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Microsoft Dynamics GP,
successor of Great Plains Software Dynamics and eEnterprise is very
popular ERP platform, deployed as accounting back office and integrated
with various business management system. Among the most typical
scenarios of GP MRP integration are Electronic Document Interface EDI
and eCommerce. Lets consider and compare the methodologies, integration
and software development tools, programming techniques and customization
option
EDI. Electronic Document Interchange is relatively matured technology
and typically it is realized in the form of fixed length text formatted
files or text streams. Newer approach may consider new generation of
similar to EDI in concept XML streams. When we are talking about GP, we
should expect two types of EDI integrations when you are vendor (in
this case you receive EDI formatted either Sales Order Processing orders
or invoices or Accounts Receivables invoices); and when you are customer
(in this case you place EDI purchase orders to your vendors). From the
technology standpoint, EDI is not really difficult in standard and even
custom realization and programming. Microsoft Dynamics GP, starting with
version 8.0, is supported on the only DB platform Microsoft SQL
Server. Current version of Microsoft Great Plains is 10.0, available on
MS SQL Server 2005 or 2000. You program EDI streams with SQL select
command, and you format text fields with cast or convert constructions.
When you import external EDI streams you, it is when you create SOP
Invoices, you should consider utilizing eConnect
eCommerce. If you are e-commerce programmer, please invest your time in
eConnect technology learning. You probably heard about eConnect and
about the fact that it was dedicated initially to e-commerce software
developers. We would like to sort of popularize eConnect and say this
if you do eCommerce integration from scratch, you have to feed eCommerce
orders and invoices into GP tables: SOP10100, SOP10200. However, you
should know that eConnect already has this job done for you in eConnect
business objects encrypted stored procedures. There are several
situations when you should break through eConnect restrictions. First
one is the fact that eConnect replicates Dexterity business logic (DYNAMICS.DIC
is Microsoft Dexterity dictionary, where all the core modules business
logic is stored) and even trusting astonishing SQL Server performance,
you can still have concerns that eConnect might be a bit slow, if you
transactions volume crosses thousand records per session. If eConnect
performance is in question, you may consider doing simplified
integration in SQL stored procedures using insert into logic. The second
eConnect limitation is absence of posting logic in order to post SOP
batches you will need to deploy Albaspectrum posting server
Additional Highlights for
GP Integration Manager:
Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0
has higher reliance on such new Microsoft technologies, as SQL Server
Reporting Services or SRS, Sharepoint with its famous workflow
(competitor to traditional Lotus Notes workflow) and of course eConnect
(this is rising star in GP software programming and e-commerce
development). If you was GP IM user or developer for earlier versions,
you probably remember that IM required GP user workstation to be up and
running (and so taking extra precious user license in system manager),
plus all the forms got to be closed in IM GP instance, and this is
understandable as Integration Manager deployed OLE server technologies
(GP workstation was serving as OLE application server). And additional
complication was related to the fact that you had to login to the
specific company to do integration, IM could not switch companies
automatically. All these restrictions were gone with the appearance of
eConnect connector for Integration Manager 9.0 and 10.0
1. eConnect technology stack. There is no magic behind the scenes about
eConnect you can read nice pile of whitepapers and technical documents
about eConnect technology, but in the beginning of the chain you see
traditional and old known SQL encrypted stored procedures. These stored
procedures replicate and probably improve GP traditional Great Plains
Dexterity business logic. In some cases they are Dex following and do it
in SQL cursors, in other cases they use SQL aggregated logic, such as
Select, Insert into and similar constructions. If you look at Dexterity
performance restrictions (Dex is C programming language written shell
and so it in turn is two layers architecture and it is by its nature a
bit slow). And consider these facts about Dexterity, you could trust us,
that eConnect does job a way faster than Dexterity based old Integration
Manager connectors
2. IM and eConnect.
Microsoft Dynamics GP IM introduced new connectors, now you can deploy
original eConnect connectors and get performance boost. If you are IM
manager consultant, who used to consult for older versions: 5.0, 6.0,
7.0, 7.5, please remember this important change eConnect IM
integration integrates to dedicated GP company and so database
3. VBA scripting. Even if
you are using eConnect connectors for Integration Manager, you still can
deploy traditional VBA scripting techniques to manipulate integration:
Before Integration, Before Document, etc.
4. Traditional IM
connectors. At this time Microsoft Business Solutions keeps traditional
OLE integration connectors in and, considering this nice fact, you can
still seamlessly upgrade IM from earlier versions (however we discovered
the fact, that if you are on version 7.5, you cant just follow upgrade
wizard, you have to upgrade in two steps with intermediate version
upgrade
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ALBA Partners:
GP Business Portal
Great Plains Accounting
for DOS & Windows
Microsoft CRM
SAP Business One
ALBA Products:
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Posting Server
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RMS-GP Integration
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SOP Connector
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More...
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