Yes, there is a "Secret" to using Excel.

But what does that mean? Is this a gimmick? No, it’s honest to goodness advice from a computer training consultant. Be patient, read this page, and you will be a much stronger Excel user in the next 3 minutes. If I have only 5 minutes to give anyone an Excel tutorial, I would teach them the "Secret".

I was amazed when I learned what I call the "Secret" to Excel. I was amazed that Microsoft hadn’t placed the feature as an icon on one of their toolbars. I was amazed that all of the "real" books I owned regarding Excel failed to mention the "Secret". Finally, in an Excel reference book, I found the "Secret" to Excel somewhere on page 350. The "Secret" had been buried so deeply in the book no one would ever read, see, or use the "Secret".

A Brief History Lesson.

When you inherit someone’s "old" spreadsheet you need to analyze the formulas of the spreadsheet to see what they are doing. Even if the spreadsheet is one you created, you may have created the spreadsheet so long ago that you have forgotten what formulas you used.

Over the years Excel has improved its quality control features for analyzing formulas. But even today, 95% or more of all users research their spreadsheet formulas the old fashioned way. They click on a cell to see if it’s a formula. Then they study the formula. Then they might click on another cell to see if it’s a formula. And do the same thing over and over again.

Checking formulas with the mouse-click method is slow, tedious, and not thorough. It’s a bad process. But that’s the way over 95% of all Excel users research their spreadsheets. But there’s a much better way. It is the "Secret" to using Excel.

Life with Excel spreadsheets when using the “Secret”

After using the "Secret" the spreadsheet makes sense again. I can remember all of my formulas. Since I can’t use pictures in this article, read this next passage carefully:

Learning the "Secret" to Excel helps you display all your formulas not as numbers but as logical text. You can see the logic of every single formula on your spreadsheet.

The "Secret"

The "Secret" to using Excel is a keystroke command named CTRL gravé. This is pronounced "control gra-vay". (Gra rhymes with the word pa, and vay rhymes with the word bay).

Because I can’t use pictures in this article, I need to write some steps for you. Don’t skim over these steps, do them. You’ll be glad you did. (It’s really quite simple, it’s a CTRL gravé.)

First, open up an Excel spreadsheet file that has formulas in it.

Second, using your Windows (non-Apple) keyboard, look to the lower left hand corner of the keyboard.

Third, hold down the CTRL key with any finger.

Fourth, locate the number 1 key towards the upper left hand corner of the keyboard.

Fifth, find the key one key left of the number 1. It has the symbols ` and ~. The first symbol, the ` is called a gravé.

Sixth, still holding down the CTRL key, tap the gravé key.

Seventh, see that all your formulas now have logical text. So instead of saying 150, a cell might display =a1+a2

CTRL gravé is a toggle. Do it once to see your formulas in the spreadsheet. Do it again to display the numbers again.

Do you remember how when you were little you learned how to read at age 4, 5, or 6? Wasn’t it fun beginning to understand what all those neat symbols meant on the white paper? It was like discovering some secret code the grownups used.

That’s what the “Secret” to Excel is like. Every time someone gives you a spreadsheet, just use the “Secret” on the spreadsheet to understand its logic. You’ll enjoy this technique so much you’ll start showing it to your friends.

Best wishes from Chicago, IL USA.

To see the "Secret" to Excel training video, go to http://TheWorldsShortestExcelBook.com Read the first page to find the 5 minute training video on the "Secret". You can also sign up for Richard’s free Excel courses delivered to you once a week.

Richard Kraneis is an author of Excel e-books and training videos. If you need on-site advanced Excel training for your company, please visit http://www.techspectrum.com/AET.html for further information. Thank you.

What is installation in the language of technology?  Installation has server and client sides. 

