What do you do for GP Support???

[JTCARM]

I'm a developer in a 150-200 employee organization. We have GP 9.0 and it has been nothing but a headache. I volunteered to get involved with it since our VAR consultant was continually pointing the finger at legacy SSIS packages that xfer data from Oracle9i to GP on SQL 05, and I'm pretty familiar with SSIS and closest thing to a SQL Server DBA they have here. Anyway, I'm now the goto guy for all things GP. I'm ready to strangle the consultant, all he does is come out and complain about our lousy data, and is unresponsive. Keeps harping on running CheckLinks. Well, when I successfully ran it (on all but CM Transactions since it gets stuck in an infinite loop) it wiped out applied info for some payments. Then he blames the data and says I shouldn't have run CL! He's now pressing Accounting to buy a 3rd party app to archive data, because, according to him, it's too big and that's what's causing all the problems. I been working with SQL Server the past 8 years and say it's a crock, the company DB, tran log included, is 7 gig (6 GP users in accounting). If that's too much data, the GP data model and application are certifiable junk.


I'm a .Net/web developer and no time to support Accounting. I don't mind helping with the DBA tasks and SSIS packages, but I don't have time to learn all the nuances of GP, especially when accounting can't even get me access to CustomerSource. I'm also fed up with this idiot consultant and told the boss I'm washing my hands of GP if he's going to be in there messing with data, and, oh yeah, causing backups to fail cause he runs CL in the middle of a biz day with the know problem on CM transaction, so the SQL Server transaction log fills up the disk.

Sorry for the rant, but my question is, how do other organizations handle GP support? Boss keeps talking of hiring a GP specialist (boss is non-IT), we keep saying it's not a full-time position, even if you could find a GP specialist. Maybe, bringing in a consultant for 6 months to get things cleaned up? I just can't believe how much support GP is requiring. Most places I've worked, I'd be fired for writing something requiring this much maintenance.

 

[jazgeek]

If you're not happy with your Var, and it sounds like you aren't. I would suggest you contact microsoft directly and ask to be transfered to a Var that has the skillset and experience to deal with your installed set.

I found in my var day's that the financial guys were not equipped to deal with distribution and vice a versa. It is a very rare breed indeed that can find someone in the var arena who can do both sides of the business in a competant one person package. You may need to deal with multiple individuals within the var organization to get the benefit that you need.

but as I said, give micro$oft a call..... its amazing what a little complaining can do for you. Plus the residuals for your maintenance is a large carrot for an alternate var to get.

have fun... but don't have too much...



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and they wonder why they call it Great Pains!

jaz

 

[dgillz]

Bypass microsoft and just google up some great plains vars. What part of the country are you in? I can refer you to a few most likely.

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.gainfocus.biz

"What version of URGENT!!! are you using?

 

[jazgeek]

isn't it against the rules to advertise?



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and they wonder why they call it Great Pains!

jaz

 

[Dukester0122]

I've been using DTS(currently upgrading to SQL05 so we're moving to SSIS) to bring 3500+ invoices and 500+ CMs with no issues. my former employer is the same but all orders in a 35GB database.

What you need is somebody to look at the import process and maybe somebody with expertise in SQL. We didn't need to hire a consultant from our VAR in my former company to do it for us.

Few questions:
1) Is the SQL Server hosting other apps other than GP?
2) How did you write the SSIS scripts?
3) How's the db performance VS during import process?
4) What errors do you get when Checklinks ran?

Also, try to use profiler to monitor any errors during SSIS process. Hope this helps.

 

[JTCARM]

Update: Talked to the VAR and got a new consultant who is finally making headway, though it STILL took several days for him to comprehend that a single deposit was jacking up Check Links (even after I told him it would and gave him the deposit #). Once he looked at the record, determined it was empty and fubar and OK to delete, we were able to run CL on the dev server successfully.

I let the boss know that since the VAR was first informed of the exact problem and the exact record causing it over 2 months ago, they need to refund all hours they've billed for time spent screwing around and not fixing it.

 

[swabunn]

In our organisation, we have appointed a person who is application specialist and have an accounting designation.

In Addition to other stuff, he does support 125 users in 10 locations. Things are pretty good because accouting and application and database skills

 

[jymm]

we switched to a var that is half way across the country - best thing we have ever done - MUCH better and faster support. I am now the person who 'gets' to forward them the questions (more because I will get the bill) but the answers are SO much better than our last GP var it is not even funny.