|
|
Great Plains Small Business Managers or Financials Migration recommendation - Alba Spectrum
Alba Spectrum
Historical excurse - Great Plains Software Dynamics was targeted to mid-size and large companies back in late 1990th. As Rich Corporate ERP business logic could be easily downgraded for small businesses with reasonable support from ERP implementation wizards - this as the way for GPS to repackage Great Plains Dynamics into GP Small Business Manager 7.0 on MSDE 2000 (Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Edition 2000). However, since the time when Microsoft acquired Great Plains Software, with Great Plains, Solomon, Navision and Axapta, Microsoft also introduced such small business ERP applications as Microsoft Small Business Accounting, Microsoft Point Of Sales (POS). We are not Microsoft, and we can only guess on what did happen, and our opinion is that Small Business Financials was considered as no longer feasible product. If you are on SBM 7.0 or Small Business Financials 7.5, 8.0 or 9.0, please review this article and think about your Corporate ERP future. We are full service Microsoft Dynamics GP and Small Business Financials partner and ISV in USA, Canada and Internationally and we specialize in complex Great Plains implementation, customization, modified reporting, version upgrade, integration, EDI projects
As you probably know, Microsoft Business Solutions Small Business Financials was recommended for migration to Microsoft Dynamics GP. The last version of SBF is 9.0. If you are deploying Small Business Financials 9.0 or 8.0 (or Small Business Manager 7.0 or 7.5), we would like to offer your attention this small publication, where we are describing real upgrade and migration and giving you some technical highlights: upgrade path, known issues and fixes. If you have access to Microsoft Business Solutions Partner or Customer Source, there you should find official information and recommendation, which could be more recent comparing to this text, however this article is written in Corporate ERP popularization style and should give you good initial info
1. Migration and Upgrade Path. We strongly recommend you to create test upgrade server, as number of problems seems to be too high for ad-hoc upgrade. In our case we installed SBF 7.5 on Microsoft SQL Server 2000 as test environment. Please, note that SBF 7.5 is not compatible with SQL Server 2005, and GP 10 is compatible with SQL 2000, so we recommend this DB platform for upgrade environment, later on you can move your upgraded to GP 10.0 Dynamics and company databases to SQL 2005 or even SQL 2008. Migration path should be considered as the following SBF 7.5->SBF 9.0, then Migration tool from SBF 9.0 to Dynamics GP 9.0, then install Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 workstation without service packs, prior to launching GP 9.0, please make this step in Query analyzer against Dynamics DB:
Delete DU000030
By the way - this is not our recommendation, this is recommendation from Microsoft Business Solutions on deleting DU000030
2. Then launch Dynamics GP 9.0 utilities and this tool will add new objects to upgraded databases (Field Service, etc, normally included into Dynamics GP 9.0 and not available in SBF). In our case we decided to enter reg key for 9.0 and be sure that it works OK
In our case we had Extender customization, and according to MBS Dynamics GP SP4 had in time known issues with Extender. So, we decided to upgrade to Dynamics GP 10.0 SP3, instead, but in your case, if you do not have Extender modifications (it is unlikely to have Extender for SBF, but we just got it in our case), please feel free to move to Dynamics GP SP4 or the latest one available in your time
3. Security transfer problem. As you may know in Dynamics GP 10.0 security architecture is completely redesigned, and normal upgrade from GP 9.0 or 8.0 to Dynamics GP 10.0 is transferring security for each individual user (it creates security role per user, which is not the completely elegant approach, but it makes the job, assuming that for new GP users you will deploy functional security roles). Please be sure to download MDGP10_SY01000SecurityConversionCheck.sql from Partner Source and run it in Query Analyzer. It will change Databases automatically, so you don't have to worry about DB context
4. 5597 Product Upgrade problem. You may get this issue when you upgrade Dynamics GP 9.0 SP4 to Dynamics GP 10.0 SP3, or SP4. For these service packs it is known issue and patch should be released somewhere in the future. To detect the problem - you got company DB upgrade, open Query Analyzer and run this script against DYNAMICS DB:
select * from DU000030
And look for error code with the number 5597 in Product Number field. If you found it, please apply the following fix:
a. Do not restore the company database. Leave the company database at the failed state.
b. Close Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 Utilities.
c. Run the following script in Query Analyzer:
UPDATE DYNAMICS..DU000030 set Status = 0 where fileNumber = 1 and PRODID = 5597
d. Run the following script in Query Analyzer to create the required index on the SEE30303 table:
CREATE UNIQUE CLUSTERED INDEX [AK5SEE30303] ON [dbo].[SEE30303]
( [GLPOSTDT] ASC, [ITEMNMBR] ASC, [QTYTYPE] ASC,
[SEQNUMBR] ASC )
5. Maybe migration is too complex in your opinion? Actually, if you would rather consider Dynamics GP consulting help, we would favor your preference
6. How to get help? Please, feel free to call us: 1-866-528-0577, outside of USA: 1-630-961-5918 or email us help@albaspectrum.com We are very technical and real Dynamics GP Dexterity, SAP Business One SDK and Microsoft CRM programming gurus. We have Great Plains Software Development Factory and could support unlimited Dynamics GP Customization and Programming needs. Plus we speak English, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and not only as native speaking sales folks, but as real technical consultants. If you prefer skype: albaspectrum
Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum , help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577 http://www.albaspectrum.com Serving ERP and MRP community since 1994, local service in Chicago, Houston, San Diego, Atlanta, Los Angeles. Information portal: http://www.pegasplanet.com We serve you USA and Canada nationwide from our Dynamics GP and SAP Business One call center: California, Illinois, New York, Florida, Minnesota, New Jersey, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Ontario, Quebec, Washington, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Montana, Oregon, New York, New England. International clients welcome from Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, South Africa, UK, Brazil, Caribbean, Russia, Central America: Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, San Salvador, Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala , South America: Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia
Author Site
10/12/2009
|
|
