East Region Microsoft CRM Blog : Off Topic

Dynamics User Groups Event in Atlanta coming up next week!!

chris.kahl — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:29:24 GMT

So for all of you Dynamics users, partners and especially CRM customers in the Greater Atlanta Area who yearn to learn, mark your calendars for Thursday, November 12th, 2009 for what promises to be a great event. The Microsoft Dynamics Customer Reference program team is offering a free one-year User Group membership to the Dynamics User Group of your choice:

“How do I get this wonderful gift?” you may ask…simply sign up to become a reference customer for Dynamics – especially Dynamics CRM (he said with shameless self-promotion!)

And if you really want to help Ben Vollmer win a free meal, go here to his website and read HIS shameless self-promotion! :)

- The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead - 4:30 to 6:30 pm

· 3434 Peachtree Road, N.E., Atlanta, GA 30326

- Mingle with Dynamics User Group Executive, Microsoft Dynamics Mgmt and Microsoft Dynamics peers

- Community outreach Toys for Tots collection – donate an unwrapped toy and receive a free copy of Office 2007 Professional as our thanks!

We hope to see you on Nov. 12^th!

Event ID: 1032430024

www.msevents.microsoft.com

OR # 1-877.673.8368

Mea Culpa, mea culpa…I’ve been a very bad blogger!

chris.kahl — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:55:26 GMT

There has been so much information coming out over the past couple of months it seemed like not a day went by that I didn’t say to myself, “I really ought to post something on that!” and yet with my travel schedule and sincere desire to try out this thing they call “work/life balance” and actually take a little summer vacation, I have yet to post much of anything. SO…fair warning – watch this space as I will be posting at a more brisk pace for the balance of August to try an catch all you East Region CRM fans up on what’s new for CRM customers and partners and who in the ISV community has been bringing the VALUE!! Stay tuned…!!

I REALLY Need to Check my mail box more often

Ben Vollmer — Mon, 26 May 2008 22:37:23 GMT

So I went into the DC office the other day and checked my mail box. Can you guess the last time I checked my office mailbox?

Yup. Beginning of December. (And it is now Almost the first of June...)

It also looks like the team over at EntreQuest are doing a killer drip marketing campaign around their Truby.

And it looks like AMEX missed the memo... And Avis keeps sending me tickets for running tolls even with my EZPass.

net net? If your gonna send me mail, email me to get my address. :-) The office mailbox and I are long departed friends.

Greetings from TechReady6!

chris.kahl — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 05:04:00 GMT

Hello everybody. Welcome to my inagural blog post. So I will readily admit that I'm pretty new to this whole blogging thing. Please be generous with your praise and constructive with your criticism as I attempt to fill the ginormous shoes of Mr. Ben Vollmer on this blog. I know it won't be easy but I promise to do my best.

I had the priviledge and pleasure this past week of attending TechReady6, Microsoft's twice-a-year geek-fest here in sunny Seattle. As a relative newby to Microsoft, it has been great to witness the level of technical expertise and forward thinking evidenced by the various speakers and product team members I have seen present here There is so much cool stuff coming down the pike it is almost scary. That said, one of the biggest areas of interest has been around Business Intelligence topics and tools; Performance Point, SQL Server 2008 and SharePoint are all converging into a pretty formidable BI framework. "So...", you're asking, "...what the heck does this have to do with CRM, Chris? " Great question! The real pay-off to a successful CRM implementation is the deep level of customer interaction data that can be captured and analyzed. With some of the tools I've seen here at TechReady, I am looking forward to showing customers the kind of insights and true business intelligence they can mine from CRM using tools they are already familiar with like Excel and SQL Reporting Services.

And it's not just me saying this stuff. Take a look at the blog linked below to read what our friends at Gartner are saying about Microsoft BI.

http://blogs.msdn.com/bi/archive/2008/02/06/microsoft-bi-actually-leading-in-the-gartner-bi-magic-quadrant.aspx

I look forward to getting to know all the regular readers of this blog that Ben has done such a great job of building into a world-class Dynamics CRM resource. Please feel free to add your comments and suggestions to help me maintain the high standards Ben has set.

Moves, Adds and Changes to some CRM Blogs

Ben Vollmer — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 00:57:06 GMT

In the past couple of months, I have gotten pings from several partners as well as employees who have relocated their blogs or started blogging. (And for those of you asking, mine will be moving to www.BusinessNone.com in the next couple of months as Chris takes more ownership of the blog and my silly stuff gets pushed in both locations for a while.The content that is there is not real btw... it is for another project I have been playing with.)

Stephen Noe:

Stephen Noe one of my partners from NC just started blogging. Some good reads here. :-) http://www.bizitpro.com/weblog/

Rich Oyler:

And Rich a Partner that Susan and I got the privilege of meeting at our Atlanta Partner Readiness Tour from Saratoga Technologies in TN also started blogging. You can read his blog at: http://crmblog.saratogaus.com/

Menno te Koppele

And of Course, Menno moved. Here is the link to his new blog location.

Man is it cold...

Ben Vollmer — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:21:24 GMT

I got a last minute call to come help out Mid West Area. It was VERY last minute. (Thanks Daniel!) Unfortunately, I didn't think about calling Mike and Jim until after I was on the ground. We came in on a Regional Jet. We flew in lower over the city than I have ever been... Here are some pretty cool shots of Chicago, where I might add it is about 10 degrees below zero. Without wind.

The event was great. We had about 40 or 50 people in a room for a Partners annual user group meeting.

