.Net Charts and Graphs Interact with Businesses and Customers
March 23, 2008
Bar charts, bar graphs, and any other chart or graph used in financial statements, inventory reports, sales reports, and a slew of other types of reports have typically been paper reports or online reports depicting various levels of complex information for tracking, investing, planning, and buying. However, until the .net graph, .net chart, .net map, and other .net charts came along, the relationship between management and the company, companies and their investors, and companies and their customers was missing.
Interactivity is just one attribute of .net technology, a technology which is spreading across the nation as companies recognize it as a bridge over the gap between them and investors, customers, clients, and their own departments. Using a web-based .net map or chart opens up communication and collaboration between various business demographics. For example, management may want to track a product inventory through a given time period. A .net map can show warehouse locations and inventory levels in real-time. Warehouse managers will be able to track incoming and outgoing inventory, listing information on real-time .net charts and .net graphs.
Microsoft Great Plains: Offshore Customization & Development ? Overview for Consultant
March 22, 2008
When you visit department stores and see that majority of the apparels are produced in other countries, not US ? you probably do not worry about this fact. About 10 years ago, when Clinton’s high tech era was at the inception ? we saw the signs of high tech professionals inflow in the USA from overseas. Nowadays the trend is reversed ? instead of importing high tech people, we are at the beginning of outsourcing to them in their overseas countries the programming workload. In this small article we’ll concentrate on the Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains customization specifics: Great Plains Dexterity (IDE and programming language), SQL programming with XML in/out bound, VBA/Modifier/Continuum, Crystal Reports, Web publishing/eCommerce
? Closed/Protected technology. Great Plains Dexterity serious development requires months of formal training and it also requires access to so-called source code (DYNAMICS.DIC with scripts in it ? normally scripts are stripped). This fact imposes restrictions on offshore facility selection. This facility should be located in the country, where Great Plains Software had former development force. To give you more clue ? these are Australia and Philippines. If you are considering India ? we do not know if anyone there has access to source code, at least officially they do not have access, because source code partner program was closed many years ago.
ERP Software Financing: the Future? ? Overview for Company Owner
March 21, 2008
In our case ? we serve Microsoft Business Solutions ERP and CRM products: Microsoft Great Plains, Microsoft CRM, Navision, Microsoft RMS, as well as we do customization and integration to these products. We would like to share with you our experience with financing through Microsoft Financial Corporation, the entity handling software financing for Great Plains, CRM, Solomon, Navision & Axapta.
? 0% interest financing. Well ? this is probably a dream or something that should not be practiced (otherwise you compromise MRP list price). However, considering the nature of software ? this is something that costs nothing to sell ? assuming that all the software development expenses and costs are already behind. From time to time Microsoft Business Solutions practices this 0% financing. Right now (June 2005) new customers are enjoying this promotion
? Increasing Number of Clients ? who use financing. Last year we saw clients who were trying to increase their market share, by fueling their efforts with financing of all the kinds, including MBS financing. This year we see regular clients, who are using financing just to stabilize cash flow. Some of these clients have enough cash to purchase the system, but they still finance.
Microsoft CRM Messaging through Lotus Domino eMail Server - Balanced Solution
March 20, 2008
Microsoft CRM and IBM Lotus Notes Domino seem to be taking completely different paths and if company is Microsoft oriented - we see MS CRM, MS Exchange, MS SQL Server, SharePoint, etc. In the case of Lotus Domino - it is opposite - Lotus is corporate Information Media and could technically play CRM role with internal messaging coming through Lotus Domino server. However realities of modern corporation give us multiple examples when Microsoft CRM and Lotus Domino should coexist in compromise. There are several reasons why corporation doesn’t like to stick to one platform:
1. Balancing several platforms not to be trapped to the one-vendor solution. Imagine, that you placed all the eggs into one basket and then this basket went into the trouble (lawsuit, bankruptcy, mismanagement, hostile takeover - to name a few in the life of the modern American corporation)
2. Legacy-dependence. If your corporation uses such product as Lotus Notes/Domino for 10 plus years - you can expect that majority of documents are stored in the Lotus databases. Just conversion of this legacy database is multi-million dollars project. And again - we could not predict the future accurately - who will win or lose - IBM or Microsoft - or maybe they will merge
Great Plains Dexterity ? Microsoft Great Plains Customization Overview
March 20, 2008
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, former Great Plains Software Dynamics and eEnterprise are Dexterity-written applications. Also small business line: Microsoft Small Business Manager or Small Business Financials is written in Dexterity and uses the same code base as Great Plains.
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.
? Native Dexterity Cursors. Dexterity was designed as platform independent programming language and so if you want your code to be operable on all currently supported databases - you use Dexterity ranges and loops to manipulate the records
? Great Plains Dexterity with SQL Stored Procs Nowadays, 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.
