Great Plains Dexterity History and Programming Overview
November 30, 2007
As of now - Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise is transformed/renamed into Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft Business Solutions is in process of merging all its accounting applications: Great Plains, Solomon, Navision and Axapta into somewhat granular: Microsoft Financials, Microsoft HR, Microsoft Distributions, Microsoft Project Accounting, etc. So the original design of Great Plains should be deemphasized. But even now - Great Plains is written on the programming language and technology, created in early 1990-th, named Great Plains Dexterity. And the graphical interface looks very user friendly and nice - these are all Dexterity forms and screens.
The original architect of Dexterity, Tim Brookins, pursued several goals, the main are these:
1. Engine, supporting graphical interface, which is computer platform independent - if you remember those days - the main competition was between Macintosh and Microsoft Windows. Mac was graphical and very popular, but Windows, backed by IBM cloning/platform openness was very dangerous competitor. The new engine was targeted to work on both: Mac and Windows. On the other hand - nobody could look at the future far enough to be sure that other competitors from both Hardware and Operating Systems sides not going to take over. This is why the graphical platform independent engine was required for the new type - Graphical accounting/ERP system: Great Plains Dynamics.
Microsoft Great Plains on Ctree or Pervasive SQL ? What to Do ? Tips for IT Manager
November 29, 2007
As you probably know, when Microsoft purchased Great Plains Software ? the whole strategy for Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise line was changed. Initial GPS strategy was to maintain DB platform independence ? via it’s C-written engine Dexterity, based on the believe that C programming language is platform independent. So ? Great Plains was running on MS SQL Server, Ctree (Faircom ? if you remember 1995-96 Macintosh era), Pervasive SQL (Btrieve). Microsoft obviously had no plan to keep this multiplatform capability and Great Plains was optimized to MS SQL Server and with the introduction of MSDE ? the need to keep entry level Dynamics on Ctree/Btrieve disappeared.
Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions, later renamed to Microsoft Business Solutions was sending multiple signals to Dynamics customers to migrate to SQL Server, later on to upgrade to Great Plains Standard on MSDE. Recently it promoted all the clients who own Great Plains on Ctree/Pervasive ? so now they technically own so called Great Plains Standard. All they need to do is pay for Migration (around k$3 + consulting fee to whoever your MBS VAR is).
Unfortunately MBS did several rough turns in the process of this migration from ctree/Pervasive to SQL/MSDE.
Microsoft Business Solutions VAR/Partner Selection ? Overview for IT Director/Manager/Controller
November 28, 2007
Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft CRM become more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind them. Now Great Plains is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. Small companies use Small Business Manager (which is based on the same technology ? Great Plains Dexterity dictionary and runtime), Great Plains Standard on MSDE is for small to midsize clients, and then Great Plains serves the rest of the market up to big corporations. Microsoft CRM is extremely scalable and fits to all the market niches.
It is always good idea to install everything on your own - however Great Plains requires combination of computer networking, some programming, good accounting/distribution/logistics/reporting background - so it is not a surprise that Microsoft Business Solutions requires their customers to have specially assigner Microsoft Great Plains Partner/VAR/Reseller to serve the account.
If you are IT Director/Controller who has the dilemma of proper partner selection ? read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.
Great Plains Accounting Migration to Microsoft Great Plains - Overview for IT Specialist
November 27, 2007
This is a short article, written in question/answer/FAQ style to give IT Specialist/developer/programmer balanced top level information on Great Plains Accounting migration to Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains. If you have Great Plains Accounting as main accounting and ERP system you need to know some technical details on the migration to Great Plains and what is going on behind the scenes. As of right now it is reasonable to upgrade to Microsoft Great Plains 8.0
Is migration required? Not actually, but you have to consider these factors
- Great Plains Accounting is in phasing out -Great Plains Software began this process back in 1995, when it did introduce Great Plains Dynamics and then Great Plains Dynamics/CS+.
- Old Btrieve platform - Microsoft Business Solutions is pulling out all it’s products from Btrive/Pervasive SQL.2000/Ctree.
- Following the Technology and Microsoft rules - Microsoft wants you to be on the newest platform and provides you the best support when you follow this rule
What is migration in the language of technology?
Migration reads Btrieve tables of Great Plains Accounting and moves the data to Microsoft Great Plains tables
Do I need consultant? As our experience indicates - you have to have a consultant to do GPA->Great Plains migration. There are two options to choose from
Microsoft Great Plains Data Conversion ? Overview For Developer
November 26, 2007
Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind it. Now it is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. Small companies use Small Business Manager (which is based on the same technology ? Great Plains Dexterity dictionary and runtime), Great Plains Standard on MSDE is for small to midsize clients, and then Great Plains serves the rest of the market up to big corporations.
If you are developer who is asked: how do we convert our old system data for initial Great Plains setup ? read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.
Great Plains Integration Manager - this is rather end-user tool - it is very intuitive, it validates 100% of business logic, brings in/updates master records (accounts, employees, customers, vendors. etc.) brings in transactions into work tables. The limitation of Integration Manager - it does use GP windows behind the scenes without showing them - so it is relatively slow - you can bring 100 records for ongoing integration - for one-time conversion/integration you are probably OK with IM. By the way you can program Integration Manager with VBA.
Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise Upgrade ? Things to Consider and FAQ
November 26, 2007
If you have Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise (version 6.0 or earlier) and support it for your company then you need to know some technical details about Great Plains version upgrade and what is going on behind the scenes, which options do you have in case of Dexterity, VBA, SQL customization, additional complexity comes with migration from ctree/Pervasive to MS SQL/MSDE. Currently you are probably thinking to upgrade to Microsoft Great Plains 8.0 or 7.5.