Also got to meet Jen G, the new SSP for CRM for the Mid West Area. (As well as catchup with the Area Sales Manager.... It is amazing how small the world really is... :-))

Here are some pretty cool pictures I snapped on the way in. Was a great view for me of the city....

Postings....

Ben Vollmer — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 07:19:50 GMT

I just noticed I really haven't posted much in a month or two and then in one day four or five posts popped up. :-) Sorry about that. I have been super busy with getting stuff done and the blog was sorta kicked to the bottom of the to do list. Duly noted. Blog will be updated much more frequently. (And I didn't just want to cut and paste product announcements from the Product Team like some people....)

On my to do list is updating many of my code samples from 3.0 to 4.0 that used "unsupported" customizations. That will probably happen later next month.

In the mean time, in the East Region we are in full swing planning for the CRM 4.0 Launch events. Look for more details here next week as we have some East Region only events you will LOVE to participate in.

Office Offline - Great Comic Blog

Ben Vollmer — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 03:40:24 GMT

This is an awesome blog that after reading one post, it immediately hit my RSS Feed List.... If you have a sense of humor at all, check out what David from our office team is blogging. Here is his cartoon for today.... You may want to subscribe as well..

Office Offline

Dynamics NAV Development Team Starts Blogging

Ben Vollmer — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:04:59 GMT

It looks like Ilana has finally talked the NAV team into Blogging. They have an intro blog post up today. Since she was one of the brain trusts behind the CRM Team Blog, I would expect great things from their blog. If you focus on Dynamics NAV, add their feed to your RSS Reader.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Team Blog : Welcome to the Dynamics NAV Team Blog

Wanna work as a Technical Specialist on Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM?

Ben Vollmer — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 03:05:46 GMT

Say that about a dozen times fast... :-) This team has three open head count... Should be a fun team. I understand that they may be open to some folks NOT living in the Seattle area. :-) With the job title, they could have made them just a LITTLE harder to find. I have some good friends including Charlie and Dan who are heading up the channel strategy and the sales teams, so the team should be killer. :-) Enjoy!

Search Results - Microsoft Careers

Almost Back....

Ben Vollmer — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:55:14 GMT

It has been a KILLER month off. I actually have some useful information coming VERY shortly. In the meantime, here are some pictures of IASCA Finals from the 15th and 16th of September. If you look closely, you can spot me in the Judge's pictures. :-)

www.flickr.com

Ben Vollmer's IASCA World Finals photoset

Taking some time off...

Ben Vollmer — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 16:55:34 GMT

So as many of you know, we had a son last year. He is now 10 months old. One of the coolest benefits that Microsoft offers is Infant Care Leave, which is for both fathers and mothers. The catch? You have a year to use it. And it is a full month off. So, given that we will be having a launch soon and all of the fun associated with that, now looks like the best time to check out for a little while.

So for the month of September, we have arranged from a back up or two for you to utilize. When you send me an email, please read the out of office email and feel free to harass those who volunteered (drafted) to cover for me. :-)

But, as you can see, my wife and two awesome sons are going to do a bunch of fun stuff. We will be hanging out my parents in NY for a couple of weeks, headed to IASCA finals at Nopi Nationals and then on the beach for a week. See you in October!!!

Interested in Dynamics GP?

Ben Vollmer — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:39:16 GMT

My good friend and co-worker Mike Crigler has started a Dynamics GP Blog. Since they are in the midst of a product launch, he is using it as an excellent way to get data out to partners. :-) Congrats Mike and welcome to the 21st Century! You can read Mike and the GP TS Teams thoughts at: http://blogs.msdn.com/dynamicsGP/

Worldwide Partner Conference - Will You be there?

Ben Vollmer — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 00:21:26 GMT

If so, please look up the rest of the CRM Team. I know that a bunch of the CRM team will be there including Product Marketing, Development and the Field Team. In July we have WPC, MGX and TR5. The last two are internal meetings, but they last every bit as long as WPC. (About a week.)

So I would be gone for three weeks. Which is normally not that big of issue. Except for this. I am WAY overweight. Like I am not in the extreme obese category according to the CDC. (like a BMI of ~40, which is not good.)

One of the benefits Microsoft offer's it's employees is a "Weight" Management benefit, which is pretty cool. It offers a doctor, fitness instructor, nutrimental guidance, and much more. So after my annual physical this yeah, I got serious. We are kicking off this program and I do not want to be gone for three weeks while the program is just getting kicked off.... So two weeks HAD to go.

Since TechReady5 (or TR5) is going to be chuck full of CRM goodness, the decision was easy. :-) I am ditching WPC and MGX to stay home and get this program kicked off and ingrained into my system.

So I started at the svelte weight of 318 lbs. In the next year, I am hoping to drop around 100 lbs, which will bring me back to a somewhat ideal weight of 220 lbs.

In case your interested and have nothing else to do, you can visit FitDay for my progress journal. I will also be posting progress notes on my personal blog.

OT: Way too funny!!

Ben Vollmer — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 01:21:49 GMT

Here is my sick sense of humor.... This is way too funny... Read the whole article... I was in tears...

Sometimes you can’t make it up any weirder than it actually is. That definitely was the case on June 14, when a pair of environmental pranksters managed to promote themselves as keynote speakers at the Gas and Oil Exposition – aka GO-EXPO 2007 – in Calgary.
Masquerading as officials from ExxonMobil and the U.S. National Petroleum Council, the two appeared before an oil industry audience and the buzz was that they would deliver long-awaited conclusions of a study commissioned by U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.

It’s new, it’s disgusting! And it fooled an oil industry group - Reuters Blogs