Microsoft Great Plains Implementation – overview for IT Director/Controller

Microsoft Business Solutions is on the way to popularize it's ERP systems implementation. Right now such products as Microsoft CRM and Small Business Manager (cheap version of Microsoft Great Plains, based on the same Great Plains Dexterity runtime and DYNAMICS.DIC dictionary) are targeted to self-implementation by in-house IT group. This is short article, written in question/answer/FAQ style to give IT Director/Controller balanced top level information on Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains implementation. If you have decided on Microsoft Great Plains as main accounting and ERP system you need to know some technical details on Great Plains installation and implementation and what is going on behind the scenes. As of right now the current version is Microsoft Great Plains 8.0

What is installation in the language of technology? Installation has server and client sides.

* Server side - Installation creates security environment (logins) on MS SQL Server or MSDE, creates system database - DYNAMICS and then company databases. All these tasks are performed by Microsoft Great Plains Utilities

* Workstation side - workstation installation copies the client side application, installs current version of MDAC (we need SQL ODBC driver - please check documentation on ODBC DSN setup), registers the application. If you plan to run Great Plains Utilities from the workstation to create server side (see above) - you need to check Install Client and Server Components

What is following implementation? Implementation requires combination of technological and accounting skills

* System Setup - you should refer to GP documentation. In general setup consists of Company information, General GL/AR/AP/Payroll setup, User classes, Customer/Vendor/Employee classes to name a few

* Master Records - you should either use integration tools, such as Integration Manager, SQL queries or have users to type in all your GL Accounts, Customers, Vendors, Employees .

* Beginning Balances - this is recommended approach - you place aside the old accounting application for querying the historical data and enter beginning balances in Great Plains GL, AR, AP, SOP, POP, Payroll. When you have balances in the system you are ready to use it in production

* Historical Data conversion - this is optional, in order to do historical data conversion you need to know basic Great Plains tables structure (Setup->Tools->Resource Description->Tables Structure). This is similar to surgery - so you probably need outside consultant to help you. If the volume of historical data is small - you can deploy Great Plains Integration Manager and then post the records in the modules.

* User Training - we are just listing this item - it is up to you to decide on the way to train your users

* Using Two Systems in Parallel - this is recommended. You should print the reports from both systems during this test period and compare the results

* Customization - typical areas of customizations: Invoice form, Crystal Reports, pulling info from multiple databases, including Great Plains database, Great Plains forms modification with Modifier/VBA, Great Plains Dexterity forms and logic customization, integration with CRM, RMS and other business systems, web publishing from Great Plains tables, EDI with your suppliers, SQL Data Transformation packages

Do I need consultant? We strongly recommend you to use consultant in the following cases

* You have identified the need for Great Plains Dexterity customization

* You are doing migration from Pervasive/Ctree to Microsoft SQL Server/MSDE, especially when you have third-parties without migration tools

* You are doing migration from Great Plains Accounting to Microsoft Great Plains

* You have to create a lot or ReportWriter Modified Great Plains Reports

* You have old version of Great Plains: Dynamics or eEnterprise 6.0 or prior - in this case you can not appeal to Microsoft Technical Support - it is discontinued

* Your Great Plains has more than 20 users in this case the mistake may lead to serious business problems

* You don't have support for your old Great Plains - then you have to select your Microsoft Business Solutions Partner and pay for the annual support/enhancement plan - you will get new registration key and will be ready for the upgrade

Good luck with installation, implementation, upgrade and if you have issues or concerns – we are here to help! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

What is Gmail?

Like most other prime search engines, the ability to freely giveaway an email account is a positive tool that signals to the user community that this search engine is here to stay! Google is no different in this approach. Recently, Google has been beta testing Gmail. Google’s very own email services repository. Best of all, it’s free! Well, it’s going to be free, its currently available only in Beta mode, if you are lucky enough to have received an invitation to sign up for a complimentary account you currently enjoy the benefits of ubiquitous Gmail.

Found at gmail.google.com, users were at a frenzied pace to secure the names and aliases that may be snatched up once the floodgates were open. People are exclusively invited to partake in the beta testing were selling their names and invitations for quite a handsome sum on eBay. Most users will have to wait until Gmail goes live before actually trying it out. However with all the functionality at a price like this, how could anyone refuse?

Unlike MSN and Yahoo! Google’s approach to space was a little more liberal. Google provides 1000 MB of storage space so you would never have to worry about limited space requirements. All messages are displayed intact as well as the replies. Messages can be searched upon as well. Google’s approach was to give as much flexibility to the user so the user in turn would use only Google.

Much like the anti-pop up ad theory of The Google Toolbar, there will be an anti-Spam product built into Gmail that will help thwart out unsolicited email.

Currently, new users can ask for a preview address from Google, although there is no guarantee they will get one. Interested parties should go to http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/about.html and fill in their email addresses at the bottom of the page.

What is The Google Toolbar?

No matter what browser you may want to use, you should consider using Google’s toolbar. Google.com, the innovative, stripped-down, add-free search engine that has taken the web by storm has provided an innovative interface through most web browsers; mainly Internet Explorer. This toolbar has many great features for searching around the Internet as well as blocking those annoying Pop-up ads that scream “BUY ME!” every twenty seconds.

Anyone can go to toolbar.google.com and download this great plug-in for your browser. There are various features that come with using it that you may or may not wish to employ. Taking a few minutes before you install it will definitely save you time later on.

Google Search Web

In this interface you can type in keywords, terms, phrases as well as URL’s (Universal Resource Locators) and away you go. By harnessing the Google engine you magically fly through their portal to your destination. You will render a Google search or a direct shot to your URL.

PageRank

With any good toolbar, Google let’s you know how important it thinks the site you are looking is. This rank is rated from 1 – 10, 1 being a very light, low-traveled website and ten which is a site like Google where millions of people visit each day. Your page rank is determined by several factors, keywords, keyword in URL, and reciprocal linking. Reciprocal linking alone buys the user a popular rank as Google looks favorably at websites that share good karma. The larger the number of websites pointing to your site will ultimately help you rise up through the ranking status.

Pop-Up Blocker

You get them, we all get them, those nasty pop-up ads that ask you to lose weight or tell you how to increase your libido. These advertising snippets have become annoying to the point that some websites you cannot even get on because you can be barraged by a plethora of pop-up ads. The Pop-Up Blocker plug-in allows you to receive little if no pop-ups. Google designed this plug-in as an approach to invasion free web surfing. Every time a pop-up rears its ugly head, POW! Add another pop-up to the counter. It actually tells you how many pop-ups the toolbar has thwarted.

BlogThis!

An interesting technology that was designed in the late 1990’s and recently purchased by Google. Blog This! Allows the user to create a private or public diary or workspace to share ideas, search for people, create discussions and just jot down information. These blog’s have become infamous over the past few years and Google has purchased the leading company in the boom.

Autofill capabilities

You may have been looking up a specific keyword or term and found a result that you liked. The Autofill capabilities cache your searching information for present as well as future use should you need to call up previous search requests.

As you can the Google toolbar displays many great features and technologies that you can harness in a few short clicks. The technology involved has far surpassed any other search engine on the planet.

What is Froogle?

Keeping in touch with other sites like Amazon.com, Buy.com and Yahoo.com, Google created a new shopping search tool called “Froogle”. It has been called one of the most innovative price conscious tools on the Internet. Using the same technologies of Google.com, Froogle employs direct data received from merchants and through web crawls alone. Depending on the successes of the beta testing phase will provide adequate information as to whether Google continues with Froogle.

Housing over 15 different products and categories ranging anywhere from electronics, computers, food and gourmet, health care products, books, music and video, sports & outdoor equipment as well as toys and games, the list will only continue to grow in the coming months. Its searching capabilities mirror its mother page; it can be found at froogle.google.com and items can be found either in their product categories or by a dynamic keyword search. The results published are limited to one item per store. Every item appears with a thumbnail attached as well as a detailed product description, which includes price. Google doesn’t bias any website and often you will find products that exist on Amazon and Yahoo. This approach mirrors the Google philosophy of less details, more products.

The remaining products are crawled throughout the Internet as most other keywords are sought. Currently merchants can setup their accounts and sell on Froogle right away! There is no cost or cost per click through associated with adding your products to Froogle. Merchants can sign up for free and monitor how Froogle displays their product. This technology is open to the public at no initial cost or commissions.

