Released on: November 14, 2007, 3:02 pm

Press Release Author: Alba Spectrum Group

Industry: Computers

Press Release Summary: If you are Nationwide distributor and you are accepting sales
orders via established and legacy Sales Order Processing application, which you will
need to integrate with backoffice ERP, in our scenario with Microsoft Dynamics GP

Press Release Body: If you are Nationwide distributor and you are accepting sales
orders via established and legacy Sales Order Processing application, which you will
need to integrate with backoffice ERP, in our scenario with Microsoft Dynamics GP,
then we would like to share our Great Plains implementation, customization,
programming, report design and business processes mapping experience as well as
integrating technology options:
1. Sales System. It is often the case that your sales order processing application
sits on Linux or Unix platform and is implemented in Java/EJB, Oracle, Sybase, or
PHP/MySQL/Redhat. We assume that you are comfortable in supporting this Unix box,
including ongoing data fixes, business logic changes, required in MRP lifecycle
2. Purchasing System. It is often integrated with your legacy Sales system,
described in the first paragraph. If you are reseller or integrator, you may
utilize vendor drop ship purchase order scenarios, where vendor invoice or shipment
notification or bill of lading trigger customer invoice issuance
3. The reasons to implement Microsoft Great Plains. Typical reason is company
growth, where you invite outside investors or grow internally - when you formalize
your management - typical recommendation is to implement strong ERP application for
accounting, and financial reasons
4. Integration bridge. To give you the most typical scenario - GP Integration
Manager allows you to integrate text files, exported from your front end business
system. IM also can read ODBC data sources, for example if you are on Oracle, you
can implement ODBC call to Oracle from IM directly. Another option of integration
bridge is Web Service, which in turn deploys eConnect technology to feed and edit
records in Great Plains. An obsolete version of web integration is popular in the
past http request/response mechanism
5. EDI. If you order goods from large manufacturers, you may need Electronic
Document Interchange integration with their ordering systems. As EDI rules are
typically simple - fixed length text fields in the text file, consider simple way of
formatting SQL select statement output with convert and cast commands
6. Sales Tax. If you sell to all 50 states, Sales Tax calculation accuracy and tax
filing should be addressed. In Great Plains it is reasonably straightforward
routine and you may deploy Sales Tax web service from various vendors: Avalara
would be one of them
7. Reporting. You should be ready to face cross-platform DB queries to address
reporting requirements. From MS SQL Server you can create Linked Servers to create
distributed queries: SQL Views and Stored Procedures. Then you deploy standard
reporting tools: Crystal Reports or Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services - SRS.
In the case of strictly financial reports, including consolidated financial
statements, you should consider FRx reporting. FRx is proper tool for Balance
Sheet, P&L, Statement of Cash Flow, it allows you to pull GL data from GP databases
as well as combine budgets and simple balances from Excel

Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum Group, http://www.albaspectrum.com -
help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, serving customers USA/Canada
nationwide: Illinois, California, New York, Quebec, Ontario, Colorado, Utah,
Wisconsin, Florida, Texas. Local service is available in Houston & Dallas: Richmond,
Sugar Land, Katy, Rosenberg, Missouri City, Pearland, Friendswood, Meadows, Mission
Bend, Jersey Village, Fort Worth; serving GP customers in Chicago, IL: Naperville,
Aurora, Joliet, Wheaton, Bolingbrook, Romeoville, Lyons, Niles, Downers Grove,
Lisle, West Chicago, Barrington, Schaumburg, Elk Grove Village, Lombard, Morris,
Ottawa, Marseilles, Seneca, Oswego, Plainfield, Darien, Winchester, Hinsdale.



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

Contact Details: Alba Spectrum Group, http://www.albaspectrum.com -
help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, serving customers USA/Canada
nationwide: Illinois, California, New York, Quebec, Ontario, Colorado, Utah,
Wisconsin, Florida, Texas