Accounting Challenges Facing Mid-Sized Breweries

                Having a great recipe, dedicated employees, and a state of the art facility are all crucial elements in building a successful brewery in today’s market, but they are only a part of the formula for growth. Many brewery owners are able to attract capital investments and create winning recipes for beer, but the importance of a strong back office and finance department isn't always top of mind. Beyond simple accounting, breweries must account for tax and compliance regulations that can vary greatly from state to state and are tightly controlled.

When making a decision on which software solution will provide the best results for their brewery, owners and managers are faced with many choices, but most will find that a solution like Microsoft Dynamics GP that offers the highest degree of automation and ability to account for the sometimes complex brewing process is the best option for their growing business.  For breweries, Microsoft Dynamics GP offers the ability to integrate software from independent vendors that focus only on the beer brewing industry and can handle everything from production control to compliance and financial accounting. Hosting your Microsoft Dynamics GP solution in the off-premise Tidestone Solutions’ YourCloud environment further reduces the need for on-site infrastructure, allowing the business owners and managers to focus on brewing the best product possible while feeling confident that they are able to accurately track and manage the back office aspects of their business.

Call Kelley Sintz today to learn why Microsoft Dynamics GP is the best option for your growing business!

 207-956-6635   |   ksintz@tidestonesolutions.com

Well this was the day I was waiting for.  If you’ve been wanting to get some more information on SharePoint 2016, today’s recap is for you!  I’ll briefly review some tips from the great duo of Todd Klindt and Shane Young on upgrading to SharePoint 2013, then I’ll dangle some awesome new not yet released tools for Dynamics CRM and Office 365 straight from the mouth of the great Girish Raja.  I then got some great insights from the master Spence Harbar himself on OneDrive for Business migrations, then rounded out the day diving deep in the new hybrid search service application for SharePoint 2013 / 2016.  If anything of this interests you, keep reading!

I’ll apologize now for the length of today’s entry but there was too much great information to leave out.  Now let’s get to SharePoint 2016.

Session – What’s New for It Professionals in SharePoint Server 2016

This is what I was waiting for – to get an early peek at the details of some of the changes coming in SharePoint 2016.  There was a ton of information in this session, and I’ll struggle to try and boil it down to a few summary nuggets of information but no promises.  Again led by Bill Baer, a Senior Technical Product Manager for SharePoint.  The huge amphitheater was packed, with folks lined up waiting to get in. 

DISCLAIMER - One thing to remember with all this information – we are still almost a year from release, so this is all tentative, subject to change and probably will, etc., etc. 

What is SharePoint 2016?

What really defines SharePoint 2016?  Microsoft is looking to the cloud to see what SharePoint 2016 should be.  Office 365 was born from the SharePoint 2013 code base, and this is when things diverged.  Microsoft made improvements, innovations and changed the way SharePoint worked in Office 365, but made only standard updates to 2013 on-premise.  Today, there is a large disparity between Office 365 features and SharePoint 2013 on-premises.  SharePoint 2016 aims to fix this by basically becoming the new code-base for on-premise.  They are back-porting almost all of the capabilities in SharePoint Online and bringing them to the on-prem builds. 

Hardware Requirements for SharePoint 2016

The hardware requirements really don’t change at all from SharePoint 2013. 

Software Requirements for SharePoint 2016

Things start to change a little when it comes to the software requirements.  The minimum OS and SQL get a bump.

No More SQL Server Express

The big change is there is that standalone / single server installs will NOT support the Windows Internal database or SQL Server Express.  You MUST install and use SQL Server Standard / Enterprise / Datacenter, etc., though it can be on the same server. 

Upgrade Paths to SharePoint 2016

The paths are the same as from 2010 to 2013 where you can either DB attach or use a 3rd-party migration tool, that hasn’t changed.  But there has been speculation around if you are required to go to 2013 before 2016 or if you can skip.  Bill seemed to put this to rest.  You MUST upgrade to SharePoint 2013 before you can upgrade to SharePoint 2016.  In addition, any site collections that use the 2010 format will have to be converted to 2013 (15) mode before upgrading to 2016. 

Another huge change coming down the pipe in the upcoming months is a new migration API.  This has been mentioned a lot over the week, when looking to migrate content to Office 365.  This will help facilitate easier upgrades from on-premise to SharePoint Online / OneDrive for Business scenarios. 

Identity

In SharePoint 2016, SAML claims becomes a first-class citizen and the default authentication though it will still support Windows Identity over SAML claims.  Basically this is aimed to set the stage for cloud integration, being cloud ready and trust Azure AD.  This is essence one authentication provider to rule them all. 

Roles & Services

There are some HUGE and fundamental changes going on here.  Defined roles are coming back (think 2007 WFE) to SharePoint 2016 but in a whole different way.  We’ve all seen where a CU will get released, then gets pulled due to regression and has to be re-released.  This is because Microsoft can’t test reliability in every combination of service configuration.  So they have established what they call MinRoles.  After installing the bits and you fire up psconfig, you choose what role this server will perform in the farm.

Think of Search, when you deploy it you have to run all this PowerShell.  Now SharePoint will configure the server with only the necessary bits and services for Search to run on this box and nothing else.  Since SharePoint configured it, they know how it should be, and can be plan for and test this configuration.  This is seen in new rules in the Health Analyzer, and even a Fix it button in Services in Farm in Central Admin if things get out of compliance configuration wise.  You can still create these in PowerShell using a new switch called –isserverrole for psconfig.  Scaling an environment becomes very expected and easy, just stand up a new server, join to the farm, and pick a role.

