Dynamics University Q2 Summer 2013

DynamicsUniversity.com 1

Summer 2013Providing Learning Opportunities for Microsoft Dynamics Users

GamificationGetting to Know the

Generation Y Workforce

DYNAMICSUNIVERSITY

DE-MYSTIFYING MRPin Microsoft Dynamics GP

BUILDING CUSTOMER

PORTALS

®

Business Analyzer

INVENTORYBest Tips and Practices

for Taking Inventory

COMPLIANCE CONUNDRUM Meeting Challenges Head-On

Utilizing KPIs and Reports

PHYSICAL

The Ease and Flexibility of Self -Service

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2 Dynamics University Summer 2013

Dynamics UniversityDynamics University represents the culmination of great ideas and content from the best reselling Microsoft Dynamics partners with a focus on helping Microsoft Dynamics customers achieve more for less. The idea for Dynamics University was born out of a desire to drive greater educational offerings within the Microsoft Dynamics community.

Partner

Advanced Solutions & Consulting Solana Beach, CA www.solutionsco.com Business Ready Solutions Durham, NC www.businessreadysolutions.net

Cargas Systems Lancaster, PA www.cargas.com

Express Information Systems San Antonio, TX www.expressinfo.com Integrated Business Group Altamonte Springs, FL www.ibgnet.com

Knaster Technology Group Englewood, CO www.theknastergroup.com

Summit Group Software West Fargo, ND www.summitgroupsoftware.com The Resource Group Renton, WA www.resgroup.com

The TM Group Farmington Hills, MI www.tmgroupinc.com Turnkey Technologies, Inc. Chesterfield,MO www.turnkeytec.com

Location Website Products

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http://www.ibgnet.com

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http://www.theknastergroup.com

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http://www.summitgroupsoftware.com

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http://www.resgroup.com

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14WelcomeRomy Andrews

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20

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Summer 2013

Interviewa conversation with Girish Raja

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Customer FeatureBiologics Inc.

10Tips & Tricksfor crm users

40Debits & Creditsfor gp users

32

GP CRM RMS SL NAV

The BookshelfBuilding Dashboards

11

12

PHYSICAL INVENTORY Best tips and practices for taking inventory

WHY NOW?Perpetual Licensing’s base HR and Payroll comes standard

DE-MYSTIFYING MRPBalancing out supply and demand

STEP UP Looking at the client’s project responsibility

GAMIFICATIONGetting to know the

Generation Y workforce

COMPLIANCE CONUNDRUMADP’s SmartCompliance streamlines taxes, HR and payroll22

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creditsDynamics University is a free magazine

published four times a year.

Request a subscription by going to dynamicsuniversity.com.

Josh BehlExecutive Editor

Geniece KizimaEditor in Chief l Design & Layout

Kristen JuvenDesign & Layout l Website Content

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Midstates Printing, Inc.Printing & Distribution

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PAPERLESS ERP Making believers out of paper lovers

CRM & EMAIL MARKETINGCovers both the basics and advanced in marketingautomation

PLUG-INS, WORKFLOW & JSCRIPTUnderstanding the difference

CUSTOMER-SOURCEAccess limitless training, resources, and communities

BUILDING CUSTOMER PORTALSThe ease and flexibility of self-service

BUSINESS ANALYZERUtilizing KPIs and reports 44

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t’s hard to believe that the halfway point of 2013 is already here. It seems like we were just in the chill of winter and ringing in the New Year – tackling freshly minted personal goals and resolutions. I know many of you escaped winter temporarily with a trip to New Orleans in March to attend Microsoft Convergence. As always, it was a great opportunity for you to learn and network.

As this quarter ushers in the warm summer months, it’s time to evaluate you and your team’s progress toward accomplishing organizational goals set at the beginning of the year. Are you on track? Are you ahead of the game? Are you falling short of the mark? Is technology maximizing your growth potential or is there an opportunity for improvement? Have you followed up on the ideas or products you saw at Convergence?

Even if you have fallen short of your projected goals, there’s no need to fret. There is still time to craft a successful game plan and have a strong finish to 2013. Make sure to touch base with your Microsoft Dynamics Partner to learn ways to better utilize your solution and investigate new ideas together for gaining insight and efficiencies. For many organizations, summer slows down a bit and can be a great time to have these conversations, make plans, and even invest in training. If you are looking to imple-ment Human Resources in Microsoft Dynamics GP, check out the article on page 20. If you are a Microsoft Dynamics CRM customer and want to learn more about some of the great Marketing Automation products available, check out the article on page 24.

I hope you find great business value in this issue of Dynamics University magazine. We work hard to make sure there is something for everyone. On behalf of all the Dynamics University Partners, I would like to thank you for your continued support and invite you to share your thoughts and ideas on how we can continue to provide you with the business insight needed to benefit your organization. And, remember to visit the Dynamics University website for valuable content, blogs, and more.

Thanks and enjoy your summer!

Romy Andrews, The Resource Group

welcomeSummer2013

I



TAPPING POTENTIAL

By Josh Behl, Summit Group Software

ith the release of Microsoft SharePoint 2013, I had the opportunity to connect with Girish Raja – Microsoft Dynamics CRM’s Technical Product Manager for the Corporate Marketing Team – to talk about the effort put into improving the integra-tion between Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. Girish discussed some lesser known Microsoft SharePoint 2013 features compa-nies should be using, the road map for Microsoft SharePoint 2013, and skills that customers and partners should develop to better utilize Microsoft SharePoint investments.

Josh: The last time you and I talked at CRM Extreme 2012 in Las Vegas, SharePoint 2013 was about to be released into beta. Now that it is released and avail-able in market, what are some of the key features that CRM users will find useful in SharePoint 2013?

Girish: I think there are three categories to call out: Better document management and integration, advanced and self-service business intelligence, and fresh possibilities with Business Connectivity Ser-vices (BCS).

Josh: One of the things you mentioned were the different scenarios with BCS. We discussed this in a session we presented together in Las Vegas. What are some scenarios you envision as part of the SharePoint 2013 BCS improvements?

Girish: With BCS, we can consume OData end-points. But it is not just CRM’s OData Endpoint. Numerous different data providers have OData end-points. Companies that use CRM can now leverage these OData endpoints from various data providers and provide mash ups of this information within SharePoint 2013 for their users to leverage. It is more streamlined from a development perspective but appears much more seamless for the end users.

Josh: In terms of the CRM List Component which

Integration between Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

facilitates the integration between CRM 2011 and SharePoint, were there any improvements made as part of the SharePoint 2013 release?

Girish: Most of changes are not obvious. We had to essentially rewrite the entire List Component. In SharePoint 2013, the interface cannot be placed in an iFrame any longer. The List Component for CRM 2011 heavily leverages the iFrame and uses a tech-nology called HTC which only works for Internet Explorer. Because of the Polaris release of CRM 2011, we had to support multiple browsers. We had to fundamentally re-write the SharePoint integration. For the end user it may not be obvious but it in-volved a significant amount of rewriting.

Josh: There is currently an integration between CRM and SharePoint. What changes do you see in the fu-ture for that integration and what other integration points could be possible?

Girish: From a documents perspective, we are not looking at improving on the List Component spe-cifically; we are looking at actually improving the integration between Microsoft Office Outlook and CRM, between Microsoft Office Excel and Microsoft Word and so on. When a salesperson or a customer service representative works on a document from a sales opportunity or a support case, we want to simplify that as much as possible. With the new App Model in the latest wave of Microsoft Office, it pro-vides a lot of options for applications like CRM.

Josh: So, essentially you are going to be focusing on inter-operability between Microsoft Office, CRM, and SharePoint to help companies’ better leverage their IT investments?

Girish: Exactly!

W


Josh: As you are aware, there are particular areas of CRM 2011 such as Knowledge Base Articles and Sales Literature where the use of SharePoint almost seems like a better fit. Do you see Microsoft mov-ing to replace those components with SharePoint altogether?

Girish: There are areas where we can certainly im-prove upon functionality. With recent acquisitions by Microsoft, there are some real opportunities to leverage other technologies to better deliver on some of this functionality in CRM. But we have ar-chitected the SharePoint integration in such a way that it is intentionally loosely coupled together with CRM. If someone has SharePoint and CRM they can leverage that, however; we don’t want to force a customer to have to buy SharePoint or a particular version of SharePoint just because they have CRM. We are very careful about that.

Josh: What are the top two or three least used fea-tures of SharePoint 2013 that you feel more compa-nies should be using?

Girish: I think Identify Integration is one feature. It is not a feature that the end user will likely notice or see, but having the ability to have one access meth-od for Dynamics CRM Online, SharePoint Online, and other Azure applications – or even if you are

On-Premises using Active Directory – is a feature that is often taken for granted or even forgotten that can make implementation much simpler.

Another is the Social integration functionality in SharePoint 2013. With the acquisition of Yammer, you’ll soon see a more streamlined integration between Yammer and SharePoint – SharePoint and CRM – CRM and Yammer. You will be able to have both CRM users, non-CRM users, and even external parties posting and being part of those conversa-tions in Yammer that are within SharePoint.

