Taking Microsoft Dynamics GP Beyond the Security Scramble

Security, security, all is security. Please pardon the paraphrasing of Solomon, but that's how I feel these days. The most challenging part of installing Microsoft Dynamics GP for me has now become its security. If a company is using the web client or workflow with web services, an SSL certificate is needed along with ports opened in the firewall. You can pretty much guarantee that this will result in multiple meetings and disagreements with IT. In particular, when just trying to install web services for workflow, it can take longer to get IT to agree to do their part than it takes to configure multiple workflows. The fact of the matter is that both SSL certificates and firewalls can be very specialized. IT departments often have a limited number of folks with expertise in these areas, and security is understandably a hot button issue.

GP's layered security is a mixed bag as well. GP security is generally based on SQL users, except for web client users with integrated security enabled. While GP's roles and tasks are pretty straightforward to understand, getting the right window assigned to a task can be a real challenge, even for experienced folks.

Reporting security isn't any less complicated. SSRS has its own security settings. Excel reports control access to data via SQL security and access to the files via Windows security, unless either of these are deployed to SharePoint. In that scenario SharePoint controls the security layer.

Finally, we've got companion apps. GP's companion apps also require opening one or more ports, depending on how many apps are being used, and an SSL certificate. Cue another trip to IT ...