Microsoft Great Plains – licensing & product versions
By Andrew Karasev
Alba Spectrum Technologies
USA
1-866-528-0577,
1-630-961-5918,
help@albaspectrum.com
Current Microsoft
Business Solutions Great Plains has more that 10 years of history. Former Great
Plains Software had two lines of Great Plains: Dynamics & Dynamics C/S+, later
on renamed into eEnterprise. In this small article we would like to give you
first directions when you look into Great Plains purchase and implementation or
upgrade your existing product. Also we’ll clarify on annual enhancement program
reenrollment and getting technical support from Microsoft Business Solutions or
third party. We will talk about customization, because it would be outside of
the tiny article format. You need to know that Great Plains is written in Great
Plains Dexterity and customization is possible in Dexterity, SQL, Extender,
Modifier/VBA, Continuum, eConnect.
- Great Plains
Professional. This is high-end
product, which should be capable to automate midsize and large business, it
will not have limitation on number of user, payroll employees, modules
selection. Database platform is Microsoft SQL Server 2000/2005. Current
supported versions: 9.0 (since September 2005), 8.0, 7.5 and 7.0. If you need
Service Advantage Suite, Customer/Vendor Consolidation, Lockbox Processing and
other modules, targeted for midsize and corporate clientele – you should
purchase Great Plains Professional
- Great Plains
Standard. This is scaled down version of GP – it is limited to 10 users,
500 employees (this was very large issue when MBS introduced GPS with version
8.0 – version 7.5 of Dynamics on SQL Server didn’t have this employees limit
and multiple payroll outsourcing companies used it), also selection of
additional modules is restricted. If you are midsize business – please first
analyze your needs, more likely you will need GP Professional. In some cases,
if you have advanced developers – you can use eConnect to provide simple user
interface to GP Standard over the web and resolve licensing. Great Plains
Standard is available on MSDE (MS SQL 2005 Express) or MS SQL Server. In case
if you would like to use MS SQL Server – ask your MBS Partner to get new reg
key from MBS – you will need to prove your MS SQL Server license.
- Historical DB
Platforms. Since version 8.0
Great Plains is available on MS SQL Server/MSDE. Version 7.5, 7.0, 6.0, 5.5,
5.0 and earlier were available on MS SQL Server, Pervasive SQL 2000/Btrieve
and Ctree/Faircom. If you are on Ctree or Pervasive SQL – you will need to be
reenrolled into annual enhancement program, which is 35% (this includes 16%
enhancement for the next year, and 19% reenrollment fee). Then, migration
tool is $2k and your MBS VAR can migrate you to Great Plains Professional or
Great Plains Standard.
- Great Plains
Accounting. We are experiencing a lot of problems with this “pre-historical”
application. This product is not supported by MBS and you can hardly find
consultant on the market who knows this application. What we can do for you
is – if something happens – looks technical support database and see if your
issue and fix are posted there. We strongly recommend you to migrate to Great
Plains Standard. We’ll provide this migration service.
- Switch MBS VAR
form. In order to help you with
migration, upgrade, integration, reenrollment – we need to see your records in
Microsoft Business Solutions customer database. We’ll email you switch
VAR form to sign so you can become our official client.
Good luck and you can always seek our
help in customization, implementation, integration and support. Call us:
1-866-528-0577 or 1-630-961-5918,
help@albaspectrum.com
Andrew Karasev is Chief
Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Great Plains,
Microsoft CRM customization company, serving Chicago, California, Arizona,
Texas, Florida, Georgia, New York, Australia, UK, Canada, Germany, Continental Europe,
Russia and having locations in multiple states and internationally (
http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports
and Microsoft CRM SDK developer