Running Windows 8.x Business Analyzer app on a laptop with SQL Reporting Services

If you are a consultant, chances are you run your Microsoft Dynamics GP application demo environment on a laptop along with Microsoft SQL Server and SQL Server Reporting Services. This is all good, because it saves you from having to deal with virtual machine images in most cases.

I also happen to be running all my application demo environment components on a Microsoft Windows 8.1 machine which gives me the opportunity to showcase the new Business Analyzer app.

Business Analyzer app on Windows 8.1

Traditionally, when you try to connect Business Analyzer to SSRS on a Windows 8.x machine, the setup would go into a tail spin and you would end up with a "Cannot connect to server" error.

By default, Windows 8 Modern UI Applications are forbidden to send network traffic to the local Computer. This is, Windows Store apps requiring network access are not automatically capable of communicating with a server application when both are running on the same machine - in this case Business Analyzer requires network access to communicate to SQL Server Reporting Services. This is also known as loopback.

Implementations of the Internet Protocol Suite include a virtual network interface through which network application clients and servers can communicate when running on the same machine. It is implemented entirely within the operating system's networking software and passes no packets to any network interface controller. Any traffic that a computer program sends to a loopback IP address is simply and immediately passed back up the network software stack as if it had been received from another device.

There are a few ways to enable loopback in Windows 8.x:

Method 1. Fiddler

In Fiddler, you can use the AppContainer Loopback Exemption Utility, available by clicking the Win8 Config option on the toolbar.

AppContainer Loopback Exemption Utility

You may remember Fiddler from my article Troubleshooting the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client - Part 5, Tools for Troubleshooting Web Client Issues.

Method 2. CheckNetIsolation.exe

The CheckNetIsolation.exe tool is a command line tool available with Windows 8.x. In order to run the tool, you will need to access the Command Prompt. For more information on CheckNetIsolation, take a look at the following MSDN article:

MSDN - How to enable loopback and troubleshoot network isolation (Windows Store apps)

Of course, I found Fiddler a lot easier to use as all you have to do is point and click the Business Analyzer application and that's it. However, I do believe in testing various tools and see how the options work.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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How to reset Business Analyzer settings

Just recently, I ran into an interesting case where the consultant had installed and configured Business Analyzer for a user. However, during the configuration process, the consultant marked all available reports for all available companies, which put Business Analyzer into a tailspin as it attempted to load all this information. The consultant proceeded to shut down the application using the Task Manager program.

When he restarted Business Analyzer, the application went back into a tailspin, displaying only the loading screen with a "Connecting to Server" message for over an hour. Fearing this would be a permanent issue due to the number of reports and companies selected, the question was just obvious: how to reset Business Analyzer configuration settings.

The boring theory

If you have downloaded Business Analyzer from the Windows Store or are still running the Business Analyzer desktop client, chances are you had to go through a setup process. In Windows 8, this involves swiping the Edge UI to obtain the charms and clicking on Settings to obtain the Configuration pane.

Business Analyzer for Windows 8 configuration

Once in the Configuration pane you are asked to enter information about the Report Server from which reports will be loaded. Once the credentials have been validated, you will be directed to add reports accordingly.

Business Analyzer Reports Configuration

Selecting all reports from all companies under a specific instance (I'm running GP 2013) can have adverse performance effects if you are in an environment with multiple companies, as Business Analyzer attempts to obtain information for each report, for each company from Report Server. The important part though is, this information is stored locally, under the user profile folder, in the hidden AppData folder, where an XML configuration file is created (user.config). Since all reports were selected for all companies, building this file would normally take a considerable amount of time.

The Solution

To fix the problem all that's needed is to remove the Business Analyzer configuration folder, which can be found under:

"C:\Users\userid\AppData\Local\Microsoft\BusinessAnalyzer.exe_Url_..." 

After this, you can re-launch Business Analyzer and go back to the configuration options where you will be prompted to enter the server information and selected the reports to display once again. Easy enough!