Depending on how many items your company may want to sell on Froogle; you have to create a data feed file, which can be done with any spreadsheet software or by a text file. The opportunity to get involved with Froogle is incredible; chances are if you are selling a product and are optimized on the Internet for Google, your product may already exist.

Crystal Reports - Geterogeneus databases: SQL Server, Oracle, Unidata, Btrieve – tips for developer

Crystal Reports is the most flexible tool on the market and it has market recognition. Multiple software vendors offer Crystal Reports as the main reporting tool: Microsoft, Best Software, Oracle to name a few.

Sometimes developers try to use Crystal directly to pull data from multiple database platforms - we understand the need to give you additional tips to increase Crystal report flexibility. Also common case when Crystal report should pull data from multiple database platforms. Assuming that you are creating Crystal Reports on Windows platform - we recommend you to use Microsoft SQL Server as a database access tool.

1. Use Crystal when you have your query tuned – regardless how good Crystal Reports is - it is reporting tool - not querying environment. Tune your query first and be sure that you are pulling the right data.

2. Use SQL Server Linked Servers. Use professional tool, such as Microsoft SQL Server, where you can create linked servers to Oracle, Ctree, Btrieve, MS Access, Unidata, DB2 and other platforms.

3. Use Distributed Queries – in the case of SQL Server - research the possibilities with OPENQUERY, OPENROWSET clauses to connect to non-SQL Server linked servers.

4. Create Stored Procedures - when you need parameters to be transferred to the SQL statement - you need stored procedure. You need stored proc if temp tables are required to do intermediate job in your SQL query.

5. Report Flexibility – when you have report based on the SQL view or stored proc - if you need to modify the data query - you don't have to change the report - you change your SQL view/ stored procedure.

6. Create SQL Query to probe the data – again - we always recommend tuning your query and see that you are getting adequate results – in any case – Crystal Report is just a nice tool to show the results of your query.

Happy customizing, querying and designing! if you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Understanding Google AdWords

Google AdWords

Unlike many search engines Google, to its credit, clearly denotes search listings that are paid placement. In fact, Google AdWords appear in a separate section down the left side of the screen.

Google AdWords provide an inexpensive advertising venue for businesses to advertise products or services to a targeted audience. Advertisers have the ability to control their budget, target their advertising based on keywords. Advertisers are also free to determine the ad contents.

Google AdWords allow for nearly instant traffic, which can be turned on and off. Traffic results can be measured, providing information on what is successful, what isn't and what needs to be changed. AdWords can be found that work by running a test campaign.

Benefits to AdWords

Advertisers bid on keywords, the more an advertiser is willing to pay the higher the likelihood the ad will appear higher in position in the list of ads served. Google, invariably wanting to make the most from advertisers, determines placement based on a combination of click through rate, bid amount and budget. Of course, in order to maximize revenue and please searchers Google does have guidelines for ads served and all ads must receive a minimum percentage click through or they are removed.

AdWord Guidelines

Clearly and accurately describe the website, this is to the advertiser and searchers benefit. Ultimately, the more qualified the visitor who clicks the ad, the higher the likelihood the clicker will convert into a sale. By providing clear and accurate information, searchers who click the ad are qualified leads, which tend to convert more consistently than unqualified leads. The most effective advertising communicates a clear message to a targeted audience.

Avoid excessive capitalization, superlatives and lavish exclamation marks in the ad. By doing this you are not only serving the visitor you are filtering unwanted clicks from non-buyers. Due to space limitations your ad message will need to be concise. Select keywords that are relevant to your product, service or content. Call to action phrases are not allowed (i.e. you cannot use phrases like "click here" in your ad copy.) There are also no pop-ups.

Steps for AdWord Campaign

1.) Open an account

2.) Target language and country - This is very important because if your product or service can not be exported you do not want to pay to advertise in those countries for which your product or service can not be sold.

3.) Create Ad Group - design an ad, select keywords, determine maximum cost per click that you are willing to spend and define bid amounts.

Title

The title tag is generally the most important part of the ad be sure to use a short phrase that gets the attention of your target audience. An underutilized feature at Google allows you to put a question mark in the title, the term searched on automatically replaces the question mark in the title of your ad.

Define max click - Google will suggest a cost per click, but the recommendation does not need to be adhered to. Arguments have been heard that #1 position does not always mean increased sales; sometimes a second position will filter useless clicks and provide targeted traffic with a higher conversion ration. The rule of thumb is positions 1-3 garner the most traffic and best results. Increasing either your maximum cost-per-click or the ads click through rate will generally improve the ad's position.

Use keyword variations to reach more prospects. A variety or spellings and derivatives of keywords will increase the chances of your ads being served. Be sure to use common misspellings and plurals in your keyword list.

Broad match - is targeting keywords in a loosely defined manner. Ads appear based on keywords that have been queried by search users. For instance, if the keywords you are planning on broad matching are "mountain bikes" and users search for the terms "bikes that can climb a mountain", your ad will appear; as opposed to exact match, which requires that the keywords selections must exactly match the query.

Phrase match - is indicated when quotations are used in the phrase. A keyword phrase set to phrase match will only appear when the exact phrase is searched on. For example "mountain bikes" will appear when searchers search for "brand name mountain bikes".

Exact match - is when the keyword or phrase is entered with brackets. The phrase will only serve ads when the entered search phrase is identical to the keyword phrase. "Mountain bikes" will only appear when searchers search for "mountain bikes"

Negative keyword - is helpful in filtering unrelated phrases. A dash is entered before the filtering phrase. "Mountain bike -races will not appear if mountain bike races are searched on.

Landing Page - is important because this not only helps with tracking, but also provides a focused and specific landing page for searchers. Information can be related to the actual search, while also increasing the conversion ratios for sales. A focused landing page with content related and using the same terminology as the actual search, will show the searcher that your solution is relevant to their needs.

3.) Define budget - in order to maximize exposure Google recommends a daily budget for each campaign.

Google's suggested budget is helpful in receiving consistent traffic throughout the advertising campaign. Keep in mind this is only Google's recommendation; ultimately it is up to you to determine a budget that is affordable and suitable.

Google supplies tracking tools that assist webmasters in determining their return on investment based on keyword searches and phrases. While the technology is not perfect and cannot track phone and purchase orders, it should give advertisers a sense of what phrases and keywords are converting well in their advertising campaign.

While Google AdWords should not be your only advertising campaign, but should be a significant part of your campaign. Google AdWords can certainly help send those important targeted searchers to your website. Get started with Google AdWords at http://www.google.com/ads/

Remote Collaboration Is Now a Service On The Internet

Easydesk is a new way to co-operate: a user-freindly instrument for the creation of a “virtual office”, designed for professional use, equipped with all the features and and the services needed to assure high performances and above all the maximum security in using it.

It is targeted to: professionals, Small and Medium Companies, Organization, Work Groups to increase the efficiency of the office, improve the collaboration among collegues and with suppliers and clients located anywhere in the World. easydesk grants a daily backup of the data, rapidly cuts some costs of the telephone bill, introduces economically Teleworking, e-learning and CRM.

It does not require to buy software, to create and mantein a personal server or to manage the service.

Easydesk presents a wide range of built-in functions and news ones are been developped for the future:

* Communication: Email, chat, multipart vocal conference, white board (allows making on-line presentations and lessons), forum. High service assures a safe communication).

* Filing: sharing of data located on the easydesk server and on the work stations, possibility to keep the data encrypted and to manage the access rights to them for the users of the office, opportunity to make automatic backup of the data located on the work station of the user.

Easydesk is offered as a service on the internet that one pays for what is needed and for the time it is necessary. The payment is made indeed through a subscription to use a basic office, and any additional function or service installed must be bought with points that can be top up, as for the mobile prepaid cards. The subscription includes the possibility to host up five users per office, up to 50 MB of remote memory and all the functions available at the moment excluded the vocal conference; the subscription can be expanded anytime through the above-mentioned top-up system. The annual subscription of the basic costs 180 Euro.

Successful Internet Marketing Strategies-A Better Approach To Save You Time And Money While Generating Huge Profits by: Eric J. Borden Thinking of

Thinking of starting an Internet business? Maybe you have one and are looking for additional products to sell? Choosing the right business and products are crucial to achieving online success. This is the question facing every Internet entrepreneur. However, you should not be asking yourself what products do I need to sell to achieve this online success. Indeed, the better questions would be: "What market niche(Specific group of potential customers) should I target and what are their current problems and needs? What goods/service could I offer to fill those needs and is my market willing to pay for them? What is the current competition and how can I be unique in the marketplace?" Few marketers actually do the research to answer these questions properly, therefore, never obtaining the profits they so desire.

