Microsoft CRM – Consulting in the Post-Recession Time

Writen by Andrew Karasev

New post-recession era has new features, which didn’t exist in late 1990th during high-tech boom. This will be in our opinion on new directions for Microsoft Business Solutions products consulting, including Microsoft CRM. New features:

1. Overall cost reduction campaign. We see general direction, when companies hire new executives who specializes in cost reduction, work force reduction, secondary departments functions outsourcing, etc.

2. Computer ERP systems literacy among mid-management. If you look back to 1950th when management consulting was booming, then for now it is included in all the MBA university programs and managers themselves know the subject. The same happens with ERP systems – managers have general knowledge and can learn the new system, applying their education, experience and intuition

3. Databases Support cost reduction – today we would dare to say that IT department can easily support such databases as the ones, sitting on Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle is also following the idea of zero support efforts. You don’t have to hire DBA with 10 years of experience – this means that even small business could move to industry-strength database platforms

4. Software Customization and Development cost reduction – well – many of us probably like to purchase cheap and reliable goods from department stores, manufactured in China. The same happens with software development. Now if you have your software product designed – you better find the company to do real coding somewhere in Brazil or India. We do not want to judge – is it good or bad – this is what is going on with our market.

5. Increasing Demand for Quality – this is not a secret that in the era of internet boom – late 1990th – consulting companies had to hire college graduates to do highest complexity assignments. And market was tolerating this – not any more. All these features will enforce the consulting companies to reduce cost, seek nation-wide clients via remote support, web sessions, abandon traditional software leads generation techniques and move to internet sales, increase the quality of their consultants (we don’t know the answer how)

Happy implementing! if you want us to do the job – give us a call 1-630-961-5918 or 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving Chicago, California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Georgia, New York, Australia, UK, Canada, Continental Europe, Russia and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

Microsoft Business Solutions Customization Options – Overview for Programmer

Writen by Andrew Karasev

Several years ago Microsoft purchased Great Plains Software, then Navision (Denmark based software development company). At this time Great Plains Software already was active ERP applications consolidation player – it already acquired Solomon Software couple of years prior. Then in 2002 Microsoft released Microsoft CRM (Client Relation Management system). Also Microsoft decided to attack retail marked and acquired QuickSell (now Microsoft Retail Management System/ Microsoft RMS).

At this time Microsoft had robust package to automate business processes for small, midsize and large company and it formed so-called Microsoft Business Solutions (at the earlier stage the official name was Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions – later Great Plains words were dropped)

We would like to make brief review of customization options for such products as Microsoft Great Plains, Microsoft CRM and Microsoft RMS

Technology overview. Microsoft Great Plains, Microsoft CRM and Microsoft RMS have similar database platform – Microsoft SQL Server. There are differences in the tables design between three – due to the fact that they were originally developed by three different companies. Great Plains has Great Plains Dexterity core (this is Great Plains Software proprietary c-language based technology and development environment), and as it was primarily targeted to be platform independence – Great Plains has old-fashioned UNIX style of tables names: RM00101 stays for customer master file, GL00100 – account master file, etc. At the same time Microsoft RMS and Microsoft CRM have more natural language based names: Microsoft CRM: Account, Activity, Contact, Lead; Microsoft RMS: Customer, Transaction, Tender, Register – we believe that these structures are self explanatory.

Now to the Customization Options:

• Great Plains Dexterity – please install Dexterity from CD #2 and take a look at its manuals – this is again legacy and proprietary Great Plains technology. We have described it in this article: http://www.albaspectrum.com/Customizations_Whitepapers/Dexterity_SQL_VBA_Crystal/DexterityCustomizationOptions.htm

• Microsoft CRM Customization – this is the whole topic – we would like to reference you to our posting: http://www.albaspectrum.com/Customizations_Whitepapers/Dexterity_SQL_VBA_Crystal/MSCRMCustomizationOptions.htm

• Microsoft RMS. Please review this article: http://www.albaspectrum.com/Customizations_Whitepapers/Dexterity_SQL_VBA_Crystal/GPRMSIntegrationOptions.htm

Happy customizing! if you want us to do the job – give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, based in Chicago, California, Colorado, DC, New Jersey, Washington, Texas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, New York and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM; akarasev@albaspectrum.com

Microsoft Great Plains Implementation & Customization: Computer Parts Retailer Example

Writen by Andrew Karasev

Microsoft Great Plains fits to majority of horizontals and retail business is good fit as well. We’ll consider the system, consisting from Microsoft Great Plains as Accounting, Inventory Pricing and Microsoft Retail Management System (RMS) Headquarters and Store Operations Manager. In this case you can base web commerce off Great Plains databases and POS automates walk-in retail store. Inventory count might be done from both sides: Great Plains or RMS, depending on the main line – if it is eCommerce – consider Great Plains inventory cycle counting, otherwise in the case of POS – it should be done in MS RMS

eCommerce. If the business is small/mid-size, instead of using eConnect – consider working with direct sql custom stored procedures. You will avoid license fee for eConnect and you could use rather simplified logic. You need to know Great Plains Tables structure and data flow: Tools->Resource Description->Tables. More likely you will need Sales Order Processing (SOP) and Inventory Control (IV) tables: SOP10100, SOP10200, IV00101, etc. You should consider purchasing standard internet basket and integrate it with your e-commerce web application. It should work with Great Plains Inventory catalogue

Catalogue update. If you resell computer parts – you should have utility, updating your inventory items and price list as you get new catalogue from the distributor. This might be done as SQL routine or Great Plains Dexterity customization. Dexterity will allow you to alter Item Maintenance screen – if you have additional description line for the item, or similar little things

Microsoft RMS->GP transactions integration. You can purchase integration directly from Alba Spectrum Technologies, and it works on Sales Order Processing or Accounts Receivables transactions integration level and has also Purchases integrated. This integration could work as nightly SQL routine and bring all the daily sales transactions from RMS stores or Headquarters to mapped Great Plains companies.

