Took over three months to fix critical credential leak.

This is less than ideal. Microsoft exposed private TLS key for Dynamics 365

The post Microsoft exposed private TLS key for Dynamics 365 appeared first on DynamicAccounting.net.

Two weeks ago I informed you about the release of version 1.4 of the Visual Jobs Scheduler, our add-in for visual project planning in Dynamics NAV. Since the features are so powerful I could only briefly outline them. In the meantime you may have tested some of the new features and perhaps have seen for yourselves how mighty and comprehensive they are. As I promised, I’m writing today to dig deeper into one particular feature. As it happens, a customer asked for this feature explicitly and so I’m sure it will be of great interest to most of you.

I’ve recently dealt with a user having difficulties trying to regain access into Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016. The user reported an issue where there are no entities showing in the sitemap. The landing page is also showing error prompts stating that the users does not have sufficient permissions to view the appropriate dashboards and activity feed. This seemed surprisingly odd given that I’ve already given the user the System Administrator role.

The following screenshots shows the user accessing the sitemap for Sales and Service, with the out-of-the-box and custom entities missing in the sitemap.

After further investigation and checking user settings, I noticed that the field Access Mode under the section “Client Access Licence (CAL) Information” in the Administration tab is set to Administrative.

Setting this to Read-Write resolved the issue for the user, allowing the user to access Dynamics CRM as usual, with out-of-the-box and custom entities available through the sitemap.

Client Access Licence (CAL) is a commercial software licence that allows clients to connect to Microsoft Dynamics CRM with underlying right to access components, services, and other parts of Dynamics CRM. This additional layer of security gives users additional accessibility settings to Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Having CAL = Administrative doesn’t particularly sound useful given our case, as the user is not able to access anything in the system. Further exploring on CAL is when setting CAL = Read, users can access components in the Site Map and view records as per usual, but cannot edit any record information in Dynamics CRM. All records are currently set to read-only, and the user has only limited actions to do e.g. Email A Link, Run Report on the entity record. I could see this being used for users trying to administer and monitor data in Dynamics CRM but not use the actual system itself and have highly limited functionality of only reading data. This is speculating from my findings and implying as to how Microsoft would intend CAL to work in Dynamics CRM.

The continued focus on delivering personalized experiences and engaging customers with intelligent insights has been Microsoft’s main concern. With the launch of the latest edition of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, workspaces are now directly embedded into the system, enabling users to access powerful, and timely data without having to leave the Dynamics 365 interface. With workspaces, you can get a bird’s eye view of all your business processes and tasks at one central location in the form of dashboards with quick links to commonly used operational areas and business functions, improving the efficiency and productivity of users. What’s more, you can embed Power BI into your workspaces and get up-to-date views of your business.

Create your Own Workspaces

The Workspace feature in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations is remarkable. While the system comes with a number of pre-built workspaces, what’s exciting is the ability to create your own personal workspace.

• Go to the dashboard and select personalize.
• Click on the + Add workspace option and automatically create a new workspace tile on the dashboard.
• Right-click on the tile and give it an appropriate name.
• Add components and content of your choice in the form of a tile, a simple or tabular list or a hyperlink.
• Customize the list before it is created in the workspace.
• You can also add Power BI components to the workspace using the Open report catalog menu point.

Leverage the Capabilities of Mobile Workspaces

Mobile workspaces in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations work across all major mobile platforms. You can create and enable business process experiences on mobile devices of any form factor, with purpose-built workspaces for various functions such as expenses, timesheets, invoices, and more. All these workspaces are contained within one app, and you can download them from Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

• These workspaces are easily configurable without requiring core development skills
• You can easily enter data into various workspaces and share the information with your team
• The interface is easy to use – the UI is clean with minimal functions
• Enjoy offline capabilities – enter data and upload receipts even when you’re not connected to the Internet, and have changes sync immediately as soon as you come back online
• Validate expense and timesheet policies in real-time within the app

Make the most of Analytical Workspaces

Power BI enables you to deliver critical business intelligence in the form of rich interactive visuals, dashboards and reports. And with Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, you can now embed Power BI content packs directly into a workspace. The resulting analytical workspaces deliver rich, interactive reports, enabling you to focus more on reporting and analytics and less on administrative work.

• Personalize your workspace by choosing from a variety of Power BI tiles
• Access Power BI within analytical workspaces without navigating away from Dynamics 365
• Use embedded analytical views to get insightful and interactive views of your business data
• Drill-down past visuals for more in-depth data analysis
• Enjoy a simplified and secure user experience and leverage embedded Power BI as a powerful tool for analytics

Improve your Productivity

Workspaces in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations are the perfect way to empower users to make faster decisions based on real-time, contextual information. Create your own workspace, enjoy the capabilities of mobile workspaces, and embed business intelligence using analytical workspaces directly within the context of your business processes. Get a quick glance of your business, perform simple what-if operations without leaving the workspace, enjoy an interactive experience at all times, and improve your productivity by exploring data and discovering hidden trends.

