Microsoft Dynamics NAV UK Blog

Bridget Jones & the NAV Sales Workshop

2009-11-23T21:38:05Z

Dear Diary,

Exhausted – these sales guys in the partners want everything – and I feel like I gave it to them! Just got home after running an NAV sales workshop at TVP. We covered everything, from strategic positioning for NAV to how the stack delivers benefit to clients. Great to hear people say how much they have got out of the course – everyone said that it will help them in their salesjobs. But exhausted none the less!

Here are some of the comments….

“The great thing about the day was the content was all about positioning not feature/function. “

“I found the course very informative – the principles will transfer to my job role directly”

“Very Informative & Motivating. Excellent Instructor. Thank You”

Still, can’t sit here all night blogging when there is a glass of Shiraz with my name on it.

Will write again soon, promise. Mind you, please don’t tell everyone about how good the NAV Sales Workshop is – the next one is on February 1^st in Manchester and I hear that it is filling up already – must be lots of NAV Sales guys wanting to get an edge over the other partners – mind you, don’t blame them – competition is hot and as we head towards Microsoft’s year end the smart guys are going to want to be best prepared! Pity the ones who miss out!

Ed Paice

BTW, Ed Paice is Managing Partner of Harness IT, which forms (with Firebrand) the Partner Development Centre for Microsoft Dynamics in the UK. Ed and his team not only run the Sales Excellence courses but also provide partners with pre-sales and application consultants when they need that extra edge. Ed can be contacted on 0797 172 9644 or epaice@harnessit.com

SharePoint 2010 Beta is now available

2009-11-18T19:51:53Z

Lots of our NAV partners have been asking recently about SharePoint 2010 and its availability – well the wait is over.

You can download SharePoint and Office 2010 here:

http://www.microsoft.com/2010/en/

Also check out this technical documentation to help you get started:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee428287(office.14).aspx

There are a load of features that are going to complement NAV superbly, the first ones we are going to be drilling into are the Business Connectivity Services – the next evolution of the Business Data Catalogue – and the BI capabilities with PerformancePoint Services and new Excel Services.

Stay tuned – Phil and I will putting together a new DCO demo HyperV image in the coming months!!

Will and Phil

DCO Demo Mate Click-Thru on the Blog!

2009-11-16T14:45:50Z

Isn’t modern technology amazing?

As part of a side project we are looking at how to publish Demo Mate files to the RTC using ‘Client Extensibility’ in SP1. Along the way we worked out that we can use the new SilverLight streaming service from Windows Live (http://silverlight.live.com/) to load up demo mate files to our NAV blog.

Partly as a proof of concept and partly to test the waters here is the world famous, award winning DCO demo of NAV & SharePoint working together to provide ‘Extended ERP’.

Run the Silverlight video and take some time to check out some of the other great features. We would love to hear your feedback. If you would like more of these then please let us know. Likewise if you already have Demo Mate running in the RTC then please shout as it will save me having to figure it out for myself.

You can download the demo mate exe for your own use from here along with the lab files from the September DCO workshops. Enjoy!

http://cid-84a09f3e130caea0.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/SharePoint%20%5E0%20NAV%20DCO%20workshop%20files?authkey=n6HjDe1Ueuw%24

Phil Newman

Yule (B)log

2009-11-16T11:38:42Z

Christmas is coming, and to add a little fun to the season, as well as stimulating debate around all things NAV, we thought it might be a good idea to open up the blog to guest editors.

So, can you come up with a blog that would interest the 400 or so people who regularly check our posts? A Christmas theme (such as last years’ how to configure a Christmas Dinner) is not essential, just interesting content for the community. Have you, for example, some observations on the state of the market, or come across a new and innovative way that NAV is being used? Perhaps you would like to suggest a great new feature and have others back you up, or maybe you would like to share experiences from the front-line.

As this is an official Microsoft Blog, submissions will have to be made to the team here first and we will post them for you. We can’t accept any advertising and the usual rules of “legal, decent, honest and truthful” apply, as well keeping the subject in the spirit of cooperation and partnership. We will of course credit you and your organisation. You can include a logo and a short description of your company. Lastly, we will also submit the best articles to the other NAV blogs, such as Sustained Engineering and FreddyK.