Promotional pricing. These campaigns are automated in RMS and Great Plains, however promotion scenarios might be not the same. One of the ways to synch both systems is to use RMS promotions and update Great Plains price list via custom stored procedures.

Inventory Items Synchronization. Again you can base your items in either one of the systems: Great Plains or RMS and then synchronize via stored procedures.

Additional RMS custom issues. Some customers mentioned the need in editing global customer data on the store level and the second interesting suggestion was immediate propagation across all the stores gift card balance – if customer walk in into several stores within the day – the chances are that balance is still not updated via Headquarters worksheets

Good luck with implementation and customization and if you have issues or concerns – we are here to help! If you want us to do the job – give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving clients in Chicago, California, Texas, Florida, New York, Georgia, Arizona, Minnesota, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is CMA, Great Plains Certified Master, Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer. You can contact Andrew: andrewk@albaspectrum.com

Payroll Software

Writen by Sandro Azzopardi

With payroll software one cannot not stop and think’how did large organizations cope without them?’ When you think of what’s involved in paying your employee, one finds it hard to believe how this can be achieved without a full blown payroll software.

There are various payroll software applications on the market today, but how do you decide which one is right for the business you conduct? Let’s start by having a look at the main items a good payroll software application must possess.

1. create and manage detailed company details

2. create and manage detailed employee details

3. can be run during a specific date range (normally weekly, fortnightly and monthly)

4. processing of individual departments or all departments

5. accountability of all emoluments and tax paid for each employee and department

6. standard tax reports as required by the local authorities

7. flexibility in allowing bonuses, overtime and special end-of-period additions and deductions

Needless to say, a good payroll software program holds many features which reduce paper work needed to control your employees’ remuneration. Having said that, some required paperwork like pay vouchers, checks, company reports and tax reports are a must for any payroll software.

But what is the main feature a payroll software application must excel in? Without any doubt this has to be security. Payroll software databases hold one the most sensitive information a software application can hold. By many, the salary they get is considered as the most well kept secret in their lives. That information is probably held in a computer somewhere forming part of a payroll package. As such, confidentiality of that information must be stressed heavily and checked thoroughly when one is enquiring on payroll software.

But most payroll software applications are not stand alone modules. Many come integrated with other modules like the purchases ledger, general ledger and/or job costing module. If you have a production business, having your payroll software integrated with your job costing module is, to say the least, a must. This will ensure your costing is truly reflecting all the costs your business is incurring, and the payment of your employees, including taxes, is definitely one of them.

As like all tailor made software, a payroll software application would normally require user training before one can reap the benefits from it. Payroll software is quite a complex piece of software and the fact that people are employed in human resources departments just to be responsible for the payroll aspect of the company is proof of this. This is true, although, the payroll software used should also be straight forward for clerks who work in a payroll environment. It should be intuitive and present all tasks in a simple and clear format, with help available on the spot.

Since many payroll software exist today, it is very hard to determine which one is right for your business. The decision needs to rely on the structure of your business, number of employees, different work times and shifts, plus other factors. Based on this, a standard payroll software might do, or maybe not. What’s important is that before committing to one, and probably also, before being trained on one, all the features (and non-features) of the package you choose have been made clear and proved to function correctly and as desired.

The Death of Windows

Writen by Stephen Bucaro

I have always regretted how Microsoft price gouges and rips off computer users. I really regret Windows XP activation. I have always intended to convert to Linux, but it isn’t easy for a Windows user since version 3.0.

Recently, I purchased the book “Moving to Linux” by Marcel Gagne. The interesting thing about the book is that it includes a bootable Linux CD-ROM. “Knoppix” is a special version of Linux that you can run entirely from your CD drive. You can run Linux without uninstalling Windows or making any changes to your PC.

I tried the Knoppix CD on a Windows 2000 machine with a 200 MHz pentium II and 128 RAM, a very low power machine by today’s standards. Linux provides you with step-by-step status information, and I ignored several error messages as Knoppx was booting. It took a while for Linux to boot from the 52X CD-ROM drive, but then Windows 2000 also takes forever to boot on this machine.

To my amazement, Knoppix booted successfully, with the proper screen resolution and access to all the drives. To my further amazement, the CD-ROM contained OpenOffice.org 1.0. I used OpenOffice to create a file. I couldn’t save the file to the hard disk, probably because of access rights (NTFS or Linux), but I could save it to a floppy disk. Later, I opened the floppy disk file on a different Windows 2000 machine with the Windows version of OpenOffice.

In his book, Marcel Gagne gives you several tips to make knoppix start faster and work faster. For example, he provides a command that creates a Linux swap file on your Windows partition, and a command that saves Knoppix configuration to a floppy disk.

Note: If you have a broadband Internet connection, you can download Knoppix from www.knoppix.net (700 MB). You also need to know how to burn raw data to CD-R. The book gives you all kinds of information about the different Linux distributions, appications, and how to use Linux, plus the included Knoppix CD is all set to run, so I think the book is worth the extra cost.

If want you to explore and learn about Linux without uninstalling Windows or making any changes to your PC, Knoppix is the way to go. Maybe someday everyone will carry a Knoppix CD and a CD-RW to use on any computer they find. That day will truly be the death of Windows.

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About The Author

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