Some of you may have heard on the grapevine that there is an adapter in development between Dynamics CRM and Dynamics GP. Well we have just announced the availability of a new DemoMate demo showing a high level example of the integration.

Dynamics partners can find the integration demo here.

Posted by Tom Brookes

Anyone who has recently seen me do a demo recently will know I like to talk about SmartList Builder and Excel Report Builder as great ways of getting data and reports out of GP. It’s one of my frustrations when I hear users cannot get the report they want from GP.

Well to assist we have now produced over 200 SmartList Builder  templates that you can simply import into your GP install to give you a good start on finding the reports that you need.

To get the templates click here.

If you don’t already have SmartList Builder you can find more about it here.

Posted by Tom Brookes

Those of you who have been listening to me recently will know that we are using a product called DemoMate to build more interactive slicker demos. It is a great tool and also really useful for ISV’s to build out their own demos to sell their products to the channel.

We’ve put together some webcasts and user guides as well as building out a number of demos across all our products. See what you think.

DemoMate demos

Posted by Tom Brookes

I was looking through PartnerSource recently and came across a new white paper on benchmarking Dynamics GP on SQL Server 2008. We added this compatibility into the product back when we launched the feature pack and often I get customers asking me about why they should go to SQL 2008.

The performance testing highlighted that Dynamics GP 10.0 showed an impressive 18% increase in performance through upgrading from SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition to SQL Server 2008 Enterprise edition when using Row Compression on select tables. 

Without Compression enabled, SQL Server 2008 still showed a 9% gain in performance when compared with SQL Server 2005.

An additional benefit demonstrated by the benchmark performance tests was how enabling Compression in SQL Server 2008 also reduced the disk drive space requirements of the Microsoft Dynamics GP company database, by as much as 52% in one benchmark test scenario.

It is interesting reading especially for those who are considering upgrading hardware and software.

Posted by Tom Brookes

As we all know environment accounting  is one of the current hot topics globally. One of my vast network of contacts recently pointed me in the direction of this document on PartnerSource on Environmental Management Accounting Implementation Guidance for GP.  It contains suggestions to help your company get started in using Dynamics GP to enable you to practise environmental management accounting.

There are a number of suggestions covering:

• Modify the chart of accounts
• Use Extender to track environment-related information
• The purchase costs of regulated raw materials
• Vendor costs for management/disposal of regulated wastes
• Track packaging materials and costs in the bill of materials
• Track water, fuel and electricity usage in the bill of materials
• Track waste outputs in the bill of materials
• Track environmental activities and costs via the project accounting module
• Improve allocation of environment-related costs
• Reporting

And my favourite is the use of Extender (as it’s also one of my favourite modules!) due to the flexibility it offers you can track what you want against whatever transaction you want.

If you don’t know about Extender yet and its capabilities then have a look as its a fabulous tool.

Here are a couple of links to get you started!

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/gp/bb457190.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=d2a199fd-8969-4089-b8a0-1876ec1ec072&displaylang=en

Posted by Tom Brookes

In June we release our rapid migration/implementation tools and based on feedback from the partners we have just released an update

This new release will allow partners to easily make changes to the Chart of Accounts from Intuit QuickBooks prior migrating to Microsoft Dynamics GP. 

Because many QuickBooks customers do not use the Account Number feature, or lack any structure to the Account Number field, significant changes to the Chart of Accounts format and numbers are typically required when performing a migration from QuickBooks to Microsoft Dynamics GP.  The updated Rapid Migration Tool will enable partners to quickly and easily make those changes during the migration process, allowing you to take advantage of Microsoft Dynamics GP's flexible and powerful structured Chart of Account functionality.
Download the updated Rapid Migration Tool today, located here.

Posted by Tom Brookes

As many of you already know the Analytics and Scorecarding functionality of Performance Point is being rolled into SharePoint. Have a read of the read of the full announcement here...

View article...

The opportunity for partners is fantastic here, especially with our Dynamics Client for Office Licensing. You can now have enterprise level BI for a cost that is now where near enterprise level!

