Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0

Introducing Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 (Great Plains)

Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 (Great Plains), which was officially released in June 2007, includes more than 100 new core application features, a new user interface similar to that of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system, enhancements to business intelligence, a new workflow engine, and integrated structured and unstructured search capabilities based on the Microsoft Dynamics Client for Microsoft Office.

Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 brings together business process automation and personal productivity through integration with the Microsoft Office system, Microsoft SQL Server, and technologies such as .NET that enable efficient customization and solution extensibility. This latest release helps businesses increase the penetration of business data throughout the organization and empowers them to incorporate industry-specific, RoleTailored business processes into their business management systems. Equally important, Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 enables advanced collaboration, search, and business analysis capabilities for all the people who make a business run—regardless of where they function in the organization.

In addition, Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 offers a number of technology innovations that increase ease and efficiency for extending and customizing the solution, along with more than 100 new features and enhancements that span a wide range of business management functions.

Noteworthy Features in Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0:

The release of Dynamics GP 10.0 is a huge step for Microsoft as they deliver customer innovation in the Microsoft Dynamics ERP product line.

Core Application Functionality
With more than 100 new features that deliver on the promise of making business software easier to use and making it more relevant to people’s roles within their unique business. Microsoft has done a lot of work on the user interface to bring forward the look and feel of Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system. For instance, the introduction of Action Panes across all Navigation Lists, containing commands specific to the data in the list, eliminates the need to move across multiple windows to perform a task. With this release, a new workflow engine that can be tailored to the customers’ needs based on Microsoft SharePoint Server technology is introduced. Microsoft continues to move more of their reporting functionality to Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, which gives customers more flexibility in how reports are deployed.

Increased functionality in business intelligence (BI)
This release offers integration with Microsoft Excel Services (a component of SharePoint Server) that provides customers with the ability to conduct analysis in an environment that’s familiar and easily accessible.

Structured and unstructured search capabilities
Microsoft is bringing search to the desktop for a deep view into the entire application. For example, an accounts receivable person looking for a customer can simply type in the customer’s name and see both transaction data from the ERP system as well as unstructured documents such as email, Word, Excel and PowerPoint that contain the customer’s name. And all of this happening from within the ERP system and presented in a form that’s very similar to the user experience the person would have using MSN Search. Customers have lots of data outside of the ERP application, such as in e-mail, and with the new search capabilities, Microsoft has married the ability to quickly find what they are looking for regardless of the form factor.

The positive response from the customers in terms of the innovation and capabilities shipped with Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 indicated they’re moving in the right direction.

 Ease of Use
 Business Intelligence
 Workflow
 Advanced Search Capabilities
 Tools and Technology
 Microsoft Stack Integration

Ease of Use

Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 collaborates with Microsoft Office system technologies to provide a familiar user experience, streamline business processes, improve security for sharing information, and enable people to perform tasks specific to individual roles.

Release 10.0 delivers Action Panes that appear across all navigation lists, a concept inspired by the 2007 Microsoft Office system. Action Panes contain commands specific to the data that is contained within lists, eliminating the need to navigate across multiple windows to perform a series of related tasks. The commands are optimized so that users can quickly perform tasks against multiple records.

• Users work intuitively with a business process and workflow elements that flow logically from left to right.
• Multi-select and preview capabilities improve efficiency by enabling users to take action on specific documents and then proceed with a task—for example, printing packing slips for selected documents.
• Rather than juggling windows to find and use the information they need, users can view multiple transactions within in a single window, filter information, and then perform actions on that filtered view. For example, a user can easily select transactions for posting based on specific business requirements, not simply by batch or transaction level.

Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 empowers all decision makers—essentially, all the people who work within an organization, from CEOs to entry-level managers—with relevant business insight. Release 10.0 utilizes Office SharePoint Server 2007 to transform people's ability to access and analyze accurate, updated data in a format that makes sense, whether they work in Microsoft Dynamics GP or another application. The combined power of SQL Server business intelligence technologies and integration with the Microsoft Office system delivers new flexibility and features for queries and report writing, extends business insight to people across the organization, and enables customers to transition to industry-standard Microsoft tools at their own pace.

• Office SharePoint Server 2007 enables centralized, Web-based storage and management for documents and reports for easy access to information.
• Users can now perform ad hoc queries with Office Excel reports, based on more than 200 SmartList favorites, and instantly refresh them at any time. These reports also can be published and made available on Office SharePoint Server 2007.
• While the Windows® SharePoint Services version of Business Portal still utilizes the Report Catalog, a new report library is available with Office SharePoint Server 2007. Files stored on Office SharePoint Server 2007 can be viewed and launched from within Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Office Outlook®, or directly from Office SharePoint Server 2007, enabling fast access to information for all people within an organization.
• Analysis Cubes for Office Excel have been converted to SQL Server 2005 and consolidated for easier data access and flexible reporting.
• Customizable SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services reports and report pack templates—including 75 reports converted from Report Writer—provide new flexibility and a robust toolset for report writing. Crystal Reports remains an alternative, and people can still take advantage of Report Writer for specific Microsoft Dynamics GP reports.
• The Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 Report List includes support for additional report types, offering a centralized location for finding reports and documents that span multiple formats, including Microsoft Dynamics GP, SQL Server Reporting Services, Office Excel, Office Word, and others.