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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"Unable to access SnapIn config data Store" accessing Web Management Console

For quite some time I had been running into this error when attempting to access the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Web Management Console application from a Windows 8 machine.

SnapIn config data store error

I had ran a Fiddler trace on the issue and determined that the issue simultaneously reported and HTTP 405 error, which suggested a problem with Windows Authentication, required by the Web Management Console.

Fiddler Trace

Since I really couldn't determine what the problem was, the issue went dormant for more than 4 months. In addition, I never seemed to have the time to troubleshoot it with my friends over at Microsoft... until this past Microsoft Convergence New Orleans 2013, that is.

As it turned out, there's one "other pre-requisite" if installing the Web Management Console on a Windows 8 environment: Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) HTTP Activation. Simply put, HTTP activation allows a WCF service to relay its messaging asynchronously over HTTP - in this case HTTPS. In Windows 8, HTTP Activation is turned off by default, unlike Windows Server.

The SnapIn config data store is a table in the GPWEBMANAGEMENT database (dbo.SnapInStorage) and stores the URL to the Session Central Service WCF service. I ran a SQL Profile trace and noticed that the Web Management Console was not able to reach the GPWEBMANAGEMENT database on the SQL Server to read the Session Central Service URL. Therefore, the Console was not able to communicate to the Session Central Service to obtain user session or tenant information.

To turn on HTTP Activation on Windows 8:

1. Open Control Panel
2. Select Programs
3. Click on Turn Windows features on or off
4. Expand .NET Framework 4.5 Advanced Services
5. Expand WCF Services
6. Click on the HTTP Activation checkmark

WCF HTTP Activation

7. If you plan to support other protocols in your environment, you can turn on MSMQ Activation, Named Pipe Activation TCP Activation, or TCP Port Sharing as additional options for your WCF endpoints.

Once the services were up and running, the Web Management Console worked like a charm.

Many thanks to Daryl Anderson and Grant Swenson at Microsoft for assisting with this one.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series - Wrap Up

Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series
Wrap Up

This series narrate my personal experiences of installing Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Beta and the Web Client in an unsupported environment. The following installation steps are for testing purposes only and were done on a test box. If you are to test, please make sure your machine is not a production box.

"While it's not supported, it doesn't mean it won't work. It only means we haven't tested it"...
                                                                                                      Microsoft Dynamics GP Support

---

All good things must come to an end, and unlike many TV series, this one does not have a good ending. Nonetheless, it has been a great deal of learning personally: SSL certificates, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 (oh yes! I also did try to install the Web Client in this environment as well), old DOS-based network shell commands, understanding the Web Client architecture, working with new troubleshooting tools like Fiddler, and much, much more.

As a result of working with the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Beta, I was able to interact firsthand with all the cool technology awaiting us in December. I can say that the product is ~almost~ ready for show time with some kinks still lingering around.

As I mentioned, this experiment - on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 - did not have a happy ending. While I was able to get both environments to launch the Web Client, authenticate the web user, load the session, authenticate the GP user, and select the company, I could not get pass the Please Wait...Applying Personal Settings... GP window. Both Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 delivered the following application event error:

Other attempts at evaluating Session Central and Session Service services logs did not produce any meaningful information. Procmon traces are extremely extensive and beyond the amount of time I have to spend of troubleshooting this.

Nonetheless, I was not discouraged by any of the results as I have now put my good friends on the Microsoft Dynamics GP development team on notice of this issue, which could only help in getting the product ready for prime time. As I also mentioned before, I learned a great deal about what to do, what to avoid, but primarily how to troubleshoot the issues.

If you missed any of the previous articles in the series, I have compiled them all here for you:

• Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series - Part 1
• Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series - Part 2a
• Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series - Part 2b
• Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series - Part 3
• Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series - Part 4

Now that I have mastered a bit more than the basics, I will now move on to configure a supported Windows Server 2008 R2 environment and setup the various Web Client components on different servers. This should be fun as typically, this is how most customers will want to deploy their Web Client environment. I will probably open a new series for this one ;)

In the meantime, I encourage you to work with the Web Client and discover the various deployment options. I promise you will have as much fun as I did working on it over the past days.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series - Part 4

Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series
Part 4

This series narrate my personal experiences of installing Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Beta and the Web Client in an unsupported environment. The following installation steps are for testing purposes only and were done on a test box. If you are to test, please make sure your machine is not a production box.