• Server side - Installation creates security environment (logins) on MS SQL Server or MSDE, creates system database - DYNAMICS and then company databases.  All these tasks are performed by Microsoft Great Plains Utilities 
• Workstation side - workstation installation copies the client side application, installs current version of MDAC (we need SQL ODBC driver - please check documentation on ODBC DSN setup), registers the application.  If you plan to run Great Plains Utilities from the workstation to create server side (see above) - you need to check Install Client and Server Components

What is following implementation?  Implementation requires combination of technological and accounting skills

• System Setup - you should refer to GP documentation.  In general setup consists of Company information, General GL/AR/AP/Payroll setup, User classes, Customer/Vendor/Employee classes to name a few
• Master Records - you should either use integration tools, such as Integration Manager, SQL queries or have users to type in all your GL Accounts, Customers, Vendors, Employees .
• Beginning Balances - this is recommended approach - you place aside the old accounting application for querying the historical data and enter beginning balances  in Great Plains GL, AR, AP, SOP, POP, Payroll.  When you have balances in the system you are ready to use it in production
• Historical Data conversion - this is optional, in order to do historical data conversion you need to know basic Great Plains tables structure (Setup->Tools->Resource Description->Tables Structure).  This is similar to surgery - so you probably need outside consultant to help you.  If the volume of historical data is small - you can deploy Great Plains Integration Manager and then post the records in the modules.
• User Training - we are just listing this item - it is up to you to decide on the way to train your users
• Using Two Systems in Parallel - this is recommended.  You should print the reports from both systems during this test period and compare the results
• Customization - typical areas of customizations: Invoice form, Crystal Reports, pulling info from multiple databases, including Great Plains database, Great Plains forms modification with Modifier/VBA, Great Plains Dexterity forms and logic customization, integration with CRM, RMS and other business systems, web publishing from Great Plains tables, EDI with your suppliers, SQL Data Transformation packages

Do I need consultant?  We strongly recommend you to use consultant in the following cases

• You have identified the need for Great Plains Dexterity customization
• You are doing migration from Pervasive/Ctree to Microsoft SQL Server/MSDE, especially when you have third-parties without migration tools
• You are doing migration from Great Plains Accounting to Microsoft Great Plains
• You have to create a lot or ReportWriter Modified Great Plains Reports
• You have old version of Great Plains: Dynamics or eEnterprise 6.0 or prior - in this case you can not appeal to Microsoft Technical Support - it is discontinued
• Your Great Plains has more than 20 users in this case the mistake may lead to serious business problems
• You don’t have support for your old Great Plains - then you have to select your Microsoft Business Solutions Partner and pay for the annual support/enhancement plan - you will get new registration key and will be ready for the upgrade

Good luck with installation,  implementation, upgrade 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, based in Chicago, California, Texas, Florida, New York, Georgia, Washington, Minnesota, Colorado, Canada, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally (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

There is a heated debate currently going on over our recent article, which jumped sites like a "California brush fire".

"Will Adobe manage to replace industry work horse Quark XPress by giving Adobe InDesign for free?"

Originally, on or about the 15th of October, the article was posted to the Quark home web page as the top header for their popular In the News Section.

By the 19th of October the article was flamed by the Adobe supporters and empoyees who are currently running a website by the name of QuarkVsIndesign.com.

At fist these individuals were hiding behind the pseudonyms like "soupfighter" and now they have finally exposed their true motives.

So why are all these people in the Quark Forum so upset?

Why is a website dedicated to propagating the war between Quark and InDesign aggressively pursuing and tracking artificially fabricated conflict?

And why, are some individuals (who’s names I will not deign mention because of the inappropriate language they are using) and Pariah S. Burke, with help from good ol’ "soupfighter", using their precious time desperately refuting everything we said in the article?

Why have they blatantly said they are going to cut my links?

Is it the Pot calling the Kettle Black?

I guess they don’t like the competition.

These guys must be paid by Adobe to troll through the Quark website (where our article was placed on the home page as the top header In the News Section) trying to refute anything that might possibly make Adobe look bad.

Now who’s working for whom?

Come on guys, confess. ValorCrossMedia has the right to promote themselves and have done another great job of self-promotion. If you hire us, next time we can do the same for you.

