Each week we will give you an inside look into the inner workings of Microsoft Dynamics GP.  This week we are talking to Kurt who is one of the many developers responsible for the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 web client.

Check it out.

http://youtu.be/bANzogO2ndw 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bANzogO2ndw&feature=youtu.be 

Pam

As Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 gets closer every day, it will be important to stay in touch with technical communications prior to, at the 2012 Technical Airlift (September 12-14, 2012), and after the airlift.  Recently there was a blog post, on our friend David Musgrave's site, that you should all be aware of.  It describes some of the amazing things that our ISV and partner communities will get with the release of the web client in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013

Part 1 is located here:

Part 2 is located here:

Each week we will give you an inside look into the inner workings of Microsoft Dynamics GP.  This week we are talking to Jared who is the program manager responsible for fixed assets and other financial aspects of the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 release.

Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78FZLJV6mgA 

Pam

Each week we will give you an inside look into the inner workings of Microsoft Dynamics GP.  This week we are talking to Brian who is the program manager responsible for many of the business intelligence aspects of the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013.

Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt_bTfkT738&feature=youtu.be

http://youtu.be/Lt_bTfkT738

Pam

GPUG is holding a User Group Conference in October in Seattle.  We will have a track of 10 sessions specific to Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 coming out later in 2012.  This is also a great opportunity to learn about Microsoft Dynamics GP and how to get more out of what you already have.

www.GPUGSummit.com

Check it out.

Pam

We've updated our Statement of Direction to include official naming of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013.  It also includes some minor edits in other areas.  Please begin using this document immediately with prospects and customers.

Partnersource location here.

Customersource location here.

Errol

I know, I know . . . those are fighting words for many, especially Zach Nelson from Netsuite.  I recently read an article that really hit home with me and provided some sanity.  It is the best advice I've seen regarding technology implementation in a long time.  It's the old adage . . . define your problem before you try to solve it. 

Here's one of my favorite Dilbert comic strips that says it all.

And here is the full blog article.

I so dislike watching videos of myself . . . but sometimes you just have to take it for the team and do it anyway.

This is a video of one of the pieces of a Convergence 2012 demo that we did at the Dynamics GP general session.  It is a short demo of a Metro UI Win8 tablet version of Business Analyzer that we will release sometime after GP2013.  Have fun with it.

Video Demo Located here:

Other GP 2013 demos located here:

Errol

Back at GPUG in Las Vegas, I had a number of people that came up after my presentation and discussed with me the fact that we weren’t supporting the latest versions of QuickBooks or Peachtree.  It took a bit to get everything for this in place, and we had to go through a few rounds of testing, but we finally have a new version of RapidTools for you that includes support for the following migrations:

•             QuickBooks (Pro (2003 - 2012), Premier (2003 - 2012), Enterprise (3.0 - 12.0))

•             Peachtree (2009 - 2012) versions of Pro, Complete and Premium

As you know, this is a great way to accelerate your implementation cycle as well as your ability to close those customers looking to step up from those packages to a full ERP system. 

The new version can be found at:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=4071

Jay Manley

We had such a positive outpouring of support for our Kinect demonstrations on the mainstage Dynamics GP keynote that we re-filmed them for you so that you can show them to your staff that wasn't able to attend (or you can see them if you didn't get to Convergence yourself), and feel free to show them to your customers and prospects to show the exciting thinking that we are doing around the future of Dynamics GP.  We have a lot of cool things coming with Dynamics GP, and these present one future direction possibility!

https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/marketing/marketingcollateral/demos/SalesDemoToolsMicrosoftDynamicsGP2013

We hope that you enjoy these!

Jay Manley

Service Pack 3 for Business Portal 5.1 has released!  The download pages below will have the new download in 1 hour.

 Once installed, the version in Programs & Features will be 11.00.3400.1088.

 The Service Pack will be available on the Service Pack Page:

https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/downloads/servicepacks/mdbp51_patchreleases.htm?printpage=false

https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/downloads/servicepack/mdbp51_patchreleases.htm?printpage=false

 The new DVD that includes Service Pack 3 will be available on our GP 2010 Product Download Page:

https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/downloads/servicepacks/mdgp2010_release_download.htm?printpage=false

https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/support/selfsupport/productreleases/mdgp2010_release_download.htm?printpage=false

 Here are the bugs fixed in SP3: 

1. 64226  BP 5.1  upgrade to sp2 causes data damage by not rolling back correctly when a failed update occurs
2. 62778  BP 5.1 FP New Install deploys RTM eConnect
3. Compatibility with SQL Server 2012

Jay Manley

Each week we will give you an inside look into the inner workings of Microsoft Dynamics GP.  This week we are talking to Brian who is the program manager responsible for many of the business intelligence aspects of the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013.

Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIGkF6XlqZI&feature=youtu.be 

http://youtu.be/SIGkF6XlqZI 

Pam

Each week we will give you an inside look into the inner workings of Microsoft Dynamics GP.  This week we are talking to Theresa who is the program manager responsible for financials, payroll, home pages and much more.  She will give you an inside look into Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013.

Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIGkF6XlqZI 

http://youtu.be/Sc4CUJk1WjU 

Pam

Each week we will give you an inside look into the inner workings of Microsoft Dynamics GP.  This week we are talking to Kevin Racer who is the program manager responsible for many of the aspects of the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 web client.

Check it out.

http://youtu.be/lhJI1bY8nz8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhJI1bY8nz8&feature=youtu.be

Pam

Each week we will give you an inside look into the inner workings of Microsoft Dynamics GP.  This week we are talking to Paul Lindgren a Senior Program Manager Lead who is responsible for release Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013.  He's the person that controls the release and keeps everything on schedule.

Check it out.

http://youtu.be/vJI-L9hIyKg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJI-L9hIyKg&feature=youtu.be

Pam

Have you ever heard the saying "You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar" ?  I believe this is especially true in a sales cycle.  While competitors may be inaccurately representing Microsoft Dynamics GP in the sales cycle, it gives you an excellent opportunity to simply show the prospect how wrong the competition is, thus reducing the competitors credibility.  I heard from many customers at Convergence this year, that the number one reason they purchased Microsoft Dynamics GP is they felt their Microsoft partner was a TRUSTED advisor to their organization. 

Reminder: The current Microsoft Dynamics GP Statement of Direction accurately talks about our committment to the product.  Located here.  In the Statement of Direction  we talk about our current release + 1 in detail, while painting a picture of what the future beyond holds.  When asked "Is GP 15 the last release because that's the last release showing on the roadmap slide?", I respond with this, "When I started at Great Plains Software in 1987, Dynamics GP 2010 was NOT on the roadmap slide"  :)

Thanks to everyone for an amazing Convergence.  I saw so many incredible evangelism moments.  With your help #MSDYNGP lead the way with the highest number of tweets of ANY of our Dynamics products during Convergence.  INCREDIBLE!

Oh, and by the way . . . Guess who leads the United States in the production of honey with 32.7M pounds last year?   Why North Dakota of course!  ;)

Errol

We are excited to announce the dates for this year's Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Airlift Hosted by GPPC in Fargo, North Dakota!

Microsoft Dynamics GP VARs and ISVs are invited to participate in the Microsoft Dynamics Technical Airlift Hosted by GPPC (GP Partner Connections).

This year’s event is slated for September 12-14, 2012, in Fargo, ND.  
Take your Microsoft Dynamics GP knowledge to the next level! This conference focuses solely on the upcoming Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 and its feature set. Benefit from deeper product knowledge and command of more advanced technical topics. Register today!

Who should attend? The Technical Airlift is designed to deliver advanced technical skills around Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 for Microsoft Dynamics GP implementation professionals, consultants, developers and technical sales engineers who work for Microsoft Dynamics VARs and ISVs.

Technical Airlift 2012 Tentative Agenda

Tuesday, Sept 11
4:00 – 8:00           Registration

Wednesday, Sept 12
7:30-8:30              Registration
8:30 – 5:00           Breakout Sessions
5:00-7:00              Reception and Table Topic Discussion

Thursday, Sept 13
8:30-5:00              Breakout Sessions

Friday, Sept 14
8:30-2:00              Breakout Sessions
2:00-3:00              Closing Session with Q&A

Registration is $550/attendee when you register on or before July 31, 2012; and $650/attendee after August 1, 2012. Learn more and sign up at http://www.gpug.com/conferences/Airlift2012.

Jay Manley

We are excited to announce the latest release (V2) of the Dynamics GP 2010 R2 64 Bit Technical Demonstration Toolkit.  

We gathered lots of your feedback and suggestions (thank you for all those who shared ideas and experiences) and worked closely with the Dynamics PTA team in the US to deliver an update to the image that we released in Dec 2011.

We updated the look and feel of the image to be similar (yet improved) to the images that you are used to using.  We do recognize the importance for you and your teams to ramp on any new demo tool and we try hard to make sure that your past experience is similar and logical to follow.

We focused on some core areas and expect continued work in the next few months… (as we all know demo tools are never done and software is always changing).    So plan for a update release in a few months. We are always trying to give you the best and most current sales tools.

We did some general look and feel things and fixed a few things as well.

Some key focus areas were:  Look & feel and usability, BI and Dashboards, Workflow fixes and setup for Purchase Order, Management Reporter and Viewer cleanup, Lync setup, User context support  thru PowerShell, RDP and RemoteApp setup. 

Brought back the familiar shortcuts that make for a seamless demo experience.

We also installed and Dynamics GP Analysis Cubes, SharePoint Designer 2010.

We are also really excited about a great new sales demo tool to help you streamline your demos to your prospects and create reusable demos. 