Josh: What skill sets should companies be devel-oping internally to better prepare for their use of SharePoint?

Girish: For customers, our goal is to file down the integration enough so it is a hands-off integration – so if you buy SharePoint Online and CRM Online together – the integration is already configured for you without you doing anything. Customers should not need a lot of IT or Development skills to bring these two products together.

We want our customers to start thinking more about the cloud. The amount of storage need is increasing and the cost to do that is decreasing. People have

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Potential, continued on page 17



ne of the most powerful features of the Microsoft Dynamics GP Manufacturing Suite, is MRP – Materials Requirements Planning. Paradoxically, it may also be one of the least understood functional-ities in the Microsoft Dynamics GP world!

While MRP can work wonders for a manufacturing organization in controlling inventory, there is a certain level of hesitation with users and the consulting community when it comes to implementing MRP.

Some of the hesitation may stem from the users’ experiences with MRP in a legacy ERP system, and some is simply due to a lack of understanding of the mechanics and the functioning of MRP. Others might just feel intimidated by the plethora of new terminology that gets introduced in relation to MRP.

What is MRP?

Very simply put… MRP encompasses “a set of techniques that uses bill of material data, inventory data, and the master production schedule to calculate requirements for materials.” (APICS definition of MRP)

The primary objective of MRP is to balance out the supply and demand for purchased and/or manufac-tured items in a “time phased” manner. It thus strives to ensure the supply (availability) of items (products) to the demand for those items (products) over a defined time span (‘horizon’). The outcome of a “well-oiled MRP machine” is a well-coordinated production and purchasing plan.

Very loosely put… MRP has at its core the objective of ensuring the equality in the very simplistic equation “Supply = Demand” for all inventoried products, across the entire planning time-span (horizon).

Demand for a product is derived from the sales orders placed by customers and sales forecasts (independent demand for finished products) as well as the manufacturing picklists (dependent demand for raw materials and components). It also includes the safety stock levels that must be maintained.

Supply of a product includes purchasing and

By Ajit Tulpule, Turnkey Technologies, Inc.

De-Mystifying MRP in Microsoft Dynamics GP

manufacturing receipts and the inventory on hand. MRP tries to establish a balance in the Supply Demand equation. Where an imbalance exists (a shortage or an excess) MRP will recommend a correc-tive action based on the nature of the imbalance and the replenishment method of the part.

For example...Where the supply is less than demand (shortage), MRP will recommend a purchase order for buy parts and a manufacturing order for make parts to meet the short-age. It may also recommend moving-in an existing pur-chase order or a manufacturing order. Where supply is in excess of demand (overage) it would recommend the cancellation or moving-out of a purchase order or a manufacturing order as the case may be.

As mentioned above...There are three basic outputs of an MRP run: • Recommended purchase orders. • Recommended manufacturing orders. • Warnings/notifications. (called ‘exceptions’ in Microsoft Dynamics GP)

In recommending the corrective action identified, MRP will further reinforce this very simple and intuitive math with rules (‘order policies’) and quantity modifiers: Minimums, maximums, and multiples batch sizes.

For example...A shortage of 527 units of a part may result in a rec-ommended purchase order for 550 units if the order multiple is set to 50 (let’s say that the vendor sells this part in multiples of 50 only). To make the planning sensitive to time, MRP will incorporate purchasing lead times as well as manufacturing lead times. Thus MRP can be modeled to perform a comprehensive math based on real-life situational rules.

This significantly adds to the power of MRP. In spite of

O


the power of MRP and its usefulness in the production and materials planning, apprehensions and miscon-ceptions about MRP abound in the un-initiated user space.

“Will MRP force me to create and schedule manufac-turing orders according to its plan?” “Will it cause a build-up inventory based on unmet forecasts?” “The MRP recommendations do not make sense.” “MRP is not working right.”

…These are some of the commonly expressed miscon-ceptions. In fact, MRP is not the be-all and end-all of manufacturing. It is only a tool which only makes rec-ommendations. It does not perform any self-initiated actions, it is a deterministic mathematical model that is sensitive to the settings and data parameters. The age-old adage of “Garbage in Equals Garbage Out” holds especially true about MRP.

In order to remove the apprehensions and misconcep-tions, what is needed is a clear understanding of MRP, its objective, and its functioning – a detailed knowl-edge of the data elements that MRP is dependent upon, how they are treated, and where they are stored in the labyrinth of GP screens. This will enable the user to correctly interpret the results of MRP, take appro-priate actions, and overall boost confidence in MRP.

At Turnkey, our approach to de-mystifying MRP involves conducting an “MRP Workshop.” This work-shop is conducted either as part of a Microsoft Dy-

namics GP Manufacturing implementation, or as a stand-alone session. It thus addresses the needs of new users (new implementation) as well as Microsoft Dynamics GP users who may actually be using MRP but still need to get a sense of confidence in the MRP results (stand-alone session).

The objective of the workshop is to gain such a deep understanding of MRP that the workshop participants can predict the outcome of MRP. To facilitate this, a simple “control environment” is created. • The setup requirements and data that provides the inputs to MRP are reviewed. Some example situations are reviewed – such as the impact of checking an in-obtrusive check-box and how that would affect the MRP suggestions. • Various “what-if” scenarios are conducted. • Changes are made to the data and – based on the changes made – users try to predict the quantitative output of MRP. If the MRP return results are not in line with the expectation, the results of MRP are analyzed and substantiated and the prediction is reconciled with the actual results.

When the MRP results are exactly per expectation or prediction, the next scenario is tackled. By the end of the workshop, the participants have a thorough understanding of MRP and its functioning. Apprehen-sions and misconceptions about MRP are eliminated and the participant’s ability to predict MRP results is strengthened along with their confidence in the results. The workshop has demystified MRP.



crmTips & TricksCRM and Outlook IntegrationsBy Michael Surmanian and Jim Carroll, Advanced Solutions and Consulting

With Microsoft Office Outlook integration, Microsoft Dynamics CRM inherits Outlook features and innovations including spell check, user defined viewing panes (with drag and drop field views/locations), and integrated task creation tied to Mic-rosoft Dynamics CRM fields and attributes.

Another excellent feature is the use of conditional formatting to highlight Microsoft Dynamics CRM data. For example, a user can highlight all leads within a certain territory, such as a state or leads that are generated from a marketing campaign, for special follow-up. Or, one may color code service cases related to a specific customer for easy visualization within a list for special attention.

In addition, users can group data by Categories that are highlighted by Conditional formats. With a right click, items within a view may be grouped by category, date, location, and all other Outlook provided attributes.

Create Personal Views in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011By Jim Scarff, Express Information Systems

For a variety of reasons, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Users often have the need to view data in different ways from each other. Create Personal Views is a great function to speed access to the data needed.

From any entity, select Personal View from the list of available views. This opens Advanced Find with the default view settings for that entity. Modify the view as needed and Save. The new view will now be in the list of views for that entity and only visible to the user that created it. Set a new view or any available view to be the default view by selecting the View ribbon and then the Set as Default View button.

Creating Contacts and Leads from an EmailBy Ken Jacobsen, The TM Group

There is an easy way to see whether people copied on an email are contacts or leads in Micro-soft Dynamics CRM system when using the Micro-soft Dynamics CRM for Outlook client.

When opening an email that is tracked in Micro-soft Dynamics CRM or when promoting one to be tracked, Microsoft Dynamics CRM adds a pane to the bottom of the email that displays the Micro-soft Dynamics CRM Related Records. If the related record is blue, it is an email address that is already being tracked in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. If the record is red, then the email address is not already in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

The really cool feature is simply right click on the red records and add them from the email as leads or contacts directly into Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

The basic contact information will default, but users will want to update the address and other fields. The TM Group has even added an On-De-mand Workflow in our Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployment that will also copy the account’s address information to the contact so it does not have to be done manually. This feature makes it a lot easier to spot the contacts not yet in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM system.


the bookshelfBook Review

Recently, I read through Building Dashboards with Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 and Excel 2013 by Mark Polino. Overall, the book is a good step by step guide for any Microsoft Dynamics GP users who have, at minimum, an average competency level with Excel 2013. It covers how to get detailed information con-tained within Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 and present it in an attractive and easy to understand way.

The book starts out with an overview of all of the reporting tools with Microsoft Dynamics GP. For new users, chapter 1 is a good overview. For users familiar with SmartLists, Report Writer, SQL Reporting Services and all of the other tools, a jump to chapter 2 which focuses on security and data connections might be appropri-ate. This is an important chapter to understand before going forward and may require some assistance from your administrator.

From there, each chapter gets slightly more advanced with Excel 2013 but it gives a lot of screenshots to help through the examples. It is easy to take the examples given and quick-ly relate the lesson to other scenarios a specific organization may have. Although I was fairly familiar with all of the con-tent prior, I found the lessons helpful to bring it all together.

The book covers a whole host of tools available within Excel – it shows how to visualize data using conditional format-ting and how to make data interactive with Slicers. My favorite sections were about PowerPivot and the GP Drillbacks. I found both of these sections to be helpful and fun to work through.

My only warning to poten-tial readers is that if you have limited knowledge of Excel it may take a while to work through the exam-ples. Generally speaking, it was a very good read.

