Microsoft Officials Stress Searching , Business Process, and BI Capabilities from SharePoint Integration

Users of Microsoft Dynamics GP often hear about the abilities of SharePoint to integrate with Dynamics GP, but many are concerned about the cost of purchasing SharePoint, as well as the potential for seamless integration. In a presentation Tuesday at the GPUG Summit 2008, Rich Miller from Microsoft Dynamics Product Marketing, and Trevor Gilchrest, a partner technology specialist at Microsoft, outlined ways that SharePoint and Dynamics GP can be integrated.

Miller acknowledged that there has been some frustration from GP users in regards to SharePoint. "You are talking about [purchasing]another application, but at the end of the day, [GP and SharePoint] do work together," he said. "We're working hard to make sure no one out Microsofts Microsoft."

Gilchrest then demonstrated some of the capabilities that GP users can get by using Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), and those that are only available to those who have purchased Microsoft Office SharePoint Server(MOSS).  With WSS, users can use the business portal to create user websites within their organization, and then post documents to those sites to share them with other employees. "If you'll want to do something beyond the business portal offerings," he said, "you'll need MOSS."

One of the key ways SharePoint integrated with Dynamics GP is with the search functionality. "When you do a search in SharePoint, it searches SharePoint and all of your GP data," explained Gilchrest. "If you search on a key item, like a customer name, it will return all of the invoices associated with that customer."

Another area where GP users will see integration is within the business processes and forms offered by SharePoint. With the out-of-the-box workflows, the approval process for a document can be streamlined. "The advantage [...