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To kick off 2017, PowerObjects hosted a nine-session series of Microsoft Dynamics 365 educational webinars that covered a range of topics from apps, to design, to learning paths and more.

If you weren’t able to catch all of the sessions, you are in luck! The entire web series was recorded and is available for you to watch anytime on our webinars-on-demand page. Here is an overview of the nine sessions:

CRM for Dynamics 365: What’s New Overview 

This session explores and demos what’s new with the CRM for Dynamics 365 update. For those on previous versions of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you’ll learn what’s changing and what’s staying the same.

Speaker
Tad Thompson CRM-MCT
Senior Technical Advancement Developer, PowerObjects

CRM for Dynamics 365: What’s New in Field Service

The service industry continues to become more transient with our mobile workforce but the need for system tracking and maintenance remains constant. This session explores how the new field service functionality can anticipate, automate, and even help prevent system disturbance.

Speakers
Bill Kern
Solution Design Consultant, PowerObjects

CRM for Dynamics 365: App for Outlook 

Outlook and Microsoft Dynamics CRM have always played nice but, now their super powers have been combined to be better, stronger, and more streamlined.  In this session, we see how old friends like knowledge base articles, sales literature, and email templates can be pulled in directly from CRM to emails. The result will help you work faster and more efficiently while still tracking all client activities from Outlook into CRM.

Speaker
Avni Pandya
CRM Training Consultant, PowerObjects

CRM for Dynamics 365: Relationship Insights

Explore the new relationship insight functionality that Sales Managers and CRM administrators have been craving, displayed visually within your Dynamics 365. See the amount of time dedicated to an opportunity or the health of a client relationship at the record level without having to ask the account executive.

Speaker
Tad Thompson CRM-MCT
Senior Technical Advancement Developer, PowerObjects

CRM for Dynamics 365: Mobile Features

See all the new bells and whistles that empower us to do our jobs via our pockets. Learn about the new streamlined interface that won’t do the job for you, but nudges you in the right direction by putting content and priority a tile away.

Speaker
Michael Rich
Solution Design Consultant, PowerObjects

CRM for Dynamics 365: What’s New in Portals

Portals are the gateway for your CRM for Microsoft Dynamics 365. They give users access, but not too much access.  This session explores how to make your customer, business partners, or employees’ experience better via the updated functionality. If you currently have a portal or are looking to add a portal, make sure to watch this session!

Speaker
Tad Thompson CRM-MCT
Senior Technical Advancement Developer, PowerObjects

CRM for Dynamics 365: Designing the User Experience

Designing your CRM for Dynamics 365 just got a little bit easier. We’re talking about any business application needed for your CRM for Dynamics 365 system: entities, charts and business process flows would be some examples. Learn about the drag and drop functionality in designing these applications and, get this, the drag and drop designer extends to the site map. Yes, that means designing with NO CODE.

Speaker
Avni Pandya
CRM Training Consultant, PowerObjects

CRM for Dynamics 365: Learning Paths

Have you ever leveraged a “how to” YouTube video? Or used a step-by-step guide to complete a task?  In this session, we will demo this functionality and explore the CRM for Dynamics 365 Learning Paths. That’s right, learn CRM while navigating CRM!  Learn how this will look and feel within your system and start planning on how you can leverage this for training and onboarding needs!

Speaker
Gretchen Opferkew CRM MVP
Director of Education, PowerObjects

CRM for Dynamics 365: What’s New in Project Service

Project managers rejoice! This session dives into how Microsoft project can now connect to CRM for Dynamics 365 – staffing that project just got easier! Build your project plan, staff your plan and repeat–now that you have this new functionality at your disposal.

Speaker
Robert Justen
Solution Design Consultant, Sales, PowerObjects

We hope you find each of these webinar recordings useful and that you learn a lot!

Happy CRM’ing!

The IT Channel Company (TICC), via it's division Quattro Business Solutions (QBS), an SMB Distributor for Microsoft Dynamics, has announced a new strategic partnership with Dynamics 365/CRM services and development firm MindsUnited.

