Six Microsoft Dynamics GP Predictions for 2014

Mark Polino shares his Five Microsoft Dynamics GP Predictions for 2014 over at MSDynamicsWorld.com. Its a great list, and if I may add a sixth prediction -

Significantly Increased Adoption of Dynamics GP on Azure

Hosting GP on Azure Infrastructure Services is quick, cheap, efficient and scalable. I have already seen quite a few customers, and partners take the lead on this. If you haven’t yet started looking into it – Microsoft has a dedicated page at Partnersource.

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 on Windows Azure

There’s video training, business value – but don’t miss the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 on Windows Azure Deployment Whitepaper. The web client is revolutionary technology, and if you have the option – I always recommend going for it. Unfortunately, not a lot of major ISVs are compatible with the web client which has slowed adoption. Meanwhile, on Azure infrastructure services – everything works.

As Partners we have significant benefits with hosting on Azure -

• Ability to reuse virtual machines
• So much easier to create test environments
• Less initial investment costs for small and mid sized businesses.
• Flexible licensing - there's no need to procure and install hardware locally or rewrite your solutions to deploy to the cloud.

Which countries have the most Dynamics GP Users ?

When introducing new users to Dynamics GP I often discuss the countries where Dynamics GP is popular. I had been using an old graphic, and after talking to people like Mariano Gomez – I know there are a lot of additional countries which use Dynamics GP. Mariano himself has implemented GP in over 20 countries. I knew David Musgrave had added a map graphic 4 years back on his website, and a few of us (other bloggers) had followed. The graphics show from where people are accessing the Dynamics GP websites.  I think the graphics below pretty much sum up the countries and regions where a lot of people are using for Dynamics GP.

Lots of Dynamics GP users in

• USA, and Canada
• Europe
• Middle East
• South East Asia
• Australia and NZ
• South Africa
• South America

Pretty much all over the world! By the way, if you are wondering why Dynamics GP is only on the coasts of Australia –  well, that’s where 95% of Aussies live.

Developing for Dynamics GP

by David Musgrave (Perth, WA, Australia) and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Developer Support Team (Fargo, ND, USA)

 

The Dynamics GP Blogster by Mariano Gomez

 

 

 

http://mpolino.com/gp/ by Mark Polino

 

Dynemo – The Dynamics GP Demo tool just got cooler

John Dooley has been working hard on an accelerated demo framework for Dynamics GP (and NAV and SL). His vision is to help partners meet the expectations of prospects with demo content, that can be provided quickly, and reused. Dynemo is a fantastic tool in that direction. In the last couple of years whenever I have opened up this tool to show to a partner, they have been blown away by the functionality.

There are many components to the tool, but my favourite bit is the engine below. You can begin with adding your company information, case studies, custom URLs. These will then be added to personalized emails for prospects. To test out, you can use the pre-recorded demos that John has already recorded.

 

 

 

In the example above – I select the areas I know a prospect is interested in - Introduction, Overview, Web Client and CRM/ERP integration. I click on export which generates a personalized email, and demo mate of these modules. 

Here’s an example of the personalized email that is generated -

 

 

The interactive trial points to Microsoft Demo Showcase Suite, the demo script is a document providing details. Finally there is a youtube video for the module. To give you a little motivation, check out the content generated in the example by using the links below -

• Interactive Trial  Demo Script Video   for solution area GP2013 Introduction
• Interactive Trial  Demo Script Video   for solution area GP2013 Overview
• Interactive Trial  Demo Script Video   for solution area GP2013 Web Client
• Interactive Trial  Demo Script Video   for solution area GP2013 CRM2ERP

John has worked hard to record videos showcasing individual features in GP 2013 web client, which are worth a watch themselves. If you have attended any of John’s sessions, you’ll understand that this bits in the pre-sales phase which would finally lead to a custom demo.   Check out John’s blog for details http://blogs.msdn.com/b/captain_stack/

Finally to get Dynemo and a powerpoint presentation showing this cool tool follow the links below -

• Aka.ms/dynemo1 – DemoMate of Dynemo V2
• Aka.ms/dynemo2 – Videos of Dynemo V2
• Aka.ms/dynemo3 – Dynemo GP V2 No Library (600K)
• Aka.ms/dynemo4 – Dynemo GP V2 W/Library (GP,SL,NAV) (250 MB)
• Aka.ms/dynemo5 – GP DemoMate files (source)
• Aka.ms/dynemo6 – Captain Stack Dynamics Blog
• Aka.ms/dynemo7 – Visualize Volume Video
• Aka.ms/dynemo8 – Powerpoint from the session

Dynamics GP Dashboard template for Office 365 now available

Microsoft has just made available the Dashboard template that can be used to create a new SharePoint Online subsite in Office 365. Previously, creating a sharepoint site involved a few manual steps. By importing the template which Microsoft has provided, you can create a subsite from the template very quickly.

