It is that time of year again, and we are now announcing the nomination process for The Most Influential People in Microsoft Dynamics for 2012.

You can find the nominations http://www.dynamicsworld.co.uk/2012nominations/

You can nominate by sending an email to top100@dynamicsworld.co.uk or through Twitter using the #dwtop100 tag or through the Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

Currently Dhan Raj is working as a Senior Consultant for a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in India. He has worked for clients in the US, UK, Canada, Denmark, Australia, Dubai, Sweden, Norway, Nigeria, and India.

Dhan Raj is an active member of the online communities for NAV, such as dynamicsuser.net, mibuso.com, and the online forums managed by Microsoft. For his contributions to these online communities, he received the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award in July 2010 & same was renewed in 2011. The MVP Award is given out by Microsoft to independent members of technology communities around the world, and recognizes people that share their knowledge with other members of the community.

Dhan Raj lives with his family in Gurgaon, India. He loves mathematics and solving puzzles.

What was your first job in Microsoft Dynamics?

During my college life my area of interest was Digital Signal Processing (DSP). Through campus placement first offer to me was in core Automobile & Instrumentation domain, the second offer was by PwC, India. I chose PwC and landed up into Navision consulting & even now I believe this was a good decision. PwC, India is the best employer so far I have worked for.

Who has been your biggest influence/s in Microsoft Dynamics?

David Singleton-MVP (Dynamics NAV) is the person who told me about the Microsoft MVP concept/ award during our first meeting in Dubai in2007 & he has a been encouraging me to contribute in online communities.

I am inspired by Eric P. Ernest (owner of www.dynamicsuser.net). I am really influenced by his community/ forum & want to start user group for MS Dynamics & SQL Server in India very soon. www.discussnavision.in will be my new website.

What has been your biggest achievement/s in Microsoft Dynamics?

Being an MVP was the greatest achievement in Microsoft Dynamics so far. It was very pleasing to know that www.dynamicsworld.co.uk ranked me No.1 Most Influential Person in Dynamics World in Asia & No. 32 worldwide. These recognitions make me more responsible & now I am planning to start User Group/ Community for Microsoft Dynamics & SQL Server in India.

What is the best thing Microsoft has brought to the community?

Recently Microsoft has started its own Dynamics Community website & some of the product related documents are available openly whereas earlier these were available on Partner Source & Customer Source only.

Why should an end user purchase Microsoft Dynamics?

As I work on MS Dynamics NAV, so I will talk specific about NAV. NAV is user friendly (GUI similar to other MS stack), easy to customize and perhaps cheaper than other competitor/ similar products. Availability of number of add-ons & country specific functionalities makes another plus point for this product.

What are the biggest challenges facing Microsoft Dynamics in the ERP market today?

I believe one of the challenge is lack of skilled consultants & hence implementation partners. The success of an ERP implementation to a great extent depends upon the skills of people working on project. Microsoft should ensure that un-qualified partner should not give bad name to product, there should be stringent criterion for partnership & MS should do some sort of quality review of implementations done by its partners. I don’t see any reason for which end-users should not get value for investment in NAV.

What do you want to see happen with Microsoft Dynamics in the future?

I would like to see Microsoft Dynamics (more specifically NAV) in cloud & more implementations of NAV in SAAS (Software As A Service) model. There are more hopes from NAV7 in terms of better reporting capabilities, RTC Performance & easy integration with other products/ e-commerce websites. I would like to see changes in licensing & certification policy for add-on, MS should NOT allow “Virtual Kidnapping” of a client by doing all customizations in a number series of Add-on of a specific company.

The Microsoft Dynamics Most Influential People Top 100 List for 2012

You can nominate by sending an email to top100@dynamicsworld.co.uk or through Twitter using the #dwtop100 tag or through the Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

February 21st

February 20th

Firstly we should define what makes someone influential, for us it is simply:

“Those that make the final list will be those that significantly shape the Microsoft Dynamics Community and those that shape the decisions of others within the Microsoft Dynamics Community.”

In order to achieve this we ask those in the Microsoft Dynamics Community to nominate those that they feel should make the list. There will then be a voting element, as well as DynamicsWorld assessing those nominated in line with our criteria to establish the final list.

We are always looking to increase the relevance of the criteria that we use and whilst we use a simple algorithm to compare those from the community based on their weighted score from the criteria, we would also like you to suggest new criteria that we can utilise.

Nominations this is a mix of the number of nominations that each person receives as well as the persuasiveness of the nomination

Votes simply put the more votes a nominee receives the more they score

Experience the longer that somebody has been involved in the Microsoft Community the better their influence will be, an element of this also draws on the number of roles and clients people have worked with.

Achievements most people are drawn to those that excel or have achieved these achievements also allow for awards such as MVP status.

Social Media Influence the expansion of social media allows bloggers, tweeters, linkedin, and forums to have a great deal of influence over a lot of people in a very short space of time, so we assess those in terms of the contributions they make and the number of followers they have.

Direct Influence we compare those who directly influence others, in terms of employing others, selling Microsoft Dynamics, and conveying the Microsoft message.

Decision Makers the more that you are able to control decisions that are made the deeper your influence will be and the higher your score will be within this element

Cause and Effect this is the most ephemeral of our criteria but possibly the most important, if as a developer you develop a new Add-On that becomes best practice in GP, or you sell Microsoft Dynamics to End Users or you are responsible for delivery of the Microsoft Dynamics Language packs allowing those who do not work in English the chance to work with the products your influence will be huge, but not necessarily obvious.

Currently each of these elements makes an equal percentage of the total score that goes to attain a nominees final score and ultimate position on the published list. Should you want to make any suggestions for other criteria please email us.

For reference http://www.dynamicsworld.co.uk/top-100/ The Microsoft Dynamics Most Influential People Top 100 List for 2011 is available but it would be good to get some new names in the list this year.

The nomination process is now open and will be the next 4 weeks. When you do nominate please remember to include the name of your nominee and your reason for making the nomination.

You can nominate by sending an email to top100@dynamicsworld.co.uk or through Twitter using the #dwtop100 tag or through the Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

What was your first job in Microsoft Dynamics?

Aha, my first job. I was hired by the Dutch NTR, Navision Software Nederland (NSNL), as a technical trainer. Dozens of memories come to mind now. It really was a very interesting time. Navision was expanding around the globe setting up NTR’s. I was hired as 17^th NSNL employee and within months this number was about to double reflecting the growth of our partner channel and the need for raising the quality bar of support to these partners. Having both a technical ICT and educational background – my two previous jobs were software developer and high school teacher – it was my job to setup a CSIDE developer curriculum for the NSNL Academy. Many still around will recall the Solution Developer’s track and the courses where I both challenged them on knowledge and twister . Yeah, those days with Coen Overgaag and Rob Gabriels and many others who are still around in the Dynamics world.

Who has been your biggest influence/s in Microsoft Dynamics?

To be honest: I don’t have one, I have many. All the people I have been meeting and working with! Yes, now my mind is running like crazy. Over all these memories. The GDL team, with dozens of people involved, all around the world. Dick Beekman, Tommy Thor Straten, Vanessa Garcia, Jan Hoek, Brigitte Schmidli, Flemming Nielsen, Mikael Norberg, … and many more for sure (no more, no less)! And of course the sister teams in Vedbaek. Daniel Goldschmidt, Eva Dupont, Dorthe Thøgersen, … The NSNL Academy. Next to Coen and Rob, Hans Fousert, Pepijn Richter, Pieter Thijsse Claase. All these hundreds of students that attended the courses I was running and which I am running into again these days in the Dutch Dynamics Community.

What has been your biggest achievement/s in Microsoft Dynamics?

There are many things that make me smile when I think of them, but I guess the most important of these are those where my doings have been of significance to others. One way or another. Then I cannot but think of my contribution to the NSNL Academy. Enthusing, challenging and supporting all these developers. And in the same ‘breath’ the Dutch Dynamics Community and my involvements at Infoma. And of course bringing Team Foundation Server into our team at Imtech ITC. This was quite a long running project.