This allows for tremendously smaller update patches, from 40 installer files to 2, and 18 language pack files to 1. 

Boundaries and Limits

This information is more fuzzy, but there are the current planned new limits in SharePoint 2016.

Other Improvements

• The User Profile Service will NOT be included in SharePoint; it will be separated and can be run independent of SharePoint
• Project Server has its databases consolidated into the Content DB”
• Files shared will have “durable” links, so if they are moved, renamed, etc. the link will still work using resource ID
• Leveraging BITS for faster download/upload of these 10GB files
• Fast Site Collection creation – basically does a SQL table row copy instead of going through API (spsite.copy) in content DB
• Real time telemetry
  • Basically much more robust dashboards and analytics from an improved health and usage database
• Allow storage of ODF files in document libraries, which any editing program can edit
• enhancements in compliance for document fingerprinting, classification IDs, etc.
• Cloud Search Service
  • I will talk about this later
• Extranets – some form of ability leverage Office 365 identity federation service, think external users in SharePoint Online but now in on prem
• Much easier way to configure hybrid via new UI tool

Session - Upgrade to Microsoft SharePoint 2013 and Ready for Cloud Potential

There was actually not really anything really new for me here, but typical information from Todd Klindt and Shane Young – fun filled and informative session with solid information!  I’ve done whole webinars on upgrading issues and mitigation from SharePoint 2010 to 2013 so I won’t go into detail here.  There is plenty of guidance out there on this on this topic.  Just some key points:

• If running classic authentication, upgrade to 2013 first then convert the webapp to claims authentication because convert-spwebapplication is way awesome
• Start thinking about using FQDN URLs in your webapps for thinking ahead to cloud, since it requires FQDN for hybrid scenarions
• With the February 2015 CU, you can redirect 2010 My Sites to OneDrive for Business in Office 365
• FAB 40 is dead!
• Per Todd, “don’t upgrade crap”.  Review those old sites and don’t migrate them if you don’t use them!
• Get familiar with Azure AD as it will be a crucial component moving forward in the SharePoint landscape

Session – Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online: What’s New?

This was lead by two well known Senior product Managers at Microsoft Girish Raja and Luis Camino.  Now a lot of this was standard new stuff shown at Convergence or other online places.  But there there were a couple new things I want to call out for our Dynamics CRM users.

New Outlook App for CRM

Releasing in the next few days, there is a new “Outlook app” that will be available in the store.  This doesn’t directly replace the current CRM for Outlook client, but it helps to alleviate some of its pain.  It allows you to track email, and configure folder-based email tracking.  Constantly track an email to the same account or opportunity?  Just drag the email to a folder, and it will be tracked.  This works in Outlook desktop, OWA, and mobile!   You can do so much more, like create a contact right from the email (uses the quick create form, and CAN be customized). 

This is enabled by IT / administrators, but configured per user by going to CRM options –> Email, configure folder tracking rules –> add new folder mapping.  And yes, you can add multiple mappings.

Using Office in CRM

• Office 365 Groups
  • Group activities, documents and members are surfaced on a CRM record contextually
• Excel
  • When you are looking at a view, you pick edit in Excel instead of Export to Excel, and if you make a change in Excel and save, it will update the record in CRM
• OneNote
  • This requires document management integration to be configured
  • The OneNote notebook is stored in SharePoint, and can created from CRM
  • This cannot be customized per say or get hooks into it
• Future – Delve
  • Over time they are working to integrate CRM activities into Delve as well

Session - Configuring OneDrive for Business Deployment: Options and Best Practices

In this session our fearless Certified Master and Architect Spence Harbar reviewed the options for moving to OneDrive for Business, and configuring the redirection of on-prem OFB to Office 365 OFB.

Why would you want to do this?  When you want to take advantage of cloud-based personal storage, but you are not yet ready for the full-blown Office 365 environment.  This lets users get the benefits of OFB in the cloud, but still stay everything else on prem. 

In order to do this, you need SharePoint 2013 with SP1 or SharePoint 2010 with the February 2015 CU, and some form of directory sync or SSO setup.  Here are the basic steps:

• Create an audience and establish membership rules to include the users you want to redirect
• in on-prem Central Administration, configure the Office 365 OFB link (My Sites root URL)
  • Select the audience you created
  • Likely leave the redirect site page not checked unless you want to redirect everyone
• In Office 365, assign a license

There is a migration API coming that is basically a bulk CSOM API.  You can call this API “CreatePersonalSiteEnqueue” from code or from PowerShell.  This API can be used when you need to bulk migrate.  It is done in batches via a queue limited to 200.  You need to be sure to create the OFB sites in Office 365 beforehand, and then assign permissions to the bulk user. 

You can also use the OneDrive for Business network bandwidth calculator to check what impact this will have on your network bandwidth.

Session - Implementing Next Generation SharePoint Hybrid Search with the Cloud Search Service Application

This was yet another packed session!  Here we were taken a tour and deeper look into this new and elusive creature called the “SharePoint Server Cloud Search service application”.

Basically this is a new service application coming to SharePoint 2013 by the end of the year (2015), and baked into SharePoint 2016 at release.  It provides the ability to aggregate your content index from multiple sources, farms, etc. and push the index to Office 365.  This allows on-prem content to show up in search results from SharePoint Online, and even in Office 365 content to show in a 2010 search center (if configured) with preview! 

Why do I care?

When you previously setup hybrid search, it worked, but the different result sets showed that way, separate in the results.  It wasn’t a very unified experience, and required hosting of ALL of the search components.  Now the search cloud service app can be on-prem, in Azure, anywhere.  It only hosts the crawler, and then pushes the encrypts the files / metadata to the index in Office 365. 