Microsoft NAV 2018 is here!  Many firms will be excited about the tighter integration to Office365, Power BI, Microsoft Flow, Dynamics 365 for Sales, and many others.

Another important feature Microsoft is emphasizing to customers is lower implementation costs. Moving from one platform to another is always challenging, and lowering the barriers to make this change is critical in order for customers to migrate new platform versions. This is especially important for customers who want their employees to leverage office productivity tools within their ERP processes.

The Inside Microsoft Dynamics GP blog has started a series Feature of the Day posts for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 RTM; as the most recent versions have been, these posts are in the form of PowerPoint slides; I am reposting them here so they can be read more easily as well as adding my won commentary.

The series index for this series of posts is here.

This delayed Feature of the Day (I think I missed the official post when it was posted) is One Payment Per Vendor/Invoice Setting on the Vendor Card which allows the user to decide, on a per vendor basis, if one payment should be produced per vendor or invoice:

When the payment batch is built in, the Build Payment Batch window there is a drop down list where this new setting is the default:

It can be overridden and set to Vendor or Invoice if required. The default option for a new vendor, is Vendor which is good as this is the current default for the drop down list on Select Cheques (or Checks) on previous versions of Dynamics GP.

Click to show/hide the MDGP 2018 RTM Feature of the Day Series Index

Read original post MDGP 2018 RTM Feature of the Day: One Payment Per Vendor/Invoice Setting on Vendor Card at azurecurve|Ramblings of a Dynamics GP Consultant

Why Some Organizations Continue to Prosper

The most critical component in creating a high performance sales team is attracting and selecting the right level of talent, however, hiring correctly is still the number ONE problem in most organizations.  While the jury is still out on the on college national signing day and their recruitment of high school seniors, and if you follow college football you saw Alabama again win the talent contest for football players. As a Sales Manager, wouldn’t you like to be in the positon of Nick Saban, coach at Alabama,  as they  refilled their talent pool,  Alabama actually turned down players that were highly rated.

What we saw at the Super Bowl on Sunday was something similar. What we saw at the Super Bowl for those of you who are not aware of the Sunday’s event; with very little time Tom Brady lead his team back from a 21 point deficit to win his 5^th Super Bowl ring.  The record shows that he has accomplished similar come from behind victories every year. On ESPN he was quoted:  I kept telling myself and my teammates that we can still win this game.   While sport’s analogies are cliché, the odds of winning were with the Patriots, however the amazing story was Howie Long, FOX Analyst, comments that with Tom Brady, the Patriots have won 5 Super Bowls with a large number of new receivers, something like 50 different offensive linemen, 20+ new running backs and many new positon coaches-yet excellence has continued. How have they continued to create a successful organization?

While being interviewed, Bob Kraft, the Patriots owner, kept talking about not only culture, but organization process, attention to details and a focus on quality. They know that each year players/coaches will retire, move to new organizations, (they are losing their Offensive Coordinator today) and others will be let go. They have to be ready and continue to keep their talent levels and training programs at a constant peak.

I titled this blog: Now is the time to recruit—not necessarily to hire-is also important.  Recruiting must be a constant focus of sales management.  At this time of year many top performers are assessing their current employer and are asking themselves if they are positioned with a winner or if the frustrations of the past year or two have been worthwhile and if they have progressed professionally.  If you are not constantly seeking new and better talent, you will find that the top sales talent, may not be looking when you are.  We always tell our clients that they need to develop a marketing campaign to recruit talent as well as to find prospects-both pipelines are critical.

Recruiting is not hiring. In my book I mention recruiting is 20% of the Sales Managers job, it is that important to add quality to your sales organization. Honestly evaluating your current talent is important. In our SLAMMED! Sales Management Boot Camp we start the entire program with this exercise, with an honest evaluation you will be in position to recruit and hire more effectively.  Build an interviewing process, stick to it, have at least 3 people interview each candidate, be skeptical and you will see the results of your efforts-just like Bob Kraft or Tom Brady.

Also in our book, “Recruiting and Hiring a High Performance Sales Team”, I suggest that for every one salesperson you hire, you need to interview five and that a minimum of three people interview each person. While I can’t get into a complete recruiting, interviewing and hiring process in this blog, building a recruiting machine with a defined interviewing process will help you take the emotion out of hiring and help you select the winners required to make your organization a “super team”.

Our website has a free video on Hiring Smart and our On Line Sales Manager’s Tool Kit includes a complete interviewing kit as well as a 3 week New-Hire On boarding training schedule. www.Acumenmanagement.com

Check out those resources then focus on execution.   I hope your new year is off and running-in the right direction!

Ken Thoreson “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 19 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for organizations throughout the world.

Ken was recently ranked for the fourth year in a row by Top Sales World magazine as one of the Top 50 Sales & Marketing Influencers. His blog has been rated in the sales blogs in the world!

Ken has written 5 books, his latest book is: SLAMMED! for First Time Sales Managers, Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.  Need more sales management resources? Check out his Sales Management Tool Kit or the Acumen Project and his new Ignite Your Sales Team online video training program for sales leaders.

