Erp Brazil Microsoft Dynamics Nav Ax Crm Localized Family

Writen by Andrew Karasev

When your company plans to outsource its manufacturing operations to such countries as Brazil, the ERP system for the overseas subsidiary is one of the first decisions to make. In this small article we will concentrate on functional side of the Microsoft Dynamics ERPs, such as Microsoft Navision, Microsoft Axapta and Microsoft CRM and we will not touch background technologies (Microsoft .Net vs. EJB/Java discussions)

• Localization. It usually has two components: language translation (in the case of Brazil it is Brazilian Portuguese) and sales, purchasing taxes and government regulation/reporting. In the case of Brazil we usually talk about these taxes & regulations: CNAE, CPF, IE, IEST, IM.

• Local versus International MRP brand. This is usually the question beyond the functionality of the ERP – you need to decide for yourself if you would like advanced localization features (usually provided by local made ERP – Microsiga or Datasul to name two) or you want more control over your overseas operations from headquarters – this will probably be international ERP brand, one of them we are evaluating here – Microsoft Dynamics family (former name was Microsoft Business Solutions)

• Navision/Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Around 2004 Microsoft Business Solutions tried to unify its international ERP offer. As the result, in many countries, including Brazil, East Europe, Russia and others Navision kind of pushed out of the market another MBS ERP – Microsoft Great Plains (currently Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 – Brazilian version is not available, however you can get local support from Alba Spectrum). There were multiple reasons, including technical feasibility, they are beyond the scope of this article. Navision is localized and has several years of successful implementation in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, Belo Horizonte, Salvador and across Brazil. One of the strong points of Navision is Manufacturing module. We see strong demand for Navision ERP implementation from multinational corporations with headquarters in Europe, especially continental: Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal.

• Axapta/Microsoft Dynamics AX. This is relatively new ERP – its design was completed in the very end of XX century, Navision Software bought Axapta prior to be purchased by Microsoft Business Solutions itself. Brazilian localization of Axapta is now complete and it will be released in the first quarter of 2006. In Brazil Microsoft has experiment with Axapta pricing and it is now targeted to compete with Microsiga and Datasul from one side and with SAP Business One from another side. Axapta implementation cycle is longer than for SAP BO, however Axapta is more flexible in its ability to automate upper midsize and large scale business.

• Microsoft CRM/Dynamics CRM. Now we are in the process of upgrade from MS CRM 1.2 to its 3.0 version. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 will be more flexible to automate franchisee networks and nation-wide servicing organizations. The question of selection is more simple – if you are committed to Microsoft platform – you should know that Microsoft CRM is promoted Worldwide. Here we have to say some words about technical side of Microsoft CRM, especially considering some challenges of MS CRM upgrade – it heavily uses .Net platform, XML web services and requires strong server side programming, if you need Microsoft CRM customization and custom pieces upgrade (Microsoft CRM SDK 3.0 is a bit different from MS CRM SDK 1.2). In Brazil we saw instances of Microsoft CRM, coexisting with such corporate platform as IBM Lotus Notes Domino

If you need help – give us a call: São Paulo: +55-11-3444-4949, USA 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, Europa: +44-20-8123-2580, +45-36-96-5520 or help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is ERP consultant at Alba Spectrum Technologies (http://www.albaspectrum.com http://www.greatplains.com.mx http://www.enterlogix.com.br) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, MS CRM, SAP Business One, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.

We are serving LATAM: Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico

Spybot Search And Destroy Versus Microsoft Antispyware Beta My Personal Experiences

Writen by Xavier Nelson

Ok... Where to start?

Well, I guess I will start at the beginning.....

Like many surfers and especially webmasters and webmarketers, I spend quite a bit of time running around the net, researching this, investigating that and so on.

So of course I come across any number of questionable websites with even more doubtful software. In many cases the webmasters aren't even aware of how much damage that piece of software they are linking to can cause. In other cases, it's the actual programmers, and of all people they should know better.

I have seen some messed up systems due to spyware, hackware and other malicious programs (and I am not even going to start talking about the viruses or Denial of Service attacks some people find amusing).

Not all to long ago, a friend of mine was surfing the web and came across a website that all of a sudden triggered a bunch of popups, one after the other, she couldn't even close them down as fast as they were coming. Amongst all of those popups were also install windows and guess what???? They were set to run some macro that automatically assumed she had hit open (for the request to open, save or cancel) and the next thing she knew 6 new software programs had been installed on her computer.