Common Mistakes of an Internet Marketer:

They sell products in which they have no interest or desire. You must have a passion for what you are selling. If not, your customers will perceive this and not buy from you.

No defined marketing strategy: They don't know to whom they are selling, what their needs are and how to reach them.

The online marketer's strategy consists of selling to everyone. They have no clear definition of "who their target market is." Does this sound familiar? Many internet entrepreneurs have made this unfortunate mistake, including myself. They find a product to sell, put together a website, submit it to the search engines, and wait for the orders to come rolling in. However, in reality how often is this successful? Practically never!

They spend countless hours and thousands of dollars on a product and website without answering the questions that were posed in the opening paragraph.

Solutions to the Internet Marketer's Mistakes:

Find an easy-to-target niche market, one that is easy identifiable. Also, it must be an industry that generates interest, desire and passion for you. Because this is going to be your business, a part of your life. You will need to spend a great deal of time researching and developing it. Being associated with something of interest will greatly increase your odds of success. If you have a passion about a certain subject, customers will sense it and be more motivated to buy from you.

The easiest method of determining a new business idea is to brainstorm. By asking yourself the following questions will elicit a series of hot and profitable business ventures.

What do you enjoy doing?

What is your current occupation?

Did you acquire specialized skills, knowledge and talents from your job?

Hobbies you enjoy?

How do you spend your free time?

What did you enjoy doing as a child?

What were your favorite subjects in school?

What materials do you read on a regular basis?

If you had a choice of a career, what would it be?

If you are still drawing a blank after reviewing these questions, don't worry. My Marketing Research Report: Internet Money Making Ideas Explored tests a variety of potential markets to determine those that have the most potential to succeed. This report can be found at http://www.ideasexplored.com (You are free to use any of the business subjects I mention.) The next step would be to test the ideas from your list. Apply the methods I describe in my Research Ezine that can be found in the section Preparing a Product Market Study: It will take you through the process step-by-step to help determine if your proposed business venture would be profitable.

If you are currently selling on the Internet and are looking for additional products to offer, try the following:

Send a questionnaire to your current customer list. Ask what products and services they would like to see on your website. You could provide a free gift or discount for their response.

Look for products that complement your current inventory. Try to produce as many add-on sales as possible. These added sales can generate huge profits for an Internet business. For example, if you are selling fitness equipment, merchandise such as nutritional supplements and exercise courses would be excellent add-on choices. You could sell it as a package and promote it as "The Complete System to Health and Fitness".

Identify your niche-market: Know who they are, their buying habits and what products most appeal to them. Do not try to reach everyone, select a specific group of people that are ready, willing and able buyers for your product and or service.

The best way to approach this is by studying newsgroups and message boards. By reading the posted messages, these forums can provide a wealth of information. This is also described in my Preparing a Product Market Study. The steps mentioned in the Study can help you solve a number of the biggest mysteries regarding your niche-market. From this Study, you will learn some valuable information. Such as the needs, wants and problems of your market. What product or service to offer and how it would benefit the customer. Finally, it shows what sales strategies are the most effective.

The easiest method to organize this information and create a winning strategy is to set-up a Problem, Feature, Benefit and Solution Worksheet. Also know as the PFBS equation, this statement can be your most valuable tool in identifying the needs and wants of your target market. It will show what products to market and how to sell them.

HOW A PFBS EQUATION WORKS.

Take a sheet of paper and write across the top: Problem, Feature, Benefit and Solution. Then make a list for each topic:

Problem: Make notes of the current problems or needs your target market faces. Later, you will provide solutions to these problems with your product.

Feature: List the various selling points of your product and what features set it apart from the competition. This is where you want to stress your competitive advantages.

Benefit: Now describe what benefit or reward each one of these features offer.

Solution: Finally you want to illustrate that purchasing your product will solve their problems, needs and wants.

Note: Answers to this equation will show you what products to offer and how to develop copy that will effectively sell these products to your target market.

The following is an example of a PFBS equation:

I will use my e-book Internet Marketing on a Shoestring Budget as the topic of study. This book contains various low cost marketing strategies that can be applied to an Internet business. A copy can be found at http://www.ideasexplored.com

After determining the niche-market, my book targets a Problem, Feature Benefit and Solution statement can help determine needs and wants.

Problem

Spending too much money on advertising technique.

Feature

Low cost marketing.

Benefit

Save money

Solution

Cutting ad budget while increasing profit

Another example:

Problem:

Ineffective Ads.

Feature:

Productive ad strategies.

Benefit:

Generate Profit.

Solution:

Better R.O.I.

Note: Conducting a proper Market Research study is crucial in determining the problems facing the customers you are trying to reach. If you need assistance with your study: See Marketing Research and Analysis that can be found in the book Internet Marketing on a Shoestring Budget. A Bonus Product that can be found at: www.ideasexplored.com. The sections about studying Messages boards and Newsgroups provide useful information about needs and wants.

The answers to the PFBS questions will show what products to offer how to effectively sell them.

Finding the right products to sell are crucial to your online success. Therefore, a study of the market we want to target is essential before a marketing campaign can begin. Some ways to gather this information is by studying message boards, newsgroups and sending questionnaires to your current customer base. What you learn from these methods can be applied to a PFBS equation or a Problem, Feature, Benefit and Solution Worksheet. The conclusions you draw from this table can guide you in starting or developing an Internet business.

What You Learn From A PFBS equation:

Hot products to sell
How to create a winning website
Killer Sales Copy
Successful Marketing Strategies

Go to: www.ideasexplored.com. You will find info products on each of these steps and how they can be applied to craft an online venture. These lessons will not only teach you how to generate huge profit, but also the secrets behind successful web automation.

Coping with a Serious Data Loss from your Computer Hard Drive

Data loss is an expensive reality. It's a hard fact that it happens more often then users like to admit. A recent study by the accounting firm McGladrey and Pullen estimates that one out of every 500 data centers will experience a severe computer disaster this year. As a result, almost half of those companies will go out of business. At the very least, a data loss disaster can mean lost income and missed business opportunities.

The other side of data loss is the psychological and emotional turmoil it can cause to IT managers and business owners. Despair, panic, and the knowledge that the whole organization might be at risk are involved. In a sense, that's only fair, since human error is one of the two largest contributing factors in data loss. Together with mechanical failure, it accounts for almost 75 per cent of all incidents. (Software corruption, computer viruses and physical disasters such as fire and water damage make up the rest.)

Disk drives today are typically reliable. Human beings, it turns out, are not. A Strategic Research Corp. study done in 2000 found that approximately 15 per cent of all unplanned downtime occurred due to human error. A significant proportion of that happened because users failed to implement adequate backup procedures, either having trouble with their backups, or having no backup at all.

How does it happen that skilled, high-level users put their systems - and their businesses - at such risk?

In many cases, the problem starts long before the precipitating system error is made, that is, when users place their faith in out-of-box solutions that may not, in fact, fit their organization's needs. Instead of assessing their business and technology requirements, then going to an appropriate engineered solution, even experienced IT professionals at large corporations will often simply buy what they're sold. In this case, faith in technology can be an vice instead of a virtue.

But human intervention itself can sometimes be the straw that breaks the technology's back. When the office of a Venezuelan civil engineering firm was devastated by floods, its owners sent 17 soaked, mud-coated disks from three RAID arrays to us in plastic bags. A tough enough salvage job was made even more complex by the fact that someone had frozen the drives before shipping them. As the disks thawed, yet more damage was done. (After eight weeks of painstaking directory-by-directory recovery, all the data from the remaining fifteen disks was retrieved.)

Sometimes, the underlying cause of a data loss event is simply shoddy housekeeping. The more arduous the required backup routine, the less likely it will be done on a regular basis. A state ambulance monitoring system suffered a serious disk failure, only to discover that its automated backup hadn't run for fourteen months. A tape had jammed in the drive, but no-one had noticed.

