Great Plains Dynamics GP Reseller News: custom eCommerce Integration

Microsoft Dynamics GP or former name Great Plains Dynamics ERP has large number of installations in USA, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Asia. Modern market forces companies to go online and expose their stock through B2B or B2C e-commerce stores. If you are starting from scratch, then you should pick existing e-commerce add-on for GP, however if you ecommerce web store has long history and works as you need, then you should map custom integration to and from Great Plains. Obviously each case is unique and each company has different criteria and business procedures, in this small publication we will try to give you just general highlights in custom eCommerce programming

1. GP modules, exposed to integration. Likely these are Sales Order Processing module, receiving either customer orders or directly invoices. Also, Inventory Control module, which exposes inventory items, as well as pricelists and pricing schemas. Often you need to expose custom catalogues, depending on the customer class or individual customer. In this case, you need to build this catalog on the fly, based on customer login credentials.

2. Integrating Phases. Assuming that you already have ecommerce up and running, probably without or with minimal integration to Great Plains, the first phase should just send sales documents as they were generated autonomously in ecommerce to Great Plains SOP module. When this first phase is implemented and proved to be stable, then you could try to move the source of your items and pricing to Great Plains Inventory Control module

3. Integration tools. To try the simplest approach, which is not real time integration â€" try to either export your ecommerce orders to text file, or create advanced ODBC integration for GP Integration Manager. In the case of advanced ODBC source, your integration could look back to your ecommerce database and in After Document Commit script you can program ADO connection to your ecommerce database or GP orders integration status tracking table and mark order or invoice as integrated. If you need real time integration, then consider programming integration in eConnect, especially if you have good C# or VB .Net programmer with strong SQL architecture understanding. In certain cases you can create and deploy SQL custom stored procedures, however in this scenario you will be exposed to higher possibility of business logic violating bugs and their fixing

4. GP automatic batch posting. If you need your ecommerce application to post Sales Order Processing invoices all the way through GL directly from ecommerce and without GP operator approval and even involvement, then you will need Alba Spectrum Posting Server

Web Development Versus Web Design - Is There Really a Difference?

Technology pundits have constantly argued that the terms web development and web design are interchangeable with one another. I respectfully disagree and argue that though the terms may have been interchangeable in the past; they have long since become two terms completely separate from one another with different goals, standards, and philosophies behind them. Web development can be quickly defined as "a broad term for any activity related to developing a web site for the World Wide Web or an intranet. This can include e-commerce business development, web design, web content development, client-side/server-side scripting, and web server configuration"; whereas a definition of web design can be summed up as "a process of conceptualization, planning, modeling, and execution of electronic media content delivery via Internet in the form of technologies" (definitions courtesy of Wikipedia). We can take note of a couple of things simply from these simplified definitions. The first is that web design falls under the wing of web development and it is easy to see why many think the two are intertwined much like the concept that a square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not a square. Web design is a part of web development, but not actually an essential part of developing the web.

Web design, more specifically website design, is a process of creatively visualizing and utilizing the tools and applications created by the web development process. Web design takes the development process one step further and often finds itself using these tools for ideas and applications vastly different than what they were intended for. A quick analogy would be that of how the plane engine made for war combat was used as the basis for the car engine we use in our every day lives. Web design has brought us things like the web 2.0 concept of user generated content; some thing that web development tools are capable of, though not intended for it specifically. Content management systems such as the ones talked about earlier provide the framework for social networking websites and blogs. Dynamic web pages which appeal to our aesthetic eye use frameworks set forth by web development tools yet take it one step further by using the tool to create a masterpiece of web design.

With all of America's advances in web development it became easy to separate the two terms from their synonymous relationship; it has become a process of developing technologies and applications for the advancement of the World Wide Web. These technologies of course, can be adapted and used by anything related to the internet (such as websites) but is not merely limited to it. Content management systems (CMS) are one of the many examples of positive strides made in web development. CMS systems allow for easy management of content and data while online and can be used for simple server networking within an office, or as the backbone of an ecommerce website (voting systems in various states use CMS systems to tally and record votes via software). Web development also houses things such as the creation, modification, and innovation of scripting and coding languages. The advent of Actionscript 3.0 and PHP 5.2 can be marked as some of the great achievements of the web; Actionscript 3.0 is part of Adobe Flash CS3; however Adobe created AS 3.0 to make it much more logical for creative web applications. More specifically, web development in NY has been known to constantly utilize the most up to date tools and research to create some of the most innovative web applications.

If web development is the paintbrush, web design is the Mona Lisa.

