New Pricing for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement & Unified Operations per the 1st of October 2019

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Microsoft announces new Pricing for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement & Unified Operations, applicable from 1st October 2019

Two weeks before Inspire, Microsoft announced that all Dynamics 365 Plan subscriptions for Customer Engagement and Unified Operations will disappear from the price list as per 1st of October. In order to prepare you as quickly and effectively as possible, we would like to explain to you the changes to the new licensing model and the impact that this will have to you and your customers.

Impact: New customers for Customer Engagement and Unified Operations from 1st October

New customers can no longer order the current Dynamics 365 (CE and UO) Plan licenses from this date. The new “Base and Attach Licenses” model will apply from 1st October. Microsoft also calls the model “á la carte”.

In this new model, payment is based on usage per user per module. Every user always starts with a Base License. In addition, 1 or more additional modules can be added per user as an Attach License.

Almost all application licenses are available as a Base License and as an Attach License. Only Dynamics 365 for Marketing (licensed per tenant), Dynamics 365 for Project Service Automation and Talent are not available as an Attach License. For those modules, a user will therefore have to pay for a second Base License.

Nieuwe Prijzen Aan Voor Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement En Unified Operations Vanaf 1 Oktober 2019 Geldig

To make it concrete: A user who needs access to all Customer Engagement modules orders Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation as a Base License in this new model and adds the Sales Enterprise Edition, Customer Service Enterprise Edition and Field Service modules as Attach License to this. The total price for the user, in this case, is $ 155, consisting of the costs for the Base License $ 95, plus the 3 Attach Licenses of $ 20 each. The advantage for end customers: they only pay for the modules they use at that time. The price of 2 modules is the same as the current Customer Engagement Plan price.

In the current Unified Operations plan it is currently possible to order some modules such as Dynamics 365 for Talent or Retail as a stand-alone solution. Finance and Operations, however, has always been seen as a single module and since the introduction of the Unified Operations Plan module, that functionality could only be ordered through this composite plan. This will change after 1st October 2019.

As per October 2019 Finance and Supply Chain can be purchased as separate modules. The minimum requirement of 20 users remains applicable for both applications. Furthermore, all Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement modules can be added as an Attach License for the price of $ 20. Of course, again with the exception of Project Service Automation and Marketing, for which you always pay for a Base License.

Impact: Existing customers Customer Engagement and Unified Operations from October 1st

This change also has an impact on the current subscriptions of your existing customers, but not necessarily from October 2019.

The changes for existing customers only take effect on the subscription renewal date.

For example, if you ordered the licenses (with a standard duration of 12 months) on 1st November 2018, you must convert the licenses to this new model with Base Licenses and Attach Licenses before 1st November 2019.

We are still investigating whether this also has other (technical) implications in addition to an administrative act. We will certainly come back to that when we know more.

It is of vital importance that you approach your customers in reasonable time to inform them and discuss these changes. For subscriptions with a duration of 36 months you of course have some time left. You could consider ordering a new subscription for an existing customer with a term of 36 months and turning off the old subscriptions, if this would result in a more favourable price for a customer.

The transition SKUs from CRM Online to Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement plan, which according to communication from the transition paper on PartnerSource will remain available until October 31, 2019, is also unclear whether the latest order date will change. We are waiting for confirmation on this and will update you shortly.

As QBS group, we will keep you informed of all developments around the Dynamics 365 Licensing structure. For questions, please contact us via the Partner Portal. For additional details, you can also go to the Dynamics 365 licensing page in PartnerSource.

Source: FAQ new licensing structure Dynamics 365

Hot News from Microsoft Inspire 2019

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At QBS group we feel it is necessary to participate in all of the main Microsoft events: Microsoft Inspire, eXtreme and Directions, to ensure we can pass the relevant information on to you our partners, and also that we are the forefront of hot news! We participate not only as QBS people – but also as representatives of the entire QBS partner community. Speaking our case – and bringing back the news and information that we all need to keep on the forefront with our business.

Hot News From Inspire 2019
Watch the webinar Hot News from Inspire 2019 (video 30:00)

In this vlog we will present in 30 minutes the most important updates from Microsoft Inspire 2019.

  • Microsoft mission and innovations
  • PowerApps
  • Microsoft Field FY20 Priorities
  • Dynamics 365 Business Central Updates
  • Channel Incentives  and Channel Program
  • ISV and Marketplace

QBS goup YouTube channel

Watch our vlogs in our special Microsoft Inspire 2019 Playlist on our QBS group Youtube channel

Demo highlights at Microsoft Inspire 2019:

Demo: Empowering citizen developers with AI Builder at Microsoft Inspire 2019
Demo: Minecraft Earth at Microsoft Inspire 2019

PowerPoint

QBS group partners can download the presentation slides in the: QBS group partner portal.

QBS group in Microsoft InnerCircle

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Inner Circle Microsoft
For the 6th year in a row QBS group is awarded with the prestigious membership of the Microsoft InnerCircle – for Business Applications. This is the external sign of proof of all the work that QBS group and her partners do throughout the year to promote and create new business for the Microsoft Business Applications stack: Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Michael Hartmann, CEO of QBS group says: “We are extremely proud to once again claim our seat in this exclusive club and will make the most of this membership to advocate for the SMB partners of Microsoft Dynamics. Our deep roots in the Dynamics world and our representation of such a large partner community as we have, gives us a unique knowledge that I know Microsoft values very much”.

Migrating from the Customized On-premise ERP Solution to the Cloud

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By Hans Peter Bech

Most organisations need to be in control of their ERP system and cannot accept that changes are made without their explicit consent. They need to be convinced of the benefits and they need to prepare their users for any changes.

One of the praised virtues of cloud-based SaaS solutions is the ongoing upgrading undertaken by the vendor with no service interruption to the customer. Systems and application software are upgraded, and bugs are fixed in the background. New features are added on the fly and made available next time you log on. Upgrading and updating your applications and the software stack beneath them are yesterday’s sorrows.

This is Nirvana – the destination we are all heading for.

But can you imagine a situation where the vendor changes the data model and the functionality, moves around the fields and changes the user interface of an ERP application, without you knowing about it? Updating the software at two-week intervals is not going to fly in the ERP industry, where users are performing data operations supporting mission-critical business processes.

Most organisations need to be in control of their ERP system and cannot accept that changes are made without their explicit consent. They need to be convinced of the benefits and they need to prepare their users for any changes.

“Lack of control” explains why a large part of the market hasn’t embraced cloud-based ERP solutions. However, there are more reasons why the adoption rate is slow, and they are not all related to the law of diffusion of innovation.

What is so pretty about cloud and SaaS?

The answers are straight forward: price, security and simplicity.

Price

Why don’t we all have a power generator in the basement? Because it’s far more cost-effective to produce power in large plants and make it available out of a plug in the wall when we need it. Computer capacity is no different from electricity. We all need it, but we don’t all need to produce it.

The price of servers and data storage has decreased while the demand for capacity has increased. Check all the research comparing on-premise with cloud solutions and the conclusions are that the total cost of renting server and data storage capacity in the cloud is less expensive than the on-premise alternative. It’s called economy of scale and it is hard to beat.

There is no immediate reason why SaaS should have a lower lifetime cost than the on-premise alternative, but reality shows that it does. Software prices have come down over the years and the trend has continued after the SaaS/cloud delivery format was introduced.

The shift from upfront pre-paid perpetual licenses to periodical subscriptions have changed the cashflow profile of IT-consumption from CAPEX to OPEX. That is an advantage to many companies, and they have supported making decisions for using IT-solutions in larger organisations independent from the IT-department.

Where on-premise software typically comes with limits on the number of concurrent users, the SaaS model operates with named users. You will always have more named than concurrent users. However, most ERP vendors offer role-based pricing differentiating between power users and more casual users.

on prem vs saas

Illustration courtesy of Software Advice

The chart1 above shows an example of the cashflow profile of the two delivery formats. When it comes to price, the cloud is the better option.

Security

Is your data safer on the server in your basement or on Microsoft Azure? Where do you keep your money? In the basement or in the bank?
We are all concerned with theft, data leakage and deletion. In this respect the need for security in the cloud is no different from the needs of the on-premise data centre. In the cloud the costs of maintaining facilities and hardware is included in the price, and you are offered software-based security tools to monitor and protect the data traffic into and of out of your cloud resources.
All cloud providers, including Microsoft, are extremely concerned about security and offer more of it than any SMB company can ever afford to apply on an individual basis. Many cloud providers are even certified by independent third-party auditors to attest that their internal security processes are in place and that they are effective in managing and protecting your data.

responsibility zones

Division of responsibility on Microsoft Azure.

While security was a big issue previously it seems that the times have proved that cloud providers are serious about it and have prevented any major incidents.

Simplicity

With your own servers, you are responsible for systems administration, availability and uptime. With a cloud-based solution you’re not. While IT-systems are key to the operation of any company, maintaining an IT-infrastructure is not. Of course, there is no guarantee that a cloud-based system cannot be down, however if you compare the statistics then the individual on-premise alternative never wins. The major cloud providers have solid back-up and escalation procedures in place that kick-in when outages occur.
While there is no law of nature declaring that cloud-based software should be more user-friendly than their on-premise ancestors, it just seems that it always is. Maybe it’s because we started with the simpler systems being offered as a service and maybe it is because most SaaS providers want to live off their subscription revenue and avoid the hazzle of training and support.
Simple solutions are also much easier to test. All you need is a browser or the client app. The application and the underlying stack of software are not your concern.

But on-premise refuses to go away

Getting rid of servers and the staff required to keep an IT-infrastructure running certainly sounds appealing to most SMBs. But the uptake in cloud and SaaS did not come from the SMB-market rushing to move their ERP systems out of the building. It came from new and peripheral non-mission critical applications and was especially embraced by the S in the SMB abbreviation or by smaller teams in larger enterprises. The M segment still rely on ERP-systems that are based on customized industry solutions for which there is no plain vanilla cloud alternative – yet.
Despite all the benefits of the cloud there is one very big roadblock when it comes to ERP: App availability.
Although the new cloud-based ERP systems in general have a richer set of features than yesterday’s on-premise software, there are plenty of situations where you will not find a cloud-based replication of your current vertical and customized solution. And when your current ERP solution works, why should you change? You don’t need to mend something that isn’t broken. If there is no compelling reason for changing something that works, then most companies have other projects that are in need of their attention and money.