"While it's not supported, it doesn't mean it won't work. It only means we haven't tested it"...
                                                                                                      Microsoft Dynamics GP Support

---

Where were we?

In the previous installment I wrote about a number of errors that may happen and think I did a decent job at pointing out the most common ones - services down, you missed the web client runtime install, and so forth.

However, in my quest to get this thing working on Windows 8, I also found out the heartaches that can happen when your certificates go bad.

In my environment, I have self-signed certificate which was created specifically for SSL encryption on each of the ports used for listening purposes by the different web client component services - see part 2b of this series for more information on the different components.

The certificate has the following Thumbprint.

Certificate Thumbprint

If the installation process went well, the Certificate Hash assigned to each port used by Session Service (port 48650), Session Central Service (port 48651), and Runtime Service (port 48652) should match the thumbprint value of the certificate in IIS.

To verify the Certificate Hash value on each port, you can execute the network shell command, netsh, from the DOS command prompt:

netsh http show sslcert

Certificate hash on each listening port must match that of the certificate in IIS

If for some reason the values do not match, there are two ways (that I know of) to fix this:

1. You can try to uninstall the Web Client, which in turn ~should~ remove the SSL certificate bindings for each of the ports listed above. If the bindings are cleared, you can then proceed to remove and recreate the certificate in IIS, then reinstall the Web Client, selecting the correct certificate.

2. You can manually remove the SSL certificate bindings with the following command line:

netsh http delete sslcert ipport=0.0.0.0:48650
netsh http delete sslcert ipport=0.0.0.0:48651
netsh http delete sslcert ipport=0.0.0.0:48652

As a matter of fact, it is also wise to delete the URL reservation associated with the certificate binding as well,

netsh http delete urlacl url=https://+:48650/SessionCentralService/
netsh http delete urlacl url=https://+:48651/SessionService/
netsh http delete urlacl url=https://+:48652/RuntimeService/
netsh http delete urlacl url=https://+:48652/

Following this process, you can then uninstall the Web Client, recreate the certificate in IIS, and reinstall the Web Client, this time selecting the certificate.

For more information on the network shell command take a look at:

MSDN: Netsh commands for HTTP

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series - Part 2b

Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series
Part 2b

This series narrate my personal experiences of installing Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Beta and the Web Client in an unsupported environment. The following installation steps are for testing purposes only and were done on a test box. If you are to test, please make sure your machine is not a production box.

"While it's not supported, it doesn't mean it won't work. It only means we haven't tested it"...
                                                                                                      Microsoft Dynamics GP Support

---

Now that we have Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 and the Web Client Runtime installed, it's time to take a look at the Web Client installation process.

Web Client Installation

The installation process starts with the usual legalese stuff around Licensing Agreement and why you must accept these terms - pretty simple: you don't and you cannot install the software.

License Agreement

Once you pass the first screen, you are at the point of choosing between the two installation options. In the case of a single server (or word warrior workstation like mine) you will want to choose the Single Machine option. However, if you have multiple servers playing in your environment and you want the ability to segment services and what's not, then the Custom option is the way to go.

Installation Option

The Windows User Group window allows you to specify either the Web Client User group or user account and the Web Management Console user group that will be allowed to access the Web Client or administer the environment, respectively. Here we will be using the local accounts we setup in Part 1 of this series.

Typically, most customers will already have an Active Directory group in their domains where they already have Microsoft Dynamics GP users added to, since nowadays you need something similar to access SQL Reporting Services and Business Analyzer reports (if you are into making administration easier). So this is where I recommend using what you already have.

As for the Web Management Console, this will probably continue to be in the domain of the Microsoft Dynamics GP system administrator or simply become an extension to the functions of the overall system administrators in the organization.