When disaster strikes, the normal human reaction is panic. Because the loss of data signifies critical consequences, even the most competent IT staff can jump to conclusions, and take inappropriate action. A blank screen at a critical time can lead to a series of naive decisions, each one compounding the preceding error. Wrong buttons get pushed, and the disaster only gets worse. Sometimes the pressure to correct the system failure speedily can result in an attempt to reconfigure an entire RAID array. IT specialists are typically not equipped to deal with crisis modes or data recovery techniques. Just as a good physician is trained to prolong life, the skilled IT specialist is trained to keep the system running. When a patient dies, the physician turns to others, such as nurses or counselors to manage the situation. When significant data loss occurs, the IT specialist turns to the data recovery professional.

Data recovery specialists are innovative problem solvers. Often, the application of basic common sense, when no-one else is in any condition to apply it, is the beginning of the journey towards data recovery. The data recovery specialist draws on a wealth of experience, married to a "never say die" attitude, and a comprehensive tool kit of problem-solving procedures. Successful recovery outcomes hinge on a combination of innovative logistics, applied problem-solving, and "technology triage," the process of stabilizing an affected system quickly, analyzing and treating its wounds, and preparing it for surgery. The triage process sets priorities, such as targeting which files are needed first or which are absolutely vital to the functioning of the business, and establishes whether files might be recovered in less structured formats (such as text-only), which may be desirable when time is crucial.

The art and science of professional data recovery can spell the difference between a business' success or its failure. Before that level of intervention is required, though, users can take steps to ensure that the probability of a data loss disaster is minimized.

Basic to any business technology plan is a regular fire-drill procedure. Back-up routines may be in place, staff may assigned to specific roles, hardware and software may be configured - but, if the user isn't completely sure that everything works the way it should, a data loss event is inevitable. Having adequate, tested, and current backups in place is critical. A hardware breakdown should not be compounded by human error - if the malfunctioning drive is critical, the task of dealing with it should go to a data recovery professional.

Just as data loss disasters are rooted in a combination of mechanical failure and human error, so, too, the data recovery solution lies in a creative marriage of the technological and the human. The underlying philosophy of successful data recovery is that technology is something to be used by human beings, not something that uses us.

Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise Upgrade – things to consider and FAQ

If you have Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise (version 6.0 or earlier) and support it for your company then you need to know some technical details about Great Plains version upgrade and what is going on behind the scenes, which options do you have in case of Dexterity, VBA, SQL customization, additional complexity comes with migration from ctree/Pervasive to MS SQL/MSDE. Currently you are probably thinking to upgrade to Microsoft Great Plains 8.0 or 7.5.

What is upgrade in the language of technology? Upgrade has server and client sides.

* Server side - upgrade converts tables from old format to the new one. In general words - Microsoft Business Solutions developers may change table structure, append additional fields to add new functionality, things like that. Upgrade copies the table with changes to temporary table, then drops original table, recreates it with new structure and copies all the data from temp table to the newly created one.

* Workstation side - workstation is written in Great Plains Dexterity and has Dynamics.exe - engine and DYNAMICS.DIC - dictionary. These two plus all the additional files will be replaced with the new ones. Other dictionaries, such us REPORTS.DIC and FORMS.DIC should be also upgraded and upgrade will try to deal with them automatically. In some cases modified reports (in REPORTS.DIC) could not be upgraded and need to be recreated in the new version.

What is customization upgrade? You should consider different types of customizations: Dexterity, VBA/Modifier, SQL, ReportWriter, Crystal Reports

* Dexterity Customization - being very short - Dexterity may have so called Custom Forms - these do not need upgrade - they should work as is. Then Dexterity may alter existing Great Plains forms (so-called Alternate Great Plains forms) - in this case Dexterity customization should be redone for these forms/screens. Plus additional consideration should be given to Dexterity triggers, shadow tables, etc.

* VBA/Modifier customization - Modifier allows you to modify existing Great Plains windows - it creates so called modified Great Plains windows, stored in FORMS.DIC. Usually modification is placing new buttons or fields, which in turn will be given VBA scripts (stored in DYNAMICS.VBA). VBA scripts may call something nice, like Crystal Report, or have some data access logic. Usually the old version of DYNAMICS.VBA workds with the new version. You may need to rearrange buttons on the modified form.

* SQL - you may have some stored procs for data integration, EDI or the like - if the addressed tables will be changed in the new version then you need to analyze your SQL code. The good news is - Microsoft Business Solution doesn't make a lot of changes since version 7.0, because Microsoft is now trying to merge the products it owns: Great Plains, Solomon, Navision and Axapta - and so has different priorities

* ReportWriter - MBS doesn't change tables, but it keeps changing Dexterity formulas used in ReportWriter original reports - this is the problem in so-called Modified Reports upgrade - usually you have these reports modified: SOP Blank Invoice form, SOP Blank Picking ticket, etc. If report can not be upgraded - it should be redone in the new version with some exceptions.

* Crystal Reports - the nice thing about Crystal Report - id doesn't need to be upgraded (if the fields in the tables exist in the new version - which is usually true statement)

What is upgrade for third-party modules? Your Great Plains may have so-called third party modules: Mekorma, Kampdata, Horyzon, Wennsoft, Avalara, Truepay, Trinity, Intellisol to name a few

Third party modules may have their own utility for upgrade. You just need to know that your third-party is ready for the new Great Plains version - if not - you just wait and stay on the old version.

What is migration from Ctree/Pervasive.SQL 2000 to MS SQL/MSDE? MBS has migration tool. You need first to install Great Plains on SQL Server with exactly the same account/segments structure and then install migration tool (it is Dexterity chunk) on your ctree/Pervasive workstation - then, when you integrate the chunk - you will map it to target SQL-based Great Plains Company, select all system and company tables, click the button and it will move all your tables one-by-one. In the case when your Great Plains ctree/Pervasive has third parties - you need to check if the vendor has migration tool - otherwise you have to do manual move, use SQL Linked server to your legacy data

Do I need consultant? It is probably good idea to have consultant to do the upgrade. We strongly recommend you to use consultant in the following cases

* You have Dexterity customization

* You are doing migration from Pervasive/Ctree to Microsoft SQL Server/MSDE, especially when you have third-parties without migration tools

* You have a lot or ReportWriter Modified Great Plains Reports

* You have old version of Great Plains: Dynamics or eEnteroprise 6.0 or prior - in this case you can not appeal to Microsoft Technical Support - it is discontinued

* Your Great Plains has more than 20 users and you have to have upgrade done over the weekend - if it fails - you have business problems

* You don't have support - in this case you have to select your Microsoft Business Solutions Partner and pay for the annual support/enhancement plan - you will get new registration key and will be ready for the upgrade

Good luck in upgrading and if you have issues or concerns – we are here to help! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Microsoft Great Plains Data Conversion – overview for developer

Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind it. Now it is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. Small companies use Small Business Manager (which is based on the same technology – Great Plains Dexterity dictionary and runtime), Great Plains Standard on MSDE is for small to midsize clients, and then Great Plains serves the rest of the market up to big corporations.

If you are developer who is asked: how do we convert our old system data for initial Great Plains setup – read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.

Great Plains Integration Manager - this is rather end-user tool - it is very intuitive, it validates 100% of business logic, brings in/updates master records (accounts, employees, customers, vendors. etc.) brings in transactions into work tables. The limitation of Integration Manager - it does use GP windows behind the scenes without showing them - so it is relatively slow - you can bring 100 records for ongoing integration - for one-time conversion/integration you are probably OK with IM. By the way you can program Integration Manager with VBA.

eConnect – it is type of Software Development Kit with samples in VB.Net. Obviously the development environment should be Visual Studio.Net. eConnect will allow you to integrate master records - such as new customers, vendors, employees, etc., plus you can bring transactions into so called Great Plains work tables (eConnect doesn't allow you to bring open or historical records - you need to post work records in Great Plains, the same limitation applies to Integration Manager above). eConnect is rather for ongoing integration. It was initially created for eCommerce application integration to Great Plains.

SQL Stored Procedures. Obviously you have unlimited control and possibilities with SQL queries. You need to know Great Plains tables structure and data flow. Launch Great Plains and go to Tools->Resource Description->Tables. Find the table in the proper series. If you are looking for the customers – it should be RM00101 – customer master file. If you need historical Sales Order Processing documents – they are in SOP30200 – Sales History Header file, etc. Do not change existing tables - do not create new fields, etc. Also you need to realize that each GP table has DEX_ROW_ID - identity column. For ongoing integrations - sometimes it is good idea to use inbound/outbound XML in the parameters - then you can deploy web service as a middle party between two systems.

