Great plains Sales customization/Integration 1

[ITMorpheus]

Hello,
I have been placed in charge of Great Plains deployment throughout my company. Accounting Dep't took the decision to use great plains as the accounting software because of all the functionality it offers. Only my problem is this:
The company has a very specific sales workflow, which is impossible to replicate in GP without customization.
I have researched the possible integration methods, but still can't find one that would do the trick, may it be continuum API, VBA, or Dexterity. What I would like to do is have a customized sales module with absolutely no room for error that has lead and prospect management. I am capable of programming such a module in .NET technology, but what would be the best approach to integrate with GP?
Thank you in advance

 

[jazgeek]

integration manager

-----------
and they wonder why they call it Great Pains!

jaz

 

[ITMorpheus]

Thank you for your answer Jazgeek
I have researched integration using IM, but unfortunately I think I'll need a bit more flexibility than that. The problem with IM is that transactions have to be processed in a batch, typically following a schedule. I need more of a real time approach, that will give access to the information to the accounting department as soon as an order is put up(or and order is created). Moreover the table that will hold leads and prospects, and the customers table have to be two distinct table (Because a prospect is not a customer before he's sold to...). When a prospect is sold to, then a customer account is created for him(if it doesn't already exist) in GP.
So any suggestions?

 

[winthropdc]

Sounds like an eConnect integration to me.... or contact eOne (

http://www.eonesolutions.com.au/)

and build your Sales application using eXtender Enterprise.

Have a look at the link below it is a great summary of the Development Tools for Microsoft Business Solutions-Great Plains:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d.../dnmbsgp/html/mbs_gpdevtools_introduction.asp

David Musgrave [MSFT]
Senior Development Consultant
Escalation Engineer
MBS Support - Asia Pacific

Microsoft Business Solutions

http://www.microsoft.com/BusinessSolutions

Any views contained within are my personal views and
not necessarily Microsoft Business Solutions policy.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties,
and confers no rights.

 

[Dukester0122]

We're using Microsoft CRM for the Lead Management then transfer the data to a Quote in Great Plains. When prospect approves the quote and makes d/p (company policy), we transfer the Quote to Order and create the customer from prospect.

 

[ITMorpheus]

Thank you both for your valuable answers.
winthropdc, out of all the integration methods I had considered, I didn't really consider eConnect. But after reading more about it in the article you have attached, it definetly seems to be the way to go!
Dukester0122, I had considered that option as well, but since I had other components to integrate (a third party dialler is one of them, and voice recording confirmation is another) I had come to the conclusion that MS CRM wouldn't do the trick.
Once again, thank you.

 

[Dukester0122]

If you don't mind me asking, how does the third party works because this is something we might be interested in looking at.

 

[ITMorpheus]

The third party app I was talking about is an automatic dialler developped by Convertec Inc. which integrates with Norstar PBX's.
It follows a client/server architecture, whereby the client can be either the provided client in the application or a customizaed, programmed client using the API's provided by the application. Basically how we chose to use it is that way:
Before considering GP we had a complete customized application which interfaced with the dialler client. The agent pulls a prospect, and the phone number would be sent by the application te the dialler client through the API, then the dialler client would make a request to the server, finally the server would interface with the PBX which would redirect the call to the extension specified in the client dialler settings.
The great thing about that application is that it integrates with a multitude of other applications...

http://www.convertecinc.com/call_link.asp

This site should give you the info you need. I'd be happy to provide you with more details if needed.