Just a small reminder to my digital brain, that Microsoft have released a Microsoft PowerBI pack aimed for the WMS industry. Here are some samples.

Inbound– Measure vendor delivery precision. Measure put-away average times for products, and vendors, and be able to measure how fast your workers are processing put-away work.

Outbound– Measure how many of the shipments are send in full and on time. We provide ability to measure early, late and on time shipments in order to monitor outbound performance and endure high customer service levels.

Inventory accuracy (Warehouse itself) – Every warehouse needs to have high inventory accuracy on locations in order to be able to process shipments correctly. Measure inventory accuracy for locations and items based on inventory counting with full visibility into discrepancies in quantity and percentage. We provide easy way to monitor counting performance, and inventory accuracy for items on locations

Where can you find this package ?

In the LCS- shared asset library:

Thanks Yi Zhang !

It’s time to Recruit-not necessarily to hire.

A Super Bowl Lesson

After 8 days and 6 different cities I hope to make sure this message is clear-it’s been a busy week! I missed last week’s blog because of some of that travel but I also wanted to make sure everyone had time to consider the blog on sales compensation planning for 2017-it’s a critical component for building a high performance and self managed sales team.

The most critical component in creating a high performance team is attracting and selecting the right level of talent, however, hiring correctly is still the number ONE problem in most organizations.  While the jury is still out on the on college national signing day and their recruitment of high school seniors, and if you follow college football you saw Alabama again win the talent contest for football players. They certainly refilled their talent pool and Alabama actually turned down players that were highly rated.

What we saw at the Super Bowl on Sunday was something similar. What we saw at the Super Bowl for those of you who are not aware of the Sunday’s event; with very little time Tom Brady lead his team back from a 21 point deficit to win his 5^th Super Bowl ring.  The record shows that he has accomplished similar come from behind victories every year. On ESPN he was quoted:  I kept telling myself and my teammates that we can still win this game.   While sport’s analogies are cliché, the odds of winning were with the Patriots, however the amazing story was Howie Long, FOX Analyst, comments that with Tom Brady, the Patriots have won 5 Super Bowls with a large number of new receivers, something like 50 different offensive linemen, 20+ new running backs and many new positon coaches-yet excellence has continued. How have they continued to create a successful organization?

While being interviewed, Bob Kraft, the Patriots owner, kept talking about not only culture, but organization process, attention to details and a focus on quality. They know that each year players/coaches will retire, move to new organizations, (they are losing their Offensive Coordinator today) and others will be let go. They have to be ready and continue to keep their talent levels and training programs at a constant peak.

I titled this blog: Now is the time to recruit—not necessarily to hire-is also important.  Recruiting must be a constant focus of sales management.  At this time of year many top performers are assessing their current employer and are asking themselves if they are positioned with a winner or if the frustrations of the past year or two have been worthwhile and if they have progressed professionally.  If you are not constantly seeking new and better talent, you will find that the top sales talent, may not be looking when you are.  We always tell our clients that they need to develop a marketing campaign to recruit talent as well as to find prospects-both pipelines are critical.

Recruiting is not hiring. In my book I mention recruiting is 20% of the Sales Managers job, it is that important to add quality to your sales organization. Honestly evaluating your current talent is important. In our SLAMMED! Sales Management Boot Camp we start the entire program with this exercise, with an honest evaluation you will be in position to recruit and hire more effectively.  Build an interviewing process, stick to it, have at least 3 people interview each candidate, be skeptical and you will see the results of your efforts-just like Bob Kraft or Tom Brady.

Also in our book, “Recruiting and Hiring a High Performance Sales Team”, I suggest that for every one salesperson you hire, you need to interview five and that a minimum of three people interview each person. While I can’t get into a complete recruiting, interviewing and hiring process in this blog, building a recruiting machine with a defined interviewing process will help you take the emotion out of hiring and help you select the winners required to make your organization a “super team”.

Our website has a free video on Hiring Smart and our On Line Sales Manager’s Tool Kit includes a complete interviewing kit as well as a 3 week New-Hire On boarding training schedule. www.Acumenmanagement.com

Check out those resources then focus on execution.   I hope your new year is off and running-in the right direction!

Ken Thoreson “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 19 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for organizations throughout the world.

Ken was recently ranked for the fourth year in a row by Top Sales World magazine as one of the Top 50 Sales & Marketing Influencers. His blog has been rated in the sales blogs in the world!

Ken has written 5 books, his latest book is: SLAMMED! for First Time Sales Managers, Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.  Need more sales management resources? Check out his Sales Management Tool Kit or the Acumen Project and his new Ignite Your Sales Team online video training program for sales leaders.

