Released on: January 7, 2008, 4:00 pm

Press Release Author: Alba Spectrum Group

Industry: Computers

Press Release Summary: Microsoft Dynamics GP has several modification tools and SDK
available - if you are software programmer, who needs to select the tool of choice
to do specific job, please read this small publication to understand your
programming options and pluses and minuses of each tool. Also, please take into
consideration the fact, that Great Plains ERP was introduced to the market in
earlier 1990th as Great Plains Software Dynamics and at this time it is matured
system, which is pretty stable, but considering its size and all the available
business logic - it might be too complex to do modification without external
consultant help

Press Release Body: Microsoft Dynamics GP has several modification tools and SDK
available - if you are software programmer, who needs to select the tool of choice
to do specific job, please read this small publication to understand your
programming options and pluses and minuses of each tool. Also, please take into
consideration the fact, that Great Plains ERP was introduced to the market in
earlier 1990th as Great Plains Software Dynamics and at this time it is matured
system, which is pretty stable, but considering its size and all the available
business logic - it might be too complex to do modification without external
consultant help. OK, let's go on and review the tools:
1. Microsoft Dexterity. Former product name is Great Plains Dexterity. Dex has its
own scripting language Sanscript and it is in fact Integrated Development
Environment and architecture, which is a shell, written in C programming language in
turn. Dex is virtually all-mighty, when you think about modifying GP business login
and changing programmatically this ERP application. However you should understand
that Dexterity was designed back in late 1980th, when such popular concepts as
Object Oriented Programming (OOP) were not yet implanted. So, in fact Dex is
procedural language and so, it requires more codes and it is not overly easy to
debug Dexterity scripts. From time to time we hear from the customers, that they
would like to put one of their in-staff programmers to lead and perform GP Dexterity
customizations - we think this is not practical, as again Dex requires relatively
long learning curve (several years), which should be supported by programmer
exposure to different GP modifications scenarios, which is typically impossible for
internal employees
2. eConnect. This SDK and development tool was dedicated initially to eCommerce
programmers, who were considering to use GP as back end ERP for e-commerce web
applications. eConnect heart is written in SQL stored procedures (they are
encrypted and you can not alter their logic directly). There are various opinion on
eConnect, in our opinion - it is replication of Dexterity logic with some OOP
improvements. If you are comfortable in programming for .Net platform: SQL, C# or
even VB.Net - eConnect is what you need to invest your time into, instead of trying
to get "experienced" in Dexterity
3. Direct SQL scripting and .Net programming. Of course you can use direct SQL
views and stored procedures and call them via ADO.Net technology. We recommend you
first to try eConnect approach, and if direct SQL call is easier and there is no
risk to violate GP business logic, then go ahead and call SQL script directly -
especially in reading information from master tables: customer or vendor master for
example
4. GP Integrations and integrating tool selection. Again here we say that you can
use multiple tools, when you are considering integration, please review GP
Integration Manager module first, as it is now rewritten in eConnect and it boosts
IM performance
Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum Group, http://www.albaspectrum.com
help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918. Serving GP customers in
Illinois, Texas, California, Florida, Wisconsin, New York, Michigan and USA and
Canada nation wide via remote support. Our service is popular in USA country side,
where you do not expect local consultants to be available and we cover the whole
country with travel onside with initial user training - then we typically save your
budget by convenient remote support, as we already are familiar with your key IT and
accounting personnel. Local service is available in Chicago, Houston, Naperville,
Oakbrook, Wheaton, Joliet, Plainfield, Aurora, Elgin, Springfield, Morris, Ottawa,
LaSalle, Channahon, Brookfield, Villa Park, Downers Grove, Lisle, Hinsdale,
Lincolnwood, Zion, Kankakee, Braidwood, Niles.



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 GP customers in
Illinois, Texas, California, Florida, Wisconsin, New York, Michigan and USA and
Canada nation wide via remote support