IT Strategy for Midsize Business: Microsoft vs. Java, Great Plains & CRM

Midsize business or non-profit organization should decide if one-vendor solution would be appropriate and the associated risk acceptable. In our opinion, balancing the risk of one-vendor-approach is not economically feasible and should be avoided. This means that you need to decide if you plan to be Microsoft-oriented or Java/Unix/Linux/Oracle oriented. In the case of Java direction ? you again have to further consider your options and if possible do not deploy too many systems from different vendors. Even if you host your systems with somebody else ? we think that in the future you might have a risk of complex data conversion from one system to another. In this small article we'll show you typical way if you follow Microsoft direction: Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains and Microsoft CRM

? Sales Automation. It was actual at all the times, however now it is becoming critical to have decent Client Relation Management (CRM) system implemented. You order takers or sales people should be working exclusively in CRM, where you should have sales workflow, approvals, pipeline of pending deals, reporting with future cash flow prediction. Use Microsoft CRM Sales module.

? Servicing. If you would like to avoid tame wasting when your service and sales people are talking to each other and have long meetings to fulfill customer order, you have to organize them around CRM Service module: Contract, Case, Activity, workflow and assignments to service technicians, plus email to/from your customers should be captured in MS CRM

? ERP. Currently, Microsoft Business Solutions has MS CRM integrated with Microsoft Great Plains. Great Plains is good ERP solution for majority midsize business and fits to variety of business niches. Great Plains is integrated with MS CRM on the level of Sales Order Processing module (SOP).

? Customization. Usually each midsize business has unique procedures which should be mapped into their CRM and ERP. So, be ready to have minor or major customization implemented. In the case of MS CRM ? majority of the customizations are done in C# or VB.Net ? so called Microsoft CRM SDK programming and development. It is open technology ? you can download MS CRM SDK and have anyone with C#/VB.Net skills do the job. In the case of Microsoft Great Plains he technology is not that open and you might need somebody with Great Plains Dexterity, VBA/Modifier, Integration Manager, eConnect, SQL coding ? this combination of skills is usually available from one of the Microsoft Business Solutions Customization Partners

? Integration. If you have something else, besides Microsoft CRM and Great Plains, then you might need the integration. Assuming that your major systems are on the Microsoft platform ? integrations should be done via heterogeneous queries from the side of Microsoft SQL server ? through linked servers

? Reporting. In our opinion ? the best tool for non-financial reports (financial ? use FRx) is Crystal Reports. Base your Crystal report on heterogeneous view or stored procedure to pull the data from multiple systems. You can deploy Crystal reports in your web application, if needed

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

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

---

Crystal Reports for Microsoft Great Plains ? Overview for Developer

Microsoft Great Plains is main accounting / ERP application... Read More

Anti-Spyware Protection ? Holes in the Shining Armor

Looking at all the ads which promise to get rid... Read More

Great Plains Bill of Materials Setup & Customization for Process Manufacturing ? Overview

Microsoft Great Plains has full-featured Manufacturing suite of modules: Capacity... Read More

Cisco Certification: Introduction To ISDN, Part V

The major reason I recommend getting your hands on real... Read More

Who?s Watching What You Type?

If someone entered your home, uninvited and installed numerous cameras... Read More

The End of Spyware?

The US House of Representatives has recently passed the "Spy... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains Integrations - Tips for Developer

In this short FAQ style article we would like to... Read More

Great Plains Dexterity Programming ? Overview For Developer

Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular,... Read More

3 Reasons Why Medical Billing Software is Leading the Way

Since technology changes so quickly, it is hard to begin... Read More

Microsoft CRM USA Nationwide Remote Support

Remember old good days when your company probably had Great... Read More

It?s Back!! WordPerfect?s Amazing Comeback

Have you noticed WordPerfect is gearing up for a comeback... Read More

Adware and Spyware Blockers

The most important things you can do for your computer... Read More

Microsoft CRM Data Conversion FAQ

Microsoft Business Solutions CRM data conversion deserves FAQ type of... Read More

My Experience - Making a Vision into Reality

Disclaimer: All the thoughts expressed are my views only! Your... Read More

Microsoft Navision Customization and Reporting ? Tips For Programmer/IT Specialist

C/SIDE (Client/Server Integrated Development Environment) - The core of... Read More

What Stands Behind The Software Description?

With thousands of web pages added to the Net every... Read More

Internet Faxing Service Review

The Internet is reshaping every form of communications medium, and... Read More

The Religion And Philosophy Of Small Internet Business

I have always had a tendency to focus on the... Read More

5 Easy File Management Tips in Microsoft Word

How many steps does it take you to locate and... Read More

Crystal Reports for Microsoft Great Plains

Microsoft Business Solutions ? Great Plains is designed to meet... Read More

Kick-Ass Performance For Your PC? Its Easy

Is your PC is slow and wimpy? Then you need... Read More

Defining OLAP Solutions and Data Warehouse design

This tutorial covers OLAP solutions used by Data warehouses and... Read More

Software Piracy

SOFTWARE PIRACY We regularly hear reports... Read More

Brief Notes About Mainframe Software Pricing

We don't think about mainframe software pricing anymore, we just... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains - Microsoft RMS Integration ? overview

Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft Retail Management System (Microsoft RMS)... Read More

Free Software: How Not To Get More Than You Bargained For!

I completed an experiment recently. I wanted to find out... Read More

Internet Relay Chat - A Basic Introduction

What is IRC?IRC is Internet Relay Chat. It is a... Read More

Linux Dual Boot-How To Format

Just the thought of a duel-boot scares many people away,... Read More

Ukraine: a Prospective Player on the World Software Outsourcing Market

The destruction of the Soviet Union about 15 years ago,... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains Dynamics on Pervasive SQL.2000 Data Repair ? Overview For DBAs

Some introduction into Great Plains Software products, now Microsoft Business... Read More

You Can Write Microsoft Office Program in About 60 Minutes

Microsoft Office program is a programming tool called Visual Basic... Read More

Unofficial Windows 98 SE Service Pack 2.0 RC2

Microsoft has never released a service pack for Windows98 SE,... Read More

How a Bug Challenges to a Software Professional

It is really interesting that a bug can create problem... Read More