Check out the details at -

• Downloads for Microsoft Dynamics GP Dashboards ( Customer Source)
• Downloads for Microsoft Dynamics GP Dashboards ( Partner Source)

To use the SharePoint template you need Microsoft Office 365 E3 plan or E3 trial plan.

Microsoft Surface 2 Review – and Tips

I bought a Surface 2 as an impulse purchase last week, knowing fully well that I might regret not buying the more beefier Surface 2 Pro. Lighter than the Pro, and only allowing apps to be installed from the windows store, the RT version of Surface just seemed limited. However, here is how I justified the Surface 2 RT over the Surface 2 Pro -

• Its lighter (680 gm)
• Longer Battery Life (around 10 hours)
• I already have a laptop for the beefier work.
• Cheaper (AU$ 527 for 32 GB version vs. AU $1016 for the Pro 2 64 GB). In addition, there was a discount on the tablet at the conference I was attending.

In addition, I could do the following easily -

• Connect to Azure Virtual Machines
• Use full version of Microsoft Office (actually almost full, as it doesn't support VBA, but that wasn’t important for me).

One week later, I am not regretting getting the Surface 2 at all. In fact, I have been pleasantly surprised multiple times. It started with the two freebies

• One year of Skype Unlimited World subscription : Living in Australia, and making a lot of calls to US, I always bought this anyway. I used to pay $45 every quarter for unlimited calls to US – so that was immediately a saving of $180 for me.
• 2 years of 200 GB free with SkyDrive : This means $200 of free storage for two years. After that I will have to either pay or download and dump it else where.  I currently have a Dropbox subscription, but its $199.20 per year. Skydrive is almost half the cost, so there is a big chance I’ll probably just end up using Skydrive storage.

I almost missed these two – till Sharepoint MVP Sezai Komur pointed them out to me.

Multiple Windows Stacking -

I was meanwhile, already loving the ability to stack multiple windows side by side so easily. So I could have skype open for instant messages and read my email at the same time. If two windows were not enough – Scott Hanselman by changing the resolution, showed how you could stack 3 windows. Its 1080p, so this does work pretty well.

 

 

Remote Desktop

This was again extremely easy out of the box, and with the great support of running GP on Azure – I am really looking forward to this. Again Scott Hanselman has a great set of tips on making this experience optimal - Using a Surface 2 (RT/ARM) to get actual work done + Remote Desktop + Visual Studio + Azure.

Business Analyzer App

This app was the reason I bought my first tablet a few years back. It’s been updated quite a few times and I think with the lightweight surface – I’ll be using this even more.

Kickstand 

One of the big issues I had with the first version of the surface was the inability to keep it on my lap and work. Microsoft’s listened and added a Dual-position Kickstand. This really helps keep it stable when you can’t grab a table.

Conclusion

I think with the second refresh of the Surface, Microsoft really has a strong competitor to the iPads and the android tablets.  The iOS app store still has a much greater selection of apps, but for a majority of my work which is in Microsoft Office, Surface is now my go-to device. The native Remote Desktop support helps as well. I’ll still be gifting my grandma an iPad, but for most working people – Surface is going to be my recommendation.

UPDATE : Leon Tribe also has a great review on the Surface 2 - Review: Surface 2 32G (Why I Am Shocked How Good It Is)

Business Analyzer New Release is out in the App Store

Readers of this blog might remember that I have been a fan of the beautiful business analyzer application for Dynamics GP for a long time. In fact it has been almost 2 years since I posted my video on a windows touch table - Dynamics GP Business Analyzer on a Windows Touch Tablet.

Meanwhile, the product has received a lot of updates, and its a great fit for Windows touch tablets. A new release came out over the weekend, and if you have not yet tested this application – not is a great time. Ian Grieve has great instructions if you need help installing this app - Installing Business Analyzer R5 From The Windows 8 App Store

Grab the Microsoft Dynamics Books at Packt

Packt Publishing are running a 50% promotion till 21 Oct midnight. Use the promo code COL50. Now is a great time to grab one or more from the great collection of Dynamics GP Books at Packt - http://bit.ly/1bqvB29

If you are seeing this too late – don’t worry – go ahead and buy the books still. Your support helps encourage the book authors, and the publishers produce quality content!

• Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Cookbook- by MVPs Mark Polino and Ian Grieve
• Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Implementation by MVP Victoria Yudin
• Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Financial Management by MVP Ian Grieve
• Developing Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Applications by MVP Leslie Vail
• Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Reporting, Second Edition by David Duncan, Chris Liley