Ken@AcumenMgmt.com  www.AcumenManagement.com

Blog:  www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

Since forever, the pundits have been preaching the demise of Great Plains Dynamics / Microsoft Dynamics GP. When I joined Microsoft in 2001, one of the things that influenced my decision was the th…

David Musgrave tackles The future of Microsoft Dynamics GP | David Musgraves Winthrop Development Consultants Blog

I appreciated David’s defense of GP. Generally I prefer not to respond to respond to rumors. Lots of people seem to like to like to just make stuff up for a reaction. I do that too, but I call it fiction and put it in a novel.

Speaking of fiction, Death from Above is free on Kindle Feb 6, 2017 – Feb 10, 2017. 

The post The future of Microsoft Dynamics GP | David Musgraves Winthrop Development Consultants Blog appeared first on DynamicAccounting.net.

Is the traditional user manual as we know it dead? I ask this as an honest question, wondering if my love for manuals has something to do with my generation.

The Microsoft Dynamics GP team moved from paper manuals to PDF based manuals some time ago. Like paper, the PDF manuals were completely updated with each release. Starting with GP 2015, not all the manuals were updated. Only manuals where the module had significant changes were updated and marked as GP 2015. Also, the manuals moved to an online location organized by version. This created a weird game of hide and seek where users had to...

read more

Perfmon for all of the Dynamics products continues to get updates. What’s New in DynamicsPerf 2.0 !!

The post What’s New in DynamicsPerf 2.0 !! appeared first on DynamicAccounting.net.

User acceptance testing is a frequently missed step in a Dynamics GP implementation that has the potential to make a launch go much smoother. After all, nobody wants to spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars implementing a system, only to have the users not adopt it at the end.

Instead of just hoping for adoption, user acceptance testing allows you to ensure the requirements – hopefully! – laid out at the beginning of your project are met and that you users have a voice during the implementation. So, with that in mind, here are four secrets to a good Dynamics GP user acceptance test.

1. Train your testers before they test

Users need at least basic training on how to use the system before they do their user acceptance test. Without it, they’ll need click-by-click instructions to get through their processes, which is time consuming and doesn’t provide real results.

1. Provide detailed testing scripts

Give each user a detailed testing script of what they need to test. If you just give them a carte blanche, they’ll either neglect the test entirely or deliberately try to break the system. Neither of which provide meaningful results.

So, what you need to do is to outline in detail the processes that they use every day. Then, have the user mark off each of the items that they successfully test, to verify that each function works.

1. Test using real data

You want users to do a realistic test of their every day transactions. If the person does sales orders or purchase orders, have them grab a stack of the ones that they did last week and replicate that in the new system. If they do importing, have them actually run one of the previous imports to ensure everything populates.

1. Support users during testing

Users need support during the whole process of user acceptance testing. It is a brand new system to them, and you're trying to test whether the system works. You're not trying to test the user's knowledge of it.

You don't want them to get into a space where they get stuck, then frustrated and say, "The system doesn't work." Help them along through the process and you’ll avoid false claims that something is broken when it was just misunderstood.

Are you looking for some more advice on how to do a great user acceptance test? Talk to Prophet Business Group or check out our other blog on the topic.

- Tracey Wright, Software Consultant, Prophet Business Group - Dynamics GP, Dynamics 365 and Office 365 in Central Canada

The Microsoft Dynamics GP team moved from paper manuals to PDF based manuals some time ago.

The GP MVP community has had a lot of discussions lately about the lack of user manual updates. As usual, we have lots of opinions. Some of mine are now up at The User Manual is Dead. Long Live the User Manual. – MSDynamicsWorld.com

The post The User Manual is Dead. Long Live the User Manual. – MSDynamicsWorld.com appeared first on DynamicAccounting.net.

Dynamics GP Partners: What’s better than free in February?

Few things in life are free—unless you’re a Dynamics partner needing marketing support! Check out the free offers at the Microsoft Dynamics Marketing Services Bureau (MSB) on PartnerSource as well as other value-added services. You’ll see examples of three MSB offers below but there are more than 60 marketing services available on the MSB site on PartnerSource. It’s your one-stop shop for marketing support—and boosting your business in 2017!

