Selecting a software solution to support all the business processes for the entire company in the most effective way – while at the same time meeting all the specific, detailed requirements from all stakeholders (departments) involved in such a project – can be a huge challenge for every company, large or small. In this article, we will elaborate on this challenge by focusing on enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM).

This already makes it sound as though a trade-off needs to be made between an integrated solution, which cross-functionally integrates all business processes within a company (ERP software), and software that focuses primarily on one specific part (i.e. CRM) of this business process (best-of-breed [BoB] software). Both have their own benefits and disadvantages, which are quite obvious and will therefore not be discussed here.

ERP vs. BoB trade-off

In the past, this ERP vs. BoB trade-off was regularly solved by interfacing/integrating one software solution with the other, which potentially solved the trade-off issue.

However, in most cases the integration of software systems led to disappointments, since it involved higher costs than expected or promised to get this integration working correctly. When it did work correctly, even more costs were incurred for maintaining the integration to keep it working properly (i.e. when updating the separate software solutions). In some cases, the full integration between the system (as desired) did not seem to be technically possible at all, leaving the company with a semi-integrated system against costs which were more than expected/promised upfront.

In this article, we will discuss how the ERP vs. BoB trade-off thinking described above is, in most cases, no longer accurate, as nowadays there are platforms and solutions that can actually offer an organization the best of both worlds.

CRM integration

For example, our DynaRent Solution Suite (based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations [ERP]) offers an out-of-the-box integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM (BoB for CRM).

In this case, the Microsoft Azure platform enables us to use fully standard integrations among all their products (amongst other Dynamics CRM) and allows us to seamlessly integrate our DynaRent ERP solution, for equipment-driven rental and services companies, with the BoB CRM software offered by Microsoft. Updates are no longer an issue either, since the platform manages these updates and ensures that all software is operational after updating.

It also enables the company users to work in the user interface of their choice – Dynamics CRM or DynaRent – and still have all necessary data integrated from both systems, where and when they need it, in real time.

An example of a graphical overview of the Microsoft platform (landscape) and the integrated components within this landscape:

Image 1: Microsoft Dynamics 365 landscape

An overview of the available API connectors to integrate software applications through the Microsoft platform:

Image 2: Built-in API Connectors

If you want to learn more about CRM, ERP, and the seamless fit we can offer with our DynaRent Solutions Suite, please feel free to send us an email at info@highsoftware.com. We would be more than happy to set up a meeting and discuss this topic with you.

I want to see a calendar of my opportunities based on estimated close date (or other date field on the opportunity record). Can I do that, or do I need to license a third party add-on?

Sales Manager

If you use unified interface, you can display any record in a calendar view via the calendar control.

1. Go to Settings->Customization->Customize the System
2. Open the configuration for the entity that you want to use the calendar control (Opportunities in our example)
3. Click the View tab
4. Click “Add Control” and select the calendar control.
5. Click the dot for every interface from which you want the calendar control to be available.

You will then need to map the calendar fields to the desired values. For example, if you want the date to be based on estimated close date, you would select estimatedclosedate for the Start date.

How do I switch to the normal list view?

To switch back to the list of records, click the “…” button on the command bar, and select read only or editable grid (if enabled) to toggle to the normal list view.

I have multiple date fields that I would like to display on the calendar–can I do that?

The calendar control properties allow you to specify two different date fields–start date and end date. If you have two dates that are sequentially related, such as schedule date and installation date, you can map both of these values, and that will determine the time block duration of the item on the calendar view. If you have multiple unrelated dates or want to have different views displaying different dates, the calendar control is not designed to work that way.

This post is part of the Hands On With Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 R2 New Features series in which I am going hands on with the new features introduced in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 R2 (which was released on the 2^nd October). I reblogged the new features as Microsoft announced them along with some commentary of how I thought they would be received by both my clients and I. In this series, I will be hands on with them giving feedback of how well they work in reality.

