Duke's Convergence Wrap Up

Dynamics GP MVP Duke del Prado has his Convergence wrap up here. It's pretty consistent with what I observed at Convergence.

A Chat with the Partnersource Team

I had a nice chat at Convergence with some folks on the Partnersource team. I was starting to wonder if the team existed. I can safely say that these folks do exist and they are very nice. No bodyguards in evidence but they weren't walking around with big orange shirts that said "Partnersource Team Member, Kick Me" either. Everyone was smartly low key.

They were kind enough to demo some features from an upcoming rework of Partnersource and the layout definitely looks better. Expect phased updates of Partnersource. Search will NOT be fixed tomorrow but they are working on it.

First up, expect to see the various search boxes scattered through out the site consolidated into one box, with some options to make easier to figure out which part of the site you're searching.
The new navigation is more logical and better follows the flow of a project, something we're all pretty used to. The team is working on unified search (yay! Can anyone say "Holy Grail"?) but has a number of issues to deal with including some really nasty data cleanup. Parts of the team are spending a couple hours a day doing nothing but cleaning up KB records for things that are mis-tagged, set to never expire, etc.

There is finally some movement within MS to get PS and CS fixed (thanks Kirill!). Frankly, having used other software, I find PS and CS to be great resources, they could just be soooo much better so that's what I'm agitating for.

I actually offered to kidnap someone from the Live Search team but nobody was up for that. Wimps.

What's that song I keep hearing on a commercial? "I want it all and I want it now!" That's how I feel about Partnersource search improvements.

Share Calculations and Effective Ownership with PerformancePoint

This is nice. A walk through of how to do Share Calculations and Effective Ownership in Performance Point Planning Server. Somebody out there will need this someday.

Convergence is Going Green

When you hit registration today at Convergence you'll find that you get a water bottle with your bag. Microsoft has eliminated disposable plastic water bottles and provided refilling stations as part of their "Green" effort at Convergence. Other efforts include bags made of partially recycled content and recycled paper materials. More info on the Convergence site if you're interested. Just makes sure it's water you're putting in those bottles people!

For the soft drink lovers, there's a mix of Pepsi and Coke products available including Mountain Dew, a sure sign that more developers are here. Alas, there is no Diet Mountain Dew so the Convention center only gets a "B" for catering.

Partner Day Thoughts

All the big announcements are Wednesday and I won't steal any of Steve Balmer's fun. I do have a few random tidbits from partner day though.

• Kirill emphasized that no products are going away. He said specifically that if anybody heard that he wanted to know. The problem is not what gets said, it's what gets done. SL again appears to be short on sessions this year. If I get time, I'd like to do a session breakdown like I did last year. It at least gives an idea of what's being emphasized.
• Kirill is a better motivational speaker than Satya Nadella was, and despite the accent, he's clearer than Doug Burgum.
• GP 11 won't be out until 2010, probably mid 2010. That's good news. There's a lot of functionality in 10 for people to explore and giving folks a couple of years on a good solid release will be good for GP. The last couple of releases have been so fast that they've left people breathless. Don't worry, there will be "feature packs", service packs and other items to keep the product fresh.
  
• Oddly, AX and NAV are getting "2009" identifiers in their next releases and GP and SL get numerical identifiers. No conspiracy theories here, I'm just wondering about the marketing thought behind that.
  Update: It was clarified on Wednesday that all the products are getting "year" designators but GP and SL won't have a year tacked on until they closer to release. So for now it's GP11 but the final name will be GP 2010 or 2011 depending on the release date.
  
• People were wandering around looking for place to plug in their laptops. That could be fun once everyone gets there!
  

Congrats to Swisher on their Customer Excellence Award

Congratulations to Swisher.They are an I.B.I.S. customer and winner of the 2008 Customer Excellence Award for Service Industry Leadership.
A win like this is a big deal for Swisher and all the other category winners.

The Future of FRx

FRxBuzz has info on the future of FRx that jibes with what I said several months ago. We'll know more this week at Convergence but it's nice to be right once in a while. (Read the comments.)

Convergence Shuttle Launch

If you're in Orlando on Monday for Tuesday's Convergence start, go to bed early and get up for Tuesday's 2:28am shuttle launch. Even if you don't make the hour drive out to Kennedy Space Center, a night launch is like nothing you've ever seen. You'll be able to see the vehicle from anywhere in Orlando. If you ask your hotel, they'll be able to tell you where to look. Don't worry, there will probably be a bunch of folks out in the parking lot at 2am.

If you so make the drive to KSC, it's phenomenal. Just be aware that traffic back to Orlando will be nasty.

Say Hi at Convergence

If you want to hunt me down and say hi or if I owe a drink from various things throughout the year (Frank, Sarah, Kelly and a few others for sure) I thought I would post some places I'm going to be to make it easy. If you feel that you owe me a fat lip, please skip to the next post!

If you want some help I'll be spending quite a bit of time in the "Ask the Experts" area with some GP engineers who are much smarter than I am. Make sure you come find us if you need help!