Windows User Group

The next option is to enter the domain account that will be used as the application pool identity for the Web Client website. Again, here we will use the account we created in Part 1 of this series.



Web Site Configuration

Next up is creating a database to store our Web Management Console settings. If you are going to use Windows Trusted Authentication, the account you are using should have at least dbcreator rights on SQL Server to be able to do this.

Web Management Console database

Session Central service communicates with the website and maintains stats on all the session services running on the session host machines. Session Central service listens in on port 48650 by default (you can configure your own). If using SSL, you must select the personal store certificate created in Part 1 of this series. The port will automatically be setup on the firewall by the installation.

Session Central Service

As far as analogies go, think of Session Central service as a Distributed Process Manager (DPM). For more information on DPM, take a look at the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Architecture Whitepaper.

Session Service is a Windows service that runs on the Session Host machine and is responsible for authorizing users, creating user sessions, retrieving existing sessions, and monitoring sessions to report back to the Session Central service.  The Session Service will also start a shell instance of Dynamics GP,  also referred to as a Runtime.Process.exe, at the time a requesting GP Web Client users is authenticated as a valid user.

Session Service listens in on port 48651 by default (you can configure your own). If using SSL, you must select the personal store certificate created in Part 1 of this series. The port will automatically be configured on your firewall by the installation.

Session Service

Again, as far as analogies go, think of Session Service as a Distributed Process Server (DPS) instance. For more information on DPS, take a look at the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Architecture Whitepaper.

Finally, we need to specify the Runtime Service URL which by default listens in on port 48652. This URL provides the information for building the user's session address (in the form of https://machineaddress:48652/RuntimeService/pID) where pID is the process ID generated by the GP shell application.

Runtime Service URL

This is the only part of the configuration where an SSL certificate is strictly required.

The final aspect is to review the installation settings and kick off the install itself.

Install Progress

Progress Bar

A key troubleshooting aspect from all of the above is to ensure that the GP Session Central Service and GP Session Service are running. For that, you can check the Services panel under Administrative Tools or Computer Management.

GP Session Central Service and GP Session Services should now be running 

This concludes the installation portion of the Web Client and so far we have not ran into any issues with the process itself.

---

Now, it's time to launch the Web Client...

In my first attempt to launch the client I received the following error:

HTTP Error 403.14 - Forbidden

The Web server is configured to not list the contents of this directory.

Most likely causes:

A default document is not configured for the requested URL, and directory browsing is not enabled on the server.

Things you can try:

If you do not want to enable directory browsing, ensure that a default document is configured and that the file exists.

Enable directory browsing using IIS Manager.
1.     Open IIS Manager.
2.     In the Features view, double-click Directory Browsing.
3.     On the Directory Browsing page, in the Actions pane, click Enable.

Verify that the configuration/system.webServer/directoryBrowse@enabledattribute is set to true in the site or application configuration file.

 

Detailed Error Information:

Module	DirectoryListingModule
Notification	ExecuteRequestHandler
Handler	StaticFile
Error Code	0x00000000
Requested URL	https://mgb003:443/
Physical Path	C:\inetpub\gpweb
Logon Method	Anonymous
Logon User	Anonymous

 More Information:

This error occurs when a document is not specified in the URL, no default document is specified for the Web site or application, and directory listing is not enabled for the Web site or application. This setting may be disabled on purpose to secure the contents of the server.

View more information »

Clearly, I did not want to enable directory browsing, but after noticing that the site wasn't even launching it was evident that the ASP.NET client was not installed on the site. As mentioned yesterday, this problem was solved by applying the steps outlined in the TechNet article, Installing IIS and ASP.NET Modules. I once more checked my website and now had the following folder under my Web Client website.

aspnet_client folder under gpweb Website

The fun did not end there. So, I will cover some troubleshooting topics tomorrow, before continuing into other findings.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series - Part 2a

Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series
Part 2a

This series narrate my personal experiences of installing Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Beta and the Web Client in an unsupported environment. The following installation steps are for testing purposes only and were done on a test box. If you are to test, please make sure your machine is not a production box.

