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Our guest this week is Andrew King, CEO of WebSan Solutions, a Microsoft partner with offices in both Toronto and Indiana that provides Dynamics ERP and CRM solutions. Andrew last joined us a year ago, so this was a good opportunity catch up, following Microsoft Inspire 2017. Like everyone else at the partner channel event, Andrew was paying close attention to Microsoft’s guidance, as well as the program and product news that impacts the Dynamics channel.

Show notes:

• 3:00 – What Microsoft’s re-organization means for partner priorities around breadth of technology supported.
• 6:30 – Are Microsoft’s expectations and partner perceptions about market demand coming into line?
• 7:10 – On winning a Microsoft Canada Impact Award for marketing
• 10:00 –Partners have new ideas for Microsoft on Dynamics 365 pricing
• 15:00 – How are Dynamics 365 Business Edition sales going? WebSan may have the largest volume so far.
• 20:00 – What are existing Dynamics customers taking away from the latest news?
• 25:00 – Why Microsoft’s verticalization push has become more credible to partners.

Inspire 2017 was a week of “shock and awe,” says Steve Mordue of RapidStart CRM, who spoke to us on the final day of Microsoft’s conference.

It was a good week. Mordue believes that the One Commercial Partner model allows Microsoft CVP Ron Huddleston to pull the trigger on his sales vision. And it will be a boon for Dynamics partners – if they are willing to evolve. Microsoft’s vision has no place for the “general purpose” partner who just wants to implement. Aggressive partners will be all over AppSource, and make themselves known on the Partner Center.

Customers are evolving as well, and are no longer willing to let the head of IT make ERP and CRM purchase decisions. Decision makers are looking for rich capabilities, in apps versus suites, and want to find them on AppSource.

In this episode of the podcast, Mordue and MSDynamicsWorld Editor Jason Gumpert discuss:

• What partners can expect from One Commercial Partner and Ron Huddleston
• Microsoft’s demand for IP partners with deep vertical expertise
• The new sales model; say goodbye to the old-fashioned account rep
• Why SMB partners should be encouraged by the reorg
• Why partners must have an AppSource strategy
• The new Partner Center; partners must go there to be “surfaced”
• Dynamics 365 Business edition; much in demand, still fuzzy-edged
• How AppSource is the “stickiness engine” for Power BI, Dynamics and Office 365

This episode comes to you from Inspire 2017 in Washington DC. We caught up with Linda Rose, who recently sold her business, RoseASP, to private equity firm ESW Capital. It wasn’t her first business sale, but she says it was different from previous deals, and it sparked a different type of response from other business owners in the Microsoft channel.

Linda tells us about the questions she is fielding from Microsoft partners about selling a business, the economics of today’s channel opportunity, and the efforts of Microsoft and others in the channel to support the importance of women in executive leadership roles at technology companies.

For more on Linda’s approach to business valuations, the question she says she is asked about most, you can check out here blog post on the topic.

Is Microsoft doing all it can to make Dynamics 365 the crown jewel of its enterprise business? Not like it used to, says industry analyst Joshua Greenbaum of Enterprise Applications Consulting. In a recent article he called out the company for what he sees as a reduced investment in marketing the product line to analysts and prospective customers. Less access for analysts to product executives and the product community has been “a damn shame,” he wrote, describing Dynamics as stuck in a “cone of silence” that is “ keeping Dynamics out of a deal flow that by rights it should be deep in the mix of.”

For their part, Microsoft officials have already stated they don't agree with Greenbaum’s assessment and cite new events like the "Business Forward" customer and prospect event series, which is expanding globally and aims to present the big picture on Microsoft's commitment to Dynamics.

But Greenbaum's perspective on the matter, as he explains in this episode of the podcast, accounts for the unique role analysts serve as advisers to software buyers who are thinking not just about features and functions, but about committing to the future performance of a software vendor and its larger technology ecosystem.

In this episode of the podcast, topics include:

• 4:25 – Why Dynamics should be a showcase at Microsoft
• 6:00 – The state of the analyst relations program for Dynamics
• 11:30 – What bets are software buyers making on enterprise software?
• 14:00 – The multi-cloud world that customers are trying to make sense of
• 20:45 – Can Dynamics serve to open up larger Microsoft opportunities?
• 25:30 – Microsoft remains strong as an enterprise tech competitor
• 28:45 – The importance of Microsoft-run conferences among competitors

In this episode of the podcast we welcome Chris Cognetta to discuss last week’s public reveal of the next generation of Dynamics 365 customer engagement apps. You can see our day 1, day 2, and day 3 recaps.