The Dynamics GP Demo Scenario Builder tool was built by John Dooley, who is one of our ingenious PTAs.  This is a really slick sales demo configurator tool that enables you to pick from a list of demo scenarios and build a demo flow that is loaded automatically into the Dynamics GP 2010 Shortcuts toolbar.  This Demo Scenario Builder contains a series of prebuilt demo flows that map to links and screens in Dynamics GP 2010.  It keeps track of the number of steps and the length of time for your demo and has some nice popup windows that enable you to clearly establish the goals of the prospect and enable you highlight key messages or themes your demo goals thru-out the demo itself.

John and his fellow PTAs (Craig Crescas and Tom Higginbotham) are planning some great new demo scenarios in addition to the ones available on this release. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYf1zGWuR5M

Here is a screen shot of the imported shortcuts.

This looks easy like follow the yellow brick road type easy.

We really want to recognize the great work done by John Dooley, Craig Crescas and Tom Higginbotham on this release.  This was a real team effort between the Dynamics GP Product Group and the Dynamics US PTA team. 

Thanks for your help guys.

Download at:  https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/marketing/marketingcollateral/demos/MSDYN_GP2010R2HyperVDemoImageSet

Jay Manley 

Convergence 2012 in Houston, TX was an amazing event.  Over 10,000 of your closest Dynamics friends.

At the event, Kevin Racer and I presented the topic "The Road to Dynamics GP 2013" (you might see it as "The Road to Dynamics GP "12"" as we hadn't released the official name until the event was occurring.

We covered a bunch of information not only on the new web client, but also about how we think about future versions of Dynamics GP, and give you some insight into just a few of the well-over 100 new features that will be released with Dynamics GP 2013.

For those of you not able to attend, or had other topics to attend to, this is one of the free sessions that you can listen to on "Virtual Convergence".

If you go to http://www.msconvergence.com/registration/signup and create an account.

Then go to Sessions --> MS Dynamics GP --> The Road to GP '12'.

Enjoy!

Jay Manley

Between now and the release of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013, we will give you an "Inside Look" into the inner workings of how Microsoft Dynamics GP was planned and delivered. These short videos will be posted periodically to give insights from our development team and how they work.

These videos were recorded prior to the official naming of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 so will reference the codename GP "12".

The first one kicks off with an interview of Principal Group Program Manager, Chad Sogge.  You Tube link here.

Enjoy

Errol

For a while now I've been telling everyone that Management Reporter 2012 is coming and asked you to get ready.  Well, now you can get it today.  It available for download.  Check out the Management Report blog below for more details.  They also have on their blog videos of new features, training recordings and more.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dynamicscpm/archive/2012/03/31/management-reporter-2012-released.aspx

April Fools' Day, sometimes called All Fools' Day, is one of the most light-hearted days of the year. Its origins are uncertain. Some see it as a celebration related to the turn of the seasons, while others believe it stems from the  adoption of a new calendar.

This is also a day many use to play hoaxes and pranks on others.  A few of these pranks that confused and riled up those who were gullible enough to believe them can be found on the internet.

One such story revolved around the fast food chain Taco Bell.  On April 1, 1996 a full page ad appeared in six major American newspapers  (The Philadelphia Inquirer, New York  Times, Washington Post, Chicago  Tribune, Dallas Morning News, and USA Today)  announcing that the fast food chain Taco Bell had purchased the Liberty Bell.  The full text of the ad read:

“Taco Bell Buys the Liberty Bell”
“In an effort to help the national debt, Taco Bell is pleased to announce that we have agreed to  purchase the Liberty Bell, one of our country's most historic treasures. It will now be called the "Taco Liberty Bell" and will still be accessible to the American public for viewing. While some may find this controversial, we hope our move will prompt other corporations to take similar action to do their part to reduce the country's debt.”

Another soon to be famous April Fool's announcement was made by our Aussie friend David Musgrave.  Always the character, David actually got some people to believe that GP 2013 would be going back to ctree as the primary database.  The full April Fool's blogpost is located here.

Hope you had fun with it   :)

Errol

The Corporate Performance Management team is partnering with the MSX Group to hold an online User Forum for Management Reporter, FRx and Forecaster.  This online event will be valuable to not only existing users but also for people thinking of using these tools.

Check it out!

http://msxgroup.com/ffmr2012

Convergence 2012 was an amazing event once again.  I spoke to several customers and partners who received a lot of value and confirmed the event was a huge success.

A few highlights to share with everyone:

- The largest Expo in Microsoft history.

- The largest Convergence ever with over 10,000 attendees.

- Forty percent of the customer attendees were existing Microsoft Dynamics GP customers.

- We announced the name of our next major release, Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013.

Our top presenters from the community for Concurrent Sessions and Deep Dives. Thank you presenters.

Top Interactive Discussions.  Thank you everyone!

Ignore the awful picture of me and focus on the rest of the content.  He gives a good summary of what we covered at the partner Pre Game event hosted by GPPC.  We share a lot of content on the web client archietecture and how partners should get ready.

We will provide other options to learn more about the web client in the coming weeks.  Start here and stay tuned.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/developingfordynamicsgp/archive/2012/03/27/microsoft-convergence-2012-houston-gppc-pregame.aspx