Customization or configuration?

As the advantages of the cloud/SaaS-multitenant-format is related to running the exact same application for thousands of customers, it is an open question if and when it is financially attractive for your current application provider to offer your vertical and customized solution in that format. Although the technologies for writing on-premise and cloud software are not much different, making a solution available in Microsoft’s AppSource does require developing the functionality from scratch. It will take some time before that happens on a larger scale. And when it does you are still faced with a migration project.

deployment model

Illustration courtesy of Panorama Consulting Solutions

If you cannot live with the plain vanilla configurable solutions offered in the cloud, then your best option may be to stay with what you have or change to another on-premise customizable product, and that is apparently what customers continue to do.
According to a survey2 from Panorama Consulting Solutions, 37 per cent of the respondents still preferred the on-premise deployment format while 21 percent preferred a hybrid of on-premise and cloud. Only 20 percent preferred a pure cloud-based SaaS solution. The main reasons are customization options and control.
Cloud ERP software will continue to become more advanced with more options for configurability and over time more and more vertical and horizontal apps will be available through AppSource. This means that more companies can find support for their business processes without the need for individual customization. Many of them will need a helping hand putting together the package and integrating the elements, and they must rely on the various vendors’ ability to keep them updated. With that in place they can enjoy the full benefits of the multi-tenant cloud format.
However, there will be a substantial number of companies that will not fit the standards.

The promise of PowerApps

Forrester3 has just recently named Microsoft the leader in Low-Code Development Platforms For AD&D4 Professionals and the combination of PowerApps, Power BI and Microsoft Flow may be the framework that will replace a large chunk of yesterday’s in-app customizations. At least that seems to be the strategy Microsoft has chosen and currently invests heavily in. While some of the promotional material highlights the ability of the end-user to perform application development themselves, Microsoft is also directing the attention of their application developer, ISV partner, and integrator communities to the potential of the low code development opportunity.

powerapp web page

Illustration from the Microsoft PowerApp web page

With the Common Data Model providing semantic consistency for canonical business entities across Dynamics 365, the availability of Common Data Service and now also the AI Builder thrown in for good measure, we may have a platform that makes customization much simpler, effortlessly upgraded and deployable in a multitenant cloud format. PowerApps enables application developers, ISV partners, systems integrators and customers to easily create purpose specific applications.
The Microsoft AI Builder, that enables everyone to leverage AI and machine learning to make their apps and automations more intelligent, may even create that compelling event for change that can drive new investments in the ERP domain.

The private cloud

If PowerApps don’t do the job, there is still a way to harvest the benefits of cloud computing while maintaining the flexibility provided by customizable software. Provided your solution is upgraded to at least NAV 2017 you can have it deployed on Azure in a private cloud setup. After the move users can get access from the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Windows client or the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client from any computer that has a network connection.
By hosting your ERP-solution on Azure you will achieve many of the cloud-benefits companies are looking for. You can outsource your servers, data storage and communication and have basically unlimited capacity available. You still need to maintain your solution, but with the Azure SQL Database you have dynamic scalability with no downtime, built-in intelligent optimization, global scalability, and availability, as well as advanced security options, all with close to zero administration costs5.

The three roads leading to Rome

While we all appreciate our electricity being produced on power plants that we don’t even know where they are and how they are operated, the analogy often stops when it comes to the ERP systems. Electricity is a fully standardized commodity and so are data processing, storage and communication. Outsourcing the production of such a service to an external provider with economy of scale advantages sounds right. Thus, having the world’s biggest IT-company taking care of your IT-infrastructure may make good sense.
But with ERP software it is different.
If you can fit the support of your business processes into the configurable cloud apps available, then you will do so. As more and more effort is invested into the development of vertical and horizontal Apps for Dynamics 365, a large part of the market will choose this route.
If the standards don’t do the job, then Microsoft’s low code framework may offer the missing link. It provides customization in a standard format. That may sound odd, but it makes a lot of sense. The enemy is not and never was customization. The enemy was the upgrading nightmare that followed. The PowerApps initiative is a great answer to that problem.
And even when the standards extended with PowerApps can’t do the job you still have the option of doing in-app customization and having it hosted on Azure.
With these three roads going forward, Microsoft is covering a very large portion of the market as we move from the on-premise solutions to SaaS out of a plug in the wall.

 

[1] Source: https://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/cloud-erp-vs-on-premise/

[2] https://www.panorama-consulting.com/resource-center/erp-software-research-and-reports/panorama-consulting-solutions-2019-erp-report/

[3] Get the report here: https://info.microsoft.com/ww-Landing-Forrester-Wave-Low-Code-Development-Platforms-eBook.html

[4] Application Development & Delivery

[5] Source: Stefano Demiliani, https://msdynamicsworld.com/story/deploying-microsoft-dynamics-nav-azure-performance-best-practices-four-architectures

PowerSuite – Why and how you should care about it

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Why and how you should care about it

We know that no business app is ever really complete. There are a lot of great SAAS products out there for business applications. Think of Dynamic 365 for Sales / Marketing / Business Central and so on… But we all know that what you buy off-the-shelf, rarely solves hundred percent of the problems that your business needs or rarely does it in a way that the users want to use their application.

That’s why there is PowerSuite. To become familiar with it and know the possibilities,QBS helps to inform you about the product itself and the workshop we deliver around it.

In this webinar we cover:

  1. The opportunities and possibilities of;
    1. Canvas PowerApps
    2. Common Data Service
    3. Model Driven PowerApps
    4. Flow
  2. The purpose and ingredients of our workshop ‘App In A Day’
  3. Help you to know who to send when to our workshop ‘App In A Day’

So this webinar is for everyone who is new to the PowerSuite and wants to know more about it. Besides the basics around the product we highlight the content of our AIAD-workshop so you know who to send.

(27.17 minutes)

Getting ready for Inspire 2019

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Representing the QBS partner community.

Being a Microsoft (Dynamics) SMB partner in todays’ market is all about “cloudification”. You need to understand the threats and opportunities these changes will bring to your business, to the IP you’ve built and even how it may impact the relevance your business will have towards partnering with Microsoft.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is the latest Microsoft SaaS product launched into the Dynamics 365 platform and it’s quickly becoming one of the fastest growing products in the platform. But the real focus for partners should not only be selling ERP/Business Central with its’ features and functions. What you should be doing is look at the power of the entire Dynamics 365 cloud platform and what this could mean to your customers “digital innovation” journey. Being proficient in assisting your customers on that journey will not only give you a strong USP against the competition but will also provide you with a strong long term vision and value story to bring to the market. It will help position you as a thought leader when customers look for advise on how to migrate their legacy software to cloud solutions.

qbs at inspire 2019

Here we go again – off to Vegas!

Microsoft Inspire 2019 – the annual Microsoft partner event – will be held in Las Vegas, 14th – 18th July for the second time in the Inspire/WPC history. It will host more than 100.000 people as Microsoft combined two events (Ready and Inspire). The theme of the year is “Together, we achieve more” emphasizing and celebrating the strength of the partner eco system.

QBS group will send a delegation of 6 people and we will do our utmost to cover all the latest news around the Dynamics 365 business applications and bring back to the QBS community the insights we get on how this might impact the day-to-day business of a Dynamics partner.

Here are the main themes at the conference which we will be sure to cover – and the accompanying questions and concerns that we will be looking for answers to.

  • Adoption of Power Platform

Power Platform combines the robust power of PowerApps, PowerBI, and Microsoft Flow into one powerful business application platform – providing quick and easy app building and data insights. Each component of the Microsoft Power Platform is built on the Common Data Service for Apps.

We will be investigating and understanding the impact of the Microsoft development in this area and what this will mean from a partners perspective – how can it help you “disrupt” things?

  • Business Central Investments, partner Incentives FY20 and MPN

Which new incentives and market pushes will Microsoft share with partners in coming year. What behavior is Microsoft encouraging and supporting within the partner community and market? MPN changes have just been announced around the retiring of the internal use rights (IUR) which will be effective July 1, 2020.

We will be following these topics closely as the partner investments necessary in a changing world are high and each extra dollar you can make will help re-cover some of the investments done.

  • PowerApps Portal licensing

In general, a no-code platform enables a non-developer to create apps. PowerApps focuses on data-driven apps and is best suited for business applications that integrate with existing data. As to whether PowerApps is a “good” platform, you would have to consider product reviews vis-a-vis its competitors.

This will be one of the “big reveals” during Inspire, and it’s going to be a very different approach to allow for the exposure of CDS data to non-licensed users. What impact will this have to the market, partners and customer attractiveness?

  • ISV’s themes within the SMB partner space

With the appointment of Steve Guggenheimer we may conclude that Microsoft is taking ISV’s more seriously and not only “on PowerPoint” but also proofing the urge and need for more ISV focus in their eco system with this appointment.

What are the changes we might expect, and which focus areas will we see around the ISV motion? How will SMB and ISV’s drive the evolution of Dynamics 365 and the Power platform? How will the alignment look with the Azure AppSource efforts, which coordination might we expect from other Microsoft GTM motions and what are the new best practices?

  • The Microsoft Strategy for FY20 and key focus areas that Microsoft

The core keynotes of the Microsoft executives will give us insights around the strategy of the coming 12 months and what the biggest key drivers will be for the Microsoft sales field. Keeping the Dynamics partners in mind we will try and perspectivize this into how Microsoft partners can tap into the biggest SMB market opportunity by leveraging technology along with trustworthy platforms and companies.

  • Commerce platform

Microsoft is moving Azure, Customer Engagement and Power Platform transactions onto a modernized, simplified new commerce platform that should reduce administrative work for partners.

The goal is “simplifying that whole process” and enabling customers to make buying choices more based on partner services rather than on which console is easiest to use

We will be trying to understand the roadmap around Business Central, AppSource and the impact this will have to the partner channel.

 

Summarizing: the QBS group team will be in Las Vegas and if you would like to meet let me know via the Inspire scheduler! If you’re not going then we encourage you to join our post-Inspire webinar “Hot News from Inspire 2019”  on July 22 and we will also be sharing with QBS partners an Executive Summary of the event.

D365 Business Central April 2019 update – key findings

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April 19 2019 Dynamics 365 Business Central Release 

 Our colleague Fotos Georgiadis is sharing his initial findings when working on the latest release of Business Central.