How do I create / configure it?

Here’s the basic high-level procedure:

• In Central Admin create a new could search service application (you can still use PowerShell to scale the environment as desired)
• by default, it isn’t connected to Office 365 so you execute an onboarding script
  • this needs global admin credentials in Office 365
  • now this is a PowerShell, but might be different at release
  • this onboarding script does all the main setup and configuration for you
• If you need to make the online results show in 2010 on-premise, you publish this new search service application and consume from the 2010 farm

Security trimming is still respected, and is calculated at the source of where the document / item lives.  The new service app maps the value of the user’s SID to their PUID in Office 365, and stores this on prem SID in a new property called “msOnline-OnPremiseSecurityIdentifier”. 

There is also a new managed property called IsExternalContent (boolean).  This allows easy creation of content sources to include or exclude content from on-premise or cloud, etc. via query rules. 

Much more will be released on this topic, so this is an early peek.  But there is TREMENDOUS promise in a number of scenarios and looks to make hybrid configurations much better!  The speakers were swarmed after the session, more than I’ve ever seen if that’s any indication of how much interest there is on this topic. 

For more information about C5 Insight or this blog entry, please Contact Us. 

Supply chain management is an important aspect of the manufacturing process. Where once supply chains were prone to hiccups due to suppliers acting according to their own interests, interested parties now operate with more of a coordinated effort to ensure the maximum profits for everybody. One of the driving factors in making this coordination a reality is enterprise resource planning systems like Dynamics NAV.

Locate the best suppliers An ERP allows manufacturers and suppliers to act in concert with each other, thereby providing a more efficient and effective use of assets. Supervisors can use an an inventory management system to define the criteria to specify which suppliers they want to use and why they want to use them. Managers can note which suppliers provide the lowest costs or the fastest shipping.

By recording the precise details of every order, those in charge of inventory can track the delivery metrics to check whether a supplier is consistently adhering to their contractual obligations. Supervisors can set up alerts establishing a compliance threshold that notifies the appropriate individuals if a particular vendor consistently falls short of any previously agreed upon delivery stipulations. Using the ERP system to measure and monitor how suppliers perform their duties and respond to requests will help managers choose the best option for their supply chain needs. Having access to all stages of the shipping and delivery of raw materials and products will ultimately make a company leaner and more competitive.

Utilize the system's data An ERP system stores all the data gathered from supply chain systems, sales and marketing, customer service, internal database information and interactions with customers. Managers can analyze and utilize this data to identify buying patterns which leads to more customized products and services. These measurement capabilities can create entirely new metrics, key performance indicators and benchmarks, which can provide advance warning of shortfalls or possible obstacles.

The data provided by the ERP system can enable supervisors to implement a consistent standardization process across the entire organization, which allows them to more accurately monitor the supply chain in its entirety. By doing so, the executives can compare old and new measures to determine their benefits or detriments.

Customize the system One of the biggest hindrances to supply chain flexibility and efficiency is the on-premise ERP system's limitations to its customization. This means many companies need to work around this system instead of having it align with the current business process. Thankfully, many of the cloud-based models allow more tweaks and modifications. According to Supply Chain Digital, customizing a cloud-based ERP system to act in accordance with pre-designed business processes provides additional cost and time savings. This also helps companies build an integrated and highly visible system of record that allows for more collaboration and innovation across the entire supply chain.

Managers can take advantage of ERP systems to find the best possible suppliers, customize the company's products and services based on the system's data and streamline the business processes necessary to make the supply chain more efficient. These features have the potential to make a company more competitive and profitable.

The post How ERP systems can improve supply chains appeared first on Dynamic Manufacturing Solutions.

The best ERP software in the world doesn’t operate by itself. Rather, the value of a software solution depends directly upon how well a company’s employees use the system to efficient and effectively accomplish their jobs. Therefore, the success of a company’s implementation of a new ERP solution depends directly upon how earnestly its employees adopt the system. Here are some ways to ensure that employees embrace the change that comes from moving to a new ERP implementation.

The process begins with predicting and preparing for resistance ahead of time. It’s just human nature to resist change. Anticipating potential objections can help a company more effectively focus its adoption plan. And that is key – every company moving to a new ERP system must take the time to formally address how implementation will be rolled out to its employees. Working with a knowledgeable consultant who is experienced in change management can be a valuable resource. While other consultants may know software in and out, a really good consultant will also specialize in predicting and overcoming employee resistance. Their experience working with other companies can help an organization put together a rock solid implementation plan.

Hopefully, key players throughout the organization were brought in during the selection process for the new ERP system. This early involvement can pay great dividends when it comes to getting departments to successfully adopt the new package. Make sure these key employees are involved in developing the roll-out initiative. If managers and team leads aren’t on board, what’s the likelihood that their direct reports will readily adopt the change? Prepare these leaders with additional training that will help them troubleshoot any problems that arise during the early adoption phase.

Take every opportunity to present the big picture of how the new software will benefit the company. Having employees invested in the success of the company is the goal of any organization, but it is especially important to successful user adoption. The inconvenience of learning a new system can be lessened if employees know the payoff. Obviously, companies that offer stock incentives have an advantage in these efforts.

Make every effort to emphasize how the new software will improve each employee’s workstreams, making them more efficient. Every good employee takes pride in their work. Therefore, helping them see how a new system will make them more productive is important. Also give the employees background information into how the old system was failing to produce the right results.

