Microsoft Great Plains: carpet, textile, fabric, felt distributor ? implementation overview
April 30, 2008
In this small article we will show you the possible way of deploying Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains for the market niche of large, mid-size and small reselling and distribution business in carpeting and floor covering, textile & fabric. We will not be talking about fabric production, but rather cutting for the end-user or small retailer. Microsoft Great Plains itself in our case should be considered as a platform for light customization and modification. We’ll describe industry requirements and the way them to be implemented in Great Plains
? Variable Length Rolls. Usually, when you place and order through your supplier ? there is no way to know exact length of the roll or bolt. It might have 75 yards or 80 yards ? you typically know the average length, say 77 yards and this is why you know what to expect in yards if you purchase 10 bolts
? Inventory in Yards. When you receive the roll ? you need to place it into inventory in exact yards. Typical method is to assign lot number to the bolt and then associate the exact initial length in yards with this unique lot number. This is Great Plains Dexterity customization, which provides parallel unit of measure, associated with the lot number
Artificial Intelligence And Intuition
April 29, 2008
The intuitive algorithm.
Roger Penrose considered it impossible. Thinking could never imitate a computer process. He said as much in his book, The Emperor’s New Mind. But, a new book, The Intuitive Algorithm, (IA), suggested that intuition was a pattern recognition process. Intuition propelled information through many neural regions like a lightning streak. Data moved from input to output in a reported 20 milliseconds. The mind saw, recognized, interpreted and acted. In the blink of an eye. Myriad processes converted light, sound, touch and smell instantly into your nerve impulses. A dedicated region recognized those impulses as objects and events. The limbic system, another region, interpreted those events to generate emotions. A fourth region responded to those emotions with actions. The mind perceived, identified, evaluated and acted. Intuition got you off the hot stove in a fraction of a second. And it could be using a simple algorithm.
Is instant holistic evaluation impossible?
History of Java
April 29, 2008
The java programming language is becoming more and more popular each day. It is the language without which one cannot even hope to a land a job these days. But has somebody even wondered how this language came about? There are many stories about, many books have been written. Here is my version (not approved by Sun Microsystems).
The java programming language originated in Indonesia. It was meant to be used by the tourists that visit that country each year. Why would tourists want to use computer? Well, these are no ordinary tourists. They are rich tourists. Have they not been rich, they would not travel half way around the world to visit this place. Most people would be content to see just what is available near by. For example, if you are a texan living in Dallas, you will visit the stockyards or may be the trinity river park. If you live in New Orleans area, you would see st. mary’s bayou. Once in your lifetime, one will probably visit Hawaii or Niagara. But going to Indonesia and its islands, Bali, Java, etc is not for the ordinary people. Anyway, coming back to the question why these tourists need to use computer programs. They go there not just to have fun and also get some work done in a fun atmosphere as these people are very important people.
Huddle Up; Groupware on Three
April 28, 2008
It could just be me, but my experiences with document collaboration remind me of a football game. It sounds crazy, I know, but working with a group and sending emails off to other members of the group caries with it that familiar uneasy sensation of Thanksgiving Day football games, where I often play quarterback and just as often wonder whether members of my family will catch the pass, and if they do, what they will do with the ball. Using groupware in document collaboration is similar to having a game plan that separates the "Turkey Bowl" family football team from the real competitors.
Groupware on Three
Now, this doesn’t have to be the team cheer. But it could be, because groupware is distinguished from other document collaboration software by three characteristics designed to work the way businesses do. Since businesses frequently experience ad hoc document collaboration, groupware designed using Digital Thread, Digital Signature, and Version History most effectively manages and controls ad hoc editing and keeps businesses informed.
Corporate ERP Selection: Microsoft Great Plains
April 27, 2008
In our opinion, traditional approach when you select ERP/MRP system for large or mid-size company by functionality, database and hardware platform should be revised. We are convinced that new generation of Windows servers plus the reliability of relatively inexpensive database platform, such as Microsoft SQL Server, enable large corporation to decrease the cost of hardware, database and ERM software, plus have good internal support by hiring Microsoft certified professionals, available on the market in your area. In this small article we’ll give you short review of what you should expect from Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, its implementation, customization, reporting, integration as well as web publishing and eCommerce or web ordering system for your existing customers.
? Hardware. PC Hardware and Windows server were considered as a solution for small and mid-size business, this opinion was wide spread in 1990th, when you needed to have scheduled rebooting of Windows server to deal with known issues, such as memory leaks, etc. Nowadays ? Windows 2003 could be counted on.
Performance Tuning of a Daffodil DB / One$DB -JDBC Application
April 26, 2008
This article illustrates the best practices to improve the performance of Daffodil DB / One$DB JDBC Driver. This article focuses on how to improve the performance of a Daffodil DB / One$DB JDBC application using Statement, PreparedStatemnt, CallableStatement and ResultSet interfaces. Choosing the right statement interfaces and right methods according to your SQL query plays a vital role in improving the performance of a JDBC Driver.
