CommunityTeam

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Support Engineer answers a question from the Forums

shanekv — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:19:00 GMT

Greetings from Convergence Copenhagen 2008!

The Microsoft Dynamics Community team is here at Convergence Copenhagen and in this first installment of video blogging we connect with a Microsoft Dynamics NAV Support Engineer who answers an unanswered post from our Community Forum.

To view the original question posted to the forum click here.

Enjoy,
The Dynamics Community Team

View Video
Format: wmv
Duration: 0:50

Microsoft Dynamics Vision: Serious About Business Applications

lhallen — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:35:00 GMT

In keeping you informed of third-party evaluations of our products and technologies, I wanted to draw your attention to recent research from AMR Research. (www.amrresearch.com). The report, released March 15, 2008 under the title “Convergence 2008: Microsoft Is Serious About Business Applications” by Simon Jacobson and Nigel Montgomery, highlights Microsoft Dynamics’ commitment to the business applications market.

“The annual Convergence conference this year showcased…Microsoft’s commitments to the business applications market and moving forward with all four ERP products, as well as a long-term commitment to software plus services. It also showed a company with a vision: supporting a diverse set of customer shapes and sizes with a blend of hosted services and on-premise software.”

I hope you find this information helpful. Please let me know if you have any questions. You can find the full “Convergence 2008: Microsoft Is Serious About Business Applications” summary at: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/itanalyst/docs/03-15-08AMR_Research_ARTICLE_21272-Convergence_2008.pdf

Kind regards,
Liz
Senior Product Manager
Microsoft Dynamics Community Team

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties and confers no rights.

Happy Birthday to Us!

lhallen — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:59:00 GMT

Wow, the Microsoft Dynamics Finance Community turned 1 year old on March 7th! The last year has been a great growing year for this community, and we couldn't be happier with the amount of value it has provided to our customers and partners. Looking back over the last year we have:

Grown over 3800 registered members
Entered into content partnerships with The Partner Channel, CFO.com, and Thompson Tax & Accounting (content coming soon!)
Availability of the Microsoft Dynamics Connect Beta for sharing business cards via Facebook
Added additional forum groups and topics based on your feedback
Creation of Sales & Marketing and Customer Service communities

We look forward to the continual growth of the community. There are lots of other great enhancements coming your way. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments.

Thanks,
Liz
Online Communty Product Manager
Microsoft

Microsoft Launches Free Social Events Planning Tool via Windows Live.

DynamicsCommunityTeam — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 01:14:00 GMT

Looking to schedule an event for your team or company? Maybe you are in charge of an upcoming family reunion, birthday or wedding. Microsoft’s new Events Planning tool might be for you.

On October 11th Microsoft launched a new service via Windows Live that lets anyone create a customized and personalized web page for an event. Users can choose from base templates and then customize them by adding photographs, videos, and stories via blog postings. Built on the Windows Live Spaces framework the new service appears to hit a market that needs help, yet the new service from Microsoft has yet to be tested outside the company.

In researching the Events Planning tool, Microsoft used customer feedback, feature requests and Hotmail research to determine the value of the solution. In an eWeek article manager Jay Fluegel said that “a large proportion of mail between members was about planning a particular event, which reinforced the direct feedback about wanting more ways to connect with people they care about”.

More About the Social Events Planning Service
Windows Live Events enables customers to create web sites based on more than 100 templates, depending on the type of event the user is looking to create. Users can invite anyone as long as they have a valid email address. Knowing that not everyone is using Microsoft technologies, the team has made the Events Service compatible with competing calendaring services. Users invited to an event do not need to have a Windows Live ID unless they want to upload content. Since it is a free service from Microsoft there will be “unobtrusive” banners associated with the service, however the space below common header is that of the user, the Spaces team has worked hard to make that content below the banner completely controllable by the event owner.

Event websites on the Events Planning service does not have to take place before an event, users are able to create a web site for events that have already taken place. The allows individuals to create sites post-event allowing attendees to share stories, pictures and videos from the event. This is a key difference in Microsoft Event Planning from services such as Evite. Fluegel said “the differentiator was the focus on the sharing that takes place after an event has occurred”.

