Here’s today’s post from John Odell, Senior CRM Consultant at Concentrix who’s at the Microsoft World Partner Conference in Washington DC. Remember you can also keep up with John’s news from the conference at http://twitter.com/odellodell.
Another balmy morning here in DC. Early start to get a couple of hours work done in the UK AM, Skype'd the wife and kids, had an hour in the hotel gym, an omelette and then into some "connect" networking meetings. Had lunch with a French chap and we discussed the vastness of WPC and how you would struggle to achive the scale in Europe - the picture below shows half of one of the main rooms (I'm wearing a very bright pink shirt - there's a prize if you can spot me).
Getting deep with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011... There are a few pretty exciting elements to the new Dynamics CRM. Here are just a few - expect to hear a lot more in the coming weeks and months:
• Code in Cloud: We've been providing hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM for a while now and had a great success with it. However, one of the major problems with hosted CRM as it stands is the inability to handle advanced customisations, integration and bespoke components. This is because you can't deploy custom code into the shared hosting environment. Customising and integrating CRM is a core Concentrix specialism, so this limitation has been a major pain for us and closed the door on hosted CRM to a number of customer's. With CRM 2011 it will be possible to have code in (the) Cloud - so that's pretty significant for a lot businesses (especially if you consider it alongside the Azure stuff I blogged about yesterday).
• Dashboards: Frankly, the lack of dashboards in Microsoft Dynamics CRM v4 is a little embarrassing. Sage CRM has dashboard, SalesLogix has dashboard, even good ol' GoldMine has dashboard, but not Microsoft Dynamics CRM v4. Well, Microsoft have plugged that gap with a very impressive looking dashboard facility that can be role tailored, individually tailored and fully contextual. It is more like a mini-BI tool and will be great for things like customer care, case management and sales pipelines (as well as being pretty to demonstrate!).
• Outlook-ised: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 looks even more like Outlook than ever! It has reading panes for CRM records (less clicks to get to the details), user customisations (such as chose your own columns + "drag and drop" parts on the user interface), flagging, categorisation and grouping of CRM records, enhanced communication tracking - all about usability, user productivity, user empowerment and user happiness!
• Custom activity and communications: Possibly my favourite, which is a bit geeky, but is upping the flexibility of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and I can really see how it would benefit several existing customers who are currently bending themselves around the limited communication types in v4.
• Role tailored client: This is a major success story for Microsoft Dynamics NAV (if you ever find yourself in a Microsoft-delivered NAV session then you'll be hit over the head with role tailored client / RTC until you are dizzy!) which is being incorporated into CRM 2011. As the name suggests, it tailors the client - meaning user interface and experience - to the user's role and therefore need, excluding stuff they don't need and streamlining what they do. Simple but clever (you know what I mean...).
• SharePoint integration out of the box: Pretty much what it says on the box - Dynamics 2011 and SharePoint were always meant to talk to each other, now they are made to talk to each other.
• Marginal gains: As I blogged yesterday, CRM 2011 is about LOADS of marginal gains (which have the potential to deliver BIG benefits), improvements to shaky bits in v4, gaps plugged, several splangly new things, a further step in the right direction.
Microsoft are clearly a bit cagey about the precise features list and we'll continue to take a realistic and perhaps slightly sceptical view of CRM 2011 until it's in production. However, it is clearly awesome!
Getting deep with Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2... Well, I never thought I'd get excited by an ERP software product! However, NAV 2009 R2 (catchy name) is clearly pretty special. Here are the highlights from what we saw today:
• CRM integration: An integration framework for Microsoft Dynamics CRM that comes in the box for Microsoft Dynamics NAV is bound to get me interested. Tieing together the front and back office is a desire of many companies and organisations and NAV now gives us another really solid option.
• Streaming the client: So, you can use NAV just like it's on your desktop without having it installed on your PC. Coupled with the NAV role tailored client, imagine what this could do for your remote workforce or even satellite office(s). As well as not needing NAV installed they wouldn't need a VPN/Citrix.
• Cloud: The above "streaming" concept is a large part of Cloud-ing NAV, but it's not the whole story. Cloud NAV will be subscription based and require no hardware infrastructure, but it will still integrate with CRM and give you the rich RTC.
• Other highlights: More Windows 7 functionality, such as "jump menu"; online payment; better BI capability.
The roadmap looks pretty tasty and highly focussed, so it's a good product to get on board with. Kev quite literally had to have a cold shower and lie down after the NAV session.
It's the end of the day but the work isn't over as Kev and I head off to the Microsoft UK Partner party at a swanky hotel near the White House. It's all tuxedos and cocktail frocks, but Kev and I wear neither and opt for a more subtle, clandestine approach. Fair play to Microsoft UK - I criticised their lounge but they threw one hell of a party. For me it included some good networking, a cavalier but ultimately doomed game of blackjack, an embarrassing attempt at a shoot 'em up on the Xbox (when on earth did joysticks get so complicated?) and hitting the free bar for at least two glasses of cranberry juice.
Bill Clinton is speaking in the morning. Which should be nice.
More updates soon - if you need any further information on the topics I've discussed in the meantime, feel free to contact Concentrix.
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