What is the best thing Microsoft has brought to the community?

Its huge momentum. Its leverage. To be able to push things to the next level.

Why should an end user purchase Microsoft Dynamics?

Its ease of use. Its track record. Wow, what else do I have to add to that? Feels like telling why my children are worthwhile youngsters!

What are the biggest challenges facing Microsoft Dynamics in the ERP market today?

I think to hold on to simplicity. Even though the products have evolved over time, having been enriched, and by default this brings in various ways complexity, how to keep it simple for both partners and customers. For IT pros and end-users.

What do you want to see happen with Microsoft Dynamics in the future?

To have the Dynamics and Classic stack moving closer. These are still two separate worlds. It’s hard to stay in tune with both at the same time. Quite a struggle for many partners and individual contributors. One major blocker in finding new employees.

As a tool there is a lot to admire about Dynamics GP Microsoft Dynamics GP but one of the more practical benefits has always been that GP acts as remote server that can be accessed from any location by any authorised employee.  Data reports and spreadsheets can be viewed with drill-back views from Excel, SharePoint and Microsoft SQL Server.  With over 220 reports, data can easily be recorded, stored and accessed.

This has 2 advantages the first being that using drill-back views means that it is accessible to those with an understanding of even Excel. It should not be forgotten that Excel is important, the most widely used BI tool it is how most end user decision makers currently access information. What is often forgotten is that most decision makers at end users are far removed from day to day IT if they have ever had the interaction. So simplicity and familiarity can be key to decision makers and ultimately decision making.

The second advantage is that GP can act as a remote server. With Microsoft Executives falling over themselves in the run up to Convergence to get press releases out there what is certain is that Microsoft are now promoting the phrase “ERP-Cloud Transition”. It is unfortunate that this is the phrase that they are running with as it does on the face of mean very little. But what is for certain is that Microsoft are looking to establish Dynamics GP into the firmament that Microsoft Azure is becoming.

It is fairly clear now that the next iteration of Microsoft Dynamics GP is due for release in Q1 2013 and that along with the option to be hosted on Microsoft Azure it will also be coming with integration for both Office 365 and CRM Online. Again this makes sense as they both have the familiarity that decision makers crave.

The turning of Office 365 into the online colossus that it is becoming is showing the advantages that those in the Microsoft community have when selling against competitors. When coupled with the flexibility and customisable platform that GP has it can only be considered that the opportunity to have a true on-premise or cloud version will be hugely successful and ensure the success of the platform.

The harder job for those within Microsoft is not the difficult job of getting it ready for the next platform, but to help those outside of North America to take Microsoft Dynamics GP more to their hearts.

He is currently working as a Practice Lead for Dynamics GP & CRM for Cipher Dynamics IT Services (subsidiary of AKA Enterprise Solutions, New York) and located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. He also manages a blog for Dynamics GP called Interesting Findings & Knowledge Sharing at http://www.msdynamicstips.com.

What was your first job in Microsoft Dynamics?

My career kick started as a developer for Dynamics GP, with Dexterity and VBA as my stronghold. It was with a company called Vedasys Software Pvt. Ltd., located in Chennai. It was here that I built up a strong foundation for Dynamics GP along with CRM. Vedasys is definitely an unforgettable milestone in my GP career. It moulded and shaped me into what I am in Dynamics GP today.

Who has been your biggest influence/s in Microsoft Dynamics?

Many people in the Dynamics community have influenced me over the years. Some of them are listed below.

David Musgrave – I first interacted with him during VOICE support when working in Vedasys, back in 2004. Over the years, I am pleased to have got more opportunities to closely interact with him. He has been my role model and inspiration (in fact he is still one) to continue my work with Dexterity, the development platform for Dynamics GP.

Mariano Gomez – I came to know Mariano, when I started to work with forums and newsgroups. He has been leading the forums and newsgroups with his awesome responses, and he has greatly inspired me to work closely in the forum and newsgroups, which has exposed me to the Dynamics Community a big way. I actually started to blog after following the blogs of David and Mariano.

Victoria Yudin – If you happen to see any SQL scripts in my blog, it’s primarily influenced by none other than the most influential person in the Dynamics community – Victoria. Being an MVP in Dynamics GP for the last 8 consecutive years, she has been a true motivation for me, to work towards helping the community and gaining recognition as an MVP today.

Mark Polino – If there is one blog where you can get information from the entire Dynamics GP community, it is from Mark’s blog. His Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Cookbook is, I believe, the most useful book, people who implement and use Dynamics GP, can find.

Rinku Wadhwani – She is the managing director in my current company – Cipher Dynamics IT Services. She has been a great support for me, in giving me a lot of flexibility at work, which has allowed me to spend time on other community activities like blogging and newsgroup/forum activities.

Krishnan Sugavanam – I could have mentioned many names above, but the list will not be complete, without Mr. Krishnan Sugavanam. He was my managing director at Vedasys and was responsible for my growth and progress in this product line at Vedasys. He is one of the greatest mentors in life and he was the one who found the consultant in me.

What has been your biggest achievement/s in Microsoft Dynamics?

Undoubtedly, being announced as an MVP was the greatest achievement in my life. And being honored with the recognition for the second consecutive year has been even more cherishing. Secondly, quite a number of folks on the community have referred to my blog as a go-to place to find SQL scripts and articles on Analytical Accounting, which I believe is an achievement to have been recognized by the community. It gives immense satisfaction when you are able to help the community.

What is the best thing Microsoft has brought to the community?

Recently, Microsoft has exposed the Microsoft Dynamics Knowledgebase to public. Earlier it used to be accessible only within Partnersource (or) Customersource. But now, it’s available to all from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/. This, I feel, is a great achievement by Microsoft. Also, as many feel, we have a lot more resources for support, rather than what we had few years back (when we only had to depend on VOICE for all Microsoft Dynamics questions).

Why should an end user purchase Microsoft Dynamics?

With reference to Dynamics GP, ease of use is one prime reason why an end users purchase Dynamics GP. Over the years, Microsoft technologies have won great success amongst the end user community, with this amazing user interface, and Microsoft Dynamics is no exception to that, and that is also a prime reason for its success in the market.

What are the biggest challenges facing Microsoft Dynamics in the ERP market today?

Microsoft Dynamics GP has always been client server architecture so far. Many have longed for thin client architecture for Dynamics GP. With Microsoft Dynamics GP 12, users have been provided this vision and I am sure this will get enhanced over the years to shape up to become as robust as possible. A classic example is how Microsoft CRM has transformed over the last few years from 1.0 t0 CRM 2011 now.

What do you want to see happen with Microsoft Dynamics in the future?

The design and functionality of Dynamics GP has been built with the US market in mind. It would be better to see more built in functionalities which support business in other regions as well.

How many years have you been working with Microsoft Dynamics?

I have been working with Dynamics products for about 10 years.  I started out as an end user using Navision in my first comptroller role.  Being an auditor for 5 years, I had seen a lot of systems, but liked Dynamics NAV for its simplicity and functionality.  I have also worked extensively with Dynamics GP.  I continued working with Dynamics NAV and Business Analytics as an implementation consultant and now enjoy providing reporting solutions for the entire Microsoft Dynamics family.

Why should an end user purchase Microsoft Dynamics?

I think the name ‘Dynamics’ says a lot about why an end user should consider purchasing an ERP solution from Microsoft.  The finance and accounting function has changed and is continuing to change at rapid pace.  Today, gathering, reporting, and analyzing data better and faster is a strategic advantage for companies.  Microsoft Dynamics offers a very open platform that allows companies to customize the application to their specific needs through tailored solutions, developed solutions, or add-ons. 

What’s one change you would make to Microsoft Dynamics today if you could?

I certainly have some ideas, but for me, having each Dynamics product come with robust OLAP cubes that could easily be manipulated by end users would definitely benefit reporting greatly.  The term analysis cubes is now obsolete with Qbica’s ability to create reports, analyses, and dashboards from the same OLAP data source.  With end users becoming much more sophisticated in their understanding of the underlying data, many reporting challenges could be conquered if this approach is taken.

What is the biggest competitive advantage you have added to a client?

As I mentioned earlier, being able to gather, report, and analyze data better and faster is a real strategic advantage.  Being able to quickly generate knowledge from data before it becomes irrelevant is the key to making effective business decisions. What I think we have done with our Qbica product is to provide the common end user a product that produces uncommon results it terms of how fast and easy data can be turned into information and knowledge. 

How can a client best maximise Microsoft Dynamics?

Understanding their data!  Accounting and finance has changed a lot even since I started working in it.  Accountants can no longer be good at just debits and credits; they must understand the impact of their work at the application level or table level.  At the end of the day it’s not about putting numbers into your system, it’s all about how you can pull that data out to make the best business decisions.  Knowing what is going on under the hood is becoming more and more important for financial professionals using any ERP system.  Microsoft Dynamic products make getting under the hood of the system much more accessible.  This is the primary reason I like working with Dynamics products.

What is the best thing Microsoft has brought to the community?

Empowerment.  Microsoft’s approach is to empower the end user.  It’s how an accountant can go from hand jamming spreadsheets every month, to developing and delivering methods for other accountants to make those same tasks much more efficient.  I don’t know of any other software maker that spurs as much innovation from its customers as Microsoft.

What are the biggest challenges facing Microsoft Dynamics in the ERP market today?

I see one of the biggest challenges for Micorsoft Dynamics in the ERP market being that they have given the market too many choices.  The statement seems a bit counter intuitive, but it’s true.  You will often find a company having to choose between multiple Dynamics products because each can be tailored to the needs of the customer.  So now the customer is left a bit confused about which product to go with and why.  This is countered by not having enough choices in terms of front end reporting solutions.  Inadequate reporting solutions  is the largest complaint I have heard from Dynamics customers.

What is missing from the Microsoft Dynamics Community?

Accountants.  They serve as the end user, but I think they are left out of the discussions in terms of where the product is going and what can be done to improve it on more than just a superficial level.

Which add-on offers clients the best competitive advantage?

Well, I am obviously going to be a bit biased here, but I think competitive advantage is really gained in the reporting and analysis function.  It’s all about knowing what happened, why it happened, and how you can impact what will happen.  The ease and fluidity with which Qbica can extract and deliver timely information to users is revolutionary.  It sits on the Microsoft stack, so it easily integrates with existing hardware and software already owned by companies using a Dynamics product.  This translates into a low cost high ROI reporting solution.

What do you want to see happen with Microsoft Dynamics in the future?

I think we will see much tighter coupling of Dynamic ERP systems with other Microsoft products such as Microsoft Office and Microsoft SharePoint.  The same users that use Dynamics also use Office and SharePoint.  It makes sense for Dynamics to be sitting within a collaborative environment such as SharePoint, and for Office to be sitting in a data rich environment like Dynamics.

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Year of the Dragon, the Cloud, Retail, Mobile and the Add-off.

2012 is the Chinese Year of The Dragon, and after several Mother-in-Law jokes failed to get me any laughs from the wife, and saw me relegated to below the cats and goldfish in the pecking order at home I decided to suspend by fledgling career as a stand-up comedian and try something else instead, such as predicting what 2012 had in store.

I’ve always shied away from making predictions for the year ahead when I talk about Microsoft Dynamics as I fear I fall into the familiar trap of seeking out too much evidence for my hunches and end up merely forecasting.  This year though I’ve decided to take the plunge.  Naturally I’m not claiming to have a crystal ball to hand – because if I had I’d be playing next weeks lottery instead of musing on what 2012 holds in store for the channel – instead for once I’m going to go with my hunches and hope that if I’m wrong everyone will have forgotten what I said when we reach December.

Not The Cloud again! I know it’s hardly a prediction or indeed a forecast for me to climb upon my current hobby-horse and sing the Clouds praises for the coming year, but as AX 2012 is upon us and NAV 7 just around the corner I have been giving it more thought than usual, if that’s possible.  There is no doubt that its going to grow this year, however, VARs are still uncomfortable with the whole thing for several reasons and but I really can’t see Microsoft hanging around waiting for them to come on-board or relying just on hosting companies to evangelise for hosted Dynamics ERP.  My prediction is that while everyone waits to see who blinks first, and for the larger customers to stop thinking it and actually get on with it, Microsoft will focus on the lower end of the market where most of the activity is at the moment. Commensus have already produced a top solution and a rock bottom price for hosting Dynamics AX and now it only needs Microsoft to offer smaller customers either existing on-premise or new ones a deal on hosted licenses they will find hard to refuse.  But, while I’m not sure if any significant Microsoft Dynamics customer will park their ERP in the Cloud this year – at least not fully –  I do think Microsoft will hoover up a lot of small businesses, focusing on giving them a successful value for money hosted solution and then hold them up as an example to larger fish.  Sometime this year some VARs are going to blink first and decide that making a grab for market share will compensate for customers moving to the cloud, and then the fun and games will begin.   

Retail sneaked in under the radar last year, according to most news outlets since 2008 the retail industry has been slowly but surely falling off a cliff, but the ‘issues’ at Tesco and Superdry caught my eye in mid 2011, I was surprised at the activity in this sector.  On the plus side the ‘issues’ had nothing to do with Microsoft Dynamics, but on the downside Microsoft wasn’t exactly leading the charge either.  This year it will be very different, AX 2012 for Retail has started shipping, single store customers are being encouraged to bump up from POS to Dynamics RMS, further up the ladder RMS customers are being encouraged to bump up to AX for Retail, and when I say ‘bump up’ I mean customers are trading up for free.  Yes, there are additional costs, but it’s still a good deal and gives Retailers plenty of scope to grow their business without the headache of outgrowing their technology at the same time.  Microsoft are playing catch-up here, they will be doing it by attacking the market from every angle, from upgrading existing customers, picking up single store customers, and, when ISVs roll out add-ons for AX 2012 for Retail, the larger chains who seem to be consolidating at an increasingly rapid pace will surely come on-board.  This year I will be standing at the checkout in my local shop clutching my weekly supply of baked beans and coffee and staring intently at the spotty teenager behind the counter trying to read his thoughts.

I confess, in 2011 because of my love affair with the Cloud, I kind of missed the whole Mobile thing that was bubbling away.  I’ve recently seen a couple of surveys where CXOs are rating mobile technology as a ‘must have’ for the near term.  In hindsight it should have been obvious to me that this would be on the horizon.  Just as Dynamics CRM was the trail blazer for hosted solutions, it has also been the leader in mobile technology, and where Dynamics CRM leads, Dynamics ERP is sure to follow.  SAP have stated that the mobile market is going to be an area that they will focus on for 2012 and to be honest I think its the first sensible thing they’ve said in a long time.  The great news is that this is not something Microsoft are playing catch-up this time, the opposite in fact, they are already well embedded in mobile technology and Dynamics ERP is joining the party and I’m hoping (and predicting) that it will be SAP who wake up with the hangover afterwards          

‘There’s an App for that’ as someone once said, over and over.  Will 2012 be the year that ISVs adopt this particular slogan? From several conversations over the past few months it’s obvious that it’s something that’s on their minds.  The add-on market is maturing rapidly across all Dynamics products and this coupled with (yes you’ve guessed it) the Cloud VARs are the only people feeling a downward pressure on margins.  ISVs are under increasing pressure to simplify both their add-ons and the implementation of their add-ons.  But unlike VARs where the growth of Dynamics ERPs is a two edged sword creating credibility for the products but also decreasing the opportunities it only creates more opportunities for ISVs.  But there is a growing need for ISVs to listen to VARs and produce add-ons that customers actually want, not what ISVs think they want.  This market is getting more and more agile and 2012 could be the year the add-on states to become the app or is it the add-off.