Ownership of an Event
Owner’s of an event will be able to delete photographs and comments on an event site, similar to Spaces today. Events sites will have monthly upload limits as Spaces does today but it can be reset the next month. This ensures that the service will continue to run efficiently.

If you have an upcoming event taking place maybe the Microsoft Live Events Service is for you. More information can be found at http://home.services.spaces.live.com/events/

Prepare for Daylight Saving Time Changes

shanekv — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:45:00 GMT

In observance of the various Daylight Saving Time (DST) changes, Microsoft has been working closely with customers, Partners, and others in the industry to help ensure a smooth and seamless transition. Earlier in the year, many customers across the world were able to transition smoothly by applying the right updates prior to the DST changes taking place. Microsoft is producing updates for Windows products as well as other Microsoft products affected by the changes. These updates will be released through Microsoft online channels such as Windows Update and Microsoft Update.

See Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article 933360, "August 2007 cumulative time zone update for Microsoft Windows operating systems," for information about the update. KB933360 will be issued as an Update Rollup and available through Windows Server Update Services. This Knowledge Base article replaces KB article 931836. Customers who have updated with the previous Rollup (KB931836) should carefully review 933360 in the section on "Updates from the previous cumulative Windows time zone update" and determine if this update is required for their environments. To see such updates in Windows Server Update Services, go to Update Classifications and select Change. Then, select Update Rollups and sync. More details on the changes for DST start and end times around the world can be found at the Daylight Saving Help and Support Center on the Microsoft Web site.

Microsoft is committed to helping our customers that are affected by the DST changes to make this transition as seamless as possible. Microsoft is providing the time zone updates at no cost for the updates on products that are covered by Mainstream Support. Support is provided as per our standard support policies. For more information on the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy, including options available for products in Extended Support, visit the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Web site.

The Silence of the Community Team

DynamicsCommunityTeam — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 20:22:00 GMT

It appears like the Microsoft Dynamics Live Community team has gone a bit silent over the last month or so, but rest assured we are busy working behind the scenes. So what exactly have we been doing?

We are ramping up for some updates to the site that will be announced and visible during Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Denver, CO in just a couple of weeks. We are diligently working on some behind the scenes platform updates that will enable us to make significant functionality changes in the future. Although you won't see any significant functionality changes in the WPC timeframe, you will see some changes in the content that is offered to you.

We are excited to be bringing to you some content which we discussed last March from The Partner Channel. We'll begin featuring this content in our Articles section. The Partner Channel magazine has wonderful articles, many of which come from former Microsoft and Great Plains employees. If you haven’t had a chance to see one of their magazines you will soon see the content here.

We are also very excited to announce a content partnership with CFO.com. We will begin featuring their "Today in Finance" column on the site enabling you to get broader look at the things you are most interested in.

In addition to the content updates, there will be some other user experience changes made to the site. Many of these changes are the results of some usability tests we did with some of you a few weeks ago. It is our hope you will enjoy these additions, we welcome any feedback you have regarding the content provided on the site or how we can make your experience even better. You can contact us any time at dlcommed@microsoft.com.

Best Regards,

Microsoft Dynamics Community Team

What happened to networking?

DynamicsCommunityTeam — Thu, 10 May 2007 19:45:00 GMT

We wanted to provide you an update on our current thoughts and status for the networking functionality. We also wanted to reach out to you for some insight and feedback. We'd be interested to understand what social networking sites you may be using today and what features you like and use (or would like to use) the most from these sites. The recently added poll on the site is also meant to help us prioritize some of these features.

