I could fill a thousand pages telling you how I felt and still you would not understand. So now I leave you without a sound except my heart shattering as it hits the ground Love is like an eternal flame, Once it is lit, it will continue to burn for all time. There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.. Never love unless you can bear with all the faults of man! If God is Love - I dare say. But what a mischievous devil Love is! If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them. Words are the pen of the heart, but music is the pen of the soul When i saw you i was afraid to talk to you... when i talked to you i was afraid to hold you... When i hold you i was afraid to love you Now that i love you im afraid to lose you. True love is eternal. If you think you were once in love but fell out of it, than it wasent love you were in No Boy Is Worth Fighting For, And If You Have To Fight To Get Him, Than You're Better Off Without Him. A Cute Guy Can Open Up My Eyes, A Smart Guy Can Open Up My Mind, But Only A Sweet Guy Can Open My Heart. I Cry For The Times That You Were Almost Mine, I Cry For The Memories I've Left Behind, I Cry For The Pain, The Lost, The Old, the New.. I Now Cry For The Times I Thought I Had You A kiss can beautify souls hearts and thoughts.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Love Quotations
Sunday, May 20, 2007
JOKES
A man is working on the buses in the US collecting tickets.
He rings the bell for the driver to set off when there's a woman half getting on the bus. The driver sets off, the woman falls from the bus and is killed. At the trial the man is sent down for murder and seeing as it's Texas he's sent to the electric chair. On the day of his execution he's sat in the chair and the executioner grants him a final wish.
"Well" says the man, "is that your packed lunch over there?" "Yes" answers the executioner. "Can I have that green banana?"
The executioner gives the man his green banana and waits till he's eaten it. When the man's finished, the executioner flips the switch sending hundreds of thousands of volts through the man. When the smoke clears the man is still alive. The executioner can't believe it.
"Can I go?" the man asks. "I suppose so" says the executioner, "that's never happened before."
The man leaves and eventually gets a job back on the buses selling tickets. Again he rings the bell for the driver to go when people are still getting on. A man falls under the wheels and is killed. The bloke is sent down for murder again and sent to the electric chair. The executioner is determined to do it right this time so rigs the chair up to the electric supply for the whole of Texas.
The bloke is again sat in the chair. "What is your final wish?" asks the executioner. "Can I have that green banana in your packed lunch ?" says the condemned man. The executioner sighs and reluctantly gives up his banana. The bloke eats the banana all up and the executioner flips the switch. Millions of volts course through the chair blacking out Texas. When the smoke clears the man is still sat there smiling in the
chair. The executioner can't believe it and lets the man go.
Well, would you believe, the bloke gets his job back on the buses. Once again he rings the bell whilst passengers are still getting on, this
time killing three of them. He is sent to the electric chair again. The executioner rigs up all United States electricity supply to The chair, determined to get his man this time. The man sits down in the chair smiling.
"What's your final wish ?" asks the executioner. "Well" says the man, "Can I have that green banana out of your packed lunch.?" The executioner hands over his banana and the man eats it all, skin included. The executioner pulls the handle and a brazillion volts go through the chair. When the smoke rises the man is still sat there alive without even a burn mark.
"I give up" says the executioner, "I don't understand how you
can still be alive after all that?". He stroked his chin. "It's something to do with that green banana isn't it" he asked.
Nahh" said the bloke,
"I'm just a really bad conductor"
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One day George W. Bush and Dick Cheney walk into a diner. A waitress walks up to them and asks if she can take their order. Bush leans close to her and says, "Honey, can I have a quickie?"
The waitress is appalled and yells at the President about women's rights and storms away.
Cheney then says to Bush, "George, its pronounced 'quiche'."
The Best Home Equity Loan for You
Do you want to receive your money in one lump sum?
What do you need to use the money for?
There are three ways to turn your home equity into usable cash:
When you take a cash-out refinance, it means you're refinancing your existing loan to a larger amount than what you owe and taking the difference in cash. You receive your money in a lump sum and you might use the cash for home improvements or debt consolidation. If the mortgage interest rate on your existing home loan is higher than current rates, it may make sense to refinance this way.
If you have a great mortgage interest rate and don't want to refinance your existing mortgage, a home equity loan might be the way to go. A home equity loan is a second loan that you take out in addition to your first mortgage . It allows you to get cash from your home equity.
A home equity loan takes less time than refinancing your first mortgage and is a good choice if you'd like your cash in a lump sum. Again, you might use this for home improvements or paying off high-interest credit card debt. You might also use it to pay medical bills or finance a second home.