"While it's not supported, it doesn't mean it won't work. It only means we haven't tested it"...
                                                                                                      Microsoft Dynamics GP Support

---

Yesterday, we walked through a few pre-requisites needed for the installation of the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Web client on single Windows 8 machine - from now on, the road warrior laptop. It is worth noting that I also made some of the Silverlight registry changes to allow the Web Client to access local resources (printers, SmartLists, and access to temp folders) from within the browser. You can read more about these changes and download the registry entry for Silverlight in Aaron Donat's new article over at Developing for Dynamics GP.

Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client and Silverlight Security Requirements

Today, I will cover some of the issues I experienced through attempts at running the Web Client without having ASP.NET 4.5 running on IIS 8.0 - as mentioned before, at first, it was not quite obvious ASP.NET 4.5 was not installed on IIS.8

---

Installing Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013

Prior to installing the Web Client, the installation process takes us through Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 and the Web Client Runtime service installation.

The main setup window (launched with Setup.exe) allows you to install Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013, along with some of the traditional products, plus the Web Client, Tenant Services, and the Web Services Management Tools, three new components for GP 2013.

You can find more information about the Web Client architecture in Aaron Donat's article over at Developing for Dynamics GP:

Dynamics GP 2013 Web Client Infrastructure Overview

The first things you will notice during the installation process is the Bootstrapper Setup window, which will automatically install Dexterity Shared Components 12.0.



Bootstrapper Setup window

At the features level, you will have a choice of installing the Web Client Runtime service. This feature is a MUST prior to installing the Web Client itself. More information about the Web Client Runtime can be found in Aaron's infrastructure article above.


Select Features window.

New for GP 2013 is the ability to name the system database. For those of us "old timers", you also have a choice of continuing to use the DYNAMICS system database name as a default choice. For more information on the named system database feature, take a look at my article Microsoft Dynamics GP "12" Named System Database Architecture.

Named System Database

Once the application is installed, you should now be able to return to the Windows 8 start screen and see the launch icons there.

A peek into the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 installation folder, confirms we now have a WebClient folder with all the assemblies, extensions, and providers that in conjunction form the Web Client Runtime service.

Web Client Runtime files

Following this first part, the rest is just running Microsoft Dynamics GP Utilities and let the program take care of creating the system database and adding the Fabrikam company. Practically nothing has changed in the Utilities process.

Next, I will cover the Web Client installation.
Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series - Part 1

Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series
Part 1

This series narrate my personal experiences of installing Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Beta and the Web Client in an unsupported environment. The following installation steps are for testing purposes only and were done on a test box. If you are to test, please make sure your machine is not a production box.

"While it's not supported, it doesn't mean it won't work. It only means we haven't tested it"...
                                                                                                      Microsoft Dynamics GP Support

---

After returning from the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Airlift 2012, I am more than drinking all this Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Web Client Kool-Aid. And why not? After all, this is probably the biggest release to ever hit the block since the days of Microsoft Dynamics GP 6.0 - if you've been around long enough, you will remember that v6 had the first major facelift in the product history.

So, I figured the first thing I would be doing is rebuilding my machine with the brand spanking new Microsoft Windows 8 Professional 64-bit operating system, which I downloaded from MSDN. And so I set out to backup all my files onto my home storage area network (SAN), to blow away my current (now former) Windows 7 Ultimate install.

Installing Windows 8 went extremely smooth, with the usual couple reboots before the desktop was ready. To complete my install, I have added the following applications to my system:

• Microsoft Office 2013 Preview
• Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Standard Edition
• Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2012

Windows 8 is natively equipped with .NET Framework 4.5, ASP.NET 4.5, Internet Explorer 10, Internet Information Services 8.0 (which needs to be added via the Add/Remove Windows Features in the Control Panel).

...in summary, everything not currently supported for the installation of the Web Client. You can read more about the system requirements on Microsoft Dynamics PartnerSource.

System Requirements for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013


Nonetheless, off I went to install Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 and the Web Client.