Lastly, empower the user through proper training. Employee certainly shouldn’t be seeing the software’s user interface for the first time while they are busy trying to complete their daily tasks. During this training process, make sure information can be sent up to management and system implementers as well as down to the employee.

Planning and executing an effective user adoption plan may cost a bit more money, but the cost of poor adoption is significantly higher. For example, disengaged employees can create problems by trying to work around the new system. If they deal directly with customers, their inability to effectively use the system can adversely affect the company’s image and customer service.

This Mother’s Day, are you planning on giving your mom the same run-of-the-mill gift—the standard sentimental card, bouquet of flowers, etc.—or will you shake things up with something unexpected? Maybe this means sending your mom off for a massage or cooking a delectable brunch with her favorite dessert. While these unexpected gifts will delight your mom on Mother’s Day, we’d like to share with you three accounts payable and expense reporting software features that will delight your employees every day.

What qualifies as a “delightful” feature? Quite simply, “an attribute of a product that customers love but do not expect” (see original blog post: http://www.nirandfar.com/2015/04/apple-watch-kano-model.html). We’re delighted to share with you the following accounts payable invoice automation and expense reporting features in our Ariett Touch interface that we think will wow your employees.

1) Delightful Feature #1: Quick Add Screen

Ariett’s Cloud Document Service, Box4Dox, has created quite a bit of buzz in customers’ accounts payable departments. The source of this excitement?—vendors who are set up in Box4Dox can email invoices directly to the accounts payable department and an accounts payable transaction with the document attached is automatically created. Now, employees can use Ariett’s new Quick Add screen for a side-by-side view of the invoice when reviewing and editing transaction information. Employees are delighted to discover how easy it is to manage and submit accounts payable transactions for approval.

Here’s a quick peek at what our Quick Add screen looks like:

2) Delightful Feature #2: Mileage Calculator with Map

Your employees most likely expect any expense reporting solution to have a field for entering miles traveled and, in some instances, a field for entering destinations. Employees are thrilled when they can use a familiar tool like Google Maps to plot their origin and destination point(s) and when Ariett automatically calculates the number of miles traveled for each stop. Employees no longer have to guesstimate or manually record their travel—Ariett ensures accurate reporting of mileage on expense reports and delights your employees with a simple solution.

Here’s a quick peek of what our Mileage Calculator looks like:

3) Delightful Feature #3: Flexible Search Screens

This third feature will delight you and your employees by providing information at your fingertips without having to run a report or scroll through transaction details. Ariett’s new Search Screens can also be used across the Ariett Purchase and Expense product suite on any device – laptop, tablet or smartphone. To tailor your view, you can sort columns in ascending or descending order or enter keywords in the global search or column search areas. For instance, if your Accounts Payable managers want to review spending for a specific vendor, they can enter the vendor’s name in the vendor column and a complete list of invoices will appear. You can also use filtering to refine your search and, if you need to perform further analysis, simply export the results to Excel.

Here's a quick peek of what our new Search Screens look like:

As you head out of the office this weekend, we hope you find something unique that your mother will enjoy. And, when you return to the office, you might want to take a closer look at how Ariett’s new features for AP invoice automation and expense management can deliver delight to your employees. To view some of these features in action, click the link to our product videos: http://www.ariett.com/campaign/simplify-purchase-and-expense-management.

By Ariett

Thank you to everyone who attended our Spring social event at Devonshire Terrace, Liverpool Street!

We had over 100 attendees from the Microsoft Dynamics industry, including influencers, end users, CXOs, Project Managers, partners and consultants, who enjoyed an evening of  conversation, catching up and canapés.

If you would like to be kept up to date on future events, please register your interest at info@cognitive-group.com.

Here are some photos from the evening…

The Cognitive Group Team

Cognitive Group are specialists in Microsoft Dynamics recruitment with a focus on Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and other roles in the Microsoft Stack.

Please get in touch if you have any queries:

Email: info@cognitive-group.com

Tel: 0203 587 7772 

EU Freephone: +800 4433 2929

The post Microsoft Dynamics Spring Social Event 2015 appeared first on .

About 65% of the population are visual learners (Mind Tools, 1998). CRM gets that. With hierarchy visualizations, you get to see how your data interrelates sans the rows, columns, and headaches.

Once a relationship is identified as hierarchical and the records are linked, CRM puts together an interactive chart representing those records as tiles. Each tile displays a few fields found on that record. You can also select multiple tiles and work with a subset of the hierarchy.

To get started, you must first define the relationship as hierarchical in the Hierarchy Settings section of the entity inside the solution. Then give it a name and specify the default view form. In this post, we’ll use the default “Parent Account” relationship to represent how some sample account records are linked.

Either next to the record on a list of records or inside a record itself, you will find a pyramid symbol.

List View                                                          

Inside Record

Clicking on it will take you to the all-new, interactive visualization of your data.

With this feature you can run reports, explore the relationship, edit, share, follow, and much more. Now to stay grounded, let’s take note of its limitations:

• Only one self-referential (1:N) relationship is allowed for each entity. The primary entity and the related entity must be the same type.
• Can only view records for a single entity, not multiple entities (only accounts, not accounts and its contacts).
• Maximum of four fields can be displayed on a tile.
• Not available to all out-of-the-box entities, but is available to all custom entities.

This visualization is a great tool for anyone looking to gain an overall view of their data. If you need help configuring this feature in your organization, just contact us here.

