Skydrive–25 GB free for existing users

I tend to store both my files on the cloud on DropBox, Evernote and Skydrive.

As I maxed out on the 2 GB Dropbox limit, and then the additional 6 GB – I started using Skydrive, only to be pleasantly surprised today with the option to upgrade to 25 GB storage for free.  Already paying a new company every month after exhausting my storage in this cloud world, this was a welcome freebie.

If you had a Sky Drive account before April 22nd, just go here to activate your free 25 GB storage. https://skydrive.live.com/ManageStorage 

Go book your storage, it is going to be very handy when Windows 8 comes out - Limited time loyalty offer

Are you still using FRx ?

I know you’ve probably had a long relationship. You have had your share of troubles, and joys. I am pretty sure it has been an emotional ride – and its difficult to let go. However, it is time.

FRx is not supported on 64 bit, and as far as I know it will not be supported in GP 2013. There are viable alternatives out – Management Reporter from Microsoft has a new version, MR 2012 is looking good, and there is a nice migration path to upgrade your FRx reports.

Check out this post by David Musgrave which is a nice summary of resources The Management Reporter 2012 Lowdown - Developing for Dynamics GP

Another very nice alternative pointed out by my friend Michael Zurzolo is BI 360, which is an excellent excel based Financial Reporting tool -  http://www.solverusa.com/products/frx

So please, start planning to move away from FRx. 

Microsoft Dynamics in Formula1

I was watching this interview from one of the guys in the Lotus F1 team and he was saying how having partnered with Microsoft Dynamics was helping them. I thought I was having too much coffee or working too hard – but then saw this news items from last month  -

Microsoft Partners with Lotus F1 Team

http://www.lotusf1team.com/Microsoft-Partners-with-Lotus-F1.html

As part of the partnership, Microsoft Dynamics solutions, which are designed to enable organizations to be more agile and globally competitive in today’s business environment, will be implemented at Lotus F1 Team’s Enstone, England, base to facilitate the team’s business transformation. For the duration of the agreement, Microsoft personnel will work directly with Lotus F1 Team to continuously transform and optimize operations towards a world class facility.

Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus F1, is starting at 5 on the grid today, I know which team I am rooting for.

Dynamics GP Web Client–What will and will not work

With GP 2012 coming out in Q4 2012, its time to  start preparing. David Musgrave has a nice post out about what will and will not work in the web client -

Microsoft Convergence 2012 Houston - GPPC PreGame & Web Client 

Please go read the complete post. I have quoted the unsupported items and David’s recommendations below -

While I think that the development team have achieved some amazing results and that the GP "12" Web client is just fantastic, there are some features of the full Desktop client which will not work in the first version of the Web client. There are some parts that are just too hard at this time and had to be skipped to allow the first release to stay on schedule. So here is the Not Supported in Version 1 list:

• Workflow
• Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) Customizations (note that Modified windows will work)
• UI Templates or style sheets for windows
• Visual Studio Tools (VST) winforms (note that .Net business logic against Dexterity windows will work)

Whether (or when) these features will get into the Web client is not know at this time.

My suggestions at this time to allow customizations to work in the Web client would be:

• For Dexterity customizations: Implement Ribbons and window Tabs for your forms. For best performance: Avoid using move field command. Clean out dead scripts (scripts with source but no executable code) - There will be a new pragma command to mark a dead script. Change hidden or ~internal~ windows to internal window type.
• For VBA customizations: Use modified windows as normal, but transfer the business logic from VBA to VB.Net in Visual Studio Tools. Avoid using VBA Userforms.
• For VS Tools customizations: Avoid using Visual Studio Winforms and use Modifier or Dexterity instead to create/modify windows. Business logic can remain in C# or VB.Net.

Its pretty straight forward – but I think the big decisions that partners would have to make is whether they need to

• Avoid VBA and VS Tool Windows and go for Dexterity/ Modifier windows with C#
• Wait for more information about what’s supported in V2 of Web Client

The Kinect with GP Demo at Convergence

2012 has been a very exciting year –

• Moving from the chilling cold to burning heat in Jan in Perth (and getting to meet the 'David Musgrave’)
• Getting to play a small part at the GP General session at Convergence 2012 (GP with Kinect Warehouse Demo)

There’s more coming up on the GP front and the Kinect front this year, but for now I just want to thank everybody involved in the Kinect with GP Demo. If you haven’t seen it yet – I recorded a part of it –

 

Kinect with GP Demo presented at Convergence 2012

 

You can watch the complete session and many other sessions at at Virtual Convergence

To read more about the GP General Session check out the following sessions -

• Microsoft Convergence 2012 Houston - Day 1: Dynamics GP General Session – David Musgrave
• Convergence 2012 Wrap Up -  Mark Polino
• The Dynamics GP Blogster: Microsoft Dynamics Convergence Houston 2012 - Day 1 – Mariano Gomez

Thank you the GP Product team -  Pam, Errol, Jay and Chad for letting me be a part of this, and Mariano and David for their help. This took up a large part of my weekends over the past 5 months – but was totally worth it. It was challenge considering we were using the Kinect SDK Beta – however, I think the idea was portrayed pretty well.

I have already had feedback from a lot of people about how something like this could be very helpful in the hazardous/chemical industries. With the Kinect SDK 1.0 and the commercial sensor now out – the possibilities are endless. I am very excited about the new Kinect + Windows 8 world – so if any of you are looking at doing something in this field and have any questions, feel free to give me a shout.