By incorporating workflow automation into business-specific processes, organizations can maximize efficiency and enable proactive management and responses to changing conditions. Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 introduces new approval workflows, with a RoleTailored experience that takes advantage of the Windows Workflow Foundation built into Office SharePoint Server 2007.

• New document approval workflow functionality allows users to collaborate systematically and easily within a defined process—for example, approving documents such as purchase orders, or approving credit limit overrides based on specified business criteria. Workflow can be configured to fit needs exclusive to business processes and individual roles, including setting up rules and approvers.
• Depending on business rules, users receive automated task notifications through Office Outlook or the Microsoft Dynamics GP Role Center that prompt them to approve, reject, or take other actions for a document or batch. Users can view or take action through Office Outlook, Office SharePoint Server 2007, or directly within Microsoft Dynamics GP.
• Workflow functionality incorporates an audit trail of task ownership and actions per transaction record, helping improve compliance with internal business processes. In addition, reporting capabilities enable users to view key metrics and statistics relevant to workflow approval processes.

Microsoft Dynamics GP workflow automates notifications and approvals for the following business scenarios:

• General Ledger batches
• Receivables Management batches
• Payables Management batches
• Credit Limit Override in Sales Order Processing Entry
• Sales Quotes
• Purchase Orders

The variety of information sources for businesses is constantly growing, resulting in more data stored in more places. To find what they need, information workers struggle with multiple systems and search techniques, resulting in lost productivity and uncertainty about whether they have retrieved timely, complete information. Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Services registers Microsoft Dynamics GP data with the Business Data Catalog in Office SharePoint Server 2007—enabling people across the enterprise to search efficiently in the Microsoft Dynamics GP client or portal not only for structured Microsoft Dynamics GP data, but also for unstructured information, including Office Word documents, Office Excel spreadsheets, Business Portal data, and e-mails.

• For example, if a user is searching for specific information about a customer, they can quickly implement a name search and retrieve all information related to the customer—including sales and service records, Office Outlook e-mails, items awaiting approval, and more.
• Information can be returned from SQL Server Reporting Services reports, as well as from reports that are published to the portal in either text or PDF format.

A key goal for Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 is to increase the use of technologies that include .NET 3.0, Web services, SQL Server Reporting Services, and Office SharePoint Server 2007. For Web services, we’ve added new Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Services connection points for Field Service Management and other areas. These new connection points work with Office SharePoint Server 2007 workflow and search functionality included in Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0. Using this industry standard for sharing information, Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 offers customers standardized extensibility that expands access to business data, drives increased efficiency, and delivers the investment protection of technologies that can work now and into the future.

• Using Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Services, businesses can extend Microsoft Dynamics GP through application integration and share information with customers and vendors.
• Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 simplifies deployment processes for reporting and reduces the need for extensive IT resources. For example, the SQL Server Reporting Services wizard automates the deployment process, including deployment for selected module reports, report models, and data sources. Microsoft Dynamics GP also offers a wizard that automates data connections and Office Excel report deployment, including reports for selected companies and registered modules. This wizard creates a folder structure for organizing connections and reports by company and series, and it provides options for publishing to Office SharePoint Server 2007 or within a network folder structure.
• By combining Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 with Office SharePoint Server 2007, businesses gain advanced search, information sharing, and workflow processes. Office SharePoint Server 2007 comprises a number of products that include the Windows Workflow Foundation, Excel Services in Office SharePoint Server 2007, and InfoPath® Forms 2007.
• Businesses can create additional workflows within Office SharePoint Server 2007 for a number of business requirements—for example, a workflow for legal contract reviews which are not dependent on Microsoft Dynamics GP. Through Web Services exposed within the Office SharePoint Server Business Data Catalog, information from Microsoft Dynamics GP can be added to workflows without special customization or development efforts.

Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 offers strong integration with the latest Microsoft products and technologies, including compatibility with the Windows Vista® operating system. Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 works with the following Microsoft products and technologies:

• Windows Vista
• Windows Server® 2003
• The 2007 Microsoft Office system
• SQL Server 2005
• SQL Server 2005 Notification Services
• SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services
• SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services
• Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2006
• Office SharePoint Server 2007
• Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
• .NET Framework (Versions 2.0 & 3.0)

Microsoft Dynamics GP is compatible with current and previous versions of these Microsoft products, including Windows Small Business Server 2003, Microsoft Office 2003, Windows XP, and SQL Server 2000.

At Youngland, customer satisfaction is highly prioritized because we firmly believe that taking care of customers takes care of business. Our staff is dedicated to bring you exceptional care and support. With this as our business model, we are dedicated in providing our customers with the best services because their satisfaction is our reward.

If you are interested in knowing more, please take a look at our SWITCH! Program that offers the product with FREE assessment and discount.

Youngland provides Microsoft Dynamics GP in Canada and USA including Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Seattle. Local service is available in Burnaby, New Westminster, Coquitlam, Richmond, Surrey, Delta, Langley, Abbotsford, Maple Ridge, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Squamish, Whistler, Victoria and Nanaimo. With reasonable travel we serve Kamloops, Kelowna, Red Deer, Prince George, Bellingham, Believue, Olympia, Tacoma and Portland.

Last Updated: Thursday, February 16, 2012; at 12:43:37 PM

Related Links

• Great Plains Benefits and Featues
• Great Plains Fact Sheets
  
  
• Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0
• Extensions for Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0
• MBS Great Plains 8.0

 Microsoft Dynamics GP 10 Enhancement Brochure

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