• Free Twitter profile and header graphic design from Mabbit Marketing: When it comes to Twitter account management and optimization, you can’t go wrong with Mabbit Marketing. Offering intelligent, straightforward social media management solutions for Microsoft Dynamics partners, Mabbit Marketing offers a free Twitter profile and header graphic when you sign up for a Twitter account management package with a six-month commitment. Learn more at the MSB Inbound Marketing and Social Media site and see why a Dynamics partner said “the quality of their posts is outstanding.” Contact Mabbit Marketing at info@mabbitmarketing.com or 941-650-4986.

• goERPcloud: FREE sales tools and marketing opportunities for Dynamics Partners: There’s nothing better than free and goERPcloud has opened free memberships for both ISV and VAR Dynamics partners! ISVs: you can have a company profile, list four products in the goERPcloud Marketplace, provide your marketing assets in the Cloud Resource Library and submit blog posts on how your solutions solve problems for business for free. VARs: you can have a profile that integrates into the Free On Demand Dynamics trial app, which embeds into your website in one line of code. You also get the benefits of providing your marketing assets in the Cloud Resource Library and posting blogs on how your company can help businesses solve real challenges for free. Check out goERPcloud’s free offers on MSB today and contact jeff@goERPcloud.com or 855-377-2568.

• Develop and enhance your Internet presence with August Ash: Since 1999, August Ash has been helping clients achieve online business success. Their Internet marketing services provide proven strategies, tactics and tools to increase traffic, and ultimately revenue, for Microsoft Dynamics partners. See why one Dynamics partner called August Ash “a great partner to work with … because of their ability to truly understand our marketing/website needs.” You’ll find three August Ash Internet marketing offers at the MSB Inbound Marketing and Social Media site on PartnerSource. Contact August Ash at shaukaas@augustash.com, ehanson@augustash.com or 952-851-9400.

All Marketing Services Bureau agencies ("MSBs") and Partner Development Centers ("PDCs") are independent entities separate from Microsoft Corporation and any of its affiliates ("Microsoft"). At no time does any PDC or MSB have the power to (a) bind Microsoft, or (b) create in favor of any person any rights that Microsoft has not previously authorized in writing. The services promoted by this website should not be construed as an endorsement by Microsoft of any MSB or PDC services or as creating a partnership, joint venture, agency relationship, franchise relationship or any fiduciary duty between PDCs and/or MSBs and Microsoft. Microsoft does not have any ​influence over the terms, conditions or pricing of the services offered by MSBs or PDCs. In addition, Microsoft is not liable for information contained on external MSB or PDC sites that are linked to this site. You are free to contact and negotiate the services you require directly with MSBs or PDCs; Microsoft does not have and disclaims any interests in your business relationship with MSBs and/or PDCs.​

The next Windows and Devices Partners community call is on Thursday, February 16 at 12:00PM Eastern Time, 9:00AM Pacific Time. This month’s call will focus on Microsoft FastTrack for Windows 10, the recently announced addition to Microsoft FastTrack that will help you accelerate your customers’ Windows 10 adoption. We’ll also talk about Microsoft Intune for Education, a new program that helps schools easily set up and manage classroom devices.

Sign up for the February 16 partner call

Microsoft FastTrack for Windows 10 – Deployment assistance through partners

Our guest presenter for FastTrack for Windows on February 16 is Liz Keyser. As a FastTrack for Windows project manager, Liz manages content and partner programs for FastTrack for Windows.

FastTrack for Windows provides a single digital destination for the tools, resources, and guidance needed for a successful rollout of Windows 10. Unique to this service is that deployment planning and service delivery is provided through partners. We are making it easier for customers to find the right partners to assist in their deployment directly through the FastTrack portal. Partners will be able to identify applicable offers to help you accelerate Windows 10 and Office 365 ProPlus deployment, including Windows Accelerate for proofs of concept and pilots, Desktop Deployment Planning Services, and the Windows Defender ATP Customer Rebate offer. If you have the Windows and Devices competency, you can request funding for Windows Accelerate offers directly through FastTrack.

Resources

• Microsoft FastTrack announcement for partners
• Get on the FastTrack to deploy Windows 10
• Microsoft FastTrack website
• Windows Accelerate
• Windows and Devices competency
• Microsoft FastTrack Yammer group 

 Microsoft Intune for Education

Our guest presenter for Intune for Education on February 16 is Andrea Schneider. Andrea is a Senior Product Marketing Manager for Windows and Devices in the Microsoft US subsidiary, leading those efforts in the Education and SMB space.

