The market for dedicated servers is constantly growing mainly due to the need for SME’s to cut back on their capital expenditure as well as on their operating costs.
ServerSwift servers will offer branded machines that are pre-installed with the client’s choice of applications and operating systems. It will also offer an automated setup process to ensreu that the server is online and updated with custom configurations set by the client a few minutes after the order is submitted. Clients will be provided with direct access to servers as well as to a web based administrator.

ServerSwift will offer a flexible platform for both application and website hosting, explains David Barker, Technical Sales Director for ServerSwift and 4D Data Centres. It will provide users with the ability to leverage the power of both Linux and Windows 2008 without the need for specialist knowledge so they can configure and set the server up. He further adds that the new brand strives to provide the best value for their client’s money, catering to businesses looking to expand their operations to the internet.

The major challenge now is how the mobile carrier will be able to sell this service, says Ovum analyst Richard Mahoney. Vodafone has been known for selling minutes and bytes and the new platform is going to be a big change as far as service offerings and applications are concerned. How the company’s sales force will cope with this change is going to be worth watching out for considering that UK is a very complex market to tap into.
Under the new offering, businesses will be charged a flat rate for every user. The prices are going to be based on one of five tariffs according to the hosting services required.

The service will provide a unified communication service to small businesses. This can potentially cut overhead communication costs by as much as 20 percent while at the same time providing predictability, explains Vodafone UK enterprise director. According to the company’s market research, communication accounts for one of the biggest expenditures for SMEs mainly due to overlap in fixed and mobile lines as well as the complexity of service plans.

One Net appears like it will benefit companies that are heavily reliant on mobile communications as well as those that do not really gain a lot from their internal communications infrastructure, says Gartner Group research director Katja Ruud.
Vodafone also announced that it has inked a five-year deal with BT wholesale so the mobile operator can offer fixed-line services for the new package.

• Great Plains Dexterity. Dexterity is the architecture of Great Plains and it is very difficult to take it out of the picture. So we’ll say that if you plan on creation GP module or custom piece for reselling it on the market – you should first consider Dexterity as a tool. Dexterity requires deep training and some experience – you can not begin programming in Dexterity over night. So-called fat client of Great Plains is pure dexterity application, however database itself since version 8.0 is MS SQL Server with some Dexterity specifics (DEW_ROW_ID column, for example).

• Old Tools. These tools were popular in 1990th and relate to such now legacy technologies as OLE, VBA scripting, etc. Please note that even if C was considered as universal language – custom scripts were targeted for light customizations and both C and VBA were targeted to modify fat client – thin client and web interface were not known those good old days.

1. VBA/Modifier. Microsoft introduced VBA as scripting for light customization of Microsoft Office products – Excel, Word, etc. Great Plains adopted it for its own needs. It tried to produce Dexterity/VBA hybrid and allowed Dexterity forms to be modified via Modifier (Dexterity application) and enabled modified screens to adopt VBA for its fields.

2. Continuum for VB/Dephi. Borland was strong on the customization market – this is why it also includes Delphi. In Continuum you can program Great Plains workstation as OLE server. For example – you can have Great Plains Integration Manager integrate several companies data one-by-one with automatic logging in and off without operator intervention – over night for example. Also – you can deploy Continuum to switch Dexterity modules (such as Intellisol APOP or Project Accounting) and include Dexterity Sanscript code into VBA scripts.

3. ReportWriter. We placed RW in this section because it is Dexterity application and is now actively replaced with new tools, such as Crystal Reports, SQL Reporting, XML & HTML web publishing

• New Tools. In XXI century development world begins to bias toward thin and web clients and SQL scripting. eCommerce is a must for retail and wholesale nationwide businesses and Microsoft Business Solutions come with these tools:

1. eConnect. As good instrument for eCommerce developer – it allows to create, modify and delete Great Plains objects – customers, invoices, purchase orders, payments, inventory items. It has certain restrictions – it can address core Great Plains objects (not something in former third party modules – Collection Management, Customer/Vendor Consolidation, etc.). Also eConnect can not post SOP, AR, AP, POP documents – posting should be done by operator in Great Plains. However you can deploy posting stored procedures, available on the market (through Alba Spectrum for example)

2. Extender. Let’s see it in action in the following year. The idea is really nice and it allows non-developer to modify Great Plains screens and place custom logic

You can always appeal to our expertise. Give us a call: 1-630-961-5918, 1-866-528-0577, help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) – 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.