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OS 101: Suggestions for Choosing an Operating System
An operating system (abbreviated OS) is essentially the path through which a computer accesses files, games, the Internet, and all vital stored information. The OS is the most important program on a computer because it runs all of the other programs. The major operating systems are Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Unix. The operating system is essential to the computer, and so extreme care should be taken when choosing an operating system.
Spyware Definitions List
The adware and spyware definitions list is very long. But the definitions listed below are the most common ones. This is a glossary of spyware facts and terms so you'll know what these malicious programs are and what they can do to your computer.
Microsoft eCommerce Web-development: Great Plains eConnect .Net ? Highlights for Programmer
In our small article we?ll consider Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains Sales Order Processing module as eCommerce backend. Plus we?ll cover what is possible and impossible in eConnect and why.
Microsoft Great Plains is one of the most popular ERP in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, Latin America, UK and South Africa. Due to the MBS strategy ? Great Plains Dynamics was pulled from other markets, such as continental Europe (Germany, France, Russia) ? where Navision and Axapta are the promoted and recommended solutions. If you have Navision or Axapta ? please read our publications on these products on Alba Spectrum Technologies publication site.
5 Mac Security Tips You Can?t Live Without
So, you?ve bought a new Macintosh, and now you may be wondering how to make it safer. There are several things that you can do which will protect your Mac from viruses and hackers. Macs are already very difficult to hack, but don?t let that fact allow you to become lenient with your security.
15 Questions to Ask Your Software Vendor
When making a decision to buy any piece of software there are a number of criteria typically evaluated. One of the most important elements in the decision process is the strength of the company that builds the software. In fact a survey of 19,000 customers has identified that company strength is the most important factor in choosing software, with the price of the software being the fifth most important element.
Screenplay and Script Writing Software
When it comes to screenplay software each screenwriter needs to determine what they need from the program they purchase and pick one that fits their specific needs. Screenwriting software doesn't write the screenplay for you. Why do I say this? I don't want you to be under the impression one software application is "better" or the "best" script writing software. No script writing software should be chosen based on it helping you complete your screenplay "better" or "faster" than another.
Rapid Application Development - Is it Really a Need of Today?
Rapid Application Development (RAD) is a software development methodology. In this competitive world, software product delivery time should be as little as it can be. The RAD is a way to this. As the name suggests, RAD technique allows RAPID application development, with development time, usually, 30 to 90 days.
IT Strategy for Midsize Business: Microsoft vs. Java, Great Plains & CRM
Midsize business or non-profit organization should decide if one-vendor solution would be appropriate and the associated risk acceptable. In our opinion, balancing the risk of one-vendor-approach is not economically feasible and should be avoided. This means that you need to decide if you plan to be Microsoft-oriented or Java/Unix/Linux/Oracle oriented. In the case of Java direction ? you again have to further consider your options and if possible do not deploy too many systems from different vendors. Even if you host your systems with somebody else ? we think that in the future you might have a risk of complex data conversion from one system to another. In this small article we?ll show you typical way if you follow Microsoft direction: Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains and Microsoft CRM
Ukraine IT Myths Dispersed
While Ukraine is becoming a new popular IT outsourcing destination, there are still many myths about it and no clear understanding of the opportunities outsourcing to Ukraine can present. Let us look closely at some of those myths and find out whether there is any truth behind them.
Microsoft Great Plains Integration Manager: Using Continuum ? Overview for Developer
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains has I?d say end user integration tool ? Great Plains Integration manager. Integration Manager itself uses OLE functionality to validate text or ODBC integration files data through Great Plains forms behind the scenes. This sounds very promising and powerful ? however the realities place the restrictions. We heard a lot of complains about Integration Manager slowness and inability to integrate data to multiple companies automatically ? without operator intervention. This is probably true if you do not have IM expertise in your company. However there are Microsoft Great Plains maestros who could make magic things happen
MultiNational Corporation ERP Implementation ? Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains
If you look back to the history, you will see that ERP for large publicly traded company had to be built upon very reliable hardware (more likely non-Intel hardware: mainframe, Sun sparc, etc.), powerful database platform: Oracle, DB2, Ingress, Sybase and reliable OS: UNIX. 10 years ago Microsoft had Windows NT first tries, plus Windows 95 was kind of revolution, but not the one to stake on for corporate users. Nowadays hardware (from Intel side), Windows 2003 Server Enterprise Edition, WindowsXP Pro, and Microsoft SQL Server could be considered reasonably reliable plus it is certainly easier to support these products, because of the large pool of Microsoft-oriented IT professionals available Worldwide. Microsoft Business Solutions offers several lines of ERP systems: Microsoft Great Plains, Microsoft Navision, Solomon, Axapta. We don?t want to state here that in the future Microsoft will be only ERP systems provider, but it certainly is and will be one of the major players on the ERP/MRP market. In this small article we?ll consider the ways to implement large corporation required features in Microsoft Great Plains.