Write longer names and descriptions  

You can now enter up to 100 characters (used to be 50) in all Description and Name fields across Business Central.  

This change applies to:  

  • The Name and Description field on master data cards, such as customer, vendor, item, contact, and resource cards. 
  • The Name and Description field on documents, such as sales and purchase orders, invoices, and quotes. 
  • The Description field on journals, such as general journal and item journal. 
  • The Description field on ledger entries, such as customer, vendor, and item ledger entries. In addition, you can now enter up to 50 characters (used to be 10) in the Unit of Measure Description field

name field

 

Select multiple items to add to a sales or purchase document 

You can now select multiple items at once from the items list to add to sales or purchase documents. On any sales or purchase document, choose the Select Items line action.  

TIP: If you select the Default Item Quantity check box on the Sales & Receivables Setup page, the Quantity field on sales lines will be prefilled for all selected items as they get added to the sales document.  

multiple items

 

bc multiple items

d365 bc multiple items

 

Use a sales quote validity policy to control when sales quotes expire  

You can now set date formula in the Quote Validity Calculation field on the Sales & Receivables Setup page that will be used to calculate the Quote Valid Until Date field on sales quotes.  

TIP: To make sure that sales quotes with expired quote validity dates are deleted, you can run the Delete Expired Quotes batch job. And if you enable sales quote archiving (Sales & Receivables Setup page), deleted sales quotes will also be archived, so you can restore them from the archive if customers call again. 

quote validity calculation

 

Dynamically set shortcut dimension columns in lists, documents, and journal lines  

Fields for the two global dimensions that you set up on the General Ledger Setup page are always available on journal and document lines. Now, also the shortcut dimensions that you have set up that setup page are always available. This means that you can also add shortcut dimension values directly to journal and document lines without opening the Dimensions page. As soon as you set the Shortcut dimensions on the General Ledger Setup the new dimensions columns will appear on all lists. 

 

dimensions column

 

test dimensions

 

Bulk import item pictures  

You can now import multiple item pictures in one go. Simply name your picture files with a name corresponding to your item numbers, compress them to a zip file, and then use the Import Item Pictures page. Alternatively, you can use the Set Up Item Pictures assisted setup guide. Only item cards that do not already have pictures will be updated. 

bulk import item pictures

 

View payment information on customer and vendor statistics FactBoxes  

Information about payments and last payment dates is now available on customer and vendor statistics FactBoxes. 

d365 bc factboxes

 

Page inspection  

Troubleshooting errors in business data or feature configuration often requires an additional level of insight beyond what is shown on the page. Power users and support staff can now inspect any page or the page parts within a page, revealing the entire contents of the current record including fields that are not shown on the page. Ctrl – Alt – F1 

d365 bc page inspection

 

Interested in joining our next Dynamics 365 Business Central update webinar? See coming dates and register here: QBS update webinars on Dynamics 365 Business Central

Update on Dynamics 365 Business Central 13 June 2019

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This series of webinars is intended to share the latest information on Dynamics 365 Business Central. Both from a technical, functional and business perspective. Besides sharing information, we will also update on the services portfolio from QBS group to assist on the road to Dynamics 365.

Watch here the Webinar update of the 13th of June 2019.

Dynamics 365 Business Central Update

Goodbye to NAV and Hello to 365 Business Central – with a German twist

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Just as the Dynamics roots in QBS run deep – so does the NAV (Navision) roots run deep in the Dynamics channel. As spring 2019 saw the final exit of the NAV name, this article from our guest blogger Hans Peter Bech, offers a bit of a historic perspective to those not familiar with the background of NAV, originating from the Danish company Navision Software A/S. At QBS group we know that the future belongs to Microsoft Dynamics 365 – and in ERP terms to Business Central – but we still think that the NAV name deserves a final “salute”. At QBS we stay committed to the success of the Dynamics partner channel – and if you are interested in exploring more of what it takes to establish a business on this modern business application for ERP functionality – then join our Dynamics 365 Business Central introduction webinar either on June 26 or July 18. We promise you won’t regret it! 

Happy reading!
 Don’t have time to read now? Click here if you want to download for later reading.

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In October 2018 Microsoft retired the product name NAV and replaced it with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, which is available in on-premise, hosted and SaaS formats. It was not the end of the product, but a change in the naming convention.

When, in October 1986, IBM Denmark launched the financial management application, Navigator, for their Personal Goodbye To Navision And Hello To Business Central FinalComputer hardly anyone knew that the software was developed by the small Danish company PC&C. Backed by mighty IBM, Navigator became very popular in Denmark helping PC&C invest in continued product improvements.

news paper navision to be sold by IBM

When Navigator 3.0 was launched in late 1990 it came with the Application Language (AL) facility, which was an SDK allowing resellers and customers to extend the functionality. The product was the first ever ERP-system for the PC that offered customization options. At the same time the Danish competitor Damgaard Data was preparing the launch of a new version of their successful product, Concorde, which offered similar facilities. Irritated that PC&C made it to market first, Damgaard Data decided to name their new version XAL (eXtended Application Language) insinuating that their product was a step ahead of Navigator. Only insiders noticed the gimmick and both products went on to achieve enormous success in their respective markets.
Breaking with IBM
At the beginning of the 1990s IBM and PC&C began to see the future very differently. IBM wanted to promote their OS/2 operating system, while PC&C had more confidence in Microsoft’s Windows platform. IBM noticed that while their hardware focused PC-business was under devastating attack from the compatibles, PC&C enjoyed high growth rates and increased customer and reseller loyalty. The early 1990s were the years when the market shifted its’ attention away from hardware and chose application software first. IBM Denmark, who understood the changes, made a takeover bid for PC&C but was turned down. This and other issues led to the breakup of the two companies in early 1994. Having parted with IBM, PC&C decided to go ahead with the development of a new financial management application that should be certified and released with a new version of Windows codenamed Chicago. The product was announced together with Windows 95 in August 1995. It was released for sale as Navision Financials at the Comdex show in Las Vegas in the fall of the same year where PC&C also announced a name change to Navision Software.

 

The timing of Navision Financials was perfect

DOS NavisionSince the beginning of the 1990s Navision Software had expanded internationally and with the immediate and enormous popularity of Windows 95, they had the distribution and partner network in place to deliver. Financials was the first financial management application to be certified for Windows 95 and they enjoyed the full impact of Microsoft’s global success.

When Microsoft acquired Navision in July 2002 Financials accounted for 70 per cent of the company’s total revenue. After the Microsoft acquisition Navision Financials became Dynamics NAV keeping in touch with its origins.

 

Made in Denmark

Both Damgaard (XAL, C5 and AX) and Navision Software became recognized brands in Denmark where the two companies together had hundreds of partners and served more than half of all companies with financial management software. Due to the limited domestic market potential, both companies invested heavily in international expansion. However, making an ERP product cross national borders is no trivial endeavour. Each country has specific legal and market requirements, to which the software must adapt.

 

When Navision started the first international activity (in German) in 1991, they decided that localization should be performed by the NTR (National Territory Responsible). The decision was mainly based on the fact that PC&C with under 20 people (1991) didn’t have the resources to take on the work associated with the specifications of national requirements and the subsequent development of the code.

Distributing the responsibility for country localization made Financials essentially country specific, but the advantages of this model outweighed the disadvantage of not having an international product (like Damgaard Data’s XAL and AX). Navision Software was committed to serving the lower end of the SMB market, where companies were mainly operating in their domestic market anyway. This market segment did not have high demands for an international product with country specific features and multiple languages in the same code base. The Navision model proved to offer a fast-to-market approach and superior localization quality.

The Navision Internationalization Model

The approach used for their international expansion was primarily a joint venture model with Navision Software holding a minority stake. From the outside a country operation looked like a fully owned subsidiary, but under the surface each joint venture enjoyed substantial autonomy running the business as they saw fit.

The energy and effort invested by the joint venture partners in bringing Navision Financials to their markets were capitalized prior to the IPO in 1999, where 80 per cent of Navision Software’s revenue came from its international operations. By then the product was available in 30 countries.

Going Global on a Shoestring with a Start in Germany

When Navision Software merged with Damgaard in December 2000, Germany was by far the largest market for Navision Financials. However, the success in Germany didn’t happen overnight.

Allow me to conclude this tribute to Navision Financials with the historic details of how the German business venture started and evolved.

Alles Gute kommt von oben

In the 1980’s Lars Damsgaard Andersen and Jesper Bowman worked respectively as CFO and Controller with a manufacturing company in North Denmark, where they used an accounting system on an IBM AS/400. In the latter half of the 1980’s they changed to Navigator on the PC-platform. Planning to implement a new financial system in their German subsidiary, Lars and Jesper studied various German software solutions, but did not find anything to their liking. They therefore proposed Navigator to their German staff. After a demonstration of the software in an English version the Germans were very excited; excited enough that Lars, Jesper and Per Grønfeldt, a technical consultant from the IBM reseller of the product, translated the program into German and put it into operation. It worked well and everyone was happy.

Meanwhile the company was acquired by a Swedish group, and Lars and Jesper lost the autonomy they enjoyed. They discussed with Per if there was a market for Navigator in Germany, and if they together could develop a business there. Per, who already had a good relationship with the two co-founders and developers Torben Wind and Peter Bang at PC&C, offered to inquire whether there might be enough interest for the distribution of Navigator in Germany.

The feedback was positive, and in August 1989 the trio – Lars, Jesper and Per – travelled to Copenhagen to present and discuss the idea with Jesper Balser, the CEO of PC&C.  Spending a full day getting familiar with each other and discussing the opportunity proved that the chemistry between the four was really good. The trio returned to Jutland with instructions to prepare a business plan and find the funding needed to get started. They were also told of a new product in the development pipeline, on which a potential launch in Germany should be based.

 

Business Planning

The trio, who had full-time jobs, were now engaging in the research required to write the business plan and in finding private investors that would support their endeavours. After numerous discussions with PC&C in Copenhagen the outline of a framework for a future German distribution activity materialized and the corresponding agreements were signed. The German company, which was called Deltacom GmbH, got the exclusive rights to distribute Navigator, assuming that certain agreed sales targets were met. Deltacom would be responsible for the translation and localization of the software to comply with German legislation and market requirements, and the trio should assume full responsibility for and fund all activities associated with the distribution in Germany. PC&C, who made a small contribution to the initial funding and also made trade credit available, got a 20% share of the joint venture.

