Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2011 - Closing session

It's hard to believe that this is the last day of the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2011, in the very hospitable Fargo, North Dakota. After a late night putting together the Day 2 post and the Microsoft Dynamics GP roadmap post, and having a bit of fun with partners and ISVs at the bar in the Ramada's lobby, it was now time to pack and get ready to go home.


At the Ramada's bar last night - David drinking 2011 vintage H2O on the rocks and me, well...

However, the closing session would have a couple of surprises, including, but not limited to, 2 fire alarms! The situation was quickly managed in an orderly fashion by the Fantastic 3 (the Conference organizing team). Hat tips go out to Babs, Lanelle, and Naomi for such an awesome, hiccup-free event.

Note: I still believe Babs pulled the fire alarm cord to get all the poor tired souls in attendance up on their feet again :-)

The Conference organization team - From left to right, Babs Coler (Microsoft), Lanelle Vasichek (Spider and Company), Mariano Gomez, Naomi Wavers (Spider and Company)

The triggerting of the fire alarms was possibly due to an issue with the local grid (earlier at the Ramada, lights flickered for a bit) which overloaded a few circuits on Campus. The local fire department quickly inspected the building and gave their clearance to return to the affected facilities, so we returned to the Dakota conference room where the closing session was going to be delivered.

With the closing session now running 1 hour behind schedule, I was only able to attend the Sponsors Shootout session - briefly anyways.

As with anything in life, the Conference must come to and end: it was time to say goodbye once more to my friends David and Leslie who will be leaving town in the next couple days.

David Musgrave, Leslie Vail, Beat Bucher, Mariano Gomez - Goodbye!

Just know that your Dynamic Duo will be back as presenters at Microsoft Dynamics Convergence Atlanta 2011, so register go and register now.

Until next post!

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

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The Evolution of the Microsoft Dynamics GP Roadmap

I wanted to take the opportunity to show how the Microsoft Dynamics GP roadmap has evolved over the past 2 years, contrasting each slide that has been released at different stages. Clearly, Microsoft is going in the right direction and, while there's a lot more work to be done, the future looks very promising.

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Attendees at Convergence New Orleans 2009 saw a roadmap contemplating up to the release of the then code name "11 FP". You can still expect to see a Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 coming soon.


Roadmap as of March 2009 (Convergence New Orleans)

 At the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2009, the roadmap had been updated to incorporate code name GP "14". However, code name GP "11 FP" had been dropped as part of the picture, all the while maintaining code name GP "12" and code name GP "14" as part of the future plans.

Roadmap as of November 2009 (Technical Conference 2009)

Now, at the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2011, and with GP 10 SP4 (and SP5) out of sight, you could see a slight change on the roadmap with the incorporation of GP 2010 R2 and the overall objectives for this release. Also, note that some futures that were anticipated to be in code name GP "12" have now been rolled into GP 2010 R2.

Roadmap as of March 2011 (Technical Conference 2011)

It is clear that heavy investment in the product continues to be a priority for Microsoft and this trend is not expected to decrease at least for the next 5 years. Of course, if you feel otherwise, please take your comments to The Dynamics GP Blogster Facebook feed.

Until next post!

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

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Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2011 - Day 2 Presentation

Following the opening session and our Support Debugging Tool presentation on Day 1, it was now time to present our Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics GP Customization Tools session. There was a certain anxiety in the air, as this is the first time David and I would build code, live!

The presentation began on time and on track with David taking the lead on the Dexterity and Modifier with Visual Basic for Applications portion of the session. However, we had a number of questions from the audience and things started to extend out a bit. 

Getting ready for the presentation

While David did his best to catch up, it was already apparent that the Visual Studio Tools portion, which I would be presenting, would run short. While presenting the VST session, it was necessary to cut short on the explanation of the customization itself, and skimp a bit on the build process of the VST project itself. This created a bit of confusion with the attendees.

Upon finalizing our presentation, we took a 1 hour and so break to relax a bit and get some food. However, on the way out of our session, we were informed by Babs Coler that a new "recap" session was being added by partners request to review all the presentations: Support Debugging Tool, Upgrading your Customizations (which would be presented by Patrick Roth and David Musgrave), and Introduction to Customization Tools sessions. This was a good news for David and I, as it meant our sessions were very well received. Despite being tired and dragging, we were certainly delighted to present once again.

Next up was David and Patrick Roth. Their session, Upgrading your Customizations, ran from 1:00 PM CST to 2:15 PM CST.  This session was filled with tons of tips on upgrading user interface customizations and data integration projects written in Dexterity, Modifier with VBA, Visual Studio Tools, and eConnect and Web Services, respectively.



David Musgrave and Patrick Roth presenting Upgrading your Customizations

The guys did a phenomenal job, which included demos of all the upgrade tools. Once again, we had another 2 hours of R&R time. I personally spent this time drafting some of this post content and zoned out for a bit.

The "recap" session, ran from 4:00 PM CST to 5:15 PM CST and counted with a good audience, despite being the last session on the schedule. We changed the format a bit and turned it into a Q&A session, featuring Dexterity, Visual Studio Tools, and Support Debugging Tool content. We really enjoyed interacting in a more informal setting with the partners attending the session.

