business report directions emea 2016 for dynamics nav … · 5 3. the business strategies around...

Business Report

DIRECTIONS EMEA 2016

For Dynamics NAV Partners

Prague, October 12th – 14th, 2016

Author: Guus Krabbenborg

Email: [email protected]

Index

1. Management summary 3

2. Event and organization 5

3. The business strategies around NAV 2017 and Dynamics 365 6

4. Dynamics 365 – Product, Positioning and Pre-sales 15

5. Dynamics NAV 2017 - core messages 19

6. Dynamics NAV 2017 – miscellaneous 26

7. Extensions 29

8. Exclusive interview with Paul White 34

9. Exclusive interview with Marko Perisic 39

10. Exclusive interview with Jennifer Dorsey and Lotte Cordt Ihlemann 44

12. Conclusions and recommendations 48

13. Access to the presentations 52

14. DIRECTIONS EMEA 2017 52

15. About the author 53

REPORT DIRECTIONS EMEA 2016 © PARTNERMASTERCLASS, AFFILIATE OF QBS GROUP

1.Managementsummary

Being a DynamicsNAVpartner in todaysmarket is likedancingona volcano. The recent

announcements around Dynamics 365 will make this effect even stronger! These days,

DynamicsNAVpartnersface thebiggest challengesever in theircompanieshistory. The

combination of cloud, subscription pricing, new types of competitors, continuous

innovationandthechangingbuyingbehaviorinvitebusinessownersandtheirshareholders

toexplicitlystepoutoftheircomfortzones.

Thesetrendscall fornewentrepreneurship,newbusinessmodelsandongoingchange.The

questionhowever iswhether thecurrentpartnerchannel isready,able,andwillingtodo

so.

According toMicrosoft,allDynamicsNAVpartnersneed to transform theirbusinesses in

ordertostayrelevant.However,manypartnersstill havenotevenstartedthisprocess-not

withactionandsometimesnotevenintheirminds!PaulWhite,worldwideresponsiblefor

Microsoft DynamicsintheSMBmarket, forecaststhatbestcasesome30percentofthe

currentNAVpartnercommunitywilleventuallymakethistransition.Sopartnerswhohave

not started their transformation process yet should really hurry in order not to be left

behind.

A relevant question is if today'sNAV channel ismentally prepared tomakethischange.

Afterall,themajorityofthecurrentbusinessownersstartedtheircompaniesintheearly-

tomid-nineties,whentheywere35to40yearsold.Well,ifyouadd20to25yearsontopof

that, you'll understand that many owners today focus more on risk reduction and pre-

retirementratherthanonstartingawholenewbusinessline!

TheDynamicsNAVproducthasmadeagreatrevival!Onlya fewyearsagothefutureofthe

productwasopenlyquestioned. InPrague, however,weall felttheexcitement andsaw

that Dynamics NAV is back again! A few observations: the launchof the new NAV 2017

version,an impressivestreamofadditionalinnovationsinandaroundNAV,100extraNAV

developersintheR&Dteams,acontinuouslygrowingnumberofNAVcustomersandfinally

NAVselectedasoneofthecornerstonesofDynamics365via"ProjectMadeira".

REPORT DIRECTIONS EMEA 2016 © PARTNERMASTERCLASS, AFFILIATE OF QBS GROUP3

LotsofoxygenwastakenoutoftheroominthevarioussessionsonDynamics365.Onthe

one hand this was logical since that solution can be seen as the future successor of

DynamicsNAV.On theotherhand,itwasnot logicalsince thegeneral impression is that

onlyaminorpartofthecurrentNAVchannelwilleventuallytransformtheircompaniestoa

successfulcloudbusiness.ButwhereelseshouldMicrosoftpresenthernewsolution?

Dynamics 365 is a promising concept indeed! Thesolution helpscustomers in the areas

wheremostcompanieshavetheir biggestpainstoday:connecting theseparatesystems.

Dynamics365benefits fromMicrosoft’sstrongest and uniqueasset: theMicrosoft stack.

Andontop of that,Dynamics365 isa product that issupported by thewholeMicrosoft

organization!

RatherthanjustfocusingonthefunctionsandfeaturesofDynamics365,partnersdefinitely

needtopayattentiontothebusinesssideofthisnewsolution.Whatdoesittaketomakea

successoutofDynamics365?Andwhat changesmust theaverageNAVpartnermake in

ordertobecomesuccessful?NAVpartnersshouldeithergofullflashintoDynamics365or

don’tstartwiththisnewproductatall.Joiningjustalittlewon’twork.

SodearNAVpartners-it’sreallytimetomakeupyourmindsaboutyourfuture!


2.Eventandorganization

Theorganizationcommitteeof theDirectionsEMEA2016 eventhadmany reasonsto be

proud!Inthenintheditionofthispartner-to-partnereventtheyreportednolessthan1.754

attendees,representing588partnersfrom52countriesfromallovertheworld.Anall-time

record!

Butthereweremanymorestatisticalrecordsthistime:

• Anaverageof3employeesperpartnercompany

• Anincreaseof50%inthenumberoffemaleattendees

• Over150presentations,deliveredby126speakers

• 25hands-onworkshops

• 120Microsoftemployees–thebiggestdelegationever

• And60sponsorswithaboothontheexpo

The2017editionofDIRECTIONSEMEAwilltakeplaceonOctober4th-6thinMadrid.Itwill

bethe10thanniversaryoftheEMEAevent,soprobablyreasonenoughforasmallparty.


3.ThebusinessstrategiesaroundNAV2017andDynamics365

Paul White is business responsible for Microsoft’s business applications offering in the

worldwide SMB market. Just like in the previous years, he delivered the keynote

presentationonthefirstdayofDIRECTIONS.Ontheseconddayhedeliveredthekeynote

togetherwithMarkoPerisic.

THE 2019 CHALLENGE

Paulstartedwithanupdateonthesocalled ‘2019 challenge’.Eitherviaon-premiseorvia

cloud, via Dynamics NAV or via Dynamics 365 for Financials, Microsoft is focused on

reachingthe200.000NAVcustomermilestoneby2019.Achievingthisgoalwouldreallybe

apieceofart!Sinceitmeansthatthesecond100.000customerswillberecruitedinonly5

years'time, where it took Navision andMicrosoftover20 yearsto win thefirst 100.000

customers.

Paul presented thegraph below that shows the audience anongoing growth, however

withoutdisclosingthenewcurrentnumberofNAVcustomers.Shortlyafterthesessionhe

explained to usthatMicrosoft has changed theway to release this type of information

fromthenumberofcustomerstothenumberofseats.


THE FAST GROWING SAAS MARKET

PaulWhitepresentedtheaudiencewithMicrosoft'scasefortheattractivenessoftheSaaS

markets.Today,theseSaaSmarketsarestill smallerthantheon-premisemarkets.However,

thegrowthratesofSaaSsolutions(upto12percentyearoveryear)aremuchhigherthan

thegrowthratesintheon-premisemarkets(only1percentYoY).

PaulshowedthepredictedmarketvaluesforboththeonpremiseandSaasmarketsby2019

in themarket ofcompanieswith 10-99 employees fora group of 9 important European

countries:

• Financials/ERPonpremise Value:€1,5billion YearoverYeargrowth:1%

• Financials/ERPSaas Value:€0,8billion YearoverYeargrowth:12%

• CRMonpremise Value:€0,2billion YearoverYeargrowth:1%

• CRMSaas Value:€0,9billion YearoverYeargrowth:12%

INTRODUCING THE ‘AND STRATEGY’

Soforthecomingyearsthere’sabigandprettystablemarketforOnpremisesolutionson

theonehand.Anda somewhatsmaller,butfastgrowingmarketforSaassolutionsonthe

otherhand.What shouldNAV partnersdo to continue theirpresencein thewell-known

Onprem market and at the same time benefit from this Saas market? Is it possible to


combinethesetwobusinesses?And if so –what doesthatmean fortheir organizations,

roles,competenciesandthewaytomanagethateffectively?

