Great Plains DOS Support and Data Export or Why Customers Like This Outdated Application
It is funny to admit the fact that Great Plains Dynamics on Btrieve/Pervasive SQL 2000 (versions 7.5, 7.0, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0 and earlier) is probably less popular as being still in production as Great Plains Accounting on DOS (especially versions 9.5 and 9.2). We tried to ask polite questions to our GPA prospects €Why you are still on this release and do not upgrade to Dynamics GP 2010 for example?' The answers were different but two most popular were: €the performance is astonishing comparing to what you can get in graphical application such as Dynamics GP' and €we are happy so far and we do not want to allocate budget for ERP system upgrade'. Let's begin our questions and answers session:
Q. Why modern ERP systems are too slow in posting batches and saving documents? We tried to evaluate Microsoft Dynamics GP and AX and in both cases GPA DOS beats them in documents posting speed
A. The answer is probably simple as DOS doesn't use most of the advantages of modern computing. Processor can do the job behind the scenes and not updating your graphical user interface or logging info into log file. Plus virus protection programs typically ignore DOS applications so computer processor could be exploited up to hundred percent without interruption. The list could be continued as application doesn't care about modern computer performance slowdown factors such as clipboard,.Net, etc.
Q. We are happy with Great Plains DOS 9.5. Should we expect problems in the future?
A. The answer is probably €Yes'. We are in the era of 64 bit computing where Great Plains Accounting is not compatible. There are migration options from Novel and WindowsNT to Windows 2003 or even 2008 32 bit edition server or workstation. But besides these we think this is the end of the story and if you server crashes you would need to seek Btrieve data restoring and export into CSV text files
Q. We are consulting firm and we have customer with Great Plains on Macintosh. We would like to export data from their legacy accounting. What would be your recommendations?
A. We think that GPA on Mac was Btrieve application and you can try to copy GPS\GPDATA folder to Windows computer. Then there is the need to produce DDF files (data definition) in order to connect via Pervasive SQL 2000 Control Center. Do not forget about x86 (32 bit computing)
Q. We are also consulting organization and our goal is to export Great Plains Accounting 9.2 to CSV files for data migration into SAP Business One. We tried to open DAT files in text editor and had no success.
A. These are Btrieve files and the way to connect for data reading export is DDF files and ODBC DSN. The procedure to produce DDF files is described in ODBC manual
Q. We were able to connect in Pervasive SQL Control Center. Our objective is to export historical sales orders and we are getting €chopped' results in exporting the table
A. The issue is known. In GPA one file may host several tables and you are getting €garbage' rows which should belong to different table. Try to use €where' construction
For additional information please call us: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 or email us: help@albaspectrum.com
Q. Why modern ERP systems are too slow in posting batches and saving documents? We tried to evaluate Microsoft Dynamics GP and AX and in both cases GPA DOS beats them in documents posting speed
A. The answer is probably simple as DOS doesn't use most of the advantages of modern computing. Processor can do the job behind the scenes and not updating your graphical user interface or logging info into log file. Plus virus protection programs typically ignore DOS applications so computer processor could be exploited up to hundred percent without interruption. The list could be continued as application doesn't care about modern computer performance slowdown factors such as clipboard,.Net, etc.
Q. We are happy with Great Plains DOS 9.5. Should we expect problems in the future?
A. The answer is probably €Yes'. We are in the era of 64 bit computing where Great Plains Accounting is not compatible. There are migration options from Novel and WindowsNT to Windows 2003 or even 2008 32 bit edition server or workstation. But besides these we think this is the end of the story and if you server crashes you would need to seek Btrieve data restoring and export into CSV text files
Q. We are consulting firm and we have customer with Great Plains on Macintosh. We would like to export data from their legacy accounting. What would be your recommendations?
A. We think that GPA on Mac was Btrieve application and you can try to copy GPS\GPDATA folder to Windows computer. Then there is the need to produce DDF files (data definition) in order to connect via Pervasive SQL 2000 Control Center. Do not forget about x86 (32 bit computing)
Q. We are also consulting organization and our goal is to export Great Plains Accounting 9.2 to CSV files for data migration into SAP Business One. We tried to open DAT files in text editor and had no success.
A. These are Btrieve files and the way to connect for data reading export is DDF files and ODBC DSN. The procedure to produce DDF files is described in ODBC manual
Q. We were able to connect in Pervasive SQL Control Center. Our objective is to export historical sales orders and we are getting €chopped' results in exporting the table
A. The issue is known. In GPA one file may host several tables and you are getting €garbage' rows which should belong to different table. Try to use €where' construction
For additional information please call us: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 or email us: help@albaspectrum.com
