Yearly Archives: 2010

Connecting to NAV through Web services recorded session

  • Reading time:1 min read

recordingToday I’ve delivered the brown bag session Connecting to NAV through Web services as a part of Microsoft’s “Dynamics Brown Bag Sessions” initiative for Central and Eastern Europe. The session was attended by a great number of partners from the region, and I say a big THANK YOU to everyone attending. I hope it was worth your time.

For any of you who did not have a chance to attend it live, or were not invited to it for whatever reason, you can watch the recorded session, download the presentation, and download the demo Visual Studio projects showing NAV Web services basics.

I would also like to thank to Almut Tadsen, Microsoft Dynamics Evangelist at Microsoft and the organizer of the Brown Bag Session series for giving me this opportunity. I’m looking forward to participating in this initiative again.

If you were there today, I would appreciate if you could take a minute and leave a comment here, letting me (and everyone else) if this was a time well invested for you. Thanks!

Continue ReadingConnecting to NAV through Web services recorded session

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2 ships

  • Reading time:6 mins read

imageI’m growing increasingly impatient as the progress bar on my File Transfer Manager is approaching 100%. Behind the cryptical download title—Dynamics.NAV60R2.HR.1097366.DVD.zip—hides the much awaited Microsoft Dynamics 2009 R2 HR (Croatian) release of Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Yes, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 has officially shipped, and you can download your copy at Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2 download page. You can also access the NAV 2009 R2 Launch Portal.

This is the first time ever, that any NAV product has shipped simultaneously in 43 countries in the world. For many countries, mine included, this is also the first release of NAV 2009.

Continue ReadingMicrosoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2 ships

Brown bag session: Connecting to NAV through Web services

  • Reading time:2 mins read

Microsoft’s DPE team in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has started organizing a so called brown bag sessions for NAV developers, as a part of developing a Microsoft Dynamics Community in the region. As a part of this initiative, I will deliver a brown bag session tomorrow at 9:30 AM (CET) titled “Connecting to NAV through Web services”.

Sessions are delivered through Live Meeting and are by-invitation only, so if you want to participate you must be an employee of a Microsoft partner company in CEE region. If you haven’t got an invitation, and you are entitled to participate, please contact your local Dynamics lead at Microsoft (or Partner Account Manager) and ask them to send you the link.

Continue ReadingBrown bag session: Connecting to NAV through Web services

Are we “all in”?

  • Reading time:6 mins read

image“Are we all in” – asks Hunter Richards on The Software Advice blog in his Monday post, giving a view of Microsoft’s Cloud strategy in perspective of Microsoft Dynamics. He argues that while Microsoft is indeed betting heavily on the Cloud, its Dynamics line of products is not nearly ready for the Cloud.

In his argumentation, Hunter gives four challenges that Microsoft is facing, and that are main obstacles in Microsoft’s way to Cloud Dynamics ERP: architecture, multiple products, partner channel and market readiness.

I believe in the Cloud. And I believe in Microsoft Dynamics ERP in the Cloud. So I do not agree with Hunter’s views on this, and here I’m offering a counter view. Okay, I must say that my views are limited exclusively to NAV, so whatever I say applies to NAV, and may not apply to AX, SL or GP.

Continue ReadingAre we “all in”?

7 habits of highly unsuccessful sales people

  • Reading time:4 mins read

imageOne of the takeaways from my Microsoft experience will undoubtedly by my attendance of Microsoft Services University, where all Microsoft’s consultants are ramped-up in a 15-or-so days intensive program. One of the things I will never forget, is when a presenter (kill me if I can remember his name) asked the 100-strong audience:

– How many of you here work in sales?

A couple of shy hands went up.

– Well, let me tell you something – the guy continued – you ALL work in sales!

And yes, he was absolutely right. If you are a consultant, like it or not, you do work in sales. So, one off-topic post, which is not completely (or not at all) off-topic is a short write-up of a post by Drew Stevens on RainToday.com, with (unpredictably, eh?) the same title as this.