What is upgrade in the language of technology? Upgrade has server and client sides.
- Server side - upgrade converts tables from old format to the new one. In general words - Microsoft Business Solutions developers may change table structure, append additional fields to add new functionality, things like that. Upgrade copies the table with changes to temporary table, then drops original table, recreates it with new structure and copies all the data from temp table to the newly created one.
- Workstation side - workstation is written in Great Plains Dexterity and has Dynamics.exe - engine and DYNAMICS.DIC - dictionary. These two plus all the additional files will be replaced with the new ones. Other dictionaries, such us REPORTS.DIC and FORMS.DIC should be also upgraded and upgrade will try to deal with them automatically. In some cases modified reports (in REPORTS.DIC) could not be upgraded and need to be recreated in the new version.
What is customization upgrade? You should consider different types of customizations: Dexterity, VBA/Modifier, SQL, ReportWriter, Crystal Reports
Crystal Reports - Geterogeneus databases: SQL Server, Oracle, Unidata, Btrieve ? Tips For Developer
November 25, 2007
Crystal Reports is the most flexible tool on the market and it has market recognition. Multiple software vendors offer Crystal Reports as the main reporting tool: Microsoft, Best Software, Oracle to name a few.
Sometimes developers try to use Crystal directly to pull data from multiple database platforms - we understand the need to give you additional tips to increase Crystal report flexibility. Also common case when Crystal report should pull data from multiple database platforms. Assuming that you are creating Crystal Reports on Windows platform - we recommend you to use Microsoft SQL Server as a database access tool.
1. Use Crystal when you have your query tuned ? regardless how good Crystal Reports is - it is reporting tool - not querying environment. Tune your query first and be sure that you are pulling the right data.
2. Use SQL Server Linked Servers. Use professional tool, such as Microsoft SQL Server, where you can create linked servers to Oracle, Ctree, Btrieve, MS Access, Unidata, DB2 and other platforms.
3. Use Distributed Queries ? in the case of SQL Server - research the possibilities with OPENQUERY, OPENROWSET clauses to connect to non-SQL Server linked servers.
Great Plains Dexterity Programming ? Overview For Developer
November 24, 2007
Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind it. Now it is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. Small companies use Small Business Manager (which is based on the same technology ? Great Plains Dexterity dictionary and runtime), Great Plains Standard on MSDE is for small to midsize clients, and then Great Plains serves the rest of the market up to big corporations.
If you are developer who is asked: how do we customize Great Plains with its native programming language ? Great Plains Dexterity ? read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.
The history of the Dexterity. Great Plains Dexterity ? is proprietary programming language and technology, designed back to earlier 1990th with the goal to build platform independent graphical accounting package ? Great Plains Dynamics. Dexterity itself is written in C (following popular those days hope ? that C will provide platform independence). You can install Dexterity from Great Plains 7.5 CD #2. Obviously it requires a lot of learning / training, but it allows your custom piece be seamlessly integrated with Great Plains interface.
Great Plains Custom Development: Dexterity, VBA, SQL, Crystal, eConnect ? Overview For Programmer
November 23, 2007
Microsoft Great Plains is main Microsoft Business Solutions accounting package for the US market. It has multiple customization/modification/reporting tools. Currently there is upgrade campaign to version 8.0 and due to the discontinuation of the technical support for Microsoft Great Plains Standard on Ctree and Pervasive SQL - we see substantial increase in migration needs: migration from ctree/Pervasive to MSDE/MS SQL Server. This in turn increases interest to customization and customization upgrade.
If you are developer who is asked: how do we customize Great Plains ? read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.
1. Great Plains Dexterity ? this is proprietary programming language and technology, designed back to earlier 1990th with the goal to build platform independent graphical accounting package ? Great Plains Dynamics. Dexterity itself is written in C (following popular those days hope ? that C will provide platform independence). You can install Dexterity from Great Plains 7.5 CD #2. Obviously it requires a lot of learning / training, but it allows your custom piece be seamlessly integrated with Great Plains interface. Nowadays, however ? and this is a good thing ? most of Great Plains installations are moved to SQL Server ? so you can use Dexterity for custom forms drawing only and make the buttons run SQL stored procedures.
How To Create A Data Capture Procedure Checklist For Your Small Business CRM Software
November 22, 2007
Fortunately one of the most common reasons cited for the high failure rate of CRM systems - poor data quality - is also one of the easiest to avoid. Your CRM software is only as good as the information it contains. As the old programmers motto goes ‘garbage in, garbage out’.
So how can you avoid incomplete, incorrect, irrelevant or out-of-date and generally unfit-for-use data from permeating your CRM software?
You need to gather your key CRM users together and thrash out a DATA CAPTURE PROCEDURE document, defining the rules of use.
Spell out:
? Who has what rights to the system; who can Create, Insert, Modify or Delete records, assuming your software supports all these functions? Forward this information to your system administrator to action.
? Decide on a procedure to check for any duplicates before creating a record. Depending on what ‘de-duping’ or ‘data scrubbing’ features your system has, this might require some simple searches before starting a new record.
? Do you allow abbreviations or acronyms? For example: IBM, or I.B.M, or International Business Machines Inc. or Incorporated and so on. A policy on ensuring consistency of input will help to avoid duplications in future.
