| |
| |
|
Software Information |
|
|
|
IT Strategy for Midsize Business: Microsoft vs. Java, Great Plains & CRM
Midsize business or non-profit organization should decide if one-vendor solution would be appropriate and the associated risk acceptable. In our opinion, balancing the risk of one-vendor-approach is not economically feasible and should be avoided. This means that you need to decide if you plan to be Microsoft-oriented or Java/Unix/Linux/Oracle oriented. In the case of Java direction - you again have to further consider your options and if possible do not deploy too many systems from different vendors. Even if you host your systems with somebody else - we think that in the future you might have a risk of complex data conversion from one system to another. In this small article we'll show you typical way if you follow Microsoft direction: Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains and Microsoft CRM ? Sales Automation. It was actual at all the times, however now it is becoming critical to have decent Client Relation Management (CRM) system implemented. You order takers or sales people should be working exclusively in CRM, where you should have sales workflow, approvals, pipeline of pending deals, reporting with future cash flow prediction. Use Microsoft CRM Sales module. ? Servicing. If you would like to avoid tame wasting when your service and sales people are talking to each other and have long meetings to fulfill customer order, you have to organize them around CRM Service module: Contract, Case, Activity, workflow and assignments to service technicians, plus email to/from your customers should be captured in MS CRM ? ERP. Currently, Microsoft Business Solutions has MS CRM integrated with Microsoft Great Plains. Great Plains is good ERP solution for majority midsize business and fits to variety of business niches. Great Plains is integrated with MS CRM on the level of Sales Order Processing module (SOP). ? Customization. Usually each midsize business has unique procedures which should be mapped into their CRM and ERP. So, be ready to have minor or major customization implemented. In the case of MS CRM - majority of the customizations are done in C# or VB.Net - so called Microsoft CRM SDK programming and development. It is open technology - you can download MS CRM SDK and have anyone with C#/VB.Net skills do the job. In the case of Microsoft Great Plains he technology is not that open and you might need somebody with Great Plains Dexterity, VBA/Modifier, Integration Manager, eConnect, SQL coding - this combination of skills is usually available from one of the Microsoft Business Solutions Customization Partners ? Integration. If you have something else, besides Microsoft CRM and Great Plains, then you might need the integration. Assuming that your major systems are on the Microsoft platform - integrations should be done via heterogeneous queries from the side of Microsoft SQL server - through linked servers ? Reporting. In our opinion - the best tool for non-financial reports (financial - use FRx) is Crystal Reports. Base your Crystal report on heterogeneous view or stored procedure to pull the data from multiple systems. You can deploy Crystal reports in your web application, if needed Good luck with implementation, customization and integration and if you have issues or concerns - we are here to help! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 866-528-0577 or 630-961-5918! help@albaspectrum.com Andrew is Great Plains specialist in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) - Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Microsoft CRM Partner, serving clients in California, Minnesota, Illinois, Washington, Florida, Arizona, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Canada, UK, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Russia
MORE RESOURCES:
Software - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Open Source Concepts: Dual Licensing Explained We were recently faced with a decision: either to let a program that took us one year to code die, simply because we do not have enough time to maintain it, or make it open source.Open source looked like a good idea for while, but there was one problem. Increase Office Efficiency With One Simple Tool When you need a phone number, you do a quick search on the Internet and in a few seconds, you've got the information you need. And you probably receive a lot of contact information right inside the emails you receive every day. The Tools and Features of Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is one of the world's leading graphics editing programs, developed by Adobe Systems. Available on Mac OS or PC, Photoshop is used as one of the leading image design programs for the World Wide Web. How to Upgrade Dexterity Customization - Tips for IT Manager If you have Microsoft Great Plains and support it for your company and have light or heavy Great Plains customization, written in Dexterity - you need to know your options in upgrading Great Plains or migrating it from ctree/Pervasive to MS SQL/MSDE. Great Plains Dexterity is proprietary programming language/environment, which was created in early 1990-th to provide platform / database / graphical interface independence for Mac and Windows based Great Plains Dynamics. New SQL Delta Version 3.1 COMMAND LINE FUNCTIONA powerful command line script processor has been introduced to SQL Delta 3.1. 