The sixth new feature is Print Invoices in Functional Currency from SOP Navigation List. This feature of the day is one I requested back in 2014 on behalf of a client; it is the ability to print an invoice in Functional, by changing the Currency to Print drop-down, from the navigation:

In the feature of the day post, I welcomed this change, and I still do, but unfortunately it doesn’t actually go far enough.

The feature covers printing from the navigation list in originating currency, but, unfortunately, hs not been extended to emailing from the navigation list. Microsoft have met the parameters of the suggestion I made, but have not made the next logical change which would allow emailing; emailing of sales orders have become much more prevalent since 2014.

Click to show/hide the Hands On With Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 R2 New Features Series Index

Read original post Hands On With Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 R2 New Features: Print Invoices in Functional Currency from SOP Navigation List at azurecurve|Ramblings of a Dynamics GP Consultant

My seventh book is now available to buy in eBook format from azurecurve Publishing, paperback and Kindle versions from Amazon US and UK.

This is a new update to the Workflow book I’ve written a couple of prior editions over the last few years. This edition includes coverage of the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018, and four additional chapters on customizing the workflow notification emails and securing web services, and some chapters and sections have been rewritten to either expand or make clearer the topics being covered.

eBook	Paperback
azurecurve	Amazon US	Amazon UK

Microsoft Dynamics GP is a popular enterprise resource planning (ERP) application used by tens of thousands of sites around the world to keep the accounting, financial, distribution and manufacturing functions running day in and day out.

Dynamics GP includes a variety of tools and modules to assist in controlling processes and data; one of the major modules for this was the Dynamics Workflow module. However, this module had major flaws which very much limited its usefulness; it was slow, clunky and difficult to install, configure and maintain.

As of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 R2 this Workflow module has been replaced with a new one; Workflow 2.0. This new module lives entirely within Dynamics GP itself, thereby removing the dependency on SharePoint; this has the dual benefit of making Workflow 2.0 easy to setup, configure workflow processes and maintain on an ongoing basis.

This book, the second edition, introduces the concepts of workflow and moves onto Workflow 2.0. It covers the creation of both simple and complex document based workflow processes, a non-document based workflow, how users interact with the workflow process, including email notifications and email actions, before wrapping up with a step-by-step install and verification of the Web Services for Microsoft Dynamics GP.

Who This Book Is For

This book is aimed at Dynamics GP users, partners and consultants who intend to utilize Workflow to gain more control of the approval process.

This book assumes you have very basic knowledge of Windows Server, Active Directory for creating users and groups and a basic knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics GP. The final chapter is aimed at a more technical user than the rest of the book.

eBook Format

The eBook is available in four formats: PDF, MOBI, EPUB and LIT.

What This Book Covers

This book introduces the basic concepts of workflow as well as how a project implementing workflow might be run, before moving onto the Microsoft Dynamics GP Workflow module.

The next section of the book covers the creation of both simple and complex document workflows, a non-document workflow and how users interact with the workflow process, including email notifications and actions.

The last five chapters are aimed at more technical users and cover adding additional table joins, customizing the notification emails by adding extra fields and deploying and securing Web Services for Microsoft Dynamics GP.

