Okay, okay, so I know this is suppose to be a CRM specific blog, but I just couldn't help writing a quick post about some of the cool highlights I'm seeing for v.Next of Dynamics GP (codename GP "11" - very original, I know...!).

Obviously, these observations are just my own and are pre-release, so they don't commit the GP Product Team to anything whatsoever. (There's my general disclaimer.)  However, I found a couple of things to be very impressive and to parallel the CRM technology architecture.

The first thing that was awesome and exciting to see was that GP will have the ability to email documents and Word templates directly from the Actions Pane (a.k.a. "ribbon" to some users since it looks like the Office Ribbon).  For us CRM users, this shows us that GP is starting to follow [CRM] suit by leveraging the Office Mail Merge concept in a tighter and more integrated mode. (Hooray!!)

Another thing that marks significant performance improvement is the shift to more heavily leverage the GP Web Services as the primary API for integrations (like to SharePoint).  They've even gone to the extent of shifting the WSDL usage model from IIS bound to WCF so performance and utilization should be improved/streamlined.  Again, for us CRM users and developers, it appears to be following suit.

Finally, the GP reports in SRS are finally going to allow a drill back option (which we CRM users know as "drill through").  This should give a third dimension to the viability, usability, and general value returned from BI solutions for the GP product.  And guess what...this leads to another thing we CRM users are already used to (kind of)...dashboards!

Lots of cools stuff coming out of GP v.Next.  It should prove to make CRM/xRM cohabitation much more functional based on the paralleling of technologies alone!!