God Bless and remember The Golden Rule Do onto others as you would have done onto you…

Please visit our Valor E-Business Professionals Blog or write to articles@valorcrossmedia.com

About the Author: Galina Arlov is a Creative Director for Valor Cross Media.

Valor Cross Media offers creative website services in all areas. Web Site Design and Hosting, Shop Fronts and Affiliates, Online Marketing and Advertising, Search Engine Optimization, Banner Design and Tracking, Branding, Consumer Research Planning and Implementation, Market Planning, Public Relations and much more.

Valor Cross-Media also offers premium comprehensive Search Engine Optimization Plans to heighten Web Site effectiveness through the use of keywords and competition analysis.

Valor Cross Media, Where Substance Supports Style.

For more information about how Valor Cross Media can help you call 212 288-1866, or visit us at http://www.valorcrossmedia.com

It’s no secret that software companies operate in a very competitive space where rivalry is increasingly fierce and where profit margins can be razor thin. New, smaller software companies are sprouting up each month and the leading software companies continually make strong advancements forward leveraging massive cash flow reserves. This cycle makes it difficult for the mid-sized software company to compete because (a) they don’t typically have the cash flow necessary to take giant leaps forward in the industry and (b) because they need to continually move forward to stay ahead of the smaller software companies that are vying for their slot in the marketplace. Consequently, making the jump from an unknown to a mainstream brand can prove to be very difficult for the mid-sized software company.

Finding ways to create new revenue streams and to decrease current costs is imperative to the success of companies caught in this cycle. They need to be thinking on their feet, thinking ahead and thinking creatively, all at the same time. This can be a daunting task, as any software executive will tell you.

Despite all of the challenges that face the mid-sized software market, there are several ways to create these much needed revenue streams and to decrease current costs. New advancements in technology and its use in training and development make generating these revenue streams possible.

Setting the Stage

It is almost taken for granted that when an organization purchases a software package from a reputable vendor, a certain amount of end-user, customer training will be either bundled into the purchase price or made available to them for an additional cost. If training isn’t available to the end-user customer, the learning curve on the new software package is going to be fairly steep, depending on the complexity of the software.

Typical training expense categories associated with most mid-sized software companies include:

1. The salaries of offline trainers
2. The travel expenses of offline trainers
3. The costs of producing hard-copy training manuals
4. The time involved in offline, onsite customer training

These expenses should be under a watchful eye and should be consistently viewed as expenses that could be alleviated to some degree to not only improve the company’s attractiveness in competitive bid situations but to increase the profit margins of the supplemental training services provided by the company.

At the same time, in the background, mid-sized software companies should be looking for ways to create new revenue streams that they aren’t currently capitalizing on to work in collaboration with their cost-reduction initiative.

Step 1: Lowering Training Costs Using Custom e-Learning Content

The first step to any well laid-out cost-reduction plan is to decrease the costs the organization currently incurs in order to get a better handle on profit potential from sheer cost savings. Previously we outlined what our target cost categories are…now we’re going to lower the costs associated with those categories by leveraging custom e-Learning content.

Take this scenario: A mid-sized software company that develops intranet portal systems currently employs 3 trainers that are onsite with clients for end-user training 3 days per engagement and they each average approximately 50 engagements per year for a grand total of 150 days on the road per trainer or 450 days on the road collectively.

For these trainers, the onsite training program for the end-user customer may look something like the following:

Day 1: Software Introduction and Primary Functions
Day 2: Functional Use and Administrative Actions
Day 3: Real-World Functions and Labs

Lowering the costs: By leveraging custom e-Learning content, the company used in the above scenario, can effectively reduce the onsite time required for each trainer, thereby reducing all costs associated with the training program across the board.

By using a professionally designed, self-paced, custom e-Learning module to focus on the Software Introduction and Primary Functions training that normally occurs on Day 1 and then delivering that learning module online to their end-user customers at the time of purchase through an e-Learning Management System (LMS), this company could decrease travel time for all 3 trainers by 1 day per engagement. This would decrease travel time for each trainer by 50 days per year, or 150 days collectively during the year. In addition the end-user customers will already be familiar with the software package before the trainers ever set foot in the front door.

