|
| |
Canada and eCommerce
Canadian eCommerce growth was recently flat but still has an attractive upside... Recent studies found that Canadian retail e-commerce growth was flat year over year (2003-2004). After further examination however, approximately 60% of the 100 largest ...
Ecommerce that Makes Sense
We weigh the merits of ready-made and custom solutions to add ecommerce to your site. In our last Tips we cautioned that just having a shopping cart on your website isn't enough to make ecommerce work. This month we'll weigh the merits of ready-made and ...
The Ecommerce Myth
IntroductionEcommerce is growing rapidly. Besides the big players such as Amazon.com and Buy.com, small businesses realize that they can also increase their sales revenues by using the Internet. With this realization, more and more online stores are ...
|
|
|
|
| |
Naming Convention. Great Plains was designed to be ready to move to the winning database platform and probably this is why we see this a bit complicated naming convention in place: SOP10100, RM00101, IV00101 these are samples: SOP header, Customer master, Inventory master. First we see module prefix: SOP Sales Order Processing, RM Receivables management, IV Inventory control, etc., then 0 stays for the master files, 1 so-called work files (before transaction being posted), 2 open files (after transaction is posted) and 3 historical files (when you close the year in General Ledger transactions are moved from open to history files). So as you see logic is present and structured, but it is not friendly to the developer, who never seen and worked with Great Plains Dynamics.
Tables Groups. Great plains was designed to first serve mid-size businesses and then with the availability of third party modules the intention was to compete on corporate ERP market with Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP and others big players. This is why we see the whole cluster of tables to store, say Sales Invoice: SOP Header, SOP Lines, SOP Distribution, RM Key file, etc.
From the Forms side (or screens) you can see more human-readable names: SOP Entry, RM_Customer_Maintenance, POP_Entry or the like. But these legacy Great Plains Dexterity names do not help eCommerce developer only probably as the reference on which table works with specific screen.
Lets take a look at the tools available:
- eCommerce together with eOrder, and other eXXX products it should be considered as legacy and phase out product, based on
Microsoft eCommerce server and ASP technology, today Microsoft has new paradigm - .Net and ASPX World
- eConnect was specially created for eCommerce developers, who integrate Microsoft Great Plains with eCommerce web interface. This tool covers a lot of Great Plains objects creation and retrieving functionality, however it does have restrictions, because it was not intended as replacement to Great Plains Dexterity shell. For example if you create Orders in SOP via Web interface/eConnect it is difficult manipulate these orders (transfers to Invoices, backorders, reallocations, etc.). Another issue with eConnect developers are kind of used to the fact that Microsoft provides free SDK to its products, Microsoft CRM for example has freely downloadable Microsoft CRM SDK. For eConnect you have to pay license and be on Microsoft Business Solutions annual support to get version upgrades. Also if you are ISV and develop your GP integration to your customers you have licensing issue with Microsoft.
- Custom SOP/AR stored procedures. Microsoft Business Solutions partners in their practice usually have several Great Plains integration projects implemented where integration is realized on the stored procedures level and transactions are created and manipulated in Great Plains SOP. So you may end up seeking this type of help
Good luck with implementation, customization and integration and if you have issues or concerns we are here to help! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 866-528-0577 or 630-961-5918! help@albaspectrum.com
About The Author
Andrew is Great Plains specialist in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Microsoft CRM Partner, serving clients in San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Miami, Orlando, New Orleans, Phoenix, Seattle, Minneapolis, Detroit, Los Angeles
help@albaspectrum.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
MyBinding.com Joins The Ecommerce MafiaMarketWatch (press release)Even the most experienced and seasoned ecommerce operators are facing a rapidly evolving and changing environment. Our goal is to create a climate where senior executives can communicate with each other efficiently and candidly.and more » |
|
Ecommerce: 5 Things You Need To KnowHuffington PostThe ecommerce barrier to entry continues to get lower as more tools pop up to help even the most tech-aversive entrepreneurs go digital. "Almost anybody can set up an online store," says Mark Hayes, head of marketing and public relations at Shopify, ... |
|
Ecommerce key to Mothercare transformation planInternetRetailing.netInvestment in ecommerce will be at the heart of a three-year transformation plan designed to take Mothercare back to โacceptable levels of profitability,โ the nursery retailer's new chief executive said today. The plan, introduced by Simon Calver in ...and more » |
|