How This Book Is Structured

Chapter 1, Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics Workflow, introduces the basic concepts of workflow and then the functionality of Microsoft Dynamics GP Workflow.
Chapter 2, Workflow Implementation Project Lifecycle, covers the stages of a workflow implementation project from initiation, though design, build, UAT to go-live.
Chapter 3, Setting up Microsoft Dynamics GP Workflow, covers the setup of Workflow.
Chapter 4, Workflow Maintenance, introduces the Workflow Maintenance window and how a workflow process is created and activated.
Chapter 5, Creating a Simple Batch Approval Workflow, covers the creation of a simple General Ledger Batch Approval workflow process.
Chapter 6, Interacting with the workflow process, covers the ways of interacting with the workflow process including E-mail for Workflow and E-mail Actions.
Chapter 7, Creating a Complex Purchase Requisition Workflow, covers the creation of a complex purchase requisition workflow process.
Chapter 8, Creating a Vendor Approval Workflow, covers the creation of a vendor approval workflow.
Chapter 9, Adding Additional Tables for Workflow Conditions, covers the creation of new table relationships to extend the available workflow conditions.
Chapter 10, Customizing the Workflow Notification Emails, covers the customization of the workflow notification emails using HTML tags.
Chapter 11, Adding Additional Fields to Workflow Notification Emails, covers the creation of new fields for inclusion on the workflow notification emails.
Chapter 12, Installing Web Services for Microsoft Dynamics GP, covers the installation, configuration and verification of the Web Services for Microsoft Dynamics GP which are required if E-mail Actions are going to be used.
Chapter 13, Security Web Services for Microsoft Dynamics GP for External Access, covers securing the Web Services, installed in chapter 12, Installing Web Services for Microsoft Dynamics GP, with an SSL certificate for external access.

How much does it cost?

The book will cost $24.99 for the eBook version and $34.99/£29.99/€34.99 for the paperback.

eBook Launch Discount

Enter coupon code WF3RDLAUNCH in the Checkout on azurecurve Publishing for 33% off the eBook until Christmas Day 2018.

Is there be a paperback format

Yes, in addition to the eBook version, there is also a paperback version available from Amazon.

Where can I buy the book?

Right here for the eBook and for the paperback from Amazon US or Amazon UK.

Read original post Microsoft Dynamics GP Workflow Third Edition Now Available as eBook and Paperback at azurecurve|Ramblings of a Dynamics GP Consultant

For part 5 of the Dynamics 365 App for Outlook series, we are going focus on specific appointment tracking scenarios. In the following post, we will break down contacts.

Let's get into it…

If I receive a meeting request, can I track this into Dynamics 365?

You cannot track a meeting request. You will receive the message below from the email list view:

Or if you open the meeting invite item, you will see the App is grayed out.

You also cannot track meeting replies (a reply that states someone accepted your meeting request).

However if you accept the meeting request, you can track the appointment only if this was sent from a Non-Dynamics user such as a Contact or an external email. See below:

Can I track an appointment sent to me from another Dynamics User?

No, if this was sent from another Dynamics 365 user, you will not be able to track this appointment and you will receive the following message instead of the tracking options. There is a setting that affects how this works. I will be updating this blog post for this scenario specifically in the coming weeks.

When I create an appointment with attendees and send the meeting request, is this tracked and does it reflect as tracked on the Appointment shown in my calendar?

When I create a new appointment in Outlook with required attendees, it sends a meeting request but also creates an appointment on your calendar. When creating an appointment, before I send it (compose mode), I can open the App for Outlook and track it.

After it is sent, the meeting request that exists in your sent items does not actually show as tracked.

But the appointment on your calendar does

What happens when I change the date or start and end times of an appointment in Outlook that is synchronized to Dynamics?

This will reflect the changes in Dynamics. If this has meeting recipients, they will also receive an update to the original meeting as you would expect with normal Outlook functionality. You can actually move the dates ahead to a future date or if it is a meeting that already occurred, you can move it backwards. You will want to review the bottom of this post for how we synchronize historical appointments.

When resolving recipient email addresses to records in Dynamics, if there is more than one record in Dynamics with the same email address, which record is it resolved to?

It resolves using the method below:

If there are duplicate records within Dynamics 365 with the same email address, the contents of the appointment From field will resolve to the first active record in the following order on an appointment:

a. SystemUser- should always be first
b. Contact
c. Account
d. Lead
e. Equipment
f. Team
g. Business unit
h. Email-enabled entities (for example: Queues, custom, etc.)

Appointment recipients will not resolve to inactive User records in the From field. There is a setting to resolve to other inactive entity records but this does not include inactive Users: ResolveForInactiveEntities

Here are some additional points on how it resolves recipient email addresses in the To or CC field of an appointment:

If there is an inactive user in the recipients line, the App for Outlook may show that the user matches the email address, but when you track, the promotion will not resolve to that email for the inactive user and it will show up in red as unresolved. It will not resolve to inactive users regardless of the ResolveForInactiveEntities setting.

