Header Work table

o Master Tables. These tables have 0 prefix. We will give you several examples: IV00101 – inventory item master stores all your inventory items, RM00101 – customer master table, IV00200 – vendor master table, GL00100 – General Ledger account master table

o Table repair technique. When you consider to repair one of GP tables, you do backup of the table, execute this SQL statement:

Select * into IV00101_Backup from IV00101

Then do you data repair. If you need to roll back to old backed up version of the table, do this:

1. Clean your original table: delete IV00101

2. Restore it from backup: alter table IV00101_Backup drop column DEX_ROW_ID insert into IV00101 select * from IV00101_Backup

Some additional hints. Microsoft Great Plains is Dexterity application. Dex internal logic adds autoid column DEX_ROW_ID, so you have to drop it prior to restoring the table from backup.

Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum Group, http://www.albaspectrum.com help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, serving GP customers in USA and Canada nationwide via remote support: California, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Minnesota, New York, Virginia, Washington, New Jersey, Florida, Georgia, California, Nebraska, Utah, Nevada, Iowa, Wyoming. Local service is available in Houston / Dallas Texas as well as in Chicago / Springfield, Illinois: Naperville, Aurora, Joliet, Plainfield, Lisle, Downers Grove, Wheaton, Warrenville, Batavia, St, Charles, Elgin, Rockford, Morris, Ottawa, Montgomery, Romeoville, University Park, Hinsdale, Lincoln Woods, De Kalb, LaSalle, Seneca.

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Marketing – A Juggler’s Art:

Marketing, in more the one way, is like juggling. This strange analogy will become crystal clear if we take a close look at it. Just like the juggler the marketer too has to do these things to thrive in his business: first, he has to hook his audience; gain their attention through several jazzy tricks; and then hold their attention by still more innovative juggling. All this he has to achieve without losing balance, focus or steadfastness in the art, the industry, in the marketer’s case. In short, marketing is all about alluring, attracting and holding a collection of customers for your Company’s welfare.

The Purpose Behind:

To quote the American Marketing Association’s definition, it is “an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders”. If one dilutes all the verbosity and looks at it, marketing means “selling” a product. This is the prime purpose behind any kind of marketing. The “selling” is accelerated with the help of properly chalked out plans called marketing strategies.

Factors that Influence:

With “selling” as the ultimate goal, marketing strategies are influenced by two basic factors: first, acquisition of customers; second, retention of the acquired customers. So every other strategy that is laid out will focus on the above two. A Company has to work closely towards achieving these two to attain the desired cutting edge over its competitors. There are also a few other objectives like creating awareness (informational and educational) about the product, brand-building and accelerating sales.

Traditional Marketing:

With the world changing at every nanosecond, marketing is also reeling under a whirlwind of change. New modes of marketing like e-marketing and online marketing have evolved. Yet traditional marketing still holds sway with many corporates. Traditional marketing operates based on the following strategies.

The Four Ps- Worship them:

The ‘Four Ps’ or the ‘marketing mix’ is a cliché with every marketer. Formulated by Jerome McCarthy, the ‘Four Ps’ refers to the four factors that a marketer has to consider before launching a product or offering a service. The marketing mix comprises of Product, Price, Promotion and Placement. In McCarthy’s assessment, first and foremost comes the Product-its production and management; second, the process of fixing an affordable price; third, the promotion of the product which includes advertising, branding etc and finally fourth, the placement or distribution of the product, its retailing and the process by which it reaches the customer. All these four elements have to be decided and well planned before pitching into any product launch.

Segmentation- Categorize your audience:

In traditional marketing, the market is segmented into many subsets or segments depending on geographic, demographic, psycho graphic and behavioral variables. Each segment is homogenous and responds in a particular way to a particular marketing strategy. Small segments are considered as ‘niche’ markets or ‘specialty’ markets. A product is aimed at a particular segment and is launched only after thorough market research and consumer research on the segment. This assures the marketer that he is not bungee jumping but walking safely and securely on a well-laid road. Hence a product that is not needed by that particular segment is not produced. This deep analysis of the target segment is called ‘depth segmentation’. While the study of the target customer’s behavioral traits, nature, lifestyle etc is called ‘Buyer’s Profile’. With all these the marketer draws a marketing plan, which is fully geared to reach the target consumer.

Other aspects:

Traditional marketing, unlike New Marketing, is Company-focused and product-based. It intends only to increase the visibility of the Company and its brand. The message conveyed to the customer is Company-controlled and motivated unlike in new marketing, which is Consumer-focused and attuned to consumer’s interests. The Company becomes the active participant while the consumer fades into the inactive and passive zone. A marketer, adopting the traditional method, will use his product’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition) to market it. USP is that unique feature which is exclusive to a particular product from a particular brand. With less number of competitors, USP-marketing is a very novel method. But in today’s world every other brand has all the features offered by its competitor. Hence the glamour of USP-marketing is fading away.

Advertising and Promotion:

Marketing plans and strategies finally end in advertising. For it is advertising which exposes the product to the world and places it in a platform for the target customer to view. It gives the product visibility and helps boosts its sales. Advertising, in general, can be classified into two trends: Above-the-line (ATL) and Below-the-line (BTL). ATL covers all the advertising done through media. BTL stands for all the promotions- public relations, sponsorships, merchandising etc. In traditional marketing mostly ATL is practiced. The following media are the ATL modes of advertising:

Print Medium: Newspapers, Magazines, Yellow Pages, Posters and Billboards.

TV & Radio: All kinds of TV and Radio spots

Other Communications: All kinds of mailers and leaflets

Traditional Marketing – Is it valid today?

When the world shifts gears and operates in a faster pace, it is advisable for us also to follow its lead and take up the trend. Traditional Marketing, say many market analysts, fails to work in today’s world. The brand recall is very minimal as the customer is exposed to a variety of brands. Moreover, as every other brand is as good as its competitor, there is no particular reason for the consumer to opt for a particular brand. That’s why today’s marketer aims at 360-degree marketing – an all round marketing strategy covering all the available modes and aimed at constant brand recall. This is where online marketing offer a lot of hope for the marketer as the web reaches out to the prospective buyer in a fastest pace possible. With all these around, the question of whether traditional marketing is valid today rises.

Maybe one can nullify this question by a few well-grounded answers: Traditional Marketing is adjudged as the best method according to a national survey conducted in 2005 in the U.S. jointly by Harris Interactive and Public Relations Society of America. As per the survey, most of the general public, Fortune 1000 businessmen and Congressional Staffers voted the traditional method of marketing as the best method. Though the year 2005 belongs to a dead past now, the statement by the reputed marketer Mr. Wilson will put an end to doubting queries: ” Traditional Marketing helps because people still view them”.

Jeff Blackwell is the founder of http://www.SalesPractice.com, an online Sales Training community that assists sales practitioners in mastering the art of sales by providing professional sales training resources including a collection of leading articles, sales script book, industry source book, and sales forum.

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