MS Project Server Update

I'm almost done with the MS Project Server connector setup.

All I can say is, "WOW!!!!"

Information from Solomon flows seemlessly into Microsoft Project - it's really cool. I uploaded a picture of MS Project with the profit pane. Hopefully I've done the upload correctly and you'll see a screen shot.

All of the actuals for the profit pane come directly from Dynamics SL, so it's really a great tool.

Later today, I'm going to add some graphical indicators that will show whether we're on-budget at a glance.



Here are a couple of Microsoft Websites you might find helpful:

Planning your Enterprise Project Management Solution Implementaion
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA011537871033.aspx

Creating Enterprise Custom Fields
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA011537871033.aspx

Project Server 2003 IT Documentation
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/projservadmin/HA101714291033.aspx

Next Step: Project Server/Dynamics Integration

The next step we're going to take is to fully integrate MS Project and MS Dynamics SL. Starting tomorrow, we'll be setting up the integration on my IIS server. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Thanks Synergy & Steve Toth

My initial implementation of MS Dynamics/Spitfire is complete. It's a huge project - trust me, and I'm glad that it's over.

When I got to the end of the project, some of my people were still not comfortable with the software, so Steve Toth made a special stop by here, just to make sure that everything is going well. Steve did a little training, and put in place some fixes that we needed.

So I just wanted to say thanks publically to Synergy and especially Steve Toth for making sure that this project worked.

I love BFA Part 2

This morning, I had a conversation with Dennis Stroud of Spitfire Project Management about BFA. Dennis is the gentleman that did the design work for BFA. I asked him about the difference between Budgeting, Project Analysis, and Forecasting. He summarized it in the following way:

Project Analysis

A snapshot of where you are today, that is current and created everytime you ask for a project analysis.


Budget

In the budget, the actuals are frozen on the date that you create the budget.


Forecasting

Forecasting is predictive. It takes the Actual vs. The Budget and makes some basic projections.



Stay tuned, because I'll talk a little about some of the very cool stuff I've been able to do in BFA.

You're going to love BFA!!!! Part Uno

What is BFA you ask?

Well, we could probably come up with all sorts of creative uses for the initials BFA, but in the parlance of Spitfire, BFA stands for Budgeting, Forecasting, and Analysis.

In Spitfire Documentation, BFA is referred to Budgeting, Project Analysis, and Forecasting; but you're goind to have to talk to someone smarter than me to find out why it's called BFA and not BPAF, or just BPF. But whatever you call it, it works SLICK!!!! BFA is one of the best reasons to purchase Spitfire - which is saying a lot, because the program has lots of cool features.

As the Controller/Project Account/Chief Cook & Bottle Washer here at work, I never have enough time to do the things I need to do. So one of the things that's always fallen by the wayside is keeping up project budgets and forecasts - it's just one of those non-essential duties (unlike payroll) that can be overlooked.

With BFA it's easy to keep up with Revised Budgets and Forecasts


BFA is probably the easiest thing I've ever seen for Budgeting. What I love about BFA is that it's written in MS Excel! Which is really cool for me cause I have some high and exalted Microsoft Excel Professional Certification - something like Grand Pumba of All Things Excel (or some similarly silly Microsoft conferred title). But it's also really cool for everybody because now that MS Office is the de facto standard, it means that almost everbody knows Excel. Which translates into smaller learning curves - which means I have to do less training!!!

The next cool thing about BFA is that you can link your BFA worksheet to other worksheeets. There's a technical whitepaper on that process, but I'll explain it in Part II.

Spitfire Watchdog Alerts

Hey Everybody!!!!

Yippee it's sunny here in Tacoma, which makes me HAPPY. Today I've spent most of the day working in Spitfire. Even though I'm the Controller here and in charge of all of the accounting functions, I find it tremendously useful to use Spitfire as a dashboard that gives me a look at most of my accounting functions.