Title: Building Dashboards with Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 and Excel 2013Author: Mark Polino

By Eric Gjerdevig, Summit Group Software





t is possible you’ve not heard much (if anything) about gamification. That is likely to change. As it relates to organizational management, you are likely to hear much more about gamification in the near future.

The demographics of our global workforce are changing. Baby-boomers are retiring and the Millennials, also known as Gen Y, are entering the workforce with a significantly different set of expectations than those which were held by Gen X’ers.

Born between 1978 and 1994 and expected to comprise nearly 75% of the workforce by 2025, Gen Y individuals have grown up with video games and an increased expectation of immedi-ate feedback and gratification. Combine this with a desire to remain increasingly connected through technology and social networking – it’s the foundation of the gamification con-struct.

Gamification by DefinitionGamification is a concept which takes advantage of people’s innate desire for competition, achievement, and status by incorporating the mechanics of a game into what would historically be considered a non-game setting. Blurring the line between “work” and “leisure,” gamification in the context of the workplace focuses on employee engagement, learning, and perfor-mance while providing the employee with an enjoyable experience.

GamificationA Generation Y Working Method

IBy Paul Johnson, Summit Group Software


When involved in something that is enjoyable, it is possible for that person to become so immersed in the activity that nothing else seems to matter and “work” doesn’t feel like work. Providing the employee with this type of experience on an on-going basis is a vital component of the idea of gamification.

Just a Fad?If reading this thinking gamification is just a fad – think again. In addition to the increasing number of Mil-lennials in the workforce, organizations are adopting gamification concepts across many areas of their operations. Companies such as Delta Airlines, IBM, Coca-Cola, Nissan and others have adopted numerous components of gaming and incorporated these into various aspects of their business operations. Whether it is a front-line customer service representative or sales associate, or an individual working on the manufac-turing floor or back office, organizations have taken heed to the information being provided by researchers regarding the trends of workforce dynamics.

The professional technology research firm Gartner has predicted that by 2014, 70% of global organizations will have at least one gamified application. Their research also predicted that by 2014 as many as 40% of Global 1000 organizations will utilize the gamification concept as their primary means of transforming business operations. These findings indicate a trend which will continue and organizations should embrace along with the changing demands of their workforce.

Adopting the ConceptGetting to what really matters – What can adoption of the concepts provide to your organization from an operational or financial perspective?

User adoption of new systems or processes improves when employees become more interactive and enjoy the tasks they are performing. Whether they are learning about new advancements in medical treatment protocols in a healthcare setting or earning points through completing sales process training, the more em-ployees enjoy the “game” they are playing, the more likely they are to adopt the changes.

Gamification, continued on page 47



PHYSICALINVENTORY

A physical inventory consists of manually counting each item and comparing it to the quantity in the inventory system. The actual count is used to correct inventory quantities, identify necessary

inventory adjustments, and investigate variances. Once a count is completed, the available inventory and value are recalculated. Inventory is commonly taken at the end of the fiscal year.

Some companies may take inventory more often or take cycle counts based on movement or value.

[ [Tips and Best Practices

Prior to the Inventory Date 1. “You can’t count what you don’t have.” Ship everything possible before starting the count. Pay attention to the returned goods area. Items in this area should be returned to their proper storage location, returned to the vendor, repaired or thrown out before inventory. Depending on how it is handled, an entry transaction may be necessary in the accounting system. 2. Make sure all items have a tag identifying the item ID. 3. “It is very difficult to hit a moving target.” Do not allow any movement of inventory during the count. 4. If merchandise is received during the inventory, set it aside in an area designated as “AFTER INVENTORY.” Do not process the paperwork until after the inventory is processed. 5. If inventory is picked up by a customer during inventory but BEFORE the item has been counted, note that on the paperwork. Since a view of the inventory is “frozen” when the inventory count sheets are created, this item should be added to the inventory as if it was picked up “AFTER INVENTORY.” 6. Create a schedule with dates, cutoff times, and team members. Make sure everyone is aware the physical count will be taking place. a. Teams should include two members – one to document and one to count. b. “Don’t put the fox in charge of the hen house.” Employees should NOT be assigned to areas\stores\warehouses where they normally work. 7. Create tags or system of marking merchandise as it is counted. Colored dots work great for this. Using a different colored dot for each inventory cycle can visually indicate how long an item has been in stock. 8. Make sure all receiving has been posted and all merchandise that has left the warehouse has been invoiced before the stock count is created. All merchandise for resale in your stores\warehouse should be counted. Allocated items not invoiced are part of the inventory and should be counted.

By Wendy Johnson, Cargas Systems


Day of Inventory 1. Assign each team to a specific area. 2. Make sure the tags or dots are placed on the items as they are counted. 3. Tag any merchandise that is in the wrong place or is visibly damaged. 4. Have an inventory “auditor” spot-check counts after an area is completed. a. If the auditor finds errors – items will need a recount. Depending on how many errors the auditor may find, a recount may be needed for a whole area or more. 5. Once counts have been verified, the merchandise in Item #4 can be moved out of the good stock area to an area pre-designated as “misplaced stock or clean-up area” to be dealt with later.

Taking Inventory in Microsoft Dynamics GPThere are a number of key windows and features of Microsoft Dynamics GP to understand to facilitate the physical inventory process.

Stock Count CalendarAccess by clicking Inventory, choose Setup and click Stock Calendar. Use this window to setup working and non-working days for counting purposes. This is used when creating cycle counts. Assign an analysis code to items and set cycle counts for the items based on their A, B, or C designation (Navigate to Items, choose Cards, click Select Item and click on the Options button).

Stock Count SchedulingAccess by clicking Inventory, choose Transactions and click Stock Count Schedule. Ad hoc schedules or reusable schedules can be created in this window. Schedules can have the following status: Available – when the stock count is created, Started – appears after clicking the start button and allows printing of forms, and Entered – appears after starting to enter counted quantities. When creating schedules using the

Inventory, continued on page 16



MASS ADD button, select appropriate restriction, options include: Site ID, ABC Code, Item Class, Item Number, Generic Description, Item Type, and Next Stock Count Date (Cycle Counts.)

Stock Count Entry Access by clicking Inventory, choose Transactions and click Stock Count Entry. From this window, there are a number of features. • Autopost Stock Count Variances – this will post adjustments when clicking the process button. If Autopost is not checked, a batch will be created that can be located by clicking Inventory, choose Transaction Entry, and click Variance. • Reuse Stock Count – if reusing stock counts, new items added to inventory will not be included in the stock count. If not reusing the stock count, this stock count will clear after processing. • As the counted quantity is entered, the variance will be calculated and displayed. Each line must be verified before processing. • If tracking lot\serial numbers, the lot\serial number window will open when tabbing past the Verified field. • To assist in identifying variances, check the Unposted Transactions button. Issues could include a shipped item that was not billed. • The Transaction History button may help identifying a discrepancy. • When the variance results and all lines have been verified, click the Process button.

The following occurs when processing the count: • Variance transactions are created. • Stock count history records are updated. • The Last Used Date is updated with the current user date if the stock count is selected for reuse. • All captured and counted values in the Stock Count tables are cleared. • The item/site is updated for the Last Stock Count Date and Last Stock Count Date Time. • If Stock Count Interval is set for the item/site the Next Stock Count Date and Time is calculated. • The Stock Count Exception list is generated, if exceptions existed. • The stock count process will fail until the exceptions are fixed.

For more information, check the Help Menu on the Stock Count windows or refer to the Inventory printable manual.

Inventory, continued from page 15

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Potential, continued from page 7

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this mentality to store everything. If they use the Cloud, they can scale faster. When they think about capacity planning and storage needs, they should really consider the Cloud. It is a hands-off approach. It is a self-running and self-scaling approach. Josh: Are there any discussions around leveraging SkyDrive along with SharePoint or even CRM more?

Girish: It is a very mixed sort of scenario. SkyDrive is very much a consumer technology while SharePoint and CRM are very much business technology. Ver-sions of SkyDrive – like SkyDrive Pro – are going to be powered through SharePoint. We want to have the same capabilities available for the enterprise user that consumers find in SkyDrive.

Josh: With technologies such as Lync and Skype, there are some overlaps in features and functional-ity. I would speculate that as the dust settles from some of these acquisitions we’ll begin to see tighter integrations between some of these technologies. Would you agree?

Girish: Absolutely. We often talk about this as the mix of the “work-life plan” where the consumer technologies and the business technologies are very much overlapping today. This is one of the reasons that with the Polaris release we allowed for both

Skype and Lync to be used by CRM users. The pace of innovation and the pace of change are such that ten years ago we didn’t have Skype, YouTube, and so on. Now we take them for granted. Back then we thought there was a technology revolution going on – but look at where we are now. It is still going on. The next decade is probably going to be even more revolutionary.

Josh: What has been one thing in the more recent past that has overhauled how we view and use technology?

Girish: I think the biggest shift will be in the mobility arena and how people access and consume appli-cations whether is it for personal or business use. We are really focusing on how people can better leverage their various mobility devices to interact with SharePoint and CRM to collaborate – these things we think about. The investments we made in the Orion release of CRM will provide a much more seamless integration between mobility devices and CRM. We are currently targeting H2 of 2013 for this release.