Submit your entries to pnewman@microsoft.com

So, get them rolling in and if we don’t see you before, then have a great festive season.

Phil, Will & Steve

NAV External Connector offer is back!

2009-11-02T10:23:46Z

I am delighted to announce that we are extending the promotional offer on External Connector. This will give more customers a chance to benefit from this new licensing method for unnamed users at the cost of BREP only.

The Context

Last year Microsoft introduced with an additional option for licensing access to the application, its data and its logic, in the form of the External Connector. With the External Connector, customers have the right to allow access to the application for an unlimited number of external users (i.e. users not working for the customers own organization).

The introduction of the External Connector for Microsoft Dynamics NAV should be viewed in connection with our Software Licensing Terms (SLT) clarifying those requirements applicable to any form of external access to the NAV functionality. This is also related to our introduction of Microsoft Dynamics® Client for Office (DCO). To obtain more information about the SLT changes and the corresponding terminology, please feel free to access the price list section available on PartnerSource.

Customers need to license access through DCO or External Connector in scenarios where external users are connected to the application. Notwithstanding the promotion below, this will be a requirement for all new customers as well as for existing customers (as provided for in the new SLT).

The Offer

With Microsoft Dynamics NAV, we want to ensure customers get the most out their investments. Therefore, we want to make the decision very easy for existing customers to expand the scope of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV solution to external users also (e.g. connecting to vendors and customers, or creating e-commerce solutions), and license this in the best possible way.

Microsoft offers the External Connector license (Granule 2510) to eligible Microsoft Dynamics NAV customers for the price of the maintenance plan (BREP) only. This offer is valid from November 1, 2009 until April 1, 2010. It will not be extended or repeated beyond this date.

Eligibility

The offer will be applied to orders placed to Microsoft for existing Microsoft Dynamics NAV customers with license issued before December 1, 2008, and where customer is current on its Business Ready Enhancement Plan (BREP) at the time of placing the order.

The Process

You should submit an order for the External Connector (Granule 2510) to the relevant Microsoft Operations Center (depending on customer location). In addition to the standard ordering steps, if you wish to take advantage of this promotional offer, you must indicate this on the order as follows:

ROC	External Connector Promotion Instructions
EOC Europe, Middle East & Africa Region	Please enter “VKB960665” in the PromoWeb ID field in either Commerce, Deployed C/CAPS or the EOC Order Coversheet
APOC Asia Pacific Region, Japan and China	Please enter “APOCMBSM10095” in the PromoWeb ID field on the Order Form.
AOC North America, Canada & LATAM Region	Please, enter “External Connector Offer” in the Subject Line when placing an order through PartnerSource > Ordering > Place and Order.

The Microsoft Operations Center will validate that the eligibility criteria have been met. If the eligibility criteria have been met, the External Connector will be added to the customer’s Microsoft Dynamics NAV license for the price of the enhancement/services plan (BREP) only.

Please note: The External Connector promotion will not be applied to the order unless you specifically request the promotion on their order as outlined above.

Configuration Solution from TDCI

2009-11-02T10:15:59Z

A great new manufacturing configuration solution from TDCI.

2 video links below with full demos.

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/jodonnell/BuyDesign-From-TDCI-Overview-and-Demonstration-Part-One/

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/jodonnell/BuyDesign-From-TDCI-Part-Two/

Phil

Download this months NAV Roadshow Lite Slides

2009-10-30T16:15:28Z

http://cid-84a09f3e130caea0.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Public%20Folder

Phil Newman

Technology Tuesdays

2009-10-28T21:29:36Z

The chaps from the SharePoint team are laying on a series of 1 hour SharePoint training sessions. I know that quite a few of you will be interested in these. Sign up today!

Phil

Collaboration and Portals in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

(3^rd November 4pm, Jessica Meats)

This live webcast is one in a series of SharePoint webcasts. This event will take a look at the collaboration and portal capabilities provided by Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007.

