Sorry for the inactivity on the blog lately, but I hope you can all understand our community and team have been a bit busy fighting floods and blizzards here in Fargo-Moorhead lately. :(  The Microsoft campus has actually been closed for nearly a week now.  We have complied with the Mayor’s request to keep all non-essential businesses (in flood fighting terms) closed through tomorrow, so we hope to re-open the offices on Thursday.

The good news so far is that the Red River appears to have crested late last week, just shy of 41 feet.  Today I believe the river is right at 38 feet and falling, so things are starting to return to a state that resembles normalcy.  Many homes that were in harms way have escaped without serious damage, and the hard work of tens of thousands of volunteers has paid off in a big way.  It is quite amazing to think that an estimated 50 miles of dikes and 5 million sandbags were made within the period of about 10 days (those numbers represent only Cass county, which Fargo is the county seat of).  The stories of heroism, generosity, and community pouring out of this disaster are both humbling and awe-inspiring.

The bad news is we now are in the middle of a winter storm that could dump up to 12-16 inches of snow (we are probably halfway there already), and some flood predictions show another river crest could hit Fargo-Moorhead again in mid-April as a result of the increased precipitation to the Red River Valley.  Additionally, we all unfortunately have friends or co-workers who have been impacted by this flood.  Whether that means having to maintain dikes and pumps 24 hours a day in their or their neighbor’s backyards, or evacuating their homes while the flood water invaded their house; some here in Fargo and at Microsoft haven’t been able to avoid the power of Mother Nature.

Despite these negatives, our cities and people remain confident and optimistic.  We have beat floods before and we will beat this one as well.  Thanks to all of those who have expressed their well wishes and thoughts during this ordeal. 

Even with all of these things going on, our team is STILL managing to pull off the first 3 GET MORE! Sales Seminars starting this Thursday in Ft. Lauderdale for our Dynamics GP Partners!  The response from our Partners to these events has been tremendous, as we keep having to increase the class maximums to allow registration for all those who want to be there.  Some cities are limited on space, so if you do get wait-listed, hopefully a spot will open up and you will be automatically notified that you are in the seminar. 

If you attend one of these seminars, be sure to tell our team you are a GP Insider and let us know what you think about the blog so far!  I promise once we get back to a normal work week without the worries and work of this flood, this blog too will return to normal activity. :) 

AndyW

Most of you probably know that the overwhelming majority of the Microsoft Dynamics GP team (support, development, marketing, product management, etc.) works and lives in the Fargo/Moorhead community.  What many of you might not realize is that our cities are preparing for perhaps the worst flooding EVER to hit this area (potentially worse than the disastrous floods of 1997). 

Many of our team members will be out sandbagging their homes or helping neighbors and co-workers this week to stave off the coming flood waters.  If you live near the FM area, please consider volunteering your time to help out those who are trying to protect their homes and businesses. For those of you not in the area, please keep our community in your thoughts and  prayers. Thank you,

AndyW

We are very excited to announce the availability of Position Control functionality in Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 SP3 Human Resources and Payroll!!  This new functionality is often utilized within industries such as the Public Sector (State and Local Government, Education, Special Districts…etc.)  It went live on the Price List Nov. 1, 2008 and is available through SP3.  Please see the below email for additional information.

Position Control Summary:
Position Control is a Human Resource and Payroll function that is required by customers in industries such as the Public Sector (i.e. State and Local Government, Education…etc.) The management of labor budgets and human resources based upon specific job functions and a specific head count is a driving force behind Position Control. Constraints are then applied throughout the Human Resource and Payroll system to enforce the business rules and to manage the movement of human resources throughout the organization.

