When you are selecting your next Small Business ERP application it is good idea to talk to consulting firm where they sell and implement several products. When you are talking to somebody who is selling just one accounting solution then you often hear the assurance that ‘our product is the best and it will definitely do the job.’
Let’s take a look at SAP B1 and its competition from both upper and lower pricing diapasons. Let’s begin with Microsoft Dynamics GP or formerly known as Great Plains Dynamics. Before we continue let’s make a comment that we do not pretend to address this paper to programmers or technical consultants as it is rather designed as initial homework direction highlight for managerial personal and decision makers:
1. SAP BO versus Dynamics GP. First of all Great Plains Dynamics was introduced as Dexterity application back in earlier 1990th and offered those days on Macintosh and Microsoft Windows operating systems as well as on Ctree/Faircom and Btrieve platforms. Microsoft SQL Server was also available for upscale version Dynamics C/S+. If would be fair to say that GP has more functionality available directly from Microsoft and structured in modules. Plus due to its long history it has numerous ISV add-ons covering industry horizontal and vertical solutions. Financial reporting in Great Plains is also geared by such multicompany consolidation tools as Microsoft Management Reporter and former FRx. Now let’s look at Business One. It was introduced to the United States and International MRP market about a decade later comparing to Great Plains. It has more flexible way to add user defined fields to existing tables as well as create new user defined tables where user interface to these custom objects is created automatically and no programming is required. There is another plus as Business One is localized in major world regions and is a good fit for international facility of the multinational company. For example B1 is localized in such countries as Brazil, Russia, most of the Europe and China while GP is not marketed in these countries
2. Microsoft Small Business Financials. This application was scaled down version of Dynamics GP where several implementation wizards were introduced but it was Dexterity application with some preset tables. Microsoft pulled out the plug and the last available version was 9.0 and since then Microsoft offered the way to migrate to Dynamics GP Business Ready or do whatever you decide otherwise
3. Peach Tree and QuickBooks. It looks like Peach Tree offers its high end version to available on MS SQL Server platform. If you are thinking to spend only couple hundreds of dollars then we recommend you to think about application interoperability. Cheap version typically comes with proprietary database platform (as you do not have to share these two hundred dollars with Microsoft to acquire SQL Server licenses). Luxury SQL platform opens the opportunities to do data integration, export and direct reports design in such tools as Crystal and Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services
4. SAP Business One expansion in the United States. The competition is very aggressive and the way to earn new customer is probably through replacing outdated DOS accounting packages. Currently we are seeing upgrade trend from version 2005A and 2007A to the version 8.81 as we are writing these lines in October of 2011
5. Cloud Small Business ERP hosting. There are two hives where the first one offers discounted licenses and restricts you from customizations, EDI and integrations. The second hive is about hosting your server where you have complete control but have to pay several hundred dollars per month for hosting services. The Cloud trend is pretty new and we would like to see how events are unfolding in the foreseeable future
6. Please call us 1-866-304-3265, 1-269-605-4904 (for international customers, where our representatives pick up the phone in Naperville and St. Joseph, MI call centers). help@efaru.com. We have local presence in Atlanta, Chicago, Southern California, South West Michigan, Houston and Dallas areas of Texas. We serve customers USA, Canada, Mexico and Brazil nationwide and internationally via web sessions and phone conferences (Skype is welcomed). Our consultants speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Chinese. One of our experiences is international Corporate ERP and Consolidated Financial reporting
Dexterity Customization for Dynamics GP Evaluation Level Paper
When you are developer it is always a good idea to read technical manuals. But if you was just assigned to the IT team to decide if Dexterity is the right tool to customize your ERP application then first you need something which is in style of ‘easy reading papers’ or FAQ
Planning Dynamics GP Customization in Large Corporation
If you are reading this page then chances are high that you were not able to find ISV add-on and need customization project. Let’s talk about planning, quality assurance and future event such as version updates.
Dynamics GP Invoice Logo Attributed to Specific Company or Crossing the Borders of Three SOP Forms
Initial Great Plains Dynamics architecture had three SOP Invoice forms: Long, Short and Blank. Modern GP is popular in scenarios where you have more than three companies under one business entity umbrella