Enterprise Search in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

(10^th November 4pm, Tara Hellier)

A look at the search capabilities of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, including intranet search, people search and searching other business systems directly from SharePoint. The session is aimed at pre-sales and sales employees and will cover the need for search, examples of how search in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 can make users more productive and the business value of search to customers.

Business Intelligence with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

(17^th November 4pm, Chris Parkes)

Join this live webcast for a comprehensive overview of the Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities that are included in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. This session will cover the core BI components and features of MOSS 2007 including key performance indicators capabilities, Excel Services and dashboards.

Performance Point Server 2007 with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

(24^th November 4pm, Chris Parkes)

This session covers the use of PerformancePoint Server 2007 together with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 to provide comprehensive dashboard capabilities as part of a Business Intelligence (BI) solution. Join this live webcast to gain an understanding of both the licensing and advanced monitoring and analytic capabilities of PerformancePoint Server 2007 and the additional value it brings to a MOSS 2007 BI solution.

Collaboration and Portals in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

(1^st December 4pm, Jessica Meats)

VAT 2010 Changes to NAV - Whitepaper now on Partnersource

2009-10-21T11:13:00Z

· PartnerSource link to Dynamics NAV VAT 2010 white paper

Best regards

Steve Farr

Power of DCO

2009-10-21T10:20:00Z

Dear all

Great new case study about Total Enterprise Solutions and how they are using DCO licensing and Web Services to improve their implementations.

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?casestudyid=4000005482

Regards

Steve Farr

Exec Session Convergence Questions

2009-10-07T16:50:50Z

If you are attending Convergence later this month you can submit questions for the exec session ahead of time by using the email address below:

convergenceuk09@live.com

All Dynamic questions are welcome!

Phil

Zetadocs Client Extensibility Diff Disk Available to Download

2009-09-25T18:10:19Z

Hi There

I had a lovely time on holiday. Hot and sunny every day.

A lot of you attended the September NAV Roadshows earlier this month and saw the fantastic NAV 2009 SP1 client extensibility demo from Equisys.

I mentioned they were building out a diff disk to run against the latest VPC build. Well, gues what. They’ve only gone and done it!

You can download it here:

http://download.equisys.com/vpcs/zdnav/NAV2009SP1-UK/ZDNAV-UK-v2.1-ClientExtensibility.exe

The demo script is in the All Users start-up and on the desktop.

If you need a copy of the VPC itself you can download that here:

VMC File: https://mbs.microsoft.com/fileexchange/?fileID=4c810ba2-e44a-4a0e-9e2d-83e452f33b54

VHD File: https://mbs.microsoft.com/fileexchange/?fileID=3fbdf502-555c-4f1a-8189-c39cd876758c

Together the VPC and the diff disk make a fantastic demo base to take the message of NAV 2009 SP1 to your clients and prospects. Make the most of it!

Have a great weekend everyone.

Phil Newman

NAV 2009 SP1 VPC is now on PartnerSource

2009-09-24T01:55:34Z

Download the latest VPC available from the NAV product team.

https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/deployment/methodology/vpc/nav2009sp1.htm

This has got some of the really cool Client Extensibility examples (or Client-X as we are calling it – less of a mouthful!!). Quite a few tweaks have been done on the VPC configuration to improve the performance.

Will McIntee

Convergence is coming!

2009-09-23T13:49:00Z

Don't forget to register... some top line speakers from Microsoft Corp, the latest and greatest from NAV, CRM and Retail apps, a little bit of Surface, lots on Client Extensibility.

http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/convergence/europe/

Steve Farr

Extending ERP Workshops

2009-09-17T19:09:23Z

There are still places available at all of the E-ERP with MOSS workshops!! Shocking.

This is a great opportunity for NAV pre-sales consultants to get to grips with building an end to end demo of NAV integrated with MOSS Enterprise. Better still you get to spend the day with Will and Phil. You’d be crazy to miss them:

23rd September: Reading TVP

24th September: Birmingham

29th September: Manchester

30th September: Edinburgh

Go to: Extended ERP: Harnessing MOSS and NAV with the DCO to register.

Look forward to seeing you there!!

Will and Phil