Released on = May 7, 2006, 3:10 pm

Press Release Author = Alba Spectrum Group

Industry = Computers

Press Release Summary = In this small article we would like to concentrate on legacy
tools, especially on such issues as strategic Microsoft Dexterity customization,
integration, reports upgrade and switch to the current of future customizations
technologies

Press Release Body = Alba Spectrum Group, USA/Canada: 1-866-528-0577,
1-630-961-5918, Europe: +44 20 8123 2580, +45 36 96 55 20, Mexico: 52-55-535-04027,
Brazil: 55-11-3444-4949, help@albaspectrum.com skype: albaspectrum
In this small article we would like to concentrate on legacy tools, especially on
such issues as strategic Microsoft Dexterity customization, integration, reports
upgrade and switch to the current of future customizations technologies. As you
know Microsoft Great Plains or former Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise was renamed
into Microsoft Dynamics GP and current version Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 so-called
"fat" client still uses Great Plains Software legacy programming language or shell -
Microsoft or Great Plains Dexterity
. Legacy Features. Great Plains Dexterity was designed on several fundamental idea,
popular in the beginning of 1990th - computer graphical platform and database
platform independence, and logically as you might remember the stake was on C
programming language, as the hybrid of assembler and at the same time more generic
programming or high level language. Obviously if you decide to stake on one - you
have to sacrifice or disregard the other. In the case of Great Plains Dexterity we
see the following problems: lack of Unicode support (making it not a good choice for
international expansion), DEX_ROW_ID - in SQL Server database - each dexterity table
must have this field, used by Dexterity engine internally, inflexibility in
ReportWriter or Dex reports, where you have to use only key-based links. Plus
graphical interface is kind of outdated - again it is based on C transferable
graphics
. eConnect & web services. With the progress of Project Green or now Microsoft
Dynamics project, there is the potential need to resolve multiple database kernels
for several Microsoft ERP: Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, Solomon with unified
interface, utilizing .Net or its successor. eConnect allows developer to manipulate
Microsoft Dynamics GP objects through programmable .Net interfaces. If you will
deploy web service envelopes then you potentially can be independent from
programming language and computer technologies, and so manipulate Microsoft Great
Plains business logic from your front end application of choice, including
eCommerce, EDI, J2EE, Oracle, Business Intelligence (BI), etc.
. Dexterity Customization Upgrade. It is probably not reasonable to spend large
budget to switching to new technologies in one step, however you should consider
step-by-step switch. We recommend you to deploy eConnect and web service interfaces
as much as you can, plus try to switch reporting from Dexterity to SQL Server
Reporting Services
. Crystal Reports. As you can conclude - Microsoft will be recommending SRS versus
Crystal Reports, and you probably remember, that Crystal was the reporting tool of
choice for older Microsoft Great Plains versions: 5.5, 6.0, 7.0 and 7.5
. New Tools. Extender, Excel, Explorer and other "end-user-friendly" tools. In
this article we definitely recommend you to do your intuitive discovery, but we
concentrate on programmer approach and instruments.

Please do not hesitate to call or email us: USA/Canada: 1-866-528-0577,
1-630-961-5918, Europe: +44 20 8123 2580, +45 36 96 55 20, Mexico: 52-55-535-04027
help@albaspectrum.com

About Alba Spectrum Technologies. Alba Spectrum Technologies is joint venture of
several IT and business consulting companies, now operating as single business
entity. We have local presence in the Houston, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San
Diego, Dallas, Miami, Atlanta, Denver, Phoenix, New Orleans, Minneapolis, San
Francisco, LATAM & Brazil, Germany, Russia, South East Asia and Oceania. We believe
in the coexistence of Java (J2EE, EJB, Linux, Unix), Oracle and Microsoft (.Net, C#,
VB) platforms and systems and specialize in several product lines and cross platform
integration, customization, heterogeneous report design, plus we provide ERP/CRM
systems comparison and reviews, not being committed to just on MRP platform. We also
stake on XML cross-platform data interchange to be advanced in the coming decade.

Alba Spectrum Technologies websites:
http://www.albaspectrum.com
http://www.greatplains.com.mx
http://www.enterlogix.com.br
http://www.ronix-systems.de



Web Site = http://www.albaspectrum.com

Contact Details = Alba Spectrum Group, USA/Canada: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918,
Europe: +44 20 8123 2580, +45 36 96 55 20, Mexico: 52-55-535-04027, Brazil:
55-11-3444-4949, help@albaspectrum.com skype: albaspectrum