Fred McCoy is a NY Web Development critic who works for Blue Fountain Media; his articles are on point, descriptive, and insightful.

Content Management System - Open Source Or Hosted?

While the traditional approach to a content management implementation when it comes to small and medium businesses has been around customizing an open-source CMS, the concept of a hosted CMS (or CMS On-Demand) is gaining popularity among companies with limited IT resources.

There are several hosted CMS solutions for small to medium size companies, such as Clickability, Hot Banana SaaS, Crown Peak and elKontent. These hosted CMS solutions are targeted towards organizations who cannot or do not want to deal with the techie stuff when it comes to setting up, customizing and maintaining their CMS.

How do you determine which solution is right for you: open source or hosted?

As long as the company has available IT resources to set up and maintain their CMS, an open-source solution would be the most cost-effective way to go. Companies that lack such resources should keep it in mind that while an open source content management system can be packed with features, there is often a long way home from the day an off-the-shelf CMS is downloaded and the day it actually meets the needs of your business, from the branding, usability and functional stand points.

Installation:

Installing an open source CMS is not like installing ICQ on your computer, where you are guided through a set of steps and you are done in a few minutes. In fact, I have yet to see a CMS that could be installed without any technical expertise. In most cases, permissions need to be set, configurations files adjusted, commands typed into a command line, and a whole bunch of other stuff that a non-technical user would be scared to mess with.

Look and feel customization

Once a CMS is installed, its presentation layer needs to be customized to reflect your web design and your brand. While many open source CMS claim that their system is template-based and that logic is separated from the look and feel, in reality this is simply not true, not necessarily because of the bad internal design of the system, but simply because when it comes to a dynamic web application, the logic and presentation are not always possible to completely separate.

Severe featuritis

In order to acquire more customers, most off-the-shelf CMS vendors tend to pack their products with as many features as possible to satisfy just about any need out there. The goal is to be everything for everyone. While a feature-rich system may sound appealing to many organizations at first, that appeal quickly evaporates when it turns out that Bob in marketing quietly avoids updating news on the home page because figuring out how to get to that particular "snippet" or "xzamboltet" causes a huge migraine.

There is no doubt that complex and feature-rich systems are necessary in certain situations, most of us would rather see simplicity. The less time it takes to learn something (a web application or a gadget) the higher are the odds that we'll actually use it.

Content management needs of most small and medium businesses are very straightforward: update the content of the site. 90% of the time a typical CMS content writer (i.e. Bob from marketing) needs to update the text on an existing page. If archival, version control, approval, work flows, template updates, e-commerce, trackbacks, wikis, subscriptions and member communication are not a part of content management requirements for your business, they simply should not be a part of your CMS. Not only will your typical user mess them up, but also when faced with a bunch of buttons to useless features that cover up the path to accomplish one simple task, your typical user will not use the system (or won't use it productively enough to justify installing a CMS in the first place).

The cure to featuritis is to either start with a very simple CMS and add the features you need. Or customize the back-end interface of a feature-rich CMS to only include the needed items.

From developers to developers

Open source software in general is written by developers for developers. While open source software can produce great frameworks, applications and toys for other geeks to play with, the user aspect of the open source software in general still leaves much to be desired. Open source is based on grassroots and enthusiasm of programmers to make software better - in whatever way a geek thinks "better" is. As a result, by nature open source software is seldom polished from a usability standpoint (there are exceptions to the rule, of course).

Same goes with commitment. Even with a large open source CMS development team, the commitment is there as long as the interest is there. This is just the nature of open source development.

The point is - you just can't launch an open-source CMS with a click of a button. The to-do list that needs to be completed after the button has been clicked depends on the solution and the needs of your organization. But this to-do list is often severely underestimated or completely ignored, resulting in not-so-usable CMS implementations, higher implementation costs and lesser overall value.

Hence, many SMBs with limited technical staff are opting to outsource the hassle to a hosted CMS vendor, and gain a few extra points by doing so:

Save on upfront costs - since many on-demand CMS solutions charge a monthly fee, the costs of setup and customization are spread over a longer period of time

One stop vendor - with a hosted CMS you have one vendor who is hosting and maintaining the site, so there is one number to call in case of any issue, and one company to blame. (While with a traditional open source CMS installation the hosting company may blame the IT consulting company who installed the CMS, and the IT consulting company in turn could blame the open source vendor or the hosting company).

There are exceptions to every rule of course. And just like with any product or solution, what really matters is who is behind it.

Use Your A-B-C's to Make Your Website Dazzle!

"I built my son a tree house. He built me a website."