Now, she's no dummy and knows her way around a computer well enough to know to check for uninstall files, to run 'add/remove programs' and even knows her way around the registry well enough that she could remove almost all of them.

But let's step back a moment, these darn things triggered themselves to install, wether the surfer wants it or not, it doesn't matter. We're going to shove this software down your throat regardless.

Ok, back to my friend. She was able to remove all of the programs but two. One was being so stubborn, it wasn't even funny anymore. I went to a tech net site I use occasionaly and ran a search (you can use google too and most often find great info from one of the groups there) and came across some information from that programmer's own site with details how to uninstall it (mind you though, the software didn't even mention his homepage or anything).

Holy coding batman, this thing wouldn't even remove with his own instructions. So one of the techs she knows ran SpyBot - Search and Destroy ( http://www.spybot.info/en/index.html )and they were finally able to remove it (well, so they thought).

Let's shift gears a moment. There's a program that hit my own system a while back called WinTools. You will see it in your process files (check the taskmanager) with names such as wtoolsa.exe or wtoolsb.exe and so on.

Here's the kicker on this one. You go in and uninstall it, it shows it has disappeared from your system and the next thing you know (if you check processes again) this thing is back again...... What the heck? I just got rid of it... How is this possible? Did I just experience some glitch in the matrix? Nope, sure enough, you uninstall this puppy, it comes right back again.

Ok, out with Spybot and it cleaned it and the rest of my system (there were 2 more spyware programs I really didn't need, so off to the big recycle bin in the heaven with them).

All was well, or so I thought.

My system started lagging really bad and I knew RAM wasn't the issue, nor were system resources overall the issue, but it kept getting worse. Dreaded 'blue screen of death' minidumps started happening randomly. Virus scans and Spybot scans weren't finding anything, the system is defragmented and cleaned up, what gives?????

A friend told me about Microsoft releasing the beta of their AntiSpyware program (I don't believe I am going to say something nice about Microsoft, groan, all my ancestors are rolling over in their graves now, I know it). He had noticed in a couple of cases (He's a MCSE tech that swears by Spybot - well he used to) that this new program was picking up ghost files that spybot had not caught.

Ok, off to http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx and let's download this software... It's a free beta.

It's an easy and smooth install and runs pretty fast. I run a system scan and guess what, I have 4 programs on here that Spybot had supposedly removed and where not showing up in any of their reports anymore. Well, well, well..... (I disconnected from my ISP at this point for a bit) Let's remove them all. Reboot the system.

Look at that, as I am booting up, one of the programs (wtoolsa.exe) is trying to reinstall itself as my laptop is booting up again, but look, hahahaha, it can't find the system resource to do it. Yipeeeee.... After I finished booting up, I even ran the MS Antispyware one more time and rebooted just to be sure and look at that, it didn't even try anymore.

I am proud to report that my processes file doesn't show WinTools anymore, in any of it's many forms. The other three items we found on my laptop are gone as well.

Oh, and my friend's computer is also clean now.

Well, that's my story, like it or not, in this case Microsoft wins. Don't get me wrong. Spybot has served me well and I am leaving it installed, because you never know what Microsoft might not catch.

One final thought I wanted to leave you with though is this. Be very careful to what you have your computer set, be wary of software that just appears from nowhere, or if you are surfing and a website tries to convince you to download something you didn't request. Also, make sure your Antivirus, Spybot and MS Antispyware are all up to date with their latest libraries and definitions.

Here's to your success,

Xavier

Xavier Nelson is the publisher of eBusinessCornerNews, your source for reviews, articles, free resources and more. Get your free subscription at http://blog.makemoneymarketingonline.com today.

Also, proudly presenting "The Complete eBusinessCollection". Visit http://www.MakeMoneyMarketingOnline.com right now for a great collection of tools and resources that will take you to the next level and a very generous and free 2-tier affiliate program you can actually make money with!

Sharp Pdf Usage In Vb6

Writen by Thomas Kaloyani

Most people are looking on how to create PDF documents through their VB applications, but don't want to spend money to buy Adobe Acrobat SDK or other third party components. If you don't want to invest money, there is an open source solution for you, SharpPDF. SharpPDF is a very cool C# library based on .NET Framework 1.1 and created 100% compatible PDF document. More information about SharpPDF library can be found on sharppdf.sourceforge.net.

