We are on our way to Microsoft’s Convergence 2011 in Atlanta now. It’s an exciting time for Dynamics SL partners. We have not seen a significant feature upgrade to Dynamics SL for at least a few years. This version seems to be adding a lot of needed functionality.Dynamics GP has a wonderful capability called “Smartlists.” The tool is baked into the system manager and allows for easy fetching of data-without having to know table and field names within the database. The Dynamics SL version of “Smartlists” will be called “Quick Query”. It will be nice to see this.Many of our larger clients attend Convergence and so it is always pleasant to be able to say “thanks” to the organizations that we work so closely with.Another feature set … [Read more...] about Convergence 2011
Resource Management
Tenrox, QuickArrow, SAP’s Business by Design, and even Microsoft Project are all good tools to help you manage your organization’s professional services resources. We are expecting a good tool like this from Acumatica later this year for optimally scheduling your project resources also.Randy Mysliviec, a partner of a consulting firm in Cincinnati, provides nice whitepapers and webinars on the topics of resource management, resource forecasting, and project management. In many of these papers and webinars he makes the point that many of us do our best to manage projects without managing our resources (improving their skills so they can do more) very well.Some of his math is eye-opening in terms of what a small increase in utilization … [Read more...] about Resource Management
Convergence 2011 in Atlanta
Convergence is a wonderful event-especially for those users that have either Dynamics GP or Dynamics CRM. This year users of Dynamics SL will get their money’s worth as there is a nice new release of Dynamics SL that is adding, for the first time in a while, substantive improvements to the software that will make for a much better product.Some of the tips I would give you for attending Convergence 2011 would be to plan out who you want to meet with and get the meetings set up ahead of time. If you wait until you are down there, you probably will not be able to schedule a meeting with the people you want to see as they may not be there when you are or have an already full calendar for those days.Look carefully at the sessions and make … [Read more...] about Convergence 2011 in Atlanta
Project Management Institute-Minnesota
I attended my first PMI-MN meeting last night and was impressed with how well the group was run. They had a nice orientation, information about passing the PMP certification and wonderful speaker from Medtronic.The speaker’s topic was the difficulty in managing SAP R3 implementations throughout the world. I have to admit that I was not jealous when she described the 16 hour days that their PM’s were routinely going through for a long number of years. Culture differences in foreign countries, value-added taxes in far away places, and competing for resources with other Medronic projects made being a PM sound very challenging.The group had a number of ambitious, yet unemployed, people in the group. It was the first time I stopped to … [Read more...] about Project Management Institute-Minnesota
Microsoft Dynamics Light Users
Most employees in organizations cannot access critical business data they need within business management solutions.The Microsoft Dynamics Light User is a partial access license for users without full-client access to Dynamics GP, and Dynamics SL. At $195, it’s a cost effective way to give your employees the financial, human resources, and operational information they need with software they already use – Excel, Outlook, and Word.Dynamics GP 2010 and Dynamics SL 2011 include Dynamics Light Users in both the Business Essentials and Advanced Management editions. Dynamics Light Users contain a great deal of functionality at a low cost, including business portal solutions, reporting, and database accessibility. Capabilities of Named … [Read more...] about Microsoft Dynamics Light Users
Accounting Software Completeness
Over the years, I’ve seen often the battle in accounting software being won by the vendors that offer the most “completeness.”It was the completeness of Dynamics GP that has helped it to gain such a dominant position here in the United States. Not only does Dynamics GP have a complete offering of financial modules, and distribution modules, the product also possesses the most impressive list of ISV’s (Independent Software Vendors) ever assembled for the mid-market accounting and ERP space.To be specific with GP, modules such as Collections Management, National Accounts (parent/child invoicing and payment application), Grant Management, and Analytical Accounting, don’t exist on most competitors’ price lists in the mid-market.Dynamics … [Read more...] about Accounting Software Completeness
Project Manager Answer Book
I just listened to a very good podcast by Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, called the project management podcast.The podcast has a nice array of variety with project management predictions from pundits, PM’s from the Department of Defense, teachers, authors, and regular project managers with their PMP and lots of experience.He has a typically wry sense of humor in stating on his website that he “currently lives in Silverado, California, with his wife and their two computers.”In the podcast he interviews Jeff Furman about his book “The Project Management Answer Book”. The author has strong examples from his book and appears to be a great teacher.I ordered the book and am looking forward to learning the following better: Controlling risks … [Read more...] about Project Manager Answer Book
Project Summit and BusinessAnalystWorld
The Project Summit BA World event is coming to Minneapolis June 13th through June 16th and will be held at the Marriot in St. Louis Park, MN.Project Summit & BusinessAnalystWorld is the Project Management and Business Analysis industry's leading conference. They uniquely empower Business Analysis & Project Management professionals with the resources and tools necessary to ensure that projects are clearly defined and executed.If you use the Dynamics SL Project Series, this event could be something worthwhile for your Project Managers. There will be a lot of education toward your PMP certification and no travel required. … [Read more...] about Project Summit and BusinessAnalystWorld
Sales Commissions Ideas and Payment Methods
When you support accounting software, you get a good feeling for how many different ways people pay their sales commissions. Some are straight forward, and some are so complex that they have to be done in a Excel.Like most things that are motivating, simple is better with sales commissions.Generally there are (to me) four rules that make sense to follow. Your best bet with salespeople is the same as it is with every other type of hire.First, you need to find someone that is going to do the right thing for clients-regardless of how you pay them. Part of doing the right thing is truly understanding the clients issues and your potential solutions.Second, paying only “when paid” makes sense. It is more difficult to compute but … [Read more...] about Sales Commissions Ideas and Payment Methods
Project Accounting and Project Scheduling
It is difficult to find a Project Accounting program more capable than Microsoft Dynamics SL. This solution for years has lead in its ability to handle flexible project billing formats, create unique billing and allocation transactions based on a variety of other transactions, and allow project timecards/expense reports to be approved by multiple project managers rather than simply the workers’ immediate supervisor (assuming most people work on more than one project and that those projects have different PM’s rather than one’s immediate supervisor).The software has a nice “project-centricness” to it also in that projects were designed into the software seemingly from the beginning with most reports having a “by project” option or ability … [Read more...] about Project Accounting and Project Scheduling
