Microsoft Business Portal for Dynamics GP implementation: catch the trend
by: Andrew Karasev
Microsoft Great Plains or recent name Dynamics GP has newly redesigned on Microsoft.Net & Sharepoint platform web interface – Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Portal. At this time BP host such web modules as Requisition Management (former eRequisition), Order Management (former eOrder), HR and Employee Self Service, Electronic Document Delivery (distributing SOP invoices to your customers) and others. We were watching closely earlier versions of Business Portal, in our opinion, version 2.5 was the one to consider conservative implementation, version 3.0 comes together with GP 9.0, now with GP 10.0 Microsoft delivers BP 10.0. in our opinion, which is non-official, former ASP eXXX products, such as eOrder and eRequisition were very solid and reliable and we saw large number of successful implementations. Now it is the time to move to Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Portal platform
• Licensing. At this time BP user license is cheaper than GP user license – it is about $50 per user for small number of users, we think BP is for mid-size and large businesses, however if you are small business and have strong IT team, you can go ahead as well
• .Net platform. This bullet is for clarification – Microsoft Dynamics project comes together with .Net progress. In some cases Microsoft puts technologies into the intra company competition: Microsoft Dexterity vs. C#, former project Green ERP modules unification (on the base of purchased Great Plains, Solomon, Navision, Axapta – later on this trend was kind of deemphasized). Business Portal is based on .Net platform, and as you may be aware, dot net is ASPX, versus former Microsoft ASP concept – this is why eXXX product line had to be rewritten
• From Microsoft Dexterity to BP. In our opinion, Business Portal enables the move from former Great Plains Dexterity programming to Microsoft Visual Studio C# programming, where developer will have complete control over GP objects and business processes workflow. Sometimes we hear counter opinions – something like the following: it is too difficult to detach GP from its Dexterity architecture – so the future might reveal complete GP redesign (where the name might be also dropped to stress generic Microsoft Dynamics ERP). Having said this, we believe that Business Portal trend is for the future and to proof its endurance
About The Author
Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum Group,
http://www.albaspectrum.com [email protected] 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, serving GP customers in Illinois: Chicago Downtown and suburbs: Elgin, Downers Grove, Lisle, Oakbrook, Lombard, Batavia, Oak Park, Hinsdale, Romeoville, Bolingbrook, Plainfield, North Aurora, Wheaton, Warrenville, St. Charles. With reasonable travel we serve downstate Illinois: Morris, Ottawa, LaSalle, DeKalb, Marseilles, Dixon, Sandwich, Hinckley, Rochelle, Sterling, Rock Falls, Rockford, Springfield, Normal, Bloomington, Peoria, Vandalia. Nationwide remote support service is available in USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania: California, New York, Texas, Ontario, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, New Jersey, Indiana