Seven Reasons Why a Hosted Inventory Management Solution Might Be Right For Your Organization
Upgrading. Downtime. Maintenance. Hardware obsolescence. Implementation issues. The litany of headaches related to the implementation and on-going care-and-feeding of enterprise based applications is enough make the savviest of companies want to engage in anything but another software implementation. Like a full-blown IRS audit. Anything?
COSMIC: A Small Improvement on the Symons Method
The COSMIC FP (function point) software quality metric, is no longer ?proposed? but an actual system in use and internationally recognised, whereas MarkII, like other older systems, is not recognised anywhere, and, even in the UK is in decline if not actually dormant, so this debate is already over.
A Symons Mark II Function Point Counting Example
I provide, here clear explanations and a count of function points, using the Symons Mark II method.
The Software 2005 Conference - A Review
The Software 2005 conference is now a wrap. This conference, presented by M.R. Rangaswami and The Sandhill Group, is now an annual event and attendance increased 35% this year over 2004. It is an ideal opportunity for those in the enterprise software industry to see what's new and what's coming, as well as to catch up with old colleagues and make new connections. It is also a perfect forum for startups to gain exposure as well as solicit funding and key partnerships.
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It could just be me, but my experiences with document collaboration remind me of a football game. It sounds crazy, I know, but working with a group and sending emails off to other members of the group caries with it that familiar uneasy sensation of Thanksgiving Day football games, where I often play quarterback and just as often wonder whether members of my family will catch the pass, and if they do, what they will do with the ball. Using groupware in document collaboration is similar to having a game plan that separates the "Turkey Bowl" family football team from the real competitors.
ERP Remote Support: Microsoft Great Plains Analysis ? Pluses & Minuses
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Reduce TCO: The Java Database Way
TCO (Total Cost Ownership) is the buzzword in today's business world. This metric helps enterprise managers assess direct and indirect costs and benefits derived from their investment on IT components and services. A vital component of overall TCO is database management. All information-centric applications need databases for data storage. Also, the storage demands of small and mid-sized companies are growing rapidly, as more emphasis is given on data backup and long-term archival of data disaster recovery.
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Microsoft Great Plains Upgrade ? Version 8.0 Overview for IT Director/Controller
If you have Microsoft Great Plains as main accounting and ERP system you need to know some technical details on Great Plains version upgrade and what is going on behind the scenes, which options do you have in case of Dexterity, VBA, SQL customizations, ctree/Pervasive migration to MS SQL/MSDE. As of right now it is reasonable to upgrade to Microsoft Great Plains 8.0 Is upgrade required? Not actually, but you have to consider these factors ? Technical Support discontinuation - the old version may not be supported - currently if you are on version 6.0 - support is already discontinued. You can not have Microsoft Business Solutions help you, but obviously you have MBS partners who can still help you. If you are on Ctree or Pervasive SQL, then your support expires December, 31 2004. ? Tax Updates/Magnetic media expiration - if you have US Payroll module and depend on it with W2 and other forms - you must stay with the version, which is supported and has tax updates. If you are on Ctree or Pervasive SQL - then you will not have tax updates for these platforms at the end of 2004 and your W2s maybe inaccurate. If you have a lot of employees - you may have issues with government.? 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? If you do have heavy customization - we recommend you to skip one version, for example if you are on version 7.5 - do not upgrade to 8.0 and wait for the next version 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 fewThird 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 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 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 with 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
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Microsoft Great Plains Remote Support - Overview
Microsoft Great Plains is now standard mid-market ERP application, serving the whole spectrum of businesses. In the case of mid-size business we usually see strong IT team with SQL querying skills plus accounting department is already trained to use Great Plains and needs minimal help in figuring out on how to use new Great Plains version and features. In this situation company may leverage it's work force strength and minimize ERP application support cost. This is the goal of Microsoft Business Solutions and the philosophy of future computer systems. In this situation - in our opinion - there is no need to have expensive local support when consultants are coming to you on regular basis and spend at least four hours onsite, charging somewhat close to $200 per hour.
Passwords Used In Microsoft Word Documents
You would like to protect your documents, wouldn't you? Reasons may vary but the problem is the same ? you need to protect your Microsoft Word documents from unauthorized editing or viewing. What document protection features does Microsoft® Office Word 2003, a part of Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 provide?
Microsoft Small Business Manager eCommerce ? Overview
Microsoft Business Solutions Small Business Manager is scaled down Great Plains Dexterity based version of Microsoft Great Plains or former Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise. Small Business Manager first release 7.0 and all the following version was available on MSDE (MS SQL Server 2000 with limited usage and database size ? 2GB maximum). It is nice situation on the market in eCommerce niche ? we see huge number of customers, who have purchased and implemented SBM for their small and mid-size businesses and then realized that customization options for Small Business Manager are very limited: in comparison to Great Plains SBM doesn't have VBA/Modifier, it has very restricted version of Integration Manager. These restrictions lead you, eCommerce developer to direct SQL programming. Again ? being scaled down version of Microsoft Great Plains ? Small Business Manager has a legacy of relatively complex tables structure.
tom stored procedures way here:
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