Check out some additional features and thoughts from Girish on Microsoft SharePoint 2013 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/girishr/archive/2013/03/06/what-s-new-with-sharepoint-2013-and-dynamics-crm.aspx.[ [



By Judy Thomas, TM Group, Inc

Step Up to the Plate

Sit on the Bench

Step Up to the Plate

Sit on the Bench

The more active a role the client takes, the better the results and the happier

the client is when it’s all done.

EITHER

OR

Dynamics University Summer 201318


By Judy Thomas, TM Group, Inc

ou’re excited – the decision has just been made to purchase and implement a new ERP or CRM project. All the signs are positive. The estimated timeline and responsibilities are defined in a Statement of Work. The contents of the project are well defined – the imports and migration of data detailed. Everyone knows what their job is in the process.

Here’s what a good implementation partner should share right now: “This will be a very painful but very rewarding journey. You already have a full-time job to do with deadlines and managers and auditors to please. How can you possibly commit to doubling some of your work time to get this new system imple-mented and still remain sane? Who is going to make all the hundreds of decisions for new or modified processes that need to be made during this project?”

DOES THIS MAKE YOU WANT TO RUN IN THE OTHER DIRECTION????

Most ERP and CRM partners feel a tremendous sense of sincere responsibility to making their clients’ imple-mentations a huge success and provide enormous value for the money paid. There is no more challeng-ing situation that transforming a client’s environment using newer and more powerful technologies.

One of the best mechanisms to ensure this success is to plan, plan, plan and then plan some more. Many times the client does not recognize the value of all of this planning. But, implementation partners who do this work 24/7 definitely live it and understand it.

Most partners in the Microsoft partner channel utilize the Sure Step Implementation Methodology to better detail and organize all of the small and large milestones of every project. They provide timelines and task lists and manage budgets versus actual results. Yet the one challenge partner’s cannot manage is a client taking responsibility for their own success with the software.

It is all fine to agree at the outset of an implementation who will have which role, who will manage it, what date we all plan to be done, what data we will import from an older system, etc. Yet lately, we have encountered several clients who disavow any participation in their own destiny with the software – they literally run from responsibility for their own results. Partners constantly ask themselves why and how did we not identify this at the outset of the project.

In the end result, clients look at the partner as the responsible party. They sometimes fail to understand much of the risk of success is on their shoulders and they have to participate or the entire project will be a failure. In fact, the more active a role the client takes, the better the results and the happier the client is when it’s all done.

HOW TO TURN THE TIDEIdentify the client’s stakeholders very early in the process and make sure they understand that ulti-mately they are responsible for their team’s success in completion of the project.

We suggest ways management can ensure the project is a success: • Make sure there is a very organized, knowledge able, and prepared project manager or super-user on the client side who is empowered to make decisions on behalf of the project. • Remove roadblocks to success by lightening the existing workload on their team. • Provide rewards when a milestone is reached – such as lunch on the company or a restaurant gift card for those who stand out in the process. • Publicly recognize great contributors to the project’s success. • Demand proof of learning such as going through the entire AR process and printing out an aging report that reconciles to their legacy system. • Management being very “present” during the process including participation in status meetings. • Encourage the team to question everything and provide input during all phases of the project. • Keep cell phones and laptops out of the training environment. • Test and re-test to ensure the results are appropriate.

When clients fail to take responsibility for their proj-ect, bringing in senior management or an outside source such as the clients’ CPA to advise the risk of additional money in terms of consulting hours, change orders, missed deadlines, and potential erro-neous data being migrated from their legacy system helps put things into perspective. On occasion, a meeting with the company’s ownership and project team to make them aware that there are major signs of struggle within the project may be necessary.

ARE YOU TOTALLY COMMITTED TO THIS PROJECT’S SUCCESS?It’s fine to plan and strive to achieve a particular due date for an ERP or CRM implementation, but if you or your team cannot be vested in the project because of factors or personnel within the organization, you owe it to yourself, your company, your management and your partner to speak up at the beginning of the project. This way, schedules and workload can be adjusted to fit the existing conditions at the company before a failed implementation results. It is estimated that 1 in 20 implementations fail – but even that is too many. It can be avoided. So think about it now, not in 90 days or even another two weeks. It’s too import-ant to everyone and a successful implementation could get you great recognition for a job well done.

Y



If you checked a box to one or more of the questions, now is the time to implement the Human Resources module for Microsoft Dynamics GP!

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Human Resources

Does your organization have separate non-integrated payroll and human resource systems?

Are employee changes including dates tracked on a spreadsheet or in a separate database?

Does your organization track applicants for requisition positions?

Is your organization required to ensure certifications, training and licensing are up to date and if any are expiring?

Can employees modify personal profile information and view pay stubs online?

What about benefit self-service?

Are you required to submit specific OSHA or Equal Employment Opportunity reports to the government?

Take a moment to check the box of items below that pertain to your organization:

...Why Now?


HR, continued on page 27


Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Human Resources By Tony Storer, Summit Group Software

...Why Now?





The employment-related tax, human resource, and payroll compliance landscape is becoming increasingly complex. In 2012 alone, there were 17,000 proposed tax rule changes across 10,000 unique tax jurisdictions*. With this volume of change, finance executives are challenged to find

sufficient resources and expertise to fuel effective compliance processes – particularly since rising regulatory demands coincide with stagnating budgets.

The ADP SmartCompliance℠ platform works with Microsoft® Dynamics systems. Its integrated capabilities assist with employment tax, tax credits, wage payments, employment verification,

W2 management, unemployment claims and wage garnishments.

Compliance Conundrum

By Blase Casillas III, ADP

Three Strategies for Meeting Today’s Compliance Challenges Head-On

In January 2013, ADP® and CFO Research, a unit of CFO Pub-lishing, surveyed 150 senior finance executives about strategies

for keeping their companies in compliance. The results of the online survey indicate that finance executives are under

pressure to take a more comprehensive view of com-pliance – streamlining activities to improve effi-

ciency and ensure they can continue to increase the strategic value they provide.

The Top Challenges

• Budgets Not Keeping Pace with In-creasing Compliance Volume and Complexity – More than 80% of finance executives report the task of monitor-ing tax, employment, and payment-re-lated rule changes has become more time-consuming over the past two years. Even so, 57% anticipate compli-ance budgets will remain the same or decrease over the next year. This dispar-ity means senior finance executives must

do more with less in yet another area of business.

• Use of Multiple, Separate Information Sys-tems Expose Companies to Unnecessary Risk

– More than 70% of companies rely on multiple, separate information systems for their compliance

activities, and 81% anticipate the number of vendors they use will either increase (19%) or remain the same

(63%) over the next two years. The result is a set of disparate instruments – each designed to address individual compliance elements – but without communication or a connection be-tween them.

TAX

22


Three Strategies for Meeting Today’s Compliance Challenges Head-On

• Lack of Strategic Business In-telligence Hinders Efficiency and Limits Growth – More than 75% of finance executives do not have access to real-time, consolidated, employment-related compliance data, making it difficult to assess the status and performance of business areas with a truly strategic perspective. Without an efficient way to gather the data, compa-nies are unable to make the critical business decisions necessary to drive growth and ensure efficiency. An integrated approach provides the comprehensive data needed to support critical business deci-sions – driving growth and ensuring efficiency.

Top Compliance

Strategies

Take a Proactive Approach to Employment-Related Compli-ance – More than 40% of finance executives say their companies would realize measurable benefits if a more proactive approach to compliance was taken. Being more proactive enables companies to stay ahead of pending rule chang-es, increase efficiency of day-to-day compliance management, and avoid penalties and fees related to non-compliance.

Streamline Systems and Invest in New Technology – 65% of finance executives say that reducing the number of touch-points and hand-offs in employment-related com-pliance processes could increase efficiency and productivity at their company – and 47% cite improving existing technology and systems as their top strategy for achieving their compliance management goals. Implementing technology that is compatible with existing ERP, human resources, or finan-cial systems of record is essential as this helps enable maximum efficiency and ROI with minimum investment.

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Compliance, continued on page 26



By Cory Caslow, Integrated Business Group

MAR

KETI

NG O

PTIO

NS&CRM EMAIL



t is easy to be confused in the world of in-ternet marketing. For non-technical individuals, email-marketing can be difficult to understand and hard to keep up with. Add business marketing and daily changes – it is not unusual to be lost in all the options.

According to a May 2013 article in The Daily Inves-tor Newsletter, email and social media marketing are paving the way for small business marketing in today’s world. Here are some of the statistics on small businesses today:

• 71 percent conduct email marketing • 73 percent conduct social media marketing• 44 percent advertise through social platforms• 34 percent have a mobile-optimized website• 18 percent run a mobile tablet-based payment point-of-sale• 18 percent use mobile apps to manage operations, like accounting

With so many tools available, it is hard to determine what is needed, what is wanted, and what an orga-nization can afford! To make it digestible, here is some very “low-level” information on email market-ing companies and what they provide.