Additional Information:

• Available for Module Based Licensing (Standard and Professional)
• Available for Business Ready Licensing (Business Essentials and Advanced Management) as an ala carte module.
• No user tiered pricing – It is a module
• Compatibility: Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 SP 3 and future releases of Microsoft Dynamics GP
• Media: Download (Available with Dynamics GP 10.0 Service Pack 3)
• Requirements:  US Payroll and Human Resources
• Regional Availability:  NOAM-US; EMEA2-NWECA Including Egypt; EMEA1-ME excluding Egypt; LATAM-PR, VI, Caymans, Bermuda; LATAM - .5; LATAM - Caribbean
• NFR sets:  Position Control will be part of the NFR sets worldwide.  Partner accounts will be updated early November with Position Control.  (targeting the week of November 3^rd –depending on IT’s schedule.)

We are currently working on a fact sheet for Position Control.  We are targeting an April 2009 completion timeframe.  We are also creating a demonstration script for partners and will be adding Position Control sample data to the Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 SP3 Technical Demonstration Toolkit  (April 2009 targeted release date.)

If you would like additional information regarding Position Control, please review the Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 Human Resources user manual.  This manual is located on CustomerSource :

CustomerSource:

https://mbs.microsoft.com/downloads/customer/GP10Docs/HumanResources.pdf

One of the most popular sessions at Convergence 2009 this year was, "50 Tips in 50 Minutes for Microsoft Dynamics GP."   The session included tips that reach multiple versions of Dynamics GP for financials, purchasing, sales, reporting, and system topics.  There are hidden slides that gives detail for each tip.  Due to popular demand, I am posting the PowerPoint to share with our Insiders. 

I had the privilege to present this session with Mark Polino, Microsoft MVP, IBIS employee, and an online celebrity blogger.  He does tips like the ones we covered on his blog weekly. Check out his site at http://www.DynamicAccounting.net

Take Care,

Pam M

With Convergence officially behind us, there is no time for rest as we gear up for our next set of events.  For those Microsoft Dynamics GP Partners who haven’t already heard, starting on April 2nd we will be visiting nine cities throughout the US to launch an entirely new Sales Seminar! These events will focus on helping Partners realize the full value of Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0, along with giving you a sneak peak at what you can expect to see with Version “11.”  You will hear directly from members of the Microsoft Dynamics GP Product Management and Marketing teams as well as your local field representatives.  Hurry up and register TODAY, the events are filling up fast!!

https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/search_adv.aspx?ssid=86D3C65655EA470D9D8E7D88FA710E8E

We hope to see you GP Insiders at one of these locations soon!

AndyW

Another amazing Convergence is coming to an end. Thank you for your commitment to Microsoft Dynamics GP. It is always great to see the event come together and showcase the many extraordinary achievements of our customers and partners.

I would like to take time to highlight a few of our outstanding customer stories that were recognized as Customer Excellence Award Winners at Convergence. 

Excellence in Innovation: Primo Water Corporation

Partner: InterDyn Artis

Retail Industry Excellence: Philadelphia Eagles

Partners: Positive Technology and InterDyn Cargas

Healthcare Industry Excellence: COLA, Inc.

Partners: VMT Technology Solutions

Congratulations to these outstanding customers and the Microsoft Dynamics GP partners who help them achieve this success.

It’s day three here in New Orleans, and the past few days have been full of sessions, meetings, demos, and newsworthy announcements!  I want to quickly recap just a few of them that our GP Insiders not attending may find interesting…

