When new Corporate ERP system is implemented and you are in production with transaction entering, processing payments and generating reports, there might be a good opportunity for outsourcing ongoing support.
There might be also the consideration, that you decided on your current consulting firm based on their capability to implement the software. On the second phase you may have different criteria to the consultant – here you are introducing some customizations, modified business logic, integration with legacy system, maybe complex reporting (Crystal, SSRS, Management Reporter or FRx). For such projects you may need to look for different type of consulting organization, where its specialization is ongoing projects for GP, including Dexterity, eConnect, Extender, VBA/Modifier and Integration Management programming (maybe also consider new tools, such as Libraries for Visual Studio, Web Services). In our opinion technology challenging customization projects should be given to the hands of the organization which is not necessary located in your business metro – these people should prove their record in technology and industry expertise (if required they will travel to your office from another location in USA). Let’s review some custom programming projects and technology consulting details:
1. Settings versus ISV Add-ons and Custom Coding. Standard business logic and its modification via settings (such us enabling Taxes in General Ledger, User Defined Fields, Scheduled Payments in AR and AP, Checklists, Workflow, Organization Structures, Business Alerts, Multidimensional Analysis, custom Smart List reports, etc.) should be considered first. You probably already paid for all these features. They are included in the standard set of metadata (where business logic is stored). Plus, if you are sticking to the settings only – future version upgrade should be simple (where custom programming requires code review and modification to make it compatible with new product release; if you are choosing ISV module – you should check with them if they got version update procedure, that your registration key is available, meaning that you have to pay for their annual enhancement program…). But, unfortunately settings do not do the job, if your business logic is too unique (and this is often what you have, as innovation companies require innovation to be automated in their Corporate ERP application as well)
2. ISV Products. We recommend you to take a look now if your logic could be implemented on one of the third party products or extensions for Great Plains. There are numerous ISV (Independent Software Vendor) partners, who are specializing in Dexterity (and also new tools, such as eConnect) programming and packaging their products as satellites to extend and improve core business logic. Just to give you several names: Alba Spectrum (Warehouse Management System, Barcoding, Integration with Microsoft RMS, GL Utilities, such as posting into historical years, extending eConnect with automatic batch posting via Posting Server and plus); WennSoft (Job Costing module); Compass (POS extension for SOP Transaction Entry form and module). ISV modules should be analyzed from the standpoint of their maturity, reliability and cost. For example, if one of the ISV partners declares that they just introduced EDI solution and they are inviting pilot implementation customers – you might decide that you do not want to participate in beta testing and exposing your users to potential bugs (or if you are looking for bargain price – you may decide to try this route). Another example would be this – let’s assume there is third party ISV, who has Process Manufacturing module for GP and this module list price is twenty thousand dollars. If all you need from this module is altering weight in standard GP Bill Of Materials and your trusted technology firm give you the quote to program just this part of the business logic modification and the cost is two thousand dollars – the decision might be made in favor of custom Dexterity development
3. Custom Software Development. If you already read the paragraphs above and you think that you are ready for custom programming project engagement, let’s continue with custom coding route. Traditionally custom features were added as Microsoft Dexterity customizations (prior to the Great Plains Software acquisition by Microsoft the name of the tools was Great Plains Dexterity). Dex allows you to alter existing Forms and Windows as well as to create new objects (tables, fields, constraints, forms, window and scrolling windows, procedures, functions in Dexterity Sanscript programming language). There are smaller firms and independent programmers who went through eConnect programming training in MS Visual Studio. We respect these individuals, but at the same time we believe that eConnect definitely opens the door to generic C# or VB.Net coder to be involved in GP developing project, Dexterity is still the tool where the majority of ISV and in-house programmed modules are created
4. Integration Projects. The majority of the integrations could and probably should be done in Integration Manager (if your consultant tells you that it is not possible, please reiterate the question by asking – how about Advanced ODBC Queries, allowing you to read data from Microsoft SQL Server View, Oracle, MySQL; also are your familiar with VBA event driven scripts? Howe about scheduling my ecommerce shopping cart integration in quasi real time mode every twenty minutes?). If you are Visual Studio programmer, you may lean toward eConnect libraries inclusion into your web application project. This is fine, but IM does the same job and it is end user friendly product. Sometimes we here the questions from generic SQL Server DBA type of person – why don’t we do integration directly in custom SQL Stored Procedures? This approach is theoretically possible (and in fact eConnect follows exactly that way – it has the set of encrypted stored procedures as its technology background). However if you are trying this route – the chances are close to hundred percent that you will have the issues with data compromising. SQL Insert or Update statement doesn’t validate GP business logic (stored in Dynamics.dic outside of the SQL logic realm). Great Plains Dexterity doesn’t use such mechanisms as SQL Foreign Key, instead it offers such maintenance procedures as Check Links to analyze the records in the cluster of tables on the subject to become orphans
5. Reporting. In version 2010/11.0 we see substantial advancements in Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). Plus Microsoft Management Reporter is recommended as replacement to FRx Financial Reporting. Microsoft Word Templates are also available for such documents as SOP Invoice, Quote, Sales Order, Return, POP set of documents
6. Supporting older version of Great Plains Dynamics Select or GPA for DOS, Windows or Mac. GP is not something that was introduced just couple of years ago. Great Plains Dynamics was one of the pioneering graphical accounting platform available on Microsoft Windows and Macintosh in earlier 1990th. The predecessor was Great Plains Accounting for DOS, Macintosh and Windows (9.5, 9.2 and earlier). DB platform support for antiquity Dynamics were Btrieve and Ctree/Faircom
7. Competition. Probably the most advanced competitor is SAP Business One. One of the advantages is the fact that SB1 is internationalized (localized for the majority of World languages and countries). SAP B1 is available in such languages (where GP is not available) as Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian. There are some tricks to make Great Plains to speak Chinese (NJ Stars for example), but Corporate ERP localization is not just language support – the more important feature is local tax code compliance (where in Russian Federation we would rather recommend 1S Bukhgalteria, Dynamics AX, NAV or SAP Business One; in Brazil we would recommend NAV or AX, or Microsiga)
8. Arabic Speaking Countries. Here Great Plains is traditionally available with several localization blends (based of various technologies, such as Dexterity string resource translation in Dynamics.dic – this one is available in Egypt; Modifier Customization Site Enabler Arabic translation – this approach is a bit more expensive and you have to have Customization Site Enable license)
9. If you feel that your concerns are not addressed or your question is not answered, please feel free to contact our office. Support domestically in the USA, Canada, Mexico and internationally. This option is possible via Web Sessions, Skype or Phone conferences and direct visits onsite (in the case of the large scale project). Our consulting team speaks English, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Filipino. Feel free to call us 1-866-304-3265, 1-269-605-4904, or email help@efaru.com
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