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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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Microsoft Dynamics GP, as Great Plains was renamed and associated with Microsoft Dynamics family of products, created by joining together with future synergy and integration purposes: Navision NAV, Axapta AX, Solomon SL, and Dynamics CRM, so now GP version 10 was introduced in Summer 2007 for MBS partners and then for customers. Version update will be the next step to be offered to GP customers. You should understand your ERP upgrade path and associated investment and possible risks. In this small article we would like to give you initial start for upgrade process and have you to think about it and do your homework.

1. Upgrade Path. MS Dynamics version update utility works by recognizing your current build and checks if it has upgrade path for your current version. If it doesn’t have it – it can not upgrade. Currently (no service packs were yet released for 10.0), GP 9.0 upgrade works if you applied SP 2. It also can initiate upgrade in you are on GP 8.0 with SP5. If you are on 9.0 without SP applied, consider to apply SP 2 and then move on to upgrade to GP 10.0. If you are on newer than 9.0 SP 2 build, you should wait GP 10.0 SP 1 to be released later in 2007.

2. Older versions. In you are on version, earlier than 8.0, such as 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 7.0 or 7.5, you should consider updating to version 8.0 or 9.0 first, and then immediately update to version 10.0, assuming you are considering the contents of the paragraph above.

3. Pervasive SQL and Ctree/Faircom DB platforms. Microsoft Business Solutions decided to terminate support to these non-Microsoft DB platforms in December 2004. If you are still on these legacy platforms, you should consider migration. Migration is available for old versions up to 7.5. The technology of migration is straight forward – Dexterity module which allows you to connect old DB with newly created MS SQL Server Dynamics GP databases. Professional consultant help is highly recommended as migration has multiple what-ifs scenarios and may lead you to confusion

4. Third Party modules upgrade. If you deploy third party GP satellites, such as Mekorma, Avalara, Wennsoft, Horizon Manufacturing, etc. – you should check with them on the availability for the upgrade path for their modules and if required – wait.

5. Custom Technologies upgrade. Among customization technologies, you should identify if you deploy one of these: Microsoft Dexterity (former name is Great Plains Dexterity – chunk files, DYNAMICS.DIC with source code in needed to upgrade), VBA/Modifier (this is legacy OLE related technology, you should have DYNAMICS.VBA dictionary with VBA scripts in it), Integration Manager (you should find on your network IM.MDB file, where integrations metadata resides). eConnect eCommerce and GP Business Portal Upgrade paths are complex and require separate consideration outside of this article.

Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum Group, http://www.albaspectrum.com help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, serving GP client in USA nationwide and Canada. Local service is available in Chicago area: Naperville, Warrenville, Oakbrook, Lisle, Downers Grove, Romeoville, Aurora, Hinsdale, Joliet, Plainfield, Morris, Orland Park, Lombard, Elgin, Crystal Lake, in Houston: Richmond, Sugar Land, Rosenberg, Katy, Galveston. Nationwide service: California, New York, Ontario, Quebec, Florida, Arizona, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Washington, Nevada, Utah, Louisiana, Texas, Illinois

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In this small article we would like to give guidelines to Great Plains IT support people, who is trying to troubleshoot Microsoft Dynamics GP in-house, sometimes appealing to Microsoft Business Solutions support. GP IM is using several technologies, however the most popular is Great Plains workstation as OLE server – this technology comes back to 1990th when Microsoft was parading with its OLE, OLEDB, ODBC and other technologies and is tightly linked with Microsoft Data Access Components (MS DAC). In general you may think about processes this way – when you launch traditional IM it hides Microsoft Great Plains workstation and uses it behind the scenes to validate GP business logic

o IM Known Bugs. This is when you are getting error messages, related to MDAC libraries, such as TTGErrors. You have to look for the exact remedy in Microsoft Dynamics techknowledge database, but general rule is this – try to clean up MDAC installation, uninstall IM and then install newest MDAC and reinstall IM

o IM Registration issues. Since version 7.5 Microsoft requires IM to have separate reg key. Known issue with entering reg key is if you do not install IM properly, but simply copy GP workstation folder and IM program files – in this case Windows registry has no info about IM and it “forgets” about registration. You need to reinstall IM and apply recent IM service packs accordingly

o eConnect. This should be IM future, it is in process of being rewritten in eConnect. eConnect doesn’t have performance obstacles and doesn’t use OLE server. With this new technology IM will be capable to import unlimited number of records in “real time”

o Old versions of IM. Some versions of Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise were released with IM, which needed immediate service pack application – otherwise it simply was not functional. If you are on GP version 7.0 – please do not install IM from CD – look for the service pack

