Keeping it simple

Integration of CRM and GP- Both from Microsoft

We are starting to hear rumbles that the CRM version 4 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP version 10 products are be integrated. This is good news since we will be getting two strong products with integration from the ground up. For several years we have had 3^rd party integrations for these two products, where the integration is largely based on the e-connect tool from Dynamics GP. Rumor has it that the integration will like be using core .net technologies. I see this as a potentially exciting product enhancement for both products. With any luck, my sources suggest mid year 2009.

Does anyone else see this as a big benefit to their company?

Jeff Cozens

 

Tricking Solomon to display forms

With many of us using remote support more and more, we are found a simple solution to viewing the pesky "forms" when you are remotely attached to a computer. In the Dynamics SL product, when we are printing forms (i.e. AR statements, 1099 forms, AP checks) it can be a challenge because in the printing process we have no ability to print these forms in a preview format, (view on screen). It is impossible to see the printed form without asking for help from your remote client to fax or email a scanned copy of the printed document.

A simple workaround is that you can choose the printer output button on these forms and re direct the form to be printed to file. The next screen in the export to file setup process, which is attained by clicking of the setup printer button, allows you to assign a file name and to assign a file type. I usually choose the crystal pdf option which renders as excellent reproduction of the printed document. Granted I need to go find the printed document but can be displayed on the screen once the pdf is launched.

This tip can be helpful to end users also. Let's say you a want to send a copy of these forms to your accountant or your boss. The saved file can be attached to an email which makes this task a breeze to handle completely at your desk. I'm sure you can think of many other little uses of this trick of printing forms to file which can increase your personal productivity.

Remember increasing your personal productivity makes you more valuable to your boss or your clients.

Jeff Cozens

 

 

 

 

Office 2003 Mainstream Support Ending in April 2009

Mainstream support for Microsoft Office 2003 is scheduled to end on April 14, 2009. Extended support for the 2003 release will be available until January 14, 2014. Office 2003 was replaced by Office 2007.

We have found Office 2007 to be a bit slower in many areas. The new ribbon menu structuring takes a while to get used to, but thank goodness they have good imbedded help search. I have relied on these searches many times to find a feature or capability that was not clear at first glance. For instance doing a mail merge took me a while to relearn the new process. Once I figured it out, the new 2007 made sense; it was just painful to go through the learning curve.

Good luck with your own relearning process.

Oh by the way, when you use Office 2003 and receive a document created by Office 2007 you will undoubted have trouble opening the new document. The basic method for storing all Office 2007 documents (word, excel etc) all changed. The new Office 2007 files are primarily saved as xml doc' which will be more critical over time as we move to more web services and use xml standards to exchange data.

You can download compatibility add on to read the new 2007 files with your old 2003 Office software. Here is the link.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en

I recommend you consider getting this compatibility pack

 

Jeff Cozens

 

 

 

 

Market growth info for Solomon and Navision

It is often difficult to get an understanding of the growth of specific products. The author interviewed a V P at Deltec software, which is a major software provider in the Government project/ professional services area, and got some interesting information. Here is a summary of the fact I found most interesting:

A recent article published in a magazine for government contractors, the "WashingtonTechnology", (Oct 30, 2008) provides an interesting analysis of the market, Microsoft's plan to go after a larger share of these businesses, and a discussion on how the Dynamics SL and NAV products match the needs of this industry. A representative from Deltek, the largest software vendor serving this sector today, states that Dynamics SL is the closest fit to what they offer with their proprietary system.

Dynamics SL has 15,000 customers and Dynamics NAV has 65,000, (side note: most of these customers are international) she said. "Both of those solutions grew at the rate of 21 percent last year," she said, adding that it is difficult to provide specific government contractor sales figures because they are fragmented across the many Standard Industrial classification codes.

Earlier this year, Gartner Inc. placed Microsoft among its Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms. The analysis firm said that although Microsoft was late to join the business intelligence platforms market and is still catching up, its platform provides "infrastructure, development tools, workflow and collaboration capabilities that are held in higher regard than those of many of its competitors."

Congrats to both Sl and Nav for a great 2008 year.

 

Jeff

 

Taking time to review

I ran across this idea in another blog. The blog's author, Pam Hoelzle, a business coach in Edmonds, Canada. She had this advice for all businesses:

First, you need to diagnose what's hurting your business. Slower business gives you time to analyze your business in detail. Look for deficiencies in three areas: operation, financial and marketing. The quickest way to diagnose your business is to talk to your clients.

I liked her thinking, and we are in the process of putting her ideas to work for at Systematic Solutions. After all, one definition about insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Jeff

Preparing for Obama’s Government Bail Out Plans

The tea leafs are all saying, expect our federal government to release funds for some big programs, which will be a mix of tax cuts, business growth incentives, health care changes, and transfer payments to individuals/and states. Up to now the Federal government has largely used monetary stimulus to get our economy going. It looks like fiscal federal expenditures is the next plan that Obama and the Democratic congress is recommending.

As business people, it is timely to ask and plan for how we position our respective companies to take advantage of this next stimulus wave for our federal government. Maybe we all need to think outside the box?

One of our clients is already showing leadership in this area. They are aligning their accounting system to be more project oriented. At the same time, they are looking to implement new rolling monthly budgets at the individual project level. We are in the process of building a new series of reports which will allow the display of actual revenue and expenses by project plus the latest monthly projections of revenue/expenses by project for the remaining 12 months of the year. The focus of planning down to the project level, instead of the traditional budgeting at the department level, makes more sense in 2009. We can see profitability / loss at the project level, thus giving managers a chance to react and manage proactively.

The real benefit is the real time reporting nature of these new project budgeting reports. By being able to create the reports any time during the month with the most current data gives this company a big leg up on managing their business. I see so many people trying to do this type of reporting on an "adhoc" excel spreadsheet type basis. This excel spreadsheet approach almost always leads to "out – dated" data, and hence the reports are poor tools for proactively managing a business.

My question to you, how are you positioning your company to take advantage of the new wave of federal government fiscal spending ? Are you prepared like a good boy scout?

 

Jeff

Year End Updates

If you are covered by an active support contract for your Dynamics Software, you are eligible for yearend updates for 1099 and w2 forms. Log into your Dynamics customersource web portal to download these updates or send us an email and we can get them for you. If you are using Dynamics SL Payroll, you can also download the 2009 payroll tables for Federal and State payroll deductions, such as income tax, social security etc. Processing these updates before your first accounts payable/ payroll check run; 1099 printing process or W2 process can save you some pain.

 

Also for Dynamics SL users, remember to check that the 2009 year for 1099's is one of your two open tracking years. You can check the status by going to Accounts Payable, then under processes, launch 1099 calendar control. If you still have 2007 1099 year open you will need to "purge" oldest year, to make sure that 2008 and 2009 are your active 1099 tracked years.

 

Jeff

 

 

Learning Tricks by Using Test Database

Key Symptom: The task in the Dynamics ERP software just seems to be taking too many steps.

Solution: Create a Test Database, which is a recent copy of your active database, and experiment. Over the years, with our Dynamics SL customers, we have found that most users can be creative in finding better and faster ways to do re occurring tasks in their accounting processes. Using a test company to create the new processes, to experiment, or just to train the new staff member is a great way to improve utilization.

 

PS. Over the years we are amazed how many times users have literally wanted to kick themselves when they how simple a process really was within Dynamics, when they got proper training. Maybe you too need a little "extra" training.

 

Jeff