Editor's Note: This episode is sponsored by DXC Technology.
There is no single approach to successfully tackling challenges like project methodology, executive sponsorship, user adoption, or planning for post go-live support, but they are all absolutely critical to a successful Dynamics 365 project outcome.
This podcast episode explores some of the very real decisions organizations must face before and during an enterprise software project, and how they reckon with the factors that determine success. The responsibility – and the credit – for a successful project outcome is almost always shared between the services delivery team and the customer's own people. Microsoft MVP Rick McCutcheon speaks with Russ Riley and Greg Pierce of DXC Technology about the mindset of great project teams and what a strong partner relationship looks like during and after go-live.
If you’d like to speak with our guests or learn more about DXC Technology and how they can help your organization move your business applications from on-premises to the cloud with post go-live support, you can reach them at phone no#: 877-651-6193 or email: dxceclipse@dxc.com.
Editor's Note: This episode is sponsored by Ingram Micro Cloud.
Dynamics 365 is one of the product areas in which Microsoft encourages its partners to push for growth. With some of the highest margins in the channel, Dynamics is a lucrative opportunity for firms -- if they can make it part of their portfolio.
In hindsight, many partners forget or may not have the capacity to add Dynamics 365 to their practice while most may not have the talent, operating model, or financial structure. With the economic impact in today’s market, traditional ERP or CRM isn’t a want anymore, but a need in the digital transformation era.
Mathew Batterbee, UK & EMEA Dynamics 365 lead at Ingram Micro Cloud, joins the podcast to discuss some of the ways Ingram is working to bring more Microsoft partners into the Dynamics 365 space. Growing the number of partners transacting on Dynamics will require some new thinking and new program models, he says. We discuss some of Ingram's latest programs and also look at broader updates in the Dynamics partner channel like new the BREP to CSP incentives and the untapped potential of Microsoft's Cloud Ascent tool.
Show Notes:
The news roundup podcast returns! developments. MSDW editors discuss a range of topics including:
While the second episode in our GP upgrade series dealt with customer needs, both current and future, this episode looks at some of the specific conversations that customers and their partners have when it is clear that a change is coming.
As we discuss in this episode, there are several precipitating factors that lead to a change from the GP status quo. And it is pretty clear that some ERP veterans, including our guests, Karen Riordan of Menlo Technologies and Peter Joeckel of TurnOnDynamics, have not yet embraced the idea that all or even most GP customers should move to Dynamics 365 Business Central. For some GP customers, BC is a good option, they say. But they also make the case that plotting the wrong path forward can result in big outlays of time and money with little to show at the end.
Show Notes:
In the first episode of this series about upgrade strategies for Microsoft Dynamics GP customers, Karen Riordan of Menlo Technologies and Peter Joeckel of TurnOnDynamics joined us to discuss the wide-ranging the experiences of these organizations and varied viewpoints they hold today when it comes to the much-hyped promise of moving from on-prem ERP to Dynamics 365 Business Central in the cloud.
On this second episode, we go deeper on the needs of GP customers today. The tens of thousands of GP customers in the world are a diverse group. Some have watched carefully as Microsoft and other vendors have released their new generation of ERP solutions, while others need someone to come in and start from the beginning on what cloud is all about. Peter and Karen agree that GP customers should expect their partners to take a consultative approach rather than acting as an extension of their IT team. And they discuss some of the signs that a company is a good candidate for moving to pure cloud ERP as opposed to some other alternative.
Show Notes:
When the full extent of the coronavirus pandemic finally became clear to businesses around the world, the falling stock markets, locked up supply chains, and panic buying were accompanied by a frenzy within marketing departments to re-calibrate both their messaging and their communication channels.
For marketing automation vendor ClickDimensions, one of the results was a massive jump in message volume from customers, says the company's CEO Mike Dickerson. He also observed that the crisis has put very different demands on the customers and the Microsoft partners with which his team works on a daily basis. Dickerson talks with us about these recent experiences and his observations on changes in the Microsoft channel since he last joined the podcast, including the evolution of digital marketing more generally, the need for special skills to accompany a marketing automation deployment, and the ISV Connect program.