EMAIL BASICSThe “Email Basics” can be achieved by using one of several tools used for communicating with customers via email. Most of these offer “free 30 day trials” or “reduced rate for first month” offers. Keep in mind, none of these “basic email market-ing” companies will integrate naturally with Micro-soft Dynamics CRM. Users must build lists through sign-ups or copy and paste into the contact fields.

These can all be used for building email lists, creat-ing email newsletters and campaigns from existing templates, sending and tracking email messages, sending online surveys, following up with auto-re-sponders, and linking them to Social Media sites when sent out! Most of these companies operate similarly covering all of the basics listed above – pricing services based on the number of contact sends.

Here are just a few of the more popular email marketing companies that include the basics listed above. Also listed are a few things differentiating them from their competitors:

• Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com) Standard pricing based on contact number and offers a pre-paid rate for customers who want to take advantage of a better rate when paid in advance.• Vertical Response (www.verticalresponse.com) Promote a “Pay-As-You-Go” rate for companies not wanting a monthly or annual rate. Event marketing tool for event promotions.• iContact (www.icontact.com) – Features an annual rate discount for companies wanting a fixed annual fee. Offer a non-profit discounted rate.• Aweber (www.aweber.com) – Offers a “$1 First Month” pricing deal, 30-day money back guarantee, and no contract.

MARKETING AUTOMATIONFor organizations that have progressed beyond the Email Basics and are looking for more functionality and a system that will integrate seamlessly with an existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM system, there are some great options. The functionality of some of these add-ons can be overwhelming.

Here are a few companies that offer marketing automation services that will work within an organi-zation’s existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM database of contacts, leads and prospects. Also included are some of the stand-out differences:

Click Dimensions – (www.clickdimensions.com) – A “Software-As-A-Service” marketing automation solu-tion that adds Email Marketing, Web Tracking, Lead Scoring, Social Discovery, Campaign Tracking, and Form and Survey Capture functionality to Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Pricing starts at $225/month for Email Only and goes up from there for Base, Stan-dard, Professional, and Enterprise license types. Click Dimensions also has a Partner Program, a Support Submit Form, Support Search Forums, and a ton of Training information.

CoreMotives – (www.coremotives.com) – A powerful Email and Marketing Automation tool built natively within Microsoft Dynamics CRM, CoreMotives prom-ises to increase marketing effectiveness and drive ROI. Organizations can conveniently conduct all marketing efforts directly from Microsoft Dynamics

I

CRM and Email, continued on page 26





Leverage Additional Expertise – About 30% of senior finance executives rank im-proving their company’s ability to foresee regulatory changes as a key strategy for enhancing compliance. Given that regula-tion will remain a key component of doing business in the future, companies must devote added resources to forecasting new risks, a time-consuming task for which they will likely turn to third parties. Find-ing the right partner with the right level of compliance experience and expertise allows leaders to move forward confidently and will greater efficiency.

Armed with the right compliance strate-gies, CFOs, human resource, and finance executives can enable organizations to maintain employment-related compliance and mitigate risk, improve business pro-cess efficiencies, and drive organizational growth.

*ADP internal data analysis

CRM. Get up and running quickly with no downloads or installations required. Core-Motives gives sales and marketing teams vis-ibility into prospect behavior and the ability to target with relevant messaging and track responses. This also allows organizations to capture customer and prospect data directly from email campaigns and website activity. It also has a feature to score leads and route them to the sales team based on the demo-graphic and behavior. CoreMotives pricing options are: Standard starting at $550/month and going up from there for Profes-sional, Enterprise, and Enterprise Plus license types. They also offer Technology, Consult-ing, Agency, and Reseller Partnerships.

There is a lot of information out there from a lot of great companies. Choices range from buying a solution with everything included (using only that which is needed but with the option of using more in the future) to buying only what is needed for now with the option of adding more on in the future as needs change. Every company will be differ-ent. Be sure to do more research, discover both the immediate needs and the future wants, and choose the best solution for the organization and the budget – Good Luck!

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Compliance, continued from page 23

CRM and Email, continued from page 25


HR, continued from page 20

When Microsoft released GP 2013, a new price structure was released with it called Perpetual Licensing. Once customers move to Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013, Perpetual Licensing provides all Microsoft Dynamics GP customers with additional functionality (in previous versions of GP was purchased as a la carte modules). The base Human Resources and base Payroll modules are just two of the modules available for use with 2013. Human Resources and Payroll Advanced extensions are also available at an additional cost.

Microsoft Dynamics GP Human Resources (HR) provides an integrated solution with the Microsoft Dynamics GP Payroll. Employee information is entered in one area to be shared among Payroll and HR users. Employee onboarding and benefit/deduction setup information is transferred be-tween HR and Payroll to ensure no duplicate setup is needed. If an or-ganization is already running Payroll, HR can be reconciled to auto setup current payroll information.

Microsoft Dynamics GP Human Resources provides HR staff with neces-sary data collection points needed to effectively and efficiently run a HR department.

Some of the many key benefits of base HR are:• Applicant tracking – demographic information, skills, tests, work history, references and education history.• Create Employee requisition by position and post internally to portal site.• Portal access for employees to view and reprint pay stubs; change pro file, direct deposit and other personal information.• History tracking, reporting and inquiry of the following items: - Earnings history of increases or decreases. - Position history changes. - Benefit modifications.• Equal Employment Opportunity (EEOC) determination by Position and governmental reporting.• Work environment tracking of OSHA cases and governmental reporting (OSHA 300, 301, 301A), disciplinary actions and grievances.• Attendance tracking – accrual schedules for PTO and the tracking non- worked time (funeral, vacation, jury duty, etc.).• FMLA case entry for each employee.• Professional development tracking of skills, basic training, tests, educa tion and reviews.

For many organizations, the base HR package will achieve the majority of the HR department needs. For those that need some additional func-tionality, Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 has the HR/Payroll Extensions pack available. The Extension Pack extends the functionality in the following areas:

• Certification, Licensure and Training management – track endorsements, expirations and renewal history, requirements for positions and depart ments.• Benefit Lifecycle Management – Set changes to benefits to be activated at a later date.• PTO Manager – manage multiple PTO schedules for one employee.• Benefit self-service – employee benefit open enrollment through internal portal website.

With the changes to the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 licensing, NOW is the time to implement Microsoft Dynamics GP Human Resources. Contact a Dynamics University partner to learn more.

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The ADP logo and ADP are registered trademarks of ADP, Inc.In the business of your success is a service mark of ADP, Inc. © 2012ALINE Pay by ADP is a registered service mark of ADP, Inc.ALINE Card by ADP is a registered service mark of ADP, Inc.Microsoft Dynamics is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation


28 Dynamics University Summer 2013Dynamics University Summer 201328


The terms “Plug-In,” “Workflow,” and “JScript” are commonplace for those who are experienced with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Sometimes, it seems that

even users who have a number of years of background using the product do not always

understand the difference between these terms. This article brings some clarity for those who are

unsure or find the terms confusing.

plugins workflows & jscript

By Josh Behl, Summit Group Software

Jscript, continued on page 30





The terms “Plug-In,” “Workflow,” and “JScript” are com-monplace for those who are experienced with Micro-soft Dynamics CRM. Sometimes, it seems that even us-ers who have a number of years of background using the product do not always understand the difference between these terms. This article brings some clarity for those who are unsure or find the terms confusing.

workflowA workflow is merely an automation of a business pro-cess. It is a business process of some kind that occurs when a specific action is taken on a type of record.

For example, every time someone is assigned a lead, an email is received telling them they have been as-signed a lead as well as some details about the lead. Think of it as a process where an event of some kind occurs, the application recognizes that event, and then takes action on that event. This is a simple example; however, these automations can certainly range from the simple to the moderately complex.

Within Microsoft Dynamics CRM, there is a tool which allows for the creation of these automations. Within the product, the workflow functionality is part of an all-encompassing suite of automation tools referred to as “Processes.” Within the Process area is also the abil-ity to create a “Dialog.” A dialog is like a workflow in that it is designed to automate some kind of business process. However, where a workflow will run behind the scenes, a dialog will prompt the user to answer questions about the process as the automation takes place. Think of it as a “wizard” much like is used when installing a piece of software. A dialog is the same conceptual thing. The nice thing about workflows and dialogs is they do not require a developer background and can be created, updated, and used directly within the interface.

plug-inA plug-in, like a workflow, is also an automation of some kind of business process or logic. The biggest difference is that it is 100% code.

Non-developers will not be writing a plug-in anytime soon. A plug-in is a .NET assembly (which is like a big chunk of code packaged together) that is essentially injected into the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. When it is injected into the platform, the developer will indicate what entity it will be triggered upon and what event will trigger it.

The nice thing about plug-ins is they essentially pro-vide almost total flexibility in regards to automating processes or incorporating business logic into the application. A workflow has limitations to what events and even entities it can leverage. A plug-in, on the other hand, provides total flexibility in that sense. Any-thing that can be done with a workflow can be done with a plug-in. But most things that can be done in a plug-in cannot be done in a workflow. However, there is a convenient user interface to create workflows but for plug-ins there is not.

jscriptA JScript has a couple of synonyms that may help put it into a better context: “Java Script” and “Client Side Script.”

