BroadPoint Tech Topics

Business Alerts

Business Alerts can be used to setup a notification when a set of defined conditions are met. These conditions can be defined on a specific database.

Business Alerts takes advantage of the query features of Microsoft SQL Server to monitor your data for specific conditions. For example, suppose that you want to be notified when a customer’s credit limit has been exceeded. In that case, you can use the Business Alert wizard to create a query that compares the credit limit amounts to the current amounts for your customers.

You can use the wizard to set up the schedule for the alert—that is, when, how often, and for how long you want Microsoft Dynamics GP to check whether the conditions you’ve defined exist. You also can specify a list of people to notify when those conditions occur.

You can create an unlimited number of business alerts, combining information from any of the tables in company or system databases. For example, you can compare the outstanding commissions per salesperson from the sales tables to commissions paid in the payroll tables.

Once you have created and enabled a business alert, the conditions will be checked according to the schedule you set up. Whenever the alert condition is found, an e-mail message is sent to the people or groups that you specified or a task is created for the user that you specified.

You can use any of the notification methods supported by your messaging system with Business Alerts. For example, you can notify alert recipients e-mail. You also can create tasks that will be displayed on their home pages and their task list whenever an alert condition is found.

Alert schedule and notification
Use the Schedule and Notification window to modify when, how often, and for how long Microsoft Dynamics GP will check whether the business alert conditions exist. Microsoft Dynamics GP will check your data for the conditions specified in the business alert formula at the intervals you set up here. You also can add or remove e-mail addresses or user IDs from the list of recipients for this business alert.

We've moved!

2009-10-04T19:16:00.000-07:00

Please visit us on our new website and new blog at: www.broadpoint.net/blog

Click here to visit us now!

Thank you for visiting us here, we will keep the content up and we hope that you will visit us at our new site.

To Tweet or not to Tweet: Can Social Networking Channels Enhance or Hinder you CRM Initiative?

2009-09-30T06:46:00.001-07:00

By Michael Dodd, BroadPoint Consultant

At first I was skeptical of Twitter. From what I read, the term “micro-blogging” seemed to me to be a fancy word for SMS message (even less so, seeing as you cannot exceed 140 characters). When I first started reading about Twitter in the New York Times, the thought of “Tweeting” seemed rather silly and solipsistic, not to mention somewhat unprofessional. However, 5 years ago I felt the same way about the blogging and Instant Messaging. But once these 2 social fads matured, they became an invaluable tool for professional internet communities.

Discussions about integrating Social Networks in Dynamics CRM is not a new concept. If you Wikipedia Social Media, you’ll find that almost anything in an online, user created context can be considered “Social Media” which can be used in a networking context.

And as history will show, it’s the simplest uses of web-based media that makes it into long lasting, mainstream networking channels (Newsgroups, IM, blogs).

So it came as no shock when I discovered that the new addition to the Dynamics CRM Accelerator for Social Networking’s primary focus was on Twitter. My skepticism in the use of Twitter as a CRM worthy social networking tool revolves around the fact that is has a distinct lack of structure. Yet it’s simplicity is undeniably its biggest asset.

So, despite my skepticism (and due in no small part to a recent update to my iPhone’s IM+ application which now includes Twitter integration) I decided to kick the tires. After all, how can I criticize that which I have not yet tried? It seems I have a duty to embrace all new forms of web based media.

Well, it’s been 2 months since I started using Twitter and I’m still skeptical.

How do you begin to use that information effectively?

Organizations that fit the B2C model probably have the most to benefit.

When used properly, social media can be a targeted approach to getting instant feedback from your clients.

First and foremost, anecdotal data (narrative text), it is subject to interpretation, bias, and inconsistencies. But the nature of Social Media anecdotes presents a number of potential pitfalls when used in the context of CRM:

1.) Visibility and transparency: Your are just as transparent as your clients. Transparency allows for more agile communications, but may also expose aspects of your business that are better handled 1 on 1.

2.) Anecdotal data from a social media source can prove difficult to compile/analyze: Whether verbose or succinct, it is difficult to aggregate Text data and even more difficult to report on it. How would you filter this data and under which CRM entity would it be stored? How will the user be able to relate this data to a pertinent CRM record? How will you organize the wealth of data that comes from LinkedIn discussions or Facebook status updates? Who will maintain this data?

3.) Reliability: Anecdotal data can be skewed by your own personal interpretation. So the key questions when it comes to integrating this data into Dynamics CRM is who will have access to this data and how will it be used? As a business process, who will be responsible for making decisions on such matters?

4.) Inconsistent Updates: Obviously, people using social media feel different things at different times. What they expose in a tweet one day may be recanted the next. Moreover, the nature of social media does not require one to be vigilant in their documentation. I may hate the service at XYZ restaurant and then Tweet about it. But the next day, I may have a splendid experience with XYZ Restaurant, but I have no obligation to update my view point the next time I tweet. How can such "Mood Ring" data prove a reliable source of personal information?

5.) One’s Social Persona is not their Professional Persona: People behave differently in their social life. Some tend to be bolder in what they Tweet than what they would say in person. And they don’t always think in a professional manner when they post on social media site the way they do when they write an email (or a blog article). It’s nice to know the social demeanor of your customer, but is this really going to be useful in a professional setting? Moreover, Is the information divulged in a social context appropriate for your next conversation? Finally, albeit public, would you customer feel comfortable that you’re monitoring their social (internet) life?

6.) Finally, will your company is your engagement in your client’s social media going to be a two-way street? If so, how do you present yourself in such a forum, knowing that you’re also speaking for your company when you speak with your client.

I would take a step back and think hard about using Social Media in your business endeavors. Twitter may not be the best place to gather insight into your clients. While it seems like an clever method of personal business intelligence, you need to consider:

Is it reliable?

Is it appropriate?

Is their significant ROI over traditional intelligence gather (face to face

Some people will take their clients out to lunch or to dinner and have good time, share personal information. But would they really want you to leverage that information in a professional setting? Moreover, how would that person feel about passing that information along to your entire company in CRM? This information could easily be misused by the wrong person.

Potential Challenges:

1.) Whimsical: Sometimes, it takes me up to a half hour to construct a Tweet. Sometimes less than a minute.

2.) Responses and tweet “chains”

3.) Tweets can be hard to analyze: For eg, “AT&T frustrates me to no end”. How would one respond to this tweet? Can we afford to spend the personnel hours to continue to follow this tweeter for more information? What if the user was simply having a bad day and takes it out on AT&T?

4.) Analysis of “soft” data can be subject to interpretation.

5.) What type of algorithm can dictate a meaningful tweet (eg, data that can be acted upon to increase sales, maintain satisfaction, solve an issue, gain insight, find useful suggestions, etc.

6.) Volume can be distracting.

Its Year End Time!

2009-09-25T07:48:00.001-07:00

Hello Dynamics GP Community,

Its Year End Time! Have you seen the new Advanced Payroll features? Please take a look as these items may be of interest to you! They were built to address complex payroll requirements and help ensure that your people work effectively from the start, and it empowers you to maximize your investment in a single, scalable Microsoft environment.

You’ll have the power to meet industry-specific requirements, streamline processes, and make business decisions based on precise, current information.

Advanced Pay Policies:

· Automatically calculate different pay rate

· Can be setup by company, dept., position & shift code

· They are actual and hypothetical calculations in windows

o hypothetically allows you to do stats

· @ employee maintenance window you can click to use add-on

Transaction Auto-Splits

· Setup percentage splits of gross wages, taxes, etc. across departments and roll-up to GL

Payroll Accruals

· Accruing Labor

· Better Reporting on #’s

o Produce more accurate financial reports by calculating estimated costs and posting them to GL by calendar date instead of pay period

o Select the pay runs to include in your calculation and preview the results

o Automatically reverse the entry in the following month by assigning a reversing date

Report Payroll – makes Advanced Labor Reporting easy

· Benefit Accrual Report

o You will need PTO Manager to run this report as it is tied to the PTO Manager module

· Dept Analysis Report

· Dept Analysis Summary Report

· Employee Analysis Report

· FTE YTD Report

For additional information and/or to schedule a demo, please contact your dedicated Account Manager. Also please stay tuned for info on Year End Closings Training Schedules.

Thanks!

Tunesia Winn

Support for Microsoft Dynamics GP 8.0 will be discontinued on October 13, 2009.

2009-09-22T05:45:00.000-07:00

When things work, it's easy to put off changing them-even if change brings benefits. If you've been putting off upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0, now is the time.

Support for Microsoft Dynamics GP 8.0 will be discontinued on October 13, 2009.

Gain efficiencies and create new opportunities with Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0:

Increase productivity with more tools for collaboration and role-based home pages, metrics, and navigation.
Make more informed decisions with robust Microsoft Office Excel reporting and ease of report distribution through Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. Get the right information to the right people at the right time.
Reduce cycle times with out-of-the-box workflows that can automate time-consuming processes and increase worker productivity.

It's easy to upgrade. Here's what to expect:

No cost for Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 software if you are currently on a service plan.
A familiar toolset right out of the box, with a look and feel that reflects the navigation of the Microsoft Office suite.
Help from your BroadPoint team to provide timely and cost-effective upgrade services.
If you are eligible, a limited-time special offer for customers who want to make the move to Business Ready Licensing and get even more for their investment.

Contact your Account Manager today to schedule your upgrade before time runs out.

Nadia Isata

Account Manager

BroadPoint Technologies

O: (301) 634-2403

Offline Functionality Simplifies Data Entry for 500 Users Worldwide

2009-09-17T11:58:00.001-07:00

PROPHIX Software is a leader in delivering performance management solutions including budgeting, planning, forecasting, reporting, consolidation, personnel planning and other advanced financial functions. PROPHIX streamlines business processes, and Kemira Chemicals, a global chemical manufacturing company headquartered in Finland, proves the application’s capabilities. With approximately 10,000 employees in 1700 cost centers, Kemira operates in the following businesses: Water Treatment Chemicals, Pulp & Paper Chemicals, and Oil & Mining Chemicals. The company’s technical infrastructure consisted of Hyperion Financial Manager for corporate reporting and Excel spreadsheets for budget data entry. A sudden decision to halt a current SAP project left Kemira seeking a budgeting system to implement quickly. Being a global company operating in 40 countries and 8 currencies, Kemira needed an easy-to-use system that handled multiple currencies, complex allocations, and data consolidation.

PROPHIX Performance Management fulfilled Kemira’s requirements and also offered a capability that would simplify their processes. PROPHIX’s offline data entry functions allowed the ability to send templates via e-mail, track the status, and automatically load template data when completed. “Because we needed to collect budget data in a standard format from over 500 users located throughout the world, the offline functionality was a major tool for us,” says Jeff Fasy, former CFO at Kemira. “Because of its offline capabilities, PROPHIX was implemented to collect, analyze, and report Cost Center, Intercompany, Profit & Loss, and Balance Sheet data.”

With PROPHIX, Kemira gained the ability to automate currency conversion, perform ad hoc reporting, and simplify report distribution. Kemira’s currency conversion process consists of converting to EUROs and USDs from various cost centers. By using templates, entering budget data is straightforward regardless of currency because exchange rates are kept separately, which can be changed easily during the budget cycle. “Additionally, we were able to quickly develop ad hoc reports to view expenses by legal entity. This helped us determine our course of action when budgeted expenses were higher than expected,” says Jeff. Consolidated data was then easily distributed. The report binder functionality was used to effectively distribute groups of reports to each country controller. Sending set groups of reports via e-mail ensured that stakeholders received information on time.

Kemira has gained more time for analysis because PROPHIX eliminated the need to manually load data, perform consolidations, and export final numbers to Hyperion Financial Manager. Ultimately, creating budgets in PROPHIX has integrated data across their Line of Business Systems, easing the collaboration across the global organization.

For more information on how PROPHIX can help your organization move beyond spreadsheets with real time access to information within weeks, please reach out to Kimberly Owens at 704-987-9989 or kowens@broadpoint.net. PROPHIX offers a significant return on investment and a low total cost of ownership.

Help with the MMREF format for Virginia Employment Commision

2009-09-15T05:43:00.000-07:00

By Tunesia Winn

Have you received a notice from The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) stating that as of 1/1/09 if you have more than 100 employees you are required to electronically file magnetic media and the wage information must be in the MMREF format for the quarterly VEC report?

If so you among hundreds of others getting this notification. The VEC is now mandating this and taking actions on those not in compliance. We’ve received emails and calls for quite a few clients in regards to whether it can be accomplished within MS Dynamics GP. While GP does not have the capability to complete the task, MS works with a 3rd party vendor, Greenshades that has a product to suit your needs. It’s called the State Filing Package and its cost is dependent upon the # of states in which you file.

Because of the high # of inquires we’ve received, we have reached out to Greenshades to provide discount pricing. They have approved a 15% discount on all State Filing Packages for BroadPoint clients only.

Please let me know if you would like more information and we can setup a time to chat.

Addition user discount, 25% off!

2009-09-11T06:23:00.001-07:00

Hurry save now - you only have a couple more weeks to save 25% on additional Business Ready Licensing users and Business Ready Licensing modules purchased at the time of a License Model Transition (LMT).

Offer ends September 25, 2009!

The offer is valid to customers current on their enhancement plan - this offer does not apply to lapsed customers.

For more details, please contact your dedicated Account Manager.

Tunesia Winn

(757) 413-2090

Account Manager

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 21

2009-09-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

Use the new Historical Inventory Trial Balance Report

The new Historical Inventory Trial Balance (HITB) report is designed to help balance inventory to the GL regardless of the inventory valuation method.

The Historical Inventory Trial Balance (HITB) report shows your inventory value as of a specific date or date range and the value of the five different quantity types. You can use this report to tie your inventory balance to General Ledger based on a specific date.

If you want to use this report, you will need to use the HITB reset Tool for Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0, Service Pack 2.

In order to track historical inventory information a new table was added in Dynamics GP 10.0, Service Pack 2. The tool will populate this table and it will also find a starting point where the value of your Inventory and General Ledger are the same.

Before running the tool, you will want to complete the process on a test company first.

Contact BroadPoint for help downloading this tool.

Learning plans

2009-09-08T03:17:00.000-07:00

Nadia Isata
Account Manager

Help your employees focus on specific goals and access the training they need to gain in depth product knowledge and obtain certifications!

Learning plans are a great tool to help your employees get trained on Microsoft Dynamics and related products. Training on Microsoft Dynamics is available in many formats to fit your needs – E-Learning, self-study training materials and instructor-led training – and certification exams for Microsoft Dynamics are available to validate your expertise. The learning plans outline every training and certification option available so your employees can choose the training that’s right for them. By becoming trained and certified in various disciplines, you and your employees can document your knowledge on Microsoft Dynamics products and unlock the full potential of your Microsoft Dynamics solution adding value and increased productivity to your business.

Download the PDF learning plans to start learning today! Your BroadPoint Account Manager will be available to discuss and review the best course for you to embark on.

http://www2.broadpoint.net/resources/GP/DynamicsGP10LearningPlan.pdf

Making GP do what you need it to do – without code.

2009-09-04T15:14:00.001-07:00

eOne is a company that develop tools for Dynamics GP (that eliminate the need for development) and you probably know us as the team that developed SmartList Builder, Excel Report Builder and Dynamics GP eXtender. This article is going to look at how to create a new screen in Dynamics GP that suits just what your business needs. We will then look at how to take the data you enter into this screen and create transactions or master records in GP based upon this data.

Building a new Screen

Using Microsoft Dynamics GP Extender V10 SP4, or eXtender enterprise you are able to build a brand new screen for Dynamics GP. You can add this new screen to a new menu, and no one will know that it is not a standard GP screen built specifically to capture the data you need, in the way you need to capture it.

In this example I had a customer that as a small part of their business took custom music CD orders. They needed a really user friendly way to record the phone orders they received.

Step one: This is where we built a new screen called “Custom CD Orders”. By labeling each of the fields as you can see below, and choosing a fields type we are building a new screen. There are 17 field types you can choose from. Here you can see we used Short Strings, Dates, Long Strings, Lookups, Currency, Lists and Calculated fields. So to build a new screen in GP takes as long as it takes to type 12 field labels.

Image 1

The screen we just built looks like this

Image 2

Notice how there are 4 buttons on this form that we have not yet talked about. To add this buttons you hit the Extra Windows button on the Form Design screen in image 1. Here we called the button ‘Address” and labeled the fields we want to track behind that button.

When you have labeled all the field on the new screen you need, and have agreed with the business that you have the data capture just right, the next thing to do is use the eXtender menu function to add the brand screen to a new menu. This means that the end user can not navigate to this window by going to TransactionsàCustom Orders.

Using SmartConnect to do something with this data.
He next thing we need to do is take the data from this window and when the order is confirmed create either a Purchase order on our supplier or an invoice to be fulfilled in AR or SOP. Using SmartConnect we are able to read the data right out of eXtender and create a SOP transaction.

Using the Map setup screen we are able to tell GP how the data we capture in eXtender should map.

You can see here we have used a real time eXtender data source, that will trigger whenever we save a new order entered into the Custom CD Order screen. Now we don’t want a Sales Order created until the phone order is finally approved so we have a restriction on the real time map.

The result of the SmartConnect map is that when the button called create invoice is ticked, the next time you save the screen, then an invoice in GP – automatically.

Mission
So the challenge is to take advantage of this amazing flexibility. Put on your thinking hats and determine all the data your business captures that should be inside of GP and not on paper, in Excel in Access. Use extended to build a screen to capture this data. THEN work out how much time you can save by taking this data and creating other transactions in GP. It could be calculating royalties or rebates, generating invoices or PO’s, creating a service call or even creating a record over in your CRM system. The possibilities are endless – and there is no one better to discuss this with than BroadPoint.