Show Notes:
Talking about digital transformation to an Microsoft community audience is a little like talking about gold medals to Olympic athletes. They all understand, they have all heard it a hundred times before. But few have a good chance to reach the goal. Fortunately, strategic IT is not a winner-take-all sport, and our returning guest for this episode, Guus Krabbenborg of Dynamics and More, has been spreading the message that all organizations have the opportunity to transform by shifting their thinking, re-focusing some IT priorities, and demanding a different kind of relationship with their technology partner.
Guus has a new book that tackles these challenges. We dive into Guus's motivation to create the book and his experiences in the last few years that shaped his message to customers and partners.
Show Notes:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guuskrabbenborg/
Email: gk@dynamicsandmore.com
Kerry Peters and Cynthia Priebe of New View Strategies join the MSDW Podcast to continue the discussion on some of the critical and timely topics they have raised in recent articles about bringing automation and digital tools to bear in financial management with Dynamics 365 Business Central.
They discuss some of the pressures their clients have faced in the last two months due to COVID-19, some of the new features of Business Central that they believe hold a lot of value for clients, and what they have learned about introducing new organizations to Business Central.
Articles referenced:
New View Strategies has created a page that collects all their remote work articles and a checklist.
Editor's Note: This episode is sponsored by DXC Technology.
Companies say they want off-the-shelf software, but the reality is that most products can't meet the needs of a sophisticated enterprise without some amount of enhancement. On this episode we assemble a roundtable of experts from DXC Technology to dive into the common challenges and questions around investing in custom software development. Our guests, delivery manager Mindy Waters, enterprise integration expert Keith Honkonen, vice president of software engineering Will Wirtz, and sales director David LaMarre, discuss software requirements definition, roadmap development, and how to build atop off-the-shelf or bridge the gap between solutions.
And they explore why software development fits in more naturally with application modernization efforts than many enterprise or mid-sized organizations might think.
If you’d like to speak with our guests or learn more about DXC Technology and how they can help your organization move your business applications from on-premise to the cloud, you can reach them at phone no#: 877-651-6193 or email: dxceclipse@dxc.com.
Editor's Note: This episode is sponsored by DXC Technology
Organizations with on-premises Dynamics ERP or Dynamics CRM solutions probably understand that moving those workloads to the cloud requires planning. But with so many variables, no two cloud journeys are exactly the same.
Today's podcast guests, Chris Lavelle and Heather Palmieri from DXC Technology, join Microsoft MVP Rick McCutcheon to share their experiences planning and delivering cloud migrations of various types. The process always starts with a conversation to understand the business goals and the current application environment, Lavelle and Palmieri explain.
Listen in as our guests discuss their experiences working with customers to move a Dynamics ERP or CRM solution to the cloud and what kinds of plans, expectations, and decisions lead to success.
If you have questions you can get in touch with our DXC guests at dxcexclipse@dxc.com or by calling: +1 877-651-6193.
Show Notes:
Editor's Note: This episode is sponsored by DXC Technology.
An organization with a mandate to embrace digital transformation can only achieve its goals if it considers the needs of its workforce. Expectations by the executive team around productivity, flexibility, and expertise hinge on supporting employees with the tools that enable them to do their jobs no matter the challenge.
Today, as IT departments navigate a landscape that bridges the on-premises systems of the last two decades and today's cloud-based services, decisions around new technology investments will determine whether an organization can support a digital workforce.
In this episode, we hear from three subject matter experts from DXC Technology on how their clients are transitioning to support a digital workforce. DXC sales director Russ Riley, director of operations David Bowles, and IT manager Pete Loach sit down to discuss how a digital workforce succeeds today. We dive into how IT leaders are assessing their next investments and the measures that organizations are taking today to accelerate their digital journeys.
If you’d like to speak with our guests or learn more about DXC's work with organizations building a digital workforce, you can reach them at phone no#: 877-651-6193 or email: dxceclipse@dxc.com.