The partnership will combine QBS' distribution capabilities and ERP expertise with MindsUnited's CRM knowledge, tools and services, according to officials of the two companies. As part of the deal QBS has acquired a stake in MindsUnited.

"As a business- to-business software company with a focus on Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM solutions for partners and SMB customers, this strategic partnership allows us to unite our innovative CRM services with the marketing and distribution...

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This article describes the features, fixes, and other changes that are included in Microsoft Social Engagement 2017 Update 1.1.

New features introduced in Microsoft Social Engagement 2017 Update 1.1

Sell more with Social Selling Assistant

Microsoft Social Engagement introduces Social Selling Assistant, to empower your salespeople to sell more by leveraging social media. With this application, your salespeople get personalized and smart recommendations to share on their social networks to enable them increase their social presence, gain trust from their followers, and generate more leads.

You can access Social Selling Assistant from within Microsoft Social Engagement and install it from the Microsoft AppSource into your Dynamics 365 for Sales application. The AppSource app adds a new dashboard that contains Social Selling Assistant. Salespeople can access this dashboard from the Dynamics 365 web client, as well as from Dynamics 365 for tablets. Dynamics  365 for phones is currently not supported.

Share a post to LinkedIn

With this release you can add your personal LinkedIn account as a social profile. With it you can share any public post in Microsoft Social Engagement to your professional network on LinkedIn. Your LinkedIn social profile will be available for the post action “Post Link“. When you share to LinkedIn, you can choose between two visibility options: show the post to everyone on LinkedIn or to your network only. This post action is available across all Microsoft Social Engagement services, including the newly released Social Selling Assistant. For you to start sharing, go to Settings> Social Profiles, and then click the Add Profile button, select LinkedIn Profile, and follow the steps..

Japanese & Chinese (traditional) User interface

Microsoft Social Engagement introduces the user interface in Japanese and Chinese (traditional) languages. Users can change the language of the user interface under Settings > Personal Settings > Your Preferences. The localization of the user interface also includes the respective calendars for Japanese and Chinese (traditional) languages.

Issues that are resolved in Microsoft Social Engagement 2017 Update 1.1

In addition to the new features, Update 1.1 addresses the following issues and improvements:

• Fixed an issue where RSS feeds based on a keyword search topic were only acquiring data when at least one full feed custom source search topic was set up.
• Fixed an issue where we were unable to process a high number of RSS feeds added to Microsoft Social Engagement.
• Fixed an issue with the description of the Facebook User account type.
• Fixed an issue to improve readability of posts with multiple sentences and paragraphs.
• Fixed an issue where content from Blogs was displayed in JSON format.
• Fixed an issue with truncated tool tips for domains and custom tag names in the Allowed Domains and Custom Tags settings pages. The full label is now shown in the corresponding tool tips.
• Fixed several issues to reduce execution errors and the resulting number of e-mail notifications for Automation Rules.
• Data exported to Excel from our app will now use Excel’s date format. This means you will see dates according to the localization settings of your operating system and can change them easily.
• Data exported from the widget “Sources history” now labels all sources as expected.

If you’re looking to speed up your business processes and make global scalability and digital intelligence the foundation of your business, Dynamics 365 for Operations is for you. Assuming you already have Dynamics 2012 in place, the shift to Dynamics 365 for Operations is important to work smarter, achieve unprecedented growth (and operational excellence), deliver exceptional customer experiences, and fast-track your business performance.

Understanding the Code Migration Process

Microsoft’s new release of Dynamics 365 for Operations introduces significant changes to the development experience – from a different development environment (Visual Studio) to an entirely new programming language (X++), a new browser based client and a new Application Lifecycle Model – Dynamics 365 for Operations is built using the latest technology. And for this reason, understanding the code migration process is essential for a smooth and fruitful outcome.

