A momentous couple of weeks in the Microsoft Dynamics channel, both within Microsoft and in the channel, as partners roll up their sleeves and put the 2016 tornado of solutions to work.

MSDynamicsWorld Editor Jason Gumpert and Assistant Editor Dann Maurno recap the news, including:

• Microsoft’s Ron Huddleston taking the reins of the "One Commercial Partner" business, an umbrella for the ISV team, Enterprise Partner team and WPG team.
• Microsoft StaffHub, the company’s new workforce management app for Office 365; what are the possibilities for Dynamics 365?
• Microsoft GM Paul White on why survivors among SMB partners will embrace the market shift to cloud apps.
• New GPUG Board Chair Rick Zich on why the future has a place for both Dynamics 365 and Dynamics GP.
• Just how long will NAV partners be able to delay before embracing the quickly evolving Dynamics 365 for Financials? Technology Managements James Crowter weighs in.

"I am going to laugh when my kids complain that Dynamics 365 marketing dominates the home page and marketplace on their Xbox."

So says Jeff Frye, a veteran Microsoft Dynamics GP user, whose colorful comments consistently challenge the official word on the future of Microsoft technology. Frye has experience on both the customer and partner sides of the ERP ecosystem and he is now a systems analyst with Nashville, Tenn.-based Hunt Brothers Pizza, a deeply-entrenched Microsoft Dynamics GP environment with 7,000+ locations.

Jeff has much more to say about Dynamics GP's status and future, and he joined us to share his wisdom and shoot-from-the-hip commentary:

• On the Dynamics GP development team: "I just get a sense they're hamstrung by a leadership that wants to take things in a different direction...that's a threat to what my company wants to do."
• On the Dynamics GP roadmap: "[Microsoft] used the word ‘no big boulders,' just customers' most requested things...We're paying part of our support fees for those big boulders."
• On staying loyal to GP: "We are a growth company...we'd rather spend time growing our business than changing an accounting system that works and meets our needs right now."
• On a cloud migration: "I just would prefer my environment be the one that goes to the cloud instead of someone creating another ERP system for me to shove 85 users."
• On "tone-deaf" Dynamics 365 marketing at GP events: "Opening up GPUG with a multi-hour presentation about a product nobody actually owns, D365 while everybody's there to learn about the products they have bought and continue to pay for...sort of wells up that knot in your stomach."

It's a lively conversation.