In the spring of 1990 Lars Damsgaard, Jesper Bowman and Per Grønfeldt quit their jobs and moved to Germany, and on July 1st of the same year they opened the doors of their new office in Hamburg. They commenced the work on making the product ready for the German market, and to avoid wasting precious time the trio used daytime hours driving up and down the German Autobahns visiting and demonstrating the product for potential distributors and customers all over the Bundesrepublik. The release of the new product Navigator 3.0 was delayed, so even when potential customers and resellers showed interest, Deltacom could not deliver. In late spring of 1991, the product was finally ready for the German market enabling much needed revenue and cashflow.

 

The go-to-market model was defined from the very beginning and was based on serving the customers through value added resellers (VARs). Although the recruitment of VARs and the subsequent sale to their customers was growing very slowly and fell short of any hopes, expectations, and also the minimum thresholds agreed to maintain exclusivity, the VAR model was maintained. PC&C in Copenhagen agreed to extend the exclusivity and gave the trio more runway to get the business off the ground.

The sluggish start was very tough on the cash flow, and the trio, working around the clock, had to tighten their belts, while PC&C in Copenhagen helped by further extending their credit. Even Deltacom’s German bank had to step in and accept overdrafts, but as they saw that things were going in the right direction, albeit somewhat slower than expected, they exhibited unusual patience.

The breakthrough

In mid-1993 the famous snowball effect finally kicked in. At that time, Deltacom had recruited a half hundred VARs, and some of these were part of nationwide networks with other partners that were now also showing interest. On top of the trio’s own market-oriented activities the word of mouth machine began to work, and sales now really took off. When PC&C launched Navision Financials certified for Windows in 1995 Jesper Bowman, Lars Damsgaard and Per Grønfeldt had both the organization and the VAR-base ready, and although the whole translation and adaptation effort had to be redone for the new product, market acceptance was very fast and the new product became a huge success.

We will not forget

As the NAV name disappears and erases the visual tracks back to Navision Financials, let’s not forget that Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central has a proud history. Thousands of people have toiled for years to make this product successful. When great products and great people come together at the right time, then great things may happen. NAV was such a great thing.

navision press picture

Preben Damgaard (left), Doug Burgum and Jesper Balser at the press meeting announcing Microsoft’s acquisition of Navision on 7 May 2002. (Photo: BJARKE ØRSTED/SCANPIX NORDFOTO 2002)

Goodbye to NAV and welcome to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. May the success continue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another blog you might be interested in: All you need to know about Microsoft Dynamics NAV coming to an end and becoming Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

The 7 secrets you must know to be successful with your Dynamics 365 App

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In 2019 we celebrate 30 years of the world wide web and in these 30 years a lot has changed. Going from on-premise to in-the-cloud solutions, from owning licenses to a pay-per-use license fee and from lengthy implementations executed by consultants to people relying on the manuals and not wanting to spend too much money on the implementation.

How can you benefit from this change with Dynamics 365 and apps? We thought that it could be useful to hear from one of the experts in the field of successful Apps outside the world of Business Applications. Just replace WordPress by Dynamics 365 and Plugin by Apps to see what kind of potential you might access if you build a successful App business.

Wordpress Plugin Dynamics 365 app

Figure 1 WordPress

Microsoft AppSource Dynamics 365 app

Figure 2 Microsoft AppSource

Joost de Valk, the founder and chief product officer of the most famous WordPress SEO tools worldwide, is one of those companies that managed to benefit from the in-the-cloud, pay-per-use, low-implementation-cost wishes of today’s customers. With more than 10 million users he knows how to set up and run a successful company with high volume leads and launch successful apps in a highly competitive market. We spoke to him about how he got there, what he does to stay there, but most importantly what you can learn from his journey.

yoast plugin vs Dynamics 365

The start of Yoast

Back in 2005 Joost was working as an SEO consultant for large corporations. He was one of those people making a lot of money by simply selling his knowledge at an impressive hourly rate. In his spare time however, he wrote about SEO in the blog he had created in WordPress. At that time WordPress was known for their blog websites and had a market share of approximately 3% (today about 33,5% of all websites are created in WordPress).

It was not until 2007 that Joost launched his first free SEO plugin. The initial success of these plugins surprised him, as shortly after he created some basic plugins, they were already used by some 100.000 users.

In 2011 he combined the different plugins he had created before and officially launched Yoast. The company’s mission is SEO for Everyone, to give everyone the opportunity to rank in the search engines. They use the freemium model to launch their plugins. The free plugin enables both large companies as well as small websites to attract the traffic they desire.

It took until 2013 for the first paid Yoast plugin to be introduced into the WordPress repository. The free versions still exist and have all the basic tools. However if you would like to work more efficiently, get rid of the advertisements or get some additional functionality then you make sure to use the paid version. in 2015 they decided to stop their consultancy business and solely focus on the plugin and everything around it, as the paid version of Yoast was already earning more than the consultancy business.

Only 1 in 10 users is actually using the extended paid version of the app.

And now? Yoast SEO has a market share of about 45% in WordPress, they had a turnover of 10 million euro in 2018, and a team of over 100 people are working on their SEO tools.  An interesting fact is that only 1 in 10 users is actually using the extended paid version of the app. So you need to think big; do not just limit yourself to your local market, but think globally.

Joost’s 7 tips to build a successful app-business

1.      Make sure that it is an actual “itch you are scratching”

Let’s clarify the itch-part first. Often people start creating a tool because they believe this is a potential money-maker. They build first and think about how to market this at a later stage. However, if you start with a proper “itch”, a problem you or one of your clients have experienced, it is easier to decide on what is important to resolve in this problem as well as make improvements at a later stage.  “Make sure to build a solution to a problem that you or your customers are experiencing. This will make it much easier to promote and sell to other customers” according to Joost. Avoid building something because you have received one request for a specific feature, stay focused on the bigger picture and what you would like to achieve.

2.      Optimize for the platform you will launch your product on

It goes without saying that having your own website with more information on you as an organization is important. However make sure to focus on optimizing for the platform you will launch your app on. For Dynamics partners this refers to the platform: Microsoft AppSource

How does this platform work? What can you do to be a featured app? What can you do to be one of the top searches? And get reviews. Joost stresses the importance of the platform over your own website. “Ranking via Google is something that can take years. Make use of the power of the App store or for Dynamics partner Microsoft AppSource as well as the ranking within Google of this store to be found. And make sure to put your efforts of profiling your solutions in the Microsoft AppSource. People will have already decided whether they will buy your products or not when in the app store. Your own website can online strengthen them in their decision for your tool.”

 3.      Make your clients true ambassadors

Your clients are your main asset; make sure to get and to stay in contact with them. Ask them to sign up for your newsletter, write a review, be vocal about what they like or do not like about the product. Yoast is actively asking their users to write reviews about their products. Make sure your newsletters are relevant to the actual users of your app or plugin. And equally important according to Joost is to interact in the different discussions on social media such as user groups and make sure to be involved in these discussions.

Dynamics 365 App Clients True Ambassadors

If you have a smaller group of larger clients, organize a round table or a network session with them to get their feedback. Or think about a small conference, as you want to keep them hooked and happy with your products.

Use Social Media to follow you customers on the different user groups and join the discussion.

Make sure to be available for your users. With 9 million websites worldwide using the Yoast plugins, they have a support team of some 25 people who provide around-the-clock support. Make sure to also check which way of communication works best, is it an e-mail, a chat, or even support by phone.

4.      Have a great UX

Spend ample time on a good user experience. Within Yoast currently 80% of development time is spent on UX. Your application should be easy and very user-friendly. If it is not clear where something can be found or how it is done, you will see an immediate increase in questions for the support desk. Or even worse, people who cease to use your app. So, make sure to make the necessary UX investments.

5.      Keep up the research

At Yoast they are constantly doing research; on the competition. What are they up to? How do they do it? As it only takes one person who does what you do better to lose your pole position. Research the market; what if Microsoft updates Dynamics 365, what will happen to your app? Connect with suppliers, join internet fora, Facebook communities, anything that can help you to be and stay relevant for today’s and tomorrow’s market.

6.      Think big

The world is your marketplace, so do not limit yourself to the local market. Use the Microsoft platform to be available worldwide and deliver a stellar experience, not just in the app but also on the level of support. That specific problem you encountered could also be experienced by a user in India or Brazil.

7.      Just do it!

No, this is not just us copying Nike’s slogan, but just get started and do it is Joost’s advice. If you have found the itch you would like to solve, get started, don’t think about it too long, but use trial-and-error to achieve your result. And make sure to ask feedback, lots of feedback.

Plans for the future

Yoast is always looking at ways to stay the leader in the world of SEO plugins. So, when asked about his plans for the future, Joost immediately gave some great examples of what they are currently working at.

First readability; they had already started and will keep on working on the readability features of the plugins. Readability ensures that text is understandable. Not just to us humans, but also for the algorithms. “We have noticed that understandable texts got ranked higher than those who scored lower on readability.  We initially hired one linguist to help in this endeavor. Currently we already employ 12 linguists to improve the logic behind the readability features in the main 6 languages for our SEO plugins. Many new features come from all the research done by these linguists. In the future we are looking to expand our readability feature to 20 languages, such as Japanese and Bengali as that would allow us to expand our market even more.”

Currently they are also working together with Google and Bing on live indexing. Now it can still take up to 48 hours before your content is scanned and visible via search engines. What if Yoast would send a ping to Google and Bing as soon as you launch your page? The pages are then picked up and indexed straight away. The pros are numerous, but there are also some large security concerns to tackle. “To be part of such a team of passionate people that work hard to make this work, without thinking about immediate revenue is absolutely great”, says Joost.

The most important is to just get started.

When asked for some final advice for the Dynamics 365 partners and their apps, the most important is to just get started, think like a startup and stay passionate about your solution. The world is your marketplace.

Update on Dynamics 365 Business Central 9 May 2019

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This series of webinars is intended to share the latest information on Dynamics 365 Business Central. Both from a technical, functional and business perspective. Besides sharing information, we will also update on the services portfolio from QBS group to assist on the road to Dynamics 365.

Watch here the Webinar update of the 9th of May 2019.

Dynamics 365 Business Central Update

Customers know what they want – or do they?

