Thanks to all who have provide some good ideas. The conversion has occurred and is in the growing pains. Still a mistmatch but there's no going back.
Perhaps I'll take this approach to learn Crystal Reports or MS Access reports. There are many previous reports and downloads that can't possibly come from these wizard oriented facilities and I will have to re-create them using their tools. One question. Many of the MV reports that I've created were consolidations of multiple sales/customer/product files into concise reports. They enlist databasic to create a temp file and populate it with the report-related sub-categories that don't consolidate easily in MVQuery. Thus the temp file is then query-able. I've been told that Crystal Reports doesn't allow for the creation of temp tables while Access can. Is this true and should I develop their replacement reports in Access. One strange thought occurred to me that may not fly. Export all the sales/customer/product data back to the MV system and use the existing reports. At least they're already tested & finished. Thanks again. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dawn M. Wolthuis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'U2 Users Discussion List'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2004 9:50 AM Subject: RE: Conversions Mark -- I don't have experience with Great Plains, but can definitely sympathize with your situation. I have been on both the technical and management side of such conversions. Given that it sounds like the decision has been made, money has been spent, and work has been done, you could tackle it by coming through with a "this is how we COULD accomplish what is desired" set of chats and formal meetings. -->Document (if it isn't already) precisely what the goals are for the implementation of the new software so that it is clear what needs to be accomplished from the perspective of "Bob the owner". Include goals of what we don't want to impact and not just what we do want to change (for example, is a negative impact on profitability acceptable for 1 year, 2 years?) -->Collect all issues/concerns that those in the trenches have related to this project; back these up with metrics/facts where you can -->Ask this same trenches group how they think these obstacles can be removed or mitigated -->Discuss the issues and possible solutions with mid/upper management and request their brainstorming as well on how to mitigate the concerns -->Interview other Great Plains users and ask them how they addressed similar issues -->Prepare a report (put in writing in some format, perhaps ppt) that has the angle of how we can accomplish this and does not have an underlying tone to indicate that you disagree with the decision to move forward with this software. The report can still indicate that there are costs to the conversion and perhaps even that there were unanticipated costs that were found once those who work with the software became familiar with the software -->Work with all parties to choose the approaches for handling the obstacles in the path of a successful conversion and then implement those. Of course, it is never as easy as following bullet points. I would also suggest having a good "inventory" of those with whom you have a good working relationship and build on those relationships to help the project run smoothly to completion. Best wishes. --dawn Dawn M. Wolthuis Tincat Group, Inc. www.tincat-group.com Take and give some delight today. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mark Johnson Sent: Friday, April 02, 2004 10:05 PM To: U2 Users Discussion List Subject: Conversions Does anyone have a short paper on the care and feeding of both the company and its employees during a conversion/migration from one system to another. I'm facilitating a migration from MV/Results/Primac to Great Plains and it is a very large mismatch. GP seems to be shopping-cart oriented and Results/Primac are more of a traditional Order Entry system. I can't seem to convey that difference as management (read: those who don't use the computer) like the GUI and all of the nice links and screens. The worker bees are in a turmoil with the increased amount of carpal-tunnel potential mouse/keyboard back and forth as well as the absense of many functions that were present under the MV app. Their productivity has fallen 75% as it takes 4x longer to enter an order. There are no sales tax lookups, no product or customer lookups. You clearly cannot scroll through 35,000 line items. There's no easy alternate shipping addresses and the original reports leave a lot to be desired. The accounting package is appealing but a company doesn't exist just for the accounting dept. Not to mention all the hamburger-helper features i've installed over the last 6.5 years. I also have to fabricate custom reports with Crystal Reports and/or Access as there are many fields of data that should be there like customer back orders, sample customers, customer categories and a whole truckload of sales reporting fields that simply don't exist. Am I wrong in concluding that Great Plains is just a glorified shopping cart application. Has anyone else experienced this kind of mis-match, especially with great plains. At least i could inform the users that others have these growing pains. There doesn't seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel for them. thanks in advance. -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