At Convergence San Diego 2007 we announced networking would be available from the Finance Forum (and subsequent communities after that) in the few months after the event, however, after researching we have learned there is a LOT of great collaboration tools and features out there. We want to release the Networking functionality with the features which will provide the most value to you and have therefore chosen to slightly postpone the release in an effort to gather feedback from the community at large on what you would like to see included. Please share your ideas in this forum discussion. To help get your brain juices flowing, here are some items we are considering (but are not limited to):

Networking:

Create your own social networking profile
View recommended connections based on profile attributes
Search for other profiles
Interact with profiled members (via community mailbox or working groups)
Keep up to date with changes throughout your trusted network
Invite individuals to join the network community
View individuals connected to your trusted network connections

Working groups:

Communicate, collaborate and work together with a small subset of individuals from the broader community
Could be public or private
Add rich text content via blogs and articles, upload files or videos or post events
RSS feed aggregation that is visible to members
Content tagging
Email subscriptions on any changes to content

Microsoft Dynamics presense at the Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference

DynamicsCommunityTeam — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:41:00 GMT

For inquiring minds who want to know, here is an update on activities and results around driving Microsoft Dynamics' participation in the Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference!

Conference Overview:

The first ever Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference is being held in Seattle, WA, USA May 9 - 11 in downtown Seattle. Targeting Business and Technical Decision Makers, customers and partners alike, the event is intended to drive awareness, increase understanding, create a community around and offer education on the Microsoft Business Intelligence solutions. For a detailed look at the official conference Web site click here.

Keynotes: The event will feature keynote addresses by:

Dr. Robert Kaplan, Baker Foundation Professor, Harvard Business School
Michael Treacy, Founder & Chief Strategy Officer of GEN3 Partners and New York Times Best-Selling Author
Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft
Jeff Raikes, President, Microsoft Business Division
Ted Kummert, Corporate Vice President of Data and Storage Platforms Division.

Tracks have been uniquely organized to give business decision makers, technical decision makers, customer and partner attendees valuable information relevant to their needs. Microsoft Dynamics has been placed under the Client and Platform tracks (as we serve as a platform on which BI built and delivered, as well as a client experience to consuming BI). Specific tracks include "Business", "Client", "Partner", "Customer Best Practices" and "Platform". Go to Tracks for more details.

Microsoft Dynamics Representation:

Concurrent Sessions:

How Microsoft Dynamics Leverages the Microsoft BI Platform to Deliver Customer Value

Speaker: Irina Lewis, Michael Rich, John Dooley

PerformancePoint Server for the Mid-Market

Speaker: Andy Kamlet, Michael Smith.

Other sessions: We are working to integrate Microsoft Dynamics into other sessions such as those covering SQL Server Reporting Services

Chalk & Talks:

Business Intelligence in Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0

Speaker: Manoj Nuthakki; Yvonne Haarloev

Analyzing and Reporting on Microsoft Dynamics AX Data Using PerformancePoint

Speaker: Parul Manek, Oleg Ovanesyan; Bryan Schoening

Building Comprehensive Business Intelligence Solutions for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 with Microsoft CRM Analytics Foundation

Speaker: Michael Rich

NOTE: Due to other commitments and launch activities, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL and Microsoft Dynamics NAV were unable to participate in the C&Ts, but will have product representatives driving awareness of the BI solution sets at the Expo and Booth!

Expo Kiosks and Ask the Experts Booth: We have 2 demo kiosks and an ‘Ask the Microsoft Dynamics BI Experts' booth. Technology Specialists, Product Managers and other volunteers will demonstrate the value that Microsoft Dynamics add to the Microsoft Business Intelligence tools through the Role Tailored, Embedded and Easy to use approach to business insight.

Have you joined a User Group lately?

DynamicsCommunityTeam — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 16:47:00 GMT

We all know that there are many user groups out there and Microsoft most definitely supports any and all UGs as they are another avenue for customers and partners to get together to collaborate with each other, share best practices, and network - just as we hope you are doing on this community site! Microsoft Dynamics associated UGs help to maximize the value of a company's back end system for individuals as well as an entire organization.