Chris is a Dynamics veteran who attended the executive briefing and documented almost all Microsoft's announcements. He's a Microsoft MVP and a Dynamics 365 evangelist, and he's also the director for the center of excellence and the client field services engineering team at Tribridge.

Show Notes:

• 7:10 – Jason’s top picks from the Microsoft executive briefing
• 8:15 – Chris’s top picks from the briefing. See his blog post for his full top five.
• 9:50 – Importance and implications of the platform plans
• 15:50 – Cloud deployment model plans for Dynamics 365/CRM
• 17:00 – Org Insights app and the implications for partner support of clients
• 21:00 – How many times was “on-premises” discussed at the three day briefing?
• 22:00 – Security and regulatory compliance in the cloud
• 23:50 – On the different approach to the rollout approach for this release compared to past launches
• 27:00 – Hints on the future of Dynamics 365/CRM leadership?

When Steve Endow and Christina Phillips started the Dynamics GP Land blog, they knew it was a time of change in the Microsoft channel. Events were changing, blogs were growing in importance, and Microsoft technology was evolving around them. Nine years later, the blog run by this pair of MVPs has become a rich source of knowledge on GP implementations, coding, upgrades, and a whole lot more. 

Even as their roles have changed, Phillips and Endow have kept the site an active and popular destination for the GP community, full of engaging stories and useful advice on project management, technical challenges, and customer outcomes.

Show Notes:

• 1:00 - Origin story of the Dynamics GP Land blog.
• 8:30 – How to tell a good story about software
• 12:30 – Remembering a formative and complex GP project
• 20:30 – GP Upgrades: Where are things changing today?
• 27:00 – Does lower software ownership cost mean there will be more investment adding value and engagment?
• 31:20 – Learning Dynamics 365 for Financials as a GP veteran

This week we catch up with the team from Catapult, a Microsoft VAR with expertise in Dynamics NAV, CRM, and now Dynamics 365. CEO Elliot Fishman and VP of client development Jeff Bacon have always watched Microsoft's product development and channel closely, and we discuss some of the important changes they have seen this year that they believe will directly impact partners in terms of technology, service offerings, and even personnel.

Some topics of the discussion include:

• New opportunities for adding cloud infrastructure services to Dynamics client engagements;
• Expectations and hopes for what will come next with Dynamics 365 for Financials;
• The choice channel firms face when looking at Microsoft and its enterprise software competitors like Salesforce. 

For all the changes vendors are pushing in the ERP space today, from licensing to deployment to custom development, some patterns from past eras persist for both service providers and customers. This week on the podcast we talk to Peter Joeckel of Turn On Dynamics about the current crossroads that ERP buyers and partners face, looking back at legacy solutions like Dynamics GP and to opportunities of the future with Dynamics 365, other vendors’ solutions, and perhaps offerings that haven’t yet been developed..

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why ERP software selection processes have changed so little in the last twenty years
• The realistic case for GP’s continued longevity
• Why a GP to D365 for Operations migration path still has promise
• How Dynamics partners should select the next opportunity to pursue – with 365 or otherwise

Do you truly need Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities? Does the definition that marketers are feeding you even accurate?

Joining us to make sense of the technology and nomenclature is Nucleus Research analyst Joseph Mathias, author of the provocatively titled report Cutting Through the IoT Hysteria. Mathias and MSDynamicsWorld editor Jason Gumpert explore:

• What true IoT is, and isn’t. (Hint: can the thing receive commands?)
• Why the IoT journey must begin with a problem that may be solved by sensors sensors and/or analytics.
• How the IoT label is misapplied; most user companies need one-way sensor data and analytics.
• Today’s compelling IoT use cases (e.g., in manufacturing, for predictive maintenance).
• The difference between streaming versus batch analytics, and who benefits from each.
• The analytics engines that companies use to make sense of IoT data (e.g., Apache Spark).
• If, and how, Microsoft IoT and Azure Machine Learning fill the bill.

