Microsoft Great Plains Integration Manager 10.0 technical notes – Alba Spectrum

United States of America (Press Release) November 17, 2007 -- Microsoft Dynamics GP version 10.0 advanced such new technologies as eConnect in and this seems to be general trend to walk away from proprietary tools, such as Microsoft Dexterity to Microsoft specific platforms, such as .Net, COM+ and MS SQL Server Stored Procedures, as you know eConnect core contains encrypted stored procs. Historically Great Plains IM was based on OLE technology, where GP workstation was used as OLE server and business logic validation was done in GP forms, where OLE mechanism was entering fields values. Let’s take a look at new and traditional features available in IM version 10.0, it is in our opinion in transition to be rewritten completely in eConnect, but at this time it is available with both traditional and eConnect connectors:
1. eConnect connector. For GP consultants, you should be aware that eConnect connector requires specific company, if you remember how OLE connector works – it recognizes the company, from where you call Integration Manager and so you do not need to specify the company in integration settings. eConnect requires the company target to be specified. eConnect integration performance should be higher comparing to traditional connector, as eConnect doesn’t use slow OLE technology and imitates business logic (or in other words it replicates Dexterity functionality) in SQL stored procedures (which are performed on the server). Typical GP integrations involve Sales Order Processing module (this includes eCommerce scenarios) as well as Purchase Order Processing module (where you integrate EDI vendor invoices, for example) and at this time, GP IM 10.0 eConnect connector enables these integrations, which is very optimistic note
2. IM upgrade. Typical scenarios are when you are upgrading skipping two versions, let’s say from GP IM 7.5 to 10.0. In this scenario you need to do two steps upgrade – first to GP IM 9.0 and then to 10.0
3. VBA programming for Integration Manager. This technology may seem outdated as VBA was popular in late 1990th to automate MS Excel and MS Access type of scenarios. However VBA and Modifier modules are still available with Microsoft Dynamics GP purchase or upgrade. VBA scripting is event driven one, so you should review the options to alter IM business logic on pre and post integration, pre and post document. This article format is short and we can not give you sample VBA scripts here, however if you have development budget and would like to get advanced technical and programming help, we would be happy to assist you

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