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Customers know what they want – or do they?

By Hans Peter Bech

 

“Customers don’t know what they want until we’ve shown them.”

That’s a quote often ascribed to Steve Jobs following Apple’s launch of the iPod, the product that saved the company’s life. It’s in line with another famous quote:

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Henry Ford has been credited this quote, but apparently never said it. However, it is reasonably apparent that asking the average traveller in 1903 about the future of transportation only a few would have mentioned the potential of the combustion engine. It was around the same time (1915) that Peter L. Jensen and Edwin Pridham invented the loudspeaker, and no one had a clue for what to use it. It wasn’t until 1919 when president Woodrow Wilson was to address a crowd of 50,000 people at the Balboa Stadium in San Diego that at least one application of the loudspeaker was made apparent.

The history of ERP systems

The first wave of digital transformation swept across the SMB market with the appearance of the PC from 1985 to 1990. The second wave was led by Navigator/AL (1990) and Concorde XAL (1991) that offered SDKs with the add-on and customisations opportunities for partners, customers and industries. The third wave was spearheaded by the global acceptance of Microsoft Windows that with the 95 version became the industry standard operating systems platform. Navision Financials was the first financial management application to be certified for Windows 95, and in 1998 Axapta followed suit.

dos nav

By the beginning of this century the PC had out-competed the mainframe, and the minicomputer as the preferred business application platform and most SMBs were on their second or third generation solution.

We are now in the midst of the fourth wave where software is delivered as a service from (huge datacentres in) the cloud and many more technologies are available to support many more business processes than ever before. The industry hype cycle changes faster than ever introducing new buzz words and making new promises of improved business benefits for the customers.

cloud for customers

Today all SMB customers migrate from one digital solution to another, although to a different and more comprehensive, digital solution. Does that mean that customers today are better qualified to specify what they want? Alternatively, does technology develop so fast that there still is a substantial gap between what they know and what is possible?

I have interviewed three Microsoft Dynamics partners in three countries and an independent consultant to find out what their take on the situation is – what do customers tell them, and what do they believe the future has in store for us.

The main conclusions from the interviews are:

  • Microsoft’s strategy of becoming a one-stop-shop for cloud-based business application has been well received by the SMB market in the three countries.
  • The cloud-based SaaS delivery formats are gaining rapid market acceptance, and most reservations can be handled through proper coaching. The tipping point has been reached, and the market for cloud-based SaaS solutions may turn into a tornado in 2019.
  • SMB customers expect their solution provider to coach them in the search for the best solution. In the lower end of the SMB market customers rely heavily on such guidance while customers in the high end of the market have internal IT-resources that specify the requirements.
  • IT- and systems support will not go away, and the SMB-customer still consider their solution provider their first line of support. However, technical support changes with changing technology. With more solution components and integration requirements, the need for business consultants and solution architects will increase.
  • Customers do know what they want, but they cannot articulate how that translates into the need for information technology.

GCC Cloud Computing

gcc

Chris Harthman is the owner of GCC Cloud Computing that has been serving SMB customers in the UK with IT solutions, support and cloud services for more than 20 years. The company operates out of Birmingham, Gloucester, Bristol and London and offers a range of managed IT services and solutions based on technology from market-leading companies like Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Sage. “We make the technology used by large corporations available to the SMB customer” is the company slogan.

chris hartmann

“We are our customers’ IT-department,” says Chris Harthman. “They expect us to advise which technology best meet their requirements. More than ever we must translate industry hype and lingo into something that makes sense to the owner of a small business. She makes the final decision and has a very pragmatic approach to what her business’ needs.”

GCC Cloud Computing started as a Sage reseller and added Microsoft CRM when customers began asking for this type of service. Later they took on Dynamics NAV, which allowed them to serve larger customers.

“Customers do know what they want, but they don’t have the time to keep up with the development in IT-technology,” Chris Harthman adds. “IT-vendors keep releasing technology that in the first versions is not sufficiently robust and easy to use for an SMB customer with no internal IT-resources. We are the facilitator between the vendors and the end-user making sure the solutions work.”

 

 

With Dynamics 365 Business Central GCC can now serve smaller customers also, and Chris Harthman has experienced a widespread acceptance of the cloud-based SaaS delivery format in the UK.

“While augmented reality and artificial intelligence still belong in the science fiction department, the cloud and SaaS delivery formats are widely accepted and even appreciated by the SMB community in the UK,” explains Chris Harthman. “Hardware and systems support will not go away but will play a minor role. Instead, there is a growing need for application support and business consulting.”

NAS conception GmbH

nas

Nico Straub is the CEO of NAS conception GmbH in Düsseldorf, Germany. NAS conception was founded in 2012 to support digital transformation in the German “Mittelstand” (SMB-market). The company specialises in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics 365 (especially Business Central and Sales) and Microsoft Power BI. Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Azure complete the portfolio.

Through numerous customer and reference projects in recent years, NAS conception has gained industry experience and developed its own industry solutions or created them together with partners. NAS conception serves non-profit organisations (clubs, associations, fundraising organisations) with NC: Member and NC: Fund, the hotel industry with QuoHotel, and the real estate segment with HB Immobilien; all established and pre-configured industry solutions for Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

“Our customers are often not aware of the range of applications offered by Dynamics 365,” explains Nico Straub. “We advise them how they can best meet their business objectives and help them pick and configure the applications they need.”

Given the reputation of the German SMB market being conservative and reluctant to embrace cloud-based SaaS solutions I am surprised to learn that most of NAS conception’s new customers choose Dynamics 365 in the cloud.

“If you run a market survey it may turn out that the majority of German SMB companies are reluctant to embrace cloud-based solutions,” admits Nico Straub. “However, the adoption rate is already high enough to keep us busy, and the speed is picking up. Also, the customer’s initial reservations often evaporate after we have had a thorough review of their business objectives and the solution options.”

Nico Straub had experienced how customers that were reluctant to take the cloud route changed their mind when the solutions were demonstrated and explained.

“Market surveys always have to be taken with a grain of salt,” says Nico Straub. “You ask customers about things that are not on top of their agenda, and they may not fully comprehend the issues. It’s no wonder you get a negative response. When you talk to customers with an active project and take your time explaining the options, then you get a different outcome.”

The shift from IT-support to business consulting is also something NAS conception have noticed, and that’s a change they welcome. Together with the introduction of the SaaS delivery format the initial investment threshold for new customers are lowered which again makes the purchase decision easier. The result is an increasing stream of new customers.

nico straub

“The need for technical IT-consulting and customisation diminished as we move to cloud-based solutions,” Nico Straub stresses. “That leaves room for business consulting, integration and application support which is much more valuable to the customer. Microsoft’s investment in bringing all their applications to the cloud is first and foremost to the customers’ advantage. We must adapt and get used to serving many more customers as even advanced technology becomes available and affordable.”

 

Read also exclusive interview with Nico Straub about how he’s achieved a succesful cloud business.

RelateIT

relate it

Simon Berthelsen is the CEO of RelateIT with offices in Odense, Kolding, Skanderborg, Søborg (Copenhagen) and Dubai. The company delivers ERP and IT infrastructure solutions to the higher end of the SMB market. The company was founded in 2012 by people with many years of experience from the ERP industry and from working with Dynamics NAV. Today RelateIT offers solutions based on Dynamics 365 Business Central, Power BI, and is a LS NAV (Retail) Diamond Certified Partner.

“The bigger the customer the more technology insight they have,” says Simon Berthelsen. “Our customers in general have very clear business objectives and understand the potential offered by the Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform.”

While many customers have moved to Office365 they are somewhat reluctant to make the same step for their core business management software.

“Migrating from an on-premise or Azure-hosted solution to Dynamics 365 is a mission critical project,” stresses Simon Berthelsen. “Customers are well aware that this is where they need to go in the future, but making the migration requires a compelling reason. We currently convert three to five customers per year and expect that rate to increase gradually. Within the next five to ten years, the vast majority of our customer will have completed the migration to a cloud-based SaaS solution.”

Customers expect their ERP partner to offer and support the introduction of IT into all corners of their business and RelateIT have embraced this opportunity.

“We team up with other partners in areas outside our core expertise,” says Simon Berthelsen. “The customers clearly prefer solutions that come from or are endorsed by Microsoft and they therefore turn to us first. A prominent example is Power BI that now has become the preferred business intelligence solution.”

Despite the accelerated availability of new technology in affordable and easily accessible formats customers still value a long-term relationship with their solution provider.

simon berthelsen

“We are not in a hit-and-run type of business,” Simon Berthelsen points out. “The value of our services is tightly associated with how well we understand the details of our customer’s operation. Combining that knowledge with a thorough understanding of Microsoft products is the secret source for success. Having long-term relationships is of mutual advantage to the customer and us. Such relationships are only maintained when we make recommendations in our customer’s best interest. That’s why business always comes before technology.”

The Lazy Bookkeeper and the Accounting Batman

These unusual names belong to Frederik Sandgrav, CEO and founder of the Copenhagen-based independent consulting firm Sandgrav Solutions, that help SMB-customers with bookkeeping including using information technology to streamline their financial processes.

Frederik Sandgrav attributes his success to the time when he wrote an article about the lazy little bookkeeper from Digitalia. Publishing the article on LinkedIn, he explained how the lazy bookkeeper could save time and money by using information technology to replace manual processes. The piece went viral, and customers came knocking on his door.

“I talk to SMB customers all day long and they all want the same,” says Frederik Sandgrav. “They want to save time and money, grow the business and make a higher profit. How to deliver on those business objectives using information technology is for us to explain and demonstrate.”

In 2017 Frederik was addressing an audience of a thousand SMBs gathered to hear about the future of accounting when he called himself Batman. Everyone knows that Batman is a human being. Perhaps a little more muscular than most, but his ability to fix mission-impossible situations is primarily due to his mastering of some fantastic gear. It’s the Batmobile and all the other high-tech gadgets that make Batman the ultimate problem-shooter. In fact, the technologies behind Batman’s gear are available to everyone; they just don’t use them.

“Customer do know what they want,” Frederik Sandgrav claims. “But forget talking about digital transformation, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, big data and cloud computing. That’s our language not theirs.”

 

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Recommended additional read: whitepaper “Microsoft Dynamics 365 the perfect platform for digital transformation in the mid-market“, which drills further into the market opportunities.