Be honest: why are you implementing CRM? To make relationships smoother, which serves both you and the customer, or to make transactions smoother, which serves just you?

Customers know the difference, says JC Quintana. He is author of CRM to the People; also Speaking Frankly About Customer Relationship Management, and the upcoming Serious Relationships: The 7 Elements of Successful Business Relationships due out in June.

JC is the founder and president of the Corporate Relationship Group, which helps companies resolve business relationship challenges; and before launching his company, was the Global Head of Customer Strategy Innovation with Hewlett Packard. Most recently, he delivered the customer keynote at eXtreme Lisbon, and he’s here to tell us more about customer strategies:

• How the term CRM has become a technology, not a practice
• How Microsoft with Dynamics 365 balances outcomes with functionality
• Why relationships are about human needs – which requires an experience staging that must happen before a relationship begins
• A customer relationship is still the goal; but staging the relationship to succeed is customer experience
• How functionality, accessibility and emotional connection define an experience
• How a CX assessment is the new measure of customer sentiment – but is it enough?
• How to leverage CRM to deliver CX and stronger customer relationships.

This time, a Dynamics download from Summit EMEA 2017 and eXtreme365, plus the fate of AX 2012 R3, NAV "Tenerife", and no kidding, D365 Cannabis.

Among the stories:

• The Dynamics 365 for Operations roadmap – can you wait until July for the next release?
• The “Activities” user level in D365, for roles that don’t need the full functionality.
• What is NAV “Tenerife?” It’s a late 2017 NAV release, closely intertwined with Dynamics 365's Financials app. What can you expect?
• The end of Dynamics AX 2012 R3 licenses. No it’s not being discontinued, but expect D365 to get the R&D dollars.
• With CRM, complexity kills: Hear three new user adoption tactics for Dynamics 365 CRM apps.
• D365 Cannabis, an end-to-end solution for a huge industry that’s gone legit.

And more.

As the Dynamics community moves through a new series of conferences for Dynamics 365/CRM, 365/AX, 365/NAV, and GP communities, the channel is suddenly awash in roadmap updates and an expected (but still sudden) surprise from Adobe and Microsoft.

Some of the news that MSDynamicsWorld editor Jason Gumpert and assistant editor Dann Maurno cover:

• Dynamics 365 for Financials gets the "full NAV" treatment with a shared codebase, NAV feature set, and W1 localization.
• The Common Data Service, a report from the Dynamics 365 technical conference, where CDS, new deployment options, power BI and faster implementations dominated conversations
• Microsoft and Adobe’s joint customer experience solutions, which burst onto the scene at Adobe Summit 2017, fully developed (but not ready for the channel)
• The updated Dynamics GP 2018 roadmap, with Workforce 4.0 – and what is “PowerSuite”?

• How customers can extend the lifecycle of what they have built out in upgrading to the latest version of Dynamics 365. 
• Digital transformation – what does it mean to customers in the purchasing cycle? In productivity? Overall business outcomes?  
• How as Wittich describes customers are beginning to grasp digital transformation with “some actual lightbulbs going off and eyes lighting up.”  
• Local data: How the on-prem and hybrid model is a sigh of relief to at least some customers, who take it as a sign that “Microsoft is listening.” 
• How the manufacturing vertical is especially vocal in its need for high-volume, high-availability performance of Dynamics 365 (and Microsoft’s answer to that demand). 
• How the Dynamics 365 brand is catching on – fueled in part by the familiarity of Office 365.  
• A surprising interest in Power Apps, and how in an impromptu session AXMentor created a working mobile app in under 10 minutes. 

It has been an exciting few weeks of news in the Microsoft Dynamics channel, with acquisitions (Arbela absorbing Integral USA), product news (Dynamics 365 for Operations on-premise), and expectations around new CRM SMB announcements to come.

Some of the topics MSDynamicsWorld editor Jason Gumpert and assistant editor Dann Maurno cover:

• Dynamics 365 for Operations local business data: Call it on-prem if you like. It won’t offer all the benefits of pure-cloud ERP, but partners and customers are ready to embrace it.
• Cloud outages: Delta’s massive 2016 IT outage should have taught it a lesson, but alas. What can Dynamics users learn from this about disaster recovery?
• A Q&A with PowerObjects, which “bet the farm” on Dynamics CRM 3.0 and shared its best practices for riding the CRM wave to Dynamics 365.
• Why the cloud calls for managed services despite its self-service image, a thought piece by Lasse Olsen of Avanade.
• Integrating Dynamics ERP with Amazon: It isn’t plug-and-play easy, but Western Computer walks us through the technical and tactical challenges.