PRM Software Is Only as Good as Your Workflow

Technology can do amazing things, but we’re still a long way from a program that can design and optimize a human work process. This is important to keep this in mind as you shop CRM or Partner Relationship Management (PRM) solutions. Too often people forget to first outline the source of their channel challenges, fall into the trap of unrealistic expectations and implement software that only serves to automate the inefficiencies they’re trying to correct.

The fact is that at first, the process of initiating new channel management systems sometimes makes things more difficult. Implementation will only point out all the flaws in your current process. But that doesn’t mean don’t bother. Setting up a PRM program is hard if your process isn’t in good shape, but the good news is that the exercise of doing it will make you think about things in a systematic way, which should lead to significant improvements in your process.

A well-documented, efficient process is especially important in the partner channel – whether you’re looking at PRM software or not – because products and process have to be explained to an external audience: your channel sales force.

Like Making Cupcakes Without a Recipe

Stacy Desrosiers, Director Worldwide Channel Marketing at CTERA Networks, likens the way many companies go about their channel process to the success her daughter would have baking cupcakes if all she brought to the process was flour, eggs, sugar, and muffin tins. “She’d just be pouring all that stuff into a bowl, turning on the oven and hoping for the best,” she says.

Without a recipe, she can’t know what temperature the oven needs to be, the optimal proportion of flour to sugar, or how long the cupcakes need to stay in the oven.

"Baking without a recipe is what people are doing in a lot of channel sales organizations. Since they have no process to get them from A to Z, to help them understand or monitor their business, the CRM or PRM is not going to help, no matter how many amazing features it has,” she says.

Begin with the End in Mind

To get your process in shape for PRM implementation, start by thinking through exactly what your business goals are for the channel. What are you trying to get to? “Unless your program is going to help drive partners in the direction of producing revenue for you, you’re just spinning your wheels,” Desrosiers says.

That means looking at all phases of the process and determining what internal resources and channel partners should be doing in each phase – recruiting, onboarding, deal registration, enablement, engagement, etc. – to ensure partners are incentivized and able to easily take those actions that will lead to that result you want: revenue.

For example, if your deal registration process currently entails the partner emailing and the channel manager plugging the deal into a spread sheet, how does that lead to revenue? Can you track the result each sales person is producing? Can you tell which sales person is the best one to pass a high quality lead?

Tracking all this manually is very labor intensive, and PRM can help reduce that burden, but it can’t create the data management process for you. You’ll need to plot out how the information will get into the system, who’s on point and what you’ll do with the data when you have it.

Be Realistic About Where You’re Starting

“You may think you’re at Point B, but it may actually be that you’re at point A,” Desrosiers says. Even if your organization has experience operating in the channel, that doesn’t necessarily mean a repeatable process exists or is particularly efficient. Being honest about where you are will save you steps in the long run.

Desrosiers recommends writing your process down or whiteboarding it out. “And do that with a number of people in your organization, because different people will have different influences – whether directly or indirectly – on your process. Make sure you involve all key stakeholders,” she says. And always data test your process before implementation.

Any process has to be a living one – it will be tweaked over time. Make sure you have a system that will work with you through those tweaks. But having no process and bringing on PRM before you plot one is the wrong way to go.

The Channeltivity team can recommend steps, process stages, which will help the process along but you still need good clarity on your business and how the channel generates revenue for you.

by Channeltivity

CRM/PRM Software Is Only as Good as Your Workflow is a post from: CRM Software Blog

The post CRM/PRM Software Is Only as Good as Your Workflow appeared first on CRM Software Blog.

For every organization, it is crucial to accurately monitor and measure customer service. To efficaciously manage customer relationships, organizations must determine priorities to serve key customers through understanding buying behavior and customer satisfaction metrics for various market segments, products and services.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a tool that helps organizations manage all aspects of a customer’s relationship which increases customer loyalty and retention. Business Intelligence (BI) is the technology that makes it possible to structure the CRM data as a knowledge source to the company in an efficient manner.

Integration of CRM with BI

Most CRM applications today are built with a small suite of analytic tools. However, very few of them have the capability to do advanced analytics on data.

By applying BI to data collected from CRM applications, one can extract more information that’s relevant to go the extra mile for customers and prospects. At its extreme levels, BI lets organizations predict their future. It also helps in determining customer retention ratio, market for the product (whether it will grow or decline) and customer behavior. BI brings the CRM data together with all the other company information. This ensures complete control of not only intra-departmental CRM processes but also cross-departmental processes including sales, customer service, logistics and finance.

Integration of a CRM with BI provides a holistic approach to customers by focusing on transactions to build long-term, profitable customer relationships. Forrester Research’s analyst James Kobielus says that companies will be able to use existing CRM data to vastly improve critical one-on-one interactions with customers and generate additional sales when customers contact them by analyzing incoming customer data in real time. For example, a customer calls an organization’s call center with a question or concern, and after solving the caller's inquiry the call center agent could be better equipped to offer the caller a particular sales opportunity based on their account information and prior purchases. This would all be visible on the call center agent's screen.

Major advantages of CRM embedded with BI

• Display and analyze information for finance and HR, partner relations, customer service, executives, sales, and marketing
• Make informed business decisions and projections
• Spot trends
• Automate annual business plans, budgets, forecasts, period-end reporting packages, incentive compensation plans, product price elasticity exercises, workforce analysis, regulatory compliance
• Manage the overall health of the organization

Tying a CRM application with BI enables organizations to have a 360-degree view of their customers. Organizations can use this view to steer their business wisely. With CRM+BI, organizations can determine their goals before they take their first steps, which enables them to achieve adequate payback from their investments of time and resources.