This would successfully:
 
Decrease the costs associated with those 150 days of travel that are now being saved.

Enable the company’s trainers to perform more training engagements OR enable the company to decrease the number of in-house trainers it employs.
 
Decrease the costs associated with creating and publishing the sections of the hard-copy training manuals that deal with the Software Introduction and Primary Functions training session that normally occurs in-person on Day 1 of the training engagement.

Taking it one step further: Reducing each trainers travel schedule by 1 day is good, but it isn’t good enough. Software companies employing this cost-reduction method should take it one step further to enhance their end-user customer’s experience. They need to make sure that their end-user customers are learning what they need to know to ensure time isn’t being wasted covering the same topics when the trainer visits the customer site in-person.

To do this, the software company needs to look at how they plan to deliver the online training to their end-user customers. They will want to make sure that the end-user customers can track and manage the online training portion of their sessions, whether it is self-paced custom e-Learning content or real-time online trainer/student collaboration. Selecting this delivery platform can be difficult but it should include the following basic functions:

1. Student Knowledge Assessments
2. Student Success and Progress Tracking
3. Real-Time Interactivity
4. Self-Paced Learning Delivery

By selecting a delivery platform that addresses all four of these facets of end-user customer training, the mid-sized software company can not only decrease their own costs but enhance their client/vendor relationship by delivering more than what is normally expected or experienced in today’s software market. What’s the bottom line? The customer is pleased with their user’s performance and the value they received from the software company.

Step 2: Creating Revenue Using Custom e-Learning Content

Now that we have lowered our costs, the company needs to look at how they can use their new learning technology to generate new revenue streams for their organization.

Take this scenario: The mid-sized intranet portal software company used in the scenario above now has their own proprietary basic end-user e-Learning module to cover 1 day’s worth of what was previously onsite training. The company has effectively reduced their overall, offline training costs. Now it is looking for ways to generate new revenue streams using this technology to (a) make back their initial purchase costs and to (b) create more profit potential for the entire organization.

Creating the revenue: One way for a mid-sized software company, such as the one we’re using in our example, to create this much needed revenue stream is to create subsequent, more advanced, self-paced, custom e-Learning training modules. Attractively priced, these learning modules could be made available to their end-user customers online without incurring any additional offline training costs.

In order to do this efficiently and without incurring additional offline training costs, the company needs to make it easy for the end-user customer to purchase the more advanced training content and make it easy for the end-user customer to track their own learners as they attend the training courses so they can readily see its effectiveness. By investing the money today to build the more advanced, custom e-Learning content, this mid-sized software company could realize profits from the training modules within 12 to 24 months once they begin marketing and selling it to their existing client base. Such profits would be dependent on development timeframes, how they market their new training service and their chosen modes of delivery.

Taking it one step further: Making the more advanced e-Learning content convincing and attractive to purchase from the client standpoint takes some ingenuity. People are very susceptible to purchasing something that is located right next to the checkout lane at Target. Similarly, it stands to reason that client of this mid-sized software company will be more apt to purchase additional e-Learning content if it is readily available to them and if they can purchase it without any hassle.

One way to accomplish this is to publish the new, more advanced, self-paced e-Learning modules to the company’s LMS portal and then make the modules available for purchase via credit card using e-Commerce or via standard invoice with a single phone call. This essentially acts as the product stands we all see at Target next to the checkout lane. Since everyone needs to pass through checkout lane, it makes sense to put additional products available for purchase there. In other words, if the mid-sized software company is delivering portions of their beginner training program online to their end-user customers, this more advanced e-Learning content should be available for purchase right next to those basic training modules, thus, increasing its visibility and increasing the attractiveness to buy from the client perspective.

The Completed Solution

Because of the tight software market and the strain put on mid-sized software companies to perform, if these companies can decrease the costs associated with their current training programs and create new revenue streams at the same time, it becomes a win/win situation both for the vendor and for the customer. The software company gains a competitive edge and continues to move forward while the client gains an easy-to-engage training program and added value from their software vendor.