In today’s classrooms, more than 90 percent of schools use shared devices, with unique demands to set up and manage these devices. Educators face more demands than ever before, with nearly 50 percent of teachers serving as their own tech support in their classrooms. Specially designed for schools that want to put devices in classrooms and not touch them again for the rest of the school year, Intune for Education makes it easy for either IT admins, or teachers playing the role of IT in the classroom, to get up and running in minutes on Windows 10 devices and easily manage shared devices.

Partner sales and marketing assets for Intune for Education are available on the Microsoft Education Partner Network.

• Read the announcement about Microsoft Intune for Education
• Join the Microsoft Education Partner Network (MEPN) for access to partners sales and marketing materials

Windows and Devices Partner Community

• Sign up for the February 16 partner call
• Community call schedule
• Windows and Devices Partners Yammer group
• Community blog series
• Training and enablement

We look forward to continuing the conversation with you about the Windows 10 opportunity. We use our Windows and Devices Partner Community calls, blog posts, and Yammer group to share information and connect with you. If you’re serious about building and sustaining a profitable Windows practice, and want in-depth assistance, email WinRecruit@microsoft.com or post your question in the Yammer group.

Whether you run Microsoft Dynamics ERP, or even just Quickbooks, you probably don't realize how long your company would be down if you suffered a hardware failure, ransomware attack, or even a site disaster like a fire or flood.

Most companies don't realize that a typical serious data loss or corruption, even with a solid backup system in place, can often take days or even weeks to be back up and running again.  There are a variety of reasons  but just a few are much time it takes to fresh install windows server,  SQL Server, download the dozens of patches and install, the anti-virus software, ERP software, license files, ERP data, configuration etc.  And this all assumes your IT personnel are available immediately to address things.

With EverSafe, you have a system that is taking complete 'snapshots' of all your servers, typically every hour.  Any kind of downtime and you can simply restore files, or actually fail over to the on-premise EverSafe hardware server or EverSafe servers in the cloud should your site be damaged.

A backup system that isn't tested regularly isn't really worth much.  A Symantec survey shows more than 50% of all backups aren't able to be restored when needed.   With EverSafe, every night the system boots up a virtual copy of your servers and then emails you a screen shot of the windows login screen.  You can even configure complex testing scripts such as logging into the server, launching the ERP system and sending you a screenshot of the system up and running.  Imagine the peace of mind with a complete disaster testing being done every night automatically.

See a live demonstration here to see how it works!

One of the most common questions in consulting: Why should we upgrade to the next release?

Answer: To take advantage of the new features and enhancements to make your business run more efficiently.

If only it were that simple, in every organization the reasons to take on an upgrade are always different but at the core I believe the main driver is to take advantage of the improvements constantly being made to the software.  Each and every release offers many new and enhanced features that can help optimize and improve your business.

Some highlights of the enhancements made Dynamics GP 2016 and Dynamics 2016 R2

• Scan multiple pages for Document Attach
• Enter Prepayments for the entire Purchase Order amount, including tax. Prior to GP2016, pre-payments could only be entered for the PO Subtotal minus Trade Discount.
• Allow Credit Card as a Payment Type option to be used in the Payables Check Run process.  The total amount of the check run processed will create an open invoice for the Credit Card vendor.
• In Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016 you will now have the option include or exclude inactive pay codes when looking up pay codes in the Payroll Transaction Entry Window for an employee.
• A new navigation list was added in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016 that enhances the user’s ability to sort, search, and edit their Payroll Posting Accounts.  The new Payroll Posting Accounts navigation list allows for users to import and export their Payroll Posting Accounts setup.   For example, a user can export their setup, make changes in Excel, and then import those changes back into the system.
• SmartList favorite protection Greater control over changes to SmartList favorites is now available by requiring a password to modify a favorite. When users try to modify a SmartList favorite they will be prompted to enter a password.
• SmartList Designer SmartLists available in Advanced Lookups Users can now assign SmartList Designer List favorites to Advanced Lookup windows. Favorites now can be assigned to all lookup window
• Batch in use error message now Indicates the name of person editing a batch in the message "Batch is being edited by another user" There is now greater visibility for showing which specific users are editing batches. If you try to edit a batch that another user is already working with, that user’s ID appears in the message appears. Previously, the message only indicated that ‘another user’ was editing the batch.

And, there are many more.

A knowledgeable partner makes a large investment in staying up to date on what each release can bring to its customers, and it’s a great idea at upgrade time to schedule a review of the many new features included and how your organization could adopt and benefit from them.

As a consultant, it’s very rewarding to show a client something new that will immediately have an impact on the users experience and productivity, it’s what makes the job fun and exciting.

Kurt Quiggle, ERP Staff Consultant.  Kquiggle@arcticit.com.