 

Interview on QBS group getting shareholder majority in 1ClickFactory

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QBS GROUP TAKES THE MAJORITY OF 1CLICKFACTORY SHARES

Microsoft Value Added Distributor and Indirect CSP QBS group (www.qbsgroup.com) has recently acquired the majority of the shares in her strategic partner 1ClickFactory (www.1clickfactory.com). A good reason to set up an interview with Soren Fink Jensen, CEO of 1ClickFactory, and Michael Hartmann, the CEO of QBS group. This article will dive into the prospering relationship and this intensified collaboration, along with the radical changes in today’s markets for business applications including ideas on how partners should react.

Exactly what has happened with this recent collaboration?

Soren: Until recent, 1ClickFactory was owned by three major shareholders, being a private investor from Lithuania, the management of 1ClickFactory and QBS group. QBS group entered into our company as a shareholder back in 2017 up until present with a minority share. With this collaboration, QBS group has acquired the shares of the private investor and combined with their initial share, the company now is the major shareholder in 1ClickFactory.

As management of 1ClickFactory, we’re of course very happy that the share of the private investor is bought by QBS group, as they are supporting our business, and not by a random third party. We will continue and intensify our strategic co-operation with QBS group in a simplified setting with just two shareholders.

So our collaboration now moves from a ‘strategic alliance’ to a ‘strategic partnership enforced by ownership’.

 

What is the motivation of QBS group to make this move and where does this fit into the strategy?

Michael: We’d like to see QBS group as the backbone for Microsoft Dynamics 365 partners. Over the last few years we have clearly moved away from the traditional model at the very beginning of the company, which was taking care of the transaction part. Over time we have extended our portfolio to also support our partners in non-core activities like marketing, pre-sales and training. Today, the whole Microsoft Dynamics partner channel is in a huge transformation phase. One in which technical and functional capabilities and capacities are more important than ever before!

Think about the transition of partner add on solutions to extensions. But also, the experience, methodologies, tooling and capacity you need to migrate the huge worldwide Dynamics NAV customer base to Dynamics 365 Business Central. We consider 1ClickFactory as the perfect strategic technology partner for our company! But also for our current and future partners – both VAR’s and ISV’s.

Now that QBS group owns the majority of the shares, the financial results of 1ClickFactory will be consolidated into the results of The IT Channel Company, the holding company of QBS group.

 

What is it that 1ClickFactory and QBS group match so well?      

Soren: Both companies are true partner focused organisations. Both have a ‘Microsoft only’ strategy. And both companies are laser focused on Microsoft Dynamics only. No other Value-Added Distributor in the worldwide Microsoft channel can claim this. Our deep functional and technical qualities and capabilities combined with the sales and marketing skills of QBS group plus their wide international distribution network create a great fit!

Michael: Our combined strengths, talent and capabilities create a true ‘one stop shop’ for Microsoft Dynamics partners who want to thrive in the new cloud era.

 

Soren, for those who don’t know your company yet – can you update us on what 1ClickFactory does and where the company is today?

1ClickFactory is a Dynamics 365 software ‘factory’. Our high-quality Microsoft Dynamics 365 upgrade, development and training services together with our leading Microsoft Azure managed hosting service, help Microsoft Dynamics partners offer better business value to their customers delivering solutions on-premises and/or in the cloud. Unlike the traditional ERP service providers who offer this type of service through 1:1 sourcing of people, we take responsibility for the projects and use automation tools.

We have performed 500+ Dynamics NAV and Dynamics AX upgrades, 300+ development projects and we also serve 5,000+ NAV users on Azure. 1ClickFactory is a Microsoft ISV Development Center that is Gold Certified in Enterprise Resource Planning, Application Development and Cloud Platform. We are a global business currently delivering our services to 300+ partners in 40+ countries.

In the last 18 months of working together strategically, QBS group has helped increase the number of partners using 1ClickFactory services by 13 percent. By working even closer together we will be able to provide even more value to partners. There are three areas where we have seen increased demand during 2018:

  1.  The move of IP to extensions where the QBS group and 1ClickFactory concept of Ready to Go and the value it provides to partners has played a big role
  2. Knowledge around how to implement and customise Dynamics 365 Business Central
  3. How to migrate customers toward Dynamics 365 Business Central in the Cloud and On-premise.

Together we have many of the answers on how partners can do this the most affordable way with the least risk, given the newness of the Dynamics 365 platform.

 

Well Michael, maybe you can give our readers a quick update on QBS group as well? 

QBS group drives the largest community of Microsoft Dynamics partners worldwide. Today we’re active in 22 countries where we support over 600 Microsoft Dynamics partners to improve their businesses.

The services of 1ClickFactory have already been a cornerstone of the value that QBS group delivers to its partners. The further integration of the 1ClickFactory services into the partner engagement, will strengthen the unique position that QBS group has as an indirect CSP.

While QBS partners are migrating their IP and their existing customers to Dynamics 365, they are facing challenges in their capacity and capability to do that on time and in quality. 1ClickFactory is helping many QBS partners already to provide the additional skills and capacity to exceed customer expectation via our Upgrade Service.

Since SaaS is not always the optimal solution for customers to bring their business applications to cloud, QBS partners take advantage of the 1ClickFactory hosting services to provide business applications through private cloud environment.

So while QBS group continues to onboard new partners into the QBS community, 1ClickFactory is the technical service backbone that will help partners to provide a superior cloud offering.

 

How does this more intensive co-operation work out geographically?

Michael: There are some overlaps in markets that we both serve. Here we will align our salesforces, intensify the knowledge transfer and build joint Go-to-Market programs, like the ‘Ready to Go’ program. An interesting observation is that neither of us can build and execute these kinds of programs alone. But together we can do it.

Then there are also markets where only one of us is active today. Last year, QBS group made a start in several markets in Middle-East & Africa (MEA). However, our focus is still mainly in Europe. 1ClickFactory is also active in Europe. On top of that, the company has activities in the US and in Asia and has plans to do additional investments in these regions shortly. Potentially we can use this situation to introduce each other’s services in new countries and regions going forward.

How did Microsoft react on this change?

Michael: The Microsoft Corp people are very positive about this move! They see the combination as a great asset for their worldwide partner channels: two partner-focused specialists that combine their strengths to facilitate the ongoing growth of Microsoft Dynamics 365!

Soren: Here I would like to add that the 1ClickFactory specialists work closely together with the engineering departments at Microsoft Corp.

 

In your opinion, what should the partner channel do to protect the 160,000+ Dynamics NAV customers worldwide and guide them to Dynamics 365 Business Central?

Michael: We see that this huge customer base consists of several sub groups. There are customers looking for private hosting and other customers will prefer a re-implementation based on a full-blown SaaS offering. And surely, there will also be Dynamics NAV customers who are forced to continue their On-premise solutions for some more time due to legal or infrastructural matters. We believe that the Dynamics partner channel needs partners that can both consult and help them based on a ‘one stop shop’ offering.

Soren: I believe that we must pay attention to bringing value to the older part of that customer base, and especially those customers without maintenance contracts. These customers will wonder what the price of a cloud migration is. For sure they would like to receive fixed price offerings, and after that they will want to know what the cost is of staying current. At 1ClickFactory, we’ve developed intelligent tooling and processes to help these end-users and their partners out. We offer an Upgrade Analyzer  that helps partners create fixed price and fixed date offerings.

On top of that we are building an Extension Maintenance Service that helps customers to stay current with their customizations – also based on fixed price. We strongly believe that these services are both unique and valuable and they will also support our partners to make them even more successful, also when they need to migrate to the Cloud!

Finally, what can the Microsoft Dynamics partner channel expect from the two companies in their new setting?  

Soren: The Microsoft Dynamics partner channel can expect a continuation of the existing strategies. With the same familiar faces on both sides of the companies, so that will stay the same. What will change is an even more tightly knit collaboration in the execution of the strategies. The partner communities can expect stronger and more attractive offerings, including offerings around the domain of PowerApps.

Michael: To make these words tangible: we have scheduled a first meeting with the leadership teams from both companies shortly to discuss and create a three year joint business plan. We’re all looking forward to a great collaboration with multiple benefits for our partner communities!

 

What does the latest Dynamics 365 Business Central Update (April ’19) mean for Europe, Middle East & Africa?

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The April 2019 Business Central Licensing Guide has recently been released, but are there differences from the previous ones? In short, yes. What we would like to do is highlight the important ones for you. In this blog, we have highlighted excerpts from 2 different Microsoft sources to which we have included the links below:

*Excerpts of information have been used from:
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Licensing Guide for April 2019 & https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/business-applications-release-notes/April19/dynamics365-business-central/
(Should you wish to have a copy of the latest licensing guide, please drop me an email and I will be more than happy to send it through to you.)

Dual Use Rights (Awesome news!)

This has been a bone of contention for people looking at moving to Dynamics 365 Business Central. In the original Licensing Guide, which was released at the time that Dynamics 365 Business Central was released in MEA, it stated categorically that there were no Dual Use Rights. Microsoft had changed this with the release of Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premise release in October last year. However, there wasn’t all that much clarity around whether the versions were identical with all the same features and also, how do the Dynamics 365 Business Central licenses get deployed in a traditional On-Premise environment. In short, no the versions are not identical for Cloud and On-Premise. The on-premise version was made available to assist partners and their customers that are not ready to take the jump to the cloud just yet but to allow them to have a more seamless move to the cloud when they are ready. This is probably the best initiative yet, as the move from Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premise to Dynamics 365 Business Central Cloud end up being almost seamless with the time to deployment dropped substantially with next to no snags (as long as the on-premise implementation has been completed according to Microsoft Best Practices). In some cases, partners may want to deploy both types of instances simultaneously for their customers at the same time. This might be done to help with running private Dev/Test deployments in Microsoft Azure. With the Dynamics 365 Business Central Dual Use Rights, users licensed with the required User SL do not need to purchase additional CALs to access Server instances.

Users or devices licensed with Dynamics 365 SLs have use rights equivalent to a CAL for the purpose of accessing equivalent on-premise workloads. With Dynamics 365 the server license is included with the SLs. Licenses for all supporting servers (e.g., Windows Server and CALs) must be obtained separately.