Synapse SE Staff Contributor

For questions about this article, please contact:

Shawn Torkelson, Synapse SE, 612.501.2620, www.synapse-se.com

Today we are building robots and computers, which mirror humans and can interact with them. This works very well for many things and can assist humans in accepting their computer or robotic assistant counterparts. Unfortunately when computers attempt to decipher text and meaning and then correspond with humans, the mirroring does not always work.

If the robot or computer is using artificial intelligent software to communicate with a human and use mirroring techniques and scaling of escalation in the conversation, they often will not suffice in keeping the human’s interest for too long. Indeed a chimpanzee, dog or cat maybe willing to continue interaction, non-verbal communication or synthesize mimicking techniques for verbal communication; however for humans it cannot work for very long especially if the human is in search of enlightenment, rather than encyclopedia or dictionary definitional content.

In corresponding with artificial intelligence on a keyboard or through the Internet the human assumes that the entity on the other side is like them; that is to say an organic carbon based human biped. There comes a time when the human is skeptical of the information and correspondence coming from the other side of the screen, often the human will begin to assume that the information comes from an ignorant human or a lawyer’esque type human and thus does not appreciate the information for what it is; pure information mixed in with mirroring conversational composites of chit chat crap.

There are many types of software used today to help un-intelligent humans with correspondence, writing or even term papers, yet what you will find is this software does not work well when the human being used as the target subject actually knows a little about a lot of things or is intimately familiar with the subject matter. For instance in the case of the CIA or NSA trying to get information of profile a target; a professor grading a term paper or a reader of a news article. So often it is obvious that the what appears at first to be a dumb human bluffing or BS’ing their way through a subject matter or the software gives its self away by acting non-human and providing erroneous or irrelevant data to a conversation, story or paper. It maybe fanciful to a human to use a robotic or computer software enhanced correspondence mechanism to save time, do homework, save labor costs or taxpayers money. But if such an artificial intelligent system delivers garbage due to shoddy programming and less than intelligent people putting in the input, then it will not suffice or solve the problem of tricking the individual, enhancing readership or convincing anyone of anything.

So, we must remember that those who program these systems to interact with humans need to be as smart or smarter (artificially that is) than the human they are corresponding to, other wise the human feels that the discussion is irrelevant, rhetoric or simply mirroring semantics. If we are to build assistant robots, they must be careful with their interactions. Now, sometimes humans act in such was, yet when they do, don’t most people simply walk away, shaking their heads? If a human stops the correspondence then you have to start all over. If the human rejects the robotic assistant then you have wasted your money in that system. Sure you can say it is work in progress and call it development costs, but it is a useless hunk of junk you see? Likewise if a student uses a system for their work and if the professor of the homework assignment is unimpressed you get a lousy grade.

Right now this is what I am giving the artificial intelligence programmers right now. Y’all need to go back to the drawing board and do some more research on the human species within a society and study how they interact in groups, one on one and in the larger over all culture. It is not a one size fits all scenario and although it is indeed smart to try to keep it simple, there needs to be more overlay on the various types of people and smarter people doing the programming. Think on that

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Microsoft CRM is new player on the CRM software market.  The whole conception behind CRM seems to be different.  In case of traditional CRM software (Siebel, Oracle) - the application was designed with platform independence in mind.  Microsoft CRM is dedicated to Microsoft technology and so deploys all the Microsoft tools: Windows Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange 2003/2000, SQL Server, Crystal Reports Enterprise, Biztalk server, Microsoft Outlook, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Great Plains as backend, etc.

If you are software developer, database administrator or web designer who is asked: how do we customize Microsoft CRM – we are giving you directions in this article.

