Hi Kevin,
Welcome to the forum.
I see no reason why what you are trying to do would not be possible. I do not and have not used Great Plains. However I have clients/colleagues in the states that do. They have never mentioned any difficulties.
I oversee a large ERP solution myself and the installations are normally (not ALWAYS) identical. I would have thought the main problems would be the initial part of the path (Drive name, primary folders etc). But as you have said this would be easily resolved using the Set Datasource Location module within Crystal (Database>Set Datasource Location). I use this function quite often to migrate reports created on local copy data to the main server.
Final thought..... give it a go.
As for sharing reports. Have not got a clue. Have you tried some of the Great Plains forums that allow file sharing?
www.mibuso.com may be of some help.
Crystal is wonderful... in the right hands (side glance at srecretary).
Take it easy.
RobV