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 20

2009-09-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

Prioritize Your Vendors

Payables Management includes a 3 digit alphanumeric field used to prioritize vendors.

A simple ABC is generally more effective than a bunch of 3 digit numbers
For example: If you are a Newspaper Company ‘A’ could be used for highest priority vendors like a newsprint supplier.

Use this to actively decide which vendors are critical now, not when a crisis hits.

This field can be used to select vendors during he check selection process.

Cards > Vendor > Options
Payment Priority Field

We have released a new White Paper!

2009-09-01T05:52:00.000-07:00

A new white paper by BroadPoint explains how to pull more performance out of your accounting software and ERP software licenses

The White Paper "Squeeze Out Every Drop of Productivity: The Manager's Empowerment Guide to Improve Departmental Efficiency" to give business managers tools to build more efficient teams.

Dealing with cutbacks has become a way of life for most organizations, but creative managers can help their teams thrive even in these challenging times. Most organizations have barely tapped the potential of the office productivity software that they already own - there is plenty of room to squeeze. Adopting and incorporating currently owned software that supports collaboration and workflow can drive dramatic improvements in productivity. This White Paper gives several ideas on how.

Click here for your free White Paper.

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 19

2009-08-24T08:47:00.000-07:00

Use Account Aliases

Account Aliases are shortcut names for accounts and are setup in Cards > Financial > Account.

In transactions, instead of entering an account, click the blue arrow next to the account tile and enter the alias. If you're using a long account structure, aliases provide a quicker method of data entry.

CustomerSource and FREE Training!

2009-08-21T09:34:00.001-07:00

By Tunesia Winn

Hello everyone,

It’s come that time of the year that the kids are going back to school! With the thought of education in the air have you given any thought to refresher training? Maybe have a new employee you’d like to get ramped up on learning your solution.

Why not look to your online training resource, CustomerSource! Free eLearning through CustomerSource is available to all users current on their Microsoft Maintenance plan. If you are not sure what plan you have or if you are not current and would like to become current, please contact your dedicated Account Manager.

To access the Free eLearning site go to, https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/ and click on Training & Certification. From there you will find all eLearning courses. In addition to the eLearning courses, BroadPoint offers on-site and off-site training. If you are interested in scheduling a classroom training course, please contact your dedicated Account Manager.

We are here to help you become the master of your domain!

Thanks and Fall Forward with Learning!

On Demand FastPath Webinars due to popularity

2009-08-20T02:56:00.000-07:00

By Nadia Isata, Account Manager, BroadPoint Technologies

BroadPoint will be conducting a second on demand FastPath webcast for select customers, since the first was extremely popular. This webcast will show how Fastpath Audit Trail offers superior performance and configurability. Within a few hours, you can quickly know what was

changed, who changed it and the before and after values.

* Tracks changes made from inside Dynamics and external sources

* Extensive list of audit trail templates

* Quick implementation and ROI

* Best available performance and reporting for Microsoft Dynamics

Fastpath Config AD moves all user management to the IT help desk and eliminates potential security conflicts by taking all user administration out of Dynamics.

* Eliminates use of 'sa' and Administrator for better security management

* Streamline new hire, termination, and user change management.

* Fastpath has the only single sign on product for Dynamics GP

* Decrease user maintenance costs by 65%

Sessions will be scheduled on demand. If you would like to attend, please contact Nadia Isata at nisata@broadpoint.net or at (301) 634-2403.

Your Business Solution Road Map

2009-08-19T14:51:00.001-07:00

By Naida Isata, Account Manager, BroadPoint Technologies

Microsoft has developed “Your Business Solution Road map” tool to help you produce an implementation roadmap for customers. It merges the world of business process with the right Dynamics functionality and the people who need it. This enable customers on the Business Ready Licensing Business Essentials or Advanced Management edition to:

· Better understand long-term business objectives.

· Align business objectives with specific process improvements that will help reach these objectives.

· Develop a customized solution that deploys Dynamics broader and deeper into your organization to increase its ability to meet business objectives.

· Create a one-to-three-year implementation roadmap of the modules you already own, tailored to their solution and their unique business needs.

Schedule an Account Review with your Account Manager to develop Your Business Solution Road Map.

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 18

2009-08-17T08:21:00.000-07:00

Duplicate a Journal Entry

Let’s say that last month you keyed a journal entry that was 100 lines long. Then next month, you find out that you need to enter this same journal entry again this month but with a few changes. Is there an easy way to key it again? Even with a few changes?

SURE!

By using the Copy a Journal Entry functionality found in Transactions>Financial>General>Copy.

In version 8.0 Microsoft introduced Journal Entry corrections and copies. You now have the ability to copy a journal entry, easily.

In Transactions->Financial->General, select Copy
You now have an option to Copy a Journal Entry.

You will need the Journal Entry number (you can look it up) and year of the entry you want to copy.

**The look up on the JE Number can be time consuming; it would be faster if you know the Journal Entry Number.

By default, Copy only works for transactions that originated in the General Ledger. However, the administrator can change this behavior.

Tools>Setup>Financial>General Ledger now has new check boxes to control this functionality.

Voiding/Correcting of Subsidiary Transactions
Mark this option to allow transactions originating in other modules to be copied in General Ledger.

Vista and Microsoft Dynamics GP/ iMIS Users – can work together?

2009-08-13T12:33:00.001-07:00

By Venketesh Subramony

Vista has TCP Auto tuning and it just stops the internet / network traffic.

I found some clients were complaining after upgrade or installing iMIS /Microsoft Dynamics GP in Vista. Actually this is an issue with the new feature. Here is how you can work around. This is suggested by Microsoft.

Disable TCP Autotuning

Vista's issues with slow browsing and network operations can be, in part, due to problematic network devices such as NICs and routers, but also because the new TCP Receive Window Auto-Tuning Level.

Click Start and type CMD.

Press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER to open the command Prompt with Administrative rights.
At the prompt in the Administrator: Command Prompt window, type the following command,
and then press ENTER: netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

Now reboot your machine and see if it helps. In most cases, you will notice an improvement in file copy performance.

ASP:Menu will not work with IE8 / Chrome / Safari.

2009-08-11T05:09:00.000-07:00

An iMIS Tips and Tricks by Venketesh Subramony

Consultant, BroadPoint Technologies

Please add this in Master Page

protected override void AddedControl(Control control, int index)
{
if (Request.ServerVariables["http_user_agent"].IndexOf("Safari", StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase) != -1)
{
this.Page.ClientTarget = "uplevel";
}
base.AddedControl(control, index);
}

Also use the Browsercap in webconfig

<system.web>
<browserCaps>

<case match="^Mozilla/5\.0 $[^)]*$ (Gecko/[-\d]+)(?'VendorProductToken' (?'type'[^/\d]*)([\d]*)/(?'version'(?'major'\d+)(?'minor'\.\d+)(?'letters'\w*)))?">
browser=Gecko
<filter>
<case match="(Gecko/[-\d]+)(?'VendorProductToken' (?'type'[^/\d]*)([\d]*)/(?'version'(?'major'\d+)(?'minor'\.\d+)(?'letters'\w*)))">
type=${type}
</case>
<case> 
type=Mozilla
</case>
</filter>
frames=true
tables=true
cookies=true
javascript=true
javaapplets=true
ecmascriptversion=1.5
w3cdomversion=1.0
css1=true
css2=true
xml=true
tagwriter=System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter
<case match="rv:(?'version'(?'major'\d+)(?'minor'\.\d+)(?'letters'\w*))">
version=${version}
majorversion=0${major}
minorversion=0${minor}
<case match="^b" with="${letters}">
beta=true
</case>
</case>
</case>

<case match="AppleWebKit/(?'version'(?'major'\d?)(?'minor'\d{2})(?'letters'\w*)?)">
browser=AppleWebKit
version=${version}
majorversion=0${major}
minorversion=0.${minor}
frames=true
tables=true
cookies=true
javascript=true
javaapplets=true
ecmascriptversion=1.5
w3cdomversion=1.0
css1=true
css2=true
xml=true
tagwriter=System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter
<case match="AppleWebKit/(?'version'(?'major'\d)(?'minor'\d+)(?'letters'\w*))(.* )?(?'type'[^/\d]*)/.*( |$)">
type=${type}
</case>
</case>

<case match=".+[K|k]onqueror/(?'version'(?'major'\d+)(?'minor'(\.[\d])*)(?'letters'[^;]*));\s+(?'platform'[^;\)]*)(;|\))">
browser=Konqueror
version=${version}
majorversion=0${major}
minorversion=0${minor}
platform=${platform}
type=Konqueror
frames=true
tables=true
cookies=true
javascript=true
javaapplets=true
ecmascriptversion=1.5
w3cdomversion=1.0
css1=true
css2=true
xml=true
tagwriter=System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter
</case>

<case match="Opera[ /](?'version'(?'major'\d+)(?'minor'\.(?'minorint'\d+))(?'letters'\w*))">
<filter match="[7-9]" with="${major}">
tagwriter=System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter
</filter>
<filter>
<case match="7" with="${major}">
<filter>
<case match="[5-9]" with="${minorint}">
ecmascriptversion=1.5
</case>
<case>
ecmascriptversion=1.4
</case>
</filter>
</case>
<case match="[8-9]" with="${major}">
ecmascriptversion=1.5
</case>
</filter>
</case>
<case match="Chrome/(?'version'(?'major'\d+)(?'minor'\.\d+)\.\d+.\d+)\sSafari/\d+\.\d+">
browser=Chrome
version=${version}
majorversion=${major}
minorversion=${minor}
</case>
</browserCaps>
<system.web>

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 17

2009-08-10T09:19:00.000-07:00

Reduce the time it takes to create and distribute reports

SQL SERVER REPORTING SERVICES (SRS) helps summarize your data in Web-based charts and graphs. Build reports to support specific business activities, and share vital information across your organization.

Access reports easily from within Microsoft Dynamics GP or the Web. Let users log into the web site and access reports themselves, these reports can be printed or exported to excel.

ONLINE VIEWS offer forecasting insights that are easy to share across your organization or with designated vendors or contractors.

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services offers over 60 reports, you can use these sample reports either as-is or as templates for designing new reports.

Examples:

General Ledger Detail and Summary Trial Balance Reports.
Receivables Aged Trial Balance Report and Detail Historical Aged Trial Balance Reports.
Payables Aged Trial Balance Report and Detail Historical Aged Trial Balance Reports.
Open Purchase Orders Report: Purchase orders that have not been closed or canceled per vendor or for all vendors, including list views for the number, status, and date of each purchase order, assigned vendor, and line item detail.
Open Sales Orders Report: Unposted sales orders for a range of customers, including list views for the sales order number and date, customer information, requested ship date, amount remaining, assigned salesperson, and line item detail.
Customer Profitability Report: Sales, total profit, and gross margin percentage per customer for the selected year. Expandable customer ID offers a view of sales, total profit, and gross margin percentage by document number.
Inventory Value by Site Report: Bar graph of the value of inventory by site and the total inventory value for the company. Clickable inventory site bars display Inventory value by Site. Use the Item Number Report to view items and their total value for that site.
Item Quantity Back Order Report: Quantity of items that are back ordered, quantities allocated to purchase orders, and item quantities available for all sites.port to view items and their total value for that site.
Employee wage and Hour Report: Employee Pay Codes with hours and wage for each pay code.
Employee Pay History Report: Select Pay Codes and Departments to include showing historical employee pay history.
Employee Earnings Register: Snap shot of employee summary earnings.
Department Wage and Hour Report: Select departments and Pay Codes to include, hours and total paid for each department.

Write a WebService using your notepad

2009-08-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

An iMIS Tips and Tricks by Venketesh Subramony

Consultant, BroadPoint Technologies

You can write a webservice using a notepad editor. Also you can test this using your browser.

You can even test the webservice by browsing the asmx page in the browser.

<%@ WebService Language="C#" class="MyWebService" %>

using System;

using System.Web.Services;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.MySecureInfo;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using System.Data;

using System.Data.SqlClient;

using System.Configuration;

public struct MyInfo

{

public string variables;

}

[WebService(Namespace="http://microsoft.com/webservices/")]

public class MyWebService : WebService

{

private MyInfo MySecureInfo;

public MyWebService()

{

MySecureInfo.variables = "";

}

private void AssignValues(string variables)

{

try

{

// your code

}

catch

{

MySecureInfo.variables= variables;

}

[WebMethod(Description="This method call will get the company name and the price for a given MySecureInfo pID.",EnableSession=true)]

public MyInfo GetMyInfo(string pUserid,string pPassword)

{

AssignValues(pUserid,pPassword);

MyInfo MySecureInfoDetails = new MyInfo();

MySecureInfoDetails.variables = MySecureInfo. variables;

return MySecureInfoDetails;

}

What is PCI and Why is PCI Compliance important for you?

2009-08-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

For more information contact Kim Owens, (704) 987-9989

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of requirements designed to ensure that ALL companies that process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. Essentially any merchant that has a Merchant ID (MID).

Payment Card Industries (PCI) Security Standards Council members including Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, Discover, etc. continually monitor and fight payment card data theft. These compromises affect the full spectrum of merchants, from very small to very large organizations. A security breach of any sensitive data can lead to serious consequences, including:

Potential heavy financial penalties (ie, regulation violation fees & fines)
Loss of reputation
Loss of customers
Litigation
Merchant Account Revoke

Being PCI Compliance ensures that a merchant has met rigid PCI security standards. In addition, Visa mandates that any custom requires integrated credit card processing applications, it must be PA-DSS certified credit card processing applications by Oct 1, 2009. (See attached Visa Mandate). This so-called phase IV is intended to eliminate the continued use of vulnerable payment applications by acquirers, merchants and agents within the payment system.

Understanding this mandates, companies should make sure that their credit card processing software provider for their Dynamics ERP has been validated to be in compliant with PA-DSS. Using a certified credit card processing software will definitely help merchants to meet all security standards requirements and can achieve PCI compliance easier.

(Optional) Learn more about the importance of PCI compliance. Join us for a specialized webinar session where we will walk you through PCI’s payment application mandates and show how BroadPoint and their partner Nodus can help you to meet PCI security standards requirements.

Webservice Easy to implement using JQuery.

2009-08-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

An iMIS Tips and Tricks by Venketesh Subramony
Consultant, BroadPoint Technologies

The jQuery code is very simple and easy to learn.

Here are the features of jQuery

1. DOM element selections functions

2. DOM traversal and modification

3. Events

4. CSS manipulation

5. Effects and animations

6. Ajax

7. Extensibility

8. Utilities - such as browser version and the each function.

9. JavaScript Plugins

POST Method

GET Method

$.get("http://doman.com/webservice.asmx", { name: "John", time: "2pm" },
function(data){
alert("Data Loaded: " + data);
});

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 16

2009-08-03T07:21:00.000-07:00

Budgets Can Now be Tracked across Years

There are times when a fund or grant does not start on the first day of the fiscal year or end on the last day of the fiscal year. The life of the fund or grant sometimes also crosses over fiscal years. This feature provides the ability to budget based on a start and an end date in Microsoft Dynamics GP Release 10.0.

Not for Profit and Public Sector organizations often have the need to track funds and grants to associate expenses against money received. Funds are typically tracked as a segment of the General Ledger account segment in Microsoft Dynamics GP, and grants are often tracked as a Transaction Dimension Code within Analytical Accounting.

A few changes have been made to the budgeting windows in Microsoft Dynamics GP Version 10 to accommodate the ability to enter budget start and end dates. The Budget Maintenance window was updated with these changes.

Cards > Financial >Budgets

To enter start and end dates for a budget, you will need to select the Date Range in the Based On field.

If Fiscal Year is selected in the Based On field, budget functionality works as before, and no budget start and end date can be entered.

Budgets created in the Single Account Budget Maintenance window, using the Budget Wizard for Excel or in Analytical Accounting Budget Maintenance can also be based on a fiscal year or date range and allow for start and end dates to be entered for budgets.

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 15

2009-07-27T08:24:00.001-07:00

Protect yourself with Account Security

Account Security limits the accounts that users can access.
It requires setup via Organizational Structure.
If you don’t set up Organizational Structures prior to turning this on, it appears that the chart of accounts has been wiped out.
Know what you are doing before activating this.

Account security is designed to work with the Organizational Structure feature to limit access to certain accounts. Some organizations have a very complex account structure and it makes picking the right account easier if you limit a department to only be able to see their own accounts.

Organizational Structure provides information to define as many as four layers of structure within your business, and then to set up specific divisions, departments or other organizational groups. You can create relationships among different groups. You can assign accounts and users to different parts of the organizational structure.

Account Security is turned on with a check box in Tools->Setup->Company->Company.

You can see in the example below that this user is only allowed to see Department ‘200’ only.

What is xRM?

2009-07-24T08:28:00.000-07:00

Cool new video sheds light on xRM:

What is your x?

"The key question is: -do I need to track the information and activities related to this entity? If the answer is -yes, Microsoft CRM deserves some serious consideration.”

Check out more here with a white paper on what xRM can mean for you.

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 14

2009-07-20T07:15:00.000-07:00

Backup, Backup, Backup

If you are not backing up use the built in backup functionality in Microsoft Dynamics GP. This won’t get everything, you will still need to backup custom reports and forms, the Integrations Manager database and FRx reports, but backing up the database is a good start.