Data Transformation Services (DTS) – Good tool for importing your third party data into staging tables in GP - then you can pull them in using either stored procs of Integration Manager. You can also deploy this tool for EDI export/import.

Great Plains Dexterity Conversion Utilities. If your legacy data sits in old Dexterity customization on Ctree/Pervasice.SQL/Btrieve - you can create custom Dexterity conversion utility, which will read the table in Ctree/Btrieve and will move it to SQL based new custom Dexterity table. In this scenario - you need Dexterity customization upgrade as well. (Great Plains Dexterity - is programming language and technology of former Great Plains Software - Microsoft Great Plains is written in Dexterity)

MS Access – if you are doing one time conversion and your legacy has old ODBC compliant platform - you can use MS Access to create linked tables there - or import into MS Access.

SQL Linked Servers – you can do direct SQL queries to other ODBC compliant platform via SQL Linked Server (including ORACLE, UNIDATA, Pervasive SQL, Ctree, etc) - you may need to familiarize yourself with OPENROWSET command in Transact SQL. This is also good option if you need cross-platform Crystal Report - pulling data from SQL Server and third party databases on the same report.

MS Excel - yes - sometime you can use it for legacy data massage before feeding it into Great Plains.

Warning - do not place existing GP tables into Replication! - you will have upgrade issues.

Happy converting! if you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Great Plains Accounting Migration to Microsoft Great Plains - overview for IT Specialist

This is short article, written in question/answer/FAQ style to give IT Specialist/developer/programmer balanced top level information on Great Plains Accounting migration to Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains. If you have Great Plains Accounting as main accounting and ERP system you need to know some technical details on the migration to Great Plains and what is going on behind the scenes. As of right now it is reasonable to upgrade to Microsoft Great Plains 8.0

Is migration required? Not actually, but you have to consider these factors

* Great Plains Accounting is in phasing out -Great Plains Software began this process back in 1995, when it did introduce Great Plains Dynamics and then Great Plains Dynamics/CS+.

* Old Btrieve platform - Microsoft Business Solutions is pulling out all it's products from Btrive/Pervasive SQL.2000/Ctree.

* Following the Technology and Microsoft rules - Microsoft wants you to be on the newest platform and provides you the best support when you follow this rule

What is migration in the language of technology?

Migration reads Btrieve tables of Great Plains Accounting and moves the data to Microsoft Great Plains tables

Do I need consultant? As our experience indicates - you have to have a consultant to do GPA->Great Plains migration. There are two options to choose from

* You can call Microsoft Business Solutions - they can do migration for you - they will ask you to forward them your btrieve files and they'll send you back the backup of SQL database where your migrated data sits with instructions on how to install Great Plains and restore data from backup

* You can use Great Plains VAR/Partner - in this case your cost is usually lower - but you need to do due diligence - find the partner who has experience and has done at least couple of migrations

Good luck with migration and if you have issues or concerns – we are here to help, we've done 200 migrations! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Rules for Achieving Online Success

The Internet brought a great deal of benefits to our life. Access to a lot of free and useful information is, probably, one of the most important out of them. However, this abandon of free information has also become a problem to some extent. You started to spend a little too much time on the Internet. For you emails, chat rooms, messenger services along with aimless web browsing dominate substantial portion of your workdays. As a result you feel that you are loosing control of your working hours, your productivity is decreasing and you are accomplishing far less in a day than you are capable of. This makes you frustrated, miserable and negative. What to do? How to get out of this mess?

According to Brian Tracey, a renowned self-help guru, Principle of control is one of the most important factors of life. This principle ascertains that you feel positive about yourself to the degree to which you feel you are in control of your life. The same way, you feel negative about yourself to the degree to which you feel that you are controlled by external forces.

The thing is if you don’t feel positive about yourself, it would be impossible for you to become successful. This means to become happy and successful you need to regain control of your life. The following suggestions will help you achieve this:

Set Goals

Goals are like road maps. If you are planning to visit a new place and don’t grab a road map of the place with you, most certainly, you will have difficulties in finding the place. A written goal will give you a clear idea of what exactly you would like to achieve. Goals also give you a sense of control over your directions.

Goal should be Specific: I would like to become a better online businessman is not a goal. It’s a mere statement! Goals should have clear, substantiated and detailed target!

Goal should be measurable: I would like to get 100 thousand new visitors to my site within six months is a specific and measurable goal.

Goal should be realistic: I want my site to become like Yahoo! within one year is probably a unrealistic and impossible goal. If your goal is too easy to achieve or an impossible one to reach, you will soon loose interest in it. Make sure that your goal is high but attainable.

Set a deadline: Each of your goals should have specific deadlines for their achievement.

Create a detail plan of action: List every action you have to take in order to achieve a certain goal.

List obstacles: Write down all the obstacles that you might encounter on your way to reach this goal. Each time you overcome an obstacle from your list, you will feel good about yourself. This will work as a motivation for you to continue.

Make Lists

While developing your plan of actions for your goals, make two basic lists, a comprehensive master list and a more specific daily to do list.

The master list is a single ongoing list of all things that you plan to do in order to achieve your goals. It does not matter whether it is a major goal achieving work with a year long continuation or a small urgent task you need to finish today. Whenever you have come up with a task that you have to do, you add it to your master list.

Each evening create a specific daily to do list for the next work day. Make sure that this list is not too long; and all tasks of this list can be finished within the next working day. If some of the tasks, however, remain untouched at the end of the day, just roll them over to the next day’s list.

To use this list effectively you have to distribute your tasks according to their priorities.

Remember Priorities

Since it is impossible to predict whether you will be able to finish all the tasks from your list in one day, and since some of the tasks are more important than others; you should prioritized the tasks according to their importance in achieving your goals.

To develop a priority-based to do list, write all the tasks you are planning to carry out the next day. Go through the list carefully and mark each of them according to their priority: A to be the most important and D to be the least important tasks of the list. Reconstruct the list according to the assigned priorities.

Start working form the task number one from you list and go down accordingly. This priority-based to do list will be able to guarantee the followings:

You will know which tasks should be carried out first You will always have a comprehensive to do list, allowing you to focus on the things that you need to. However, make sure that you don’t have more than three tasks with highest priority. As too many high priority tasks will keep you under stress and will constantly distract you from the job at hand.

Focus on One Thing

To be successful in any field you need to have many qualities. The ability to focus on the tasks of highest priority and continue working on them until you bring them to their logical end is one of the vital skills of success. Many people of mediocre abilities achieved great success thanks to just this one single quality.

Once you made your to do list and prioritized it, concentrate on one task at a time. No matter what we do, our mind can concentrate in one thing at a time only. If you try to do several things simultaneously, this will only distract you and slower your pace in accomplishing the task with highest priority.

These simple and well-known rules can really do miracles to your life! Try them, you won’t be disappointed!

Troubleshoot Windows with Task Manager

Task Manager is a Windows system utility that displays the tasks or processes currently running on your computer. To open Task Manager, press Ctrl+Alt+Del. The Applcations tab lists the applications currently running on your computer. A single application may actually consist of several running processes, and many programs that run in the background are not listed (you can see icons for some of these programs in the System Tray).

Note: With Windows 98 and Windows Me, Ctrl+Alt+Del will open Program Manager, which allows you only to close aplications. However, you can download one of the many Task Manager utilities from the Web.

The Processes tab displays a comprehensive list of all the processes currently running on your computer. This can be very useful for monitoring your system. The process tab displays information about the processor useage and memory usage of each process. The problem is, how to identify a process. Below is a list of some processes you may see in Task Managers Processes list.

"System Idle Process"
"System" The Windows System Process
"SMSS.EXE" Session Manager Subsystem
"CSRSS.EXE" Client Server Runtime Subsystem
"WinLOGON.EXE" The Windows Logon process
"SERVICES.EXE" Services Control Manager
"LSASS.EXE" Local Security Authentication Server Service
"svchost.exe" Service Host
"spoolsv.exe" The print spooler service
"explorer.exe" Windows Explorer
"TASKMGR.EXE" The Task Manager
"regsvc.exe" Remote Registry Service

"System Idle Process" is basically another name for the time when Windows is doing nothing. There are hundreds of thousands of processes that run on a computer, so you will definitely find names of many other processess that are not listed above. For a list of well known processes, visit www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm. You can also learn about almost any task by using it's name as a search term in google.

