Microsoft Great Plains: Government & Non-Profit Organization workflow implementation
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Microsoft Great Plains: Government & Non-Profit Organization workflow implementation
Author: Andrew Karasev
Date Added: Saturday Jul 02nd, 2005
Category: Technology
Usually workflow &
messaging is realized in CRM and then transactions are just logged into
Accounting/ERP/MRP. In the case of Microsoft Business Solutions products:
Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Solomon, Axapta the natural CRM choice would
be Microsoft CRM. However typical CRM application targets Sales automation,
which is usually not applicable to government structure, non-profit or public
company (community services, public utilities, churches, charities, etc.).
Not-for-profit organization needs purchasing and requisition workflow, payroll
approval workflow, and in certain cases special General Ledger (GL) transactions
workflow. Microsoft CRM doesnt provide the functionality. Then how could this
be realized? We'll provide two scenarios to realize this customization:
- Lotus Notes/Domino
approach. In Great Plains you
could realize either Great Plains Dexterity triggers or MS SQL database
trigger on certain events (Purchase Order creation, Payroll Transaction, GL
transaction). This event calls COM+ application and this one in turn creates
Lotus objects via Java agent (Lotus Notes Domino should be version 6.0 or
newer). This is basically the bridge. Then in Lotus you have to design
workflow but this is natural task for Lotus and it is not difficult. Users
should work in Lotus to get transactions approved and when it should be posted
in Great Plains Lotus calls SQL script against Great Plains company
database. Developer should know Microsoft Great Plains tables structure
- Microsoft
Exchange/Outlook approach. This
is the second way when you do not want to deploy Lotus Domino, and would be
OK with simple messaging and notification through Microsoft Exchange. The
technical realization should either involve Dexterity or SQL trigger, calling
COM object (Dexterity) or simply sending notification email from MS SQL
Server. The scenario to post or take off hold from Great Plains transaction
could be realized via MS Exchange event sink this MS Exchange event handler
will check all the messages and when the one has certain criteria it calls
MS SQL Server stored procedure in the Great Plains company database
- Programming Tools.
Java agent to address Lotus you need either Sun JDK or somewhat more
advanced: VisualCafe or JBuilder. Great Plains Dexterity trigger should be
done in Dexterity IDE this language requires expertise and it is difficult
to code without experience, Microsoft Exchange event sink should be programmed
in Visual Studio as COM+ application, then you need to register COM+
application through Control Panel->System->Component Services
- Feasibility. To be honest and do not set unrealistic expectations this
Workflow implementation is pretty serious project and we do not recommend if
for small non-profit organization it is rather for large and
mid-size-to-large structure.
We encourage you to
analyze your alternatives. You can always appeal to our help, give us a call:
1-866-528-0577 or 1-630-961-5918,
help@albaspectrum.com
Andrew Karasev is Chief
Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies (
http://www.albaspectrum.com ), serving Microsoft Great Plains, CRM, Navision
to mid-size and large clients in California, Illinois, New York, Georgia,
Florida, Texas, Arizona, Washington, Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan |
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