How to Find the Cheapest Whole Life Insurance Quote Online
Whole life insurance covers you for your entire life, not just for a specific period or term. Because your premium stays the same until the policy is paid for, it's important that you find the cheapest whole life insurance quote.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
The Importance of Friendship
THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S Leisure and Lifestyles project based in the Department of Education at the University of Aberdeen has just completed a seven-year study. One of the many topics covered by the research team was that of friendships and their importance to adolescents.
ALTHOUGH relationships with parents determine in large measure our longer-term preferences, attitudes and values, during adolescence it is often relationships with friends that cause most concern and which pre- occupy the thoughts of young people as they grow up.
Friendships are based on a completely different set of structural relationships to those with parents. They are more symmetrical and involve sharing and exchange. Friendships are important to young children but there is a change at the beginning of adolescence -- a move to intimacy that includes the development of a more exclusive focus, a willingness to talk about oneself and to share problems and advice. Friends tell one another just about everything that is going on in each other's lives... Friends literally reason together in order to organise experience and to define themselves as persons.
The role of friendships
In adolescence friendships normally exist within the larger social structure of peer relationships. In this larger social setting each adolescent has a particular role to play and is usually aware of their own status within the group. Close friendships are not independent of such status. Popular or successful youngsters stick together. Those who are 'in' do not mix as frequently with those on the periphery of what is acceptable to the group. Whereas the standards and styles set by the peer group can set highly influential markers around acceptable and unacceptable behaviours for young people, it is in individual friendships that young people find support and security, negotiate their emotional independence, exchange information, put beliefs and feelings into words and develop a new and different perspective of themselves.
Data from the YPLL project indicates that young men and young women use and view friendships in quite different ways. For instance, as far as young women are concerned, we can trace the development of friendships through an early adolescent period when emotional commitments are minimal and the focus of friendship is common activities, a period in mid-adolescence when young women become most anxious about being rejected or excluded from a same-sex friendship. There is strong emphasis on loyalty and support at this stage:
'...People should remember that you need attention too, and not ignore you and sneak away from you. People who sneak away from you cannot really be your friends in the first place. Sometimes friends gang up on you. So you have to make another friend in another class. That is not pleasant. I should know...'
Friendships become easier for young women in later adolescence as they develop a clearer sense of self identity. Young women of this age show a high regard for each other's individuality and a greater ability to tolerate differences. Young men's friendships rarely achieve the depth of intimacy of young women's. Larger peer groups - the boys' or 'the lads' - often appear more important to them than individual friendships. Young men in middle adolescence describe their friends to researchers in the YPLL team in terms similar to those used by pre-adolescent girls - failing to see emotional support, closeness or security as important qualities of a friendship.
Apart from these general trends, the YPLL data also reveals interesting social class differences between youngsters. Young people from working- class backgrounds, for instance, are more likely to spend time with a boy/girlfriend whereas young people from G middle-class backgrounds continue to move around in mixed sex groups for a longer period, perhaps anticipating an extended period of dependence on parents as they head for further or higher education.
The role of the peer group
Peers and friends are not the same thing. Peer groups appear to have a dynamic role, the function and influence of which shifts across adolescence. The adolescent uses the peer group to evaluate the perspectives of others, while developing his or her own values and attitudes.
Style of dress, hairstyles, musical interests, speech and language use, leisure activities, and values are among the characteristics that teenagers appear to learn, in part, by watching and comparing themselves to others in their group. Further, teenagers learn methods of handling social relationships by observing and imitating peers. The influence of the peer group appears to be particularly marked where parental influence is not strong.
Of course, being liked, accepted and defining one's role within a social group are important features of life at any age, but because peers play such an important role in the lives of adolescents, social acceptance is an urgent concern for most young people. Young people in the YPLL study were asked to identify from a list which items they felt influenced popularity and unpopularity amongst friends. From this question we discovered that young men are more likely to regard being like their friends in behaviour and appearance and physical attributes as important, whereas young women are more likely to value qualities in the personality of their friends, like honesty, cheerfulness and so on. The importance attached to attractiveness declines throughout the adolescent years . Lastly, there are class- based differences. For example, amongst both boys and girls, more importance is attached to qualities such as 'a good personality' and 'being oneself' by young people from middle- class backgrounds.