Task Manager can also be used to tweak your system if it's running slow. The [Performance] tab displays running graphs of your computers CPU and memory usage. If the CPU usage seems to be running over 80 percent most of the time, or if the memory usage seems to be running higher than the total physical memory, you may want to shut down some applications or processes.

On the Process tab, you can identify processes that are consuming a lot of processor time. Click twice on the CPU column heading to sort the CPU column so the processes hogging the most CPU time on top. You can sort the "Mem Usage" column the same way.

On the Application tab, if you right click on the name of an application and, in the popup menu that appears, choose "Go To Process", Task Manager will open the Processes tab and highlight the process that runs the application. On the Processes tab, if you right-click on the name of a process, you can choose "SetPriority" and promote the priority of the process you need (or demote the priority of a different process to free up some resources).

If you go to the Application tab and shut down an application, you will shut down any processes related to that application. Or, you might choose to shut down a background process that you can identify. To shut down an application or process, click on it's name in the list to highlight it, then click on the [End Task] button.

On the Processes tab, if you right click on the name of a process, you can choose "End Process Tree" to kill the process and any sub-processes started by the process.

Task Manager can also be used for troubleshooting. If an application freezes up, you can open Task Manager and shut down the application. If the entire system freezes up, you can use Task Manager to shut down a process that is hogging all the CPU time or memory.

If you spend some time monitoring your computer with task Manager, eventually you will become familiar with the processes that commonly run. Then, when you see an unfamiliar process, you can do a little investigation to make sure it's not a virus. For example, if you see msblast.exe in the process list, your computer is infected with the Blaster virus. You might be able to detect and eliminate a new virus before an antivirus update is available.

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Open Source and Post-Capitalistic Society

Capitalism as the social structure was founded in order to support further evolution and development of human race, to support the innovation which was oppressed by the former system. It was brought up by the two industrial revolutions. The technology was obviously the main to blame for the outcoming capitalistic society. The new capitalism was more liberalistic promoting free trade and pushing globalization in order to support further development and growth of technology.

But, it seems like the technology has been pushed so far and so high that the now old capitalism formed to support it starts to act as it's oppressor. The world of software technology is the obvious example of it. The first signs of these events can be recognized far back into 70s and 80s when the software technology's started to emerge.

Now, the capitalism oppresses the further technology growth by oppressing the development of software. How? By making it proprietary, creating monopoly's. To capitalism, everything is property, including software. And that is where the problem is. The software cannot be considered as property, it is more like an information. It is simply too easy to copy it without ANY effort and that is what led to it becoming a commodity which is a reason more why it just cannot be proprietary. If it is considered proprietary and created and used in such manner, we are getting monopolies created, patents issued and other restrictions that do no good to the further development of software technology, but to oppress it.

Look at the capitalistic giant, Microsoft! Imagine that there were no free software movement and open source. Microsoft would be the ultimate monopolist, the whole world would be their empire. In such case, there would be no real progress and innovation because there is no force to drive it.

THAT is the very proof of capitalism being simply too old and incompetent to handle the new technology of today properly, in the information age run by computers and software.

The open source and free software movement are already taking steps further, outgrowing the limitations of the old and incompetent capitalistic system in order to create what may be called a post-capitalism, true liberalistic, society where the technology will be freely developed at the rates the open source software gets developed today.

More to this, open source and free software movement being the major sign is not the only sign of the sickness of capitalism and it's fall.

Simply look at the way things are going at this point in history regarding the major events. When there was a war in Iraq, masses of global and organized people, ordinary people like you and me, used internet to start the organized real time and worldwide demonstrations against the war in Iraq. The same happens with any other major event. There is a global network of people united in their fight for freedom and peace. It shows how the technology of today gives the power to the ordinary people instead of power being in hands of a few big shots. And those people, masses, globally networked masses, ask for one thing: FREEDOM!

Their (our) “enemies” are therefore everyone that anyhow try's to restrict the freedom and impose the control over them.

The entity's that fall into that category include:

* the greatest corporations such as Microsoft and oil companies (imposing monopolies and restrictions in order to control as much as possible)
* political entities such as USA and European Union (imposing wars such as the one in Iraq, pushing restrictions of freedoms to use and develop technology through software patents etc.)

And when we say “enemy”, we don't mean that the corporations, companies and governments as the organizations should be terminated in order for us to have the freedom we deserve nor we in any case mean to fight them with violence acting like terrorists. We should simply raise our voices using the internet and technology in order to change the way these entities function today so that they are no longer the oppressors of freedom, but it's supporters.

These global networked movements, such as open source and free software movement are actually forming a third industrial revolution which may crush capitalism as a social structure and finally bring the power to the majority and support the unrestricted growth of technology.

I am on the right side, are you?

Cisco CCNA Certification: Five Things To Do DURING The Exam

There are plenty of articles out there about how to prepare for the CCNA exam. However, there are also things you can do to increase your chances of success on exam day during the most important part of the entire process -- the time that you're actually taking the test.

I've taken many a certification exam over the years, and helped many others prep for theirs. Here are the five things you must do on exam day to maximize your efforts.

1. Show up on time. Yeah, I know everyone says that. The testing center wants you there 30 minutes early. So why do so many candidates show up late, or in a rush? If you have a morning exam appointment, take the traffic into account. If it's a part of town you don't normally drive in during rush hour, you might be surprised at how much traffic you have to go through. Plan ahead.

2. Use paper, not the pad. Some testing centers have gotten into the habit of handing exam candidates a board that allegedly wipes clean, along with a marker that may or not be fine-pointed. You do NOT want to be writing out charts for binary math questions, or coming up with quick network diagrams, with a dull magic marker. It's also my experience that these boards do not wipe clean well at all, but they smear quite badly.

Ask the testing center employee to give you paper and a pen instead. I haven't had one refuse me yet. Remember, you're the customer. It's your $100 - $300, depending on the exam.

3. Use the headphones. Most candidates in the room with you understand that they should be quiet. Sadly, not all of them do. Smacking gum, mumbling to themselves (loud enough for you to hear, though), and other little noises can really get on your nerves in what is already a pressure situation. In one particular testing center I use, the door to the testing room has one setting: "Slam".

Luckily, that center also has a headset hanging at every testing station. Call ahead to see if yours does. Some centers have them but don't leave them at the testing stations. Wearing headphones during the exam is a great way to increase your powers of concentration. They allow you to block out all noise and annoyances, and do what you came to do -- pass the exam.

4. Prepare for the "WHAT??" question. No matter how well-prepared you are, there's going to be one question on any Cisco exam that just stuns you. It might be off-topic, in your opinion; it may be a question that would take 20 of your remaining 25 questions to answer; it might be a question that you don't even know how to begin answering. I have talked with CCNA candidates who got to such a question and were obviously so thrown off that they didn't do well on any of the remaining questions, either.

There is only one thing to do in this situation: shrug it off. Compare yourself to a major-league pitcher. If he gives up a home run, he can't dwell on it; he's got to face another batter. Cornerbacks in football face the same problem; if they give up a long TD pass, they can't spend the next 20 minutes thinking about it. They have to shrug it off and be ready for the next play.

Don't worry about getting a perfect score on the exam. Your concern is passing. If you get a question that seems ridiculous, unsolvable, or out of place, forget about it. It's done. Move on to the next question and nail it.

5. Finish with a flourish. Ten questions from the end of your exam, take a 15-to-30 second break. You can't walk around the testing room, but you can stand and stretch. By this point in the exam, candidates tend to be a little mentally tired. Maybe you're still thinking about the "WHAT??" question. Don't worry about the questions you've already answered -- they're done. Take a deep breath, remember why you're there -- to pass this exam -- and sit back down and nail the last ten questions to the wall.

Before you know it, your passing score appears on the screen!

Now on to the CCNP ! Keep studying !

Microsoft Business Solutions VAR/Partner Selection – overview for IT Director/Manager/Controller

Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft CRM become more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind them. Now Great Plains is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. Small companies use Small Business Manager (which is based on the same technology – Great Plains Dexterity dictionary and runtime), Great Plains Standard on MSDE is for small to midsize clients, and then Great Plains serves the rest of the market up to big corporations. Microsoft CRM is extremely scalable and fits to all the market niches.