Ken@AcumenMgmt.com  www.AcumenManagement.com

Blog:  www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

I nailed my 2017 predictions for Microsoft Dynamics GP, so let's see if I can do it again for 2018.

1. You will be underwhelmed by new features.

The GP team is effectively mining Microsoft Connect for new features. This means that new versions get little fixes and feature updates. Workflow gets incrementally better, the web client gets improvements, maybe a few rough spots get smoothed out, but there isn't a vision for things that will make you say "WOW". I'm happy to be wrong o...

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If your business relies on inventory and supply chain management, you know that these processes have a language all their own. Mastering that language, understanding its terms, is crucial to your success. It’s important for new hires as well as seasoned employees to know exactly what they’re talking about.

We came across an article posted on Sales Pad Insights that we found helpful. Here’s the glossary of inventory and supply chain management terms that should prove useful to your team too:

Assembly: this refers to an end item consisting of subassemblies or parts. Assemblies can often be disassembled back into their components.

Barcoding: We’ve all seen the barcoding on our packaged groceries. Computer systems can read nearly unlimited information that is contained in even a simple barcode and can decode it instantly. This saves time, money and resources as well as guarding against human error in the inventory and supply chain operation. Barcodes can contain information about anything you like – from retail goods to medical records and are now a widely used form of automatic data capture.

Bill of Materials (BOM): The bill of materials is basically a summary of all things needed for the manufacture of an end product. It should include materials, components and processes and any sub parts necessary to complete a process or product.

Cycle Counts: A common way to audit inventory is to count the items in a representative cycle or batch and extrapolate the whole from that sample.

Demand Planning: This stands for Demand and Planning and you will readily appreciate that being able to accurately predict the demand for your product will enable you to plan your inventory for maximizing profits.

Equipment Tracking: This process refers to the tracking of physical assets (such as inventory and products), either by scanning barcode labels attached to the assets or by using tags with GPS, BLE, or RFID which broadcast their location.

Inventory Adjustments: When your inventory increases or decreases due to theft, loss, damage or error, adjustments must be made to account for the difference.

Kitting; When individual items are packaged or made available as a group or “kit” to customers, it is referred to as Kitting. Unlike assemblies, kits are generally made at the time of sale.

Order Fulfillment: Order fulfillment refers to all steps your team takes between receiving an order and dispatching the finished item.

LIFO: ‘Last-in-first-out’ is an inventory valuation method which assumes that the last items placed in inventory are the first sold during an accounting year.

Manufacturing: The manufacturing process is the steps through which raw materials are transformed into a final product. The manufacturing process begins with the product design, and materials specification from which the product is made.

Receiving: This is an administrative function that involves checking the quality, quantity, and condition of incoming goods and assuring that they are properly distributed or stored.

Route Planning and Dispatch: Route planning involves the planning of routes and schedules for transporting goods. Dispatch is the actual assigning of drivers to routes, and managing the drivers and vehicles to ensure that orders are met and goods are delivered.

Serial/Lot Tracking: Items may have both serial and lot numbers. The ability to track these is an important part of the supply chain process and getting products from manufacturers to consumers safely and accurately and with accountability.

Whether you’re dealing with inventory management, order processing, or the basic ERP buzzwords, it doesn’t take long to realize it’s a language unto itself and it’s a crucial part of the world of distribution and manufacturing functionality. Understanding the important terms is a first step in successfully managing inventory and orders.

SalesPad functionality is designed to enhance your manufacturing and distribution business. Contact us to discuss how to streamline your business for greater results.

If you are a distribution company evaluating new software, or if you currently use Microsoft Dynamics GP, SalesPad or Acumatica, contact CAL Business Solutions sales@calszone.com or 860-485-0910 x4.

By CAL Business Solutions, Microsoft Dynamics GP & Acumatica partner, www.calszone.com/distribution

2017 Binary Stream Product Update

It's that time of year again!

Join us for the 2017 Binary Stream product update and hear the latest and greatest on updates to our products, as well as what's coming down the pike. We also have some exciting and fun little initiatives going on with sales that I'm sure many of you would love to be a part of.

Learn how you can get your next cup of Starbucks on us!

Don't miss out!

Learn about the 2017 Binary Stream Product Update

To get more information, please contact us from the Binary Stream website.

To read the rest of our articles on ERPSoftwareBlog, check us out here!

Written by Maria Louie, Marketing Specialist, Binary Stream Software

2017 Binary Stream Product Update

It's that time of year again!

Join us for the 2017 Binary Stream product update and hear the latest and greatest on updates to our products, as well as what's coming down the pike. We also have some exciting and fun little initiatives going on with sales that I'm sure many of you would love to be a part of.

Learn how you can get your next cup of Starbucks on us!

Don't miss out!

Learn about the 2017 Binary Stream Product Update

To get more information, please contact us from the Binary Stream website.

To read the rest of our articles on ERPSoftwareBlog, check us out here!

Written by Maria Louie, Marketing Specialist, Binary Stream Software