Microsoft Great
Plains Customizations Dexterity Dynamics eEnterprise Microsoft CRM Microsoft
RMS Crystal Reports SQL .Net
C# International
Alba Spectrum Technologies
Customizations
Overview - Microsoft Business Solutions products: Microsoft Great Plains, Microsoft CRM, Microsoft RMS have wide selection of customization tools. The selection of the tool is critical in customization fate. In case of Microsoft CRM, which is browser based thin client application - your are safe to use standard .Net customization (VisualStudio.Net: C#/VB). For Microsoft Great Plains you should consider following factors:
how seamless customization should be incorporated into the application interface: windows/reports, etc (Dexterity)
is the performance critical, especially for large tables/data updates (Dexterity with SQL Stored procs)
is complex and further customizable reporting a must (Crystal reports with SQL Views and SQL Stored procs)
if only light windows customization is needed (Modifier with VBA)
Dexterity - proprietary Great Plains Software language, which allows seamless integration into Great Plains and which is the internal language all the Great Plains modules (except eXXX line) are coded with. It is the tool of choice if you need instant access/drill down to original Great Plains windows. Requires certain expertise and experience. Is rather cursor-driven (not aggregated, like SQL), so it's performance maybe increased by transferring portions of logic to SQL stored procedures. Dexterity uses Great Plains security model.
SQL - structured query language - de-facto standard among all the database platforms. Microsoft has it's extension to SQL 92, named Transact SQL.
Integration manager - Great Plains tool allowing integration of text files or ODBC complying database to be a source for importing data into Great Plains. Integration Manager treats Great Plains as OLE server, so each integration record comes in through background Great Plains form, ensuring 100% data validation. Take into consideration, however that if you have tens of thousand transactions to integrate on a daily basis - IM is too slow and not a choice, consider SQL Data Transformation Services or Stored Procedures. Integration Manager maybe modified with VBA.
VBA, Modifier - VBA is restricted version of Microsoft Visual Basic. Modifier allows placing custom buttons and logic behind standard Great Plains windows through VBA coding. However, comparing to Dexterity - doesn't not operate in Great Plains security realm and doesn't have easy access to Great Plains tables, you have to use ADO connection.
Crystal Reports - recommended by Microsoft Business Solutions for all possible extension to standard Great Plains ReportWriter and FRx reports. De-facto industries leader. Operates on multiple platforms, has flexible connection to database options: native drivers, ODBC, Crystal Queries, etc.
.Net - doesn't need explanation. However, when customizing Microsoft CRM - it is required platform and currently Microsoft CRM Software Development Kit has all the examples in C#. In addition to 'classic' Microsoft CRM SDK programming we do Microsoft Exchange programming to filter email coming to Microsoft CRM and/or transfer specific emails to CRM and remove them from Exchange
Lotus Domino - Excellent Document flow system for mid size and large companies, comes from Lotus - IBM subdivision. This is pioneer and veteran on the marker. We think that modern CRMs are actually repeating the main functionality of Lotus Notes / Domino. Whatever is possible on Siebel/Microsoft CRM platforms is also possible (maybe with customizations) on Lotus Domino. Check with us - we stay with Lotus Domino since 1995.
Java/EJB - More mature, than Microsoft .Net platform for web exposure of your database transactions. The best choice for online banking, distributed transactions, etc. We do this development via our offshore development team.
Case Studies By Customization Technology
Great Plains Dexterity Customizations Dynamics eEnterprise Microsoft CRM Microsoft RMS Crystal Reports SQL .Net C# International