To learn more about the intersection of CRM and BI, check out the latest updates to Dynamics CRM 2015 here.

By Indusa– Dynamics CRM Partner

Get the Most out of Your CRM Tool by Tying it with Business Intelligence is a post from: CRM Software Blog

The post Get the Most out of Your CRM Tool by Tying it with Business Intelligence appeared first on CRM Software Blog.

As recently as three of four years ago, it was an intriguing idea that was debated but rarely acted on: that elevator service departments can be run as profit centers. But something has changed: in 2013, according to the Service Council Report of Field Service, an overwhelming 68% of respondents indicated that they were in fact managing field service as a profit center, and 72% expected these departments not to simply drive new, untapped revenues, but to be profitable in the next year.

So what's behind this revolution, and how can it be changing the service landscape so dramatically?

To put it simply, the same back-office teams, managers and mechanics, are using the same hardware, but are working by the rules of a new business strategy. The terminology is the same, the assignments are the same and the clients are the same. What's changed is the dynamic of the interaction with those clients.

When your customers trigger a job event, your role is, first and foremost, that of a responder. But when your software automatically tracks DOB-required maintenance and inspection schedules or violation deadlines, your dispatchers can pick up the phone and point out that it's time to have a preventative maintenance once-over or an inspection pre-check. Suddenly, your role shifts from being a vendor to a strategic partner.

Field Mobile Service Apps

As your workforce is made up of more and more Millennials, paperwork is finally on its way out and the coordination of logistics and communications on mobile devices is becoming a given.

With a system designed for Elevator Services, mechanics are able to photograph the work done and attach those images and additional notes to the record, which eliminates the duplication of data entry efforts. The prompt online work assignment in one direction and the documentation of progress in the other, yield data that’s not only accurate, but instant.

When mechanics are armed with mobile devices, they can take the initiative to proactively recommend to their managers the obvious, appropriate and revenue-generating upsells and spot-checks based on the information they have in their hand. Their managers have all the information they need to make scheduling decisions, update their customer contact, or to advise the mechanic to change the approach. It’s especially valuable because let’s face it—often, the customer doesn’t even know what questions to ask.

An investment in mobile devices and software should not be considered a long-term capital expenditure luxury; when apps are designed specifically for the Elevator Service industry, the return on investment can be extremely short—tracked in weeks or months, not in years. A system designed for Elevator Service is not just a simple task list, but everything the mechanic needs, served out for mobile convenience.

As your new role evolves to a trusted advisor to your customers, you now have an opportunity to talk about new projects and initiatives, leading to an even more mutually beneficial and profitable relationship. To learn more about moving from a cost center to a profit center module, download our whitepaper, Going Up? Technology-Driven Steps to Help Your Elevator Service Company Grow Profits.

by SBS Group

Inside of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK, there are a number of tools available from Microsoft that you may or may not have worked with.

At Rockton Software, we've been testing out with the Package Deployer tool provided to see how that will help us put Rockton Connect, small business accounting inside CRM, into the hands of our customers.

The idea behind it is a good one. You can create small packages that will install your product from a central interface. For most, smaller projects, installing into CRM is as simple as importing a single solution file. Because of the size of our product, we need to install 2 CRM solution files along with some system data. The Solution Packager is perfect for getting everything into the systems with the minimal amount of user interaction.

Additionally should another ISV build a custom integration that leverages Rockton Connect, they can create their own install package and everything can be installed from the same place. This is something that would not be possible if we were to write our own custom installer.

One trouble spot that we came across, with the Package Deployer tool, was that they offer the ability to import a collection of sample data from a .zip file. Problem being was that the file would fail to import when it was in a .zip format. What was found is that when you .zip the files together, you need to add a [Content_Types].xml file inside of the .zip file. I borrowed a copy of this file from a CRM Customizations export as that same file is included there as well.

The data inside the file is as such:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Types xmlns="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/package/2006/content-types">
<Default Extension="xml" ContentType="application/octet-stream" />
<Default Extension="xaml" ContentType="application/octet-stream" />
</Types>

If you look in the SDK documentation for this key piece of information--you will not find it anywhere. I do have a few friends in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Support world and have recommended this to be added to the documentation. But until that is officially updated, hopefully this will help you be able to move past this sticking point in your own testing of the Package Deployer. I do suggest trying it out if you have to install multiple solutions into a CRM environment. There are a lot of places that you can make the tool your own. Besides just importing solutions, you can add your own logos, run custom code logic, and install sample data.

Click here to read more on the Package Deployer.

If you have any other tips or tricks around using the CRM Package Deployer or a different CRM tool, please share below. I'd love to hear about them!

Written By Bryan Page, Rockton Software, a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Add-On Partner.

CRM Package Deployer is a post from: CRM Software Blog

The post CRM Package Deployer appeared first on CRM Software Blog.

In many parts of the United States, especially in the upper Midwest, it feels like there are two distinct seasons: winter and construction. The few brief months with warm weather and clear skies seem to pass quickly, giving construction workers a short amount of time to do a large amount of work.

In an industry where time is money, having the best systems in place to streamline your job and accurately manage costs and budgets is vital. By using WennSoft in the field, construction companies are able to:

• Quickly and accurately bid on jobs
• Schedule assets and crews
• Track equipment usage and maintenance costs

That information is then tied directly into Microsoft Dynamics GP, allowing office staff to easily manage finances in real-time, generate invoices and collect the funds that keep your business going. GP also helps managers to track proposals and contracts, making sure that you meet your deadlines and avoid overscheduling your crew.