It is always good idea to install everything on your own - however Great Plains requires combination of computer networking, some programming, good accounting/distribution/logistics/reporting background - so it is not a surprise that Microsoft Business Solutions requires their customers to have specially assigner Microsoft Great Plains Partner/VAR/Reseller to serve the account.

If you are IT Director/Controller who has the dilemma of proper partner selection – read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.

1. Local partners - if you are in the remote area - there is often seen the opinion that local partner is the best choice. Consider this however as a contra argument - local partners maybe tiny with one/few consultants and they may not serve you adequately when you have somewhat complex - such as Manufacturing, complex Project Accounting needs, integration with UNIX-based legacy system, etc.

2. Mid-Size partners in Major Business Metros – these companies were classical Great Plains VARS/Resellers with balanced application consulting and technical expertise. Please, consider these points, however: in recent recession most of such partners were bought or merged with big auditing companies and lost their flexibility, plus their consulting fee went up due to the fact of belonging to big conglomerates.

3. Nation-wide partners with local representative offices. This maybe a very good option, if you need kind of reliability and complete expertise - missing parts could be taken from different location with this specialization. However the hourly rates are probably the highest among the first three.

4. One-Project-Manager partner with Offshore consultants – Well - this is very new type of partners - and you potentially can save a lot of money if you are risk taker - hourly rate is usually lower, price of the failure maybe higher.

5. Nation-wide partner with tiny local representation, serving via remote support. We are in this category, so let me tell you couple of good points here. Companies like ours - have to specialize in order to do excellent job in what we claim is our specialization (technology challenging projects with heavy customization needs). Serving via remote support lets us keep reasonably low rates and often go for fixed bids.

Also couple of hints about how do you switch the partner. It is actually more easy than you may think - you just send the new proposed partner the letter in free format saying that you would like to switch to you as my Microsoft Business Solutions partner - and this is it.

Why Dedicated Hosting?

If you’re reading this article, you might be interested in getting a dedicated server, or simply learning more about dedicated hosting services.

First of all, please note, that a dedicated server is rather expensive service, and you shouldn’t waste your money if you don’t plan to use it in full measure.

But if you really have a serious website, and want to run a successful business - you cannot do it without a dedicated server.

Of course it’s just mere words, so let’s enumerate the facts!

Freedom and security

Dedicated server will give you a freedom. You will not need to share it with other websites. It will also give you additional 3rd party security for your site and emails. A dedicated server will allow you deep access to your server to configure and optimize your server anyway you need.

You’re able to choose the software to install.

Power and functionality

With a dedicated server you get on average 50-100 Gb of hard drive, plus about 1,000 Gb of data transfer. You may customize the configuration and choose any CPU, RAM, or whatever you need. A dedicated server reduces your dependency on the web host; and bypasses time delays and possible expenses incurred from these.

Respectability

You simply CAN NOT run a popular website on a shared hosting. It’s not serious.

Summary

If your website turned into a popular and reliable resource; if you have tons of daily visitors; if you work B2B; if you need additional security and functionality, power and freedom - go ahead and buy a dedicated server. Don’t be sorry about the money you spent! Think about the future!

The Other Side Of The Search Gods’ Abracadabra!

Thousands of servers …billions of web pages…. the possibility of individually sifting through the WWW is null. The search engine gods cull the information you need from the Internet...from tracking down an elusive expert for communication to presenting the most unconventional views on the planet. Name it and click it. Beyond all the hype created about the web heavens they rule, let’s attempt to keep the argument balanced. From Google to Voice of the Shuttle (for humanities research) these ubiquitous gods that enrich the net, can be unfair …and do wear pitfalls. And considering the rate at which the Internet continues to grow, the problems of these gods are only exacerbated further.

Primarily, what you need to digest is the fact that search engines fall short of Mandrake’s magic mechanism! They simply don’t create URLs out of thin air but instead send their spiders crawling across those sites that have rendered prayers (and expensive offerings!) to them for consideration. Even when sites like Google claim to have a massive 3 billion web pages in its database, a large portion of the web nation is invisible to these spiders. To think they are simply ignorant of the Invisible Web. This invisible web holds that content, normal search engines can't index because the information on many web sites is in databases that are only searchable within that site. Sites like www.imdb.com - The Internet Movie Database , www.incywincy.com - IncyWincy, the invisible web search engine and www.completeplanet.com - The Complete Planet that cover this area are perhaps the only way you can access content from that portion of the Internet, invisible to the search gods. Here, you don’t perform a direct content search but search for the resources that may access the content. (Meaning - be sure to set aside considerable time for digging.)

None of the search engines indexes everything on the Web (I mean none). Tried research literature on popular search engines? AltaVista to Yahoo, will list thousands of sources on education, human resource development, etc. etc. but mostly from magazines, newspapers, and various organizations' own Web pages, rather than from research journals and dissertations- the main sources of research literature. That’s because most of the journals and dissertations are not yet available publicly on the Web. Thought they’ll get you all that’s hosted on the web? Think again.

The Web is huge and growing exponentially. Simple searches, using a single word or phrase, will often yield thousands of "hits", most of which will be irrelevant. A layman going in for a piece of info to the internet has to deal with a more severe issue - too much information! And if you don’t learn how to control the information overload from these websites, returned by a search result, roll out the red carpet for some frustration. A very common problem results from sites that have a lot of pages with similar content. For e.g., if a discussion thread (in a forum) goes on for a hundred posts there will be a hundred pages all with similar titles, each containing a wee bit of information. Now instead of just one link, all hundred of those darn pages will crop up your search result, crowding out other relevant site.

Regardless of all the sophistication technology has brought in, many well thought-out search phrases produce list after list of irrelevant web pages. The typical search still requires sifting through dirt to find the gold. If you are not specific enough, you may get too many irrelevant hits.

As said, these search engines do not actually search the web directly but their centralized server instead. And unless this database is updated continually to index modified, moved, deleted or renamed documents, you will land yourself amidst broken links and stale copies of web pages. So if they inadequately handle dynamic web pages whose content changes frequently, chances are for the information they reference to quickly go out-of-date. After they wage their never ending war with over-zealous promoters (spamdexers rather), where do they have time to keep their databases current and their search algorithms tuned? No surprise if a perfectly worthwhile site may go unlisted!

Similarly, many of the Web search engines are undergoing rapid development and are not well documented. You will have only an approximate idea of how they are working, and unknown shortcomings may cause them to miss desired information. Not to mention, amongst the first class information, the web also houses false, misleading, deceptive and dressed up information actually produced by charlatans. The Web itself is unstable and tomorrow they may not find you the site they found you today. Well if you could predict them, they would not be god!…would they?! The syntax (word order and punctuation) for various types of complex searches varies some from search engine to search engine, and small errors in the syntax can seriously compromise the search. For instance, try the same phrase search on different search engines and you’ll know what I mean. Novices… read this line - using search engines does involve a learning curve. Many beginning Internet users, because of these disadvantages, become discouraged and frustrated.

Like a journalist put it, “Not showing favoritism to its business clients is certainly a rare virtue in these times.” Search engines have increasingly turned to two significant revenue streams. Paid placement: In addition to the main editorial-driven search results, the search engines display a second — and sometimes third — listing that's usually commercial in nature. The more you pay, the higher you'll appear in the search results. Paid inclusion: An advertiser or content partner pays the search engine to crawl its site and include the results in the main editorial listing. So?…more likely to be in the hit list but then again - no guarantees. Of course those refusing to favor certain devotees are industry leaders like Google that publishes paid listings, but clearly marks them as 'Sponsored Links.'

The possibility of these ‘for-profit’ search gods (which haven't yet made much profit) for taking fees to skew their searches, can’t be ruled out. But as a searcher, the hit list you are provided with by the engine should obviously rank in the order of relevancy and interest. Search command languages can often be complex and confusing and the ranking algorithm is unique to each god based on the number of occurrences of the search phrase in a page, if it appears in the page title, or in a heading, or the URL itself, or the meta tag etc. or on a weighted average of a number of these relevance scores. E.g. Google (www.google.com) uses its patented PageRank TM and ranks the importance of search results by examining the links that lead to a specific site. The more links that lead to a site, the higher the site is ranked. Pop on popularity!

Alta Vista, HotBot, Lycos, Infoseek and MSN Search use keyword indexes – fast access to millions of documents. The lack of an index structure and poor accuracy of the size of the WWW, will not make searching any easier. Large number of sites indexed. Keyword searching can be difficult to get right.

