Top 100 The Winner Is

The results are in for the DynamicsWorld 2013 Most Influential Microsoft Dynamics People List. Congratulations to the 2013 winner:   ADAM WARBY, CEO of AVANADE Adam works closely with the Avanade Board of Directors and his leadership team to realize the company’s mission of helping customers increase revenue, reduce costs and reinvest in innovation with proven solutions that extend Microsoft technologies. Adam joined Avanade at its inception in April, 2000, and as one of the founding members, was instrumental in building the company and shaping its culture. A senior leader, Adam has significant experience managing and growing Avanade’s business operations, having served as General Manager and Senior Vice President for the company’s North American and European operations during his tenure. As Executive Vice President, he has also led Avanade’s worldwide sales and marketing teams, and set the vision and direction for Avanade solutions. A true global citizen, Adam has lived in both Europe and North America, and has frequently travelled the globe visiting Avanade customers and regional offices. Adam came to Avanade from Microsoft, where he was General Manager of the Midwest District, responsible for sales and support of Microsoft software throughout Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Prior to this position, he was General Manager of Microsoft’s Enterprise Services, responsible for implementing the strategy and plans for Microsoft’s direct and partner services organizations focused on enterprise customers. Adam earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College, London. http://www.dynamicsworld.co.uk/1-adam-warby/ This year we have seen some surprises with 18 new entries and 3 re-entries. We have even seen a previous Top 10 drop out of the list altogether. The Microsoft Dynamics community continues to grow and change and we try and reflect this. This year the biggest change geographically has been the rise in South America. This has been a shift from Asia, and we are sure next year Asia will fight back. The dominance remains the original homes of Denmark and the US, but the grip on the top spots is beginning to weaken. Convergence continues to bring in high scores for people and with our highest new entry coming from Wayne Morris it shows how much we all appreciate value of a good Convergence http://www.dynamicsworld.co.uk/10-wayne-morris/ To those that missed out this year we will be back next year and we hope you will too.   

ITHR

ITHR Recruitment can be puzzling, we’ve got the solution We just get IT… Information technology is the engine room of the modern business. No other sector on earth is growing as fast or as fiercely as IT. IT Human Resources was established more than a decade ago to provide IT professionals and employers with decisive and industry leading recruitment solutions. Come inside and find out why we’ll be the first – and last – IT recruiter you’ll ever need. We specialise in recruitment of Microsoft Dynamics AX Microsoft Dynamics CRM Microsoft Dynamics GP Microsoft Dynamics NAV Microsoft Dynamics SL Our Linkedin Group offers more information on ITHR and will keep you constantly updated on the available roles that we have as well as the available candidates that we have. The 2 main points of contact for ITHR are Nainik Patel Tak Manoharan or see the ITHR Presentation   . About Us When we created IT Human Resources back in 1998, the world was a very different place. A little known thing called the ‘Internet’ was about to take off in a big way, the Millennium Bug was a very real concern for many, and social networking was something that you did at charity dinners. While the technology industry has come a long way since then, we believe that the core principles behind ITHR still apply today. In an industry sector with an intense focus on how technology can help us do business better, we’re fixated on supporting the people who make that happen with an incomparable recruitment service. With a management team that enjoys more than a century of combined experience in IT recruitment, ITHR has steadily developed an unrivalled reputation for providing the absolute best to both its client and candidate base. And, as the game changes, so do we. With the pace of IT development often outstripping available skills and experience, we leave no stone unturned in our quest to find the very best talent in emerging disciplines and put them in touch with the most ambitious and innovative businesses. IT Human Resources is part of the ITHR Group, and is one of the UK’s longest established independent IT-only recruitment consultancies. For more than 10 years, we’ve been helping to connect the best people with the best opportunities. We pride ourselves on delivering long-lasting success for our clients and candidates alike. Because the ITHR Group covers such a wide range of IT and technology disciplines; including specialist recruitment divisions in digital, telecoms, ERP and IT as well as software development consultancy and product businesses; we’re able to advise and consult our clients and candidates like no other consultancy. We provide them with the whole picture, not just the individual pieces by offering genuine strategic support. ITHR Group – the last resource solutions partner you’ll ever need. ITHR’s Commitment to Clients Why ITHR? Ever had the feeling that some recruiters don’t really get IT? At ITHR, we know that there’s no such thing as ‘a technology job’. Every role, every line of business …

