Released on = July 27, 2007, 3:30 pm

Press Release Author = Alba Spectrum Group

Industry = Computers

Press Release Summary = Microsoft Great Plains or former Great Plains Software
Dynamics / eEnterprise /Dynamics C/S+ historically was designed in Dexterity, which
is in turn shell written in C. In the late 1990th GPS ported Dexterity to Microsoft
C, now for version 10.0 it is created in Visual Studio, where it also uses some .Net
assemblies to improve Dex graphical interface. Dexterity so far, including GP 10.0
is recommended tool for customization, modification, integration and reporting

Press Release Body = Alba Spectrum Group http://www.albaspectrum.com
help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918

Microsoft Great Plains or former Great Plains Software Dynamics / eEnterprise
/Dynamics C/S+ historically was designed in Dexterity, which is in turn shell
written in C. In the late 1990th GPS ported Dexterity to Microsoft C, now for
version 10.0 it is created in Visual Studio, where it also uses some .Net assemblies
to improve Dex graphical interface. Dexterity so far, including GP 10.0 is
recommended tool for customization, modification, integration and reporting. Let's
briefly review what is new and what is traditional in customization instruments:
. Sharepoint in Workflow. This seems to be cool opportunity. We heard so many
years about workflow in Great Plains, some developers tried to marry something like
Lotus Notes with GP to produce workflow imitation via messaging and within Lotus and
links to GP documents. Now MS Sharepoint seems to do the job
. Web Services. If you are familiar with eConnect architecture, you can imagine how
web services interface works with eConnect. In this sense web services-eConnect
tandem is restricted to eConnect functionality, such as limitation on posting
batches, however you can combine eConnect calls in your web services with custom
direct SQL Server programming. It is also possible to use Albaspectrum posting
server to supplement eConnect with posting logic - you can place approved batches
via web service, calling simple stored procedure
. Dexterity. As Microsoft is referring, it can handle COM objects, however this
feature was first introduced in Dexterity 7.0, so it is probably not overly new.
There are multiple publications on the web about Great Plains Dexterity, where you
can find detailed answers on this IDE architecture. You should be aware about Dex
features: Dynamics.dic, Dynamics.set, Dex.ini, Dex.exe, DEX_ROW_ID, etc.
. ReportWriter, Modifier - these two tools are in fact GP Dexterity applications,
they exist over 10 years now and have numerous modification and reporting scenarios
implemented in production GP ERP environments
. Extender or even eOne (advanced version of) Extender - these are also Dex
applications and eOne version allows you to include Dex Sanscript scripts to alter
extended form business logic
. .Net development. You can use C# or VB .Net to add .Net assemblies to GP
workstation interface, however they have to operate with Dexterity forms in turn, so
we are talking about extension logic only
. eConnect. This SDK and tool was introduced around 2002/2003 to open GP backoffice
to eCommerce developers. Great Tool, you should consider to port customized logic
to eConnect versus other tools
. Business Portal. If you remember old eXXX series of products: eOrder,
eRequisition, eEmployee, etc - those were ASP applications, which you could modify
with Visual Interdev (however upgrade would wipe out your customization and you had
to reapply it to new version). At this time BP 10.0 is Sharepoint application with
great options to extend it with Visual Studio projects. Some customers are trying
to do the same that they tried to do with old eXXX products - modify existing
screens in Requisition Management, for example - this seems to be not trivial and
not really the right way to go
. Speculations about the future. Probably former Project Green, where Navision,
Axapta, Solomon, Great Plains were considered to be reassembled and repackaged into
Microsoft Business Modules: Financials, Manufacturing, Distribution, etc. is now
deemphasized in order to preserve AX, GP, NAV IDE: Morph X, Dexterity, CSide. In
our opinion - it is probably good option to provide reasonably smooth migration
tools in the future. For example if you are mid-size business in the past and now
you went public and internationally - you should get migration from GP to AX

Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum Group http://www.albaspectrum.com
help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, serving client in Chicago
downtown and metro: Naperville, Downers Grove, Wheaton, Romeoville, Aurora,
Plainfield, Joliet, Morris, Seneca, Marseilles, Ottawa, LaSalle, Oswego, Montgomery,
Lisle, Bolingbrook, Winchester, Hinsdale, Willowbrook. Darien, Westmont. Lemont, Des
Plaines, Villa Park, Plano, Channahon, Elgin, Batavia, Crystal Lake, DeKalb,
Sterling, Rockford. With reasonable travel we can serve you in Springfield, Peoria,
Bloomington, Normal, St. Luis, Milwaukee. Local service is also available in
Houston and Dallas areas: Richmond, Rosenberg, Katy, Galveston, Sugar Land



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