Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, former Great Plains Software Dynamics and eEnterprise was designed in earlier 1990th as ERP, which can be easily transferable to the winning Database and OS platform and it was originally available on Mac and PC ? Mac OS and Microsoft Windows respectively. Graphical platforms battle is pretty much over and now with eCommerce demands, we should look at Great Plains Dynamics tables structure:
? Naming Convention. Great Plains was designed to be ready to move to the winning database platform and probably this is why we see this a bit complicated naming convention in place: SOP10100, RM00101, IV00101 ? these are samples: SOP header, Customer master, Inventory master. First ? we see module prefix: SOP ? Sales Order Processing, RM ? Receivables management, IV ? Inventory control, etc., then 0 stays for the master files, 1 ? so-called work files (before transaction being posted), 2 ? open files (after transaction is posted) and 3 ? historical files (when you close the year in General Ledger ? transactions are moved from open to history files). So as you see ? logic is present and structured, but it is not friendly to the developer, who never seen and worked with Great Plains Dynamics.
? Tables Groups. Great plains was designed to first serve mid-size businesses and then with the availability of third party modules ? the intention was to compete on corporate ERP market with Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP and others big players. This is why we see the whole cluster of tables to store, say Sales Invoice: SOP Header, SOP Lines, SOP Distribution, RM Key file, etc.
From the Forms side (or screens) you can see more human-readable names: SOP Entry, RM_Customer_Maintenance, POP_Entry or the like. But these legacy Great Plains Dexterity names do not help eCommerce developer ? only probably as the reference on which table works with specific screen.
Let's take a look at the tools available:
? eCommerce ? together with eOrder, and other eXXX products it should be considered as legacy and phase out product, based on Microsoft eCommerce server and ASP technology, today Microsoft has new paradigm - .Net and ASPX World
? eConnect ? was specially created for eCommerce developers, who integrate Microsoft Great Plains with eCommerce web interface. This tool covers a lot of Great Plains objects creation and retrieving functionality, however it does have restrictions, because it was not intended as replacement to Great Plains Dexterity shell. For example ? if you create Orders in SOP via Web interface/eConnect ? it is difficult manipulate these orders (transfers to Invoices, backorders, reallocations, etc.). Another issue with eConnect ? developers are kind of used to the fact that Microsoft provides free SDK to its products, Microsoft CRM for example has freely downloadable Microsoft CRM SDK. For eConnect you have to pay license and be on Microsoft Business Solutions annual support to get version upgrades. Also if you are ISV and develop your GP integration to your customers ? you have licensing issue with Microsoft.
? Custom SOP/AR stored procedures. Microsoft Business Solutions partners in their practice usually have several Great Plains integration projects implemented where integration is realized on the stored procedures level and transactions are created and manipulated in Great Plains SOP. So ? you may end up seeking this type of help
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 San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Miami, Orlando, New Orleans, Phoenix, Seattle, Minneapolis, Detroit, Los Angeles
shuttle from O'Hare Brocton .. Lockport Chicago limo O’HareDoes Microsoft care for WebmastersIt's always been a problem with... Read More
XML Server can be a Web Server that stores the... Read More
Traditionally we were considering functionally rich systems, such as SAP,... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains ? ERM from Microsoft Business Solutions and... Read More
Is your PC is slow and wimpy? Then you need... Read More
Fleet Maintenance Management is a critical position in any company... Read More
Think of this, first we had the HAM Radio, then... Read More
Spyware, what it is and what it does. Basically, spyware... Read More
I completed an experiment recently. I wanted to find out... Read More
The vast majority of us will have, at some point,... Read More
Microsoft Retail Management (RMS) and Microsoft Great Plains are retail... Read More
Upgrading. Downtime. Maintenance. Hardware obsolescence. Implementation issues. The litany of... Read More
Learning how to program software seems like a daunting task... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions offers several ERP applications: Great Plains, Navision,... Read More
Task Manager is a Windows system utility that displays thetasks... Read More
If you are software developer or database administrator - we... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains fits to majority of horizontals and retail... Read More
For those who are unclear on the differences between the... Read More
Just imagine: you are walking, say, towards your car, and... Read More
Although we don't know whether Microsoft ever envisioned such a... Read More
Microsoft has never released a service pack for Windows98 SE,... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions CRM is web-based CRM application, deploying all... Read More
MSN messenger is a pretty cool invention. I mean I'm... Read More
We all take the computer for granted. I mean, all... Read More
Each Industry and market niche has business specific and unique... Read More
Chicago charter limousine service Hickory Hills ..Before being able to choose a secure Internet communication system,... Read More
One day, you suddenly realize that your computer started to... Read More
Document Manager and Version HistoryIn previous articles I have discussed... Read More
Make-or-Break Factors in Success and ProfitabilityFor quick printers, estimating can... Read More
Great Plains Accounting, accounting package for mid-size and small companies... Read More
Using professional icons in your application or website can bring... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions ? Navision is an integrated solution for... Read More
Microsoft-Outlook is a pretty amazing program. So much more than... Read More
Most people don't use Photoshop to its fullest capabilities. Here... Read More
The Microsoft system preparation utility for Windows 2000 is a... Read More
While Ukraine is becoming a new popular IT outsourcing destination,... Read More
Should one use Windows Update?This topic has good and valid... Read More
Microsoft CRM was designed to be easily customizable. Microsoft CRM... Read More
Language development computer: Computer-based method for aiding language development seems... Read More
With so many Microsoft Windows related viruses, errors, and other... Read More
We are in a transition phase in the Managerial Administration... Read More
A few months back I really got sick of my... Read More
IntroductionPHP can be used for a lot of different things,... Read More
When Great Plains Software was designing and developing Great Plains... Read More
If you use Microsoft Outlook (or similar applications) for e-mailing,... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions CRM is web-based CRM application, deploying all... Read More
People often ask me: What image file formats will Photoshop... Read More
Collaboration SoftwareCollaboration Software, also known as group collaboration software or... Read More
Icons are used everywhere; right from software applications, to internet... Read More
After seeing many people complain about their weak Internet security... Read More
Software |