Monday (Partner Day)
11:45a-1:45p - Ask the Experts Booth
9p-12a - Randy and Andy party

Tuesday
10a-12p & 2p-4p - Ask the Experts Booth
7p-11p Microsoft Convergence Reception

Wednesday
10a-11a - Ask the Experts Booth
2:45p-3:45p - Ask the Experts Booth
4:45p-5:30p - Ask the Experts Booth
5:30p on -Accolade's Cruise

Thursday
10a-11a - IDIND - Not For Profit Interactive Session
2:30p -6p - Ask the Experts Booth
8p-9:30p (about) - I.B.I.S. Customer Appreciation Party
9:30p-11p (about) - Rock - N - Rave

Friday
10a-12p - Ask the Experts Booth

In between I'll be catching every session I can, focusing on BI and reporting, my current focus for the year. If you find me passed out in a hallway somewhere, nudge me to make sure that I'm alive, then walk away.

Oh yeah, for the geeks in the crowd, I'm up on Twitter if you want to follow me.

Convergence CPE is Up

When you log in to the Convergence website, a link to the CPE form is prominently displayed on the right. A direct link to the form is here.

A big thank you from me to all the folks at MS who make CPE available for this conference every year. It really makes a difference for many people in this group.

It seems that MS finally gets CPE. The communication has been better an the forms are more prominently displayed. Nice Job!

Convergence CPE Update

Somehow I missed a reply email from the Convergence team. They WILL be offering CPE for Convergence. I expect the forms to be up anytime now and I'll let you know once I have a link.

CRM Party at Convergence

I suspect that there are a few joint GP/CRM folks who read this blog so in that spirit I wanted to highlight that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live team is throwing a customer appreciation party at Convergence 2008 in Orlando. More details here.

This is typical of course. The accounting folks are all business and all the marketing and sales teams can think about is the next party. Well just to prove that we can party too, make sure that you check out Accolade's cruise and the Rock-n-Rave party to get you started.

My Convergence Role

It looks like I'll have a role at Convergence this year. I'm scheduled to assist with a panel discussion on Not-for-Profit accounting. I'll be there as the GP expert to fill in should any broad questions get too specific for the rest of the panel. Also, I think I get to be an expert in the "experts" area. I'm not completely sure yet what that entails but it sounds challenging.

On the Hunt for 2008 Convergence CPE

I'm back on the hunt for Continuing Professional Education credits for Convergence 2008. I know from talking to folks that the availability of CPE lets them choose Convergence over other conferences. It also makes justifying the expense easier.

Well, MS was late with the CPE in 2006 and better in 2007. Still, it took a month of nudging in 2007, but we knew by the end of January that it was available. Well, I'm late with my poking and prodding this year, but I have confirmed that the CPE form is not in the same place it was last year.

We'll see what MS can come up with. After all, it's now less than a month away!

Convergence and Blogging

I'm all registered for Convergence now and my blog is attached to the Convergence blogger's feed. (Once the Microsofties bless it that is.) This will be three years in a row that my blog has covered Convergence. If you're a Dynamics blogger of any kind and you'll be attending Convergence, add your blog. It provides some greate exposure.

What's Convergence? It's Microsoft's monster event for Dynamics customers. This year its in Orlando and it's always a great event. Yes it's huge but there's lots of great stuff here. If you're worried about not knowing anybody, shoot me an email and I'll get you introduced to some folks. I'll see if I can dig up an invite to Accolade's cruise as well.

It's Dynamics + Orlando in March, how can you go wrong?

Convergence 2008 Registration Starts Dec. 05

Registration for Convergence 2008 in Orlando opens on December 5. Convergence is Microsoft's premier customer event for it's Dynamics users. If you haven't been, you owe it to yourself (and our economy here in Orlando) to attend. The target is something like 10,000 Dynamics folks here in my backyard. Who wouldn't want to go to that!

If you want to get more out of your GP implementation, whether it's solutions, improvements, 3rd party options or anything else, the folks who can help will be there. Also, they are still looking for input on what you want to see covered. You know you've had one of those "I wish they would" conversations. Stop whining around the coffee maker and make your voice heard where it will count! I'm sure that I'm really annoying at Convergence, but I get answers.

You don't have to camp outside in the rain to get tickets but conference hotels fill up fast so it's worth it to register early, get the discount and save yourself some dough.

If you want something out of the ordinary to do while in Orlando, go on a night airboat ride. Seeing all those gators in the wild is a different thrill when you're doing it a night!

Convergence 2007 Rumors

Now I'm not one to go around spreading rumors, well maybe I am. What I've heard is that Microsoft is now bringing FRx fully into the MS fold. It appears that there will NOT be an FRx 7 but that FRx will be rolled into another new server product.
Rumors put Convergence 2008 back in Orlando. Apparently there are just too many of us. We'll find out more at the end of Convergence, but if it's true, it will be nice to have it back in my backyard.
Rumors persist about an Office interface for Dynamics, but they continue to be vague. Update: Before I could even get this posted, Satya announced it!
Finally, Steve Balmer's private party is Tuesday night at... if I tell you, they'll take my name off the list!