Please feel free to call us at any time: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, help@albaspectrum.com , skype albaspectrum

Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com [http://www.enterlogix.com.br] ), serving clients in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Diego, San Francisco, Miami, New Orleans, New York, Boston, Denver, Minneapolis, St. Luis, Springfield, Aurora, Naperville, Milwaukee, Boston, Atlanta, Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale, Boca Raton, Calgary, Seattle, Provo, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Toronto, Montreal, internationally: Australia, New Zealand, Palau, Pakistan, Egypt, Germany, France, Spain, UK, Latin America and Brazil

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In Microsoft Dynamics GP (Great Plains) setting up item types as kit items can be a great strategic solution to managing different types of items on Sales Transactions, but managing a small number of items in production.

For example, I had a client that was shipping out demonstration units to their customers as a way to get the customer to use and eventually buy their product. They wanted the Item to be set up as a Demonstration Item and to be able to see the actual product on the sales order being shipped out as a Demonstration Item.

However, they did not manufacture product specifically as demonstration product. They produced one item and the production floor only knew about that one item. They did not want to create production schedules for two separate items that were the same item.

A great way to handle this type of scenario is to setup the demonstration item as a kit item, and add the real product to the kit as a component. In this way, the customer can create an unlimited number of kit items that can appear on a Sales Order, but just have the real product as the component in every case. As with most things there are some challenges and before you start working with kits, it is a good idea to explore what challenges will be.

1. If you are using the Returns Module (RMA’S) in Great Plains, you cannot return the Kit Item.

In Microsoft Dynamics GP10 and earlier, you are only able to return the components of the kit and not the kit item itself. So when you create an RMA in Returns Management, you will not be able to select the kit item to return – you are only able to select the components. On one hand, this makes total sense since the components are what are moved back into inventory. On the other hand, when you are tracking Returns through the RMA module, it creates an extra level of overhead to manage the components rather than the Kit Item itself.

You also lose visibility in Returns Management as to what kit item was returned. So if you want to see how many of the promotional items were returned and you are using Returns Management, you will not see the kit item in returns. However, it still creates the credit in Sales Order Processing for the kit item and you still have visibility of the return in Sales Order Processing which is normally not a problem since you can link the RMA back to the Return in Sales Order Processing for reporting purposes. For many people this is not a problem, but one must be aware.

In Microsoft Dynamics GP2010, you are able to select the kit item itself when creating the RMA.

2. You cannot create inventory transactions or transfers for Inventory Kits.

This means that when you create an Inventory Transaction or an Inventory Transfer in Great Plains, you will need to create individual transactions (lines on a transaction) for each of the components. That may not sound too bad at first, but when you are working with more than one kit with three or four components and multiple sites, it can create some extra work.

3. Kits will not fully allocate until all components quantities are allocated.

This is the issue that seems to cause the most problems. If you are selling two of kit 1234 on a Sales Order in Sales Order Processing, and the kit has three components, all three of the components must have a quantity of two allocated before the kit item line is allocated.

Where this can create a problem is when you have quantities greater than one and now you need to partial ship an item. The customer ordered ten, but calls and says, “I need five of those shipped out today.” If the item was not a kit, we could simply allocate and fulfill the partial quantity. With a kit item, we will need to modify the lines on the Sales Order and create two new lines for quantities of five and then delete the line with the quantity of ten. There is no easy way around this. If you do not have many partial shipments, then this is not really an issue for you.

Many of my Great Plains clients have utilized kits as a strategic practice for sales campaigns and processes that normally would involve BOM’s. Do not let the bad side of the kits keep your organization from moving forward – just be aware of the downfalls.

Joe Morris is a CPA and Microsoft Certified Professional specializing in all phases of implementing and supporting Microsoft Great Plains. Get the latest Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains tips and insights from the Dynamics Insight team at http://www.dynamicsinsight.net. For a limited time you can sign up and receive access to free Great Plains training videos by signing up at http://www.dynamicsinsight.net.

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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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