Convergence 2009 thoughts

Nice to be in New Orleans. I think the location is almost as nice as San Diego. Definitely like it better than Dallas and Orlando. Only been here for a couple of days but have already decided I need to come back to explore the area more extensively.

Here are some of my thoughts about the conference so far. Mark Polino has a list of his thoughts as well.

1. Announcements have been minimal. They have previewed GP 11.0 but that won't release until Q2 of 2010 so not much sense in getting to worked up about it yet.
2. Wish I could say GP 11 doesn't use report writer anymore. Instead of sending some reports to screen it will send the report to Word (for Invoices, PO's etc.) I haven't seen any details on how to build reports or anything. Should be interesting to see the conversion process from RW reports to Word. It's about time really. The majority of people I work with would rather take a bath with a moray eel (Audobon Aquarium reference) than develop reports with RW.
3. Extender is going to have more capabilities in 11.0. Can create windows that are stand alone. They won't need to be attached to other GP windows. Kind of looks like they are adapting more of the eOne enterprise features.
4. Hosting is a frequent buzz word here. Amazing to see how many people say they host in one form or another. Although I did talk with someone who said they'd like to get into hosting but they don't want to actually do the hosting part. I figured out they wanted to team up with someone that would do the hosting while they could focus on GP for their clients. I referred them to Rose ASP. That's what they do and have done it for a long time.
5. FRx is going to be called Report Manager and will get some basic budgeting capabilites similar to Forecaster. Sounds like their is still some uncertainty regarding where this is going. Doubt FRx will change too much but who knows.
6. The conference center is 3 miles long. We are staying at the Mariott accross the street which we thought was cool. Until we figured out that we have a 3 mile walk every morning. If you stayed at a hotel with a shuttle you'd end up walking less. Shouldn't complain, my wife says she's glad I can burn off some of the conference food.
7. Food at conference overall has been good. Great food around the area. Went to Palace Cafe last night and had a great seafood plate. The night started with a dinner invite with Rick from Ascentis. We cabbed it to some local resturant up Canal Street. After sitting down to a meal we discovered they only accepted cash. Rick didn't have cash so we ended up waiting outside for a half an hour for another cab. Beautiful night so it was nice to be outside. After a great meal at Palace Cafe Rick tried to pay with his one and only credit card. Which ended up being declined. We watch a grown man sweat, turn green, cry and almost pass out and am pretty sure he was begging the waiter for a job in the back to do dishes. We let him off the hook but probably will have some explaining to do to Linda for the hefty bill. ha.
8. Expo is about the same from past years. Although the freebies are minimal.
9. Like the environmental focus at the conference although the environmental Man Purse they gave us for a bag is silly. Gives me a place to hold my lip gloss and nail filer though.
10. Rock-and-Rave was fun. Looking forward to the Spot tonight.

Love to meet up with any folks that read this blog. Drop me a line if you want to meet up or come by booth 1333 in the expo. Thanks to Mike that tracked me down and told me I don't blog just for my own personal pleasure although he did say he thinks I should often be corrected in my opinions and posts. Bring it on Mike, love to learn even a fraction of what you know.

Microsoft Convergence past and present

My first experience with Microsoft Convergence was in Florida in 2002 (maybe it was 2001, can't remember exactly. Must be getting old.) I do remember being somewhat awestruck with the show Microsoft put on for it's customers. The expo was top notch, concurrent sessions were educational, and the key note speakers were enlightening. I worked for a .com company at the time and Microsoft choose us for the Pinnacle award for Excellence in Customer Care. Nice honor to be recognized for.

One of the most vivid memories I have was just before the key note speech from Bill Gates. The doors opened and I saw accounting professionals of all ages, shapes and sizes running as fast as they could to the get the best seat possible. Kind of a funny sight really but remember thinking how exciting it was to listen to someone so successful in person. Mr. Gates gave his insights on the industry and gave a road map on how Microsoft was going to help each company using Dynamics.

From that first experience I have attended Convergence in San Diego, Dallas, Florida (again last year), and will be attending in New Orleans this year. Every year Microsoft out does themselves. Just look at the sessions available this year.

The concurrent sessions are a big part of the event but I particularly like interacting with MBS folks directly. Geeky as it may sound I find it great fun to go "Yell" at MBS folks on things that I wanted fixed, corrected, or included in the next versions of GP. I also take all our customers to the tech support area and give demos of modules they are looking for. This is a good time for customers to get "Free" training or tech support.

If someone is looking for a particular module or fix to a business process the Expo is the place for customers. Every year we are able to solve business process pain by finding the best 3rd party products. Last year we looked at several tax solutions offered by 3rd party companies. Ended up moving off of one 3rd party product (implemented by another VAR) to another saving a significant amount of money on a monthly basis on the way with all the functionality the customer needed. Point is, the customer was able to analyze each product in person along with meeting the people that were going to support them going forward.

There's still time to register.

My own take is if you have GP you should be going to Convergence. It's a sacrifice to go but the returns are tremendous in education, training, and GP utilization.

It's also a lot of fun.