• Extender gets a facelift: One of our most popular add-ons has always been Extender, which gives users the ability to easily add additional windows and fields to an existing GP form/window.  We are happy to announce that some very cool functionality will be added to Extender in our SP4 release (slated for a July drop), allowing you to add entirely independent forms to Microsoft Dynamics GP without having to attach them to an existing GP form/window!  This will open up entirely new ways for partners and end users to customize Dynamics GP, all within a completely NON developer user interface.  We’ve done a number of demos and a couple of sessions on this functionality this week, and so far the reaction has been VERY positive.  One more note about this…the price for the Extender module will be going up on August 1st (an increase of around $700), so BUY IT NOW!  That’s right folks, Extender is on sale right now so grab this great module before the price goes up to reflect the increased functionality coming in SP4. :)
• Using Dynamics GP and CRM?  If so, you will be excited to hear we officially announced the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics GP this week!  The CRM Adapter will be an out of the box integration tool linking key data within CRM and Dynamics GP, and will be available late summer 2009.  This is a COMPLETELY new integration toolset, built from the ground up by members of the Fargo development team.  Similar to the Extender sessions/demos, we have gotten some great feedback this week on the new integration from our Partners and Customers.  I am sure we’ll go into this topic much more in a future post.
• Version “11” progress: We are roughly 12-14 months away from the release of Microsoft Dynamics GP version “11” (this is the internal name…we’ll likely ship with a different moniker for this release), and we’ve been busy this week giving Partners and Customers a sneak-peak of some great functionality coming in this release.  Here are the big version “11” demos we’ve done this week:
• Printing a GP form (such as a Sales Order) to Microsoft Office Word, along with giving users the ability to print any GP report/form to Word if they so choose.
• Emailing groups of documents (such as Purchase Orders) with just the click of a button (tons of functionality behind this…stay tuned for more).
• Allowing those you do business with to login to their own Customer or Vendor Portal, where they can view key information related to their transactions in Dynamics GP, or even make changes to select data within your system (a vendor updating the shipping dates on a PO for example).
• Charts, graphs and gauges galore!  Entirely new charts, graphs and gauges will be available on both the Business Portal dashboards as well as the Dynamics GP homepage.
• Want to get more details after viewing the new charts, graphs, or gauges? Version “11” will allow you to drill down from those graphical elements to reports that contain the detailed transaction data behind it, and then drill down all the way from those reports back into the Dynamics GP inquiry windows! 

Those are just a few of the newsworthy happenings going on this week at Convergence.  I’d keep going, but I’ve got to get over to the Convention Center for Kevin Schofield’s keynote.  Kevin is the GM of Microsoft Research and will be showcasing some of the awesome technology his group is creating behind the closed doors of MS Research.  It will be a fun glimpse into the future! 

Take care GP Insiders…we’ll catch you later!

AndyW

Tuesday was an amazing day of great demos and I talked to many customers and partners who really enjoyed the sessions.

The Customer General Session for Dynamics GP was fantastic, over a thousand people attended and based on scores it was the best General Session in recent history.  We had 10 demos, fun stories, and covered our product direction, all in 60 minutes.

Take Care,

Pam Misialek

Product Management (And Dynamics GP Insider)

With Blizzard conditions back in Fargo, we are happy to be here in New Orleans and excited to meet some new friends and catch up with some old ones.  It was very fun to see so many familiar faces at the Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner session today.  Microsoft Dynamics GP will be prominent tomorrow in the General Keynote session and I guarantee we will have the “loudest” Dynamics GP General Session ever at Convergence. 

Come see us at 11:00 on March 10th. 

New Orleans has already been a tremendous Host City.  Here is a picture of a local Dynamics GP partner.  You can see that they are excited about hosting Convergence in their home city.  Have a Great Convergence Everyone!!

Errol

Well, it’s Partner Day here at Convergence today, and the GP team has arrived almost in one piece!  There were some flight “issues” out of Fargo yesterday which left some of our team scrambling to get here.  Flights (and in some cases car rides) to and through Minneapolis, Atlanta, Memphis or Houston were all part of the journey here…but we made it. :)  In just under an hour, Kirill will deliver the opening keynote for Partner Day, and then the GP team takes the stage for our Partner General session.  Should be a fun and info-packed session!