Posted by Tom Brookes

As the UK partners know, we communicate with them via the Dynamics RSS feeds. Well we have created a new RSS Feed for Partners.

This will run concurrently with the existing Dynamics feed until they move over - so that we have a smooth transition. 

You will need to re-profile yourself to make sure you only select what is applicable to their role, business and interest to maintain relevancy of information.

Why have we done this?

The new RSS feed allows partners to keep updated with the latest Dynamics news as usual, but also provides the options to receive information related to UK partner specific news across Microsoft.

Please see a screen grab below and sign up here: http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/dynamicsrsshub/

Posted by Tom Brookes

Have you  seen the UK Dynamics landing page on Microsoft.com recently? It has been built round the concept of how animals have to adapt to meet the changing environment around them and how businesses have to do this as well.

Have a look – and let us know what you think. So don't hate change....adapt! and take a look at our new site.

Posted by Tom Brookes

We have now launched a GP test drive site (www.dynamicsGPtestdrive.com)  that provides customers an opportunity to actually testdrive the product in a virtual environment. There are hands-on labs and it’s host them online, so it’s a convenient way for people to try out the product with exercises. 

Have a look and let us know what you think.

Posted by Tom Brookes

A few months ago we launched the Microsoft Partner Network.  Why? Partners want to network with other Partners to realise more business opportunities.

So what is it? It is social networking site for partners to connect to each other and Microsoft. We’ve just rebuilt it after feedback and  talking to our social networking exports. Have a look at our Utube video to find our more.

So what can you do?

· Create, discover and discuss new collaborative business  opportunities

· Share their  knowledge and experience with the rest of the partner community

· Join and create your groups of interest

You can even write your own blog. Go on. Have look and join!

www.microsoftpartnernetwork.co.uk

Posted by Tom Brookes

I often get asked from partners and customers about Office 2007 and Dynamics GP. With the last release of Dynamics GP we built a fantastic integration with the Microsoft Office System (SharePoint 2007) to allow Dynamics GP users take full advantage of the features of this fantastic product.

So what a I talking about exactly?

SharePoint (or officially the Microsoft® Office system) and Dynamics GP work together to help people optimise productivity, access and analyse information, and collaborate and connect securely across the entire organization—regardless of whether they’re working in Dynamics GP or other applications.

So just imagine this. You have a sales manager who always phones you up for the latest sales orders and invoices in Dynamics GP. You email them a spreadsheet. The figures are wrong. They phone you, you email them, you revise figures…etc, etc. Well using SharePoint and GP together you can take full advantage of the reports library with SharePoint to store you library of GP reports that are authored in Excel. When you open them they automatically refresh with the current data in GP so they have exact data in their finance system, on their desktops. They can take these reports off line, access them in Outlook and they are all controlled by the end users so they can build them in the format that they want.

Just think of the cost and time savings to you as a business with this. Just imagine how many pointless phone calls can be saved and emails typed.

The guys in Fargo have been working hard again and have now produced some great info on this. Click here to find out more.

Posted by Tom Brookes

Ever heard about Extending the Reach and Getting More With Less?

Have a look at good company vs bad company…

http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/extendingthereach.

Posted by Tom Brookes

I sometimes get asked about books that can help new partners and customers get up to speed with GP, and have found some great titles out there.

Accolade Publications has some good books including

• Dynamics GP for newbies
• Confessions of a GP consultant
• Version 10 unleashed

There is also one of the “dummmies” guides, Dynamics GP for Dummmies which are always helpful and a quick search on Amazon always brings up a few titles.

Then again if all you want is the standard manuals that are all available electronically, you can always order hard copies from us from here.

Posted by Tom Brookes

I blogged back in July about the Silverlight demo that we had produced for Dynamics GP, well now we have a library of 20 demos available to the public. Take a look at them here.

They cover:

• Dynamics GP overview
• Financials
• Supply chain
• Human Resources
• Reporting
• IT Systems

They are a really great resource for customers and prospects to see how Dynamics GP can help them to be more productive, streamline their business processes and ultimately help save them money.

Posted by Tom Brookes