These findings highlight the importance of peer pressures in adolescence. The peer group gives out clear signals to its members both about style and about fundamental values and perspectives. Conformity to the group is the price that has to be paid for approval and acceptance by peers.
Alone and lonely
One set of findings from the YPLL project included evidence of a concern with personal loneliness and the absence of confidants among a substantial number of adolescents. Though adolescence is generally a time of intense sociability, it can also often be a time of intense loneliness. Being with peers and friends does not necessarily solve this feeling of loneliness. Adolescents are notorious for their frequent shifts in mood, frequent periods of rumination over relationships and identity, and time spent alone.
In the YPLL survey a sixth of adolescents reported spending a lot of spare time on their own. This issue was followed up in qualitative interviews with a panel of young people, for while we cannot make a simple equation between aloneness and the experience of social and psychological difficulty, young people do seem to need to interact with friends in resolving some of their conflicts. We found clear differences between the ways in which boys and girls cope with problems. For instance, the panel members in the YPLL study were asked to respond to a number of statements about what they would do if they had a problem. Confiding in a friend when unhappy or worried tended to be something which young women rather than young men were inclined to do.
The more negative and distressing aspects of friendship are rarely examined in the literature on adolescence. By way of exploring this neglected area members of the YPLL panel group were invited to talk about problems experienced with friends. Such discussions highlighted the significance of arguments and broken friendships. Asked about what might spoil a friendship, the breaking of a confidence and (for boys) 'stealing' another person's girlfriend were considered particularly disloyal. Young people are not alone in having problems with friendships, but the psycho-social issues that confront adolescents make it more certain that such difficulties are likely to be of concern to them. Adolescents can be highly egocentric.
They sometimes find it difficult to see other people's point of view and to interpret other people's behaviour. They can be touchy and hypersensitive to rejection, and their social skills are, as yet, underdeveloped.
Equally, at times, adolescents feel the need to 'escape' and to be on their own. The YPLL panel study asked young people: Where do you go and what do you do if you just want to be alone to think?' The answers highlighted young people's desire for a private place of their own. The overwhelming response was to escape to the bedroom:
'In my room - close the door, ask not to be disturbed, and put on some soothing music, sit on my bed, relaxed, and think...'
Another young person disclosed:
'I stay in my room and if I'm feeling troubled about something I write it out on paper and that helps me to work things out.'
Others went out:
"I go down to the swing park and swing slowly on a swing."
Other places frequently mentioned were walks in parks or woods. A number of young men mentioned going off on their bikes to get away from it all, and amongst older adolescents driving around or driving out of town and parking to view the scenery were popular 'escape' mechanisms.
As the individual adolescent seeks to grow more independent of the family, peer groups and friends become important points of reference. They provide social contexts for shaping the day- to- day behaviour of adolescents, and encourage conformity to norms and values. Despite much popular mythology about 'the generation gap', such standards are startlingly similar to parental values, though the similarities are masked by different youth styles or expressions. Such groupings clearly have a developmental potential in enabling young people to make the social adjustments necessary for them to operate in adult society.
Educationalists concerned with young people have begun to pay much more attention to the concept of 'peer education'--for example, in relation to smoking, drug or HIV education programmes (eg Smokebusters or Fast Forward in Scotland). How much attention do these programmes pay to the real dynamics of peer group pressures as they ebb and flow across adolescence?
Sunday, May 13, 2007
How to Upgrade Dexterity Customization - Tips for IT Manager
If you have Microsoft Great Plains and support it for your company and have light or heavy Great Plains customization, written in Dexterity - you need to know your options in upgrading Great Plains or migrating it from ctree/Pervasive to MS SQL/MSDE.
Great Plains Dexterity is proprietary programming language/environment, which was created in early 1990-th to provide platform / database / graphical interface independence for Mac and Windows based Great Plains Dynamics. Today it is legacy and Microsoft Business Solutions is phasing Dexterity out.
However Great Plains 7.5 and even 8.0 is Dexterity based application, so you have to deal with it and it's customization.
Good news. Prior to version 7.0 Great Plains had plans on expanding GP functionality and so was changing tables structure - forcing Dexterity customization to be analyzed and partially rewritten with each upgrade. Not any more - GP structure stays the same - Microsoft is doing new modules acquisition and unifying it's graphical interface to move all it's ERP packages: Great Plains, Solomon, Navision and Axapta to web-based Microsoft Business Portal.