1. Microsoft CRM SDK – this is software development kit with C# and partly VB.net code samples – it is supported by Microsoft Business Solutions technical support.  It is based on web service calls, if you are C# .NET developer – you are excellently positioned to do this type of customizations.  This is the preferred modification scenario and this should be easily upgradeable customization.  VB.Net examples will be available soon.
2. Legacy SQL Data integration.  This is also easy and safe.  If you have SQL database, sitting on the same or linked SQL Server – you can create ASPX .Net application and simply integrate it into CRM.  You can place it on the navigation bar or menu in isv.config – please refer to MS CRM SDK
3. Legacy ASP integration – this is somewhat more sophisticated.  You have to deploy HTTP handler to be a middle party between CRM which is .Net based and ASP which is legacy IIS.  The trick is – you have to have INI file with security settings to penetrate into MS CRM with proper credentials, calling web service.
4. Microsoft Exchange Programming.  Microsoft CRM has Exchange connector – which moves CRM incoming email to MS if it has GUID in its subject.  You can alter this logic (for instance - move email to CRM if it doesn’t have GUID but it is from the sender who is contact or account in MS CRM).  Refer to MS Exchange SDK onsyncsave event handling.  Then simply apply some MS CRM SDK programming - you need some COM+ objects creation and VB programming experience.
5. Direct SQL touch – in #4 above I described you the scenario with MS Exchange handlers – this would be ideal world if MS CRM SDK does the job.  But – in real world this is not always true – you have to do direct flags correction in CRM database (like making Activity closed, moving email attachments/octet streams, etc).  This is not supported by MBS technical support – but you can rescue to this technique if you have to get job done.
6. MS CRM Customization tool –  this is rather end-user tool and we don’t describe it here – read the manual.  We’ve described above the options to use when this tool doesn’t do the job
7. Crystal Reports - feel free to create Crystal report - tables and views structure is self explanatory.  Try to avoid the temptation to create your own SQL view or stored procedure in MS CRM database, instead - create custom database and place your view and stored proc in it. 

Happy modifying! 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 Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, based in Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Canada, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, SQL, VB/C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

It’s Saturday, or after hours a buyer lands on your website and discovers the only way to order your product is by calling you the next business day. You lost a sale and the real problem is you may not even know it. Would you like to have a website and manage the content without a webmaster? How about a website that takes orders and passes all the information into your accounting system with the push of a button? Here is a list of the tools you would need to purchase, all for a total investment of around $1,600 and a few days of your time.

Domain name registration $25 Make sure the provider is reliable, easy to work with and has the ability to change and redirect your web domain if you need to. Additionally, make sure you have password protection, registrar locking ability and for advanced users you may want the ability to change DNS settings and have flexible configuration options without having to pay for these changes.

Peachtree Web Site Creator Pro Version 4.5 $197.88 for the annual subscription. Build a professional-quality web site for your business with customizable pages and an online catalog, including inventory items that you can upload from your Peachtree Premium software with graphical pictures. This product has an intuitive basic setup page that includes a step-by-step guide to help you get your website up and running. You may view a sample of this product @ http://www.bellwethergarden.com/ct_catalog.htm

Peachtree Web Site Trader Version 4.5 $197.88 for the annual subscription. Sell your products and services online and transfer web orders into your Peachtree Accounting software. This product has a secure interactive storefront and instantly adds new customer information to Peachtree from web orders. Additionally, the e-mail order confirmation for you and your customers is simple to modify. The price listed also includes annual web hosting. After you have your Peachtree Accounting software up and running you may purchase the web site subscription from www.peachtree.com.

Peachtree single user Premium Accounting Version 2006 retails for $499 – This product has additional features not found in some of the lesser priced versions of Peachtree. It is designed to help small businesses better manage their accounting, streamline their operations, and aid in their decision making. With training you can quickly learn, use and easily correct mistakes. This product helps businesses do more in less time. To get almost a 20% discount off the software, plus mail in rebate coupons, forms discount coupons and free tips and tricks newsletters shipped with your order go to www.bizsoftresource.com.

