Microsoft Dynamics Business Portal integrates seamlessly with Dynamics TM GP and other similar applications to deliver applications, processes, and information to partners, customers and employees across the organization to enable them perform their jobs much more effectively and efficiently by helping them make smarter decisions. It also unlocks business potential and enhances productivity by offering role-tailored access to processes and information from one Web-based portal.
Microsoft Dynamics Business Portal – Features and Benefits
1. Enables sharing of information with Windows/ SharePoint services
It delivers powerful collaboration and information-sharing tools that encourage teamwork and enhance performance with Microsoft Office and Windows SharePoint Services.
2. Remove the struggle and expense from common tasks
It enables you to equip your people with tools to perform and deliver routine activities through their browser, thus minimizing redundancy of data entry and boosting productivity.
3. Expand the reach of vital information to partners and customers
Set up security-improved extranet deployments with a much secure, role-specific view of information like balances and line items.
4. Reduced information support costs
By opening the flow of key business information to employees and freeing your accounting, It, and support resources, you can be able to drive your business or company forward.
5. Expanded uses of your portal
Offers access to information kept in other systems and or Web-based applications, allowing you to use role-specific framework when delivering the right information to the most appropriate individuals.
6. Enhance your business integration/ collaboration capabilities
This feature lets you add workflow, search, or other reporting capabilities to Dynamics GP, as well as business portal using Microsoft Office SharePoint Server implemented in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services. Giving your business a framework for collaboration and information sharing with SharePoint can help boost productivity.
7. Collaborate on documents and share information
Business portal is often installed as a regular SharePoint site, allowing you to store and share, or edit Microsoft Office: Excel, Word, and other documents. Document version control, check-in, and check-out enable you to easily manage documents.
8. Create new pages, including parts, more easily
Microsoft Business Portal Web Parts structurally look like native SharePoint Web Parts, containing a unique “drag-and-drop” page design that is time saving and allows for the creation of pages that function the way they are supposed to. Include Microsoft Office Excel graphs to your Business Portal pages and provide your customers with new charting capabilities for business data.
9. Include sites for meetings and projects
Create pages that contain all resources needed by team members – participant lists, calendars, document libraries, announcements, and other Web Parts. This would enable you to record activities, edit and share documents, provide links to relevant sites, and tracking meeting notes.
10. Tailor your portal to match specific business situations
Windows SharePoint Services currently offers application templates that you can download and are designed to address the specific needs or requirements for particular key business processes and user-specific tasks. A business can function with over 30 custom scenarios or situations ranging from absenteeism and vacation programs to competitive intelligence, professional services contracts, and IT developer team sites.
11. Extend the general reach of security-strengthened information to your customers
Deploy Microsoft Business Portal in regular extranet environments by efficiently creating and deploying customer-facing extranets in common topologies. With a wizard-based network tool, you can simplify the complex process of securing extranets via Microsoft internet Security & Acceleration Server. In addition, share key information with external clients by offering a secure, role-targeted view of information like balances and line items.
Installing Microsoft Dynamics Business Portal, particularly on Office SharePoint Server, brings these additional key benefits:
1.Search – enables you to look for both structured and unstructured information within Dynamics GP and even SharePoint libraries and lists, as well as other applications duly registered in SharePoint Server (Business Data Catalog).
2. Workflow – make use of the Workflow Foundation in SharePoint Server and develop your own custom workflow capabilities within a SharePoint site such as Business Portal.
3. Sales Dashboards – Business Portal includes Sales Center with new dashboards that collect KPIs and other related information useful to sales managers and salespeople.
4. Improved report publishing flexibility – allows you to publish Dynamics GP reports, Excel reports, and FRx reports to the Server Report Center. This allows users to receive alerts whenever new reports get into the Report Center. They will also be able to create document workspaces to allow collaboration on reports and set up workflows that can view reports, or be able to access reports when offline via the Outlook integration.
5. Web Services for Dynamics GP integration – conveniently access Dynamics GP information through Business Portal using Web Services registered within the SharePoint Server Business Data catalog.
Business Portal Features
- Document Management: Locate and access vital business information from a centralized web based portal
- HRM Self-Service Suite: Empower employees and managers with the tools they require to streamline HRM tasks and allow them to not only view, but also change personal information. Allow managers to accomplish common tasks like accessing employee information and approving requests
- KPIs and Executive Center: Properly format KPIs to bring attention to key aspects of information and deploy KPIs critical to business success. In addition, utilize role-tailored access to help you deliver appropriate information to the right individuals, and keep refreshing KPIs as much as possible so information remains current always.
- Requisition Management: Allow users throughout your organization to enter and even approve any purchase requisitions through Business Portal. By creating flexible approval hierarchies, you can gain insight and greater visibility in the purchasing process, making it easy to control it.
- Project Time and Expenditure: Allow employees to key in time and expense records via Business Portal, and project managers to review and approve the same reports online, with ease.
- Electronic Document Delivery: Keep an organized schedule of email delivery of invoices and credit memos, or other sales documents to customers in HTML, XML, Office Excel, and PDF format.
Conclusion
It is important to unlock business potential and boost productivity by delivering role-tailored access to processes and information from a central Web-based portal. Microsoft Dynamics Business Portal integrates very smoothly with Dynamics GP to help deliver useful applications, processes, and information to business partners, customers and employees across the entire organization, enabling them do their work more effectively, as they can now make smarter decisions.