Still pain. Dexterity has possibility to customize existing Great Plains screens, so called Alternative Great Plains forms. This was upgrade problem in the past and it stays now - there is no way to do it in house (until you are willing to pay for full-time internal developer - who is usually in the learning curve). You got to bring in consultant.
Recommended approach. You should have the strategy to migrate Dexterity customization to SQL, Crystal Reports, custom web publishing - Visual Studio.net and slowly abandon Dexterity customization
Good luck 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 Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies - USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, based in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Boston, New York, Houston, Dallas, Miami, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Seattle and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer. |
Friday, May 11, 2007
Microsoft Great Plains Implementation - Overview for IT Director/Controller
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
Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies - USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, based in Chicago, California, Texas, Florida, New York, Georgia, Washington, Minnesota, Colorado, Canada, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is CMA, Great Plains Certified Master, Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer. You can contact Andrew: andrewk@albaspectrum.com
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Microsoft CRM Custom Design & Development: SDK, C#, SQL, Exchange, Integration, Crystal Reports
Microsoft CRM is new player on the CRM software market. The whole conception behind CRM seems to be different. In case of traditional CRM software (Siebel, Oracle) - the application was designed with platform independence in mind. Microsoft CRM is dedicated to Microsoft technology and so deploys all the Microsoft tools: Windows Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange 2003/2000, SQL Server, Crystal Reports Enterprise, Biztalk server, Microsoft Outlook, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Great Plains as backend, etc.
If you are software developer, database administrator or web designer who is asked: how do we customize Microsoft CRM - we are giving you directions in this article.
Happy modifying! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies - USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, based in Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Canada, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, SQL, VB/C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer. |
Monday, May 7, 2007
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 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 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
Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies - USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, based in Chicago, California, Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Texas, New York, Washington, Georgia and Florida and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.
Friday, May 4, 2007
IT Department Skills to Support Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft CRM
Microsoft Great Plains as ERP and Microsoft CRM as Client Relation Management system is very robust combination and could serve midsize to large corporation as Business System. Being VP IT or IT Director you need to foresee the positions to have in your IT department to do internal MS Great Plains and MS CRM support.
Let us give you the directions, based on our research and consulting practice.Microsoft SQL Server Specialist - we specially do not name this position as MS SQL DBA, because both Great Plains and MS CRM are not very complex from the database administration side, they do not use indexes optimization, referential integrity, probably do not require complex transaction log backup/recovery scenarios. On the other hand this position requires Great Plains and Microsoft CRM tables structure analysis and some primary Great Plains data fixing skills via SQL queries, described in MBS Customer source techknowledge database. The best candidate should have some accounting background - to be able to address ongoing issues to MBS technical support.
Network Administrator with good Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory skills. Microsoft CRM uses all the newest Microsoft technologies, and Exchange is a workhorse here. In order to install and upgrade MS CRM this guy needs to understand the under-laying Microsoft technology. In the best case - she/he should know Exchange security structure and probably program Exchange handlers, due to the fact that CRM/Exchange connector is not a perfect tool yet.
C# or VB.Net programmer with excellent SQL Skills- if you are midsize or large company - you should have this position - you will need web publishing and MS CRM customization and its support. Currently Microsoft CRM SDK has C# examples - so C# programmer would be the best fit, it may have more VB code in the future, so the C# - VB balance maybe restored.
Crystal Reports Designer/Programmer - Crystal Reports is the best tool available on the market to address both Great Plains and MS CRM reporting needs. This position maybe merged with one of the above.
These people should be probably cross-trained in both Great Plains, Microsoft CRM, Crystal Reports, SQL and C# programming, so you do not depend on the unique skills of one person. In our opinion, which is based on our long term consulting practice - these skills will allow you to keep the cost of IT support reasonably low and avoid paying high consulting price to your Microsoft Business Solutions Partner.
Happy hiring and training! But in any case you need to select Microsoft Business Solutions Partner/Var/Reseller to be your official representative. This is how MBS has its channel working - it assures that Microsoft Business Solutions products are properly implemented. If you want us to be your Microsoft Business Solutions Partner - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com
Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies - USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains implementation and customization company, based in Chicago, Boston, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta, and Miami and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, SQL, VB/C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.