Users or devices licensed with the following SLs may access the on-premise Dynamics 365 Server software provided via dual use rights:

Once the Business Central cloud subscription has been activated via CSP, a customer account will be created in PartnerSource Business Center (PSBC) with the equivalent user SLs. The customer can access their on-premises / dual use rights license key (flf. format) by logging into Customer Source, selecting the ‘My Products and Services’ link from the dropdown menu, and then clicking on the ‘Registration Keys’ link beside the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central product.

*Note: The on-premises license file is valid as long as the cloud subscription is active.

When you update your online subscription (for example, reduce the user count), you and/or your customer are required to download a new on-premises license file from PartnerSource Business Centre (PSBC) to reflect the changes made on the cloud subscription.

So, what are the Powerful new features for business users

Microsoft is pushing productivity to the next level by delivering a smooth and fresh experience to all customers of Dynamics 365 Business Central, whether using the web interface in the browser or the modern Windows App for desktop. Combining modern trends around web-based applications and the complex requirements of the Dynamics 365 Business Central customer led to multiple improvements addressing productivity of a busy user.

Among those many changes, Microsoft have enabled even more keyboard-centric scenarios (keyboard shortcuts) around the important features of the product, keeping in mind speed of data entry and analysis, such as quick entry usage and personalization, sorting lists using the keyboard, and navigating around data fields and groups. Microsoft have introduced several improvements to features related to the customer context, such as a contextual work date indicator. Microsoft have also added options enabling advanced users to be even more productive – such as the focus mode, improved search, and the new option of inspecting the table data behind a page (formerly About This Page). They have also addressed feedback related to filters in Excel export (adding an easy Open in Excel option), common auto-save experience (which includes a new autosave indicator), and modern interface elements, such as the refreshed action bar and all-product navigation.

Additionally, Dynamics 365 Business Central becomes more intuitive thanks to an advanced personalization experience and easing and more intuitive ways of discovering new features. This includes refreshed action menus and groups across the product but also the ability to personalize those to suit a user’s preference.

What are the performance, reliability, and scalability enhancements?

No matter which industry, nor the size of a small or medium-sized business (SMB), users demand a reliable service and platform on which to run their business, collaborate, and deliver on their responsibilities. Along with the wave of innovative new features, Microsoft invested massively in increasing the performance, reliability, and scalability of Business Central, across the platform and business application.

Business Central runs much faster with a focus on typical business scenarios and usage patterns. The experience in the browser is more responsive thanks to on-demand loading of page elements, server resources are optimized for fast user interaction, and the database has been tuned to handle more data and load it faster.

Users will experience a more stable service because upgrades are scheduled to suit the individual business, users will no longer be interrupted by maintenance during working hours, and they also matured service health practices to ensure maximum uptime for customer. Users requiring assistance now have a single screen through which to find self-help material, share ideas with the community, and request support that has also been streamlined to reduce response time.

The Business Central security team works tirelessly behind the scenes to safeguard the security of customers data. In addition to continual improvement of the security infrastructure and processes, Microsoft ensure Dynamics 365 Business Central continues to meet ISO27001, ISO27017, ISO27018, SOC 1 & 2 Type 2, HIPPA BAA, and FERPA industry security and privacy compliance standards. For more details and a list of all certificates, see https://aka.ms/d365-compliance-list.

What about having the base application as an app

Microsoft are making investments in the platform to make it easier for ISVs to get into the cloud. They will achieve this by splitting the big application that we have today into a system app and an app on top of that as an extension, compiled in AL using Visual Studio Code. The below image shows the move that will be happening as of October 2019. This means that partners will have to start making the necessary changes to enable current customisations to function with the next release of Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Data and AI Functionality Enhancements

The last major investment for the April release is starting the course into the Data and AI future. The only platform that will matter in the next decade is the data platform and the only cloud that will matter is the AI cloud. We need to ensure that we have data sanity, which means that we need to make investments into storing the product data into Common Data Service (CDS) for Apps. The first will be to strengthen and prepare integration with Dynamics 365 for Sales through CDS for Apps, then ensure Business Central data contributes to intelligent insights (notes synching, late payment prediction) in AI for Sales apps, and finally that Business Central users get intelligent insights generated by Dynamics 365 Sales Insights (predictive opportunity scoring).

Dynamics 365 Business Central Team Member License Update

The only change to the Team Member license is that a Team Members application module may not be customized with more than 15 custom entities available to the Dynamics 365 Team license*

*Customization is only allowable if it does not result in a change to core purpose of the specified scenario

Default Subscription Capacities Update

The only change in the subscription capacity is that the database storage has changed from being unlimited to a maximum of 80GB. Any additional storage is charged in addition to the subscription amount paid. Highlights of capacities below:

Production Instance 1 Included
Non-Production Instance None
Database Storage 80GB (Was unlimited)
External Accountant Licenses 1 Included
Companies Unlimited
Cortana Intelligence 1800 seconds per month/tenant

At QBS group we thrive on staying at the cutting edge of the Dynamics solutions so that we can best advise our partners. Go on, get in touch with us and take advantage of all the benefits of joining the QBS group family. With over 600 partners currently, it shows that QBS group are definitely Partner Fanatics!

Follow me on LinkedIn to keep up to date on what we do and visit the QBS group Info Center which is always updated with new training courses that we deliver to our partner network as well as loads of awesome information from our teams worldwide. If you feel we can add some extra value to your team, reach out to me at lolsen@qbsgroup.com.

Happy ERP’ing.

Press release: QBS group becomes majority shareholder of 1ClickFactory

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Leusden, The Netherlands, April 2019

 

QBS group and 1ClickFactory join forces

As of March 2019, QBS group has acquired shareholder majority of 1ClickFactory. This is a further strengthening of the already established collaboration and is an important step in the strategy of QBS group and 1ClickFactory to enhance their offerings to the Dynamics partner channel.

Michael Hartmann, CEO, QBS group:
“We consider 1ClickFactory as a perfect strategic technology partner for both our companies, but also for our current and future partners. We’re all looking forward to a great collaboration with multiple benefits for our partner communities!”

The collaboration between QBS group and 1ClickFactory have intensified during the last 18 months. A milestone was reached when QBS became Territory Representative for 1ClickFactory in the DACH region – and subsequently also in Benelux January 1, 2019 – and now this is taken to the next level.

With Dynamics NAV no longer available for new customer sales (as per March 31, 2019) there’s no two ways about whether partners need to get fluent in Dynamics 365 Business Central. Whether this is about moving existing solutions, acquiring skills and knowledge on Dynamics 365 BC or whether it’s concrete technical assistance with migrating existing customers – the tightening of the relationship between QBS group and 1ClickFactory will be a huge benefit for partners in this transformation journey.

Soren Fink-Jensen, CEO, 1ClickFactory:
“Both companies are true partner focused organisations. Both have a ‘Microsoft only’ strategy. And both companies are laser focused on Microsoft Dynamics only. No other Value-Added Distributor in the worldwide Microsoft channel can claim this. Our deep functional and technical qualities and capabilities combined with the sales and marketing skills of QBS group plus their wide international distribution network create a great fit! The partner communities can expect stronger and more attractive offerings, including offerings around the domain of PowerApps.”

The need for professional and specialized assistance from an Indirect CSP provider, knowing the ins and outs of Dynamics, is evident. Technical assistance and advice have always been and will always be needed. With this important strategic announcement, QBS group and 1ClickFactory move into a league of their own when it comes to capacity and coverage to serve the Dynamics partner channel.

 

 

For more information, please reach out to:

Anne Jakobsen, Global Communications @ QBS group or

Soren Fink-Jensen, CEO, 1ClickFactory

 

About QBS group:
QBS group is the largest and fastest growing, international network of Microsoft Dynamics partners. We support our partners – Resellers and ISV’s – with services aimed at growing revenue, lowering costs and improving profitability. We are an official Value Add SMB Distributor for Microsoft Dynamics. We currently support over 600 partners in 22 countries.

About 1ClickFactory:
1ClickFactory is a Microsoft ISV Development Center Gold Certified in Enterprise Resource Planning, Application Development and Cloud Platform. We are a global business currently delivering our services to 300+ partners in 40+ countries. Our high-quality Microsoft Dynamics 365 upgrade, development and training services, together with our leading Microsoft Azure managed hosting service, help Microsoft Partners offer better business value to their customers delivering solutions on-premises and/or in the cloud.

Update on Dynamics 365 Business Central 11 April 2019

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This series of webinars is intended to share the latest information on Dynamics 365 Business Central. Both from a technical, functional and business perspective. Besides sharing information, we will also update on the services portfolio from QBS group to assist on the road to Dynamics 365.

Watch here the Webinar update of the 11th of April 2019.

Dynamics 365 Business Central Update

How to inspire your customers as an IT Business Partner?

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These days, IT innovation develops faster than ever before in history. While that opens great opportunities for organisations all over the world, it also creates a lot of stress since failure is not a realistic option (anymore).

Here are some of the dilemma’s for your prospects and customers:

  • We know we must modernise our business processes to stay relevant. But how to change the organisation? And what is the best timing?
  • How can we measure the expected continuity of the vendors on our shortlist?
  • How can we motivate our team members to put full energy into the project?
  • Should we migrate to the cloud now or is it better to wait?
  • We want our staff to be more agile in their thinking and their ability to change. But how do we get there? And what is the exemplary behavior needed from the management?
  • How can we avoid that Digital Transformation turns into ‘just another IT project’ with even more complexity?
  • How can modern IT tools support us in putting our customers first?

Where are your customers today?

In order to keep up with the competition, your projects must be successful in the first attempt. With a short Time-to-Value. Unfortunately, most of your existing and future SMB customers don’t have the knowledge, the persuasion nor the power to take the best decisions. Most of them select and implement for the first or second time in their lives. As a result, that creates big uncertainty. So it’s no wonder that ‘No Decision’ has developed into everybody’s biggest competitor these days!

Customer education

Modern and innovative Microsoft Dynamics partners focus on educating their customers and help them prepare for Successful Projects. Rather than pushing their solutions. This attitude not only helps them to create more leads and win more deals. It also secures the right support from their customers’ top-management when implementing these solutions.

About this webinar

In this free, 40 minutes webinar, Guus Krabbenborg will share his observations and the results he has achieved by his extensive customer education activities. He will inspire you regarding the best way to approach customers and prospects. Next to that, he will also position three different education formats. And shares the options he sees for your company to start delivering one or more of these formats yourself shortly. Guus has been delivering ERP and CRM Masterclasses to potential buyers ever since 2005.