Visual Basic developers can't use this library straight. If you register the SharpPDF and try to create the pdfDocument method you'll get an error. So how can you take advantage of sharpPDF? A choice I can think of is to change the code of sharpPDF based on your needs. If you don't want to mess up with the code of sharpPDF you can simply create a wrapper library with VB.NET, register the assembly and reference the wrapper through you VB6 project.

To register the assembly use the following command: regasm /tlb: mywrapper.tlb /codebase mywrapper.dll

and from your VB6 project add a refence to mywrapper.tlb

Sample Code of wrapper created with VB.NET:

Imports sharpPDF

Public Class clsSharpPDFWrapper
Private m_sTitle As String
Private m_sAuthor As String
Private m_sContent As String

Public WriteOnly Property Title() As String
Set(ByVal Value As String)
m_sTitle = Value
End Set
End Property

Public WriteOnly Property Author() As String
Set(ByVal Value As String)
m_sAuthor = Value
End Set
End Property

Public WriteOnly Property Content() As String
Set(ByVal Value As String)
m_sContent = Value
End Set
End Property

Public Function CreatePDFDocument()
Dim oPDF As New sharpPDF.pdfDocument(m_sTitle, m_sAuthor)
Dim oPDFPage As sharpPDF.pdfPage =
oPDF.addPage(sharpPDF.Enumerators.predefinedPageSize.csA4Page)

oPDFPage.addText(m_sContent, 200, 450,
oPDF.getFontReference(Enumerators.predefinedFont.csHelvetica), 20,
pdfColor.Black)

oPDF.createPDF("c:MyPDFDoc.pdf")
oPDFPage = Nothing
oPDF = Nothing
End Function
End Class

Sample Code for calling the wrapper through your VB6 project:

Dim o As New clsSharpPDFWrapper
o.Title = "My First PDF Document"
o.Author = "Thomas Kaloyani"
o.Content = "Hello World!"
o.createPDFDocument

Happy coding!

Thomas is an experienced Visual Basic developer, with expertise of 7+ years developing especially financial applications. His main IT skills are VB, SQL, Crystal Reports - should you need a Visual Basic developer for your projects feel free to contact Thomas through his personal website Kaloyani.com or through VBprofs.com - the newest Visual Basic and VB.NET resources portal.

Oracle Ebusiness Suite Extensions Development

Writen by Andrew Karasev

Oracle Applications, Oracle Financials, Oracle E-Business Suite Extensions & Modifications

Concerning Oracle Applications there are two types of Customizations: Extensions and Modifications:

• Extension is component developed by customization partner or customer IT group, using the development features provided by Oracle within the E-business Suite. Oracle has provided guidelines and standards for creating extensions. It is extremely recommended that those are followed; it will certify that the new objects (extensions) are kept separate from standard E-business components.

• Modification is the change done in the standard E-business suite objects or code. For example, a customer gets a database trigger from Oracle Applications database and makes some changes in the code. When customers follow this approach it is very difficult to identify the changes that have been done in the Oracle Applications, and this will affect future upgrades.

Generic recommendation is – try to avoid modification and stay in the frame of extensions.

There are some common extensions on Oracle Applications Suite:

• Alert: Oracle Alerts facilitates the flow of information within a customer's organization. Oracle workflow is used to develop new alerts.

• Database Objects: when the functionality is not available in Oracle Applications, it is possible to create a set of database objects. If the creation is necessary, it has to be done carefully, once it could impact the performance and the integrity of the system.

• File System and Custom Directory: always use the standard Oracle Flexible Architecture (OFA). This helps you to standardize installation and maintenance procedures. Create a new directory ($CUSTOM_TOP) and store all the customization in there.

• Forms: provides a way of populating custom tables. Oracle has provided a guideline for its implementation that must be followed. It has to be coded and tested properly; otherwise it can compromise the data integrity.

• Reports: Oracle provides the most usual reports and every company has to develop to their specific formats. Oracle Reports builder is the tool to be used and there are some risks in case of an upgrade, once that the schema of the objects used by Reports and Oracle eBusiness Suite can be changed in future releases.

Please do not hesitate to call or email us USA 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, Brazil: +55-11-3444 4949, Mexico: 52-55-535-04027, Europe: +44 20 8123 2580, +45 36 96 55 20 help@albaspectrum.com

Author is Oracle consultant at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com http://www.greatplains.com.mx http://www.enterlogix.com.br ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally. We are serving USA/Canada Nationwide: Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Miami, Seattle, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Atlanta, Dallas, San Francisco, San Diego, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Europe: Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Middle East (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, OAE, Bahrain), Asia: China, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, South & Central America: Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador