The Libraries contains a range of research conducted by or on behalf of our growing network of over 20 000 Microsoft Dynamics Professionals. We have included articles and interviews by the great and the good within our community, as well using offering it as a library of information such as whitepapers and case studies which can be downloaded. We also have a one stop shop for blogs, from those who know a great deal more and share it with us. We are also opening up our website for those that wish to share video resource. This is a new service and one we hope proves to be popular with our community.
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Articles
2011 - May
Why Host
To Host or not to Host? This is the question that has been exercising Dynamics CRM end users and VARs during 2010 and in 2011 the battle between hosted and on premise will be taken to greater levels.
There is no doubt that in terms of market share Microsoft has a vested interest in being able to offer both and there is also little doubt that the pushing of hosted Dynamics CRM has seen a boom in the number of end users, in July 2009 Dynamics CRM passed the 1 million user after 5 years of trading, 18 months later we are about to pass the 1.5 million mark and of the new 500 000 it estimated that 200 000 are already part of the hosted revolution.
With the on-premises and partner-hosted versions of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 globally available on February 28, 2011 the battle lines have been drawn. The debate has always been what is the best way to go, should you as an end user go with the hosted option and therefore take advantage of the faster time to value, due to the smaller investment needed, the more frequent ability to update and the ability to free your workforce from IT and give them independence. The added advantages although such as savings on hardware and potentially staff with just the need for an internet connection and browser to get you under way.
However this is balance against the fact that for most companies the truth is that ownership of the applications is important to them and then in this case then on-premise is the only way to go. On-premise CRM can also deliver more control around customisation and integration than on-demand CRM as well as allowing much greater hands on control of the implementation.
The answer surely has to be a mixture of the two, what is very clear is that although “The Cloud” could well eventually make the answer hosted CRM, but at the moment “The Cloud” is not the answer. Microsoft is finally launching an app store which is now the inevitability when launching any new platform or software service. But what is an app store, and what is that could not as easily be replaced with a netbook, a terabyte credit card sized external hard drive and a fast connection from home.
The obvious argument is that with hosted services and app stores then the ability to work from mobile appliances phones, hand helds and scanners. But how many developers will be reaching for their HTC to develop on, or how many managers will really be reviewing reports on their Nokia? When Blackberry’s allow simple integration between Outlook and anything else then there could be some results but until the hardware is allowed to develop we will always use laptops and servers for the critical elements of any project we are working on.
So Microsoft and VARs should be looking to develop a mixture of Hosted and On-Premise, why should a client not be able to purchase a mix of licences, with managerial and development licences raised as On-Premise and those in the field raised as hosted. It could also be possible to be able to “host” on “client site” this may not offer so much of a discount, as true hosted environments but it will give the end users a better financial deal. It is after all a simple task of hosting the bulk of the software in-house with a few Web interfaces hosted along with the public Web site.
This has to be tackled and tackled quickly as although Microsoft Dynamics CRM is certainly gaining market share from Siebel, it is not taking as much market share away as Salesforce or Sugar OnDemand. The price comparisons are used by Salesforce and Sugar CRM sales staff are always put up against On-Premise Dynamics CRM and therefore look very favourable for them, but in truth, until Hosted platforms are able to do everything that can be done On-Premise the argument should not be one of cost, but should be on technical ability and integration and in this regard there is only one way to go and that is Dynamics CRM, and with a bit of luck it will be a crossbreed of hosted and on-premise.
CRM 2011
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 became available for download on April 1st 2011, but it was no April Fools. The jump from CRM 4 to CRM 2011 is not in the realms of Neil Armstrong’s “giant leap” but CRM 2011 is certainly a big step forward for Microsoft and is significantly different to the 1.2 version.
CRM 2011 has been out in the US for some time and now Microsoft is allowing the rest of the world to join in the fun. The forward thinking is evident in a number of ways, not just the headline grabbing on premise or hosted environment, the XRM development, or the new Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace. The major advances have to be in the actual end user customer experience.
Simplicity and power are the cornerstones of CRM 2011, understanding that not all users and even more importantly not all management will be completely IT literate, Microsoft has made significant changes in the Dashboards, Outlook and Office features in order to make the most of the experience and highlight the best features
The simplicity of the Dashboard creation empowers users to be more creative with reporting, it is possible to bring together information from several places within CRM 2011 and from there to create and most importantly to be able to correct the Dashboards as you wish
The integration of CRM 2011 with Outlook means the native functionality of Outlook is retained including previews and formatting. The user is able to bring their experience of Outlook to CRM 2011 so there is no need for the users to “learn” a new way of working with CRM Outlook.
CRM 2011 has come with an impressive new Office 2010 contextual ribbon. Good bye to creating mountains of JavaScript in order to create the Office ribbon within your CRM, now it is there as an out of the box solution. The new ribbon allows for a familiar navigation to anyone who uses Word or any Office product. The ribbon is made even more impressive as the actions on the ribbon automatically update based on where you are in CRM. The functions when you look at a lead record will differ from the ribbon actions when you’re in the activity list with the simple hover feature giving further explanation of the ribbon should it be required.
The ability to be familiar with elements of a new platform is seen as fundamental in bringing the users with you when you are upgrading or indeed implementing a new platform and as such it is easy to foresee the advantages that this will bring to both the VAR during the implementation and to the gaining the users buy-in.
Lack of Dynamics Consultants
The lack of Dynamics Consultants is a serious issue that is easily solved.
By Jared Steadman May 2011
There has been a lack of Dynamics Consultants and Developers for some time. Microsoft in the UK has attempted to make small steps to combat the issue with little success. They had the right idea in the UK when they partnered with Sheffield Hallam University offering a MBA in Information Systems with Microsoft Dynamics. Today the qualification is well respected in the industry and the graduates are highly skilled and competent. Unfortunately that was never sold to enough potential graduates. Globally there has been an increase in Microsoft university courses and other Microsoft initiatives. But is it really Microsoft’s role to train additional personnel and therefore is what they are doing just sticking a plaster on a much larger wound?
Today, basic development isn’t the issue. Huge teams outside of the EU can complete implementations quicker and cheaper than UK and other Northern European based companies. This is largely due to excellent, cost effective training programmes, which are often run by large resellers. The aim of these facilities is to train new staff, often just managing to break even, not to make a profit. Something I thing the European market could learn from.
Consequently, face to face Consultants are in high demand across Europe and the US, which inevitably drives up rates. Partners spend millions of pounds on implementations and upgrades and need the work completed properly. They are feeling squeezed between lack of affordable resources and the need to have the work completed to the standards they require. A complaint that has been put to Microsoft.
Recent conversations have shown me that Microsoft are looking for solutions to this problem. I was recently asked what I thought was the best way to combat the problem in the short term. In my opinion there is a simple answer.
Recruitment companies.
Recruitment companies can employ non EU staff as full time employees or on fixed term contracts. With their skills and experience and the obvious lack of these professionals, they will be accepted as Highly Skilled Migrant Professionals, HSMP (or the equivalent name outside of the UK).
Microsoft need to act as a middle man, introducing partners who are interested in cutting costs to recruitment companies that have the resources and inclination to provide a solution.
Partners will no doubt want MS Certified, experienced candidates who have excellent English. The recruitment companies will want to gauge demand and want reassurances that these people will be employed.
Once agreed recruitment companies will bring the candidates from outside the EU and US, employing them on a fixed term contract for the duration of their visa. The candidates will have a chance of earning comparatively excellent wages. MS partners will have affordable resource for their projects that delivers a high standard of work.
I was told that Microsoft would be interested in pursuing this idea, and that they were planning to arrange a preliminary meeting between interested parties. To date I haven’t heard any more news.
This seems like a short term solution that all 4 parties in this equation would benefit from.
Could it work in the long term?
VARS: Consultancy versus Systems Integrators
Systems Integrator or Consultancy
By Chris Merchant May 2011
We are still living in straightened times and despite there being signs of growth in most industries it is certain that to ensure that there are more new implementations that VARs are having to become better at the development of clients needs.
For VARs it is imperative that they must remain profitable, which by and large is done through upgrades or new implementations, and although that might be an obvious statement to make, it does mean that given there are few ways in which the VARs can actually develop their business, unless they are to move into the area of ISVs. So for all VARs it is worth trying to attempt to ascertain how they are best able to run their pipelines for upgrades and new implementations.
The management of pipelines allows for the ability to successfully manage their internal resources, which allows for much greater profitability given it means that their staff can be optimised and there is less need for extra staff, either on a permanent basis or freelance basis.
It can however be difficult to control a pipeline, despite the best attempts, it is virtually impossible guarantee that a new client will start a project on a given day and that the implementation will go so much to plan that every deadline is hit on time and without the client altering the goals and creating new needs.
So if the pipeline is more difficult to establish, what other tools can VARs utilise to ensure that they have the opportunity to become as profitable as possible. The answer for this lies in the very beginnings of the partner channels set up by Microsoft. Back in 2001 it was designated by Microsoft that the partner channels would be split into systems integrators and consultancies, since then there has been a move in the last couple of years by Microsoft that there be a block of almost super VARs that are a global top 10 or 12 or even 15 depending on who you speak with at Microsoft, with underneath this a list of large consultancies in each country and then again below this VARs that are based around niche verticals. In theory this plan works well for Microsoft as it covers the multi country deployment down to the small niche player, but does this work for all the current VARs? To this the answer is probably no.
If you are one of the larger global VARs who is backed by Microsoft then that is great, but why if you are not one of these that is being cherry picked be able to work in this way.
The difficulty is that for the last 10 years there has been a downward trend towards systems integration, this can be shown by looking at the job boards. Of the more than 2000 job adverts for people in Microsoft Dynamics across the globe that were live on May 1st 2011 of those that specified a degree from their education every single one was a variant of computer science. Compare this to adverts for the four largest global consultancies on the same day, Deloittes, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PWC less than 10% of roles required even a computing background.
It could of course be argued that this is because the big 4 consultancies outsource to IT partners, but this is by far and away the biggest incentive. A client who is a large hedge fund based in London who until this year used Oracle, had decided last year that they required a change in ERP platform and their main goal was that of achieving a time to break even of less than one year. Therefore as well as providing a successful implementation it was obvious that controlling costs would be key.
This hedge fund did look long and hard at using Microsoft Dynamics, yet in the end went with PWC who are installing SAP. The reason for this was because PWC guaranteed that the time to break even would be DAY ONE.
That most of you will say is impossible, but without charging the client, they were able to develop a number of consultancy strategies that will save the client £16 million in the first year, as the client are bought into this, they are then able to start to do the implementation on PWCs terms, and the project will start in October, this is not because that is when the savings will start to come in (although they will have start to feed in by July) but because that is the optimum time for PWCs inhouse IT team to begin the project.
So simple is it to make the savings that PWC only used 2 staff to drive the savings part of the project over the month of April and will not charge for their time until July.
If you also consider that the average team size will be 8 people, the average daily charge rate will be £1800 and that the project is expected to run for 6 months, this is not a cheap project and yet the costs of the staff involved are similar to those that most VARs have and cheaper than the daily rate of a freelancer. So what is certain is that the right consultancy offering can be hugely more profitable.
So how do you make these savings, well that would be foolish on here to hand out the answers, and for a more detailed conversation regarding this please do get in touch at chris@dynamicsworld.co.uk as in combination with a large Amercian consultancy who do not have an inhouse IT arm we have been able to secure the consultancy services that you can use in order to save your clients substantial savings, which will pay for your implementation services. Last year the average saving this consultancy made for its clients was $12 million based on turnovers in excess of $75 million.
There are some consultancy tricks that can be used and are well documented, such as the creation of internal purchasing and consultancy teams which are based in low corporation tax economies and these then can be used as vehicles to avoid the high tax burdens, which in itself can save enough to pay for Microsoft Dynamics, for example saving 20% on corporation tax means a £1 million saving on a £5 million tax bill, and given that as most VARs have access to the finance systems of their clients, you will see that most of your clients have this exposure. There are more than 400 000 European companies that fall into this category.
A growing favourite within consultancy is that of group purchasing, companies owned or at least run by consultancies are being set up to provide everything from stationary to cars, and even plant hire equipment in the construction industry. This makes sense that given that all of your current clients will at some point need stationary, if as a consultancy you have a connection with a stationary provider you can gain savings for your clients simply through the concept of bulk purchasing. This might even bring your own costs down.
Obviously the larger the items the larger the savings, but even so a US based consultancy last year saved a Texas based bank more than $400 000 simply by changing their stationary provider.
It makes sense to be a consultancy but there is also a place for the systems integrator. With this in mind it surely makes sense to investigate both options, the daily rates alone make sense.
2010
Power of Influence
In the previous years in which we have set up and listed the Most Influential People in Microsoft Dynamics it has become apparent that influence or influential is very subjective. As developers we have been very analytical, created algorithms to “simplify” the process and put together a physical definition of an ephemeral subjective ideal.
Since we have begun there have been a number of companies that have equally made diagnostic attempts to quantify what it means to be influential. The dictionary definition of influential is “able to influence people” and in turn influence is “having a powerful effect on people”. It is true in that case that everybody is influential and if taken to an extreme, and with apologies to students of Lorenz, a butterfly’s wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado, which can be seen to prove Chaos Theory and what makes influence.
Therefore we have to try and 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.
The influence over groups is a theory that has been taken up by several online companies, none more so that in the social media space and within Twitter there are Topsy, Klout and TunkRank to name just a few, which have all built separate ways to sort Twitter users in order to reveal experts who tweet actively and influentially on a given topic. The measure of influence in this respect is different to the search engines and in this respect lends greater to weight to the information found in this way.
The rise in internet influence is growing and as ever is “influenced” by celebrities, and it is a true chicken and egg situation that most of those celebrities that are deemed to be influential because their social media following is so high, but are they gaining such a high following because they are a celebrity. So following the Topsy, Klout and TunkRank rationale Lady Gaga, Ashton Kutcher and Justin Bieber are more influential than Barack Obama and Wen Jiabao.
To most of this would be considered heresy but the groups to which they are influential are the ones that the corporations are interested in. More 15 – 19 year olds click through internet adverts than 40 – 80 years old. A recent retweet from Justin Bieber took an ipad app into the the top 10 downloads inside a day. This is the influence that social media savvy companies are interested not in who Barack Obama backs in Egypt or if Wen Jiabao will keep the Chinese currency artificially low.
All is not lost for those of who are not celebrities, we can all utilise our “influence” to gain free Virgin America flights or free hotel rooms in Las Vegas at establishments such as the Palms Casino Resort. In this new era of social media influence there is very much a self censorship in place in which most people refrain from anything which is too derogatory. When something derogatory does happen the companies badly affected resort to utilising their influence in the offline world using the media and promotion to rebut the derogatory remarks and embody a better image for themselves. This does highlight that as an individual your influence on the wider world is greater online than it is compared to your everyday life, where companies still hold sway.
Therefore for us to deliver a true list of those that are influential within Microsoft Dynamics we have to be able to compare those who have influence both online and offline. There are a number of ways in which we do this and by doing this we have been able to create a number of criteria that are weighted to provide a final score for each person and from there we are able to produce a list in the order that it will finally appear.
The significant criteria we use.
Number of nominations
Number of Microsoft Dynamics employees
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.
Number of votes received
GP and SharePoint
GP and SharePoint a Marriage
There is often a case made by those of us Microsoft Partners that pushes out the integration argument when faced with a competitive tender from a competing platform. The Microsoft stack is our biggest advantage and it plays well with clients.
As a developer the constant challenge is to deliver what you know is possible in terms of the customisation with the actual needs of the clients’ workflow. Every company I have ever gone into has had its unique challenges and idiosyncrasies but the opportunity to solve most if not all of them comes in the form of SharePoint and GP.
The loss of PerformancePoint has not been an issue when it comes to workflow in fact it could well be that whatever process you are looking to enhance then it could be that in turning to SharePoint you have the answer. I am aware that I may have been slow to pick up on the advantages of working with SharePoint and GP but now that I am converted I am a true believer.
The simplistic way in which it allows you show your client the steps that you have done, and that you are able to demystify the art of customisation is a huge bonus. I have now even begun the pass to becoming certified in SharePoint as well as GP, now as a freelancer all I have to do is convince a recruiter that I can have more than one string to my bow. I know it’s the smallest of points, but why are we always so ready to pigeonhole ourselves. As I was with my resistance to working with SharePoint so are clients.
This new found skill has of course been made easier with the vast number of enhancements in the new version of GP10, Microsoft I think claimed more than 150 enhancements, I think so far I have found 116 but then again I am not sure how many are being double counted. As for the integration by using SharePoint I am now able to offer my clients a centralised web based source for their resources and management tools, and therefore able to run SSRS to report on the SharePoint Server.
I can see that the more you delve into the Microsoft Stack the more there is to learn and to bring to your clients, I get the feeling that having only working in the industry for 4 years I have a lot more to learn, but not sure I have the time to get to grips with the whole Microsoft stack.
Loss of Gold
Mourning the loss of “Gold”
The change in the standard Microsoft Certified and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner brands is proving to throw up some unexpected consequences. For most of the larger Gold Certified Partners it was a simple case of selecting to become an Advanced ERP Competency and avoid the ERP Competency. However this has proved to be confusing for End Clients, recently I was involved in a discussion with an existing End Client, who had instigated the meeting due to his concern that the partner I was representing had “lost” its Gold certification. Although the certifications and competencies are primarily for internal Microsoft uses, such has been the skill in which Microsoft have shown over the years in branding the “Gold” partners it took an entire hour of a meeting to correct the End Clients thinking that Advanced ERP Competency was the same as Gold Certified and therefore there would be no loss of service or discount. If this is what happens when a client is not even trying to cause problems, will there be an unseen damage in which potential clients are put off by the lack of the “gold” standard. I am aware there are far too many imponderables in that statement to be answered, but the hope is that Microsoft will spend as much time, effort and money in branding the Advanced ERP Competency, however I will mourn the loss of the Gold standard given it’s what I grew up, then again I still forever calling Dynamics NAV by its Navision name, so maybe it’s just the dinosaur in me!!
A more concerning development in the change in the standard has been the ever increasing move to up the number of certified individuals. I am all for strengthening the quality of those of us that are involved in Dynamics, but just upping the number of certified individuals does on its own not achieve this. The added worry is that with VARs and ISVs now allowed to self certify this surely does not bode well for increasing standards. The opportunity to charge $100 a day more for a certified functional or technical consultant will as day follows night allow the self certification to slowly drop in its criterion.
But what concerns me most is that there surely has to be the opportunity for freelancers to become VARs for small companies to exist and compete against the larger organisations on a level playing field. I am not asking Microsoft to bring an NFL style draft, but to allow the smaller budget teams to still play the same game. The number of smaller VARs and ISVs that have produced outstanding add-ons over the years has been what has improved the channel no end. The ability to innovate is not the right of the larger VARs and ISVs alone. In recent weeks we have seen 2 of the ISVs who has serendipity would have it were named last month in this very sites own list of Top Add-Ons for 2011 having to recruit new staff with the relevant competencies, and it is my understanding that they are finding this difficult as their specific needs for specific exam passes, has meant that recruiters are not only attaching a premium to their fee but also to the salaries of potential employees.
This is not in itself a reason to rail against the new Advanced ERP Competency, as I do agree that standards need to be raised, but in future if Microsoft could bring themselves to run focus groups with us smaller companies and if the larger VARs and ISVs could remember what it was to a be a small company then I think the whole channel would improve together.
Networking CI
Customer Intelligence, Networking and Dynamics CRM
by David Harris
The 2010 decade for IT will be the decade in which we see the true rise of networking. The last decade saw the growth of a plethora of networking sites, from facebook, twitter, xing, and linkedin which have blurred the lines between our social and business networks. Networking has always been fundamental in business and in the last century gave rise to many clichés that included “it is who you know and not what you know”, as well as Frigyes Karinthy’s six degrees of separation, or that if you stood still in Piccadilly Circus, or Time Square, or Tokyo Dome City for long enough you were bound to bump into somebody that you knew.
But until now the idea of networking has been made to feel akin to being suffocated in sales, this is because those in the sales function of organisations are traditionally better at networking than the rest of us. Therefore they are more adept in their ability to transfer from a networking environment which is predominately an environment based on a mutual benefit to one in which they have the upper hand. There should though be no fear of networking if the networking is done properly and maintains the pleasantly acceptable idea of mutual benefit. For example the trade off that I have made with bing and google although at first thought is not a networking relationship, but they have dropped the pretence of getting to know me in person, but by my actions and searching they have been able to get to my online presence allowing them to target advertising towards me that is appropriate.
It is the amount of information that it is available to everyone that will engage people in networking and provide for the rise in networking in this decade. As we are all aware information or data is just that packets of information that has the possibility to mean absolutely nothing or everything to a company, and that depends upon how the company choose to use the data they have. If the company choose to segment the data along the lines of Customer Intelligence, using historical client data to see why clients have previously ended engaging with the company then there is the possibility to use this to increase the potential of engaging with new clients.
Customer Intelligence is a key component of effective Customer Relationship Management, and when effectively implemented it is a rich source of insight into the behaviour and experience of a company’s customer base, but how many Dynamics CRM end clients or VARs or ISV products are geared to produce the Customer Intelligence benefits that can easily be so easily achieved?
Yet there is not an element of Customer Intelligence that Dynamics CRM is not designed to excel at
Development of customer segmentation model.
CI Processes to enable the creation of a “customer behaviour profile” essential for targeted advertising.
Consolidation of structured and unstructured data based on unified customer data model and identity management.
All these are possible without customisation within Dynamics CRM yet despite the benefits that are obvious to clients the desire to link networking, Customer Intelligence and Dynamics CRM is missing. It is time for the rise of networking in the next decade and the opportunity to increase the effectiveness of networking through the dual tools of Customer Intelligence and Dynamics CRM is evident and profitable for us all.
Business Networking
Business Networking
by Stephen Allan
The business card industry has for a long time been in decline, and the power of networking is making the decline even sharper. We all carry business cards, and although many years ago we may have had a rolodex on the desk containing any number of business cards, and now cards can be scanned in and drawn straight into AX or CRM, but when was the last time you actually picked up the card of somebody you did not already have their contact details?
At the recent convergence we hosted a stand and the bar code scanner that beeped everybody that came anywhere near our stand, and within 2 days of the return from convergence the data was in our internal AX system, as it would have been for everybody hosting convergence. We met and made some great new contacts and it will bring more new business for us in the future, yet through Plaxo, Linkedin and Xing as a company we are already connected to 85% of the new connections that we made.
This has highlighted 2 things for us, one that we need to take more advantage of online networks and secondly we need to understand who and why we are connected to those we are connected. The influence gained through forming strong networks, and by becoming a sphere of influence, can ensure our ongoing success and it needs to be nurtured by those in our organisation that can most take advantage of our network.
It is doubtful that anything will ever take away from the personal contact and the benefits that the enthusiasm that can be conveyed either over the phone or in a meeting or demonstration but the advantages of the 24 hour 7 days a week 365 days a year networking that online business networking sites can provide allow for a truly exceptional route to change the way that any organisation markets itself and business networking utilising the ability to connect people from all over the world.
Social business networking serves many purposes: sales, general marketing, recruiting, job-hunting, knowledge exchange, and business development in the sense of strategic alliances, joint ventures and channel sales. Of all these, business development is the one that it supports best. In fact, business development and Social business networking are closely related. Online networking sites offer unprecedented ways for entrepreneurs to identify and connect with potential partners, it is this ability to transform names on a site into a business development opportunity that means that online networking is rapidly becoming a skill that needs to be taken seriously.
Smart networkers work at creating relationships with spheres of influence; they know that a positive word about them from one of these key players carries a lot of weight and influence. Bill Gates has spoken of a trilogy of trust – the trust that one person has in another, that is then passed on to the third party. For example, Bob knows, likes and trusts Sue, who knows likes and trusts John. Based on this two-way trust, Bob will be open to discussions or possible connections with John, even though John has never previously had contact with Bob.
If networking can work for Bill Gates then it is surely something that we can all learn to do better and increase our own spheres of influence.
Dynamics AX for High Tech Industries
From Fullscope Inc. in Athens Alabama, US is Dynamics AX for High Tech Industries
Microsoft Dynamics AX for High Tech & Electronics Industries is a solution for those AX end users who are involved in the high tech manufacturing and distribution verticals. There are a number of aspects that mark out these industries as difficult to integrate an ERP system completely and the need for add-ons has been long been understood. It is easier for companies to reproduce updates for add-ons than for an entire ERP system and with the speed of innovation and change in high tech manufacturing meaning business processes require constant tuning and optimisation across what can be a global supply chain.
Microsoft Dynamics AX for High Tech & Electronics Industries has managed to encapsulate this need and deliver more. The amounts of detail within the add-on show that the delivery is based around a vast amount of knowledge of the manufacturing sector that has been harnessed for the ERP market and in particular for Dynamics AX. The add-on shows the details that are prevalent within the supply chain, sales, and production, with particular attention to contract manufacturing and trading partner management. From the add-on it is possible to have a defined support structure for both a discrete BOM and reverse BOM production environment. Central to this is the ability to use a hefty tracking structure, which allows for the ease of support and management of all aspects of production costing, yields, and planning. This tracking also allows for end users, through the supplier portal to publish a defined programme to the web allowing for customers to have greater access to end user details than ever before.
Microsoft Dynamics AX for High Tech & Electronics Industries provides a new visibility that enables the end user to manage all arenas of the supply chain, with emphasis given to the maintenance of creating the optimum inventory levels and meet customer expectations profitably. It is this increased visibility and control of the supply chain enables there to be a more simplified way for the end user to help gain control and optimise any production operations, this cannot be understated as it can simply transform the way the operations are run. The simplistic viewing of the reporting and results that are possible to attain allow for a much deeper of understanding of the end users supply chain and of its processes.
The results of this allow for there to be significant increased forecast precision by allowing for extra functionality that end users need to balance inventory levels to maintain customer service levels for products in an explosive demand phase while maintaining the visibility needed to adjust forecasts and reduce inventory write off.
It is the exhaustive knowledge behind Microsoft Dynamics AX for HighTech & Electronics Industries that allows those within manufacturing to assemble a stable environment in which to improve the efficiency and profitability of the end user.
