Dynamics GP 2013

This month Microsoft announced the availability of Dynamics GP 2013 demo which you can download here.

Most of the improvements were geared to improving security, integration with other Microsoft products and the Web client.

I was reading the installation guide of the web client and the requirements were pretty basic including the Web server OS which can either be Windows Server 2008 R2 or 2012. You can secure the web client by implementing SSL which you can purchase from a vendor or use one provided by IIS.

If you've installed Microsoft Sharepoint Server, most of the required steps were very similar including the required authentication.

Goodluck!

ETL tools

Following are top ETL tools used for extracting, cleaning, transforming and loading data to a data warehouse:

1. Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB)
2. SAP Business Objects Data Integrator (BODI)
3. IBM Data Stage
4. Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
5. SAS Data Integration Studio
6. Talend Open Studio
7. Clover ETL
8. Adeptia Integration Suite

Former Citi VP of Treasury Sentenced

In this age of compliance and tight security, how can one still manage to embezzlement more than $22 million?

Well Mr. Gary Foster did, the former vice president at Citigroup Inc.’s treasury finance department was sentenced to 97 months in prison for fraud related to his embezzlement. Foster embezzled funds from various Citigroup accounts by transferring money to Citigroup's cash account and then wiring it to his personal bank account.

Foster concealed his thefts with various false accounting entries, making the Citi cash account appear in balance and placing a fraudulent contract or deal number in the reference line of the wire transfer instructions.

Made me wonder, which accounting system were they using that nobody can even catch this kind of false transactions especially during month-end reconciliation. I guess if you work for a large multinational bank, it'll take a few cycle before you can confirm that there's fraud or breakage in the process. But mostly this can be remediated by constant communication between people who audit and reconciles cash.

LinkedIn error

LinkedIn is acting up today as I'm getting this error a lot - Sorry, there was a problem processing your request. Please try again.

Even on simple links, it doesn't work.

10 things you should know about NoSQL databases

Did you hear about the latest trend in databases? If not then you should read this article about NoSQL or  "not only SQL".

NoSQL vary from your classic relational database management system (RDBMS) as they do not use SQL as their primary query language. These data stores may not require fixed table schemas, usually do not support join operations, may not give full ACID (atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) guarantees, and typically scale horizontally. NoSQL is now used by major internet companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter and others.

Here's an article about NoSQL which will help you understand the pros & cons of using the technology. Click here.