“Open architecture” is the catch phrase for business application software and databases these days. Companies that in the past may have put up with discrete applications running separately and may have had to perform software “gymnastics” to obtain integrated reporting are now demanding that these products work together. To facilitate this process, an industry standard known as open database connectivity (ODBC) was developed.
Visual Integrator has been designed to facilitate seamless integration between Sage 100 ERP (formerly Sage ERP MAS 90, 200, and 200 SQL) data and other business applications. Visual Integrator can import from (or export to) any ODBC-compliant source, without the need for an intermediary data file such as ASCII delimited or Microsoft® Excel®. If you regularly perform imports from a custom or vertical software package, you’ll find you can use Visual Integrator to make the integration virtually seamless.
Importing and exporting data from Visual Integrator is a simple process. The power of Visual Integrator, however, lies in the additional integration commands that are available. For example, Visual Integrator jobs can be scheduled to run at prescribed intervals of any length. If you need to keep your Sage 100 ERP customer masterfile synchronized with a prospect database, you can set the import to run automatically every day, every hour, or even every minute. Imports can be chained together so that an invoice import automatically follows a customer import. You can even instruct the program to run a script file automatically upon successful completion of an import.
Sage 100 ERP Visual Integrator can tie all your business software into one seamless application.
Visual Integrator allows you to easily import to or export data from a custom or vertical software package to Sage 100 ERP while following your established business rules.
Edition
Compatible with Sage 100 Standard, Advanced, and Premium ERP
Features
Scheduling
There are multiple methods of scheduling Visual Integrator jobs. You can place a job on the Integrator job menu for easy access and then run the job manually. Jobs can also be run by using Windows® scheduler or an external Windows program or script file. You can also set a schedule or cycle within Visual Integrator to run once a day, once an hour, or once a minute.
Automatically Perform Subroutines
Run additional commands, scripts, or other functions based on three events: before job start, on job success, or on job failure. Subroutines can also be added before and after each record write and before and after assigning data fields.
ODBC Connectivity
Link multiple ODBC tables together, and point and click to select fields for importing. Visual Integrator then automatically generates the SQL statement for import or export, and Visual Integrator permits editing of the SQL statement for advanced users. A test button provides an instant visual check of data to be imported.
Validation Logic
Validation logic is built into Visual Integrator to assure that the data being imported conforms to Sage 100 ERP rules. Validations performed by Visual Integrator are automatically listed and may be removed if not required for the import. New validations may also be created for specialized requirements (for example, do not permit import of future-dated invoices).
User-Defined Fields
If you have created user-defined fields in Sage 100 ERP, these fields appear automatically for selection when Visual Integrator operates on the entity to which they are attached (for example, customers).
Passwords
Each import or export job can be assigned a password, which is then required before the job can be run.
Chaining of Job
Jobs can be set to run in sequence (for example, import invoices immediately following a customer import).
Run-Time Assignment of Values
If a value needs to be uniquely assigned each time a job is run, such as today’s date for the invoice date, the job can be configured to prompt the user when the job is run.
Selection and Skip Record Criteria
Multiple selection criteria for picking certain records can be specified, using standard “nesting logic” criteria, (such as and, or). Multiple criteria for skipping records can also be defined.
Import Fields Conditionally
Conditional importing allows a field to be assigned based on the value of another field. For example, the sales tax code can be assigned based on the state field in the customer address.
Job Definition Export
Jobs can easily be prepared for transporting to another computer at a remote location.
Export Jobs
Data from any Sage 100 ERP file may be exported to ODBC databases or ASCII delimited files, using all the same logic and selection criteria available for import jobs.
Test and Preview Buttons
The Test button permits easy viewing of sample data. You also can sample an entire file and print or display import log statistics (number of records imported, and more).
Job Import
Jobs that were created at another location can be easily imported and run.
Benefits
- Easily import to or export from a custom or vertical software package
- Maintain data integrity between programs
- Use validation logic to ensure import conforms to your established business rules
- Schedule functions for regular or repetitive imports
- Efficiently use easy point-and-click data selection
- Select from user-defined fields that appear automatically
Visual Integrator