JScript is essentially Java Script – it is just the Microsoft implementation of Java Script (there are differences of course, but for the most part they could be considered the same thing if you are not a developer). These are snippets of code that can be added to a number of events in the application such as changing of a field on the form (this is called the ‘OnChange’ event), saving of a record from the form (this is referred to as the onSave event), and when the form loads on the screen (this is the OnLoad event).

In most cases, a developer does this but it is much easier for the non-developer Microsoft

Jscript, continued from page 29


Dynamics CRM administrator to include this kind of code into the application. Code examples from many resources can be leveraged and put in the correct places within the application. Once tested and published, it is ready to go. This is a bit of a simplification, but accurate.

One key thing to take away from this description is the fact that these scripts are placed on the form and will trigger as the user is interacting with the record. Unlike plug-ins, these scripts will only run when the user has the form open and is active within it. A plug-in will trigger and run logic regardless of how the event is triggered (e.g.: data migrations, other workflows, direct user input and updating of records, and so on). Also, for the JScripts to run, the fields they interact with must be on the form. This script is looking directly at what the user has on the screen. If the “thing” the code is looking for is not on the screen/ on the form, the code cannot see it and as such cannot perform that business logic.

For developers, this article over-simplifies much and that was purposeful. It is often easy to forget that customers and users do not speak the same “CRM Lingo” language that is often used among developers and administrators.

For more information about all of these concepts, check out the online Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh547453.aspx and on Dynamics University blog.



customerfeature

Oncology Care ManagementOncology Care Management



Oncology Care ManagementOncology Care ManagementBiologics unifies fragmented heathcare services to

bring efficiency and humanity to oncology care

Biologics, Inc. is an oncology services company that empowers healthcare providers, payers, and biopharma to optimize cancer care for the best possible outcomes - clinical, financial and emotional.

Biologics is at the center of a rapidly changing oncology environment and supports patients across all treatment modalities. Unifying fragmented healthcare services, Biologics brings efficiency and humanity to oncology care management by focusing on the patient’s best interest as the surest path to managing cost and risk.

One of the more enjoyable areas of working with a company like Biologics is witnessing the impact they make on the community. Biologics recently partici-pated in PurpleStride, an annual run that supports the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. Their employees, through the creation of ECHO (Employees Caring and Helping Others), actively participate in a number of area cancer-related events including race and walk events that support lung cancer research, the Leuke-mia and Lymphoma Society, and the National MarrowDonor Program – just to name a few.

Approximately two years ago, Biologics implement-ed Microsoft Dynamics GP with the assistance of Business Ready Solutions. When Business Ready Solutions was first approached, Biologics was using QuickBooks along with a number of spreadsheets and relying on the internal finance team to help stay caught up with the quickly growing volume of transactions. The initial implementation focused on the core modules including the design of an effective chart of accounts, some basic financial reports along with payables and receivables.

We recently caught up with Biologics to understand what type of role Microsoft Dynamics GP played in the growth of their business. In the two years since implementing, they have successfully streamlined all accounting functions – resulting in saving consider-able monthly fees and continual gains in efficiencies across a number of areas.

Biologics recently completed an interface with an in-house application that supports their Oncology Managed Services – eliminating the need for an external accounts receivables ledger. In addition, Biologics is now implementing a solution to quickly calculate a very complex commission program. The process had been taking days to calculate every month but now requires just a few hours to maintain.

Tamara Hart, Vice President of Finance for Biologics, is most impressed with Management Reporter and which allows Biologics quickly generate financials. She also enjoys the benefits of role-based security in that it allows her to delegate work to other staff and while assuring confidential information remains confidential.

Tony Lombard, Vice President of Strategic Informatics for Biologics, most enjoys Microsoft Dynamics GP’s rich out of the box functionality. Microsoft Dynam-ics GP is one of three critical solutions that his team manages and is the only one that was not developed internally. According to Tony, “Gaining a solution that does everything the Finance team has asked without a significant investment of our existing IT resources has allowed us to continue our focus on our internally developed solutions.”

By Bob Callanan, Business Ready Solutions

What they do

How GP Helps

User Feedback



Peek into the foundations of any long-established business, and the likely discovery is it has been built on paper. Accounts payable (AP) departments tra-ditionally have been especially dependent on paper for invoices and accompanying documentation – with elaborate entry and approval processes designed for a paper-based world. Over the past quarter century, Microsoft Dynamics and other ERP platforms clearly have transformed the way AP operates; yet, despite the availability of paperless document management systems that integrate with ERP, many employees within and outside the accounting function have been reluctant to relinquish the paper.

Certainly, paper and paper-handling processes have served as business mainstays, despite being tedious, complex and prone to misplacement and errors. The massive paradigm shift from paper to digital solutions can be an emotional issue for those whose daily tasks are immersed in paper, so talk of eliminating paper can generate significant resistance. In instances when such resistance emerges, management should take steps to implement Paperless ERP appropriately and to ensure that employees and vendors recognize the real value of the technology to them.

What to Do When Paper-Lovers Won’t FoldBy Nick Sprau, Metafile Information Systems

As a manager, help overcome resistance and speed the adoption of Paperless ERP by incorporating the following five approaches: 1. Deploy Paperless ERP in its out-of-the-box form, without customizations. Often, enterprises get too many employees involved in planning for a Paper-less ERP* system; with each individual recommend-ing customized functions which actually carry over from an archaic paper-based process and that can seriously complicate the implementation. Trying to understand every nuance from decades of process development and automation within the organization can postpone a return on investment from Paperless ERP by months or even years.

Instead, choose a reliable vendor who knows the industry, the environment and the specific ERP plat-form and already has determined the best practices that should be incorporated into the Paperless ERP solution out of the box. Simply by addressing four percent of the business issues with the out of the box solution, organizations should be able to solve 50 percent of organizational paper-based AP prob-lems in the first 30 days after implementation and achieve real, tangible benefits. (Learn more about the 4-50 rule**)

Managing Resistance to Paperless ERP



What to Do When Paper-Lovers Won’t FoldManaging Resistance to Paperless ERP

Pitch the paper clips.

Go beyond the electronic file cabinet and experience the amazing efficiencies of Paperless ERP from MetaViewer. From AP to AR and HR to the CFO—everyone can share the efficiencies of 100% paperless transactions. MetaViewer gives you paperless invoice and order capture with OCR, automated workflow, real-time visibility and full Microsoft Dynamics® ERP integration. In Paperless ERP, nothing compares to MetaViewer. So pitch the paper clips and visit www.metaviewer.com.

AX • GP • SL • NAV

2. Crawl before trying to walk, run or fly. Don’t subject the AP department to a huge change in all processes at one time. Begin with the basics, ensuring the paper documents are scanned into the system, where they can be man-aged, stored and routed far more easily than paper can. Organizations can still budget to develop more sophisticated functionality, but don’t implement it at the start or this puts at risk the ability to gain immediate efficiencies from the system as a whole. Many solutions allow for simple, basic installations. The key is finding a Paperless ERP solution, such as MetaViewer, that can progressively advance its functionality as employees are ready to digitize and automate addi-tional functions.

3. Don’t confuse Paperless ERP with the “paperless office.” Avoid sugges-tions that employees will never be able to touch paper again. Solutions like MetaViewer re-create paper documents in a different form, but employees should still feel free to print out docu-ments to take with them to a meeting or simply to print a reminder. People will always need to work with paper, but paper should be the supplement to dig-ital records, not the other way around. Digital processes allow access to the information that is on the paper, routing and monitoring it during the AP process instead of at the end of the process.

4. Don’t over complicate the relation-ship with paper-based vendors. Major global retailers might have enough influence on paper-based vendors to convince them to submit their invoice in-formation via a sophisticated EDI meth-od. Most midmarket manufacturing and distribution organizations do not. With a Paperless ERP system however, all that’s required is for the vendor to send AP the invoice in a .PDF format as an attachment to an email. Any document created with a recent version of Micro-soft Word can be saved in .PDF with a couple clicks. Once the solution receives the .PDF, the document can be easily and accurately indexed automatically and managed, routed and approved digitally.

Paperless, continued on page 43



By Jody Miller, Summit Group Software

BENEFITS INCLUDE TRAINING, LEARNING PLANS AND CERTIFICATION RESOURCESOrganizations enrolled in a service plan can access unlimited online training – E-Learning, training materials, and learning plans. Gain the skills needed to help better automate business and streamline business process-es while getting better business data and information from Microsoft Dynamics CRM and GP. E-learning is available 24 hours a day, every day.

Learning Plans are a great tool to help focus on specific goals and get trained on Microsoft Dynamics and re-lated products to achieve them. Training on Microsoft Dynamics is available in different formats to fit individ-ual needs and certification exams for Microsoft Dynamics are available to validate expertise.

SELF-SUPPORT RESOURCESThe CustomerSource knowledge base is a resource to get familiar with now, so when it is needed to find an-swers to Microsoft Dynamics questions, it can be done without the expense of a support call or email. There is a lot of helpful information related to technical issues that have already been solved and are available for future reference. This advice from written by Microsoft support engineers is available 24 hours a day.

