Andrew Karasev asked:


Microsoft Great Plains as mid-size ERP requires professional approach to be implemented in mid-size organization. In this small article we would like to orient you, assuming that you are controller, IT director, or even programmer responsible for GP project. Servicing relatively complex MRP system, including its installation, implementation, data migration & conversion, integration with legacy and peripheral systems, reporting, system customization and business logic alteration, require GP professional consultant involvement, similar to when you purchase new car, you expect professional technician to do service and repair job, at least first three years. Let’s review Great Plains implementation steps and process overall, trying to cover reasonable details:

1. Hardware Requirements. Microsoft publishes hardware requirements on Partner and Customer source for its Dynamics product line. You should think about hardware requirements from the number of simultaneous users, the role of GP server – if it is dedicate for Great Plains or you plan it to serve additional tasks, such as be Active Directory server or Domain controller for example. We saw public companies, who utilized Microsoft Small Business Server to serve all company systems in one box, to give you amazing example
2. OS Software requirements. Latest Windows server is recommended. You can try 64 bit Windows 2003 server R2 or if at the time of reading Microsoft releases newest server – more likely it is supported and recommended

3. Microsoft Great Plains Implementation Steps. You begin with Microsoft Dynamics GP reseller selection, where you should be comfortable with functional and technical expertise, user training capability, data conversion expertise, and probably overall number of installations to verify the background. When you are done with MBS partner selection, you should concentrate on Great Plains modules selection: majority of GP modules, such as General Ledger, Inventory Control, Manufacturing, Accounts Receivables, Bank Reconciliation, Accounts Payable, Sales Order Processing, Purchase Order Processing, Payroll and HR are Microsoft Dexterity applications. The other set of modules are coming from Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Portal and Sharepoint: Requisition Management former eRequisition, Order Management former eOrder, employee selfservice, Electronic Document Delivery, Key Performance Indicators, here we are talking about Microsoft Great Plains Business Portal 10.0 or 3.0. When you are done with modules selection you can move on to GP installation and test environment with potential user training

4. Data conversion dilemma. Ideally you would like all your historical ERP data to be converted and imported to GP. However this might not be practical, due to high cost and time consumption. We recommend you to consider masters record conversion: customers, vendors, employees, GL chart of accounts and then do GL initial balances transaction entry to close old period in legacy accounting and begin new fiscal period in Microsoft Great Plains. Try to consider the idea of having your legacy accounting system to be available in transition period for data inquiry and lookup

5. Users Training. Future GP users should be involved in Great Plains Chart of account design, especially in its segmentation – GP allows you to sort accounting records by account segment in FRx financial reporting. Then users should participate in modules setup: SOP, POP, RM, PM, Project Accounting, Service Management Suite.

6. Custom Business Logic and Reporting needs covering. If you have specific EDI, data integration needs, industry compliance reports, please check with your MBS partner on the best way to cover these needs. In GP wide range of customization and programming tools is available: Great Plains Dexterity, ReportWriter, MS SQL Server Reporting Services or SRS, GP SDK for Visual Studio Developer (C# and VB.Net are the most popular programming languages), eConnect, Integration Manager, VBA with Modifier, Extender, SQL Views and Stored Procedures to name some

7. GP Version Upgrade. Version update is handled by GP Utilities, however you should know some facts about upgrade to GP 10.0. At this time, December 2007, GP 10.0 Service Pack 1 is available, you should apply it prior to launching upgrade process. Prior to SP 1 upgrade path was available from 9.0 SP2 or GP 8.0 SP5. Upgrade process from technical side replaces GP workstation: Dynamics.dic, Dex.ini, Dex.exe and then it launches utilities. Utilities copy the table, which got new structure in the new version to temp database, then it drops and recreates the table and moves data back from temporary database. In certain situation, this version upgrade process has vulnerability to bugs, typically fixed in Service Packs

8. Other FAQ. What is DEX_ROW_ID? – it is used by Microsoft Dexterity engine and you typically should not include it into data conversion scripts. How do I backup and transfer specific GP table? You use select * into statement, then you drop DEX_ROW_ID and to restore you use insert into select * from construction