Microsoft Great Plains: If You are Orphan Client ? What to Do and FAQ
March 19, 2008
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, former Great Plains Software eEnterprise, Dynamics and Dynamics C/S+ is very popular ERP and since 1994 has been successfully implemented for mid-size and mid-size to large companies in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Middle East. During the economic recession time 2001-2004 the majority of businesses cut to virtually zero their IT/computer support expenses and stayed with hardware and software. At the same time consulting companies: Great Plains Software and later on Microsoft Business Solutions Partners, VARs, Resellers and ISVs had to reduce their workforce, merge with large auditing companies or simply close their doors. The result of these two tendencies was huge number of so-called Microsoft Great Plains and Great Plains Dynamics orphan clients. In 2005 we see the signs of economy recovery: companies invested into new computer hardware and OS: Windows 2003 servers, Windows XP Pro workstations, Microsoft Exchange, etc. Now it is time for them to upgrade/recover their Great Plains Dynamics or migrate Great Plains Accounting to Microsoft Great Plains. Let’s consider the steps required to upgrade your ERP system:
Recovering Microsoft Great Plains Customization ? Tips for IT Director
March 18, 2008
Remember nice and prosperous Clinton era? When you implemented innovative those old days accounting application ? Great Plains Dynamics. And did a lot of customizations to fit your business requirements precisely. You still remember the names of consultants and programmers who did the job and probably the name of the company ? Great Plains reseller in your business metro. This company more likely doesn’t exist in the same form ? either closed the doors or merged and transformed to something else. When you tried to contact former programmers ? they more likely nicely let you know that they do not do this any more ? they got completely different job and profession. Great Plains Software was acquired by Microsoft and not part of Microsoft Business Solutions. In old good days Great Plains Software was taking care of popularizing its customization and growing Great Plains Dexterity programming expertise. Nowadays Microsoft Business Solutions has more concerns on merging all its ERP applications: Great Plains, Solomon, Navision, Axapta and making them run together as a set of modules (project Green).
Anti-Virus Software
March 17, 2008
Anti-virus software is used to find, remove or fix files that are infected with computer viruses. Most anti-virus companies release weekly updates of their databases to help keep you safe. Your anti-virus software uses these weekly updates (also known as virus signatures or definitions file) to identify newly discovered viruses.
The most basic anti-virus programs normally have several features to it, the memory resident scan, the system or file scan, and an automated updater. Many more sophisticated programs have many other integration tools that loan in to your instant messengers, your e-mail software and many other programs.
It’s very important when you configure your anti-virus software to always make sure you can download new updates every week, if you scan your system for viruses, and your definitions file is out of date it may not even find a problem with your system. Additionally, you should make sure you do in fact scan your system on a regular basis. I personally set my computer to scan around 4 AM so it doesn’t bother me.
When you download software, e-mail attachments, or introduce new media (diskettes, cd’s, jump drives) in to your system you should scan them before running or viewing them inside another application.
Groupware Finds Home in American Business: Collaboration Tool Analysis
March 16, 2008
What is Groupware?
Have you ever had to manage document collaboration in a hurry? No need to be ashamed if you said “yes.” Virtually every American business has experienced moments of ad hoc team collaboration. In other words, the ideal business collaboration method involves meticulous record keeping and organization; all deadlines are met; nobody feels rushed. That doesn’t sound very realistic, does it? The important thing is that even scattered, ad hoc business collaboration can be organized in such a way that important records of business documents and their version history can be kept. Groupware tracks all documents across email and hard drives, tracking changes and saved locations. Groupware also lets businesses review changes and merge them, simplifying an often difficult process. Groupware is time-saving software recognized by American businesses for solving the ad hoc collaboration challenges. Any given search engine search for “groupware” will undoubtedly yield a long list of sponsored searches in addition to the millions of indexed pages referencing groupware products, testifying to its usefulness among American businesses.
Groupware as a Collaboration Tool
Ukraine: a Prospective Player on the World Software Outsourcing Market
March 15, 2008
The destruction of the Soviet Union about 15 years ago, made a huge country with a great level of IT science divided into small bricks. Nowadays, despite Russia’s expansion into the world software development market, Ukraine keeps playing an important role here too. There are several prerequisites for this.
Prerequisites
Traditionally, Ukraine always was a technical region of the USSR. No wonder, the IT education was and still is one of the most popular and respective education in the region. Such well-known Ukrainian universities as Kyiv National Technical University, Donetsk National Technical University etc. as well as new establishments with more innovative approach for IT specialists education, such as Donetsk State Institute of Artificial Intelligence and others, educate a new prospective generation of young IT professionals, ambitious and purposeful.
It’s obvious, Ukrainian students win in international contests, and show true professionalism and ability to enter a business life immediately, hence, to play the first fiddle in the labour market. As the latest example, one can remember students of Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics that became first place winners of the International Web Development Contest (I.C.W.D.I.C. 2005) held by XITEX Software Company in spring 2005.