10 Programming Tips (1) Avoid using the same variable again and again for different purposes.This happens with us that we think that more and more memory will be wasted if we declare seperate variable for each purpose. Manufacturing Solutions for Microsoft Great Plains - Overview for Consultant Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains has full-featured manufacturing set of modules. In this small article we would like to give you highlights on what kinds of light customization you could deploy, before jumping into Microsoft Great Plains Manufacturing realm. Microsoft Great Plains Upgrade - Things to Consider and FAQ If you have Microsoft Great Plains and support it for your company then you need to know some technical details about Great Plains version upgrade and what is going on behind the scenes, which options do you have in case of Dexterity, VBA, SQL customization, additional complexity comes with migration from ctree/Pervasive to MS SQL/MSDE.What is upgrade in the language of technology? Upgrade has server and client sides. Corporate Accounting System: Microsoft Great Plains - Overview Corporate ERP/MRP selection might be tough one, especially considering very turbulent ERP world and fierce competition between Microsoft Business Solutions (Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, MS CRM), Oracle (Oracle Financials, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards), IBM (including Lotus Domino), SAP, Microsiga (Brazil, Portugal). We recommend you, IT director of large corporation, make your home work and decide on Microsoft or Java/EJB/J2EE platform (however you should consider vendor dependence minimization, and stake on both with XML streams integration between the two). Running a Program on a Remote Server Using SSH How do you run a program on a remote server using ssh?For this example we'll have two servers, one named Johnny and another named Cash. Both are running openssh. How to Backup Windows XP Home Edition Your computer cost you from hundreds to thousands of dollars, but the computer itself is not the most valuable part. The data on the hard disk is the most valuable part. Accessing XML Using Java Technologies The most important benefit of XML is its simplicity. Though it is simple it is powerful enough to express complex data structures. Microsoft Great Plains - Microsoft RMS Integration - overview Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft Retail Management System (Microsoft RMS) are originally developed by different software vendors, who had no idea that in the remote future (now) these two applications will be owned by Microsoft and will need to be tightly integrated. Current integration between the two is not an easy thing. Software Piracy SOFTWARE PIRACY We regularly hear reports about the cost to the software industry of software piracy, but are the claims to be taken at face value? Statistics are notoriously biased towards what the author is trying to say. Types of Software: There are three basic types of software, although these do have their own subsections, as will be discussed later: 1. Microsoft CRM Customization: Integration with Third Party SQL Application/Database Microsoft CRM - Client Relationship Management package from Microsoft Business Solutions was initially designed to be customizable with Microsoft Visual Studio.Net and one of its programming languages - C#. Online PowerPoint Presentation - Convert PowerPoint to Flash Although we don't know whether Microsoft ever envisioned such a big market about PowerPoint on its first release. Today this software is impacting profoundly on education and corporation's activities in the way that nobody could ignore. Microsoft Great Plains Customization and Development - Overview for Programmer When Great Plains Software was designing and developing Great Plains Dynamics/Dynamics CS+/eEnterprise - it placed several fundamental principles into the system1. Computer platform independence. Mozilla Vs. Firefox For those who are unclear on the differences between the Mozilla package (Netscape is also comparable to Mozilla except they're two different companies) and Firefox / Thunderbird, here it is: Mozilla is a complete package meaning it comes with email, browser, address book, newsgroup, and chat applications integrated.FireFox is a stand-alone browser application. Begun, The Browser Wars Have As Mozilla Firefox nears 10% market share, with well over 25 million downloads direct from the makers website, and goodness knows how many through other sources, Microsoft announces that it will be releasing IE 7 ahead of schedule. Originally scheduled for release with Microsoft's new Longhorn operating system in 2006, it seems that Microsoft are reacting to the run away success that Firefox has had over the last few months. Lotus Domino/Notes - Microsoft Great Plains Tandem as ERP with Documents Workflow - Overview for IT Lotus Domino/Notes - Microsoft Great Plains tandem as ERP with Documents Workflow - overview for IT SpecialistMicrosoft Business Solutions has the whole spectrum of business applications, the good combination seems to be Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft CRM. However we need to admit that Microsoft is relatively new in the CRM market and also for large corporation it could not be a good idea "to put all the eggs into one basket".
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