With a short window of opportunity for your construction business, you don’t have the time for manual processes or mindless data entry. Putting an effective software system like Microsoft Dynamics GP and WennSoft in place ensures you’ll add more to your bottom line with fewer headaches.

Want to learn more? Visit DFC Consultants' website for more information. We're one of nine WennSoft Executive Partners, ensuring that you have access to the most knowledgeable WennSoft experts in the industry.

by DFC Consultants

Regardless of industry, a smart business owner or operations manager is always looking for ways to increase efficiency and reduce overhead. In today’s ultra-competitive economic climate, finding ways to increase margins without negatively affecting quality are invaluable. Fortunately, developments in transportation management software (TMS) systems have made it possible to increase margins while simultaneously improving efficiency and quality of service.

A transportation management system (TMS) helps companies move freight from origin to destination efficiently, reliably, and cost effectively. There are many benefits that a robust TMS can provide, but the main reason most companies implement a TMS is to reduce freight spend. A good transportation management system will include analytics and data to help reduce expenses such as driver overtime, fuel, and inefficient routes.

While reduced transportation spend is generally the largest benefit of a TMS solution, benefits such as service level improvements, increased market share due to customer service improvements and inventory reduction processes should not be overlooked. Some additional benefits include:

1. Increased visibility—Today’s supply chain managers need to make quicker decisions based on real-time data. With increased visibility, companies become more agile and more responsive to changes. An integrated TMS can provide end-to-end supply chain visibility; enabling better inventory forecasting and better accuracy and streamlining throughout the entire process.
2. Improved customer service—TMS reporting and analytics enable you to monitor on time performance, track shipments, and identify service failures. This information can be used to upgrade and improve your service and support efforts, resulting in overall increases in customer satisfaction.
3. Efficiency and productivity in operations—TMS systems enable companies to centralize the logistics function, providing support across the entire organization by synchronizing processes and eliminating bottlenecks in the system.
4. Real-time tracking of drivers—One of the biggest benefits is the ability to gather data about how much time specific routes take in order to build a more efficient schedule.
5. Streamlined billing processes—A good transportation management system will allow you to automate most, if not all, processes. The amount of time you’ll save on paperwork alone could make transportation management software worth the investment.
6. Greater collaboration—A critical piece of the TMS solution is its capacity to connect the many partners that have input on the freight movement process. With increased collaboration, supply chain partners are able to identify opportunities not just for their business's own units, but opportunities that affect the entire supply chain.

Transportation needs change with time, as do a company’s requirements for its logistics and supply chain management. It’s tough to be competitive with pen-and-paper operations, which means it’s becoming increasingly important to adapt to and incorporate the technologies that are making the difference between lackluster and industry leading operations.

Download our whitepaper, Take the Next Step to Optimize Your Supply Chain with a Transportation Management System, to learn how a TMS can save your organization time, improve accuracy, increase customer service levels, and provide real-time tracking and instant data to better manage your supply chain.

by SBS Group

Microsoft Dynamics NAVis a robust and mature Business Management ERP System designed for growing Wholesale Distribution and Manufacturing companies.   Starter Pack is for companies who need core financials and trade functionality including:

• Basic Financials Management (General Ledger and Fixed Assets)
• Basic Supply Chain Management and Basic Sales Management (Sales, Purchasing and Inventory)
• Professional Services (Project management) with a wide set of
• Business Insight and reporting functionality as an integral part of the product.

Additionally the Starter pack comes with a wide set to tools to customize the solution to meet the needs of every customer together with deep integration opportunities to be made through web services.  In licensing Microsoft Dynamics NAV, there are 2 options for its core functionality: The Starter Pack and Extended Pack.  In this post, we will focus on Financial Management ERP Functionality with Dynamics NAV’ Starter Pack.

With NAV’s Account Schedules you have access to powerful financial reporting tools which can help accountants and financial analysts to extract the most essential business data from the chart of accounts, budgets, cash flow accounts and cost types into financial reports, which can be used to efficiently monitor the health of the business and provide valuable input for the business decision makers. You get to choose the accounts you want to monitor and report on, change the order of the accounts, and combine figures in various ways, set up which columns to print, change the description of the accounts and supply them with additional notes.

In addition, you can make simple calculations on the data you selected on the accounts schedules worksheet, compare current figures with historical ones and with your budgets.

General Ledger in NAV includes all the basic functionality necessary for setting up a company and posting to the general ledger, chart of accounts, general journals, VAT facilities, recurring journals, and source codes. Also includes:

• Facilities for internal and external reporting.
• RapidStart Services for Microsoft Dynamics NAV
• Approval of sales and purchase documents.
• Posting and reporting in your company’s base currency.
• Posting and reporting in an additional currency with the addition of the Multiple Currencies granule.
• Capability to export data from any form to Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel® using style sheets.
• Capability to link to external documents.
• Two languages—U.S. English and one other.
• Set up sales and purchase documents archiving.
• Background posting

Work with budgets in general ledger accounts with NAV's Budget feature. After you have created a budget, you can print a balance that shows variances to the budget by percentage. Work with multiple budgets at one time. For example, work with a 100 percent budget, a 110 percent budget, and so on. Budgets are generally entered per period for the relevant general ledger accounts.

Consolidate companies in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The companies can come from one or from several different Microsoft Dynamics NAV databases or other files, and you can import and export financial information in this granule. If data used is retrieved from several Microsoft Dynamics NAV solutions, use this granule only in the parent company.

Cash Flow Forecast provides a prediction of how a company’s liquidity – cash and other treasure positions – will evolve over time. It consists of two things – cash receipts and cash disbursements – the money you expect to receive and the cash you expect to pay out – plus the liquid funds you have available. These elements together show you a direct cash flow forecast.