Anya Ciecierski, marketing director of CAL Business Solutions and the creator of several group blogs for the Microsoft channel, joins MSDW's Marilou Barsam for part two of a conversation on the challenges of developing and realizing value from marketing content. Here, she explains how some simple techniques can yield big results when it comes to re-purposing content for different online properties, as well as reviving great older content.
Show Notes:
More about Anya:
Anya Ciecierski, marketing director of CAL Business Solutions and the creator of several group blogs for the Microsoft channel, joins MSDW's Marilou Barsam for part one of a conversation on the challenges of developing and realizing value from marketing content. The source of the most insightful content at an ERP services firm is the firm's subject matter experts, a group that is notoriously challenging to encourage to write. Anya offers her tips for getting the most out of her team, as well as some of the options for making the most of the content she develops, whether it is blog posts, white papers, or other items.
Show Notes:
Paul Soliman is one of the newest Microsoft MVPs and the first for business applications in the Philippines. As we learned from our recent profile piece, Paul splits his time between running two businesses, Hacktiv and Raven Global Ventures and helping to organize his country's growing business apps community group, which has grown from single digits to hundreds of members. Paul sat down to discuss his experiences in more depth, including his work experiences at major Dynamics NAV customers in his country and his realization at the possibilities of the Power Platform to transform businesses and careers.
(Editor's note: Due to some audio engineering issues, some parts of the interview have a bit of distortion, but it is still easy to understand.)
Show Notes
Microsoft has noticeably ramped up efforts to offer a path for its on-premises SMB ERP customers on Dynamics NAV, GP, and SL to Dynamics 365 Business Central. Some technical tools already exist to help migrate data to the cloud, and there is a roadmap for more to come. And Business Central partners are armed with favorable licensing conversions and special offers for these existing customers. While many SMB ERP customer will be well suited to a future Business Central solution, others will be best served looking elsewhere. Staying in the Microsoft family, Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations is the logical option for organizations with multi-company, multi-currency, or other complex needs that their current ERP is struggling to fulfill. Some may end up looking at other third party options.
Our guests on this episode, Karen Riordan of Menlo Technologies and Peter Joeckel of TurnOnDynamics walk us through some of the reasons today's on-premises SMB ERP customer may be tomorrow's SaaS enterprise ERP customer - or not.
Show Notes:
See also: Peter and Karen's new article on the options that GP customers can consider when evaluating their on-premises GP solution's future.
Editor's Note: This episode is sponsored by Ingram Micro Cloud
Microsoft partners have no choice but to adapt at a time when coronavirus has raised so much uncertainty in the world. But while some firms are facing massive risk, others continue to thrive, engaging their clients and fostering a constructive position in the ecosystem.
To understand more about how partners should face the challenge of marketing during an unprecedented crisis, we're speaking on this episode with Shark Chobot, chief transformation officer at Neural Impact, a sales and marketing consulting firm that applies behavioral economics, neuroscience and persuasion psychology to the customer acquisition process.
On this episode we discuss how partners are adapting to change today, including the impact on the sale, service, and delivery of Microsoft technology, from productivity tools to cloud services to ERP and CRM.
To learn more about today's sponsor, Ingram Micro, and their partner services please visit https://microsoft.ingrammicrocloud.com/dynamics/.
Show Notes:
Editor's Note: This episode is sponsored by PowerObjects.
The Power Platform has evolved into a collection of services underpinning everything about Microsoft's Business Applications suite. First-party apps like Dynamics 365 Sales and Customer Service are really Power Apps now, but so are the thousands of custom applications, automated processes, and dashboards built by and for customers.
Our guests on this episode are Avni Pandya, Merlin Schwaiger, and Dave Kuntz of PowerObjects and they will be discussing how organizations that use the Power Platform should approach critical components of any development project like user adoption, app development, and data protection.
They also share lessons from the field about learning how to use tools like Power Apps and Power Automate, mitigating risk, and some success stories.
Learn more about PowerObjects' training on organizational adoption and governance of Microsoft’s Power Platform.
Show Notes
Editor's Note: This episode of the MSDW Podcast is sponsored by Avanade.