Solvency II
Microsoft Dynamics is uniquely placed to solve Solvency II
Solvency II is Europe’s Sarbanes-Oxley and in particular is the Insurance industries Basel II. Not least is it similar in the way that it has set out to facilitate the development of a single market in insurance services in Europe. The EU have set out to reduce the possibility of consumer loss or market disruption in insurance, in order to do this Solvency II requires insurers to accept and work with strengthened EU-wide requirements on capital adequacy and risk management for.
This means that even though the more than 5000 European insurers affected are still not quite out of recession, they must set about adhering to the new policy, and to comply with the regulations, and to prove they have achieved this through greater transparency showing once again that a company that is transparent can more readily comply with compliance requirements.
The rush to delivery has been led by the large auditing companies, but these companies have so far been finding their way and have been delivering a very unique solution for each insurer they have been working with. No platform has yet to surface as the go to platform to work with when it comes to implementing Solvency II and yet one platform stands out amongst them all, that of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
The key technical areas of a successful implementation requires real-time reporting, auditing, security and control, data management with centralised data stores becoming a key for reporting. The reporting is essential in delivery of the three pillars that are defined in Solvency II and it is already designed within Dynamics CRM that there is compliance with Solvency II enabling risk versus strength of Balance Sheet.
The opportunity to integrate Dynamics CRM with BI technologies are also essential for solving the problems that will occur when implementing the technical strategy to work with Solvency II and it is here that the added benefits of matching the standard integration with SQL Server 2008 and the myriad of BI add-ons with Dynamics CRM that means that the Microsoft Stack out performs any other technical solution available today.
The combination of a true automated solution putting in place an effective risk management system, identifying financial and organisational weaknesses and ensuring compliance with the directive requirements allowing insurers to concentrate on capital adequacy and risk management is only available through Dynamics CRM and utilisation of the Microsoft Stack.
Solvency II was announced last year and so far less than 25% of European Insurers have a true solution in place and with just 2 years left until compliance in mandatory the clock is ticking and there are 4000 potential clients that need to learn more about Microsoft Dynamics can help them get through the minefield that is Solvency II.
HR Health Check Helps
Staff retention is vital in improving profitability of any company. There are obvious costs that are associated with the actual replacement of any staff that have left, and with recruiting, interviewing, hiring, training, new salary, reduced productivity, and changing of peripherals, it is easy to see how the cost of replacing a member of staff can easily be 150% of the salary. So a $60 000 salaried employee costs an organisation at least $90 000 in the first year.
It is estimated that the cost to an organisation with 20 employees who lose and need to replace 1 employee a year for 5 years will spend in staff retention costs the same as the salary of 3 new senior employees. Given that to lose 1 member of staff a year would not be seen as a problem, yet still costs a fortune, staff retention has to be developed in order to save money.
Although the costs are important the biggest factor of why any organisation should be concerned with staff retention are the dual factors of what you lose if someone leaves you. The majority of staff that you lose will move to companies that are competitors to you. Given the niche environment that many of you in the Microsoft Dynamics Community are in this is a heightened probability.
The loss of a staff member to a competitor means that your competitor will now have knowledge of your end users, your products, your strategies and your forecasts. Despite the confidentiality that contractually oblige staff to protect this information we all know this happens, this is not a suggestion that staff can be targeted in order to win new end users, but a relationship between an employee and the end user can be very strong and one of the most important reasons for a continued relationship, lose the employee you may be in danger of losing the end user relationship.
So a larger focus should be made on staff retention. It is a HR issue so let’s start there. By putting together the right strategic approach to staff retention it is easy for there to be a process that delivers a true ability to help in staff retention. By working with your current employees it is possible to ascertain the reasons why internally the company is a success and why people want to stay. By turning these into metrics, it is possible to quantify the success as you move forward.
The flip side of successful staff retention is that you become an organisation people want to work for. The clichés of last in first out and revolving door recruitment exist because they are the phrases that people use to deride organisations that suffer from poor staff retention. So why not turn yourself from the hunted to the hunter when it comes to staff retention.
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Dynamics World 2011
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