AX2012 R2

The goal for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 was to ensure that more “Enterprise” clients became customers of Microsoft Dynamics AX. The step change from AX 2009 was therefore significant and the improvements to the user interface and developer enhancements were clear for everyone to see. With the addition of the Feature Pack adding a Retail solution to the mix the definition of Microsoft Dynamics AX has been firmly placed in the minds of clients at the heart of the “Enterprise” business community. Enterprise appears to be being used by Microsoft to represent a step forward from the traditional SME market, this is understandable the larger the client the greater the revenue opportunity, not just in terms of licence revenue but consulting revenue as well as cross selling opportunities. This could be seen by the announcement of the Dynamics AX 2012 R2 release. The enhanced capabilities the transformational measures for industries and the ability to simplify global operations by enabling organisations to use their solution globally via a single instance were all cited as examples of the further evolvement of the Dynamics AX product. It is without doubt that AX 2012 was a significant upgrade, and that R2 has shown itself already to be another leap forward. We have not quite hit the Neil Armstrong giant leap, but we are certainly into Bob Beamon territory. Yet this in itself has shown some issues for what is surely the core of Microsoft Dynamics customers, those who are existing clients, and are looking at upgrading. I spoke with a Finance Director of a global organisation, which by any definition would be known as an “Enterprise” client, and they were initially quoted 140 man days for data migration, from AX 2009 to AX 2012 R2 and are now past 200 man days and are hoping to have it completed in the next month or so. They completely understand that their Microsoft Partner are using them as a case study for AX 2012 R2 and they are understanding of the issues of an ERP install or upgrade, but the length of time that just data migration is taking does not bode well for rest of the upgrade coming in on time. Now this is not a dig at Microsoft and I am fully behind the upgrade and the step forward that has been taken, but Microsoft have to understand that as well as bringing on new clients, to truly increase market share they must bring existing clients with them. Earlier this year at DynamicsWorld we conducted a very informal survey of Dynamics VARs in Europe and discovered that the percentage of end clients upgrading from one version to the latest version, is diminishing with every new release. This makes no sense, Microsoft have done what they can to assist in the ability to upgrade with both carrot and stick approach, the carrot being keeping up with enhancements bringing its financial rewards, and the stick being the dropping of support of older versions. Yet still the …

Top 100 Results

The results are in for the DynamicsWorld 2013 Most Influential Microsoft Dynamics People List. This has been our fifth year and in terms of popularity this has been the most successful yet. The nominations and voting alone saw more than 5000 mentions on social media, including twitter, linkedin and blogs. And that is just from the public posts we can see, we have not counted the private canvassing for votes we know goes on. The biggest increase in social media was that of facebook views, with one post seeing more than 18 000 views. We had more than 4 000 nominations, for more than 2 000 individuals. We have also seen more than 30 000 unique voters and nearly 400 000 votes. Although they only make up a part of the criteria that gives the final score they are obviously the most public criteria. We base our selections on a number of criteria including: Number of nominations received; Number of Microsoft Dynamics employees employed; Number of clients your ISV/VAR has; As an end user how many user licences taken; Social Media Followers (bloggers/twitter/ linkedin) (bonuses for group owners); Number of years experience of Microsoft Dynamics; MVP Recipients; Developers of Add-Ons and new verticals; Speakers and writers about Microsoft Dynamics; Forum contributors and Number of votes received. We attempt to limit what can actually be described as a sphere of influence. The advantage that we have had in quantifying influence in Microsoft Dynamics is that we are dealing with a group of people with similar interests, and so it is possible to be able to quantify one persons influence over the group against another person’s influence. We have also taken steps to make sure that those trying to manipulate the voting prosper. We cannot thank you enough for your continued support and we are sure that as a part of the Dynamics Community you will want to have your say. So we have opened up a discussion on our Linkedin Group. http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=2057697 We look forward to the discussion.

Carsten Olhom Interview

What was your first job in Microsoft Dynamics? The first experience I had with MS Dynamics was back in 1999 when I graduated and start working for a large Hotel chain called Choice Hotels who decided to implement Dynamics NAV for all the hotels in Denmark, this was a very interesting time and I learned a lot from the people I worked with.   Who has been your biggest influence/s in Microsoft Dynamics? The best person I ever worked with must be Jens Bach Larsen who’s having an outstanding knowledge of Dynamics NAV as well he’s having a very good business understanding.   What has been your biggest achievement/s in Microsoft Dynamics? Due to the fact I’ve been within the industry for the last 14 years it’s really difficult for me to say what’s been the biggest achievement since I’ve been involved in so many interesting projects around the globe. But one of the biggest step I ever did was when I moved away from Denmark in 2007 to start up a company for Naviworld in Bahrain which was an excellent challenge and full of responsibility from day one to find new customers, corporate with Microsoft, manage resources etc. etc.   What is the best thing Microsoft has brought to the community? I believe Microsoft’s partner channel is the most important reason why they are doing so well. As we are many people who contributes to the success, but people forget this very often that without all the strong partners Microsoft will be nothing. From a technology angle I believe the NAV2013 & AX2012 are the strongest platforms which Microsoft ever has released, since we now have to tools who can compete against Oracle & SAP in various aspects – the partners just have to be able to position the solution right, which I see is a challenge for the future as many customers want’s AX for the name but it might not be the perfect fit for them.   Why should an end user purchase Microsoft Dynamics? I believe many end users today buy MS Dynamics because of the name and the quality around it. As well the add on model for Microsoft is very customer friendly as it’s possible to find a solution for all industries. I believe for the future the ROI will play a much higher part of an ERP decision and here will Microsoft gain lots of “easy point’s” as the solution in general are much easier to deploy but as well additional work can be done cheaper than the competitors since the tools are better as well the resource pool worldwide are much bigger.   What are the biggest challenges facing Microsoft Dynamics in the ERP market today? If you ask internal in Microsoft they might say that the future is looking very bright and I’ll sure agree to it, but I do believe there is some challenges which has to be solved ASAP. As written above partners today are not very good at …