Larger enterprises have transitioned to remote work in response to the coronavirus, and it has forced IT managers to re-evaluate their traditional methods for mobilizing, managing, and delivering a successful technology project.
To understand the delivery challenges of an ERP project in today's environment, we speak with David Misakian, delivery management group lead at Avanade. David discusses recently completed and ongoing client work and explains how his teams are navigating the current challenges successfully.
Topics include:
To learn more about how Avanade helps organizations upgrade, integrate and maximize their ERP technology investment visit https://www.avanade.com/en-ca/solutions/business-applications/finance-and-operations.
Frieda Maher of SalesPOD joins us to discuss the her work with organizations deploying or improving CRM systems and processes. One of the key challenges to successful CRM, she says, is establishing a strong relationship between end users like sales reps and the largeyl technical teams that roll out a CRM-based solution. We discuss notable projects like Frieda's work at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), innovative use of Microsoft technology like Power Apps and Teams, and how projects apply agile techniques and Scrum, particularly in the context of CRM.
The MSDW editorial team compares notes once again, and there is nowhere to start but the impact of coronavirus on the Microsoft ecosystem. We reflect on the varied feedback we are hearing from VARs and ISVs of different sizes, independent experts, and customers. And this week is also significant for kicking off 2020 release wave 1 for Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform. We discuss some of the most consequential changes like dual-write for ERP-CRM integration and RPA for Power Automate.
Articles referenced in this episode include:
Microsoft MVP Ed Gonzales (LinkedIn, Twitter)is not a professional developer, but his willingness to dive into new technology has helped him steadily expand his expertise from the Dynamics 365 product line to the Power Platform, Teams, and beyond. He recently told MSDW about his journey to becoming an MVP, with his time spent championing Microsoft tools at his day job while challenging himself with new tech at other times. He documents his latest explorations on his blog, The Flying Polymath, like an increasingly sophisticated bot that pulls in a range of Microsoft technology based on his own exploration and input from others in the community.
This is a special episode of the podcast, sponsored by ClickLearn, the multimedia digital training and documentation software firm.
Joachim Schiermacher, CEO of ClickLearn, joins us to discuss the company's newly announced updates to both their licensing model and partner model.
As Joachim explains, the changes, which include subscription pricing and new partner incentives, are key to the next stage in the company's growth and come at a time when the company aims to expand its reach, both among large enterprises and in the small and mid-sized enterprise sector.
Directions on Microsoft research vice president Andy Snodgrass joins us to discuss Microsoft licensing, cloud transitions, Power Platform investments, and other complex choices that his firm's clients are weighing today.
When your organization has made the decision to move ahead with a Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations (D365FO) project, what should you expect from your implementation partner? What should your internal team be ready to provide? On this episode we talk with two D365FO consultants who have been through the deployment project experience multiple times and have some recommendations on what customers need to know upfront. MSDW contributing expert Satish Panwar and Sukrut Parab, both with Hitachi Solutions America, join us for a discussion of some of the key planning criteria for a new project.
Even if you have been through an ERP project before, there are probably going to be many new challenges with D365FO if it is your first enterprise-scale cloud ERP project. That means the expectations at various project stages will be new, like the need for fewer customizations in many cases. But other demands will be greater, like knowledge of cloud tools and systems, from D365 Lifecycle Services to key Microsoft cloud products like Azure DevOps, Azure Service Bus, Teams, and more.
We also touch on Satish and Sukrut's experiences working with the Microsoft FastTrack team, the promise of the Business Events framework, and other considerations when planning a go-live.
Editor's Note: This is a special episode of the MSDW Podcast sponsored by k-eCommerce.
Louis Mousseau, president of k-eCommerce joins us to discuss the company's recently launched Payment Portal and Payment Extension for Dynamics GP. There are a range of reasons why a GP customer should consider adding e-payment capabilities, even if they don't need e-commerce. Mousseau explains some of the differences between the two, like the fact that e-payments provide benefits on top of fundamental GP accounting features arounds sales and invoicing. We also discuss topics including security, customer experience, and streamlining operations.