As a prerequisite, you will need to familiarize yourself with some of the Dynamics 365 for Operation development, customization and user interface concepts (including development tools, the X++ programming language, and UI development) before you make the plunge. In order to be provisioned as an administrator on the instance, you would need access to a Dynamics 365 for Operations development environment using Remote Desktop. And once you have the reigns, you’re all set to carry out the code migration process.

Code Migration – Steps to Follow

• Choose the Right Package: Since the Dynamics 365 for Operations application in split into various packages, the code that you migrate from Dynamics 2012 R3 will be automatically re-baselined into the appropriate package, based on your current architecture.
• Upgrade the Code: With the LCS code upgrade service, you can automatically
  • Get an estimation of the effort required to upgrade the solution.
  • Run migration rules to auto-migrate parts of the solution.
  • Convert metadata into the latest format
  • Check-in the upgraded solution into your Visual Studio Team Services project.
• Configure Developer VM & VSTS: Post the code upgradation, you would be required to configure your developer VM and VSTS to connect to the upgraded code branch.
• Fix Errors: To enable automatic compilation of packages, fix all compilation errors and conflicts
• Embrace Best Practice: To comply with the Best Practice framework, you will need to resolve certain best practice warnings (prefixed as BP) to complete migration. Also make sure to address guided code upgrade TODOs and code upgrade-specific best practice warnings.
• Debug: To ensure smooth debugging, you might be required to change (or turn off) certain project debugging setting (default values help improve debugging speed)
• Fix Rules: In order complete manual migration tasks, you would be required to fix certain To Dos and best practice migration specific rules as part of the code migration process.
• Resolve Exceptions: To resolve casting exceptions (which are integral to Dynamics 365 for operations), you can raise exceptions in different runtime scenarios, such as down-casting, casting runtime to design time objects, and side-casting.
• Migrate Context Menus: To migrate context menus, you will need to 1) add a constant for each menu option, 2) build the context menu, and 3) process the user selection from the menu. Make sure you place the most important commands at the top of the menu, remove ones which don’t apply, and limit the number of items to a maximum of 5.
• Migrate Mouse Double-Clicks: And lastly, to cater to the various functions of the mouse double click in AX 2012 requires you to use a different migration approach for each scenario: Moving items between two list controls requires you to use the List Panel logic and the buttons; for opening a new form, you could either model a new button on the form or add a right-click context menu option and for selecting a field in a lookup, you could add a Select button at the bottom of the lookup form to enable record selection.

Ensure a Smooth (& Successful) Migration

End-to-end process visibility, connected operations, digital intelligence, real-time information, exceptional customer service – there are more reasons than one to embrace the next generation Dynamics 365 for Operations. If you’re looking to make the move (along with several other organizations), all you need to do is follow a detailed, step-by-step approach to the migration, and successfully migrate your code and metadata from Dynamics AX 2012 R3 to Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations. So what are you waiting for? Get on board and enable a smarter, faster outcome for all your business processes.

The market landscape and global supply chain are matrixes, and the same goes for equipment driven companies. Regardless your models for rental, leasing, or services, you’re going to be dealing with maintenance, transport, purchase-to-scrap equipment lifecycles, resources, and asset management. You’ll need to interface with diverse internal and third-party stakeholders, across remote locations. You will want to be ready to move with customer trends, IT innovations, and opportunities to add new areas to your niche.

All these challenges call for ISV software that works like today’s matrix for equipment-driven companies—interconnected, flexible, expansive. HiGH Software designed DynaRent for Microsoft Dynamics 365 after working closely with customers across multiple industries. From the start, we found that the common thread across diverse types of businesses was the need for a modular solutions suite that fit smoothly with Microsoft Dynamics ERP.

