Tag: Microsoft

A 40 hour week in 60 minutes – The Status Report

In college during a project management class the instructor was looking for 2 volunteers to act as scribes and present an executive level status report of the course being taught that day. When we met the following week each of us had a 5-page document that covered every aspect of the previous class in great detail. The detail part is a superb quality for a project manager but the instructor actually went around the class, collecting everyone’s copy of the report and promptly dropped it into the recycle bin.

The moral of the story was clear to us: Most people do not have enough time to read what is already on their desk so why clutter their “To Do” list with a 5 page thesis.

December 29, 2014

Dynamics CRM: A Team Effort

I’d like to break down the difference between two types of teams found in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013. Most people who are familiar with teams in Dynamics CRM know about what are called, “Owner Teams.” These are the traditional teams that have been around since CRM 4. In Dynamics CRM 2013, Microsoft has introduced a new type of team called an, “Access Team.” The purpose of creating Access Teams appears to be for the benefit of working around and with some of Dynamics CRM’s security features.

December 19, 2014

Kick-Start Your Data Warehousing

Many of the projects that I’ve been working on over the last 12 months have evolved integrating data into a data warehouse. Specifically companies are looking to import more data from other systems to do various types of analysis. Data integration is nothing new, companies have been doing it for a long time, but usually with a very manual process that includes vast Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

What Is a Data Warehouse?

A data warehouse is a database designed to enable reporting and data analysis activities. Data warehouses store current and historical data from one or more disparate sources. Some of these sources may include:

December 12, 2014

PaperSave Version 6.0 – Document Management at the next level

I have been involved in a new PaperSave implementation utilizing the newest version of PaperSave – PaperSave Version 6 and I wanted to provide a summary of my findings. In PaperSave version 6, they have added several new features and have further taken advantage of the browser based technologies. Overall, I was impressed with the product and I think it would be a good addition to any ERP system.

December 10, 2014

What’s New in CRM 2015

Dynamics CRM 2015 is around the corner and there is a lot of excitement building up towards its launch. CRM 2013 completely changed things by introducing a whole new user interface and CRM 2015 is building on top of it by adding and improving existing features. CRM 2015 has introduced a lot of platform enhancements that make it a solid and great CRM experience. I have listed a few exciting features here but it’s a big list and we will explore through them as we approach the CRM 2015 launch.

December 5, 2014

Making the Case for Microsoft SharePoint

So you have probably heard it all when it comes to SharePoint, huh?

Throughout my Client ventures, I still hear the questions, “Well, what can SharePoint do for me?” “Our business is too small, does it make sense for us to deploy?” “What hardware or resources will I need?” “What’s my ROI?” and finally, “Can we use that in the cloud?”

In past years, SharePoint was a larger on-Premise more complicated platform that needed Administration, Developers, Maintenance, Site managers, and sometimes full team collaboration to make a successful best practices deployment and positive user experiences. This is still needed in some environments, but clearly some things have changed.

December 1, 2014

How to Balance Your Consulting Life Without Going Crazy

A long time ago I started a family and after taking some time off work completely, I was ready to get back to into the game. However, being a mom, I did not want to have a typical 9 to 5 job because I needed to be available to take my kids to school as well as continue to be the main caregiver. I eventually took a job doing consulting work. Consulting, to me, makes me think of having some freedom within your schedule and not the typical 9 to 5 hours. (A testament to this statement is that it is currently 9pm on a Monday and I am writing this. The down side is that I left my house to go to work at 7am this morning and am still working.) But I do enjoy my job. It consists of new implementations, software upgrades, training, and support. Something new that challenges me everyday. But the question still remains (and sometimes, I still struggle with) is how does one handle the process of juggling the demand of multiple clients, multiple projects, and a family life outside of work?

November 24, 2014

Dynamics ISVs…Use Your Partner!

In previous blogs, I have touched on the sheer number of Dynamics ERP ISVs (third party products). They are great tools to add on to an accounting system, however choosing out of the thousands can be a daunting task. Implementing them can also be quite an undertaking. It involves multiple systems, and should involve several parties, not just the ISV but also your Dynamics Partner and IT personnel/company. All too often us partners get calls from clients saying they have purchased a product that was supposed to solve all their problems and now they have no clue how to use it and their ERP is crashing.

November 17, 2014

Your Thanksgiving Day Dinner vs. Your ERP Project

Tis the season when most get excited about the holidays and gather with friends and family in celebration. For some, the holidays are stressful. There is planning, preparation, execution, and clean up and doing so all on top of your regular daily routines. Oh and it isn’t always just for one holiday but for two, three, or more in a 2 month period. I’m just going to think about Thanksgiving.

November 13, 2014

3 Steps to See if You are Web Client Ready

If you are involved in the Microsoft Dynamics world, in any capacity, chances are you have heard the latest buzzword “web client” quite a bit as of late. However, there are three key factors everyone should know about the web client before you call your VAR and tell them you are ready.

November 5, 2014