The last year or so has proven to be an unbelievably successful one for Microsoft Dynamics User Groups (UGs). Much of the success can be attributed to a company which was recently formed called Dynamic Communities Inc., This is an independent organization which provides administrative support behind a few professional organizations. Today they support the Dynamics AX User Group (AXUG), Dynamics GP User Group (GPUG) and are in the early stages of coordinating a Dynamics CRM User Group (CRMUG). Microsoft is proud to be a sponsor of these organizations as we truly believe there is huge value to everyone in the community as a result of these groups. All of these user groups are commonly centered on the applicable Microsoft Dynamics product, but they all strive to meet the same goals. I would imagine these goals are the similar to those of other UGs:

Is a forum for learning and professional development
Provides collaboration, networking, and knowledge sharing
Is a source for unbiased information
Is an advocate for member needs and priorities
Serves as a collective voice ("pipeline") to MBS and Microsoft Dynamics Partners and Vendors
Promotes awareness of Microsoft Dynamics functionality, products, and services, as well as ancillary/partner products and services

I certainly don't mean for this to sound like a shameless plug for the UGs, but in some ways I guess it is! :) The only reason I say that is that I've not heard any member of these UGs be disappointed in the value they have received as a result of being a part of this independent community.

For those of you using Microsoft Dynamics GP, or are maybe thinking about purchasing the product, I would encourage you to attend the next GPUG Webinar - which is open to all members and non-members of the UG. Here is the invitation I received:

GPUG Roundtable - Customer Invoicing Best Practices

You are invited to join the Dynamics GP User Group for a Roundtable Discussion. This session will focus on best practices around customer invoicing. Discuss with other users how they've found success using native Microsoft Dynamics GP or 3rd party packages.

This GPUG program is open to non-members to find out one of the ways GPUG Members are enhancing their knowledge and optimizing their use of Microsoft Dynamics GP in their businesses.

WHEN

Wednesday, April 18, 2007, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM Eastern Time Zone

View Event Summary

There are several other events listed on each of the UGs web sites, but many are only open to members. Check ‘em out!

Best Regards,
Liz Hallen, Product Manager
Microsoft Dynamics Community Team

The Power of Community

DynamicsCommunityTeam — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 22:46:00 GMT

In a regularly scheduled e-Newsletter that we receive, an interesting article about how consumers and customers influence many facets of life when they work together in groups - basically another way to describe a community or the benefits of a community.

CUSTOMER POWER DRIVEN BY THE WEB

The shift from organization power to customer power continues, as customers use the Web to organize themselves like never before.

The Web gives organizational tools to the customer. The ability to organize 100 or 10,000 people used to be the exclusive domain of nations or well-funded private companies. Not anymore.

"The power of groups, the clout that crowds can exercise to get what they want, is nothing new," states trendwatching.com's latest report, Crowd Clout. "What is new, however, is the dizzying ease with which likeminded, action-ready citizens and consumers can now go online and connect, group and ultimately exert influence on a global scale."

In the report, CrowdSpirit, a fascinating example of customer power, is explained to us. Although still in development, it reflects key trends in the Web economy. CrowdSpirit allows customers to come together, not simply to buy products, but also to decide what sort of new products they'd like to see developed. Here's how it works:

Step 1: The community sends ideas, fine tunes them and votes for the best one.

Step 2: The best ideas and their product specifications are jointly defined with CrowdSpirit's research and manufacturing partners. Community investors start financing the product development.

Step 3: The first prototype is tested and fine-tuned by the community.

Step 4: Customers purchase products, thanks to the CrowdSpirit supply chain. The community takes care of product support and recommends products to retailers.

Other interesting examples of crowd clout include:

Cruisecompete.com where you can get travel agents to quote on the cruise you want.

Igglo.fi where potential buyers can 'pre-order' houses that aren't on the market, allowing potential sellers to find out how desirable their property is.

Eventful.com which allows music fans in a certain city, for example, to request that their favorite group come and play there.

Dutch United Consumers negotiates mass discounts on insurance, petrol and electricity on behalf of its 250,000 members.

Chinese sites such as Taobao.com and Liba.com that facilitate customers to come together and get group discounts on a variety of products.

SellaBand.com where fans can invest in their favorite bands in order to allow them to make new recordings.