DynamicsWorld and ITHR in partnership

At DynamicsWorld we are continually looking for ways to improve the delivery of our services. We consistently deliver results for our partners, and always strive to improve our offering. We are now in a position to work with a number of companies from the ancillary services – those who work across platforms and are not constrained by channel conflict. We will partner with one company per industry to offer these services. The first partner choice maybe slightly divisive – that of selecting a recruitment partner. The Microsoft Dynamics community is awash with recruiters who do a job for their clients and I am sure that they work hard, but too much of the money of Microsoft Partners is being lost to recruiters, akin to paying insurance on an iPad. So we have, after over 12 months of research, found a partner which values integrity and client relationships above all else. ITHR will only be working with a few VARs per platform per country, offering a service unparalleled within the Microsoft Dynamics Industry. Another reason for selecting ITHR is their ability to work within the global market. By only working with a selected few partners, ITHR will not be part of the merry-go-round recruitment that has plagued the industry for so long. To take advantage of this service, DynamicsWorld have already negotiated a discount helping Microsoft Partners keep more of their own money.       .   Authored by Chris Merchant chris@dynamicsworld.co.uk

eBecs and AxPact: working with the best of the best

AxPact brings together an alliance of 30 of the most highly proven and respected Microsoft Dynamics AX partners in the world. Businesses looking to implement or support Dynamics AX overseas now have an alternative proposition to consider, finds IT Contributing Editor Malcolm Wheatley Not so long ago, being a multinational manufacturer bracketed a business alongside giants such as Unilever, GlaxoSmithKline and Diageo. No longer: these days, even relatively small British manufacturers can have overseas facilities – sales offices, in some cases, but increasingly factories and sourcing operations as well. Which poses a problem should those businesses want to extend their ERP systems to those same overseas facilities. As, of course, they’re very likely to want to do. There are relatively few truly global implementation partners to assist with rollout in such a scenario – especially so in the case of implementation partners with affordable fee structures that are oriented towards businesses at the small and medium-sized end of the scale spectrum. Throw in a requirement for specific industry expertise, foreign language skills, and a familiarity with overseas tax and financial regulations, and the problem of finding an implementation partner for overseas facilities becomes trickier still.   “AxPact members work as extensions to each other’s implementation and support businesses. Being an AxPact member places an obligation on a firm to assist any other AxPact member – be it with presales advice, implementation assistance, or ongoing support” – Michael Blatherwick, Chairman, AxPact Global alliance Which is why businesses running Microsoft’s Dynamics AX ERP system should take note of a recent announcement from eBECS, a UK-based Microsoft implementation partner with deep manufacturing, distribution and service industry expertise, and with strong specialisms in Dynamics CRM, Business Intelligence, and a range of other Microsoft technologies and products. In a development that is likely to be warmly welcomed by eBECS’ client base, the firm has announced that it has accepted an invitation to join AxPact, described as “the world’s largest Microsoft Dynamics AX delivery team”. AxPact brings access to 1,250 certified Microsoft Dynamics AX specialists, who have collectively implemented over 1,100 Dynamics AX projects since 1999. In short, AxPact brings together an alliance of 30 of the most highly proven and respected Microsoft Dynamics AX partners in the world, providing expertise, delivery and support capabilities in over 80 different countries. And it’s an alliance with exacting standards, says Michael Blatherwick, AxPact’s founder and chairman. Joining it not only involves meeting those standards and maintaining them, he stresses. Members must also be a ‘top 3’ implementation specialist in their respective countries, and have strong references from Microsoft. “AxPact members work as extensions to each other’s implementation and support 81 businesses,” he explains. “And being an AxPact member places an obligation on a firm to assist any other AxPact member – be it with pre-sales advice, implementation assistance, or ongoing support.” For both implementation and support providers, and their customers, work carried out by another AxPact member – any member, anywhere – carries an assurance of work carried …

ITHR Presentation

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