Newly awarded Microsoft MVP Steve Mordue has never shied away from the challenging issues that partners face both in their day to day work and in long term business planning. A veteran of the Salesforce ecosystem who transitioned his consulting business to Dynamics CRM several years ago, Mordue now runs RapidStart CRM, an ISV that offers tools that improve user adoption of Dynamics 365.

As we move deeper into 2017, Dynamics 365 professionals are awaiting the next phase of the suite’s position in the CRM market, namely with its planned SMB, or “Business Edition,” sales and marketing apps. Once a skeptic, Mordue says he has been won over by Microsoft’s efforts on the buildout of these apps so far. But questions remain, among them:

• How will partners and customers handle around the dozens of CRM-related SKUs related to Dynamics 365 apps and plan?
• What newly interested Microsoft partners, especially those selling Office 365 and Azure, will do to adopt D365
• Where Microsoft is able to get an edge against Salesforce today in terms of features or hype
• Does AppSource still has a lot of runway to build momentum with ISVs?
• Can Dynamics 365 Business Edition sales and marketing compete with SMB sales and marketing cloud solutions?
• How should partners transition from previous generation services to next generation? (Hint: vertical focus)

With Dynamics 365 for Operations, “shiny new things” come fast and furiously. It’s up to implementation partners to make sure they’re stand-up ready for customers, says Eamon O’Toole, Senior Manager of CRM Solutions with BDO Canada,

O’Toole is a 15-years CRM-industry veteran, who is enthused by some of the apps around Dynamics 365. When he began his CRM career, there were much broader release windows in which features were static for years at a time. Now, new features evolve in the middle of an implementation.

Some of the topics Eamon discusses with MSDynamicsWorld editor Jason Gumpert:

• Why larger companies are no longer cloud laggards – nor are the risk-averse healthcare and public sectors.
• Field service options: Between the FieldOne acquisition and Dynamics 365’s scheduling engine, which suits break/fix situations like HVAC, and which suits other industries?
• Internet-of-Things (IoT) readiness: When this is a job for CRM, and when it is not.
• Workforce management and allocation: Has Microsoft finally embraced Human Capital Management in a stand-up application?
• The changing partner opportunity: With shorter and less-complex engagements, partners add value in governance and vetting as much as in implementation.
• Why partners can expect 2017 to be a year of continual excitement, and 2018 one of stabilization.

Today we chat with Bob McAdam, program manager for GPUG and organizer of this year’s GPUG Amplify event. Amplify is in its second year and it is one of the few user-facing events of the spring. With Convergence now long gone, we discuss topics including:

• The Dynamics GP user experience,
• The full GP event lineup for 2017,
• The new competitive landscape for GP partners, many of whom now sell a competing solution,
• How Microsoft is adapting its stance on business solutions amid so much other change at the company.

Nothing signals an interesting week more than a police presence. Join us for a recap of compelling Microsoft Dynamics stories. Among the topics we cover this time:

• What the Dynamics GP team needs to do instead if it is doing away with user manuals.
• Lightning-focused sales effectiveness with CRM backed up by Azure IoT and Azure Machine Learning for like-never-before customer profiles.
• Putting an off-the-rails Dynamics NAV + CRM implementation back on track with a more do-able scope.
• How two UK police forces use Dynamics CRM and network visualization in incident response – how dangerous, where, who’s involved and how many officers to send.
• How digital transformation safeguards you against clever, disruptive upstarts (think AirB2B and Uber), an interview with Microsoft’s Customer Success EMEA Director Dilip Popat about Summit EMEA 2017.
• Product and best-practices stories, including why to start planning your Dynamics AX to Dynamics 365 migration now; “Social selling” for Microsoft Social Engagement 2017; a passel of new apps mark Outlook Mobile’s two-year anniversary.