JDBC Overview
JDBC API provides standard set of interfaces to work with databases like Daffodil DB / One$DB, Oracle, Derby etc.
Connection interface encapsulates database connection functionality, Statement interface encapsulates SQL statement representation and execution functionality whereas ResultSet interface encapsulates retrieving data which comes from the execution of a SQL query using Statement.
Following are the basic steps to write a JDBC program.
1. Import “java.sql” and “javax.sql” packages. (Import “javax.sql”, if advanced JDBC feature like XA is to be used)
2. Load Daffodil DB JDBC driver (embedded or network JDBC Driver)
3. Establish connection to database using Connection interface
4. Create a Statement
5. Execute the Statement
6. Retrieve results by using ResultSet interface
7. Close Statement and Connection
Choosing right Statement interface:
Is Software Tester a Most Infamous Person in a Software Project Team?
April 25, 2008
The fact that a software tester is a most infamous person in a software project team has some grounds underneath it. This is because a software tester usually speaks of the bugs in the developer’s code. For a developer to take this pin-pointing personally hurting is humane. The tussle between the testers and developers may lead to failure or delay of the software project. This article presents some of the aspects which both the developer and the tester should know about each other and work harmoniously in a team.
The developer should understand that testing is an important activity in a software project and the role of the tester is to find as many bugs as possible at the earliest and ensure that they get fixed. If the developed software satisfies customer’s requirements and has little number of known bugs then only the customer will accept the software. So, pin-pointing by tester should be taken by the developer in a positive sense. It is the duty of the tester to find bugs and by doing this he is, infact, suggesting you to remove bugs and thereby, dress your code in a proper way.
ERP Consulting: Microsoft Great Plains Partner Future Directions
April 24, 2008
In the Clinton era the status quo was simple: you serve your local clients and if you want to expand your business ? open offices in other business metros. Great Plains Software was granting generous margins on the software sales and stimulated local leading VARs/Partners/Resellers with so-called orphan leads ? customers who lapsed in payment annual enhancement program or called Great Plains Software directly to comply about quality of service by their VAR. When Microsoft purchased Great Plains Software and formed Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions (soon renamed into Microsoft Business Solutions) and acquired new ERP/MRP/accounting applications: Navision, Axapta, Solomon (Solomon Software was bought by Great Plains Software in the late 1990th). When Microsoft introduced Microsoft CRM ? it tried to change traditional partner reselling model, let’s see what it is and why (this is our personal opinion ? we are trying to envision the future for generic ERP VAR)
Microsoft CRM: Data Conversion ? Import from Act!
April 24, 2008
Best Software Act! is very popular CRM for small and mid-size organization. This system attracts business owner by its low price, plus system is very easy to use. However if your business is growing you should reach the moment to implement more advanced CRM solution. Natural question is ? how do we convert the data from Act! to new CRM solution and the mapping of your objects for conversion. You would probably like to avoid operator data entry with potential numerous errors and mistypes. Assuming that you are IT specialist, we’ll give you technical side of Act to MS CRM data migration:
? First you need to download Act! SDK from Best Software website
? Install Act! SDK on the computer, where you plan to do programming
? We’ll use asynchronous data export/import model, this means that we’ll design the system, containing two parts: export into XML and this XML file import into the CRM
? Lets code Act! data export application, we’ll use C# to address Act Framework classes, we’ll need these libraries:
using Act.Framework; using Act.Framework.Activities; using Act.Framework.Companies; using Act.Framework.ComponentModel; using Act.Framework.Contacts; using Act.Framework.Database; using Act.Framework.Groups; using Act.Framework.Histories; using Act.Framework.Lookups; using Act.Framework.MutableEntities; using Act.Framework.Notes; using Act.Framework.Opportunities; using Act.Framework.Users; using Act.Shared.Collections;
Microsoft Great Plains: Government & Non-Profit Organization ? Workflow Implementation
April 23, 2008
Usually workflow & messaging is realized in CRM and then transactions are just logged into Accounting/ERP/MRP. In the case of Microsoft Business Solutions products: Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Solomon, Axapta the natural CRM choice would be Microsoft CRM. However typical CRM application targets Sales automation, which is usually not applicable to government structure, non-profit or public company (community services, public utilities, churches, charities, etc.). Not-for-profit organization needs purchasing and requisition workflow, payroll approval workflow, and in certain cases special General Ledger (GL) transactions workflow. Microsoft CRM doesn’t provide the functionality. Then how could this be realized? We’ll provide two scenarios to realize this customization:
? Lotus Notes/Domino approach. In Great Plains you could realize either Great Plains Dexterity triggers or MS SQL database trigger on certain events (Purchase Order creation, Payroll Transaction, GL transaction). This event calls COM+ application and this one in turn creates Lotus objects via Java agent (Lotus Notes Domino should be version 6.0 or newer). This is basically the bridge. Then in Lotus you have to design workflow ? but this is natural task for Lotus and it is not difficult. Users should work in Lotus to get transactions approved and when it should be posted in Great Plains ? Lotus calls SQL script against Great Plains company database. Developer should know Microsoft Great Plains tables structure
