Logoff option?

[clicker666]

I've got an issue with licenses and logons. I've got a limited budget and want to find a way to allow my users to partially back out of the system, so that they don't need to perform a complete load up of GP everytime they need access.

I've got some users that are constant. (5)
I've got some users I call regular. (10)
I've got some users that I call occasional. (16)

The constant users are in the system all day. They don't log out and need a full license a piece. The regular users spend about an hour or so a day in the system. They are the ones who sit there, logged in, even though they don't need to be. When the occasional users attempt to login, there's no available licenses.

When I tell the regular users to just log out when they aren't using the system, I get the "it takes too long to login" story. My response is, "it takes just under 2 minutes to login. If you can show me that your 2 minutes is worth 3,000 dollars to the company I'll get you a license."

What would be really nice would be if the user could simply logout of Great Plains without exiting back past the login screen. Unfortunately, doing this doesn't free up the user's license. (ie - Change user and company option)

Any ideas?

 

[Luvsql]

When the user is sitting at the User/Company window, you could at that point remove their user ID from the Activity file, thus freeing up a license. HOwever, the issue you'll need to determine is how to setup a job that will delete that user from the activity when they are not active (or not active within a certain time period). YOu could activate the Activity Tracking (setup > system > activity tracking) and mark all users to track when they log in and out, then use that information against the SY00800 table or some other table to determine if the specified users are active and how long they have been inactive.

It's a start.

 

[jazgeek]

I think winthropdc had something called omnitools that had an inactive logout feature.

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and they wonder why they call it Great Pains!

jaz

 

[clicker666]

I'm thinking that I want this to be a manual process. I'm going to try and code in a "Logoff" option in the file menu that will put the user back at the login screen and delete their SY00800 entry. For security I'll set it so they can only log themselves out.

I'll get back to you on what I come up with...

 

[clicker666]

Hmmm.... SY00800 doesn't really have anything in it if the user has no open windows. Removing the user from the ACTIVITY table doesn't allow them to log back in.

There's got to be a way to do this, that doesn't require third party add-ons, and allows for user level control.

If anyone has other ideas I'd love to hear them. Even if I could find a way for the users to be able to log in *faster*, it would work. The problem is users don't want to log out, because they don't want to spend the time it takes to log back in. (about a minute and a half)

 

[stef315]

Yeah, I thought the problem was not just logging them off but taking too long to log on. The lengther part of the login is after they choose the company. I don't think there is anyway around this unless you check for users then run a batch file to launch the program and log users in as soon as a license frees up.

Can any of these users utilize Business Portal instead? It's probably something they'd get use out of anyway and the money you save on user licensing can be used instead to implement BP.

 

[winthropdc]

I would suggest you look at the Inactivity Timeout feature of Omni Password, part of the Omni Tools suite. I wrote this when I still worked for

http://www.winthropdc.com

and it would solve your problem.

For the users who are "Constant", you can use the Omni Tools control panel to disable the inactivity timeout.

The way this was designed is that it will only perform a nice log out when it detects that there has been no activity for a specified period of time.

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

Microsoft Business Solutions

http://www.microsoft.com/BusinessSolutions

mailto:dmusgrav@online.microsoft.com

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.