Continue Reading7 habits of highly unsuccessful sales people

Strange Web services behavior in NAV

  • Reading time:4 mins read

bugorfeatureA bug or a feature? Sometimes it’s hard to tell for sure.

Web services are a fantastic tool in NAV, however, they do not always behave exactly as you would expect them to. There is one particularly annoying behavior, which just after you get used to it starts getting even stranger.

So, setting any numeric value during the Create method call on any page web service will have no effect, and the only way to set a value in a numeric field would be through a subsequent call to Update method.

Continue ReadingStrange Web services behavior in NAV

Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step 2010 Content Update

  • Reading time:1 min read

fireworksI missed this by ten days, but it’s not exactly yesterday’s news yet. Microsoft has released a content update for Sure Step 2010, bringing some new content for NAV, AX, GP and CRM, and also introducing some functional changes to Sure Step application.

Here’s what’s new in the latest release:

  • GP 2010 updates, now with guidance on Project Accounting, Business Intelligence reporting, upgrade questionnaires and links to the business process flows. 
  • Management Reporter questionnaire applicable to all ERP solutions. 
  • Service Industry-specific content for AX, including guidance for:
    • Professional Services, included Legal Services and Government Contractors
    • Advertising
    • Architecture, Engineering and Construction
  • AX Process Flows added for Human Resourcces, Quality and Master Planning.
  • NAV Process Flows, Go Live List and Upgrade Questionnaires updated.
  • Microsoft SharePoint 2010 site project creation, enhanced to allow sub-site creation. 
  • CRM Customer Care Accelerator with fact sheets, presentations, questionnaire with fit analysis and architecture assessment.

If you have access to PartnerSource, you can access Sure Step 2010 here.

Continue ReadingMicrosoft Dynamics Sure Step 2010 Content Update

Was it necessary to kill the Classic client?

  • Reading time:4 mins read

dinosaurAbsolutely.

The world needs to move ahead. The technology advances. Who doesn’t want to keep up with the progress, stays behind. That’s how it has worked since the dawn of civilization.

I can’t know the exact reasons why Microsoft has decided to stop support for the Classic client with NAV “7”, but I can offer my view and position on why I believe this was absolutely necessary.

Continue ReadingWas it necessary to kill the Classic client?

Death of Classic (C/SIDE) Client

  • Reading time:3 mins read

tomb_guardYesterday, during a coffee break at the What’s New in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Technical for Application Consultants training in Vilnius, Lithuania (a fabulous place, by the way), a discussion arose around the destiny of the Classic (or C/SIDE) client in NAV. Some participants stated that “it’s never going to go away” because “Microsoft would not dare shutting it down”.

Unfortunately, it is going away, and quickly. Maybe it wasn’t too obvious at first, because Microsoft never actually said explicitly that “Classic client is going to be discontinued”, but if you read the latest Statement of Direction for Microsoft Dynamics NAV, it’s there.

Continue ReadingDeath of Classic (C/SIDE) Client

Keyboard shortcomings of RoleTailored Client in NAV 2009

  • Reading time:3 mins read

I am one of those people who only use keyboard with NAV. Classic, of course. Seriously, I can keyboard my way through NAV and do literally everything—and I am dead serious about the everything part of it—with only my keyboard. With Classic, mouse is quietly resting under piles of papers. In RTC, mouse is an active animal.

Yes, absolutely, this is the number one reason why I never adopted the RoleTailored Client and I still use the Classic one extensively. (Another one is a minor and an irrelevant fact that NAV 2009 still isn’t available in my region.)

So, in hope that this blog finds its way to the right address in Vaedbek, Denmark, I’m compiling a list of less-known or less used keyboard shortcuts that I use to navigate through Classic client, which mostly can’t be achieved (or can’t achieve exactly the same goal) in RTC.

Continue ReadingKeyboard shortcomings of RoleTailored Client in NAV 2009