If the email address is tied to an active user, it will display that in the App for Outlook recipients pane, but it will still resolve to each active Dynamics record with that email address once it is promoted, as long as Set To,cc,bcc fields to unresolved values if multiple matches are found is set to No in System Settings. If this is set to yes, they will show as unresolved. Also, if the ResolveForInactiveEntities setting is True, it will resolve to inactive entity records except inactive Users.

One important thing to mention here is that the emails addresses on the appointment do NOT resolve to records only in the default email address fields within Dynamics. If you have a custom Single Line of Text field with Email format on a Contact record, you may see some interesting results. (Additional screenshots are available in Part 4- working with Emails)

For example

• Bob Jones is a user inside Dynamics, and on the User form, the email data field of “Primary Email” has the value Bob@test.com
• There is an Opportunity record named “BobOpp” with the email data field of “Email” set to Bob@test.com
• There is a Case record named “BobCase” with the email data field of “Email” set to Bob@test.com
• There is a Contact record named “Leslie Baker” set to primary email of Baker@test.com with the email data field of “Contact Approver” set to Bob@test.com
• There is another Contact record named “Greg Marcus” set to primary email of Marcus@test.com with the email data field of “Contact Approver” set to Bob@test.com
• There is another Contact record named “Happy Hogan” set to primary email of Hogan@test.com with the email data field of “Contact Approver” set to Bob@test.com
• The System Setting of “Set To,cc,bcc fields as unresolved values if multiple matches are found in Incoming Emails” is set to No
• There is an appointment on Bob’s calendar where Bob@test.com is a recipient on the To: and CC: line

If this appointment is promoted into Dynamics through the Dynamics App for Outlook (as an example), the promoted appointment in Dynamics will show the following values:

To: Bob Jones; BobOpp; BobCase; Leslie Baker; Greg Marcus; Happy Hogan

CC: Bob Jones; BobOpp; BobCase; Leslie Baker; Greg Marcus; Happy Hogan

How can I tell from Outlook if an appointment is tracked in Dynamics?

As mentioned in the last post, if you are familiar with the legacy Outlook client, there was an icon that appeared on tracked items, making it easy to determine if the record was tracked. Unfortunately, with the App for Outlook, there is no icon to show if it is tracked. Additionally, there is no option to pin the App on Appointments. You can see below that the icon to pin the App is missing.

You would need to use Category Tracking, which shows a specified category for Tracked in Dynamics 365. I will not be going into this during this blog series. We may be looking at this in a future post. However, be sure you test this feature thoroughly to ensure it works for your needs.

What happens when I untrack an Appointment from Outlook?

If you untrack an appointment, you will get the option to untrack or remove the link to the record. If you own the appointment record, you will also get the option to delete the appointment

How do we synchronize historical appointments?

This is likely one of the most common questions I encounter.

Appointments in the past: You can still track a past appointment that already exists in Outlook into Dynamics 365, which will create the appointment record in Dynamics, but Dynamics 365 doesn’t synchronize changes on these past appointments or send historical meeting invites.

However, if you are also creating a historical appointment in Outlook prior to tracking into Dynamics, Outlook will still send a meeting request. This will happen with standard Outlook functionality regardless of if the App for Outlook is used or not.

Recurring appointments: In Outlook, a series of appointments can have no end time, but in Dynamics 365, instances as part of the recurring appointment will be created if the instance is either within the near future (12 months), or was modified as an exception of the series.

Service activities and service appointments: You can push service appointments in Dynamics 365 to Outlook as a regular appointment, but the appointment in Outlook won’t sync back to Dynamics 365, and you should always modify the service appointment in Dynamics 365 to provide consistency. Directly updating the appointment in Outlook is not allowed nor recommended.

Which appointments are tracked immediately vs. asynchronously?