Chuck Ingram knows CRM like few do. He has worked with it before it was even called CRM in the late ‘90s, and worked at Microsoft for eight years in CRM, and is now the Dynamics practice director for Tribridge.

He observes "It certainly feels like perpetual on-premises will be an exception rather than the rule,” now that Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 on-premises will move ahead to become "Dynamics 365 (On-Premises)".

Ingram walks us through Tribridge’s experience and observations of the Dynamics CRM to Dynamics 365, be it on-prem, in the public cloud or somewhere in between.

Among his observations:

• How the transition will help CRM users weather the digital disruption.
• Why digital disruption means that “streamlining operations” is no longer a strategy – not when competing with the Amazons of the world.
• When the “Netflix approach” to CRM makes sense; get up and running, and explore the features later. (If you’re a subscriber, you have time.)
• How large customers with big IT departments are used to subscriptions and like it that way..
• How eight in 10 customers are perfectly comfortable with the cloud; but security or certification requirements still mandate (or at least encourage) on-prem CRM.

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.

Sure, Dynamics 365 was the big story of 2016, and likely will be in 2017. But it wasn’t the only story with impact on the year ahead. What else do we see in our crystal ball for 2017?

MSDynamicsWorld Editor Jason Gumpert looks ahead, with his answers to the questions:

• Will Microsoft need to rebrand Dynamics 365? And who will be the public face of D365?
• Are customers eager for a Dynamics/LinkedIn integration? Or would that be one-too-many CRM interfaces?
• What compelling reason is there to upgrade from Dynamics AX 2012 to Dynamics 365 for Operations? (Is there one?)
• When will D365 for Financials reach functional parity with Dynamics NAV? And with its low pricepoint, where does that leave NAV partners?
• Will SMB ERP partners begin dropping off or getting acquired, or, do they have too strong a value proposition to just fade away?

As 2016 nears its end, the MSDW Podcast ponders things ending (Envision), beginning (LinkedIn acquisition), and just coming into focus (Dynamics 365). We also review a raft of excellent expert content and look ahead to two can't-miss webcasts in this last full work week of the year (for most). 

Topics include: 

• The completion of Microsoft's LinkedIn acquisition;
• The end of Envision. The event content may be rolled into Microsoft Ignite as the company embraces a three event stance.
• Microsoft gave Dynamics CRM consultants a roadmap update on the Dynamics 365 customer experience apps. As usual, it is a long and impressive list of new and improved features coming down the pike.
• Some Dynamics AX users and partners shared their views on D365 for Operations (AX7), and the perception is a mixed bag so far.
• Much more AX instructional content on topics like filtering a dynamics date range, firming planned orders, purchase receiving, project accounting, managing consigned inventory, and upgrade planning.
• Don't miss this weeks' expert webcasts on building apps with CRM and cool Azure tech, plus NAV 2017 in Office 365.

Something a little different this week: seven enterprise software podcasters weigh in on 2016 and 2017, talking about everything from Microsoft’s sudden burst of product releases, consolidations among both enterprise packages and partners, and even driverless cars and bitcoin.

Hosted by Bob McAdam (acting as moderator), Todd McDaniel, and Darcy Boerio, cohosts of the EnterpriseSoftwarePodcast.com, also taking part were:

• Jason Gumpert, host of the MSDW Podcast
• Wayne Schulz and Peter Wolf, co-hosts of the SMB Jump Street Podcast
• Ed Kless, host of both the Sage Vice Podcast and the Voice America radio show Soul of Enterprise

Is digital transformation “The end of ERP software as we know it”?

Panorama Consulting’s Eric Kimberling joins us to talk about his company’s report Everything You Need to Know About Digital Transformation, which makes that bold claim.

No, ERP is not going obsolete; it essential to digital transformation, but just a piece of the puzzle. 

Kimberling joins MSDynamicsWorld Editor Jason Gumpert to explore:

• Why digital strategies are driven by an overarching business strategies versus IT’s need to upgrade current systems.
• When ERP upgrades are the right choice.
• Which industries have no choice but to make a digital transformation? (Hint: Can brick-and-mortar retailers compete with Amazon without deeply-integrated CRM and e-commerce?)
• Why the global manufacturing environment practically mandates a transformation.
• How intelligence, not tools, is the aim of any digital transformation.
• How Microsoft leads in completeness of vision.