convergence reception

microsoft dynamics sand sculpture

the san diego convention center

Convergence 2007 Blogging

I've setup "Mobile Blogging" on my blog so I'll be able to send text and images from my smartphone phone this week while I'm at Convergence. What is Convergence you say? It's the grand daddy of all Microsoft Dynamics conferences. It officially kicks off tomorrow in San Diego and runs thru March 14th. This site can tell you all about it.

So keep an eye out for my "photo journal" - it looks like you'll actually need to come to my site to see the pictures. They don't appear to publish thru the RSS feed.

first mobile post

Microsoft Dynamics GP and Windows Vista compatibility

I had the opportunity to work on my first Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 (Great Plains) installation on a Windows Vista workstation.

There is a Microsoft TK article that says you need to disable the User Account Control (UAC) security feature or change the installation location to somewhere outside of \Program Files\. I did turn off UAC but not until later in the process after GP was already installed but before I ran it for the first time, so I can't comment if GP would have worked with UAC enabled. It did installed fine with UAC enabled. I had an issue installing Service Pack 2 for GP 9.0 so disabling UAC was part of my troubleshooting effort.

While installing SP2 , I received the following message:

"A fatal error has encountered.
The Microsoft Dynamics GP installation has ended prematurely. Click Finish to exit the installation."

To remedy this situation, you need to install Service Pack 1 for the .Net Framework 1.1, according to this TK article. My installation of SP2 went fine once I installed that service pack. I was then able to launch GP and connect to the server.

I'm not sure why the .Net Framework 1.1 even comes into play since Windows Vista already includes version 3.0 of the .Net Framework. Mixing versions of the .Net Framework has been a bad idea in my experience.

The official word on Integration Manager 9.0 and FRx 6.7 is that they are currently NOT compatible with Vista. FRx 6.7 SP9 is supposed to be compatible but this release isn't available on PartnerSource or CustomerSource yet. I'm assuming they are working on a new service pack for Integration Manager to make it compatible as well. Also, the Automatic Payroll Tax Update in GP is not compatible with Vista. You'll need to pull in those tax updates from another non-Vista GP workstation.

Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 Service Pack 2

Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 customers and partners can use this link to download SP2 (Service Pack 2) for Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 (formerly Great Plains). You'll need to login to your CustomerSource or PartnerSource account to get to the content. That page also contains links to download other current service packs for products like FRx and Integration Manager.

This page contains the Dynamics GP 9.0 service packs overview so you can find past and future downloads there.

Service Pack 2 has updates to the following modules:

FEATURES:
Microsoft Dynamics GP
Microsoft Dynamics GP Utilities
Analytical Accounting
Collections Management
Dexterity
Extender
Fixed Asset Management
Field Service
Electronic Funds Transfer for Payables Management
Electronic Funds Transfer for Receivables Management
Electronic Reconcile
Encumbrance Management
Manufacturing
Payment Document Management
Project Accounting
Purchase Order Enhancements
Revenue and Expense Deferrels
Safe Pay
SmartList
SmartList Builder
United States Human Resources

COUNTRY SPECIFIC SUB-FEATURES:
Business Activity Statement (BAS) and Pay As You Go Payment Summaries (PAYG)
Bank Management
Canadian Payroll
Canadian Human Resources
Canadian Human Resources with Integration to Canadian Payroll
Direct Debits and Refunds
Enhanced Intrastat
Multilingual Checks
Scheduled Instalments
VAT Daybook