Dynamics GP 9.0 and 10.0 allows you to schedule backups from within the application. You'll need to be logged in to GP as an administrator and you'll need to be on the server.

Go to File> Backup [v9] / Maintenance > Backup [v10]

Enter the system password if you've set one.
When the backup window opens, pick Schedule.

Name the backup schedule
Pick the database to backup or backup the system databases
Enter the backup path (this must be a path on the local server)
Select the days to backup and the time. The time is entered is in a 24 hour format
Pick how often to delete old backups
Click Save. SQL Agent MUST be running when you click save

This process creates a job in the SQL agent with the information entered. You'll still need to move the backups off the server for real protection, that's easy with today's portable hard drives. There's no excuse for not backing up your Dynamics GP installation now.

Mobile Express for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

2009-07-17T05:34:00.000-07:00

By Todd Fleming, BroadPoint Technologies Senior Consultant

Mobile Express for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 extends the standard toolset of Microsoft Dynamics CRM to any mobile browser for online data access. The release is

· Compatible with any HTML device

· Browser independent

· Managed with metadata

· Delivers information in a dynamics, role-based UI

Mobile Express for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is an important part of the Power of Choice message Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers customers and is ideal for mobile scenarios in businesses with always connected environments, high speed networks and occasional access, and broad CRM usage.

This release has been built, tested, and now is supported by Microsoft.

Entities Available in Mobile Express

The following list describes the complete set of Microsoft Dynamics CRM entities that may be available in Mobile Express and how you can work with them in Mobile Express:

· Accounts: Enter a new account or review an existing account, which contains information about companies that do business with your organization.

· Addresses: Enter a new address or look up information for an existing account or contact.

· Appointments: Review existing appointments. An appointment does not include service activities or check for conflicts, and you cannot search for available times.

· Campaigns: Review existing campaigns.

· Cases: Review existing cases.

· Competitors: Review existing competitors.

· Contacts: Enter a new contact or review an existing contact.

· Contracts: Review existing contracts.

· E-mail Messages: Review sent, received, and pending e-mail messages.

· Faxes: Review faxes that have been entered into the system.

· Invoice Products: Review products associated with an invoice.

· Invoices: Review existing invoices.

· Leads: Enter a new lead or review existing leads.

· Letters: Track when a letter has been sent or received.

· Marketing Lists: Review existing marketing lists.

· Notes: Add a new note to an activity or a record, or review an existing note.

· Opportunities: Enter a new opportunity or review an existing opportunity.

· Order Products: Review products associated with an order.

· Orders: Review existing orders.

· Phone Calls: Track when phone calls have been received or made. You cannot dial a phone number directly from this form.

· Quote Products: Review products associated with a quote.

· Quotes: Review existing quotes for opportunities, accounts, or contacts.

· Service Activities: Review service activities.

· Tasks: Create a new task or review an existing task.

· Users: Review or search for people who have an active user account in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Referral Program offers customers $50 AMEX Gift Cards

2009-07-16T08:23:00.001-07:00

Our BroadPoint Referral Program has kicked off this week!

You remember what it was like not to have instant access to information through Smartlists, how long it took to close the books each month and how many clicks it took get to the transaction.

You probably have friends and associates that are still struggling with those same issues that are looking for solutions.

If you want to help your connections enjoy the same benefits that you do, we’ll thank you for a referral with a $50 AMEX gift certificate. If they are not currently a BroadPoint client and are interested in talking to us, you will have 50 thank you’s to spend.

If you have a contact that would benefit from working with BroadPoint Technologies, then let us know at www.Broadpoint.net/connections. We'll contact you & if your contact is interested in hearing from us then we will thank you with a $50 AMEX Gift Card.

The Evolution of Paper

2009-07-16T07:57:00.001-07:00

Kim Owens, Account Manager, BroadPoint Technologies

Humans first started documenting information on stone. Egyptians then created paper made from the reed of the Nile River. Thousands of years later, we are evolving away from our dependency on paper because of the time and the costs involved.

We have seen this evolution before with the introduction of computers to the workplace. They allowed offices to operation efficiently by eliminating mistakes caused by human error and reducing overhead costs because of time intensive tasks. We can now print out reports on demand which once took hours to produce. So why are we still spending hours performing manual tasks when it comes to managing our paper? Wouldn’t it be easier to manage the documents essential to our business electronically?

According to the October 9^th, 2009 issue of The Economist, the paperless office is finally a reality. In order to understand the reason for the push to paperless, let’s look at some staggering statistics:

We spend 20-30% of our time each day is spent filing, search and retrieving information
It costs $20 to file a document, $120 to find a misfiled document and $220 to replace a lost document
The average document is copied 19 times in its live
It costs $25,000 to fill a four drawer cabinet
1 out of 10 documents is lost or misfiled

How much money is pushing paper costing your company and how much is the technology to correct it? Just like the introduction of computers, new affordable technology is also driving the paperless revolution. Storage space on servers is inexpensive compared to 30 years ago and the costs of scanners have dropped significantly in the past decade. For example, you can store 400,000 documents on $80 of disk space compare to $75,000 in 1973.

Document Management and Electronic Workflow software doesn’t have to be expensive either. PaperSave delivers a seamlessly integrated solution with Dynamics built on SharePoint starting at only $5,000 for the first 3 users. So manage the information that drives your business, not the paper. To learn more on PaperSave and how affordable document imaging and electronic workflow is for your company, register for a webcast on July 16^th or July 30^th.

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 13

2009-07-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

Sub-Ledger Reconciler

Having issues reconciling the Payables Management or Receivable Manage sub-ledgers to the General Ledger? Version 10 has a new feature that helps with this.

Benefits:

Automatically match transactions for users
Identify any transaction discrepancies between the sub-ledger and the General Ledger

The Feature DOES NOT automatically do any of the below task to balance the sub-ledgers to the General Ledger:

Fix imbalances between the sub-ledgers and the General Ledger
Correct posted transactions
Back out posted transactions
Void existing transactions
Recreate new adjusting transaction

Reconcile to GL

You can select one or more Accounts Receivables or Accounts Payable Accounts from the General Ledger that hold the posted outstanding balances. The balance of all the accounts entered in this window is the amount to which the Sub-ledger balance is reconciled against.

For example you could have the Accounts Payable account and the Purchase Discounts Available Accounts.

Reconcile Process

The balances Include:

Beginning balances
The difference between the beginning balances
Transactions entered during the date range specified
The total ending balance
The difference between the ending balances

Microsoft Dynamics GP matches transactions from Payables or Receivables Management to the distribution line in the General Ledger.

Transactions that exist in both ether sub-ledger and General Ledger
Transactions that exist in either the sub-ledger or General Ledger, but not both
Transactions that potentially match, but don’t meet all the matching criteria

Reconcile Report

Analysis of the reconciliation results is an important aspect of the process. In order to provide the appropriate tools to perform an analysis the results are sent to an Excel spreadsheet. Excel provides the typical functionality of an spreadsheet.

You can save each spreadsheet to document your exceptions and how they were handled by adding a comment to your Journal Entry noting the action taken to fix the problem.

Newsgroups within PartnerSource

2009-07-13T07:55:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: Tips and Tricks,Microsoft Dynamics GP,Tunesia Winn,Expert Advice

Hello BroadPoint Clients,

It’s me Tunesia Winn, VA Territory Account Manager. Have you looked for Newsgroups within PartnerSource lately?

If you are asking the questions:

1. Where are the unmanaged Newsgroups specifically for GP and FRX?

2. Why can a customer on a Business Ready Enhancement plan have access to Managed News Group?

The answer to the first and second question is that all managed groups are also unmanaged. In other words all managed and unmanaged users are now one and the same. If you post a question but do not receive an answer back from the MS Community within 24 hours a process will run notifying MS Support that the user has an unanswered question. Then MS Support will follow up with you.

Please take the time to visit CustomerSource, http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/customersource.mspx. You will be able to find answers to your non-critical questions using this powerful tool!

If you do not have access and need assistance obtaining access to the site, please feel free to contact me or your dedicated Account Manager here at BroadPoint.

Thanks & Happy Searching!

Microsoft announces service extension

2009-07-08T10:41:00.001-07:00

As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, BroadPoint is excited to share news of service pack extension dates.

Microsoft is extending the service pack support policy for Microsoft Dynamics SL, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics AX, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM to 24 months of support for a previous service pack, when a new service pack is released.

Some current service packs are being extended and new service packs will now be for 24 months versus the usual 12. For more information and to see if you are eligible call us or see the Microsoft announcement here.

New iMIS Discounts available

2009-07-07T13:32:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: iMIS,News

In recognition of the significant and unique economic challenges facing our customers this year, BroadPoint would like to inform you of several discounts that ASI is offering through September 30, 2009.

Now is the time to upgrade to iMIS 15, purchase additional modules and users, and host your iMIS system at a secure reliable facility. This is a one-time, can’t miss opportunity to invest in your iMIS system and infrastructure! A variety of discounts are being offered through September 30, 2009.

· Upgrade to version 15.1 and receive a discount on additional users (Full/Casual or Public) up to 60% and get the new iCreate Advanced Tools for free! If you are already on 15.0 you can still add users at a discount.

· Purchase multiple iMIS modules as part of the same sale and receive a discount of up to 20%.

· Host your iMIS 15 system with ASI and save up to 20% on hosting fees!

· Have you fallen behind on your Software Update fees? Get caught up and save 15%.

To take advantage of these discounts contact:

· Huan Mitchell, 301-634-2428, hmitchell@broadpoint.net

· Allison Brown, 301-634-2420, abrown@broadpoint.net

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 12

2009-07-06T07:26:00.000-07:00

Leverage the List View for Reporting

Have you ever scrolled through all report windows for a particular module looking for that special report that you know is there but you just can't find it? Something like the Historical Stock Status which is under Activity instead of History.

You can now search for a report, including all the options you have set for various reports.
V9 Select Reports >Report List
V10 Home >Administration>All Reports List

A box will come up with all the reports in the system. You can limit this list to various modules, search for reports and sort the list on the different criteria. From the Actions menu you can create new report options, review the option selections for a particular report and even import/export reports.

BroadPoint and Fastpath are offering a free webinar to help you Gain Control of your data and systems

2009-07-06T07:05:00.001-07:00

Learn about what Fastpath can offer for your Microsoft Dynamics experience! Free Webinar on July 23, 2009 10:00 AM- 11:00 AM EDT

Click here to register!

Fastpath Audit Trail for Microsoft Dynamics offers superior performance and configurability. Within a few hours, you can quickly know what was changed, who changed it and the before and after values. Real business information in a few clicks.
- Tracks changes made from inside Dynamics and external sources
- Extensive list of audit trail templates
- Quick implementation and ROI
- Best available performance and reporting for Microsoft Dynamics

Fastpath Config AD moves all user management to the IT help desk and eliminates potential security conflicts by taking all user administration out of Dynamics. So in addition to making your users happy….your costs go down as well.
- Eliminates use of ‘sa’ and Administrator for better security management
- Streamline new hire, termination, and user change management.
- Fastpath has the only single sign on product for Dynamics GP.
- Decrease user maintenance costs by 65%

Technorati Tags: Events,Microsoft Dynamics GP,Microsoft Dynamics CRM

When: Thursday, July 23, 2009 10:00 AM-11:00 AM EDT.

100 New Smartlist Templates now available!

2009-07-02T15:35:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

It’s me Tunesia Winn, VA Territory Account Manager. I wanted to share some information with those of you that have SmartList Builder and for those of you evaluating the solution. MS has just added over 100 new SmartList templates and they are available to you via CustomerSource. Yes the infamous CustomerSource! In order to download the templates, you must have SmartList Builder installed.

Check them out here.

For those that are interested in additional information about SmartList Builder, please contact your Account Manager.

Thanks & Have a Great 4th of July!

Tunesia Winn

New iMIS Training Classes Available!

2009-07-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce a new iMIS summer training schedule from BroadPoint!

Click on a class below for more information or to register. If you have any questions please call Elaine Crooks at (301) 634-2463

Date	Course Name	Location	Duration	Price	Link to Register
7/9/2009	Basic Crystal Reports for iMIS	Bethesda, MD	1 Day	$500	Register
7/30/2009	Fine-Tuning iMIS	Bethesda, MD	1 Day	$500	Register
8/6/2009	iMIS Customer Management Productivity Tools	Bethesda, MD	1 Day	$500	Register
8/13/2009	iMIS Events Module	Bethesda, MD	1 Day	$500	Register

Obama’s New Changing Landscape for Smaller Healthcare Practices: Can IT Create Cost Savings?

2009-06-30T13:16:00.001-07:00

By Steve Hammett

Smaller healthcare providers are under pressure to lower costs, reduce their income or be replaced by more efficient smaller health care providers. The onus is now on the smaller health care providers to follow their bigger cousins and step up to the plate by using IT solutions that make sense and lower costs. Recent political posturing around a mandate for healthcare change creates anxiety for smaller healthcare practices. Understanding how IT can lower costs is imperative for the small healthcare practitioner.

Traditionally, smaller health care practices have been relatively independent providers. They usually have had one or two professionals, a few administrative staff and a mountain of paperwork. Clinical and economic information was difficult to access and frequently unavailable, which led to unnecessary costs. However, the size of these offices and traditional healthcare business climate landscape tolerated inefficiencies. This tolerance is changing as health care consumers are demanding better service while third party payers are discounting the fees paid for health care services.

Larger health care providers, such as hospitals and large practices, having been the “low hanging fruit” of cost containment and have utilized a host of management practices to lower costs. This consolidation is being driven by third party payers, such as large insurance companies and Medicare. They are demanding cost control, accountability and sweeping health care practice changes. These forces for change want providers to capture and share unprecedented amounts of information about their work and their patients. At the core of these changes is the use of information technology (IT) for patient record keeping, billing systems and practice management systems. (Financial management of receivables, payroll and cash flow and the subsequent analytics to evaluate efficiencies, but more on this later)

One solution is to outsource these business functions to third party firms that specialize in health care related business functions. These third party firms provides management, financial and information services to include financing, marketing, billing, personnel/human resources, accounting, management information systems, collections, coding, reimbursements and managed care issues. Practices can contract individually (billing for example) or have a practice-management firms handle all aspects of these functions, and in exchange for running the business, are paid 10% to 30% of revenues.

The best solution is to use IT and improved business processes to manage your practice without the financial overhead of outsourcing. This will involve the surgical use (no pun intended) of IT for practice management, billing and document management. What is important is that the processes and data be captured electronically, not necessarily that physicians do the input. Voice recognition, where the medical practitioner speaks into a voice recorder that immediately transcribes data into the system, eliminates the time-consuming data keyboard entry that many practitioners fear in a paperless office.

An immediate payoff for physicians will be the ability to access information electronically from their office, home or the hospital. The ability to consult, approve medications and work remotely will add convenience to the often brutal schedules that small office practitioners face. Most small office physicians spend “20-40% of their time…….not directly interacting with patients”. (AAMC Reporter, Vol 10, Num. 7, pp 44-56) These indirect patient functions can be done at the convenience of the physician, allowing physicians more “flex time”. A much more significant return to small healthcare practitioners is ability to analyze their business objectively using the powerful business intelligence tools built into practice management software. Billing trends, patient payment practices and profitability by codes make these smaller practices more profitable and nimble to changing marketplace trends.

One of the most flexible and affordable solutions is Microsoft’s Dynamics GP for billing and practice management. Familiar, easy to use screens make Dynamics GP familiar to staff (allowing for quick adoption) yet provide robust practice management analytics for the physicians. Most small healthcare practitioners don’t appreciate the return on investment (ROI) of IT systems, but Microsoft Dynamics has an affordable price point so even smaller practices can afford it.

Insurance companies, governments and other third party payers are demanding cost cutting in health care. The larger providers, nursing homes and hospitals have successfully implemented IT solutions to lower costs. The time is now for smaller health care practitioners to draw from their larger cousins’ experiences of health care IT and make it work for them.

Inside Microsoft Dynamics GP

2009-06-29T08:11:00.000-07:00

Have you checked out the Microsoft Dynamics GP community site? Online community sites are where you’ll find more relevant expert advice, FAQ pages, tips, interviews, live chats, webcasts, newsgroup threads, and RSS feeds—all designed to help you do your job better. This is an unsecure site that are open to all. Visit the Dynamics GP Community.

At the Dynamics GP community site, you can get the latest inside scoop directly from the Product Management & Marketing team! The Inside Dynamics GP section has always been chock full of great posts such as Everyone, stop using the old navigation, please, but they have just started a weekly “Did You Know” series focuses on features and functions that already exist in Dynamics GP. This week they focus on the Historical Inventory Trial Balance (HITB) report. Ron Gressley, our Senior Consultant out of our D.C. offices says that this is his favorite place to go for insider information that even he didn’t know about.

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 11

2009-06-29T06:57:00.000-07:00

Fix Your Auto Complete

Auto Complete finishes your entries for you.

It’s great until you misspell something and are stuck with it forever.

To get rid of it, start typing until the error shows up in Auto Complete.

Right click and hit Remove from List.

6 Things to look for in a Business Solutions Partner

2009-06-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

Choosing a business solution can be daunting. Get it right, and you can increase efficiency; get it wrong, and your business may suffer. A good partner will work with you to develop and maintain the system that best meets the needs of your company. This partner helps create a system that works for your business now and accommodates for change and growth in the future. Here are a few important indicators of a good partner:

1. Is the partner a Certified Microsoft Dynamics Partner? Certified Microsoft Dynamics Partners are available worldwide to help companies of all sizes and industries select and implement the right business technology—and to provide support through future business change. To become certified, they must prove expertise in Microsoft technology and in specific business areas, such as financial, supply chain, or customer relationship management.

2. Will the partner provide references? Make sure the partner will supply you with a list of customers in your industry who will answer questions and provide written references to you. If not, the partner is not for you. If the partner does supply a client list, you might want to ask them the remaining questions.

3. Is the partner's business stable? Find out if the partner is a stable business organization with the technical infrastructure and staff to deploy a solution for your business within your time frame. After the partner implements the business solution, you want to make sure the organization supports your IT staff to fine tune the system and to address any problems that might arise.

4. Is the partner an expert in your industry? You need a partner who demonstrates a clear understanding of your business concerns and your industry, a partner who can draw from extensive expertise with multiple businesses in your industry. Your partner should suggest strategies and develop your business solution with you.

5. Does the partner clearly consider the features and components you need? The software solution proposed by the partner should be the right one to address your business requirements. If it isn't, the partner needs to be willing to rework the proposal until you have exactly what you need. For example, does the partner have expertise in working with the database, portal and business intelligence solutions you intend to use? Find out ahead of time about any hidden fees related to revising your solution.

6. Are the partner's consultants technologically proficient? Make sure the partner uses a proven implementation methodology and configuration tools that speed implementation, configuration, and upgrades. Ask the partner if the person(s) who will implement your solution has been certified by the software vendor on that solution. What kind of certification do they have? To become certified, Microsoft Partners must prove expertise in Microsoft technology and in specific business areas, such as financial, supply chain, or customer relationship management.

888-920-2784
Six Things to look for in a Business Solutions Partner
Get the full set of Business Solution Selection tools brought to you by BroadPoint, including:
1. Business Solution Early Assessment Worksheet
2. Business Issues and Scenarios Worksheet
3. Business Solution Selection Project Calendar
4. Business Solution Stakeholder Issues
5. Business Solution Questionnaire and RFP Template
6. Six Things to Look for in a Business Solution Partner
Call 888-920-2784 or e-mail info@broadpoint.net

'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Skype

2009-06-24T11:19:00.001-07:00

By Michael Dodd, Senior Consultant, Dynamics CRM, BroadPoint Technologies

For those who woke up late to the 21st century, Skype is a cheap VoIP service that allows you to make calls from your computer. So when your phone is dead or short on bars, you can still make those important business calls. I paired my Jawbone II to my laptop so that when I make Skype call in a public setting I get the added benefit of privacy and noise reduction.

But what's most impressive is the Skype add-on for Internet Explorer. With this add-on enabled, Skype will recognize any properly formatted telephone number and allow you to place a call with a single click:

To top things off, since Dynamics CRM is a web based application that runs on IE, you get the same functionality from any CRM grid view that contains phone numbers!

Think of how this tiny add-on can improve your productivity with Dynamics CRM. With more and more airlines offering WiFi, how great would it be if you could make a call on your next flight straight from CRM!

Budgeting and Planning In a Down Economy- Is it Really Necessary?

2009-06-23T05:47:00.001-07:00

By Steve Hammett

BroadPoint Technologies

Forecasting, budgeting, business planning; what is the big deal? In the past, some mid-sized and most small companies have managed to grow and be profitable without formal planning and strategic visions. For some executives, budgeting and planning seems like a lot of wasted effort to creating fictional numbers that are a guess today and completely irrelevant in six months!

However, changing economic landscapes such as today's recession demand that all organizations have a strategy and execute nimbly against that strategy. Small firms can manage this using Excel and regular planning sessions. But most mid-sized organizations cannot allocate the resources large companies have to planning and budgeting yet are not small enough to manage the process using stand alone tools. Because of these conditions, one of the most important skills of any business owner or C-level executive in mid-sized firms is the ability to envision a strategic roadmap that creates positive change in their companies by making their budgeting and planning more effective.

How do we do realistic budgeting and planning and marry it to strategic objectives?

Strategic Objectives, Forecasting and Budgeting

For some executives of mid-sized companies, "strategy" seems like a theoretical exercise better suited for large corporations with bloated staffs. But strategic planning is necessary for mid-sized companies in today's rapidly evolving business climate. Successful mid-sized companies implement strategies using a set of tactics to achieve objectives. To optimize results, the objectives of all business units and individuals must be consistent and aligned with strategy. A marketing department has objectives, individual sales executives have objectives and the finance and treasury people have objectives. However, without an overarching strategy, it is highly questionable whether these objectives are as coordinated, complementary and consistent as they should be.

A company strategy, at a minimum, should:

Chart a course of action that links company vision with an operational plan and resources
Analyze external alternatives in economic and competitive conditions
Define measurable objectives

One of the best ways to define measurable objectives is by using a budget as a planning tool linked to the company vision.

The Budgeting Challenge

When CFO Magazine¹ examined the state of corporate budgeting and planning in mid-sized companies seven years ago, the only common ground between finance and operating units was that they all hated the process. Line managers saw budgeting as an irrelevant and time-consuming data-entry project. It was equally cumbersome for finance departments, which distrusted the results. Both finance and operations despised the ensuing numbers negotiations, which tended to reward the most politically savvy hagglers. How do we attack this historical negativity to produce meaningful budgets aligned to strategic objectives?

The purpose of a budget is to give you a visual description of the expected financial results of your business activities. The act of budgeting for your business forces you to think through all the important numbers and to develop a picture of what your business is going to look like in three, six, nine and twelve months. A budget is a powerful business tool that will help you make better decisions. It enables you to develop and maintain a thorough understanding of the internal financial workings of your business. Ventana Research² has found companies that have successfully improved their budgeting process respond faster and with greater coordination to changes in the economy, markets and to their competitors. They have greater visibility and deeper insight into how their organization is positioned to address market challenges. So how does a company use budgeting as an effective tool?

The Budgeting Solution

To better understand if your budgeting and planning process is as effective as it can be, consider the following questions that require honest reflection:

Is the budget linked to the company's strategic direction? Are the objectives realistic given the allocation of resources, or is the budget just an extrapolation of last year's budget (which was probably driven by political clout, not strategic necessity)?

Is the budget accurate and trusted? Does the budget process itself become a burden to staff or create systematic errors? How many of these errors remain undiscovered?

Does the budget help with the company's agility? When changes in the economy or competitive landscape occur, can the company change its budget to support its strategic goals? When things are not going as planned, how well can the company respond in a coordinated fashion?

Does the budget provide insight into interdepartmental efficiencies? What assumptions are people making in forecasting revenues and expenses? Does the revenue forecast make sense given the sales budget? Are there too many or too few support personnel?

Making budgeting more strategic, accurate, agile and efficient means having a collaborative process that encourages dialog. In practice, this means eliminating as much of the pure mechanics of pulling the numbers together so that the following results:

Greater participation
- Every manager with budget authority participates in budgeting and planning to encourage buy-in and promote responsibility at the lowest levels of the company.
Improved coordination
- Cross-functional dependencies are explicit. For example, manufacturing knows well ahead of time precisely when engineering and development plan to complete product testing, and what promotions marketing has planned – or plans to change – over the next several quarters.
More transparency
- senior managers get a clearer picture of all facets of the enterprise. Making budgeting more efficient means the time and resources saved by eliminating roadblocks can be dedicated to activities that will improve performance, something those involved in the process are "too busy to do" right now.

Ventana Research² has found companies that adopt dedicated budgeting software are better able to make their planning process strategic and more accurate, are able to respond to changing conditions with more agility and are able to increase their insight into how well their business and individual employees are performing. Companies find that using spreadsheets to budget are error prone, cumbersome and tend to be static. Companies that have not yet incorporated budgeting software should make it a priority to consider it.

By using dedicated budgeting software, organizations can transform what for most is a very static process into a tool for dynamic management. Research shows companies that use electronic spreadsheets for planning and budgeting have to devote too much time to the mechanics of the process, while the information they collect is too narrow and static to be as useful as it could. However, while adopting new software can help companies improve their understanding and insight of trends and changes in their business, management must use the capabilities of dedicated budgeting tools to achieve full value from them. Dedicated software also eliminates the barriers that spreadsheets create. These barriers make it difficult to create an environment that fosters insight and perspective. Companies need to expand participation and iterations in the process as well as focus everyone's efforts on thinking and analyzing on the right level of detail rather than spending time on the mechanics of communicating numbers back and forth. Mid-size companies in particular should be able to achieve a significant payback from using this kind of software because it can address some of the structural problems of being "stuck in the middle."

Here at BroadPoint Technologies, we have seen great success in using Microsoft Dynamics Forecaster, the budgeting software of Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains (GP), helping our mid-sized organizations integrate budgeting into their strategic vision. Because of the ease of use and single database, budgeting can be rolled out of finance into the rest of the organization to measure outcomes and outputs aligned with strategic plans.

Conclusion

Budgeting and planning activities are very important to the duo goals of growth and profitability for mid-sized companies. Dedicated budgeting and planning software is the key to making the process strategic, accurate and agile. Ventana Research² has found mid-size companies linking their strategic vision to operational activities by using budgeting software increase their insight into the business, enabling them to react faster to changes in their company or environment and make decisions to improve their performance.

1 –CFO Magazine, "More Companies are Writing Budgets that Reflect Strategy and Reduce Frustration", Tim Reason, July 1, 2005

2 – Ventana Research "Making Budgeting and Planning a Tool for Success", Whitepaper, 2004

BroadPoint co-hosts panel at the Microsoft Not for Profit Summit

2009-06-19T08:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday BroadPoint attended the Not For Profit Summit at the Ronald Reagan building in D.C. Tina Featheringham of BroadPoint organized a panel for the event. Entitled Non profit doesn't mean no profit the panel was moderated by Mark Bisnow of the popular online publication, Bisnow.

Speaking on the panel were American Association of Blood Banks CFO Mark Conheady, Search for Common Ground CFO Jack Deeds, Association of Public Health Laboratories COO Carol Clark, and American Israel Public Affairs Committee CFO Chrystal Kern.

The audience was encouraged to learn from their peers how they are making changes in their organization to not only survive this economy, but to prosper. This includes giving financial visibility to every level of your organization, holding your employees accountable, and cutting the fat!

For more see the coverage on Bisnow!

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 10

2009-06-19T06:37:00.000-07:00

Track Use Tax in Payables or P.O.’s

If you are not charged sales tax by a vendor and need to self-remit use tax for a P.O. use these steps:

Let the system calculate Sales Tax.
Offset the tax amount in the Trade Discount field.

Point the trade discount Amount to an accrued use tax account.
Point the sales tax Amount to the appropriate expense or tax account.
The Vendor gets paid properly because of the credit and tax gets recorded.

Use SmartLists to track and report use tax data for later remittance [Company > Tax Detail]

BroadPoint is one of the founding members of the ERP Software Blog

2009-06-17T13:05:00.000-07:00

BroadPoint announced today that it is part of a brand new exciting blog. The erpsoftwareblog.com is compilled of ERP solution providers. Specifically each of the founding members of the blog is a Microsoft Dynamics GP provider and a Microsoft Partner.

We are very excited to be part of this exciting and dynamic group of thinkers! Visitors to the blog can recieve tips and news on how to select an ERP system and what kind of modules, programs, and ad ons different organizations should consider.

The blog is already off to a running start with accolades on many tech sites and Microsoft itself.

Check it out!

Have you checked out the Microsoft Dynamics GP Setup Checklist?

2009-06-15T13:46:00.001-07:00

By Ann Lehew, Raleigh Office

BroadPoint Technologies

Have you checked out the Microsoft Dynamics GP Setup Checklist?

This is a great way to setup your Great Plains system, whether you are starting from scratch, adding a new company, or implementing a new module.

To get there, click on Microsoft Dynamics GP-Tools-Setup-Setup Checklist. You will see a graphical list of the modules you are registered for. When you expand each category, you will see the list of tasks for each category in the suggested order of completion. For an example, here is what you see when you expand Company:

You can assign tasks to Great Plains users, even giving them a due date. When they login to GP, bring up the Checklist and click on the “My tasks” button, it will show them only their assigned tasks.

The Project Manager can select tasks, and see who is assigned to it, the status, and when they started the task:

The best thing about using the Setup Checklist is this: When you double click on a task, it takes you right to that screen! When you close the screen, it asks you to update the status:

In addition, a concise, interactive setup guide appears for the selected task.

As you can see, the Setup Checklist is a great way to stay on top of your GP implementation.

Check it out!

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 9

2009-06-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

Speed up the Population of the JE numbers on the Correct / Copy Journal Entry Screen

Looking up Journal Entry corrections is slow because of the number of transactions.

GP provides an index for that table that can speed look-ups.

A small SQL Script to apply a non-clustered index to the GL20000 and GL30000 tables and this solves the problem.

Before running this Script make sure that you have a complete backup copy of the database that you can restore if a problem occurs.

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft SQL Server 2005, and then click SQL Server Management Studio.

2. Click Connect.

3. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Query with Current Connection.

4. Copy the following code in the query pane.

CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [SEE_GL30000PerformanceCustom] ON [dbo].[GL30000]
( [Back_Out_JE] ASC,
[HSTYEAR] ASC ) ON [PRIMARY]
go

CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [SEE_GL20000PerformanceCustom] ON [dbo].[GL20000]
( [Back_Out_JE] ASC,
[OPENYEAR] ASC) ON [PRIMARY]
go

5. In the database list, click the company database that you want to use, and then click Execute.

6. Repeat step 5 for each company database in which the problem occurs.

Scott Stevenson joins BroadPoint Technologies Director of Professional Services

2009-06-12T06:55:00.001-07:00

June 12, 2009

Washington, D.C.

BroadPoint Technologies

BroadPoint Technologies is proud to announce a recent addition to their executive team. Scott Stevenson will join BroadPoint as Director of Professional Services.

Stevenson joins BroadPoint with 15 years of consulting experience related to financial applications, primarily Microsoft Dynamics GP. Before joining us Stevenson accumulated 9 years of experience from his ownership of competing consulting firm, Evolutionary Business Solutions, Inc.

Stevenson plans to further develop a consulting/support team that is scalable in the market space, and increase efficiencies in how we provide services to our clients.

BroadPoint looks forward to the benefits that clients will receive from the addition of Stevenson.

BroadPoint can help you find a FastPath to Security with Microsoft Dynamics GP

2009-06-10T10:48:00.001-07:00

These days most customers are accustomed to working with ISV (Independent Software Vendors) for functionality that may not be currently included in Dynamics. Recently I had what seemed like a simple request from a client whose parent company was out of the UK. They wanted to use their network username and password for Dynamics GP so they could enforce password policies such changing a password every 45 days and forced complexity such as 12 characters including at least one number. Besides, then their users would only have to remember one username and password.

What? Dynamics GP doesn't do this out-of-the-box?

After a bit of research it turns out there is only one way to do this and it's by a company called Fastpath out of Denver (www.gofastpath.com). They have a product called Configurator AD/SSO that integrates Dynamics GP with Active Directory which provides security administrators the means to create, change and delete ERP users from a right click menu in Active Directory.

Why do we recommend this to our clients?

Single Point of Maintenance

Within Active Directory a security administrator can create network users as well as ERP users in the Microsoft Dynamics products. This allows the organization to consolidate the maintenance responsibilities for "Help Desk" or IT support users which cuts administrative costs and improves security.

Synchronization of Credentials

Fastpath Config AD makes it possible to synchronize security credentials across all Dynamics applications. The most critical result of this is increased user satisfaction in that they only have one user id and password combination to remember. The impact on security costs comes in a simplified environment which will mean less password reset responsibilities and general support calls on user names and passwords.

Less Security Permissions Needed for the Administrator

The administrator needs no special access permissions to the ERP and does not even need the application on the desktop for user maintenance. This eliminates a large audit concern in that IT staff will not need access to a "super" user for security configuration and will not have access to the application to commit any kind of fraud or have access to sensitive information.

Reliance on Standard Roles

With security being configured from Active Directory, the security administrator will have to pick from the available roles in the ERP system. This will lessen the possibility of role proliferation as the creation of additional roles will have to be done by an ERP system user with the appropriate credentials. The end result will be better defined roles and more adherence to the available roles.

Contact me at kowens@broadpoint.net for more info.

Reporting Shootout – Which reporting tool is best for each situation

2009-06-09T13:11:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, June 24th at 11:00 am

You have a lot of valuable data within your business systems. But how do you get it into the hands of the right people to make the best decisions for your company? The greatest value your business solution can provide is the easy transformation of your data into meaningful, valuable information. Microsoft Dynamics GP provides a broad range of flexible, customizable analytics, business intelligence, reporting, and budgeting options to meet your company's needs—from advanced consolidation analysis to the simplest reporting requests.

Crystal? FRx? SQL Reporting Services? Reduce the time it takes to create reports—and take full advantage of your data – by using the right tool for your business at the right time. At the end of this one hour session, you will be able to improve your ability to analyze and report financial data, and share information across your organization. Highlighted during this session will see an overview of:

Report Writer
Excel Reports
SmartList Builder
Crystal Reports
Microsoft FRx
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

Take advantage of Microsoft Dynamics GP SmartList Template Library

2009-06-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has just released over 100 SmartList templates for Dynamics GP 10.0! You can save the hours of time required to create your own SmartLists by using one of these templates. From here they can be imported and modified with Dynamics GP SmartList Builder. The most overlooked out-of-the box functionality of Microsoft Dynamics GP – SmartList, can be an effective tool for extracting and reporting, and analyzing data about accounts, customers, employees, vendors, and more. Visit the template library today to take advantage of this great resource. Highlights from the library:

Account Summary
Account Transactions
Bank Transactions
Multidimensional Analysis
Exchange Rates
Cash Receipts
Commissions
Customer Addresses
Customer Items
Customer Period Summary
Customer/Vendor
Receivables Transactions
Sales Line Items
Sales Transactions
Invoicing Lines
Payables Distributions
Payables Transactions
Vendor Addresses

You will need access to CustomerSource to access the SmartList template library. If you are not familiar with CustomerSource it is a major benefit of the Enhancement Program, it’s a secure website that provides an incredible amount of valuable information, tools and resources that will help you be more productive. Please contact your Account Manger to arrange a personalized tour, if you don't know how to access CustomerSource contact: Nadia in DC Metro area, Tunesia in Virginia, or Kim in North Carolina.

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 8

2009-06-05T14:14:00.000-07:00

Reconcile Bank Account Daily

With today’s internet access, there is no reason not to balance the bank account daily.

Daily balancing provides up to date cash position, float information and speeds month end processing since bank balancing is simply one more day.

Download your bank info from your bank’s website.

Start bank reconciliation process and reconcile it to zero.

DON’T push the reconcile button.

Save the reconciliation and come back tomorrow.

Depending on the size of your company and if you own Electronic Reconciliation module you have different options so that everyone can Reconcile their Bank Account Daily.

Option 1:
Use the Electronic Reconciliation module and get a daily file from your bank.

Option 2:
Using your bank's website download the daily transactions and manually clear the files in the Bank Reconciliation module.

Steps:

Go to your bank's website, get today's posted balance and print out the daily transactions back to when you last got your statement.

Start a bank reconciliation process in Microsoft Dynamics GP.

Enter today's posted balance for the bank statement ending balance and use today's date for the dates.

Check off cleared items and balance the statement to a zero difference.

When finished, click OK. DON'T CLICK RECONCILE! Clicking OK will save the reconciliations.

On the next day, repeat these steps for 1 day's worth of transactions.

At month end, verify the totals with the statement and then click reconcile. The month end bank reconciliation process is now minutes, not hours.

Hints:

There may be a few days at month end where you can't reconcile into the next month until you have received the final statement. In this case you can either rely on the website as the final reconciling document or have a few days to make up early in the next month. Both options have problems, I've seen banks have website issues that cause the statement and website to not match, but this is pretty rare. However, delaying a few days tends to break the nice daily balancing rhythm you develop. There's no perfect option, pick whichever one fits your business requirements.

Make sure you know where you left off from the day before. Often bank websites won't let you print just one day, you have to print the whole screen which can overlap days.

Upcoming webcast from BroadPoint: Doing More With Less - 10 Ways to Recession Proof Your Organization Using Technology

2009-06-04T12:58:00.000-07:00

June 16th, 11:00 am

Member, donor and service organizations face unique challenges in today's economic climate. More and more they are being asked to do more with less. In this one hour webcast, we will share 10 important survival tips on how you can streamline your operations, maximize performance and build stronger relationships with supporters utilizing technology.

Click here to register

You will learn how to increase productivity and gain maximum efficiency throughout your organization by implementing new tools or by expanding the use of your existing technology to bring together key business processes.

Using case studies drawn from our experience implementing and supporting business management software for hundreds of nonprofits, this complimentary webcast identifies solutions that are helping today's most successful organizations enhance their capabilities, control costs and enjoy continued growth.

Using more of your CRM solution can save your organization money

2009-06-03T08:07:00.001-07:00

By Todd Fleming

Senior Consultant

BroadPoint Technologies

I'm sure you are probably wondering how using a CRM solution can save your organization money. If you are only using CRM for Sales Force Automation and are limited to just managing Leads, Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, Quotes and Orders then you may only be utilizing about 25-35% of your software investment in CRM. If your business fields customer service requests or support cases in another system or even on paper, you can save money by using the Microsoft CRM Service functionality in order to manage Contracts, Cases, and Service Scheduling while taking advantage of a searchable Knowledgebase and workflow automation.

When trying to reduce costs and create efficiencies within your organization you should start by analyzing your business process and business applications identifying what roles they serve in your organization. Most of these applications will have ongoing costs associated with them such as licensing costs, annual software enhancement fees, upgrade costs and the labor costs of dual and triplicate entry of data.

Look at the following costs:

What are the annual software enhancement fees for your customer service applications?
What is the upgrade cost including software, hardware and labor?
What is the labor cost of managing customer data in multiple different systems?
What is the training cost associated with managing multiple different systems?

Some of the benefits of consolidating applications within CRM include:

Decreases labor cost by eliminating or reducing duplicate and triplicate entry of customer related data
If you can eliminate an application you will reduce software, hardware and any labor costs associated with maintaining those applications
Workflow automation can eliminate repetitive tasks such as providing automated email notifications, automating case assignments and handling case escalation
Provides better visibility for all customer's interactions with your organization and therefore increase cross-sell opportunities

In order to get the most out of your CRM implementation, find champions within your organization that will continually analyze your CRM solutions capabilities and uncover features and functionality that can help create efficiencies and cost reductions within your business. You should also make sure your staff is trained on the CRM solution in place and is knowledgeable about features and functionality in new releases that can benefit your organization and increase your CRM ROI.

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 7

2009-06-01T14:22:00.000-07:00

Limit Records to Speed SmartList Processing

If you look at the bottom of a Smartlist it tells you the number of records returned (notated in the bottom left). If that's a round number, like 1,000, you've probably hit the limit (notated in the bottom center) and don't have all the records you need.

This can be changed on a case by case basis, go to the Search button and change the Maximum Records field. For instance on the Account Transaction if you know you will have under 5,000 records you can change the Maximum Records to show 5,000. You can then save this view as a Favorite and it will always search for the new maximum amount.

You can also make a global adjustment to limits, go to the Microsoft Dynamics GP menu > Tools > Setup > System > Smartlist Options. For instance change the Maximum Records to 5,000. This will be the new default for the Account Transaction SmartList.

You can also mark what fields you want to default in the SmartList View.

This can be used to limit the number of records that default in until you have the correct information then you can manually change the Maximum afterwards on a case by case basis. This can be helpful with performance if you have these limits too high to begin with.

iMIS 15.1 is here!

2009-06-01T13:00:00.001-07:00

Questions? Contact Allison Brown at BroadPoint Technologies (301) 634-2420

As an iMIS provider, BroadPoint Technologies is proud to announce that iMIS 15.1 is now available! iMIS 15.1 provides unprecedented flexibility by providing a platform for web publishing of any existing iMIS functionality to provide all your users a unique web experience.

Important Payflow Pro Notice
Upgrade Now! Credit Card processing may stop working in September. If you use iMIS Credit Card Authorization modules (Service Central, Credit Card Authorization, e-Series, or iBO) then you MUST be on 10.6.30.17 or iMIS 15 by August 31, 2009. PayPal is removing support for v2/v3 of Payflow Pro in August 2009.

iCreate — The Power to Simply Extend iMIS
iMIS 15.1 introduces iCreate, a new suite of tools for tailoring and extending iMIS. iCreate combines existing and new tools into:

iCreate Standard Tools (included with iMIS 15.1)

Site Designer – Tailor iMIS navigation and menu options.
iMIS Query Architect (iQA) – Create complex queries and reports accessible from anywhere in the iMIS system.
Customizer – Add custom fields and screens to the iMIS system.
Document System – Administer iMIS system folders and objects.

iCreate Advanced Tools (included with iMIS 15.1 if you are currently on iMIS 15 or upgrade to iMIS 15 in 2009)

Content Designer – Publish iMIS functionality to your website and tailor iMIS Staff and Public Views, regardless of the web content management system you use.
Business Object Designer – Create new views within iMIS to meet your organization's unique requirements.

More Great iMIS 15.1 Improvements

Web Content Management - Create, categorize, and manage web content across multiple websites with this pure ASP.NET replacement for e-Content Manager.
Communities – Provide forums, document libraries, blogs, and wikis with this pure ASP.NET replacement for e-Communities.
Microsoft Reporting Services (SSRS) 2005 & Integrated IQA Reporting - iMIS 15.1 supports Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services 2005 and ships with several sample reports. This free reporting tool allows dynamic reporting directly from IQA.
iBO for .NET - iMIS 15.1 includes formal support for iBO for .NET. iBO for .NET enables you to develop .NET-based applications that interact with the iMIS 15 database while conforming to iMIS business rules, thereby ensuring the integrity of your data.
Public View Updates – Public View updates include company roster view and edit, new directory and committee listing options, online donations, and backorder support.

To learn more about what's new with iMIS 15.1 download the release documentation or view the What's New with iMIS 15.1 Recorded Webcast.

Todd Hager to present on Panel at Columbia Books Conference, “Beating the Recession: The Non-profit Executive Tool Kit”

2009-05-28T12:52:00.001-07:00

Cost-saving Methods Available for Associations to Ride out the Recession

Bethesda, Md. (March 27, 2009) – In the midst of a recession cutting deep into everyone's budgets, associations have been suffering from the same economic symptoms as their corporate peers. Members are holding back money for dues, cutting into association revenues; meetings are being canceled as potential attendees worry about the cost of travel. Some associations are even cutting jobs.

Especially in this economic environment, associations can avoid busting their budgets in the short and long term using many different tools, including: engaging in talks with their banks, using technology to increase efficiency and implementing solutions such as mergers and outsourcing.

Associationexecs.com is hosting an all-day conference specifically designed for senior association executives to learn just those skills. BroadPoint is attending the Beating the Recession: The Non-profit Executive Tool Kit will be held May 28 at the Fulbright Center in Washington, D.C. This conference includes five practical sessions that will cover cost-saving methods in areas ranging from banking and financial management to technology and overhead management. Break-out sessions on association back office management and primary cost centers will focus on more specific cost controls such as overnight shipping, payroll, printing, and meeting costs.

Todd Hager, Vice President of BroadPoint Technologies will be on hand to present a panel on tools and technology that can aid a Non-profit during the recession.

Beating the Recession: The Non-profit Executive Tool Kit sponsors include RAFFA, Expense Reduction Analysts and the Alliance for Nonprofit Management. Early bird registration is available for $497 until May 1, $597 after May 1.

A full agenda of the event is available at http://www.nptools2009.com/agenda.html.

CRM Implementation Success – A Second Opinion

2009-05-26T11:29:00.001-07:00

By Beth Scheidt

CRM Practice Manager

BroadPoint Technologies

In the medical world, a second opinion is almost always recommended when the patient is undergoing a major procedure. The second opinion reviews the patient's history, checks assumptions and explores alternatives. While a major medical procedure is not a perfect analogy for a CRM implementation, certainly there might be some valid comparisons made to the pain and agony possible in both.

Typically, a company implementing CRM hires someone like BroadPoint to help them through the process. This collaboration generally has a better outcome than if a company attempts to roll out CRM on their own. (Perform surgery on yourself?) The company gains the years of experience from the implementer and the implementer uses the business process knowledge of the company to help deliver the final results.

For some projects, a second opinion is a life (project) saver. By supplementing the company's staff with a CRM project manager, a project manager who is not employed by the implementer, the project has a high likelihood of finishing with healthy results. Here are two recent experiences with an independent CRM project manager that help illustrate the point.

A large, Not-For-Profit (NFP) group had replaced an old membership system with a highly customized and integrated CRM system. The NFP's day-to-day IT functions were outsourced and the internal project management was delegated to staff members who still had daily responsibilities for managing staff and membership. The NFP executives belatedly realized the project was significantly over budget, way behind schedule and off scope. This was definitely a triage situation!

The NFP's internal project resources did not have the expertise or dedicated time to provide oversight for this implementer. For the NFP's part, they consistently provided incomplete or nebulous descriptions for required work. The implementer rarely returned to the NFP team for clarification on changes, was particularly difficult to communicate with, seemed to always be focused on other customers' work, and did not appear to ever test their delivered work.

As an independent expert, we took the steps to make sure the NFP group thoroughly defined and documented their needs and worked closely with the implementer to ensure they understood the requirements as defined. Because of our experience, we were able to validate the implementer's approach and several times suggested alternative, cost saving solutions. We made sure deliverables were properly tested by both the implementer and the NFP before being released. By providing the NFP with an independent CRM project manager, we were able to bring the project back in line with the original goals and stop the budget hemorrhaging.

In another successful use of a CRM project manager, we worked with a large, international firm to supplement their internal project management staff. Unlike the previous example, both the implementer and the client had strong project management resources. The implementer was remotely located and we were onsite.

Like the previous example, this was a highly customized, integrated CRM implementation. The value the CRM project manager brought to the operation was experience and a fresh perspective. There were several instances where the client was defining customizations based on existing processes. It took a fresh perspective (and experience) to ask, "Why are you recreating this process?" We were able to identify instances where the client was trying to duplicate functionality that the field staff had long since abandoned (no matter what management thought). We were also able to make suggestions of small changes that really impacted the user's experience for the positive.

In both the examples above, the independent CRM project manager role enhanced the implementation by providing cost savings and improving the user experience. If you decide your project could benefit from a second opinion, be sure you choose the right independent CRM project manager. Both the CRM project manager and implementer need to work together on your behalf. Beware of the implementer and independent project manager who considers their own best interest above yours and the project. In that case, you may find the cure is worse than the disease!

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 6

2009-05-26T07:48:00.001-07:00

Let SmartList Alerts Warn You

How Many Customers are Over their Credit Limit
1) Setup your Smartlist

2) Pick Favorites and name the Favorite, example ‘Customer Over Credit Limit

3) Click Add and select ‘Add Favorite and Reminder’

4) Select ‘Number of Records’, example ‘ Greater Than 0’

5) You can set reminders based on the number of records or the total of the column

6) Click OK

Specific Customer Balance was Over $1,000
1) Setup your Smartlist

2) Pick Favorites and name the Favorite, example ‘Astor Suite > $1000.00’

3) Click Add and select ‘Add Favorite and Reminder’

4) Select ‘Total of Column’, example ‘ Customer Balance > $1000.00’

5) You can set reminders based on the number of records or the total of the column

6) Click OK

You can setup a reminder for an existing Smartlist
Go To Tools >> Setup >> User Preferences >> Reminders button

Click on New; select the Smartlist Favorite to see all the existing Smartlist options to choose from.

When you delete the Favorite, it deletes the reminder

Reminders appear on the Home Page

Business Intelligence - First Steps

2009-05-19T14:12:00.000-07:00

Business Intelligence. Everyone seems to want it in order to make critical business decisions, however, the concept tends to be ethereal with little understanding of the mechanics required to produce meaningful, current, and easily-accessed information. We have created dashboards and ad hoc reporting through SharePoint and other tools - the presentation of information isn't really the hard part. The challenge is rooted in understanding the data that matters, the processes that run the business and how to organize the information in a fashion that has meaning to the team.

Data that Matters

An organization's metrics needs to resonate with the entire team from the person who answers the phone or greets visitors to the person who ultimately determines the direction of the firm. The information must be communicated in a fashion that can be easily understood while focusing on the things that truly matter to the organization. I came across a blog entry that provides guidance on determining and communicating the "metrics that matter" within an organization (8 Tips for Crafting Metrics That Matter - by Jesse Farmer). Metrics need to be actionable with a focus on results.

Understanding Business Process

Our implementation work typically begins with an analysis of business process and requirements. We start with an understanding of the 'As Is' processes and determine 'To Be' taking special care to understand the gaps, especially as they relate to the requirements. Careful consideration should be given to ensuring that value is added at each step of the process. The real nuance comes from understanding the interconnectedness of processes and how success is measured at each step. This notion of interconnectedness struck a chord with me when I spent some time with Ron Dimon of Business Foundation. His organization helps large firms determine, understand and manage their processes. They have created very unique depictions of business processes and their relations showing interconnectedness through the use of a "Periodic Table of Business". Rather than getting submerged in technology, Business Foundation uses a straight-forward, paper-based system to align teams around processes. However the business processes are presented, they need to be an accurate, tested depiction with buy-in from team responsible for implementing and administering them.

Rallying Around the Metrics

If you have the metrics that matter (i.e. the receptionist and CEO are both looking at the same metrics each day) and you feel confident that your processes are clearly defined with the granularity of data you require, presenting the information is a straight-forward process. As I mentioned above, we have had tremendous success using SharePoint as a means of delivery for metrics and reports. However, there are many presentation options to consider including hosted options. Remember the thermometer charts used to show fundraising progress for charity? It does not need to be overly slick to get the point across. Get the information in front of the team, be clear about how the information is accumulated and what the goals are, show trending wherever possible, and post it consistently.

The overall theme here is clarity over chaos, simplicity over complexity and consistency over a flash-in-the-pan approach. This will all translate to better organization alignment and at the end of the day, isn't this what it is all about?

Recent awards from ASI

2009-05-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

BroadPoint was recently awarded the Chairman’s Circle and New Sales Leader of the Year at ASI’s Annual iNNOVATIONS Partner Conference.

We work hard to get recognized as an outstanding organization whenver possible. This is a great honor for us and we are very excited to announce. For the whole story click here.

Your CRM does what? (Part 4 of 4 – Extending Orders)

2009-05-18T09:30:00.001-07:00

By Todd Fleming

Senior Consultant

BroadPoint Technologies

In Part 4 of a 4 part series on extending your CRM application, we will take a look at functionality we added to the CRM Orders process in Microsoft Dynamics CRM and via integration to Microsoft Dynamics GP for a few of our clients.

Credit Card Verification

A requirement that some customers have is the ability to be able to accept credit card payments in Dynamics CRM at the time of the order. We have accomplished this goal in the past by customizing the Order to include a new tab called "Payment Info" with all of the necessary fields for Credit Card processing. The sales person enters all of the credit card information and clicks on the submit payment button which then sends this information to the client's credit card processor for authorization. Payments are authorized in real time and authorization numbers are written back to Dynamics CRM in the Payment Tab's payment status field. For clients that are integrating Dynamics CRM Orders with Dynamics GP Accounting we integrate both the Order and the Payment so no double keying is required.

Freight Calculation

Most of our clients sell and ship products using various carriers. Additional functionality can be added to the Dynamics CRM Order such that information about the order can be sent to FedEx or UPS to determine the actual shipping costs for the Order so that you do not have to estimate shipping costs. The weight and size for a product can be captured at the product level in Dynamics CRM and can be totaled at the Order level which will provide a more accurate shipping cost. Clients typically add a shipping and handling fee to this amount which can be done as a percentage of the overall freight cost or as a flat fee added to the actual freight cost. This information can then be integrated from Dynamics CRM to Dynamics GP.

Bar-coding

In a retail operation you may not have time to perform the necessary steps to create an order in Dynamics CRM. For one of our retail clients that already had their inventory bar-coded we worked with their existing bar coding hardware in order to add line items to a CRM order by simply scanning the bar code of the items the customer was purchasing.

Integration

Available Credit: One of the standard integration points between Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the mapping of the credit limit field. While this information is useful it does not tell you how much available credit a customer has. In order to determine the available credit in Microsoft Dynamics GP you have to consider open orders, invoiced orders, returns, credits, payments etc. We've created a view for the available credit and integrate this back into Microsoft Dynamics CRM so that you can view a customer's credit limit, current account balance and available credit. If the customer has exceeded their available credit we can hide the Submit Order button preventing the order from being submitted and processed until the customer's available credit is higher than the order total.

Returns: One of our clients had the need to be able to initiate a return within Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The order and integration was customized such that an order could be created with negative quantity items and this information could then be integrated to Microsoft Dynamics GP for processing.

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 5

2009-05-15T15:19:00.000-07:00

Free Your Data with Excel Reports

The new Excel reports in Microsoft Dynamics GP 10 are really pretty cool and you don't need MOSS 2007 to use them. You can use a network share to let your organization use the Excel reporting features.

To setup the default reports you need to do 2 steps, deploy the connector and deploy the reports.

In GP 10 pick Microsoft Dynamics GP >Tools-Setup > System > Reporting Tools Setup.

Step 1 - Go to the Data Connections Tab

In the System Level Data connections box enter a shared network location to deploy the connectors to.
Do the same thing for the User Level Data connections. This can be a local directory.
Check Enable Data Connection Deployment.
Check Deploy Data Connections for all existing companies if you want to run Excel reports off all your companies. Otherwise, when you deploy, you'll have to pick a company.

Click Run Deployment and Print to the screen the reports for review

Step 2 - Go to the Reports Library Tab

In the System Level Reports box enter a shared network location to deploy the reports to, this is where users will access the shared excel reports and network security can applied to this folder.

Do the same thing for the User Level Data connections. This can be a local directory.

Check Enable Excel Report Deployment.
Check Deploy Excel Report for all existing companies if you want to run Excel reports off all your companies. Otherwise, when you deploy, you'll have to pick a company.

Click the Run Deployment button and Print to the screen the report to view.

How to access the Shared Excel Reports

You can navigate to the shared location on the Network and open one of the Excel reports.
Within Dynamics GP, go to the Navigation Pane on the lower left and pick Administration. Click on Other Reports and wait for them to load.

Pick a report and double click it or Click on VIEW. The report opens nicely (and quickly in Excel).
You may need to enable data connections. If a box pops up, enable data connections and proceed on.

In Excel 2007 the report shades every other row and provides filter handles on each column.

Your CRM does what? (Part 3 of 4)

2009-05-15T11:05:00.001-07:00

Todd Fleming

Senior Consultant, Microsoft Business Solutions

BroadPoint Technologies

In Part 3 of a 4 part series on extending your CRM application, we will take a look at how we managed the Contract Administration processes in Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics GP for a few of our clients.

Contract Administration

In this case, the client was using Dynamics GP to manage client contracts. The goals were to: (1) integrate current and past Contracts form Dynamics GP into Dynamics CRM in order to give salespeople more visibility into a client's past and current purchases, (2) integrate updates to contracts in Dynamics CRM to ensure that a salesperson is looking at the most current contract details, and (3) create a process whereby a user could systematically create opportunities for contract renewals when a contract was close to expiring. What we created in Dynamics CRM and by using a custom Scribe integration was a solution whereby:

CRM Users can view current active and inactive contracts and contract line items in Dynamics CRM
CRM Users can view real time changes in Dynamics CRM when contracts are added or updated in Dynamics GP
CRM Users can store documents and record all interactions pertaining to specific contracts in Dynamics CRM
CRM Users can view and search on contract start and end dates, total contract value, term of the contract (monthly, quarterly, or annual), contract line Item detail such as product description, quantity and line item totals all while supporting multi-currency
CRM Users can use Advanced Find query capabilities to easily identify up sell opportunities and contracts that are near expiration. Queries can be saved and shared with other CRM users as needed
CRM Users can initiate a process within Dynamics CRM to select contracts expiring in (x) months and systematically create opportunities in bulk for renewal of those selected contracts

When combining the capabilities of Dynamics CRM and by creating integrations using Scribe it was possible for us to achieve the client's goals. The solution provides salespeople more visibility into customer purchases and the ability to track all interactions related to those contracts. Salespeople are also able to use the data in Dynamics CRM to more easily identify up-sell opportunities benefiting the organization.

Weather the Storm: FREE Webcast June 3, 2009 at 11:00 AM EST, Register Today

2009-05-14T11:23:00.001-07:00

By Nadia Isata

Account Manager

BroadPoint Technologies

In today's environment, you need to make the most of your assets, maximizing productivity of every resource. BroadPoint is helping its customers leverage the advanced capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Ready Licensing to improve cash flow, control costs and monitor results. Join us for the FREE webcast and let us show you how you can make positive changes in your organization with modules you already own but may not be using. Register today!

Topics covered on the webcast include:

Improve cash flow with faster billing and better collections
Track budgets and variance
Assess the health of your organization and monitor trends
Manage assets with minimal effort
Tighten controls on expenses
Eliminate paper checks and reduce fraud
Guarantee paper checks and reduce fraud
Guarantee payments from customers
Protect against fraud

To sign up for the webcast scheduled to take place on 6/3/2009 at 11:00 click here!

Favorite Microsoft Dynamics GP 10 Function

2009-05-14T08:18:00.001-07:00

By Kyle Kienzle

Account Executive

BroadPoint Technologies

My favorite function in Microsoft Dynamics GP 10 is that each window is now a separate thread. This means you can have multiple GP windows and move them around back-and-forth, interactively, with other programs like Excel.

I have personally found this very valuable when entering GL entries or purchase orders with multiple items. I can have the PDF or Excel file open that is my source while I key into the GP window. That saves me a lot of switching and, therefore, a lot of time!

What is your favorite new feature in Dynamics GP 10?

Copy and Paste from Microsoft Excel®.

2009-05-13T14:25:00.000-07:00

I cannot tell you how many times I have been asked ‘is it possible to copy and paste journal entries from Microsoft Excel® into the General Ledger for Microsoft Dynamics GP?" The answer has been to setup an Integration, but this can be a complicated to process.

NOW there is an ISV solution that will let you easily do just that, copy and paste from Microsoft Excel®. Just select the company, choose a batch, input the date and paste. The journal entries are fully validated before being loaded into Dynamics GP.

Infinia Business Technology - Excel Integrator http://www.excelintegrator.com/

This is what Vicky at Frazier Quarry has to say:

We purchased the Infinia Excel Integrator after seeing it at Convergence 2008. Due to the nature of our business, we post a great portion of our activity thru manual journal entries. Infinia Excel Integrator has increased our productivity and accuracy as well as reduce the month end close time. It was affordable, easy to install and use. A BIG BANG FOR THE BUCK!

Vicky W. Arbogast
Controller
The Frazier Quarry, Inc.

To view a PDF and pricing on this product click here

For more information or to purchase please click here to email: mailto:info@broadpoint.net

How is "Software as a Service" (SaaS) changing the way people approach business software decisions?

2009-05-12T12:08:00.001-07:00

By Steve Hammet

Account Executive

BroadPoint Technologies

The technology world has been abuzz over the last year about the impact of SaaS on businesses. Salesforce.com, ADP, NetSuite and others tout the positive aspects of SaaS, and there are good business reasons for going with a SaaS model. I recommend and sell business systems, let me share what I have learned over the last two years in discussing business software and different licensing approaches with clients.

For pilot projects, prototyping and small user groups, SaaS can be a huge benefit. Especially when the business processes are not established (a sales force just beginning to develop standards, collective workflow and processes) the group/company can just use the "out of the box" functionality with little or no configuration. If a company has very vanilla processes (a snow cone stand comes to mind), then SaaS can assist with making the company more efficient with little upfront money and get up and running quickly. Make the business rules follow the software functionality.

However, most companies today have complex relationships with clients that require their software to mimic their business. For these companies, this is a differentiation that makes their company unique. Of course, these companies can "configure and/or customize" SaaS software, but I have found the implementation costs are as high or higher than traditional purchased software. Once a company needs to include these implementation costs, the landscape changes from "we'll just use out of the box" to "we need the system to work the way we work". At this point, the software purchase vs. lease discussion gets down to an ROI evaluation. I have found around 20 – 28 months to be the equalization ROI factor in lease vs. purchase; most owners and managers find that purchasing is more economical "overall" in the end.

Tip of the Week from Brenda Hopkins - Week 4

2009-05-08T09:20:00.000-07:00

Auto Populate Account Descriptions

Microsoft Dynamics GP v9.0 and v10.0 have a new feature to allow you to automatically populate the account description based on the segments.

This is a great feature to give you a consistent chart of accounts.

Once you've setup your account segments and their meanings in Tools >Setup >Financial >Segment you're ready to go.

In my example I have Segment 1 setup for 100 to be Administration and Segment 3 setup to be VA Region.

Now when you create a new account in Cards-Financial-Account, the description will populate based on the segments.

So if your account is 100-5555-09 and the segment meanings are Administration-[my new expense account name]-VA Region, that's what will appear in the description. All I will have to fill out is the new expense account name. Of course you could have the Main account descriptions default as well. It takes a lot of the guess work out of abbreviations.

For those of you with messy charts descriptions like me, Mass Modify (Cards >Financial >Mass Modify) will let you clean up your Segments now as well.

Your CRM does what? Part 2 of 4

2009-05-07T15:15:00.001-07:00

In Part 2 of a 4 part series on extending your CRM application, we will take a look at how we managed Event Planning and Speaker Recruitment processes in Microsoft Dynamics CRM for one of our clients.

Event Planning

In this case, the client was using a custom legacy solution to manage thousands of events annually. The solution was not flexible and required programming when additional fields and functionality need to be added to the system. In addition it was not very easy for the users to search for and report on data within the system. The three main goals for our solution were to: (1) manage event details including meeting venue and contact info, (2) manage budgetary and actual estimates for events, and (3) provide the ability to search for and recruit speakers for the events. What we created in Dynamics CRM was a solution whereby:

Upon event creation, a unique alpha-numeric Event ID is assigned based on customer provided logic
Upon event creation, workflows automatically create and assign planning tasks for each type of event
Detailed information is stored regarding the event such as: start/end date and time, location of meeting, contact info, meeting coordinator and type of event. This information can be searched on within CRM and can be reported on using SQL Reporting Service reports.
Budget information can be added and associated with and event including all related vendor actual and estimated costs
Lecture information can be added including related lecture title, lecture date, lecture time and speaker
Upon closing an event, related speaker costs are integrated to Great Plains Accounting system Payables module

Speaker Bureau Management

Speaker Bureau Management is a component of the event planning. In this case, the client maintains a list of speakers for which they recruit for various events. One of the pain points of their legacy system was that it was difficult to determine which speakers were available and when. The three main goals for our solution were to: (1) provide a solution where speaker contact info, ongoing interactions and related documents/attachments can be stored, (2) provide a solution where certifications and training for speakers can be managed, (3) provide a solution whereby speakers could easily be searched based on certifications, travel requirements and availability. What we created in Dynamics CRM was a solution whereby:

Speaker contact information is stored as well as all interactions (email, phone call, tasks, notes) related to that Speaker
Speaker training and certification information can be appended to the speaker record in a searchable format
Speaker travel restrictions are stored and searchable
Speakers can be associated with events in one of three status levels ("recruiting", "accepted" or "declined")
CRM Users can select a specific event and view all speakers associated with the event and see the speaker's current status as it relates to that event
CRM Users can select a specific speaker and see all events they are associated with including ones they are being recruited for as well as ones where they have accepted or declined to speak
CRM Users can select speaker engagements and see all speakers that have been recruited, accepted or declined for all events. This is a global view and can be sorted on event dates, speaker name or any column included in this filtered list
Multiple CRM Mail Merges have been created for managing the collection of information updates and generation of informational letters to speakers

When thinking of your CRM solution don't be afraid to think out of the box and add functionality to support your many business practices. If you can use Dynamics CRM to support more of your business processes you can increase efficiencies and increase accuracy of your data by eliminating the need for dual entry of the same customer data. Your company will also benefit by adding more processes in a central repository like Dynamics CRM by reducing the time it takes to locate and report on disparate pieces of data.

BroadPoint Partner Scribe announces Scribe Web Services Adapter Product Launch Webinar

2009-05-07T15:11:00.000-07:00

Webcast: Scribe Web Services Adapter Product Launch: Overview and Demonstrations – Thursday, May 14 @ 11am – 12pm EST
This webcast will cover the newly released Web Services Adapter for Scribe Insight and Scribe Insight Enterprise. The webcast will include a feature overview and several demonstrations of the Web Service Adapter enabling integration to Dynamics AX, Microsoft SharePoint and 3rd party commercial web services. Click to read the Adapter for Web Services data sheet.

Scribe Presenters for the webcast will be:
Bob Sturim - Vice President, ProductsJohn Gravely - Vice President, Marketing and Product MarketingLou Antonucci - Vice President, Sales
Tomas O’Brien - Product Manager

Please register at the following registration URL https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/8001615779/Registration.aspx?pageName=rx9xxrf8tbj9g3rz

Your CRM does what? Part 1 of 4

2009-05-04T13:35:00.001-07:00

By Todd Fleming

Senior Consultant, Microsoft Business Solutions

BroadPoint Technologies

I think most of us know what a standard CRM application does out of the box. You have the typical functionality across all of the major CRM vendors to include: Sales Force Automation- Leads, Accounts, Contacts and Opportunity Management, Marketing Automation – Campaigns and Marketing Lists, and Service Automation – Contracts, Cases and a Knowledgebase. While this includes a lot of useful features it rarely ever satisfies all of the needs of a company. This shouldn't be viewed as a negative as long as your CRM solution is also flexible enough to handle your company's specific business needs.

One of the solutions we have incorporated in Microsoft Dynamics CRM for customers in the past includes:

Project Budgeting and Analysis

In this case, the client was using their financial application to track time and materials against projects. The goals were to: (1) give Account Execs more visibility into project details and current budget to actual amounts thereby reducing the burden on the finance team for having to produce weekly status reports, (2) provide a central repository for all project documents and customer interactions and (3) provide an estimate tool within CRM that would assist with creating budgets and client facing quotes. What we created in Dynamics CRM was a solution whereby:

Account Execs could create a new project with the necessary project description and details needed for budgeting
The project record would be the central location for storing files and recording interactions with customers regarding a project
Several departments would be tasked with creating budgetary estimates for the project
A quote would be generated based on the details and budgetary estimates and sent to the client
As time and expenses are approved against the project in the financial application it systematically integrates this data to the corresponding project in Dynamics CRM
Budgeted time and expenses can be compared to actual time and expenses to monitor a project's status within Dynamics CRM

In my next blog postings I will discuss additional features we have added in Dynamics CRM such as Contract Administration, Event Planning, Speaker Bureau Management, Credit Card Verification, Integrated Freight Calculation and Partner Portal for managing Leads and Opportunities by external Partners.

Tip of the Week from Brenda Hopkins - Week 3

2009-05-04T06:21:00.000-07:00

Macro Basics

A macro is a function that allows the automation of certain events in a program. In Microsoft Dynamics GP, macros can be used to take out some of the annoying parts.

For example, when we transfer money, we always transfer it one way, from Money Market to operating. Everything is the same but the dollar amount.

So, we can build a macro to fill in everything but the amount. Now we can just run the macro, add an amount and then we are done.

Building a macro in Microsoft Dynamics GP is easy but somewhat tedious. Remember though, you only have to build it once; you get to run it over and over again.

A Microsoft Dynamics GP macro works the same way as if you were sitting there keying in the info. That's important thing to remember as you build macros.

To Create the Macro:
· Select Tools->Macro->Record.

· Name the macro TEST and remember where you saved it.

· Pick Transactions->Financial>Bank Transfers for our example.

· Key in everything but the amount to transfer.

· Click Tools->Macro->Stop Recording.

· You've now recorded all that work as a Macro.

· Push clear and close the window.

To Run the Macro:

· Pick Tools->Macro->Play.

· Find your macro file and click open.

· Close the box telling you how long the macro ran.

· You now have bank transfer waiting for your amount.

· To finish the transfer, enter the amount and click post.

Adding the macro to the shortcut bar is the easiest way to run a macro and it gets rid of the run time message.

You can see your Leads and Opportunities but can your Partners?

2009-05-01T11:22:00.001-07:00

By Todd Fleming

Senior Consultant, Microsoft Business Solutions

BroadPoint Technologies

In the past couple of years we have worked with companies that sell their products directly and also through a Partner Channel. There are many challenges to overcome when you are faced with this business model. Some of the complaints I hear often are that when you provide Leads to your Partners you don't hear about them again until they place an order. This makes it difficult or impossible to do any accurate sales forecasting. Another common complaint is that the company has little to no exposure in the interactions of Leads and Opportunities once they are turned over to Partners.

The ability for Partners to update Lead and Opportunity information and associate calls and tasks with Leads and Opportunities in your company's CRM solution provides valuable data to the company which can be mined using common Business Intelligence and Reporting tools. Lead response time is another concern. If your process for getting Leads and Opportunities to your Partners is a manual one then this could take a while from the time a Lead expresses an interest until the time the Lead is followed up on. In most industries the response time is a critical factor in determining the lead conversion rate. If it takes too long to follow-up on a Lead your competitor may beat you to the deal.

Partner Portal for Sales

The solution we developed for a customer using Microsoft Dynamics CRM provided the following features:

Two security roles for Portal Users - Executive and Portal User
- Executive can see all Leads and Opportunities assigned to a company (Partner). Executive user assigns Leads and Opportunities to Partner employee (Portal Users)
- Portal User can see and manage all Leads and Opportunities Assigned to them (Partner employee)
Security is controlled in Microsoft Dynamics CRM - User Name, Password, Security Level and ability to inactivate a login
Ability within Dynamics CRM to login as a specific Portal User to see exactly what they would see when they login
Allows Leads in Dynamics CRM to be assigned to Partners
Allows Opportunities in Dynamics CRM to be assigned to Partners
Allows Lead contact data to be edited via Partner Portal which is then updated in Dynamics CRM
Allows Opportunity data to be edited via Partner Portal which is then updated in Dynamics CRM
Allows Phone Calls and Tasks to be created via Partner Portal for Leads and Opportunities which is then updated in Dynamics CRM
Allows Leads to be marked as "won" via Partner Portal. A list of Leads marked won is displayed in Dynamics CRM and once internally reviewed and approved they are converted to Opportunities and then displayed in the Partner Portal
Allows Leads to be exported from Portal if proper security is assigned. This can be controlled on a Partner by Partner basis.
Allows for filtered views in Dynamics CRM to display all Leads and Opportunities assigned to Partners
Leads and Opportunities owned by Partners can be exported from Dynamics CRM and sent as an Excel attachment if the Partner decides not to use the Portal

Some of the features we have considered adding include

Adding a last login date to the Portal User record that tracks when the user last logged into the Portal in order to produce a Portal Usage report
Dashboard Reports for Leads and Opportunities
Partner point system. Partner's that close the most Leads get assigned the most Leads.

Technology used:

.Net web service (C#), ASP .Net front end templates, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK

Required Licenses
Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Microsoft Dynamics CRM External Connector License

BroadPoint Technologies and CCH partner to help manage State Sales and Use Tax Compliance

2009-04-30T14:49:00.001-07:00

In a healthy economy most state and local tax revenue will usually increase and go a long way in helping to fund the needs of a state and the given localities; however, when economic conditions change to the downward side, such as we are currently seeing, state and local governments are forced to take measures to help them deal with their own tax revenue shortfall. It is a safe bet to assume that audit activity is already on the increase nationwide. Desperate times require desperate measures, and like any other functioning entity, state and local governments also will have to do whatever they can to generate the additional needed revenue that is required to run the state.

Broadpoint Technologies in partnership CCH helps to solve the grueling experience of sales tax compliance, monthly tax processing and sales tax audits. With solutions that are directly integrated with Microsoft Dynamics GP and SL, CCH helps companies cut the cost of sales tax compliance, reduce your audit risk, and streamline your operations. CCH can help teach what's new with automating sales tax and Dynamics GP and how to eliminate manual calculation, address verification, and preparation of returns.

BroadPoint is currently the 4th highest fundraiser for the AIDS Walk of Washington 2009!

2009-04-29T09:03:00.000-07:00

Check out BroadPoint's Team Page for the upcoming AIDS Walk of Washington.

BroadPoint's Bethesda office is participating in the race and has made some great fundraising goals!

AIDS Walk Washington is a 5K fundraising walk and timed run benefiting and produced by Whitman-Walker Clinic. Whitman-Walker Clinic is a non-profit community-based health organization which provides dependable, high-quality, comprehensive and accessible health care to those infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS.

In Washington D.C. 1 in 20 people has HIV. BroadPoint is proud to join the community in raising funds and awareness!

You can help us reach our goal!
.

We made the cut!

2009-04-27T14:29:00.000-07:00

BroadPoint Technologies Ranks Number 17 on Top 100 VAR

Accounting Technology, a trade publication ranks the top value added resellers for accounting soluitons each year and this year BroadPoint made number 17.

Check out the full article here.

Todd Hager appointed as Treasurer of DC IAMCP

2009-04-23T14:22:00.001-07:00

Todd Hager is Vice President of BroadPoint Technologies and a frequent contributor to our blog! He is also involved in the Washington DC International Association of Microsoft Certified Partners (IAMCP). Most recently Todd was nominated and appointed to the position of treasurer for the IAMCP.

IAMCP exists to help Microsoft Partners Grow. With an ever growing membership of the areas top Microsoft Partners our Chapter is dedicated to helping Microsoft Partners Grow. As treasurer, Todd will be responsible for annual financials and reporting for the DC local chapter.

The IAMCP DC Chapter holds specialized events, parties, and seminars to enable better partnering opportunities within the Microsoft Partner community.

Check out their website: http://www.iamcp.org/washingtondc

Tip of the Week from Brenda Hopkins - Week 2

2009-04-23T12:48:00.000-07:00

Account Rollup

This Feature is an inquiry that you build which allows you to see various GL accounts rolled up together and the ability to drill down into the account details. If you need to look at groups of accounts this is the inquiry for you. You can even perform calculations! Reports can also be printed from these Inquiry Screens.

Additionally, you can perform calculations on those accounts.We use this for all kinds of things like:
· What's the Fixed Asset total across all divisions.
· What's the commission allocation based on sales.
· Useful for things like departmental totals with drilldowns.
· Accounts do not have to be consecutive.
· Rollups can include Actual, Budget and Calculated information.

Traditionally users have been using FRx will to do this type of consolidation, but I don't want to launch FRx and run financial statements just to get a breakdown of my FA accounts.

In Dynamics GP, select Inquiry->Financial->Account Rollup

Enter an Option ID, tab and click yes to add the option or Modify to create new options or make changes to the Account Rollup Inquiry Option.

Account Rollup Inquiry :
Controls on the right let you see net change or period balance totals. If you want to see what makes up the total number, select a month and click the blue column header.

Account Rollup Inquiry Options:
You set the number of columns you want to see up in the right side. If all you want is totals, one column is fine. For calculations, use at least 2 columns.

In the center, you set the types of columns, but we'll come back to that. At the bottom, you add criteria like accounts, departments, divisions, etc. UNLIKE OTHER GP criteria areas, you can multiple independent criteria here. So if you want to see department A and Department C but not Department B. You add A, then add C.

Now, to get really fancy, you can ad calculated columns to a rollup. Simply create or modify (with the button) a rollup.

Change the type from Actual to Calculated. In the Selection column, click the More Info button. This is a little arrow.

My example is Commission on Retail/ Parts Sales. Let's say, I accrue 8.9% of sale as a commission accrual. My first column is my monthly sales for the Retail/ Part Division. So I'll pick the only available column in the column box and hit the double arrows (>>) then add the multiply sign (*) then in the constant box I'll add .089 and hit the double arrows (>>).

You formula now looks something like C1 * 0.089. Save and refresh and you get a report with sales and the commission allocation for each month.

This is great for all those estimates you do every month. You can just take the numbers and do a JE.

Click the HRP icon and nothing happens…

2009-04-23T10:05:00.000-07:00

How many of you have been recently completed your upgrade to version 10 and
noticed when you click the HRP icon and nothing happens…

I know many of you have been there and know what I’m talking about.

This is an annoying bug, guaranteed to be fixed in 10 SP 4, but many of you may not want to wait any longer.

[45647] HR/PR Area Page doesn't show up first when select navigation button for HR/PR

There is a solution that has created by the Microsoft developer support team that fixes the issue,
using the Support Debugging Tool, as a Microsoft Partner BroadPoint has access to this tool.

If you would like to get this problem resolved now contact BroadPoint Support.
Support@BroadPoint.net

Tip of the Week from Brenda Hopkins

2009-04-23T08:59:00.001-07:00

Brenda Hopkins is MBS Practice Manager for our Virginia Beach office. She has many helpful insights and will be posting often!

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Correct Journal Entries

Reverse and Replace a Journal Entry using functionality found in Transactions>Financial>General>Correct.

In version 8.0 Microsoft introduced Journal Entry corrections and copies.. You now have the ability to undo a journal entry, easily, and with a complete audit trail.

In Transactions->Financial->General, select Correct. You now have an option to Back Out a Journal Entry or Back Out a JE and create a correcting entry.

You will also need the JE number (you can look it up) and year of the entry you want to correct.

What happens behind the scenes when you Back Out an entry is that GP creates a duplicate, opposite JE with a new JE number to offset the one you want to correct. If all you need to do is undo an entry, simply post your correction and you're done.

If you also select a correcting entry, the first entry created is the Back Out entry. When you post or save the Back Out entry, a second entry is created. This second entry is your original entry as a new, unposted JE that you can make changes to.

Both the Back Out and the correction are normal JE's that can be save to a batch, changed, posted, made reversing, etc.

Some obvious uses:

That batch of month end accruals was accidentally posted in next month. Simply pull up the JE, do a correction to back it out of next month, and change the date on the correcting entry to the correct month.
The 150 line JE keyed incorrectly.
Use this tool to Back Out the incorrect entry and then correct the entry.

A related feature is to Copy a JE. It is the same process, just click copy instead of correct. This is great when you need to create a JE just like the one you did last month!

By default, Correction only works for transactions that originated in the General Ledger. However, the administrator can change this behavior.

Tools>Setup>Financial>General Ledger now has new check boxes to control this functionality.

Voiding/Correcting of Subsidiary Transactions

Mark this option to allow transactions originating in other modules to be voided, backed out, or backed out and corrected in General Ledger. Voiding transactions originating in other modules will not update the transactions in those modules.

Why it makes sense to focus on CRM in the current economy

2009-04-21T14:57:00.001-07:00

By Todd Fleming

Senior Consultant, Microsoft Business Solutions

IT spending in the current economy is expected to decline in certain areas but not all. A recent Gartner Study showed that enterprise applications including ERP and CRM was number 2 on the 2009 Top 10 Technology Ranking Priorities list. "In 2009, companies must do more with less as they strive to provide high levels of customer service with limited resources. But while CRM will be geared more toward client retention during this Great Recession, as time goes on, the ability to define, clean, integrate, and manage vast customer data will be at the center of the enterprise." - Stephen Loynd, program manager, IDC Contact Center Services program

The importance of customer retention:

Major global corporations now lose, and must replace, half their customers in five years. A typical company's customers leave at a rate of 10% to 30% per year. Frederick Reichheld, The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits and Lasting Value
Increasing customer retention by just 5% can increase profits by 25% to 95%. Bain & Company
Patronage by loyal customers yields 65% of a typical business' volume. American Management Association

How can CRM help improve customer retention?

To understand how a CRM solution can help with customer retention it's important to look at the four major reasons a customer leaves a company.

They die or are no longer buying products and services you supply
They are unhappy with the price
They are unhappy with the product
They think that you do not care about them

Rockefeller Corporation shows that 68% of customers leave because they think that you do not care about them. Since this is the biggest reason that customers leave a company let's focus on that reason and a few areas where a CRM solution can help overcome this.

It is important to know who your customers are.

Keep track of your customers and all of their interactions in a central repository. Let your staff in every department know who your best customers are and more importantly be sure that they are treated as such.

When using CRM as a central repository, activities and notes from all departments provide a more complete view of the customer allowing staff to better understand and serve the customer's needs
CRM should be used across all departments to manage tasks, scheduling of follow-up phone calls and appointments with customers
CRM should be used to track specific customer interests and demographics so that they can be selected for fewer more targeted campaigns
CRM should be used to store all customer information and interactions so that reporting and business intelligence tools can be used to provide useful insight into customer trends and identify problem areas

It is important that you communicate with your customers.

Workflow rules can automate repetitive tasks allowing a salesperson more time for personal communication with customers
CRM can be used as a central repository for recording customer information such as birthdays, special interests and hobbies. This will allow the staff to build a more personal relationship with their customers.
Workflow rules can manage case escalation so customer service requests are assigned to the appropriate parties and are followed up within acceptable time limits
Staff can run reports and filtered lists to monitor customers that have not had any activity within a certain timeframe and be pro-active in scheduling follow-up calls, appointments or emails to reconnect with these customers

Your competition is constantly trying to make your customers their customers. Knowing more about your customers and keeping in constant contact with them can help reduce the customer attrition rate. A well designed CRM solution will allow you to store and analyze key customer information, uncover and respond to any trends, and identify new opportunities with existing customers.

How can integrating Business Applications help grow your business?

2009-04-14T19:24:00.001-07:00

By Todd Fleming,
Senior Consultant, Microsoft Business Solutions, BroadPoint Technologies

The goal of integrating business applications is to consolidate key data from all systems that are customer touch points into one system accessible to all departments within your company. This allows each person within the company to have a complete view of the customer without having to research the customer's activities in all business applications used by the company. It allows your staff to sound more knowledgeable about your customers needs and therefore able to respond quicker to their inquiries.

Why retaining existing customers is so important

Research has shown that a 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect on profits as cutting costs by 10% and a 5% reduction in customer defection rate can increase profits by 25-125%, depending on the industry. ("Leading on the Edge of Chaos", Emmett C. Murphy and Mark A. Murphy)
"It costs the average business 5 to 10 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain and existing one." The Loyalty Effect & Loyalty Rules Marketing Metrics 2002
Most business leaders (80%) believe they do a good job in building customer relationships, while only 8% of customers agree, according to research from The Whetstone Edge

Benefits of integrating business applications

Allows you to better understand your customer's needs
Allows you to more quickly respond to customer inquiries
Provides for a more personal relationship with your customers
Provides for better analysis and future decision making in meeting your customer's ongoing needs
Reduces the need for duplicate entry and increases data accuracy

Things to consider when choosing an Integration Solution

The ideal integration solution allows the company's applications to communicate and exchange business transactions, messages, and data with each other using standard interfaces. It enables applications to transfer data in real-time or in scheduled batches in either a bidirectional or unidirectional configuration. The four elements needed in an integration solution include:

Management - The Integration solution should include an interface for data administration and data management tasks. The interface should allow for management of rules, scheduling of jobs, system configuration and other administrative tasks such as configuration of alerts and notifications.
Data Cleansing - Data cleansing tasks should be part of the integration process prior to loading the master data source. The integration solution should include a tool for cleansing and matching data and the ability to update records when matches are found.
Customer Cross Reference - An Integration Solution must include customer reference data for all connected applications and must communicate any changes in the master data to all affected applications. The repository needs to have the ability to manage unique master record keys and associated cross-reference keys that link back to source systems.
Scalability - An Integration solution with low cost of ownership for enterprises requires the ability to easily extend the solution to other data sources or eliminate existing data sources as your business needs grow and change.

When implementing application integration technologies, the idea is to make the company more effective, more profitable, a better business partner and more accessible to its many clients. Integrating business applications allow you to consolidate and manage customer information from all available sources so that all departments in the company have access to the most current, complete, and comprehensive view of customer information. Doing so can greatly aid in the customer retention and customer acquisition process having a positive impact on your company's profitability.

What are you looking for?

2009-04-14T14:02:00.001-07:00

By Kyle Kienzle, Account Executive
BroadPoint Technologies, Raleigh NC

Some reporting guidelines, capabilities, and tools often asked about by my Microsoft Dynamics GP clients are:

1. SmartlistBuilder - This tool allows the user to extend the query capability in Smartlist in Dynamics GP to span different modules and datasources. SmartlistBuilder has been well received by BroadPoint clients. Many of the clients that I am in contact with tell me that it is "used hourly" and "the starting ground" for many of their workdays. It is best for quick views and inquiries.

2. SRS (SQL Reporting Services) – This is a packet of reports and reporting tool, all free, provided by Microsoft and deployed by BroadPoint. There are some automatic template reports and more can always be tailored for your organization by BroadPoint.

3. Microsoft FRx is a mid-market financial reporting tool. It is used by most of our clients for financial reporting due to its many capabilities. A FRx report allows a scale of information from the summary financial level to the single transaction level in Dynmaics GP.

4. The inherent report writer comes with about 150 reports per module, over 2000 all together, making it the main reporting engine. The report writer will be the primary source of reporting because adjustments can easily be done and shared.

5. There are free Excel reports already created as well that are embedded in the Dynamics.dic. A user can go to the Reporting Tools Setup window and deploy them.

6. For advanced reporting – there are a number of ISV Solutions available, each with different pros, cons, and price points. A few examples: Prophix, Solver, Targit, ProClarity, Zap Technology, etc.

If you would like more information please do not hesitate to contact me!

Parkinson's Law applied to Project Management

2009-04-13T11:24:00.000-07:00

By Todd Hager, Vice President at BroadPoint Technologies

Cyril Northcote Parkinson posits in a 1995 essay for The Economist that, “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” He went on to provide a mathematical equation that was used to show the rate at which bureaucracies bloat over time. (I love Wikipedia..)

What is the implication for completion times of project tasks? Assume that a particular task estimated to take 7 days actually is completed in four days, does the performer deliver it to the next resource person? Not likely. Because the time estimates given are negotiated numbers, reporting an early finish of a task means that future estimate given by the project worker will be trimmed by the manager.

To avoid this possibility, rather than report early task completion, the worker is likely to spend the extra time performing checks and adding nice to have "bells and whistles" not strictly required by the specifications. Result? Extra time gained is wasted. The key here is to be aware of this phenomenon and guard against it by getting early completions identified, taking advantage of the resulting schedule slack.

BroadPoint consultants and project managers strive to complete projects on time and on budget while at the same time keeping a steady eye on the momentum of the work to gauge how best to achieve the greatest results in the least time regardless of the plan.

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For more from Todd Hager please visit his blog.

User Adoption – The Key to CRM Success in a Sales Organization

2009-04-09T08:55:00.001-07:00

Beth Scheidt is CRM Practice Manager here at BroadPoint and our guest blogger today.

User Adoption – The Key to CRM Success in a Sales Organization

By Beth Scheidt

CRM systems are implemented for a variety of reason in a Sales Organization but generally with one common goal – to improve profitability. The IT departments may implement CRM to reduce the number of systems they are supporting. Marketing may implement a new system to improve their lead management. The executive team may want a CRM system to gain greater transparency into their pipeline.

The success of the goal hinges on the group of people least likely to have a reason to implement a CRM system and most impacted by the change – the sales staff. The key to a successful CRM implementation is sales rep adoption of the new system.

Try to imagine the point of view of the sales staff. The top sales reps already have a system that is working well for them. Why should they change? For those reps who are struggling, it is often viewed as a means to justify letting them go (which frequently does happen). There are several ways to help bring this critical group of people to the table and improve your chances for successful user adoption.

First, be sure to include them in the implementation process from the very beginning. They should be included in the system selection and design as well as testing and final roll out. Ask for their input and be sure to use it. Be aware of their time constraints, too. Time is money for the sales rep. So, every minute they sit in meetings is potentially a lost sale. The inclusion in the process will help build system ownership. As part of this process, be sure you pick the right sales reps to participate. Look to include those reps who are seen as leaders as well as those who are early adopters. However, you should always include those who are slower to adopt change. Their cautious approach will often provide insightful additions to implementation.

Second, make sure you have the right sales process in place before you choose, much less implement, the CRM software. Sales processes are often very messy. Executives often choose to implement CRM to clean up this process. However, the best practice is to make sure you have a working, well defined process in place BEFORE you implement CRM. Knowing your process will also help you understand which CRM tool will work best for you. Another clear benefit of having a solid process in place prior to an implementation is that only the CRM software will be new, not the process, too. The CRM tool should also be able to automate the process in many ways. Another plus for the implementation!

Third, be sure you implement the appropriate data security model. Sales organizations that are implementing a CRM system for the first time are also most likely introducing the concept of shared data, too. Sales reps need to have confidence that their data isn't going to be changed or deleted in error. A sure way to lose your user adoption is have them revert back to using their personal Excel spreadsheets because that's the only data they trust.

Fourth, make sure management is leading by example. So many times, sales reps are slow to use the system, hoping that the lack of use will make the system fail and go away. And that tactic works more often than you would think! However, if management relies on the data in CRM to manage the staff, the sales reps will be inclined to use the system. This goes double when executives use CRM data to manage their company. Management needs to be visibly and vocally using the data, especially pushing back on old or inaccurate data. If management isn't using CRM data to manage sales, it will be a fast path to low user adoption.

Fifth, be sure you don't create a system that becomes a sales prevention tool. Sales reps make money for your company by interacting with people not machines. Don't design the sales process so that sales reps are required to enter burdensome amounts of data. Keep data entry to the minimum and assist with dropdown lists or automated workflows and data population whenever possible. Whenever you add a piece of data to be collected, always ask how that information will help them sell. Out of the box CRM systems always have fields and entities that don't apply to every organization. Remove any unnecessary or only nice to have fields and entities at the start of an implementation. Those can always be added later when the basics are covered. Keep it simple to start with!

Sixth, make sure you have a very responsive support plan in place during and after the roll out of the system. Provide users with a knowledgeable and responsive help desk to handle technical or training issues that come up during the roll out. Make sure that support and training aren't just for the roll out but are planned for going forward. A support plan sends a clear message that the system is there to stay. On the subject of training, provide appropriate training based on the sales reps needs. If you need to train the sales reps for more than a day on the system, then you have probably implemented the wrong system. There should also be a process for implementing changes to the system. Requested changes should be given due consideration and implemented when deemed appropriate.

CRM implementations are most successful when you treat the sales staff as customers. They need to be sold on using the system, too. Take every opportunity to point out what is in it for them and be sure there really is something in it for them. Have the end users get the basics down first. Phase in changes to the system rather than overwhelming them with a plethora of new changes. Take care of your sales reps and your user adoption will happen.

Who's your Source on That? Creating Source Control for CRM Customizations

2009-04-08T12:20:00.000-07:00

Please meet Michael Dodd, BroadPoint CRM Consultant, he will be posting often to provide insights into CRM and Tips and Tricks for users.

Part 1 of 2: Suggestions for CRM Customization Versioning in Team Development

By Michael Dodd

One of my newest CRM books is called "CRM as a Rapid Development Platform" by David Yack. The book is probably the first CRM 4.0 book that only covers CRM Development. The book's focus is on using MS CRM 4.0 as a platform for Line of Business applications. In doing so, Mr. Yack touches upon some of the pain points experienced with CRM 4.0 Team Development. The top 2 pain points will be the focus of this 2-part blog post:

No Versioning/Source Control in the CRM Entity Customization UI (10 out of a possible 10)
No Intellisense for Client Side (JScript) Coding (9.5 out of a possible 10).

No Versioning/Source Control

This is most evident in developing client side (JScript) code for a given entity, whereby developers can over-write someone's code with their own revisions and publish these changes without ever knowing they were stepping on the other developer's toes. As you may or may not know, this will all change with CRM 5.0, where they have finally departed with the quick-to-deploy, yet “versionless”, customization UI and added a new "Solution Deployment" UI, which will not only include files for Source Control, but native versioning and roll-back features.

I have created my "Top 5 Ways We Can Improve CRM Team Development" below.

1. Do all CRM Customizations & Development on a Shared Environment - This is possible the most obvious yet most ignored step to improving team development. If the client does not have a development environment, we should create a shared virtual environment that everyone can access (and have local access to via diff disks). This would contain all the necessary development tools (CRM, VS, SQL, SRS, Scribe) as well as an instance of Visual SourceSafe.

2. Treat CRM Customization Files as Source Code - First, all CRM Customization should be done against a Blank Solution in Visual Studio. Next, create separate folders for each Entity being customized. Finally, you must keep each Customization.xml file and all supporting JScript (as .js files) for each CRM Entity being customized (and checked into SourceSafe) in the appropriate entity folder. This will allow for some semblance versioning for each CRM Entities, Workflows, Sitemap and ISV configurations. It will also provide (albeit somewhat flawed) roll-back capability.

3. Standardize Naming Conventions for Customization files

4. Have a Scheduled Deployment of CRM Customizations - Whether it is nightly of weekly, developers must be in sync with the team's changes. one of the biggest reasons we step on each other code is because of a lack of organized deployment of code to the "Master" (or Testing/QA) environment. This will also keep "quick changes" from messing up your code

5. Use Descriptive Comments in your JScript Code

Hi from Tunesia Winn, and check out a GP user site

2009-04-08T08:51:00.000-07:00

Hi there! My name is Tunesia Winn, Account Manager for the VA - Central VA, Richmond & Hampton Roads area here at BroadPoint. I am one of our Microsoft Dynamics customer’s dedicated advocates and specialize in keeping you informed about events, support plans, tools, and training options.

I wanted to take this opportunity to mention the Microsoft Dynamics GP User group site. The site URL is http://gpug.com/. This is an international community site and was created to allow GP users the freedom to share thought, tips, tricks & advice across the board. Members are also allowed to form Regional groups and plan events.

I absolutely love this site!

If you have any problems using the site or want to talk about other ways I can help please let me know. In addition, I would be happy to spend time with you to plan your system roadmap and help you find the right products to meet your company's future needs and goals. Please feel free to contact me at anytime to answer any questions and/or help you find solution!

Way to go Ann and Serguei!

2009-04-06T14:51:00.001-07:00

We are very excited because two of our consultants, Ann Lehew, and Serguei Popovski have received certification for the Dynamics GP distribution module. They are both already master certified in Microsoft Dynamics GP 10 in general but went for a more specific certificate with the distribution module. The distribution exam is specific to all the distribution modules and extends their Dynamics GP 10 expertise to be more inclusive of all modules. This is beneficial for our clients as they will then have comfort in Ann and Serguei providing knowledgeable and efficient support so that they can have more efficient operations.

Creating iQA Business Objects from User Defined tables

2009-04-03T09:31:00.000-07:00

A frequently asked question from clients starting out with the iQA query tool is:

“I’d like to join the CSContact object to the User Defined table (ex. Demographics) but don’t see anything in the iQA ‘Common’ list of objects or anywhere else. How do I get Demographics (or any other table that isn’t in an object) into a query object?”

From the iMIS 15-iSA tab (accessible to iMIS system administrators) click the 'User Defined Tables' item on the left nav menu....

then click the 'Build All' button

Your user Defined tables should then appear as business objects available for use in iQA queries.

iMIS: To insert special foreign language characters

2009-04-03T08:58:00.000-07:00

To insert special foreign language characters …

Character Map

Locate the desired character

Click ‘Select’

Click ‘Copy’

Then paste (Ctrl+V or Edit>Paste) the special character into the necessary field position.Note: The alternate keystroke entry option of the Alt key + number sequence for special character entry.

Note: On my Dell D630laptop I do not have a dedicated 10-key number pad…to use the ALT+0241 keystroke command to insert the “ñ”.

For example I have to turn on the ‘number lock’ then holding down the ‘Fn’ key and the ‘Alt’ key simultaneously enter the numbers 0-2-4-1 on the letter keys (m-k-u-j) that also serve as an embedded 10-key number pad…the standard laptop number/symbol keys DO NOT WORK…going to the Character map and copying the special character is easier…each laptop is independently owned and operated..actual mileage may vary…see participating McDonalds for availability in your area…

Character Map Overview

You can use Character Map to view the characters that are available in a selected font. Character Map displays the following character sets: Windows, DOS, and Unicode. You can copy individual characters or a group of characters to the Clipboard and paste them into any program that can display them. Or, depending on the program you are using (such as WordPad), you can even copy characters by dragging them from Character Map directly into an open document.Using Character Map, you can search for characters by Unicode character name or Unicode subgroup (such as arrows or mathematical operators) or by other special classifications.

You can also use Character Map to view and copy private characters that you have created using Private Character Editor. If you know the Unicode equivalent of the character you want to insert, you can also insert a special character directly into a document without using Character Map. To do so, open the document and position the insertion point where you want the special character to appear. Then, with NUM LOCK on, hold down the ALT key while using the number pad keys to type the Unicode character value.

International characters
Environment: WIN_SQLSERVE:Version: 4.29.17.02Module:SYSTEM

Description: Can iMIS support International (foreign language) characters?

A. iMIS supports International characters like ñ. ç, é, è, ò, etc. These characters are supported via the font and inserted by keystroke combinations. To determine what keystrokes will insert a specific character, go to Start>>Programs>>Accessories>>Character Map.

Keywords: foreign characters French letters

E-Procurement as Counter-Cyclical

2009-04-03T08:44:00.000-07:00

This is Brinton Baker and I lead marketing and business development for Paramount Technologies. We’re the leading global provider of Employee Workforce Automation software; we automate your procurement, project, time and expense transactions to deliver reduced transaction costs and enhanced process efficiencies that will streamline your employee management and procurement processes, improve your employee productivity and accelerate your business.

In this challenging economy everyone is trying to manage costs. Perhaps surprisingly then, we are seeing increased interest in e-procurement solutions. It’s not hard to figure out why. According to a leading industry analyst firm, e-procurement can:

Achieve 5% - 10% price reductions through improved contract compliance
Reduce order requisition costs from $114 per order to $31 on average
Shorten purchase and fulfillment cycles from 8 days to 2 days
Cut in half instances of maverick purchasing
Lower inventory costs for indirect goods by 25% to 50%

The bottom line is that less money is wasted on inappropriate purchases and excess inventory, better prices can be negotiated, and employees are more productive. Just what businesses need these days.

How is this possible? Businesses typically spend between 50% and 80% of revenues on the procurement of external goods and services, so even small cost improvements can quickly yield significant bottom line benefits and create sustainable year-over-year cost reductions to support continued profitability and growth.

Paramount Technologies has proudly partnered with BroadPoint Technologies since 2004. If you would like to find out if e-procurement will help your business, or if you are currently using Dynamics GP Requisition Management and want to see how much more is possible, call BroadPoint to arrange for a personal demonstration.

Nadia Isata Back from Convergence!

2009-04-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
This is Nadia Isata, Account Manager for the Washington DC Metro area here at BroadPoint. I am our Microsoft Dynamics customer’s dedicated advocate and specialize in keeping you informed about events, support plans, tools, and training options. In addition, I can spend time with you planning your system roadmap, and finding the right products to meet your future needs. Simply put, I am available to answer any questions, find you a solution, anytime!

I have recently returned from Convergence, Microsoft’s Dynamics annual end user conference, in New Orleans. What an amazing four days! We were able to learn so much, and had such a fun time connecting with everyone. If you have never gone, I would really suggest attending. Next year’s Convergence is April 25- 28th in Atlanta.

One of the most popular sessions at Convergence this year was, "50 Tips in 50 Minutes for Microsoft Dynamics GP." The session included tips for financials, purchasing, sales, reporting, and system topics. It was such a great session, that I thought that I would share with everyone. Click here to download.

BroadPoint Tech Topics

We've moved!

Weekly Tip's

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 22

We've moved!

To Tweet or not to Tweet: Can Social Networking Channels Enhance or Hinder you CRM Initiative?

Its Year End Time!

Support for Microsoft Dynamics GP 8.0 will be discontinued on October 13, 2009.

Offline Functionality Simplifies Data Entry for 500 Users Worldwide

Help with the MMREF format for Virginia Employment Commision

Addition user discount, 25% off!

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 21

Learning plans

Making GP do what you need it to do – without code.

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 20

We have released a new White Paper!

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 19

CustomerSource and FREE Training!

On Demand FastPath Webinars due to popularity

Your Business Solution Road Map

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 18

Vista and Microsoft Dynamics GP/ iMIS Users – can work together?

ASP:Menu will not work with IE8 / Chrome / Safari.

An iMIS Tips and Tricks by Venketesh Subramony

Consultant, BroadPoint Technologies

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 17

Write a WebService using your notepad

An iMIS Tips and Tricks by Venketesh Subramony

Consultant, BroadPoint Technologies

What is PCI and Why is PCI Compliance important for you?

Webservice Easy to implement using JQuery.

An iMIS Tips and Tricks by Venketesh SubramonyConsultant, BroadPoint Technologies

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 16

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 15

What is xRM?

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 14

Mobile Express for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Entities Available in Mobile Express

Referral Program offers customers $50 AMEX Gift Cards

The Evolution of Paper

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 13

Newsgroups within PartnerSource

Microsoft announces service extension

New iMIS Discounts available

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 12

BroadPoint and Fastpath are offering a free webinar to help you Gain Control of your data and systems

100 New Smartlist Templates now available!

New iMIS Training Classes Available!

Obama’s New Changing Landscape for Smaller Healthcare Practices: Can IT Create Cost Savings?

Inside Microsoft Dynamics GP

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 11

6 Things to look for in a Business Solutions Partner

'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Skype

Budgeting and Planning In a Down Economy- Is it Really Necessary?

BroadPoint co-hosts panel at the Microsoft Not for Profit Summit

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 10

BroadPoint is one of the founding members of the ERP Software Blog

Have you checked out the Microsoft Dynamics GP Setup Checklist?

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 9

Scott Stevenson joins BroadPoint Technologies Director of Professional Services

BroadPoint can help you find a FastPath to Security with Microsoft Dynamics GP

Reporting Shootout – Which reporting tool is best for each situation

Take advantage of Microsoft Dynamics GP SmartList Template Library

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 8

Upcoming webcast from BroadPoint: Doing More With Less - 10 Ways to Recession Proof Your Organization Using Technology

Using more of your CRM solution can save your organization money

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 7

iMIS 15.1 is here!

Todd Hager to present on Panel at Columbia Books Conference, “Beating the Recession: The Non-profit Executive Tool Kit”

CRM Implementation Success – A Second Opinion

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 6

Business Intelligence - First Steps

Recent awards from ASI

Your CRM does what? (Part 4 of 4 – Extending Orders)

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 5

Your CRM does what? (Part 3 of 4)

Weather the Storm: FREE Webcast June 3, 2009 at 11:00 AM EST, Register Today

Favorite Microsoft Dynamics GP 10 Function

Copy and Paste from Microsoft Excel®.

How is "Software as a Service" (SaaS) changing the way people approach business software decisions?

An iMIS Tips and Tricks by Venketesh Subramony
Consultant, BroadPoint Technologies