The other day I was enjoying dinner out with friends and family and happened to flip over a drink coaster with the saying above. If you've eaten at Outback Steakhouse lately, perhaps you have seen this little wondrous item? When I first read it, I chuckled and showed it to my husband. He laughed too. Then I realized that as funny as it was, it held an inherent TRUTH. Today, many kids will grow up comfortable with and using technologies that simply didn't exist when I was old enough for a tree house of my own. No, I'm not telling my age!

Words like RSS, HTML, Podcasting, Ezines and others will be part of their daily vocabulary. They'll never know a world without a computer as part of their daily existence. They'll also probably never know the fear of learning this technology at a point in life when learning new tricks isn't as easy as it once was. Doing business on the Internet for them, will be just like doing business in a brick and mortar building is for most of us.

There are things in life that aren't inherent to us and take some effort to learn and understand. I LOVE watching our basketball team, the Phoenix Suns, play. But when my husband starts talking about the ins and outs of their "system" I feel my eyes begin to cross and I lose focus on the conversation. It all becomes a blur and although I appear to be listening patiently and interested, I've actually checked out!

Does this feeling sound familiar? Have your eyes crossed and you appear to be functioning but aren't? Are you simply guessing at what you can do with your website or do you have a game plan in place?

If you've ever felt that you're not sure what you should be doing with your website, you start simple and grow bigger. Use the ABC building blocks below to make sure your site is primed and ready for business!

First Building Block

Attractive Layout

This is a biggie so I wanted to tackle it first. Before I ever write a single line of code, I always tackle the hardest issue of all with my clients....what will the site look like? This is important because the site needs to attract the right clientele or it won't make money, it won't build the "know, like and trust" factor and it won't catapult the owner to success. These days it's not enough to simply build and publish a website, you've got to convert traffic with it; you must convince the viewer that you are trustworthy and worth their time not to mention their money!

Three *Visual Keys* to Customer Connection Are:

1. Graphics - help to express what your website is all about. I worked on a website redesign project where my client's existing graphics were of products they didn't even sell! After switching out those graphics with actual product photos the sales rates began to climb. Why? Because the look and feel of the original website wasn't reaching out to the intended target audience; with the new graphics visitors knew immediately whether they were in the right place and the site offered something they needed or wanted.
   
2. Colors - can bring someone into or repel them away from your website faster than you can say "abracadabra!" Colors set the mood and convey emotions. Emotions can heavily influence your viewer's decision making process; specifically to stay on your website or to immediately leave. Your website's colors should mirror the message and/or emotion that you hope to convey to your viewer. For example, if you are selling tranquil CD's to meditate to, you don't want to be using race car red for your main color.
   
3. Layout - of your website is crucial to customers finding what they need and to your ability to sell your products or services. After all, that is why you have a website. Organize your website so that navigation link titles make sense (i.e. Products instead of "Stuff") and they are visible. Most importantly, make it easy to find a Help, Contact Us or Customer Service page with your contact information or answers to their questions.

Second Building Block

Broken Links

The other day I received an invitation to attend a special out of town event with someone I really admire. I signed up and paid to reserve my seat. During the seminar checkout process, I was told that (after I paid) I would receive email confirmation of the events location, times, directions etc. Trusting that I would (after all, these people do this all the time right?) I paid my money and took my chances.

Here's where it all started to break down. Rather than sending me a confirmation of the event I had paid to attend, I received an opt-in notice from the shopping cart with a link to confirm my desire to receive email from them. I clicked the link and whamo!! I had hit a dead page with a malfunctioning link. Broken links can cause real issues for your customers. They might not be able to complete a sale from your website, sign up for your ezine or reach you and you may not even know.

How Can You Avoid This?

Set aside some time in your schedule to work on your business website. The first thing you can do is carefully check that all links on your site are functioning properly. Some reasons links might not be functioning are:

• The page you are linking to may have been removed
• The page or site you are linking to is unavailable (server issues)

If you have removed a page from your website, the search engines might not know yet and still attempt to send traffic there. This can be frustrating to your customers if they click that link and do not land where they expect to. You can avoid this traffic breakdown using a traffic "forwarding" command. From your website's hosting control panel you should be able to setup a forward to easily and painlessly reroute customers to new or renamed pages.

Use a Forwarding Command for:

1. Removed Pages - when viewers attempt to reach a removed page, the forward command will automatically redirect traffic to your new page.
2. Oops Pages - you can send viewers to an "Oops!" page letting them know the page they wish to view is not available.