This is a webinar that you definitely don’t want to miss!

how to inspire your end customers
Watch the webinar how to inspire your end customers (video 40:00)

Daily reports from eXtreme 2019, Amsterdam

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Our Dynamics Expert Arjen Jansen is providing daily reports from the eXtreme event.

Daily Blog – March 25, 2019

This year, eXtreme356 is being held in Amsterdam in the RAI Conference center. Our expectations as we arrive is to get relevant news on product development, market perspective, Microsoft’s partner strategy and off course to do some good networking.

Conference opening

The conference was opened by Christy Spokely, Vice President – Partner Strategy at Dynamic Communities. A lot has happened since last Extreme365 Conference in Dubrovnik, 2018. The biggest change being the news that the eXtreme organization and Dynamic Communities have joined forces. In this session Christy shared what extra value lies in this cooperation for partners and customers. In short, a lot of extra value in learning resources and networking opportunities. It was also announced that to strengthen the Dynamics Communities activities in Europe a new GM Europehas been appointed: Luc van de Velde.

Break-out sessions

On the session content: a lot of news with a prominent speaker line-up! You’ll find the entire schedule here: http://bit.ly/Extremeschedule

My highlights of the day:

The Power Platform

PowerApps, Flow and Power BI, the combination also known as Power Platform is here to stay. The main message is that with the Power Platform you’re able to create enterprise grade applications, integration and data analysis with a minimum or even without coding effort.

Microsoft Customer Engagement Field Service Management

We got some insights into the roadmap. The current release comes packed with features such as:

  • Push notications
  • 3D Models in the mobile app
  • Geofencing + background location
  • Remote assist
  • Multi-resources requirements and scheduling
  • Resource Scheduling Optimization (RSO)
  • IoT central SaaS offering, Flow templates and commands
  • SLAs & entitlements

With the upcoming spring wave (April release) will build forward on this, around IoT, Scheduling Optimization and insights.

Certification changes

A lot will change with the new role-base Certifications: http://bit.ly/newmscert

The new exams are in Beta now, and 3 new versions are coming up end this month.

 

 

Daily Blog – March 26, 2019

My highlights for today:

“Customer Engagement versus PowerApps: when to choose what?”

This eXtreme, I had the honor to present this break-out session. The main issue is the somewhat confusing product line-up around Microsofts business application portfolio around Common Data Service for Apps, Customer Engagement and Power Platform. When do we use which platform? For this, we combined licensing and product knowledge to discover which choice (or even better, combination of choices) works best. Got some positive feedback on the decision matrix:

decision matrix for team member and full user in powerapps

Jason Gumpert, MSDynamicsWorld, did a nice blog on the technology shift as well: http://bit.ly/ttwheel

PS – going to replicate this session in a QBS Talk on May 20th – stay tuned on Yammer.

How to tame Virtual Entities

Virtual entities have been introduced fairly recent – a little longer that 1 year ago –  in Customer Engagement. With this you can present data from outside sources in Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (and PowerApps P2!) as if the data sits in the same database. Enormously powerful, especially from user adoption perspective.

Very nice to see this technology evolving! New data connectors are becoming available (Cosmos DB!) and it’s even possible to create your own custom connector.

Microsoft open Discussion: Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement R&D Leaders

For me, this is one of the highlights of every Extreme. You’ll get to discuss with Microsoft R&D leadership directly. And with the 400 level technical detailing too 😊. This years impressive session lineup was made of Matt Barbour – the Platform Architect on CDS for Apps,  Ben Vollmer – Global Director on Dynamics 365 Field Service Management, Roger Gilchrist –  Dynamics 365 FastTrack Lead. Super session guys!

 

Daily Blog – March 27, 2019

Keynote: Powering Your Digital Transformation with Microsoft Business Applications

Today’s Keynote was held by Kees Hertogh, Sr. Director Product Marketing at Microsoft. Kees, together with several Microsoft experts showcased how to leverage the power of Microsoft’s platform to drive digital transformation. Showcases were around:

  • Connected Customer Insights
  • Customer Service Virtual Agent
  • Connected Manufacturing
  • PowerApps
  • And much more!

Also, news around product update cycles – Release notes are available 3 months before General Availability date and 2 Months bore GA a preview is available.

 

You may also be interested in attending our upcoming webinar on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement – with special focus on connection to NAV/BC using Flow – taking place on 3 April:

Update webinar on Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement and PowerApps on 3 April

Interview with Nico Straub, founder of NAS Conception GmbH, Düsseldorf, Germany.

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Founded in 2012, NAS Conception serves the hotel business, real estate developers and NGOs, and have since the introduction of Dynamics 365 been embracing the digital transformation – to the extent that their business today has a split of 75% cloud-based revenue, with the expectation to increase this to 90% in a year’s time. Read on for more details on how they achieved this impressive status.

 

Nico Straub started his career in the hotel business but found his way into the IT business via various positions in the Dynamics world – starting out with a position with Micros-Fidelio – the market leader within hotel IT solutions – then working for tier B NAV partner, and most recently as the IT Manager with a company using NAV. All in all, 15 years of NAV experience.

 

“NAS Conception is a relatively small partner (11 employees) from Düsseldorf with a long history with Dynamics NAV. Historically we, the people behind NAV, have been creating NAV projects “the old way” – but when we started establishing our own business we realized that we had to re-think this habit of ours to force every single function into the ERP product – which didn’t any longer seem to be the right approach. So, we had a look around to find out what our options were and fortunately and very timely Microsoft launched all the right tools for us to make it possible to start looking at customer project with that customer perspective and not just from an ERP perspective anymore. When we evaluate a customer solution, we are looking at whether the customer requirements can be met with more or less standard Dynamics ERP functionality – or if we have to add other products. Not going into the “bend and twist” mode of the ERP to suit every possible need.

Actually, we don’t consider ourselves an ERP partner – but rather a Dynamics 365 partner – always looking at the individual need of the specific customer and then bringing along the tools from the Microsoft stack that are needed”

 

Question: What would you call out as your main driver of success?

“I would say that it’s our ability to deliver exactly what the market is demanding right now. I don’t think we’re any revolutionary company – disrupting the entire IT industry or something like that – but more the simple fact that when customers consult us – they always get a true customer-oriented solution.

As an example, we had a call from a customer who wanted us to do a 1:1 transition from their existing NAV 2009 into Business Central on-prem. That was the entry point – but when we left the customer we had sold him Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics 365 for Marketing and Dynamics 365 for Sales – as an entire solution where all the modules integrate and using the Common Data Service as the “data pool” for pulling out all the relevant data and information to create all the necessary reports. And all as a SaaS solution mind you!

That’s a good example of how we go about consulting our customers – finding the best possible solution that supports the customer’s processes in total and not only as an ERP product which is forced to also serve as a CRM product, a marketing tool, a reporting engine etc. Our job is to make different products talk to each other. I mean – the Microsoft stack offers such a vast array of functionalities – why go and invent the same things all over again? “

 

Question: How do you cope with all the different products in the Microsoft stack? Do you have people with skills on all products?

“We have in-house specialists on Dynamics 365 Business Central of course – and then on all the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement features – except for Customer Service as we don’t have customers on this.

Right now, everybody is talking about digitalization and that everybody HAVE to go to the cloud. We don’t tell customers that they HAVE to move to the cloud, but rather let the facts speak for themselves. I mean – there are very very good reasons for choosing a cloud solution. In our case, we deal with a lot of start-up companies and as a start-up, you don’t have the liquidity to just go and spend 100K on licenses, another 300k on services and 50K on hardware – you just don’t. With cloud, you can offer a start-up with a relatively small budget a quite advanced solution, so that they from day 1 can start reaping the productivity benefits that the technology offers. Our smallest customer is a 2-user company – and with a 2.500 upfront investment and a monthly fixed cost around 130 EUR they were off to a great start after only 2 days of work! This is an entirely new business segment for us, as we never targeted businesses of this size before. A 2-user solution with NAV would have been starting at 10K just in license fee – so it was simply not an attractive market for us.”

 

Question: where do you get your customers from? Do they find you or you them?

“We get quite a few leads from the QBS Take the Lead program and we also invest in online marketing, so we do also see a steady flow of customers contacting us directly. Sales cycles have decreased dramatically from up to 12 months in the past to now about 1-7 days. As said, this is a totally different kind of business. You don’t work on RFPs, POCs and quotes for days and weeks – we call the lead – we send out the offer for the package – that’s the deal – and customer can then take it or leave it. The customer then either signs or not – if they don’t, we move on and don’t spend more sales time on it, if they do sign, we move in, do the implementation according to package, go live, and then move customer over to our support department. Since October we have closed about 12 customers this way – and it’s steadily progressing with more leads along the way.”

 

Question: how do you make sure that customers are properly trained to take advantage of the solution?

“Our packages always include a standard training. Usually, our customers tend to be in a growing phase – and as they grow, they need additional functions, which again create a need for additional training. Together with support paid-by-the-hour, this is then a new revenue stream for us.”

 

Question: Going cloud – what kind of implications did that mean on your people situation?

“The effect of going to market with a more standardized solution has meant an increase in our consultancy power and a decrease in our development capabilities. We focus more and more on consulting the customer in the direction of the right product mix rather than having to do customizations triggered by the customer stating an odd requirement that you respond to with a “sure – we can fix that!” So even though people might have been doing more development in the past – we are moving them in the direction of the consulting side of the business. Of course, this can be a hard move for some, whose hearts and souls are beating for customizations and development. I usually say that in the past we had to smack people over the fingers when they were about to do customizations – now they break their fingers when they try to do it.

 

For instance: before when we did code review, we had discussions like “you went into code unit 12 and into 80 and 90 – we don’t want to go there – the upgrades become too expensive then”. Today we don’t even have to check that – because they simply can’t do that anymore. Actually, we very early in the process realized that all our people simply had to learn AL – there were no two ways about it. Perhaps not to the deepest technical level – but everybody must know how to make minor modifications, and how to move fields around in pages and such.”

 

Question: What would be your one advice to other partners?

“Get yourself educated on the other Dynamics 365 modules and sell it as an entire solution – rather than looking at it as just an ERP solution with some other clever features. Microsoft has been telling us all that for years now – but we are living proof that it’s a profitable approach.”