Great Plains Partner Newsflash: Implementation and Support at the time of recession

If you already have Microsoft Dynamics GP implemented in your company, or if you are looking forward to purchase Dynamics GP users licenses and modules, install and implement it, at the time of recession, as it currently is in 2008 and in 2009, we recommend you to consider following ERP selection, sales cycle, data conversion and user training recommendations, as our experience implementing Great Plains since 2004 indicates, they could save you a lot of money and secure successful implementation and switching to production mode:

1. Reach versus Standard functionality ERP and MRP systems. The idea is simple - if you are regular business with most of the business processes to be standard and only few unique processes, where you likely need custom ERP logic to be programmed for you, consider the idea to purchase ERP system which doesn't give you so-called rich logic, but instead purchase ERP with standard logic, which will barely do the job and you do not have to pay upfront and then on the annual basis for the most of the “rich" logic, which you never going to use. Practical example - if you are heavily attacked by rich functionality MRP, such as Oracle EBusiness Suite, try to go one step down and consider “standard" logic ERP, such as Great Plains Dynamics GP

2. Small customizations versus purchasing expensive add-ons. Imagine the situation, when you are sea shipping business and all you need as custom feature in Great Plains is Bill of Lading. Instead of purchasing industry specific module, which provides a lot of transportation industry features and also does Bill of Lading - consider creating Bill of Lading as modified report for SOP Blank Invoice Form, or something like fairly simple Crystal Report - doing the same, but in more flexible way

3. Look for better support options. There are a lot of Great Plains Reseller, ISV customization partners and consultants on the market, who potentially could serve you. Pick the one, who doesn't look for large sales in these difficult years, and who prefers low profile clients, where it just does light required maintenance and data repair

4. Train your IT department to support GP simple issue in-house. If you already have MS SQL Server DBA, or Microsoft Visual Studio C# or VB programmer, these people could also be trained in GP architecture, and support your users with simple GP cases

5. Postpone Upgrade. If you are on version 9.0, you may save some money on postponing upgrade to current version GP 10.0, as functionality and DB platforms are the same or similar

About The Author:
Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum LLC, help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, http://www.albaspectrum.com Serving GP community since 1994, local service in Chicago, Houston, San Diego, Atlanta. Information portal: http://www.pegasplanet.com We serve you USA and Canada nationwide from our Dynamics GP call center: California, Illinois, New York, Florida, Minnesota, New Jersey, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Ontario, Quebec, Washington, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Montana, Oregon, New York, New England. International clients welcome from Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, South Africa, UK, Brazil, Caribbean, Central America

Tags: DYNAMICS GP

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Title:	Great Plains Partner Newsflash: Implementation and Support at the time of recession
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Great Plains Partner Newsflash: Implementation and Support at the time of recession