For instance, today was Payroll day here, and I look at my Watchdog Alerts to see how things are progressing with payroll. This works really great!

Unfortunately, it generates at least 40 Watchdog Alerts, so your friend John is going to pass along a little tip to get rid of those nasty Watchdog Alerts that's faster than deleting them one at a time.

To Delete communications from the Project System which show up in Watchdog alerts, delete the lines in PJCOMMUN table in your Solomon application database, or xsfalert in the Spitfire Tables.

How to keep Spitfire Updates from changing your screens

When you do an upgrade to your Spitfire Software, I recommend that you turn off the Screen Customizations, so that Spitfire won't update those. To do that,

1.) Log into your IIS Server
2.) Go to Start/Programs/Spitfire
3.) Open the Configuration Tool
4.) Select the Dynamics/SL Tab on the tool.
5.) In the box labeled, "Screen Customizations," make sure that "Publish" is unchecked.

This way, when you upgrade Spitfire, it will leave your Dynamics Screen Customizations unchanged, and you won't run into conflict issues like I have.

John

In praise of Spitfire Support

I hate to sound like a sycophant, but I've gotta tell you this story.


On Tuesday, Steve Sauber (of Spitfire) and I installed an upgrade to Spitefire. It was about 5:00 Eastern Time, so I happened to ask Steve, "so how's the weather?"

To which he replied, "we're expecting a big storm. There's a Noreaster blowing and we're supposed to get snow. In fact it's starting to snow right now. I want to get home before the blizzard starts."

I wasn't that concerned about a snowstorm in the Northeast, because I didn't figure it would affect me. Boy was I wrong.

I get to work on Wednesday morning, and for some reason we can't process payroll. We figure out that it must have something to do with Spitfire customizations, but can't fix it ourselves. So I call Spitfire.

I reach someone at Spitfire, who informs me that they are without power at the office. The computers have already powered themselves off and the phones have less than an hour left on battery backup, so they're limited in what they can do.

I told him, "I've got payroll to run today, and I think that the upgrade we installed yesterday is causing problems. Is there anything you can do?"

He said, "Give me a while and I'll see if I can't get someone to call you back."

Pretty soon, I get a call from Stan York, the Head Programmer at Spitfire, and a guy that I've always wanted to have an opportunity to sit and chat. Stan couldn't get to work that morning so he called me from his phone and was using his laptop to remote into my computer.

Stan quickly diagnosed the problem as a conflict between one of our user's customizations and Spitfire's customization, and he quickly fixed the problem. In the meantime, we got to chat about a lot of great features of the program.

I wanted to relate this story to you, to let you know that the Spitfire Team is very responsive to their customers and their needs, even in the middle of a winter snowstorm and power outage. And they went all the way to the top to get my problem fixed so that we could keep running.

Spitfire Customer Support is The Best

http://www.spitfireconstruction.com/


I get a lot of phone calls from potential Spitfire customers asking questions about the software. The most asked question, "how is customer support?"

Spitfire probably has the best customer support of any piece of software I've ever used. If you call with a problem, they can usually fix it right there, but if they can't they get right back with you.

One of the nicest things about dealing with Spitfire is that they can easily and quickly remote into your workstation or server and fix a problem if that's what they need to do.

I deal with Dorothy McGovern and Steve Sauber, both of whom are excellent and very knowledgable. And they've done nothing but bend over backwards to make the software work for me.

John

T-SQL Statement to Add Report to Screen File

Here is the code that will add a report into the Screen Table in your system files.

You will need to change the information in the VALUES statement to your information.

I ran this in the Query Analyser for SQL Server 2000, and it ran fine. Just remember to select your Dynamics System Database from the drop down box on the menu bar.



INSERT INTO Screen(Module, Name, Number, ScreenType)
VALUES('PA', 'Equipment Rates', 'PA997', 'R')

PNB

Ok, this has nothing to do with Dynamics or Spitfire, or even this blog, but who cares, it's my blog and I'll blog what I want.

