New Release of RapidStart for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Aims for Speed with Flexibility

Call it a case of what's old is new again.

Earlier this month, the newest version of RapidStart Services for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 was released to partners.  The tool is delivered as services deployed onto eConnect, with significant upgrades and changes to make it a more robust tool for day-to-day work.

One of the benefits of using the RapidStart tool is a dramatic reduction in implementation time.

"The benefit is typically when you look at an implementation cycle, it used to take twenty-four hours to do the set up of this part of this software but now it will be minutes rather than days and hours," Microsoft Dynamics GP senior product manager Jay Manley said. "The reduction in time is a factor of six or eight, but really it's more like a factor of 10. It's that significant of a [time] savings."

But RapidStart isn't exactly a new tool.

"We've had it in the past; it wasn't called RapidStart, but it was call Rapid Implementation tools," said Manley. "There are actually two tools. One is a configuration tool and one is a migration tool."

The configuration tool helps users set up the basic configuration elements of Dynamics GP like how the chart of accounts looks; how the company is set up for currency; and how companies set up modules.  And the latest release improves the flexibility, allowing for more stopping and starting of the tool without losing data.

"The configuration tool has varied greatly. The way that it's ...