Training classes from certified training centers are generally around $350 per day, include a training manual and sometimes lunch. I would suggest a minimum of 2 days of training. A listing of the certified training classes be found @ www.peachtree.com/forms/html/premiertrainers.cfm

We have helped a few of our clients set up E-Commerce solutions using these tools and have set up a site of our own. Once we decided on the content it took us less than 8 hours to upload our inventory and configure the website. I give this product thumbs up! Look for information on Peachtree’s credit card and a payroll processing services which we will review in future articles.

Jennifer OBrien is the founder and president of JCS Computer Resource, Inc. and has served on the Steering Committee for Certified Consultants for Sage software 5 times over the past 15 years.
www.jcscomputer.com

Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind it.  Now it is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele.  Small companies use Small Business Manager (which is based on the same technology – Great Plains Dexterity dictionary and runtime), Great Plains Standard on MSDE is for small to midsize clients, and then Great Plains serves the rest of the market up to big corporations.  There are several reporting tools available and you definitely need to know which one to use for different types of reports.

If you are database administrator who is asked to import some data to Great Plains or repair or copy data from one company to another – read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.

1.  Microsoft Great Plains Tables Structure – Launch Great Plains and go to Tools->Resource Description->Tables.  Find the table in the proper series.  If you are looking for the customers – it should be RM00101 – customer master file.

2.  DEX_ROW_ID.  This is identity column and each Great Plains table has it - this is due to the Great Plains Dexterity technology.  This column is never used as a key field - so don’t try to link your tables on DEX_ROW_ID.  In case if you need to transfer the table from one company to another you should use these queries:

select * into GL00100_BAK from TWO.dbo.GL00100
go
alter table GL00100_BAK drop column DEX_ROW_ID
go
insert into GL00100 select * from GL00100_BAK
go
drop table GL00100_BAK

The set of queries above will transfer GL00100 (Account Master table) from TWO company into your current company.  Then you need to run Checklinks - refer to GP Manual - in order to recreate the rest of the account master related tables.

3.  Do not modify the table – sometimes it seems to be nice if you just append couple of extra columns to the table - like in IV00101 - inventory master file why wouldn’t you just add couple of additional descriptions.  If you do this - Great Plains Dexterity engine will fail reading all your items - due to the fact that DYNAMICS.DIC (main Great Plains Dictionary file) has exact description of all the tables and Dexterity uses it for reading and writing into the specific table

4.  Feel free to create SQL views or stored procs.  If you are helping your internal developers to create Crystal Reports - good SQL views are real help to them.  Let me give you example, the view below will show work and historical SOP Invoices - then Crystal can just use it

create view SOP_WORK_HIST
as
select SOPNUMBE, CUSTNMBR, CUSTNAME, DOCAMNT from SOP30200 where SOPTYPE=3 and VOIDSTTS=0
union
select SOPNUMBE, CUSTNMBR, CUSTNAME, DOCAMNT from SOP10100 where SOPTYPE=3 and VOIDSTTS=0

The above view will show all the work and historical non-voided invoices (SOP Type = 3 stays for invoice)

5.  Some repair / unlocking tips:

If you run query above against DYNAMICS database - it will unlock the user, who accidentally shut down the computer without logging off Great Plains:

delete ACTIVITY where USERID=’JOHN’

Next one will unlock hanging batch:

update SY00500 set BCHSTTUS=0 where BACHNUMB = ‘JULYINVOICES04′ 

Happy querying!  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 Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains implementation and customization company, based in Chicago, Boston, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, and Miami and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, SQL, VB/C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

What it is CD ripper?

CD ripper software opens up a whole new world of opportunities in how you listen to music. With CD ripper software, you can take audio CD tracks and place them into audio files on your computer. These audio tracks can be saved as WAV, MP3, OGG, or WMA audio files. The term “ripping” is used to describe this process.

Newer, more advanced CD ripper software is also available that allows you to convert back and forth between these formats. In fact, some CD ripper software is now available that can record vinyl LP’s and cassettes to create WAV, MP3, OGG, or WMA audio files.

Where to get it.

A variety of CD ripper software is available online. Simply typing “CD ripper” into any search engine will bring up a wide variety of available CD ripper software. Most CD ripper software is extremely user friendly and offers a variety of options, but you should do some searching and comparing before deciding which CD ripper software is best for you.