Saturday night my wife and I went to the Pacific Northwest Ballet to see Swan Lake. We are season ticket holders and I was really looking forward to seeing a classical ballet.

Saturday's performance was especially special because Patricia Barker danced the dual lead role of Odette/Odelle. As always, Patricia was magnificent! But what made it all so very special is that Patricia is retiring from PNB after 26 years.

It was great to see one of Seattle's greatest athletes and artists in one of her final performances. Thanks so much to Patricia for all of the joy and beauty you have shared during your career. You are loved and will be missed.

Dynamics SL Reporting (where ROI is not ROI)

If you have a degree in Finance, get ready for the jolt of your life. In Dynamics SL, ROI (Return on Investment) has been changed to ROI (Report Options Interpreter). Microsoft (aka god of all software), has changed what the initials stand for, so don't fight it - just deal with it.

Since Dynamics rollout, I've been working on creating custom reports. In the process, you need to learn about the ROI and Crystal Reports. Personally, I've always hated Crystal, and for the past couple of years, I've avoided working with it; kind of like I avoid jumping off tall buildings.

And if you're like me and are used to a Microsoft Report writer like the one in MS Access, let me forewarn you, Crystal will have you crying like a baby and running to Momma for comfort. Crystal is just not as easy to use as the stuff from Microsoft, which is probably why Crystal is not the "god of all software."

Creating a Custom Report is difficult. Here are the steps:

1.) Create the Report in Crystal (try not to lose your religion by cussing the aggravating program).

2.) When you've got a warm fuzzy that all is good with your report, save it in the Usr_Rpts folder in the Solomon directory.

3.) When you save it, make sure that you follow the naming convention for the module you'll be working with. For instance, I've been creating reports for use in the Project Controller, so my reports begin with PA (i.e. PA994.)

4.) Edit the text file "Delta" in the Solomon folder. BE SURE TO BACK UP THE FILE FIRST before editing it. I don't know what happens if you corrupt the Delta file, but I'm sure it's NOT GOOD. So be safe, and back up first.

5.) When you add the line in the Delta folder, be sure to EXACTLY follow the format of the other lines in the folder. Here are some of the lines I added to my Delta file:

Equipment Rates, ROI.EXE ; PA996
Equip. Costs w/ Detail, ROI.EXE ; PA994
Total Equip Hours & Costs, ROI.EXE ; PA993
Project Costs, ROI.EXE ; PA995

Beware: the lines in Delta start with spaces and NOT TAB stops. Trust me, if you use Tabs instead of spaces, it won't be good for you (I know, I did try this one). Somewhere deep in the documentation, this fact is hidden; but I'm giving you this tip for free.

6.) Now you need to add a line into the Screen Table in the Dynamics System Files. For me, I have application data in a seperate database from the system database, and my databases are named: AlphaApp and AlphaSystem. I can't tell you what yours are named.

I added the following line in the Screen Table:

Module Name Number Screen Type
PA Equip Costs w/ Job Detail PA994 R

You can add this line to Screen Table by using T-SQL and the Query Analyser, or you can be lazy and just open Screen and add the information as a new record. However, you get extra cool points if add it through Query Analyzer.

7.) Now log into Dynamics as an administrator and add your new report to Utilities/Report Control Maintenance (98.300.00).

8.) And finally give users access to the report through Utilities/Access Rights.

John

Rumors of My Death

To quote Mark Twain, "Rumors of my death have been greatly exagerrated!"

Hi Peeps. I'm still alive.

I've been busy. I did a midyear conversion from Forefront to Dynamics SL. All I can say is, don't do it. A mid year conversion is T O U G H !!!!! What was even worse was that we rolled modules into Solomon over a 4 month period - so the year end reconcilliation was nothing short of hellish.

But it's all good and all finished, so I should have time to fool around blogging now.

John