"What we are continuing to discover is that the DynaRent approach gives companies end-to-end coverage for operations and insight, and also the ability to unleash new revenue streams in a changing market"

• The foundational strength of DynaRent is that it gives companies an all-in-one suite of modules that lets them tailor and add functionality to cover diverse business areas. You implement once, with assurance of full integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations and Microsoft Dynamics AX.
• DynaRent modules cover virtually every nook and cranny for equipment-driven industries—there’s no need to purchase separate transport or services software, for example. Comprehensive modules that work seamlessly with each other and with Microsoft Dynamics include:
  • Equipment Management
  • Rental Management
  • Lease Management
  • Service Management
  • Transport Management
  • DynaRent Mobile
  • TomTom and Webfleet Integration
  • DynaRent BI

Image 1: DynaRent Solution Suite Overview

Of course, having comprehensive functionality for all your industry-specific touch points within one solution makes work easier—everyone works with the same graphically rich tools, your front-office, back-office, and field are connected, and all information lives in the Dynamics 365 or Dynamics AX database. Whether your focus is on construction projects or car rental, you can choose and configure modules so that you have the breadth and depth you need.

Equally important, DynaRent’s modular approach can let you open up new areas for profit within your business:

• A prime example that we’re seeing is companies taking on direct dealership along with equipment rental and services. Their Microsoft Dynamics system is in place, and they can hone in on purchase-to-sell practices by taking full advantage of DynaRent.
• Other companies are targeting lucrative collaborations, with shared information access, real-time communications, and workflow-driven processes. Whatever DynaRent modules you focus on, you can count on the ability to configure third-party interfaces that knit seamlessly with Microsoft Dynamics.
• Businesses across all industries are also tapping into DynaRent mobility solutions to increase service efficiency (think TomTom, mobile field service, and the Internet of Things).

There’s a lot packed into the DynaRent solutions suite. It’s packed for opportunities that are unfolding across equipment-driven industries, and lets you improve your current business and tackle growth without need to rebuild your system.

Intrigued? Learn more about DynaRent for Dynamics 365 Operations. Download our latest fact sheet here and we encourage you to email info@highsoftware.com for a custom demo of our solution.

• Binil Abraham's blog
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It's not easy being a salesperson. To increase sales, these professionals have to conduct a number of tasks throughout the day. These typically involve staying updated on the company's latest product and service upgrades and operational changes while also following up on hot and cold leads.

This amount of work and a dependence on commissions often leads to stress. A survey by SalesDog.com, according to All Business, reported that six out of 10 sales people feel anxiety because of their jobs.

Just how damaging is that stress? Many respondents believe it's detrimental to their jobs.

While there are many ways companies can reduce their sales teams' stress, we suggest one of the best ways is adopting an innovative customer relationship management tool such as Microsoft Dynamics 365’s CRM components.

This tool allows all salespeople - whether they're in-house or remote - to access real-time information with the click of a button. That means they can put away that pen and paper because CRM solutions can make manual data processing obsolete.

CRM also guarantees sales professionals one source of accurate information, which can cut down on time otherwise spent correcting data.

If you'd like to lend your sales team a hand, there's no better way to do so than by awarding them Microsoft Dynamics 365’s CRM components.

The post Give your salespeople a break today, implement a CRM solution appeared first on CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365.

Microsoft Dynamics GP acts like a tireless, 24-hour per day employee for businesses running their accounting, distribution, project, payroll and HR operations. In the end, companies that utilize Dynamics GP are more equipped to compete in competitive markets and against corporate giants.

What makes Microsoft Dynamics GP unique is how it can assist employees in multiple ways. Why should companies today purchase separate software for order management, HR/Payroll or finance when companies can utilize one unified solution for their operations such as Microsoft Dynamics GP?

Microsoft Dynamics GP also allows companies to reduce their operating expenses and enables team members to access the same information in real time. This can easily improve productivity and efficiency by ensuring they make informed business decisions as quickly as possible. The end result is a boost in their bottom lines.

For companies that truly want to streamline their processes, there's no better way to do so than by using all-encompassing piece of software such as Microsoft Dynamics GP. When working unified, you'll have more control over your business than ever before.