---

Web Client Installation Pre-requisites

1. Certificate. Checked! At this stage, I created a self-signed certificate as would normally be accepted (required?) to setup the Web Client in a single machine configuration environment.
 

Server Certificates in IIS 8.0

New Self-Signed Certificate

2. Required user accounts and user groups. Checked! For this step, I use Computer Management to setup two local users to my machine, GPUser and GPWebAccount. The former is a test user account to access the Web Client, the latter, a test account to access the Web Management Console. NOTE: under the current system requirements, these accounts must be created under Active Directory in a Windows Server 2008 R2 environment, so here's the second difference with the standard pre-requisites.

Web client test accounts

3. GP Web Client site. Checked! Back in IIS, I created the website as required, prior to begin the Web Client installation. Note that in this step I selected the https binding on port 443 and the physical path, which I created under the inetpub folder. Also, I made sure to select the previously created certificate.

Web Client website (gpweb)

4. ASP.NET. Checked! The beauty of Windows 8 is, it comes preloaded with the .NET Framework 4.5 and .NET Framework 3.5. But this is also an issue at the same time, since you need to install the ASP.NET 4.0 client on the newly created website. For this I would use the traditional aspnet_regiis command line utility.

aspnet_regiis error installing ASP.NET 4.0

As you can see from the error above, IIS 8.0 is blocking the installation of ASP.NET 4.0 as it is expecting ASP.NET 4.5 to be loaded. NOTE: under the current system requirements, ASP.NET 4.0 and .NET Framework 4.0 are supported. This makes for the third difference with the system recommendations. The URL provided with the error did not provide much assistance. The main question at this point was, if ASP.NET 4.0 cannot be loaded, how would I then load the ASP.NET 4.5 client? After much search, I found a TechNet article describing the steps required to load ASP.NET 4.5 on Windows 8.

TechNet: Installing IIS and ASP.NET Modules

This article proved to be a live saver, since in Windows 8, the .NET Extensibility 4.5 and ASP.NET 4.5 are considered Application Development Features under IIS 8.

Upon following the instructions in the article, I was now able to see the aspnet_client folder under the gpweb virtual directory.

So far, the pre-requisites outlined here line up with those of the standard pre-requisites. If you are unsure of the Web Client architecture, have a look at Aaron Donat's article over at Developing for Dynamics GP:

Dynamics GP 2013 Web Client Infrastructure Overview

Tomorrow, I will describe some of the issues I ran into prior to ironing out the ASP.NET 4.5 client installation on IIS 8.0. Suffice to say, I tried installing the Web Client prior to having ASP.NET installed and that caused some other issues.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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Microsoft West Coast Customs 67 Mustang

This is not necessarily a Microsoft Dynamics GP post, but rather a post on how Microsoft is thinking of embedding some of its current Windows 8, Kinnect, and cloud technology into the automotive world. On the other hand, West Coast Customs is one of the top custom cars designer in the world and are pretty known for their Street Customs show on Discovery's TLC channel.

Both companies teamed up to produce one of the sickest rides I have ever seen in years. I think you can appreciate the craftsmanship from West Coast Customs in executing Microsoft's vision. Enjoy the video!

Game Trailers - E3 2012 - Rides Whips & Hoons

And yes... that was "250 to 300" thousand dollars, as in $300,000!!

The car was revealed at the Bellevue, WA Microsoft store. Here was the launch:

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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Microsoft Dynamics Convergence Houston 2012 - Day 1

If you are a habitual Convergence attendee, you probably know that the Opening Keynote with Kirill Tatarinov, President of Microsoft Business Solutions, is one of the most awaited events of the entire event. As usual, Kirill was on point with his opening and playing the part by wearing a nice Texan hat.

Kirill Tatarinov, President Microsoft Business Solutions welcomes attendees

Kirill presented a summary of interesting facts on the conference, including 10,000+ attendees, representing 270 companies from over 50 countries. Kirill quickly turned the mic over to Kevin Turner, COO of Microsoft Corporation, who wasted no time walking attendees through Microsoft's global reach and vision of the future.

