Microsoft Great Plains Dynamics GP Integration Manager Troubleshooting & FAQ

In this small article we would like to give guidelines to Great Plains IT support people, who is trying to troubleshoot Microsoft Dynamics GP in-house, sometimes appealing to Microsoft Business Solutions support. GP IM is using several technologies, however the most popular is Great Plains workstation as OLE server - this technology comes back to 1990th when Microsoft was parading with its OLE, OLEDB, ODBC and other technologies and is tightly linked with Microsoft Data Access Components (MS DAC). In general you may think about processes this way - when you launch traditional IM it hides Microsoft Great Plains workstation and uses it behind the scenes to validate GP business logic

o IM Known Bugs. This is when you are getting error messages, related to MDAC libraries, such as TTGErrors. You have to look for the exact remedy in Microsoft Dynamics techknowledge database, but general rule is this - try to clean up MDAC installation, uninstall IM and then install newest MDAC and reinstall IM

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o IM Registration issues. Since version 7.5 Microsoft requires IM to have separate reg key. Known issue with entering reg key is if you do not install IM properly, but simply copy GP workstation folder and IM program files - in this case Windows registry has no info about IM and it "forgets" about registration. You need to reinstall IM and apply recent IM service packs accordingly

o eConnect. This should be IM future, it is in process of being rewritten in eConnect. eConnect doesn't have performance obstacles and doesn't use OLE server. With this new technology IM will be capable to import unlimited number of records in "real time"

o Old versions of IM. Some versions of Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise were released with IM, which needed immediate service pack application - otherwise it simply was not functional. If you are on GP version 7.0 - please do not install IM from CD - look for the service pack

Please feel free to call us at any time: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, help@albaspectrum.com , skype albaspectrum

Microsoft Great Plains Dynamics GP Integration Manager Troubleshooting & FAQ

Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com [http://www.enterlogix.com.br] ), serving clients in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Diego, San Francisco, Miami, New Orleans, New York, Boston, Denver, Minneapolis, St. Luis, Springfield, Aurora, Naperville, Milwaukee, Boston, Atlanta, Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale, Boca Raton, Calgary, Seattle, Provo, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Toronto, Montreal, internationally: Australia, New Zealand, Palau, Pakistan, Egypt, Germany, France, Spain, UK, Latin America and Brazil

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Microsoft Great Plains 10.0 and 9.0 Upgrade - Technical Notes

At this time (fall of 2007) Microsoft Dynamics GP customers are actively upgrading to GP version 9.0 and initial upgrades are performed to Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0. Version 10.0 will be in more active upgrade mode, when Microsoft will release GP 10.0 Service Pack 1, as current GP 10.0 upgrade path is limited to 8.0 SP5 and 9.0 SP2. Having reasonable number of GP version updates performed, we would like to share experience. Lets' start with the most popular upgrade to 9.0.

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1. As versions 8.0, 7.5, 6.0, and earlier are discontinued for Microsoft Dynamics technical support, you should consider this bell as strong signal to walk away from these older versions. Versions 7.5 and older were available on MS SQL Server as well as on Pervasive SQL 2000 (former Btrieve) and Ctree. In the case when you are on non-MS SQL Server DB - you will have to undergo migration step to SQL Server based version. Assuming that your case is straight forward, let's move on and review known version upgrade issues

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2. Purchase Order Processing tables problems. If you are using POP module, then you must check you Purchase Orders and Receipts work and historical tables on the subject of so-called orphan lines. These tables should be verified: POP10110, POP10310, POP30110 and POP30310 - they store purchase orders and receipts lines. Microsoft recommends doing checklinks, prior to upgrade process, however we saw situations, where potentially check links don't do all the orphans cleaning job. If check links doesn't help, please construct the script which will give you orphans in lines table, similar to the following: select a.* from POP10110 a left join POP10100 b on a.PONUMBER=b.PONUMBER where b.PONUMBER is null. And again, prior to rescuing to scripting, you should try check links approach.

3. If after check links, upgrade failed on POP tables, you will have to restore DYNAMICS and all Companies DB to initial version and try data repair with scripting. Then design delete scripts with your DBA person. Microsoft partner should be able to apply failed company rolling back script, so you do not have to start from initial version for all the databases, however this script is confidential.

4. Other potentially problem tables. We've also seen the problem with IV10200 table. In version 9.0 inventory valuation formula was revised and it now relies on IV10200 to higher extent. In some cases this table conversion script fails and upgrading application freezes. The remedy is roll back to initial version, be sure that you did check links.

Microsoft Great Plains 10.0 and 9.0 Upgrade - Technical Notes

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

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Microsoft Great Plains Subcontracting - Overview for Microsoft Business Solutions Partner

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is very popular ERP/MRP applications in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, South Africa, Latin America. Considering high number of new Microsoft Great Plains partners and the desire to subcontract occasional customization, integration and reporting projects, we would like to advise you on Microsoft Great Plains subcontracting guidelines, based on our experience in dealing with Great Plains VARs
Candidates for subcontracting:

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o Great Plains Dexterity customizations - Dexterity was and still is the IDE and programming language of Great Plains, especially workstation thick interface. However since Microsoft bought Great Plains Software and formed Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions, later renamed into Microsoft Business Solutions - Dexterity became the candidate to be replaced by C# or VB.Net. The plans are the plans, but the realities of Microsoft Great Plains customization signals that Dexterity will stay another 5-7 years as IDE. However I agree with the strategy that if you are new GP reseller you don't want to hire Dexterity programmer

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o SQL Integration. We see more and more requests for Great Plains integrations with web eCommerce applications, industry specific databases: Freight Forwarding, Distribution, Logistics, Beverages, Jewelry, Furniture, Consignment. Healthcare, etc. The dilemma for the programmer is - should I know all the details of Great Plains table structure model and document workflow - or probably purchase the set of SQL stored procs to help me.

o Integration Manager with VBA/Continuum. These are traditional custom pieces. Integration Manager doesn't allow you to switch companies during the integration, and so have the work done over night without operator's involvement

o eConnect - this relatively new SDK from MBS, created primarily for eCommerce developer, has certain restrictions, especially with transferring Sales Order to Invoices and transactions posting. These are the restrictions of Great Plains architecture and to resolve the issue you need set of custom stored procedures

VAR should have some GP customization experience/skills:

o Great Plains Security model. Great Plains allows you to grant access to so-called alternate and modified alternate Microsoft Great Plains forms and reports - this is where you enable our customization to take over standard logic. Please, invest reasonable resources into GP basics, before you get in touch with nation-wide subcontractor

o Central REPORTS.DIC - this is critical to serve mid-size and large clients. Usually you create your custom Sales Order Processing (SOP) invoice form from one of the GP workstations and then place your reports on the server. If you use IT subcontractors - these folks should be trained on installing new Great Plains workstations (or you should insist on working via terminal server/Citrix)

o Remote Support. The best scenario is VPN with remote desktop access (Windows XP Pro or Windows 2000 Pro). VPN will allow SQL Enterprise manager connect over the secured VPN connection. Less desired scenario would be Websession or PCAnywhere.

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

Microsoft Great Plains Subcontracting - Overview for Microsoft Business Solutions Partner

Andrew is Great Plains specialist in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) – Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Microsoft CRM Partner, serving clients in California, Minnesota, Illinois, Washington, Florida, Arizona, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Canada, UK, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Russia

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