According to Doc Searls, all this customer power is part of the Intention Economy, which "is built around truly open markets, not a collection of silos. In The Intention Economy, customers don't have to fly from silo to silo, like bees from flower to flower, collecting deal info (and unavoidable hype) like so much pollen. In The Intention Economy, the buyer notifies the market of the intent to buy, and sellers compete for the buyer's purchase. Simple as that.

"In The Intention Economy, a car rental customer should be able to say to the car rental market, 'I'll be skiing in Park City from March 20-25. I want to rent a 4-wheel drive SUV. I belong to Avis Wizard, Budget FastBreak and Hertz 1 Club. I don't want to pay up front for gas or get any insurance. What can any of you companies do for me?' - and have the sellers compete for the buyer's business."

Crowd Clout: Trendwatching.com

http://www.trendwatching.com/trends/crowdclout.htm

Crowd Spirit

http://www.crowdspirit.org/

This article was republished with permission from:

Content management solutions: Gerry McGovern

http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/

Convergence and Community

shanekv — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 01:06:00 GMT

8700+ people came together for the 11th Annual Convergence 2007 in San Diego, CA. The largest gathering of the Microsoft Dynamics Community in history! Congratulations are definitely in order to the entire event team as they did an amazing job on this year’s event; it honestly was the best Convergence I can remember. Personally this was my 9th Convergence and it was a great opportunity learn and reconnect with partners and customers I have met in the past, as well as meet new ones. This year was no exception. I really cannot remember a year in which there were so many first time attendees. What a great opportunity we have to continue to grow our community.

The launch of the Finance Community has received good coverage from online news sources and bloggers, most of which have been very positive. We are excited to have nearly 300 users signed up and registered already. I know we have the savviest and most passionate customers and partners, and I personally hope you all prove those skeptics wrong that think business solutions customers won’t want to network. The partners, customers, and MVPs that I have talked to certainly think we are on the right track and think it is much overdue. The biggest complaint we have received so far is that there is only a Finance community. Don’t worry there are certainly more RoleTailored communities coming.

We are really excited to get the Networking Tools out as we feel it will be a great opportunity to continue the learning and sharing that occurs at Convergence. We will also be working on making it easy to interact with the site via Action Panes similar to the experience you have (or will have) within our shipping solutions. We are also excited to have partners signed up to provide content, the first of which is The Partner Channel. The Partner Channel magazine has wonderful articles, many of which come from former Microsoft and Great Plains employees. If you haven’t had a chance to see one of their magazines you will soon see the content here.

If you have any other ideas feel free to drop us a line via the feedback links available throughout the Finance community web site. Additionally, if you have any features or elements you think we have missed give us those as well, or just leave your comments here.

Convergence 2007 and Community

DynamicsCommunityTeam — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 23:04:00 GMT

Convergence 2007 - Ready Together is upon us with more than 8500 Customers, Partners and Microsoft Team Members converging upon San Diego, CA. Convergence 2007 marks the 11th Anniversary of the event. Since the beginning of our community the transformation to where we are today is amazing, Convergence in 1996 in Orlando had a total of 100 people, since then the event has exploded into the premier event for the Microsoft Dynamics Community. This year’s event promises to be the most exciting Convergence to date.

Over the course of 4 days customers will attend keynotes, concurrent session, chalk & talks, learn how to maximize their investment in Microsoft technologies and make faster, smarter business decisions. The number one activity that happens at Convergence is networking; customers, partners and Microsoft team members interacting, asking questions and exchanging ideas.

At Convergence this year we are excited to launch our beta Microsoft Dynamics Live Finance Community in an effort to continue the growth and sharing that happens at Convergence and expand it to be a year around event.

Sign up to be part of the community and give us your feedback. If you see something that doesn’t work right let us know, if you have ideas on additional features send us your thoughts and we will see what we can do to get them added.

Enjoy your time at Convergence 2007, if you couldn’t make it, we look forward to seeing you in 2008!

The Microsoft Dynamics Live Community Team