Features of GPBS R9
Great Plains Software Release 9

A Complete Business Solution
Microsoft Great Plains is a financial, analytics, and business management system that unifies data and processes across your business, integrates easily with other solutions, and connects employees, customers and suppliers regardless of time or location. Designed for small to mid-size businesses, Great Plains provides functionality for financials, analytics and reporting, project management, inventory and order processing, e-commerce, human resource management, customer relationship management, field service, manufacturing, retail management and online business services.

Great Plains Release 9 allows you to:

• Manage your accounting and finances
• Manage distribution and supply chain processes
• Improve manufacturing forecasts and order fulfilment processes
• Improve project accounting and budgeting
• Manage HR and payroll processes and provide employees access to personal data
• Automate and better manage field service operations
• Analyze and report on the business status of your company
• Integrate Web-based e-commerce solutions to connect with customers and vendors
• Give employees Web-based access to vital business information and processes
• Customize your applications to meet your company's specific needs
• Set up a secure business solution to fit your company's procedures

Features of Great Plains Software R9

A Powerful and Easy-to-Use Business Solution
Features such as list-based navigation, look-up windows, drill-back and inquiry tools, and custom links to applications and Web sites makes Great Plains a powerful and easy-to-use business solution. Web-based delivery of applications and information through Microsoft Business Portal allows you to equip everyone in your organization with anytime, anywhere access to critical business data and processes.

Key features of Great Plains include:

• Modular Design. Microsoft Great Plains offers a modular design that lets you license only the functionality you need, then add modules that integrate easily with your current solution as your needs change.
  
  
• Standardized Architecture. Great Plains is built on Microsoft technologies to protect your investment and provide a tightly integrated environment. Microsoft Windows Server Operating System provides a reliable, secure and scaleable foundation and offers efficient management and ease of use. Microsoft .NET support helps connect information, people, systems, and devices. Windows SharePoint Services support allows users to share information easily, collaborate on documents, and collect team knowledge over the Internet or your corporate network. Microsoft SQL Server support allows Great Plains to deliver critical business information through extensive management and development tools, a powerful extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) tool, and new capabilities such as SQL Server Notification Services.
  
  
• Enhanced reporting capabilities. Great Plains offers analytics and reporting capabilities that allow you to monitor all operations, revenues and spending, and sales trends with built-in drill-down, inquiry, and reporting capabilities. For more details, visit Great Plains Reporting Support.
  
  
• Integration with Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office support speeds access to business information, strengthens reporting capabilities, and fosters teamwork and collaboration. Microsoft Excel support allows you to share query and budgeting data with Excel and gives you the ability to make full use of Excel-based reporting and budgeting capabilities. With a single click you can highlight your financials in vivid detail with the ability to transform Microsoft Great Plains information into Microsoft Excel pivot tables and charts. Microsoft Word support allows you to populate form letters and other documents with up-to-date customer and vendor information. You can also increase efficiency for sales and service calls with one-click access to street maps and directions with Microsoft MapPoint.
  
  
• Extended Integration. You can integrate data from virtually any database or desktop application into Great Plains. You can also implement a solution that incorporates your existing Web sites, Web services, and applications, even if they're built on non-Microsoft platforms. Using Microsoft eConnect, developers can build an integration package that leverages industry-standard technologies - including Microsoft BizTalk Server, SQL Server, Visual Basic, SOAP, COM, and XML - to permit all those applications and data sources to interact with Great Plains.
  
  
• Customizable. The open architecture of Great Plains makes it possible to develop custom applications that offer all of the core functionality of proven Great Plains solutions but also meet the specialized needs of your business. With access to the Modifier with Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications, developers can work with the most widely used customization environment in the software industry to quickly adapt Microsoft Great Plains information views, add or modify business logic, customize forms and reports, or extend integrations with Microsoft Office applications.
  
  
• Streamline Business Processes. Transform time-consuming processes into tasks that can be executed quickly and accurately:
  
  
  • Reduce transaction entry steps and increase accuracy in Great Plains General Ledger by copying, voiding, deleting, or correcting general ledger transactions with full audit control.
  • Easily "correct" posted journal entries by backing out the originating entry and making the necessary adjustments to a copy of the original entry, with full audit trail support.
  • Gain tight control over distribution and manufacturing processes with a complete view of serial and lot numbers. Simply by entering an item's serial or lot number and initiating a trace, you'll know where and when the number appeared in bills of materials, customer orders, or any other transaction.
  • Work flexibly with manufacturing bills of materials (BOMs) by using an intuitive, graphical BOM that lets you update entries, edit revision levels, save revision histories, and change BOM categories-for example, from Phantom to Regular-at any time
    
    
• Improve Visibility. Microsoft Great Plains 9.0 makes it easier to locate information and share it across your organization:
  
  
  • Export Microsoft Business Solutions reports to Excel pivot tables with just a few clicks, enhancing management's understanding of key business information and reducing the labour required to create these tables and charts.
  • Quickly and easily load Microsoft Business Solutions for Analytics-FRx report data into an Excel PivotChart for graphical data support.
  • Gauge business conditions precisely and make better informed decisions with more useful queries - including Stock Card Inquiry, Cradle to Grave Serial/Lot Tracking, Order Status Change History, Cumulative Availability to Promise, "Point in Time" Historical Cheque book, Balance Inquiry, and other process-specific improvements.
    
    
• Enhance Usability. Microsoft Great Plains 9.0 captures the look of Microsoft Office Outlook - part of the familiar Microsoft Office family of products. List-based navigation and streamlined menus provide everyone in your organization with an intuitive interface. In addition, Microsoft Business Portal can deliver personalized information to everyone's desktop for easy access:
  
  
  • Boost productivity and minimize training costs with an intuitive interface. Whether your employees are working in Microsoft Great Plains or Microsoft Office, they'll have a seamless user experience.
  • Free employees from tedious record searches and simplify tasks with list-based navigation. For example, a user can create and save a list of customers, locate a customer record from the list, and then select a task specific to that record - such as entering an order, changing an address or reviewing a past order.
  • Provide employees with an interface tailored to their roles, with simplified navigation that shows buttons and paths only to those modules an employee is authorized to use.
  • Empower users throughout the organization with easy Web-based access to the specific business information and processes each user needs - right on their desktops. Microsoft Business Portal now offers modules for online requisition management, project time and expense entry and approval, and electronic delivery of sales documents to customers.
    
    
• Microsoft Business Portal 2.0. Microsoft Business Portal 2.0 has adopted Windows SharePoint Services as its foundation. Microsoft Business Portal can now offer SharePoint Web Parts such as document libraries, calendars, announcements and others to record activities, share and edit documents, track meeting notes, and provide links to other relevant sites. In addition, SharePoint Web Parts created by other developers can be deployed through Microsoft Business Portal 2.0, dramatically increasing the range of information and services that can be delivered through the portal.
  
  
• Human Resource Management (HRM) Self Service Suite. These improvements include Multi-Level Direct Reports and Performance Review functionality, providing managers with a holistic view of an employee's progress.
  
  
• Flexible expense management. Equip employees to create offline expense reports anytime, from any location. Eliminate paper trails and shrink expense processing costs with electronic receipt imaging.

React Technologies Offers
Comprehensive Great Plains Help
React Technologies can help you set up and maintain a reliable, secure server and communications infrastructure to support Great Plains, and can provide experienced Great Plains consultants to help you turn the powerful features of Great Plains software into a high-value business solution