To those of you joining us in New Orleans this week, WELCOME!  To those of you not here…WHY aren’t you here?!  Seriously though, we’ll try our best to keep you GP Insiders not here as up-to-date as possible throughout the week.  Stay tuned and we’ll catch up later…

AndyW

If you haven’t been out to Microsoft.com for awhile, now is the time to take a moment and see what’s new.  Specifically, be sure to check out a new Microsoft Dynamics GP landing page!  This page is loaded with all new demos, videos, white papers, case studies, 3rd party evidence, and much more.  The content is geared towards prospects who are evaluating Microsoft Dynamics GP, and speaks to the strengths of our Dynamics products and how they work with Microsoft Office and SharePoint to extend the reach of information throughout a company. You can also take Microsoft Dynamics GP for a “test drive” to see the product in action.  PLEASE take a look at the landing page and its components and let us know what you think.

Jen Dorsey

I guess the first place to start is WELCOME to the Official blog of Microsoft Dynamics® GP!  The Product Management and Marketing team is very excited to start this new medium for interacting with our Partners and Customers.  Secondly, I’d like to say CONGRATS!  What for you ask?  Well, by way of visiting (and hopefully reading!) our blog, you have become an official “GP INSIDER!”  We hope you’ll come back often to get all the latest and greatest information directly from those on the “inside!”

It’s been a very busy time lately for the Microsoft Dynamics GP Team, and there are a number of things we could talk about in our inaugural post.  However, in the interest of time (both yours and mine!), I’ll give you a quick update on the one event on everyone’s mind around here lately…

CONVERGENCE!! 

One of our favorite times of the year is Convergence, when we get a chance to bring thousands of our Customers and Partners together to learn, network, and have some fun (ok, for many of us, A LOT of fun!).  This year will be no different in New Orleans, as we have been busy getting ready to deliver a jam packed week that will deliver the in-depth learning, networking, and fun you have all come to expect from this event!  Check this blog the week of March 9th for daily Convergence updates where you can find out more about all the great things happening at the conference. We hope to see you in New Orleans!

Did you know?

• Learning:
  • We have over 100 sessions and interactive discussions dedicated to Microsoft Dynamics GP that will take place over the course of 4 days
  • We have over 70 speakers, all experts in their field, to deliver these sessions
  • There are over 30 scheduled hours of access to our Technical Support experts and 11 product-specific Hands On Labs for you to try Microsoft Dynamics GP for yourself
• Networking:
  • We have over 30 hours available to enjoy the Community & Learning Center, where you can visit with other customers like you or have meetings with ISV’s, Partners, and Microsoft staff
  • There are 18 hours of Expo scheduled for you to get your questions answered about Microsoft products and all of those fantastic ISV solutions
• Fun:
  • Don’t miss the Monday night welcome reception at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas
  • The Expo Reception on Wednesday night is a great way to learn and network while tasting the great food and drink of New Orleans
  • New Orleans has this place called “Bourbon Street” that I hear can be a fun place to hang out…perhaps you’ve heard of it? :)
  • Plus MUCH MUCH more. 

If you will be joining us at this year’s event, stop by the Expo booth or attend one of our sessions and let us know you are a GP INSIDER!  

Before I wrap up, I want to fill you in a bit more about our aspirations for this blog.  You can expect to hear more from my colleagues and myself via this blog about a range of topics, thoughts, and questions.  We’ll give you sneak peaks into new features and releases.  We’ll discuss current features you might not know about.  We’ll give you the inside scoop on upcoming events or promotions.  We’ll ask you questions about what you like and don’t like, or what you would like to see done in a future release.  We want this blog to strengthen the connection between the product and the people who make up the community around it.  Most importantly, we hope this blog becomes a mechanism not only for our team to inform you of important information about Microsoft Dynamics GP, but also as a means to hear from YOU, the “GP Insiders”, about the most pressing topics, questions, and issues you want to discuss.  We’ll do many things with this blog, and we hope to become a part of your regular web browsing habit along the way!

So please…we want to hear from you! Leave us comments. Tell us what topics you want us to blog about. Anything is fair game…well, almost anything!  And until our next post, we’ll catch you GP Insiders on the flip-side. :)

AndyW