It may not answer all questions completely, but does cut down the amount of support needed from outside resources and help better understand what might be causing an issue. It may even just help provide better information to a support technician, cutting down the amount of time to get to the bottom of the problem. Just don’t wait until there is a problem to try to figure out how to use this tool!

ACCESS TO A COMMUNITY OF MICROSOFT DYNAMICS USERSWith the Microsoft Dynamics Community, individuals can interact with peers and others who know Microsoft Dynamics. This is a great forum for a free and objective exchange of information, allowing users to share and learn from one and others experiences in a variety of helpful ways:

CustomerSourceKeeping Organizations

Educated, Informed and Prepared

CustomerSource, continued on page 45

Organizations that are current on the Microsoft Dynamics service plan already pay to access Microsoft’s CustomerSource site, so why not use it?

For organizations that strive to be more self–sufficient and want to potentially save support and training dollars, CustomerSource is a great resource to take advantage of.



CustomerSource





ne area of Microsoft Dynamics CRM that has seen an increase in popularity over the last year is the Service module. Part of that increase in adop-tion can be attributed to the availability of portal solutions for Microsoft Dynamics CRM and the ability to increase the value proposition of the Service module by using those portals.

Out of the box, the Service module provides en-tities for tracking Cases and Contracts along with a basic Service Calendar for scheduling Resourc-es and Service Activities. Many service-oriented companies find some value in these tools in their basic form, but that value increases dramatically when coupled with a customer-centric web portal. A web portal can function as a self-service solution that allows customers to perform actions such as create and manage cases, view and pay invoices, or register for events or training.

PORTAL EFFICACY

This self-service portal is effective in two ways:

Customer Data EntrySelf-service portals put power in the end-user’s hands to interact as needed with their service pro-vider or vendor, and it drives efficiency on the part

By Matt Bitzegaio, Summit Group Software

of the vendor by allowing the end-users the ability to do their own data entry. Once the data is entered through the portal into Microsoft Dynamics CRM, it is no different than any data that enters Microsoft Dy-namics CRM through traditional data entry by CRM users. This means it can be used to trigger workflows and plugins, or for reporting purposes.

When utilizing case management via a custom-er portal, cases entered through the portal can be routed to the appropriate support or customer service teams utilizing queues in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This can allow the team to view and delegate the cases once entered and communicate with the customer via the portal as they work to complete the case.

Customer Marketing OptionsMarketing is another area where a customer portal can drive significant value. Utilizing a portal solu-tion, companies can give their customers access to marketing list management, social networking, and online access to past marketing content.

While customer portals can certainly increase the value proposition of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution, they can be challenging to implement from a technical standpoint. While there are several

BUILDING CUSTOMERPOR TALS

O



third-party solutions in the market-place today, they all suffer from sev-eral drawbacks. The current solu-tions in the market are all difficult to setup and deploy, require specific server and web-hosting infrastruc-ture, are often not integrated with current websites, and are very diffi-cult to customize or add capabilities to. Many create large amounts of custom entities in the Microsoft Dy-namics CRM implementation (some over 100 custom entities), creating a very cluttered and bloated feel to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM system.

THE NEW OPTION - CRM VERTEXA new option is coming in summer of 2013. This new product, called CRM Vertex, is a cloud-hosted portal solution. The Vertex portal solution will be available in both a software-as-a-service (SAAS) con-figuration, as well as a self-hosted and customizable version that can be licensed for an up-front fee. As with most SAAS products, Vertex will be available for a monthly cost, thus removing the need for a large operating expenditure to implement a portal solution.

Vertex will also allow a customer to request a 30-day trial at no charge, allowing the customer to ensure that it will fit their customer portal needs. The self-hosted version pro-vides all source code to the cus-tomer to allow for extending of the solution with custom modules and functionality through custom ASP.NET development.

Portals, continued on page 46



gpDebits & CreditsBy Sonia R. Serlin, Advanced Solutions and Consulting

Be sure all users are out of Microsoft Dynamics GP before beginning. Make a backup of REPORTS.DIC (usually locatedin the Dictionaries folder in the shared GP folder). To make a backup, copy and paste. Delete REPORTS.DIC (usually located in the Dictionaries folder in the shared GP folder).

Now, launch Microsoft Dynamics GP. Any user with Report Writeraccess can log into Microsoft Dynamics GP. Go to Microsoft Dynamics GP, click Tools, choose Customize, and open ReportWriter. Select Microsoft Dynamics GP and click OK.

Once in Report Writer, select Import. Browse out to the backup (copy)of the REPORTS.DIC file created in Step 2. Insert each report from the left side into the right side. This will have to do be done one at a time. Click Import. When the import is done, click OK.

To go back into Microsoft Dynamics GP, go to File and choose Microsoft Dynamics GP.

Startup and User Classes FoldersBy Wendy Ponseti, Express Information Systems

To automatically open a Microsoft Dynamics GP window, website, macro, external document or Smartlist, utilize the Startup folder on the Shortcut bar.

Right-click on the Startup folder and click Add. Any shortcut added to the Startup folder will start automatically when logging in to Microsoft Dynamics GP. Some examples include automatically opening a bank or vendor website, running the AR Aging process through a macro or opening an internal spreadsheet.

Shortcuts can also be added to the User Classes folder. The System Administrator can create User Classes and assign a class to a user. The System Administrator can also add or delete any shortcut in the User Classes folder.

How to Recreate Reports Dictionary


Debits & Credits gpWho Posted this Journal Entry?By Wendy Ponseti, Express Information Systems

To find out the User Who Posted a journal entry, add the User Who Posted field to the Account Transactions SmartList.

Go to the Account Transactions SmartList. Click the Columns button then scroll down to the User Who Posted field. Click the Add button to add the column to the SmartList. Finally, don’t forget to click the Favorites button to add a favorite.

Utilizing Landed Cost FunctionalityBy Bob Callanan, Business Ready Solutions

The Landed Cost functionality in Microsoft Dynamics GP is used by many customers. It provides an efficient means for capturing all the costs

associated with bringing a product into a warehouse which gives management the information it needs to price products.

A Microsoft Dynamics GP customer recently completed a unique implementation of landed cost. This client organization purchases raw materials from one vendor and ships it to a second vendor that adds a

coating to the product. The second vendor then ships it to the client. The client receives an invoice from each of the suppliers and wanted

to be sure all the cost ultimately went into the product.

Bill of Materials was considered but a much simpler and more effective solution using Landed Costs emerged. A new landed cost ID and a Group

named COATING was created and linked to the vendor that provides the coating services. A fixed amount per unit based was assigned upon the

agreement with that vendor. When the client creates purchase orders for the raw goods, Microsoft Dynamics GP automatically includes the

COATING Landed Cost on the PO and the system is set to expect an invoice from both the supplier and the coating service provider.

Password Protect Microsoft Word .docx attachmentsBy Linda Brock, The Knaster Group

For Microsoft Dynamics GP users who email Sales Documents, Purchase Orders, or Remittances in Micro-soft Word format, Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 allows for the System Preferences window to password protect emailed .docx attachments.

Access by clicking Administration, choose Setup, click System, and choose System Preferences. Under the Email Preferences section of the System Preferences window, check the box to Protect .docx at-tachments with a password. Then choose to Auto generate a password – for user ability to edit the docu-ments, set the password manually.



gpDebits & Credits

Here are a few recommendations for courses to get started with Management Reporter:• Management Reporter 2.0 for Microsoft Dynamics ERP: Report Design - Introduction and Overview• Management Reporter 2.0 for Microsoft Dynamics ERP: Report Design - Navigation• Management Reporter 2.0 for Microsoft Dynamics ERP: Report Design - Balance Sheet Reporting• Management Reporter 2.0 for Microsoft Dynamics ERP: Report Design - Detailed Income Statement• Management Reporter 2.0 for Microsoft Dynamics ERP: Report Design - Working with Reporting Trees• Management Reporter 2.0 for Microsoft Dynamics ERP: Report Design - Relational Reporting• Management Reporter 2.0 for Microsoft Dynamics ERP: Report Design - Variance Reporting • Management Reporter 2.0 for Microsoft Dynamics ERP: Report Design - Report Output and Distribution• Management Reporter 2.0 for Microsoft Dynamics ERP: Report Design - Appendix

How to Create a New Fiscal YearBy Sonia R. Serlin, Advanced Solutions and Consulting

Management Reporter Training through CustomerSourceBy Kathleen Dudley and Sonia J. Serlin, Advanced Solutions and Consulting

One of the many benefits of being on and active Service Plan is access to Micro-soft’s CustomerSource. To log in, go to https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource.

From there, on the Navigation Pane, select Training & Certification and choose eLearning. Click the + icon to expand the listing next to Management Reporter. There is unlimited online training available.

To create a new fiscal year in Microsoft Dynamics GP, open Microsoft Dynamics GP, choose Tools, click Setup, choose

Company, and click Fiscal Periods. In the Year drop-down list, type the new year and tab out of the field. Confirm

the dates are correct in the First Day and Last Day fields and that the Number of Periods is correct.