If you are unsure how to do this, I would be happy to assist you. If you have a webmaster, ask them to verify that all of your links are functioning and to use a forwarding command if necessary when pages are renamed or removed.

Third Building Block

Customer Follow Up

When we last left my story above...

I had clicked a broken hyperlink and found myself staring at an error message. The shopping cart had a link to a support email address on the page however and I composed an email informing them of my difficulties and requesting assistance. Cue the crickets...

After three days I had not received a single reply from support to even address my issue. So I've paid to reserve a seat at a seminar that I have no details for and there is no telephone number I can call to contact a live person about the event (which is now just 4 days away). To make it worse, it's an out of town event and I can't even make plans to travel.

Remember, customer follow up doesn't end when you make the sale! If you have a support email address setup for your website, please remember to check it frequently and follow up with your customers within 24 hours. The goal is that your customers should not feel alone, they should feel attended to at all times when on your website or doing business with you. Technology can assist with this!

Help Your Client Feel Attended to by Using:

1. Phone Numbers - not all customers will opt to call you, but some will. If you can't answer a live phone, provide a method for them to leave a message you can return as soon as possible.
2. Auto-responders - setup an auto-responder for your support email address. Let customers know you have received their email and inform them of your response timeframe. This is also useful for vacation and out of the office messages.

If you receive customer voice mails and emails, it MUST be a priority to connect personally with them within 24 hours. It's important for existing and potential customers to feel that you care about their issues and concerns and that they can call on you. Obvious exceptions are when you are on vacation, however I know you'll have an alternate plan for your business communications!

Website designer Krista Garren publishes the "Design Like an Expert" monthly ezine where you can learn EASY, fun and money saving website design strategies to build a BUSINESS BOOSTING website. To learn more, check out her ezine and sign up for her FREE how-to report at http://www.designlikeanexpert.com

How to Build a Website Without Any Experience? - Find Out Now! - Part 5

This is a part 5 in the article series of getting your website on the First page of Google. It use to be that you had to learn a lot of HTML codes in order to build a website without any experience. That is not the case any more. Now days you need to just know how to follow some simple instructions and build your website and load it with content real fast.

For example, I know you have heard of blogging? Right? Well if you did not know, blogs are also free to put up. Most of these companies are going to even host it for free as well. The only thing is that if you are using it for commercial purposes, you should make sure you have a self hosted blog. It does not require a lot of your time to put up, and you also have a pre made templates to use as well.

Blogs are more search engine friendly and they rank higher in the Google a lot faster. So again, if you are using it for commercial purposes, you will need a hosting account and your own domain name. This should not cost you a lot. Around $10 for domain for a whole year and about 10 per domain per month!

But that is of course if you are not a very computer savvy person, and want to make it as easy as possible on yourself. I found that wordpress.org blogs are great if you want to create a self hosted blogs (self-hosted is a preference). Wordpress is very easy to use and you can get your blog up and running in few hours. Now if you wonder why blogs are so popular. This is because they are user friendly and are up in the Google's first page in very little time. So for anyone to build a website without any experience this should be an easy thing to do! Even though you are not going to need any real experience to build a website, keep in mind that you do need a niche site as it was explained in part 1 of these series of articles.

One more thing to mention with a blog type site instead of the regular type html site besides a more user Google user friendly site, is that it is interactive settings so the visitors to your site can ask you questions, and you can respond to it. This also helps your ranking in Google. So that is how you build a website without any experience. It does not cost you anything, but fast you can build it up.

Blogs are a great way to build a website. But you Need to Get that Site on the First Page of Google? How do you do that with getting quality backlinks, the right keyword research and the SEO. If you don't know how to do that, http://freebacklinks.inexpensiveonlinebusiness.com can show you how!

5 Vital Facts About Website Content Services

Five important aspects of buying great website copy are: deadlines, human readability, search engine friendliness, pricing and communication. Let's look at these areas more closely.

Deadlines

You need to know when you place an order with a professional copywriting company that they will deliver when they promise. This is vital and can impact your business. A professional writer will only agree to a deadline they can meet.

Human Readability

Your content needs to have a good flow, a strong voice and be enjoyable to read. You're probably using that content for a combination of purposes and readability is essential.

Professional copywriters can write persuasive copy without it seeming too sales pitchy. They can entice the reader and guide them through the sales process without pressure.

Search Engine Friendliness

There was a time when people thought they had to stuff articles with keyword to the point they looked like alphabet soup. There were gray hat and black hat SEO methods used and many websites were banned.

