subject: Dynamics Gp Data Conversions Or How To Migrate Your Old Accounting Records [print this page] Data conversion from your legacy Accounting to newly installed Microsoft Dynamics GP is really a puzzle and at the same time it is might lead to disappointments. We see several customers, who bought Great Plains Dynamics from one Reseller and then had to change Dynamics GP Partner, as the initial VAR was not able to complete data conversion works. Lets take a look at the methods and recommended approached to data massage and migration. This publication should be easy to read to business owner, or somebody who doesnt pretend to be IT department guru. Well mention major tools and recommended approaches:
1.What is the first question to answer in data conversion planning? This is right we need to decide the scope of the planned data conversion. And the simple and probably looking like natural answer lets convert everything in fact might be a really the worst answer. Lets speculate for a moment about legacy accounting system and its compatibility with Dynamics GP modules, transactions and master records. First of all you are probably moving away from your legacy ERP due to the fact, that your company is growing and now you need new functionality and more scalable DB platform (such as Microsoft SQL Server). The conversion process might stumble in mapping old historical transactions with the new ones in Dynamics GP. Secondly, does the conversion make sense from the standpoint of spending expensive consulting budget? Maybe the better idea is simply to keep one computer with your legacy Corporate ERP application installed there just for lookup or possible future audit?
2.The complexity of the data migration. The less you convert, the simpler it is and less money it will cost you. Consider the following strategy. You wait until the beginning of the next fiscal year, then you move just GL Accounts, GL Beginning balances for the new year (could be probably keyed in by hand, even if you have several hundred accounts). Plus you move master records, such as customers, vendors, employees, addresses. And you are good to go to start new fiscal year in Dynamics GP. If customers or vendors call you back on the status of the order or if the invoice was already paid you look this up in the legacy accounting. Everyone is happy and you use Great Plains Dynamics for several month and realize that the number of lookups in your legacy Corporate ERP decreases meaning that the implementation and transition was successful. Well, in some cases you may say this approach doesnt work, because my legacy Corporate ERP was hosted and I am paying for each month of using it online. When I stop paying for the usage, I lose access to my historical data, this is why I need it to be converted to Dynamics GP. Cool down, think about this method. You export your legacy Corporate ERP application tables into text files, MS Excel, MS Access or even as custom Microsoft SQL Server database, create relatively simple Crystal Report to look up the transaction, in case if somebody requests it. If you have more reasons to have your historical data migrated to Microsoft Dynamics GP, then you need to discuss in details the conversion proposals with your Dynamics GP Partner
3.Data Conversion Tools Integration Manager. The most popular one is Dynamics GP Integration Manager, which could be purchased for initial data conversion only, or you can decide to use it in ongoing integrations (EDI, ecommerce B2B or B2C Shopping cart to Great Plains Sales Invoice with Customer Deposit/Credit Card prepayment). Typically IM works with comma delimited text files, but it is not limited to. You may decide to do data conversion via exporting huge amount of data from your legacy accounting, then importing it into custom MS SQL Tables and then deploy IM Advanced ODBC Queries to do final move to Great Plains. By the way, this method is the most efficient from the standpoint of the integration performance, it could also work if you have to massage data in SQL Server by filtering out text file noise, such as space lines, comments, or whatever doesnt fit the structure. If you have to be in compliance with industry legislation (for example Trading companies might be required to have the whole previous fiscal year to be in GL History) Integration Manager is the tool of choice to convert historical transactions
4.Data Conversion Tools SQL Scripts. If you are SQL programmer, you may probably stand out and make a promise that you make your best efforts to have data conversion to Dynamics GP directly on the SQL Query Insert statement level. Well, this is absolutely great incentive, however it might be too complex (however theoretically possible) Dynamics GP is mid-market Corporate ERP system with complex business logic. One transaction is actually goes into the cluster of SQL tables and the business logic is what you are paying for in the form of software user licenses. Dynamics GP is one of the open Corporate ERP systems, where you can do data insert directly on the MS SQL Server query level, but it is the risk, as you may compromise the data integrity. If you got your data compromised through SQL surgery by somebody who is not very experienced with Dynamics GP tables structure and data flow, we recommend you to call your Dynamics GP technical consultant
5.Dexterity, eConnect. These tools are good and very powerful, but they require programming expertise (plus Dexterity is proprietary scripting tool, where the pool of programmer might not be available on the open labor market, but rather through Dynamics GP Technology partners only). eConnect is rather something to consider with ongoing application, versus initial data conversion
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