Click the Calculate button. The periods are populated in the scrolling window below.

Optionally, users can rename the Period Names (such as from “Period 1” to

“January”) or close future periods so users will not accidentally post transactions in those

periods. Click OK to complete.



5. Avoid resistance from approvers in other departments by keeping the process standardized. Frequently, approvers want to tinker with the process to simplify it beyond the stage that they should. For example, if a customized process requires use of only a work PC or a specific network, employees may find they’ve “simplified” themselves into limited access. If, however, access to Paperless ERP is available via the Web, there is no worry about maintaining different software for occasional approvals outside the office and the use of simple mobile devices for approval is possible. With easily viewed snapshots and real-time charts, graphs and dashboards***, Paperless ERP offers managers and executives more visibility into the business.

There is always an act of balance when considering the needs of a growing organization with those of its employees. But in the long run, a Paperless ERP solution, in particular, supports growth, while streamlining employee responsibilities – even freeing employees up to take on new, more valuable opportunities within the organization there may otherwise not have been time for or access to.

Nick Sprau is vice president of marketing for Metafile Information Systems, Inc., an independent provider of paperless document management applications serving middle-market and large businesses. Learn more by visiting www.metaviewer.com.

* Paperless ERP (http://www.metaviewer.com/paperless-erp) ** Learn more about the 4-50 rule (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC8m4ONr5HM) *** Snapshots and real-time charts, graphs and dashboards (http://www.metaviewer.com/full-process-visibility)

Debits & CreditsPaperless, continued from page 35





he Business Analyzer is a dashboard tool introduced with Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 R2. With this cool little dashboard application, more than 260 KPIs and reports included with Micro-soft Dynamics GP are now view-able by non-Microsoft Dynamics GP users. This can be installed on any users’ computer to allow them to view their own financial news feed. If one statistic catch-es the eye, users can drill into the report and look at the raw data. Recently, Microsoft made an en-hanced version of the Business Analyzer application available on the Windows Store for the Surface tablet and the Windows 8 phone. This version has more functionality than available with the basic version and is installed with Microsoft Dynamics GP. It adds touch-screen navigation

By Ken Jacobsen and Perry Kountouriotis, The TM Group

MICROSOFT DYNAMICS BUSINESS ANALYZERBest-Kept Secret

T

Accounts Payable Days Outstanding KPI Accounts Receivable Days Outstanding KPICost of Goods Sold KPI Detail

and more appealing layout for graphs. The basic version dis-plays one report at a time and serves up a new report every five to sixty minutes. The enhanced version allows the layout of several graphs in one screen and click-on graphs to enlarge and scroll through the reports.

“This application is great for clients,” explains Perry Koun-touriotis, Director of Consulting for The TM Group. “You can see today’s information in real time. No waiting for someone to run a report and email it to you. It is also a collaboration tool. If you are using Microsoft Lync, you can connect to coworkers and view Business Analyzer reports together in real time. It also al-lows you to set up users that you share and collaborate with per report, so the sales team gets

one report and the purchasing team another. This gives CFOs and management a better feel for what is happening day to day with their companies.”

Download the Microsoft Dynam-ics Business Analyzer Windows 8 app from the Windows Store. Open the Windows Store ap-plication on a Windows 8 de-vice, and search for “Business Analyzer.” Then tap or click on “Business Analyzer for Microsoft Dynamics” and click “Install.” It works with Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013, Microsoft Dynamics SL 2011 FP1, and Microsoft Dynam-ics AX 2012 R2. Visit http://tech-net.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj899791.aspx for more informa-tion about requirements.

Total Expenses KPI New Employees KPI Employee Turnover KPI

Inventory Turnover KPI Sales Per Employee KPI Gross Profit Margin KPI

Highlighted KPI’s:

... ...

..

.


MICROSOFT DYNAMICS BUSINESS ANALYZER

Inventory Turnover KPI Sales Per Employee KPI Gross Profit Margin KPI

• Stay current on industry news. • Join customers, partners, and team members to discuss Microsoft Dynamics products and related software, services, and programs. • Blogs – Keep up with frequently updated, informal reading from Microsoft team members and industry experts familiar with Microsoft Dynamics. • Articles – Gain insight into industry news, business trends, and Microsoft Dynamics strategies through the eyes of Microsoft executives and team members.

ACCESS CUSTOMERSOURCE AND GET STARTED Visit the CustomerSource sign-in page: http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/customer/en-us/access-customersource/default.aspx Enter a Windows Live ID username and password to access the site.

To gain access to the organization’s CustomerSource account, please complete the following steps:

1. Ask the organization’s CustomerSource administrator to grant access to the site. If the CustomerSource administrator is unknown or if the organization does not have a CustomerSource administrator, email [email protected] for assistance.

2. Go to the Windows Live ID site to create a Windows Live ID. Go to www.passport.net to create a Windows Live ID. If you already have a Windows Live ID, skip this step and proceed to Step 3.

3. For first-time CustomerSource users, link the CustomerSource profile with a Windows Live ID.

4. Sign in to CustomerSource. Watch the Learn how to use CustomerSource demo and Take a Tour of CustomerSource Features and Benefits to learn more about getting the most out of CustomerSource.

CustomerSource, continued from page 36





CORE MODULESThe core modules included in the SAAS and on-premise versions of Vertex are support, finance, events, and discussions. There are several other add-on modules currently in development, such as project manage-ment, online payment processing, support chat, and a mobile friendly client.

All of these modules can be enabled and disabled via a portal configuration housed within their Dynamics CRM environment. In addition to module management, other areas of the portal are customizable, including the color scheme, company name, website name, welcome message, and policy information. While all cus-tomers will receive a crmvertex.com based URL and use of an SSL certificate, they can also use a custom domain name and SSL certificate for their portal, further branding it as a part of their overall web engage-ment strategy.

DRIVING THE VERTEXThis framework was developed to abstract the complexity of communicating with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and create a very friendly interface for all of the core CRUD (Create, Retrieve, Update, and Delete) methods and FetchXML execution that can be a challenging part of CRM development. In addition, this framework exposes an externally accessible REST endpoint for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This endpoint allows for interfacing with Microsoft Dynamics CRM from other websites and mobile devices through any web pro-gramming language, including JavaScript. It also allows for customer portals to be created or extended from any web platform, not only ASP.NET – a limitation of the third-party solutions mentioned above.

By supporting any platform, custom portals built on the CRM Vertex framework can be completely housed within existing customer websites, lowering both up-front and ongoing costs for custom portal solutions. Dramatically increase the value you drive from your Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution and achieve your organization’s goals with a customer-centric web portal.

CRM Vertex is scheduled for launch in summer 2013. For more information, or to sign up to be notified when the product is available, visit http://www.crmvertex.com.

Portals, continued from page 39

DISCUSSION MODULESocial component that allows customers to interact with one another, ask questions, and respond to others.

EVENT MODULEAllows the creation and management of events in Microsoft Dynamics CRM and allows customers to easily register themselves, and fellow employees, for events, see current and past registrations, and cancel registrations.

FINANCE MODULEAllows a customer access to their invoices and contracts that are stored in Dynamics CRM and create printable views of these documents. In addition, the finance module allows the customer to create inquiries to the billing or contract departments.

SUPPORT MODULE Provides access to a case dashboard, case management, and exposure of the Dynamics CRM Knowledge Base components.


Employee satisfaction is a key component of an organization’s success. While compensation still plays a significant role in some employees’ satisfaction, the chang-ing workforce demographics have provided for changing views around employee satisfaction. While compensation will always be a component in some workers’ sat-isfaction equation, increasingly, it is less about the compensation and proverbial carrot or stick. Now, a vital aspect of employee job satis-faction includes such things as the ability to work remotely, maintain a flexible work schedule, experience a fun work atmosphere, and receive performance recognition.

Gamification supports these chang-ing views by allowing organizations to provide games for their employ-ees regardless of where they are physically located. Furthermore, a properly designed game will create a challenging yet fun atmosphere where performance is recog-nized based on performance and achievement of set objectives.

Research has found that happier employees often result in increased revenue for the organization. While a properly designed game will defi-nitely provide a certain level of fun, another important item provided to the participant is immediate feed-back regarding their performance.

While standard biannual or annual reviews will continue to have their place, immediate feedback regard-ing an employee’s performance will prove to be very valuable. Address-ing employee performance peri-odically sometimes prevents the employee from making corrective actions to their behavior in a timely manner. Games in the workplace can address this by providing for immediate feedback to the employ-ee regarding their achievements and performance towards a set goal or objective. Based on this

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feedback the employee and team can make the necessary changes to ensure they remain on course to achieve the stated objectives.

The common bond shared re-garding the competitive strate-gy of the team or organization creates a catalyst for knowl-edge sharing and interaction. Whether the employees work remotely or are all located in the same office, effective game design encourages interaction among individuals and teams in

Gamification, continued from page 13

order to achieve the objectives set. Increased interaction often fosters innovation as well as learning and development on the team.

Get in the gameGamification is a trend that will continue to become an increasingly important aspect of achieving or-ganizational success by providing a fun experience for employee learning and motivation. Will your organization be in the game?



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