Instant Messaging is a Sweet Way to Communicate
MSN messenger is a pretty cool invention. I mean I'm not really into serious discussions on the email, answers to questions can often take a few days to arrive because people are so busy these days. I've just been 'hooked up' into Messenger and it's really a different kind of communication, quick, simplistic and even humorous with the capability to express your feelings with 'emotion' cartoons. With Messenger you can communicate with a group of close friends or business partners instantly whenever they are at their computer. When a message is received you are informed instantly on your desktop, you don't have to be at an email site. A little box appears flashing the name of the sender, you read the message and send a reply when you've got a second free. There's a contact list and when you go on-line, it automatically tells you who of your connections are on and off-line at that moment. If someone goes on-line after you've already been at your computer, a small box appears on your screen to tell you who are now also instantly message able. It's like the spontaneity of a telephone call but you don't even have to dial any numbers! Just log in your password and you're connected. The huge array of smiley faces and other 'emotional' icons add another dimension to the conversations. Some of the smiley faces actually move (sticking their tongues out etc.) and there are many other symbols to express the moment. E.g.: Show a little sun when it's sunny in your neighborhood, flash a wilted rose when your love life isn't going to well, put up a black sheep when you're feeling disconnected from society. How about expressing your dream of a holiday by flashing up the tropical island icon when you're stuck in dreary office working hard on a cloudy day. They say a picture speaks a thousand words? Well I certainly don't work for Microsoft but I guess Bill Gates and his buddies have made a few bucks because they've had a couple of good ideas. They're helping the world with their knowledge, and I reckon their MSN Messenger is another step forward in bringing the Earth together into one world. Besides the normal email format you can also have web cam and audio conversations, as well as sending files and photos instantly. It's as sweet as that first time you kissed your honey bunny, well maybe not that sweet.
Importance of Computer and Technology
Today the world has become small village, thanks to internet and technology. The world is getting closer and closer with internet. Each day we are facing with some kind of new challenges in our life for example computer problems and virus threats. Different people think in different in different ways. Sometimes a big problem for us is smaller for other person (that is he is having the solution for that problem).
So, it becomes very vital for us to discuss our problems and new ideas with each other. If we discuss with each other what we have learned by experience then definitely the we can evolve a better society. For example if a person is facing some problem in his computer and he does not know the abc of computer. Then, it is very difficult for the Computer Company to solve his problem from their call center support. So, if there is good computer technology forum then the person can openly ask to the world for the solution for his problem. And may be somewhere in the world, somebody may have solution for his problem.
So, he can get the solution from the experience of other person. And exchange of information between the two persons is Vice-Versa. It can create a more knowledgeable society in the world. And the people will be able to interact more and more. We can take the example of latest virus and spyware attacks in the world (Blackworm, kamasutra are some examples). These virus attacks has done so much damage worldwide. So we can share our expertise with each other in the computer forums or science communities, we can create better-educated and intellectual society.
Importance of mobile phones
Nowadays, virtually everyone carries a mobile phone, including the young children. They have become the most important item an individual can own. They serve as a communication tool used to make and receive calls as well as send text messages, listen to music, surf the internet and even play mobile games.
Mobile phones are now so common that they hardly attract attention. People have started understanding the value, convenience and ease of owing a mobile phone. In earlier days, very few people could think of buying mobile phone but today looking at the dropped prices, almost every individual can afford to purchase it. Mobile phones are equipped with every latest feature you desire. Even if you don't need the advanced features, you can get a basic mobile phone to make and receive calls. They can help us in our fast lifestyles when we have no time to meet our friends, relatives and left with the only option of talking over the phone. We can stay in touch whenever and wherever we need to.
Mobile phones available in small attractive designs, provides access to many useful features like camera, games, music and many more. We almost take them for granted as they are extremely affordable to maintain. The loads of useful features make lives much easier. Some like to use it as a camera, some for listening to music, some for making calls, some for entertainment purposes and some for multipurpose. With the latest java games, wallpapers, polyphonic ringtones, Bluetooth mobile technology, picture messaging, you can never feel bored. These days, people are looking for comfort, convenience and reliability and mobile phones have surely provided them all.
The main advantage of mobile phones is talking on the move but if due to a poor reception or network, an important call gets dropped, it's no use. So you need to take care while choosing your network service provider so that you don't face any problems while making and receiving calls. You can choose among the best mobile Phone Networks like Orange, 3 Mobile, T Mobile, O2, Vodafone, Virgin, etc. All these mobile networks provide cheap line rental mobile tariff plans, benefits like free line rental, half line rental and free mobile phone insurance with free mobile handsets. The roaming feature allows you to make and receive calls even if you are out of your country. It might be a little expensive but let's people stay connected.
Today, people have become so dependent on their mobile phones that they cannot imagine life without them.