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[Cindy Creed]

I’m looking to see what products people are using as an alternative to Integration Manager. We need to switch to a new product since we’re planning to upgrade next year. We have tried to use SmartConnect, but between how our system is set up and securities it doesn’t seem like we’ll be able to get it to work. Currently we only use Integration Manager for invoicing, but could certainly see expanding on that in the future.  Most of our billing is compiled into Excel workbooks either within accounting or one of the other departments. If you use something to connect to SalesForce that is an added bonus.
Thank you for suggestions!

#Technical?

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Cindy Creed
Accounting Systems Administrator
Synergent
Portland ME
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[Tim Duncan]

Have a look at Business Process Automation Platform | Codeless Platforms 

My company specializes in data integrations, and I recently looked for another integration platform provider to supplement my partnership with eOne Solutions (SmartConnect).  I was thoroughly impressed with Codeless Platforms BPA software and have recently partnered with them MIT Consulting Services Selects BPA Platform for Microsoft Dynamics ERP Integration Projects (codelessplatforms.com)

Give me a shout if you would like to discuss further.

Regards
Tim

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Tim Duncan
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[Deb Sletmoen]

We typically write our Imports in SQL/SSIS packages –  the end users drops import files to a folder or drive and then the SQL server takes over from there running the integration process.  We use it on several of our franchises- and automates their sales process nightly and the next morning the accountants review, post and create deposits.

Let me know if you would like more information.

Thank you!
Deb Sletmoen
deb@iscorp.biz
701 238 2515

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Deb Sletmoen
Owner
Implementation Specialists (IS)
Hawley MN
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 Original Message

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Deb Sletmoen
Owner
Implementation Specialists (IS)
Hawley MN
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[Jim Harris]

I’m surprised you’re running into issues with SmartConnect.  We switched from Scribe to SmartConnect several years ago and use it extensively.  We don’t use SalesForce, but they do have a connector for it.  If you already own SmartConnect I’d encourage you post some of the specific issues you’re having.

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Jim Harris
Director of Information Systems
ExamWorks, Inc.
Atlanta GA
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[Michael Gummel]

We’ve used SmartConnect to connect to SalesForce for a number of clients.  If you are having issues, i’d really suggest working with eOne’s group directly (they are pretty good) 

If you just can’t get it running, you might want to then take a look at either Tibco (Scribe) or ManerLink from Maner Solutions  .
??

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Michael Gummel
Prod Engineer
Paradigm Technology Consulting
Allentown NJ
mtgummel@ptcsolutions.com
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[Mike Bresnan]

SmartConnect has a bunch of prebuilt excel templates that load directly finto GP. They don’t work with Analytical Accounting unfortunately, so we can’t use them. Worst case scenario, SmartConnect itself is like an enhanced Integration Manager. However, it is still a bit clunky, especially if you use multiple companies. We are about to start using it to bulk load invoices into our AR and AP modules (with AA data!) in production, as it’s good to go in testing.

I do wish there were a way to launch the maps/integrations through GP itself, instead of having to provision security for the users to go into the SmartConnect app to run them. Luckily we only have a small population that will be using it.

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Mike Bresnan
Arabella Advisors
Washington DC
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[Charles Allen]

While the Excel templates may not work with AA (I’ve never tried to use them), the traditional integrations do work with AA. In the case of the poster, it seems like the integrations would be from Salesforce to files to GP or Salesforce to GP and would not involve Excel templates.

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Charles Allen
Senior Managing Consultant
BKD Technologies
Houston, TX
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[Mike Bresnan]

yeah, the AA tags definitely work through the maps. They have a prebuilt one for AP, but nothing for AR that i could find. It’s pretty easy to crib the logic from the AP map though. You have a lot of duplicate distribution rows for each analytical segment you are using, so It’s not super user friendly unfortunately. we are using Access to format things, but only because there are also some preliminary steps we need to run through before its ready for upload. Otherwise, i’d probably just build a macro to get the data into the right format for the user.

but i digress. sounds like there are options within Smart Connect for Salesforce, and there are always the templates or (depending on your tech resources) the integration maps themselves.

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Mike Bresnan
Arabella Advisors
Washington DC
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[Nicole Albertson]

Cindy,

I would be interested to hear about your environment, the changes you are making in the next year and why you have found that SmartConnect might not be a fit. My hope is that we can work together to make it work for you so that you don’t have to seek out another alternative. SmartConnect will certainly handle Excel Spreadsheets and also integrates with SalesForce.

Please feel free to reply here or private message me and we can work through it together.

To answer a few of the other comments in this thread as well.

• SmartConnect does have some Excel Templates that work with GP as well as some for Business Central. While they don’t include everything, they are available to use/modify/learn from. We are always open to suggestions for others as we have built ones that were most requested by customers.
• GP Intercompany is available in SmartConnect and allows you to integrate transactions and other data into multiple companies at once as well as split things like distributions among companies. There may be a few limitations around multi-currency with this.
• There is an option to run maps from a SmartList inside of GP, but that is the only option we have built into GP.  If you don’t want users logging into SmartConnect to run maps, there is also the option to use the runmap endpoint in a web browser to run the map, but that is going to run with whatever the source is in the setup, so couldn’t alter it to a different Excel document or anything.

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Nicole Albertson
Product Manager
eOne Solutions
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[Cindy Creed]

Thank you for your response. We installed SmartConnect in May and haven’t been able to get an integration to run yet. We have just about run out of options it to get it to work at this point. We have virtual desktops and our accounting applications are on a different server. That server doesn’t have Excel installed and I can’t access my desktop from there. When I log into SmartConnect on my desktop and run the integration I just get a security error. If I use the GP admin log in then it logs me in as if I’m on the application server  and I can’t access any files. We haven’t been able to write anything to the event log yet and my understanding is that if we can get that done once then we would be set. We have also run the powerhell script to no avail.  If you had any insight or some other thing we could try that would be fantastic.

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Cindy Creed
Accounting Systems Administrator
Synergent
Portland ME
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[Nicole Albertson]

Cindy,

Without all the knowledge around the errors and such you are getting, it sounds like maybe the SC Event Log hasn’t had enough permissions to create itself.  I believe that you would need to log in as a Windows admin and run through it so that it can create everything and then you should be able to run it as your user instead.  The Powershell script I believe you are referring to also has to be run as the admin to work properly.  

I believe you are in contact with our support team on this, but if not, please just message me and I can work on getting that setup as they would be the best ones to walk you through this.

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Nicole Albertson
Product Manager
eOne Solutions
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