In reality, however, the prevalence of a certain keyword is not always in proportion to the relevance of a page. Take this example. A search on sari - the national costume of India –in a popular search engine, returned among it’s top sites, the following links:

* www.scri.sari.ac.uk/ - of the Scottish Crop research Institute
* www.ubudsari.com/ - a health resort in Indonesia
* www.sari-energy.org/ - The South Asia Regional Initiative for Energy Cooperation and Development

Pretty useful sites for someone very much interested in knowing how to drape or the tradition of the sari?! (Well, no prayer goes unanswered…whether you like the answer or not!) By using keywords to determine how each page will be ranked in search results and not simply counting the number of instances of a word on a page, search engines are attempting to make the rankings better by assigning more weight to things like titles, subheadings, and so on.

Now, unless you have a clear idea of what you're looking for, it may be difficult or impossible to use a keyword search, especially if the vocabulary of the subject is unfamiliar. Similarly, the concept based search of Excite (instead of individual words, the words that you enter into a search are grouped and attempted to determine the meaning) is a difficult task and yields inconsistent results.

Besides who reviews or evaluates these sites for quality or authority? They are simply compiled by a computer program. These active search engines rely on computerized retrieval mechanisms called "spiders", "crawlers", or "robots", to visit Web sites, on a regular basis and retrieve relevant keywords to index and store in a searchable database. And from this huge database yields often unmanageable and comprehensive results….results whose relevance is determined by their computers. The irrelevant sites (high percentage of noise, as it’s called), questionable ranking mechanisms and poor quality control may be the result of less human involvement to weed out junk. Thought human intervention would solve all probes….read on.

>From the very first search engine – Yahoo to about.com, Snap.com, Magellan, NetGuide, Go Network, LookSmart, NBCi and Starting Point, all subject directories index and review documents under categories – making them more manageable. Unlike active search engines, these passive or human-selected search engines like don’t roam the web directly and are human controlled, relying on individual submissions. Perhaps the easiest to use in town, but the indexing structure these search engines cover only a small portion of the actual number of WWW sites and thus is certainly not your bet if you intend specific, narrow or complex topics.

Subject designations may be arbitrary, confusing or wrong. A search looks for matches only in the descriptions submitted. Never contains full text of the web they link to - you can only search what you see titles, descriptions, subject categories, etc. Human-labor intensive process limits database currency, size, rate of growth and timeliness. You may have to branch through the categories repeatedly before arriving at the right page. They may be several months behind the times because of the need for human organization. Try looking for some obscure topic….chances for the people that maintain the directory to have excluded those pages. Obviously, machines can blindly count keywords but they can't make common-sense judgement as humans can. But then why does human-edited directories respond with all this junk?!

And here’s about those meta search engines. A comprehensive search on the entire WWW using The Big Hub, Dogpile, Highway61, Internet Sleuth or Savvysearch , covering as many documents as possible may sound as good an idea as a one stop shopping. Meta search engines do not create their own databases. They rely on existing active and passive search engine indexes to retrieve search results. And the very fact that they access multiple keyword indexes reduces their response time. It sure does save your time by searching several search engines at once but at the expense of redundant, unwanted and overwhelming results….much more – important misses. The default search mode differs from search site to search site, so the same search is not always appropriate in different search engine software. The quality and size of the databases vary widely.

Weighted Search Engines like Ask Jeeves and RagingSearch allows the user to type queries in plain English without advanced searching knowledge, again at the expense of inaccurate and undetailed searching. Review or Ranking Sources like Argus Clearinghouse (www.clearinghouse.net), eBlast (eblast.com) and Librarian's Index to the Internet (lii.org). They evaluate website quality from sources they find or accept submissions from but cover a minimal number of sites.

As a webmaster, your site registration with the biggest billboards in Times Square can get you closer to bingo! for the searcher. Those who didn’t even know you existed before are in your living room in New York time!

Your URL registration is a no-brainer, considering the generation of flocking traffic to your site. Certainly a quick and inexpensive method, yet is only a component of the overall marketing strategy that in itself offers no guarantees, no instant results and demands continued effort for the webmaster. Commerce rules the web. Like how a notable Internet caveman put it, “Web publishers also find dealing with search engines to be a frustrating pursuit. Everybody wants their pages to be easy for the world to find, but getting your site listed can be tough. Search sites may take a long time to list your site, may never list it at all, and may drop it after a few months for no reason. If you resubmit often, as it is very tempting to do, you may even be branded a spamdexer and barred from a search site. And as for trying to get a good ranking, forget it! You have to keep up with all the arcane and ever-changing rules of a dozen different search engines, and adjust the keywords on your pages just so...all the while fighting against the very plausible theory that in fact none of this stuff matters, and the search sites assign rankings at random or by whim. “

To make the best use of Web search engines--to find what you need and avoid an avalanche of irrelevant hits-- pick search engines that are well suited to your needs. And lest you’d want to cry “Ye immortal gods! where in the world are we?”, spend a few hours becoming moderately proficient with each. Each works somewhat differently, most importantly in respect to how you broaden or narrow a search.

Finding the appropriate search engine for your particular information need, can be frustrating. To effectively use these search engines, it is important to understand what they are, how they work, and how they differ. For e.g. while using a meta search engine, remember that each engine has its own methods of displaying and ranking results. Remember, search strategies affect the results. If the user is unaware of basic search strategies, results may be spotty.

Quoting Charlie Morris (the former editor of The Web developer’s journal) - “Search engines and directories survive, and indeed flourish, because they're all we've got. If you want to use the wealth of information that is the Web, you've got to be able to find what you want, and search engines and directories are the only way to do that. Getting good search results is a matter of chance. Depending on what you're searching for, you may get a meaty list of good resources, or you may get page after page of irrelevant drivel. By laboriously refining your search, and using several different search engines and directories (and especially by using appropriate specialty directories), you can usually find what you need in the end.”

Search engines are very useful, no doubt. Right from getting a quick view of a topic to finding expert contact info…verily certain issues lie in their lap. Now the very reason we bother about these search engines so much is because they’re all we’ve got! Though there sure is a lot of room for improvement, the hour’s need is to not get caught in the middle of the road. By simply understanding what, how and where to seek, you’d spare yourself the fate of chanting that old Jewish proverb “If God lived on earth, people would break his windows.”

Happy searching!

Liberalization of in-domains?

Communications and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran has -as Hindustan Times reports-some advice for Indian patriots: use in-domains for Websites and e-mail IDs to popularise Indian identity in the world.

With India emerging as a global "labor" for IT, Indian companies should change the domain names of their Websites and e-mail IDs to in-domains, just like other countries.

"In every part of the world, the practice has been to use the short form of the respective countries at the end of the domain names by companies and individuals," the minister said during his first speech as IT Minister.

"During my trips abroad, I have always noticed that people have their e-mail IDs with the initials of their country in the end. For instance, in Britain, the Websites or e-mail IDs have at the end .co.uk, in Singapore it is .co.sg, in Japan it is .jp, in Hong Kong it is .hk and even in Pakistan they have .co.pk. But in India, we are still reluctant to use .co.in or .in. Why this hesitation?", Dayanidhi Maran has asked in an interview.

Therefore the minister has been urging upon Indian captains of industry, heads of organisations and individuals to switch over to use in-domains in order to indicate that their website or e-mail ID originates from India.

"I have made this appeal to representatives of the IT industry here, which is considered the IT capital of India. Once the tech industry migrates to this new identity, it will set a trend for the rest to follow in letter and spirit. They need to change the domain names of their companies or organisations by registering their Websites or mail IDs only once for identifying themselves with their motherland," Maran says.

"Though we are not making it mandatory, we are coming out with a number of schemes for Indian companies or organisations to make this transition soon. The ministry will shortly come out with an action plan to enable a smooth migration to either .co.in or .in," the IT minister explains.

The Indian IT-minister seems to be aware, that it is very bureaucratic in the moment to register in-domains. Indian companies need a lot of paperwork in order to get a domain at co.in , .in itself is reserved for Indian providers, not open to all Indian companies. "Foreign companies", explains Hans-Peter Oswald, the CEO of ICANN Registrar Secura (https://www.domainregistry.de/in-domain.html), ,,can only register the own name at .gen.in."