The session concluded, and it was time for the Expo and round table topics, now a tradition at the Technical Conference.


Dexterity Team round table

 I met up with Kim Peterson from GPUG and Andrew Snook from FastPath to exchange a few words on the Conference and the upcoming DayOne at Microsoft Dynamics Convergence Atlanta 2011. It was also an opportunity to catch up with my friend Alice Newsam, Software Development Engineer in Test with Microsoft and a regular contributor over at Developing for Dynamics GP.

David championed the Tim Tam Slam event with a few brave partners interested in testing their abilities to absorb hot chocolate through a very delicate chocolate wafer - Tim Tam - that, when nibbled on both ends, acts like a straw.

It was time to catch the bus ride (6:45 PM CST) back to the hotel.

Back at the Ramada Plaza hotel, we walked ourselves back to the bar and sat in our favorite office location. This time, everyone agreed it was time to have a bit more than H2O and/or sodas. The 2 days had been a brutal one for everyone in attendance -- I have been in Fargo since past Saturday, making it 5 days in total, so the strain is even more. Nonetheless, Tim Tam Slam was again the challenge of the evening.

It's been a long week indeed. However, the chance to meet other partners and understand what's going on with their business and how they are addressing the new challenges has been the most enlighting and gratifying experience. Also, I am always thankful for the reception that our sessions have had with the partners in attendance and I hope to see you all at Microsoft Dynamics Convergence Atlanta in April.

The Conference ends tomorrow, and I will be attending the closing session. After this I will be catching my 1:05 PM CST flight out of Hector International en route to Atlanta, through Minneapolis/St. Paul's.

Until next post!

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

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Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2011 - Day 1 Presentation

After a morning fill with excitement at the Opening Session, where Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 R2 was presented to all partners in attendance, you could only walk out of the session all pumped up. However, it was time for some lunch -- "no MSG and buddies", according to David.

This excitement carried David and I, right into our 2:45 PM CST presentation. Up was our Support Debugging Tool session. Everything went very well despite the computer problems (read David's post for the full scoop) we had in the previous days. We had a great time presenting the session and partners overall expressed the increased adoption of Support Debugging Tool by customers and even themselves.

At the Support Debugging Tool presentation

We then took a ride after the Conference day was over back to the hotel. Interestingly enough, Leslie still believed she was enjoying a nice summer day in Dallas as she did not bring any layers with her, but being the gentlemen we are (ehem!), I gave her my gloves, David gave her his hat, and Beat provided the scarves (yes, he goes along with 2 of them!) for additional comfort.

Mariano Gomez, Leslie Vail, Beat Bucher, David Musgrave - In the bus back to he hotel. Picture courtesy of Stephan Labbe

Once at the hotel, we regrouped in the lobby to go for dinner at Grizzly's Grill, a restaurant located at the entrance of the West Acres mall. The group decided to walk, which perhaps, has been one of the worst decisions I have made since arriving in town. The temperature? A whopping -7F (without the wind chill factor, which surely made it feel close to -17F).  When we arrived at the mall (through the JC Penney's entrance, the closest to the Ramada's lobby) we all felt the numbness in our faces. I personally had my sinuses completely cleared up!

Night went well and dinner was very pleasant, with lots of conversations and topics circulating around the table.

From left to right, front to back: Mark Rockwell (Rockton Software), Yvan Bruneau (Jovaco), Jean-Francois Tremblay (Jovaco), Beat Bucher (Strophe), Terry Blazer (Microsoft), Stephan Labbe (Strophe), Mariano Gomez, Haseet Sanghrajka (ST Consulting), Leslie Vail, David Musgrave (Microsoft), Jim Pelikza (Rockton Software)

Dinner was over and we were back at the hotel with rides offered by Terry Blazer and Sheila Ochoa. The temperature had dipped a few degrees more, but the winds had died down, however, I could not pass on the offer.

At the hotel, David and I had to do some code fine tuning on his machine to ensure that our Visual Studio Tools demo would work for our presentation next day -- up first at 8:30 AM CST. Poor David felt asleep while I was transferring the code and making the adjustments. After all, we have been running on little sleep since we got here.

Until next post!

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

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Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2011 - Day 1 Opening Session

Microsoft Dynamics GP IS NOT dead! This was the center point message in the opening session of the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2011.
 

Errol Schoenfish and Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 R2 key mantras

The Big Shots delivering the opening session (Chad Sogge, Jeff Trosen, and Errol Schoenfish) did an excellent job -- with actions, not words -- to provide the partner community in attendance with reassurance of Microsoft's commitment to the Dynamics GP product line. 10 minutes into the session we were already getting glimpses of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 R2, the next major revision of the now familiar  Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010. In addition to a roadmap (more on that in my next post).

The 3 pillars for the new Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 R2 release?

Enhance Insight
This area will particularly see the introduction of Contextual BI with the newly minted Business Analyzer, a Silverlight (to be) application that is tightly coupled to SSRS to deliver stunning analytical capabilities to business users. The best part... it does not require Microsoft SharePoint Server.

