Released on = April 14, 2006, 4:36 pm

Press Release Author = Alba Spectrum Group

Industry = Computers

Press Release Summary = Former Great Plains Software Dynamics/eEnterprise, and
currently Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains/Dynamics GP was initially
designed in the earlier 1990th as the extendable and modular application with its
proprietary tool: Great Plains Dexterity, written in C programming language as a
shell

Press Release Body = Alba Spectrum Group, USA/Canada: 1-866-528-0577,
1-630-961-5918, Europe: +44 20 8123 2580, +45 36 96 55 20, Mexico: 52-55-535-04027,
Brazil: 55-11-3444-4949, help@albaspectrum.com skype: albaspectrum

Former Great Plains Software Dynamics/eEnterprise, and currently Microsoft Business
Solutions Great Plains/Dynamics GP was initially designed in the earlier 1990th as
the extendable and modular application with its proprietary tool: Great Plains
Dexterity, written in C programming language as a shell. This was popular tendency
those days -compare with SAP ABAP or Navision C/Side. Great Plains has additional
ideas - database platform independence and graphical platform independent interface
(initially targeted to both Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows with good chance
that one of them will take market over - and it did happen, including the
acquisition of Great Plains Software by Microsoft). In this small article we'll
give you revised overview - you can find previous publication in the last year
posts.
. Great Plains Dexterity. Dexterity is the architecture of Great Plains and it is
very difficult to take it out of the picture. So we'll say that if you plan on
creation GP module or custom piece for reselling it on the market - you should first
consider Dexterity as a tool. Dexterity requires deep training and some experience
- you can not begin programming in Dexterity over night. So-called fat client of
Great Plains is pure dexterity application, however database itself since version
8.0 is MS SQL Server with some Dexterity specifics (DEW_ROW_ID column, for example).

. Old Tools. These tools were popular in 1990th and relate to such now legacy
technologies as OLE, VBA scripting, etc. Please note that even if C was considered
as universal language - custom scripts were targeted for light customizations and
both C and VBA were targeted to modify fat client - thin client and web interface
were not known those good old days.
1. VBA/Modifier. Microsoft introduced VBA as scripting for light customization of
Microsoft Office products - Excel, Word, etc. Great Plains adopted it for its own
needs. It tried to produce Dexterity/VBA hybrid and allowed Dexterity forms to be
modified via Modifier (Dexterity application) and enabled modified screens to adopt
VBA for its fields.
2. Continuum for VB/Dephi. Borland was strong on the customization market - this is
why it also includes Delphi. In Continuum you can program Great Plains workstation
as OLE server. For example - you can have Great Plains Integration Manager
integrate several companies data one-by-one with automatic logging in and off
without operator intervention - over night for example. Also - you can deploy
Continuum to switch Dexterity modules (such as Intellisol APOP or Project
Accounting) and include Dexterity Sanscript code into VBA scripts.
3. ReportWriter. We placed RW in this section because it is Dexterity application
and is now actively replaced with new tools, such as Crystal Reports, SQL Reporting,
XML & HTML web publishing
. New Tools. In XXI century development world begins to bias toward thin and web
clients and SQL scripting. eCommerce is a must for retail and wholesale nationwide
businesses and Microsoft Business Solutions come with these tools:
1. eConnect. As good instrument for eCommerce developer - it allows to create,
modify and delete Great Plains objects - customers, invoices, purchase orders,
payments, inventory items. It has certain restrictions - it can address core Great
Plains objects (not something in former third party modules - Collection Management,
Customer/Vendor Consolidation, etc.). Also eConnect can not post SOP, AR, AP, POP
documents - posting should be done by operator in Great Plains. However you can
deploy posting stored procedures, available on the market (through Alba Spectrum for
example)
2. Extender. Let's see it in action in the following year. The idea is really nice
and it allows non-developer to modify Great Plains screens and place custom logic

About Alba Spectrum Technologies. Alba Spectrum Technologies is joint venture of
several IT and business consulting companies, now operating as single business
entity. We have local presence in the Houston, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San
Diego, Dallas, Miami, Atlanta, Denver, Phoenix, New Orleans, Minneapolis, San
Francisco, LATAM & Brazil, Germany, Russia, South East Asia and Oceania. We believe
in the coexistence of Java (J2EE, EJB, Linux, Unix), Oracle and Microsoft (.Net, C#,
VB) platforms and systems and specialize in several product lines and cross platform
integration, customization, heterogeneous report design, plus we provide ERP/CRM
systems comparison and reviews, not being committed to just on MRP platform. We also
stake on XML cross-platform data interchange to be advanced in the coming decade.

Alba Spectrum Technologies websites:
http://www.albaspectrum.com
http://www.greatplains.com.mx
http://www.enterlogix.com.br
http://www.ronix-systems.de


Web Site = http://www.albaspectrum.com

Contact Details = Alba Spectrum Group, USA/Canada: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918,
Europe: +44 20 8123 2580, +45 36 96 55 20, Mexico: 52-55-535-04027, Brazil:
55-11-3444-4949, help@albaspectrum.com skype: albaspectrum