At the time of this post, this is the most recent functionality

Our business has requirements to display the appointment form differently for different business units. Why don’t I see the option to create a new appointment form in Dynamics?

It is a current design that we have only one appointment form due to the tight integration with the fields required by Exchange and Outlook. This has been brought up many times and there is a Product Enhancement Suggestion here.

How are tracked Appointment deletions handled?

Appointment deletions in Dynamics 365

• Deleting a tracked appointment in Microsoft Dynamics 365 deletes the appointment in Outlook if the following is true:
  • The appointment is current.
  • You are the owner or organizer of the appointment record.

Appointment deletions in Outlook

• Deleting a tracked appointment in Outlook deletes the appointment in Microsoft Dynamics 365.
• If you stop tracking an appointment, App for Outlook asks whether you want to delete the appointment from Microsoft Dynamics 365. The appointment record is deleted in Microsoft Dynamics App if the following is true:
  • The appointment is current.
  • You are the owner of the appointment record.

Stay tuned next week for the rest of this series!

Aaron Richards

Businesses all over the world are leveraging Shopify to sell their products – and their companies are growing.

If you’re one of the many e-commerce companies who are successfully transacting on Shopify – ask yourself - is your retail front-end outgrowing your back-office capabilities? As your e-commerce business grows, increased sales impact your supply chain and fulfillment. Effectively managing inventory levels and shipping are critical to supporting increasing sales growth.

Whether you are a startup business managing your back office financial needs on spreadsheets, or a small to medium business operating on an entry level accounting software system, with your e-commerce success, transitioning to an integrated solution experience can position your company to harness the growth opportunity. Sound good?

And, it’s not too good to be true. Connecting two industry solution powerhouses, Shopify and Microsoft, provides growing businesses, like yours, the business solution platform to support your company. The Shopify Connector brings together the easy to use, complete e-commerce solution Shopify, that supported your online store growth, with the all-in-one business management solution from Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

It’s no longer a company vision, but a business requirement. To maintain your e-commerce growth projections eliminating double entry across systems, reducing human error and streaming order processing is a must.

Again, still believe it’s too good to be true?  Try it.  For free. Contact us and we’ll show you how.
Email: bizdev@velosio.com
Phone: 888-725-2555

By Velosio www.velosio.com

You are invited to join your peers at User Group Focus North America, located in Houston, Texas, March 11-12, 2019 for concentrated Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations and Dynamics AX education. Register here.

User Group Focus is a can't miss, deep-dive training event. Attendees will be able to:

• Sharpen your skills and learn best practices to further your job role, career, and product investment.
• Network with peers who are in similar roles and face the same issues on a daily basis.
• Dig deeper into the topics most pertinent for success in your role. Each 90-minute session is taught by a technical or functional expert and features primarily intermediate-level content.

Submit session ideas through December 14
As an event built by users for users, the programming committee relies on the volunteer efforts of the community to provide the most relevant and useful deep-dive session topics. This year's Dynamics 365/AX tracks are:

• Trade & Logistics: Mix of educational topics, best practice case studies, and engaging discussions focused on streamlining your Supply Chain.
• Finance & Functional: Drive improved finance and accounting decisions and  learn how to make effective use of your system, such as AR/AP, Budgeting, and Compliance/Audit.
• Implementations, Upgrades & Updates:Sessions on using lifecycle services and integrating ISV solutions, understanding Microsoft’s new continuous update model, and Azure functionality.
• Data Migration & Management:All aspects related the data migration and management tools that aid in the upgrade or re-implementation process, and how to plan for data clean-up and migration.
• Development & DevOps: Customizing, creating integrations, and development, such as mobile applications and custom fields.
• Power Platform Integrations in D365FO: How to build integrations between D365FO and Microsoft’s Power platform (PowerApps, Power BI and Flow), using the Common Data Service as a foundation. 

You will also be able to attend Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement & Dynamics CRM deep-dive sessions at no additional charge. Dive in deep and emerge the expert you always knew you could be! Save $100 on registration through January 15.