Business Analyzer lite client

Business Analyzer will be delivered in a lite client version and incorporated as part of the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 R2 rich client interface (shown below).

Microsoft Dynamcis GP 2010 R2 with Business Analyzer and contextual BI capabilities

Make it Easier
While no concrete demonstration was given on the new Word Template Generator feature, attendees were happy to know that Microsoft has worked on a feature that will allow any Microsoft Dynamics GP report to be converted to an actual Word Template -- all and formatting included!

In addition, the new Email Customization Tool will allow systems administrators and users to define and customize, from the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 R2 user interface, the subject, content, and other parts of an email submitted using the available email options in Sales Order Processing and Purchase Order Processing.

Extend Connections
Jon Zimmermann demonstrated the capabilities of the new Rapid Migration Tool and how simple it has become for users to import information from any Microsoft Excel-based template into their environments.
Errol finalized the presentation capturing a video of the partners response to the new features in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 R2, Microsoft's roadmap, upcoming projects the company is working on around the Microsoft Dynamics GP ERP platform.

As noted in Bob Scott’s Insights, NetSuite’s CEO, Zach Nelson said that "Microsoft Dynamics GP is disappearing as a competitor"..."The one prediction I will repeat is the continuing demise of Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains.". Frankly, after what I saw in this opening session today, and the reaction of the attending partners (in the video above), I can unequivocally say that Mr. Nelson's views are far from reality. It is now evident the folks at Microsoft had (have) been at work carefully addressing the needs of customers, partners, and ISVs alike. With this much work on the table, heck, even I would be quiet.

Finally, the morning would not be complete without the usual celebrity picture.


David Musgrave, Errol Schoenfish, Pam Misialek, Mariano Gomez

 Until next post!

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

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Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2011 begins today!

This is a quick note to invite all readers to follow the latest Conference developments via the The Dynamics GP Blogster Facebook feed. As I attend some of the sessions and capture the sound bytes and most interesting topics, I will be posting those over. The posts following this one will be the experiences of the day with the traditional pictures and personalities and will include information about product development, roadmap, and much, much more. Please tune in to both the blog and Facebook feed for regular updates.

Until next post!

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

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Pre-Conference Day 3 - Tech Check

February 28, 2011. Pre-Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference Day 3 - Tech Check.

This is a series of articles leading up to the actual Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2011 event. The goal is to keep you informed of some of the developments leading up to the Conference and also provide you with a "behind the scenes" view of our work and activities.

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Day 2 was a bit hectic, troubleshooting David's computer problems. This set us back a bit with our initial goal of fine tuning the presentations.

The morning started with the usual breakfast and really nothing much transpired.

In the afternoon we took a shuttle to the Microsoft Horizons Campus were we met up with Babs Coler. Babs is in charge of coordinating speakers and sessions. After a few minutes of conversation, it was time for lunch. We met up with Patrick Roth and were later joined few minutes later by Dave Dusek. Patrick and David [Musgrave] discussed a bit about their presentation and had a few last minute ideas on how they would like to deliver it. After lunch, Pat and David began a dry run on their session and invited me to provide feedback.

Once they wrapped up, David and I went visiting the rest of the Support team.

We returned to the room where we would both be presenting. I walked up to the podium and put down my computer, grabbed the VGA connection to plug into my laptop and...no VGA port for me! My brand new laptop only comes equipped with an HDMI port. I quickly went online to establish if I could get an HDMI to VGA converter, not without checking if the audiovisual department at Microsoft had one. Surprise, surprise!

I went online and found that Best Buy carries a converter cable and immediately hitched a ride to the local store at the West Acres mall. In talking to the store's floor manager, he explained they did not carry such cable at the store [though he was aware of it] and offered instead a solution involving a converter from HDMI to DVI, and a DVI to VGA adapter.

This sounded like a working solution, despite the two pieces of hardware required. So, I paid and off I went to the Horizon building, only to find out halfway through that the DVI male and female connectors on both adapters are incompatible. The DVI portion of the DVI to VGA adapter had some extra pins around the flat pin as it was designed to carry analog signals only throughout the adapter. In turn the HDMI to DVI was designed to carry only digital signals -- back to square 1!

Above HDMI to DVI adaptor - Below DVI to VGA adaptor

Given the issue at hand, it was necessary to move off all my Visual Studio Tools demo code to David's machine.

Once again, frustrated, battered, and beaten up -- this time by my computer, we returned to the hotel where we continued working on the Support Debugging Tool presentation fine tuning. Halfway through, we saw Mark Rockwell from Rockton Software checking in at the hotel. Then David Eichner from ICAN Software appeared. It was time for dinner!


From left to right: Mariano Gomez, Mark Rockwell, David Musgrave, Leslie Vail, Dave Eichner

Upon wrapping up dinner, David and I continued working on the Support Debugging Tool presentation, up until 11:30 PM CST, when we wrapped up and did a dry run.

The Technical Conference officially begins tomorrow, so this is the last pre-conference post. We are very confident you will enjoy our material and learn a lot from it. Please come see us over the next couple of days.

Until next post!

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

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