Fixed Assets and Insurance functionality is also part of the Starter Pack in NAV.  Keep track of fixed assets such as buildings, machinery, and equipment. You can also post various fixed-asset transactions: acquisitions, depreciation, write-downs, appreciation, and disposal. For each fixed asset, you set up depreciation books in which the methods and other conditions used for calculating depreciation are defined. You can set up an unlimited number of depreciation books to satisfy legal requirements, and for tax and internal accounting purposes. This granule is well suited for international companies that need to use many depreciation methods.

Allocate different percentages of fixed asset transactions, such as acquisition cost and depreciation, to different departments or projects by using allocation keys. Useful for when several departments share a fixed asset  In addition, your company can keep track of insurance coverage and annual insurance premiums for your fixed assets and easily determine whether your assets are under-insured or over-insured. You can attach each asset to one or more insurance policies and also index insurance amounts.

Reclassify a fixed asset or part of a fixed asset—for example, from one department to another. You can split one fixed asset into several fixed assets, or combine several fixed assets into one fixed asset. When you need to dispose of one part of a fixed asset, you can split it into two assets and then dispose of the appropriate one.

NAV has rich Cash Management functionality including:

Bank Account Management:  Create, operate and manage multiple bank accounts for catering To your diverse business needs and across
different currencies

Electronic Payments and Direct Debits:  Create payment proposals based on vendor documents and generate bank payment files in ISO20022/SEPA format or use the Bank Data Conversion Service for generating the appropriate electronic payment file for your bank. Keep easily track of the payment export history for your electronic payments and recreate a payment file whenever needed. Apply payments comes with simple streamlined process to mark and process the desired transactions. Create direct debit collections to get the money directly from your customers bank account and generate bank direct debit file in ISO20022/SEPA format.

Reconciliation of Incoming and Outgoing Bank Transactions:  Import bank transaction data from electronic files sent from your bank in ISO20022/SEPA format – or use the Bank Data Conversion Service for other file types. Apply the bank transactions automatically to open customer and vendor ledger entries and create your own mapping rules. Review the proposed applications and account mappings in an easy and intuitive way. Modify the algorithm behind the record matching is possible by modifying, removing or adding rules.

Bank Account Reconciliation:  Import bank statement data from electronic files sent from your bank in ISO20022/SEPA format – or use the Bank Data Conversion Service for other file types. Reconcile your bank statement data automatically to open bank account ledger entries and keep track of all bank statements

Check Writing:  Generate Computer printed checks with unique number series for each bank account. You can specify on the payment journal line whether you want this payment to be made with a computer or a manual check. Assists internal control by ensuring that the computer check is actually printed before posting the Payment.  Check printing comes with flexible user options like voiding a check, Reprinting, Using check forms with pre printed stubs, testing before printing and also a possibility to consolidate payments for a vendor into a single check.

Learn more about all of the capabilities and features of Microsoft Dynamics NAVhere

Request a Free Estimate on Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Posted by iCepts Technology Group, Inc. aPennsylvania Microsoft Dynamics NAV Partner

PowerSocial allows CRM users to post messages on LinkedIn or Twitter, all from within the comfort of their CRM system. It’s as easy as choosing a publisher, creating a message, and posting! But, of course, not just anyone can post using PowerSocial. PowerSocial also includes the ability to require approval before posts are blasted out into the wilderness of the social media sphere. PowerSocial also makes it easy to keep a consistent flow of messages going out, by allowing users to schedule messages to post at a specific date and time. With PowerSocial, you can not only post from within your CRM, but you can also monitor specific people, hashtags, groups, companies, etc., plus you’ll be able to turn incoming messages into contacts or leads, and respond to posts or repost from within CRM. If you are a social media nut, PowerSocial is the add-on for you!

Once the PowerSocial add-on has been setup in the configuration screen, a Social Publisher must be set up to begin sending and monitoring posts. Only one social media account may be linked per Publisher. If two publisher records are linked to the same Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter account, the older publisher record will no longer function.

1. Navigate to PowerPack.

2. Navigate to Social Publishers.

3. Select New.

4. Fill out the required fields and select Link Account:

• The Alias is the internal name of the publisher and will only be visible in CRM.
• Select the Media that the publisher will be linked with: Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter.

5. A link will pop up to allow you to enter in your login credentials.

6. When the credentials are submitted, the Publisher Record will automatically populate with the profile name and image. Follow the same process for all platforms: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

You are ready to send and monitor posts!

Thanks for your interest in PowerSocial. Should you have any questions, contact us at 612-339-3355 or email powerpackpro@powerobjects.com. Remember, your trial will expire 30 days from the date of installation. If you are interested in subscribing, go back to the configuration screen and change “try” to “subscribe” and enter your credit card information – you will be charged $1/CRM user/month.

Happy CRM’ing!

The post Create a Social Publisher via PowerSocial appeared first on .

When we take a delivery at our home or business, what is that experience like? Does the employee who delivers are water softener salt or installs a new heat transfer unit in our furnace have us sign and initial papers on a greasy clipboard? Or are we handed a mobile device for a digital signature? Does the service worker need to make multiple trips to his shop to get the required tools and parts for the task he is charged with? Or does he, as if by magic, have everything on the truck that might be required?

How does that same service visit look to people in the back office, using Microsoft Dynamics GP? Are accounting staff left with a sheaf of dog-eared papers for data entry? Is there a record of what inventory has been used on which customer project, or what inve...

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