What to look for.

Every type of CD ripper software had its own style and interface. Make sure the CD ripper software you choose is easy to use and to understand. It doesn’t matter how great the software is if you can’t utilize it to its fullest!

When exploring CD ripper software options, be sure to also check out the software’s editing abilities. With most CD ripper software programs, you can select the output format for you music. This includes the bitrate, channels, and frequency. The best CD ripper software will create high quality files by digitally matching the audio bit for bit.

Quality CD ripper software will also tag the encoded audio files with metadata. The metadata contains information about the artist, track number, song title, and album title. This will automatically be input into the WAV, MP3, OGG, or WMA audio file. Some CD ripper software programs will even search online for pictures of album covers and insert this as a thumbnail image next to the file.

Another perk to some CD ripper software is the ability to delete the silence at the beginning or end of tracks. Yet other CD ripper software programs will allow you to edit the songs themselves, giving you full control of the sound provided by your WAV, MP3, OGG, or WMA audio file.

For those traditionalists who still enjoy listening to their music from a CD, a CD ripper can be used to select your favorite songs to create a mixed CD. In fact, some CD rippers will allow you to rip audio tracks directly from a CD and burn them to a new CD, without ever having to save them as a new audio file.

With thousands of people ripping CD’s every day, CD ripping is definitely the wave of the future, and the best choice for music lovers everywhere. Why keep your music stationary on older format CDROMS, when you can rip the music, put it into your favorite mp3 player, and listen on the go?

Mansi aggarwal writes about CD ripper.

Microsoft Great Plains as ERP and Microsoft CRM as Client Relation Management system is very robust combination and could serve midsize to large corporation as Business System.  Being VP IT or IT Director you need to foresee the positions to have in your IT department to do internal MS Great Plains and MS CRM support.

Let us give you the directions, based on our research and consulting practice.

1. Microsoft SQL Server Specialist – we specially do not name this position as MS SQL DBA, because both Great Plains and MS CRM are not very complex from the database administration side, they do not use indexes optimization, referential integrity, probably do not require complex transaction log backup/recovery scenarios.  On the other hand this position requires Great Plains and Microsoft CRM tables structure analysis and some primary Great Plains data fixing skills via SQL queries, described in MBS Customer source techknowledge database.  The best candidate should have some accounting background - to be able to address ongoing issues to MBS technical support.
2. Network Administrator with good Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory skills.  Microsoft CRM uses all the newest Microsoft technologies, and Exchange is a workhorse here.  In order to install and upgrade MS CRM this guy needs to understand the under-laying Microsoft technology.  In the best case - she/he should know Exchange security structure and probably program Exchange handlers, due to the fact that CRM/Exchange connector is not a perfect tool yet.
3. C# or VB.Net programmer with excellent SQL Skills– if you are midsize or large company - you should have this position - you will need web publishing and MS CRM customization and its support.  Currently Microsoft CRM SDK has C# examples - so C# programmer would be the best fit, it may have more VB code in the future, so the C# - VB balance maybe restored.
4. Crystal Reports Designer/Programmer - Crystal Reports is the best tool available on the market to address both Great Plains and MS CRM reporting needs.  This position maybe merged with one of the above.

These people should be probably cross-trained in both Great Plains, Microsoft CRM, Crystal Reports, SQL and C# programming, so you do not depend on the unique skills of one person.  In our opinion, which is based on our long term consulting practice - these skills will allow you to keep the cost of IT support reasonably low and avoid paying high consulting price to your Microsoft Business Solutions Partner.

Happy hiring and training! But in any case you need to select Microsoft Business Solutions Partner/Var/Reseller to be your official representative.  This is how MBS has its channel working - it assures that Microsoft Business Solutions products are properly implemented.  If you want us to be your Microsoft Business Solutions Partner - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains implementation and customization company, based in Chicago, Boston, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta, and Miami and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, SQL, VB/C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.