Kevin Turner, COO Microsoft Corporation

"Let me set it up with a little bit of an overview of Microsoft and what we're up to. Microsoft, as many of you know, is the world's largest software company, but we're a lot more than just that. We employ over 95,000 people in 191 countries around the world. We've got 640,000 partners that contribute to our ecosystem around the world. We cater to both businesses — and that's small, medium and large enterprises — as well as consumers. In fact, we have over 1.5 billion people who use our products each and every day. And that's an awesome responsibility that we have."

With this global reach, Kevin detailed some of the R&D investments made by Microsoft in its pursue of inventing and shaping the future of technology and contrast that to the strong financial results that allow the company to continue supporting its long-term R&D programs.

Kevin offered insights into Microsoft's efforts around its platforms development and how these platforms aid consumers on a daily basis with their interactions with information, regardless of the device on which they perform those interactions. In fact, Microsoft has began to embrace devices and platforms from other competitors such as Apple and Google.

After wrapping up his presentation, Kirill and Kevin described Microsoft's adoption of its own technologies and how the company is undergoing a migration from Siebel to Microsoft CRM to become a dynamic business to better serve its customers and partners.

Next up were couple demos showing the convergence of social media and the retail business and the new Windows 8 Metro UI and how Microsoft Dynamics takes advantage of these features. I have to say I was most impressed by the latter.

Kirill and Brad presenting Microsoft Dynamics on the Windows 8 Metro UI

A nice look at the UI

Another look at the interaction with the project screen

You can find a complete transcript of Kirill and Kevin's Opening Keynote on the Microsoft Press website, here. You can watch the whole Opening Keynote on the Virtual Convergence website, here.

Following the Opening Keynote, the Nick Brophy band took over and rock the house. A few great covers gave way to the General Session.

Nick Brophy band

After the interlude, Errol Schoenfish, Director of Product Management was on stage and ready to introduce all the wonderful work the Microsoft Dynamics GP team has been working on.

Errol Schoenfish

Errol had a chance to show off his Xbox avatar, TechyErrol - Come to think about it, they both do look alike.

TechyErrol: Errol Schoenfish's X-Box avatar

Attendees to the General Session were encouraged to tweet about the presentation. Tweets were shown live on the big screen every so often. It's amazing to see how many tweets were received during the course of the session. Partner and customers were extremely excited to share their views about the latest developments by the Dynamics GP team.

The surprise of the morning came when MVP Mark Polino and Microsoft's Jennifer Olson, Program Manager, both took the stage to show off Business Analyzer on the Windows 8 Metro UI. It was awesome to see how far the Dynamics GP MVP community has come along working with the Program Management team.

MVP Mark Polino and Jen

Business Analyzer on the Windows 8 Metro UI

After the Business Analyzer demo, Errol returned with Jeff Trosen who would go on to talk about the Microsoft Dynamics GP roadmap and some of the initiatives in motion.

Errol Schoenfish and Jeff Trosen

And speaking about motion... following Jeff's presentation, Chad Sogge took the stage to demo a warehouse management scenario using the Kinect sensor for the Xbox. During the demo, attendees had a chance to see some of the innovations that may be introduced in the Microsoft Dynamics GP product in the not so distant future.

MVP Jivtesh Singh

At the end of the demo, "Thank Yous" went out to MVP Jivtesh Singh who did all the programming required to put the demonstration in place, yet again, showing the deep collaboration that exists today between the Microsoft Dynamics GP Product Management team and its MVPs.

The afternoon was marked by our first session at 3:00 PM, CSGP19-R1 Administering Microsoft Dynamics GP Like a Pro with the Support Debugging Tool. David and I had 199 attendees to the session, which delivered an overview of the features in the Support Debugging Tool. If you attended our session and have not filled out your evaluation, please do so.

After the session, we went to the Expo hall, which was buzzing with partners, customers, and ISVs showcasing their products.

Shortly after, it was dinner and off to sleep.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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