Some website owners pay absolutely no attention whatsoever to search engines and as a result don't get much traffic to their websites. If you're going to have great content on your site you want people to find it.

A pro will be able to weave the right keywords naturally into the pages so that the search engines will find you and your readers won't be turned off by poorly written website content.

Pricing

You don't want to have to pay a fortune for website content but you don't expect to get good quality when you pay $1 or £1 an article. You want to find a professional writer with fair pricing and most importantly, good value for that pricing. When the quality and results are both good you should be willing to pay a fair price for someone's time and expertise.

Communication

When you decide to place an order with your professional writing company you want timely communication that orders were received and if there are questions or unforeseen delays. You also want to know if aspects of your directions are not understood. A good writing company can do more than just write. They can also communicate effectively as competent business people who service your needs and treat you like a valued customer.

The above combination in a website content company makes for effective web copy and can help your business be a profitable success.

Julie-Ann Amos is a UK ghostwriter and the owner of Exquisite Writing. Exquisite Writing is a full service international professional writing company that provides a wealth of online writing and website content services on a global basis.

5 Killer Tips For Creating Your Online Personal Training Website

In the past, I've personally done full graphic design and coding for twelve of my own websites. I've also had local community graphic web designers create two additional websites. But now, I outsource all this time-consuming work to Pakistan, India, or some other very inexpensive technology sector based geographical area. I talk comprehensively about this type of outsourcing in Chapter 5 of Train For Top Dollar.

So what methods have I used to create my websites?

Whoever you use to host your website will typically come include free web templates. What this means is that you can download the template to your computer, or you can use an online editing program that is usually available on your web host, and most of the work is done for you. For multiple reasons included in my book, especially for utilizing one-click, simple blog creation, my favorite host is Bluehost.

The colors, backgrounds, and organization in these templates are already present, and you just drag and drop your desired pictures and text. This can be a very effective and quick way to design your website.

On the flipside, a template will have a very generic feel, and you have extremely limited control over the basic website design and organization. These type of sites have no wow factor, but if you're on a time crunch, have a limited budget, or just want to get started, this may be the way to go.

If you use an online website design tool, typically also available from your hosting service (like Bluehost), you'll finish a web page on your web site, then just press "publish" or "save", and it now appears when people type your domain name (aka URL) into their computer's web browser.

If you use your own website design software, based from your computer, you typically have to create the website on your computer, then send it electronically (called FTP) to your hosting service, which typically provides pretty good instructions in the help section on how to use various web design software to create and upload your site.

My favorite computer based software is Adobe GoLive, but if you go to a freeware or shareware download website like Tucows, you can trial or use any number of free website design software packages.

Here are my five killer tips for your website design:

• Keep it simple and clean. Include lots of "white space" so your readers don't become confused with 18 different training advertisements, fitness pop-ups, and sounds or music when they first visit your page.

• Use photos effectively. Try to include your face or body if possible, to build a trust relationship with your potential online clients and show that you are indeed fit.

• Use a simple navigation menu without too many buttons. A simple "Home", "Services", "About Us", and "Contact Us" will suffice for a basic online personal training page.

• Include space for publishing your latest breaking articles on your home page. This is very important for search engine optimization, which I present later in this chapter.

• Include a space for client testimonials. Here's an e-mail that I send out to each successful client after they've reached a milestone goal and have enough dopamine and endorphins rumbling through their system to give me a fantastic testimonial:

"Dear _________,

The people I coach and train are my main focus in life. When you reach your goals, I feel I've contributed to your life in a unique way, and somehow contributed my knowledge to help you achieve something special and meaningful.

I'm in the process of updating my website - specifically the online fitness and nutritional training services. I really want people to know how I can help them achieve their desires.

Here's where you come in. If you're interested, I'm looking for testimonials. Just a brief sentence or paragraph about how I've helped you identify objectives, reach your goals or simply supplied you with a nudge in the right direction.

If I use your testimonial on my website or in a brochure, I would just write your first name, or simply your initials if you'd prefer. All you really have to do is shoot your testimonial to me via e-mail.

Thanks for considering, and remember to train and eat smart!"

These 5 tips will get you started. I also offer business and website consulting services to personal trainers, and give a vast amount of information in my book Train For Top Dollar, which teaches how to maximize your income as a fitness professional.

Ben Greenfield offers business consulting services to fitness professionals, gym owners, nutritional consultants, and personal trainers. In his book Train For Top Dollar, and at his website http://www.trainfortopdollar.com, Ben teaches tips and tricks on effective high-income producing strategies. To learn more, you can e-mail Ben at ben@trainfortopdollar.com