CRM

Microsoft releases Sure Step 2012

  • Reading time:9 mins read

imageA couple of days ago, at a Sure Step 2010 training at Sundsgården, Helsingborg, Sweden, while students were preparing to take the exam, one of the students asks me where she can download Sure Step 2010. I give her the link, but she tells me: “No, that’s Sure Step 2012, I’d like to download 2010”.

That came as a surprise. “No way” – I say – “It hasn’t yet been released.”

Or has it?

And then I check, and almost can’t believe it – it’s really there. I completely missed the tweets, the Facebook announcement, the LinkedIn discussions. It seems that I’m not particularly social nowadays. A quick check of Twitter shows me that there wasn’t too much buzz around it, and most of the blogosphere simply redelivers the same content, which either comes from the official announcement (which I also missed Smile) or from whoever blogged first.

Instead of giving a simple “excited” redelivery of the announcement, here’s my take on Sure Step 2012, what’s new, what’s not new (both sadly and thankfully).

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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.

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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.

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ERP will make my problems go away!

  • Reading time:5 mins read

Some say that ERP will solve all your problems. A deus-ex-machina which takes you to the promised land and brings you years of prosperity and bliss. Reduced operating costs and administrative overhead, improved inventory, higher customer retention, better profitability. It will streamline, improve, integrate, leverage, increase all your good things, and reduce, decrease, eliminate all your bad things.

You don’t buy it, do you?

ERP may help you solve your problems. Eventually.

First thing it will do, though, is—expose them. The question is… are you ready to face them?

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Decisions Fall 2010

  • Reading time:2 mins read

Decisions Fall 2010It seems like yesterday that I was posting about this last time, but time does run fast. And so do technology and innovation. Decisions virtual conference is here again, this time in its Fall 2010 edition, bringing a lot of fantastic content split into four separate tracks (AX, GP, NAV and CRM) delivered over four days, starting with November 1. For me, and I believe you too, the most important day is the NAV day, which will be delivered on November 3.

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Sure Step 2010

  • Reading time:2 mins read

One of the drawbacks of being a freelancer is a slight risk to learn a bit late about anything new. Once upon a time, when I was still blogging actively, I made sure I was the first to blog about something new, as long as it relates to Sure Step. This time, the news came to me through two channels: through Microsoft Dynamics UK Blog and through Chandru Shankar’s post in SureStep PM Methodology group on LinkedIn.

So, I’m not going to reinvent the wheel, I’m just reposting the content from these two sources, but I’ll not miss to say that I am totally thrilled with this new release, and the new stuff it brings along.

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Sure Step in action: Architecture Assessment

  • Reading time:6 mins read

Implementing a new Microsoft Dynamics solution doesn’t merely introduce a new piece of software into your environment. Yes, the software is an important part, you need to deploy it successfully, configure it as necessary, probably even customize it and change the business logic under the hood.

One component, however, is easily overlooked, and you wouldn’t believe how often it’s not addressed until late. Or too late. It’s the infrastructure.

Infrastructure is tough. It’s not just servers and desktops with some wires, switches and access points in between. Its a lot more. What kind of hardware do you need for your servers or desktops? What kind of performance do you really need? What kind of network layout is optimal for your transaction volume? Should you run the client on desktop machines, or would a remote desktop access be a preferred method? Do you virtualize your servers? What kind of failover capacities do you need? Can you retain any of your old hardware? How many users will use the system? Tomorrow? In five years? What about interfaces and integration to other systems or applications?

A couple of wrong answers, and down you go.

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Read My Lips: Why?

  • Reading time:6 mins read

Recently, a reader, commenting on my last post about Sure Step, pointed me to an article by Karl E. Wiegers
“Read My Lips: No New Models!” I initially responded to the comment, but I figure the comments aren’t read as often as posts, so I decided to blog it.

It’s doubly funny that the reader is using Dr. Wiegers to devalue and dismiss Sure Step: firstly, the article has really nothing to do with implementation methodologies at all, and secondly, when I delivered Sure Step training at WinDays pre-conf earlier this year, I gave to each attendant a copy of Karl E. Wiegers’s latest book “Practical Project Initiation”—at the time it was the best book available that matched both the message of my training and the point of Sure Step as a methodology.

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A case for Sure Step: how Sure Step brings project success

  • Reading time:8 mins read

Methodology is a tough topic. There are good methodologies, there are bad methodologies, there are good methodologies gone bad. Methodology is not a silver bullet, it won’t just make any problems disappear, and is hardly ever the single source of success or failure. But a methodology can be a major contributor to success. I could put it this way: you stand much better chances of success if you apply a methodology, then if you don’t. With something as critical as an implementation of business software, methodology is a key success factor. According to Jim Johnson of Standish Group, it’s number nine on their ten identified most important success factors.

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