InPrague,Microsoftannouncedthesocalled‘ANDstrategy'.Thisbasicallyistheadviceto

partnersto continuetheirNAVprojectsbusiness,whileat thesametimebuilding a new,

incrementalcloudbusiness,mostlikelyinaseparateunitwith:

• Aseparateteam

• Abusinessmodelbasedonlesslicensemarginandsmallerservicesrevenues

• Afocusonwinningnewcustomers

• Alowercostprofile

• Andadifferentmindset

IMPACT ON THE OTHER DYNAMICS SOLUTIONS

TheintroductionofDynamics365definitelyhasanimpactonMicrosoft’sportfolio.Asyou

canseeintheslidebelow,DynamicsCRMandDynamicsAXwillbeabsorbedinMicrosoft

Dynamics365EnterpriseEdition.And“ProjectMadeira”will turnintoMicrosoftDynamics

365forFinancialsaspartoftheMicrosoftDynamics365BusinessEdition.


HOW TO CREATE SAAS SUCCESS?

All thesechangeshaveofcoursean impact on thebusinessof a DynamicsNAV partner.

PaullistedhistopfourprioritiesfortheNAVpartnerchannel:

1. Helping partners to drive down the Cost of Sales by shifting from a Sales oriented

approachtoaMarketingorientedapproach

2. Helping partners to improve the lifetime value of their customers by setting smart

pricingandpackagingandalimitationofthechurnrates

3. Channeldevelopmentfor Dynamics365.MicrosoftexpectstofindnewDynamics365

partnersintheOffice365channel,amongstHostingServiceProviders,BPOpartnersvia

accountants,traditionalDynamicsERPpartnersandtraditionalISV’s

4. Exploring theISV opportunity.Microsoftplansto make a bigger effort tohelp ISV’s

reachmore(international)scale.

Inordertobesuccessfulinthe"cloudfirst"world,NAVpartnersneedtoexpandtheirERP-

only portfoliowith solutionslikeDynamics CRM,Office365, Azure, PowerBI, Flow,and

Cortana IntelligenceSuite.On topof that they need to differentiatetheir offeringsmore

thaneverbefore.Andfinally,theyneedtomarket,sell,deliver,andsupportdigitally.Again,

theseareallhugechangesforthemajorityofthepartnerchannel!


ONGOING NAV COMMITMENT

The last part of Paul White’s session was a confirmation of Microsoft’s ongoing

commitment for DynamicsNAV. “Please don’t be confused about Dynamics NAV”, was

Paul’s request to the audience. He finalized his day 1 keynote with four Go Do’s for

DynamicsNAVpartners:

1. ContinuetodrivetheexistingNAVbusiness.Sincethatshould createthefunding you

needtobuildthenewcloudbusiness

2. ExploretheopportunitythatAppSource,PowerAppsandFlowrepresent

3. CommittoExtensions

4. Buildanew,incrementalcloudbusiness

DYNAMICS 365 - THE COMPETITION

MicrosoftisofcoursenottheonlyvendorwhohasspottedtheSaasopportunity.Inhisday

2keynote,PaulWhitecommentedonanumberofcompetitorsthatareafterthismarketas

well:

• Netsuite–“After10yearsinbusiness,thiscompanystillhasdifficultiestobeprofitable

in theUS, theworld’s biggest ERPmarket. Sowill they be able to build a profitable

businessinEurope?”


• Sage –“Today, Sageoffers 15 different platformswith large functionaloverlaps.Will

theybeabletobringallthosesolutionstothecloud?Andwhatdoestheirco-operation

withSalesforce.commeanfortheirportfolio?”

• Amazon – “A relatively new player in business solutions, that nobody should

underestimate”

• Localheros–“NAVpartnerscomeacrossmanylocalcompetitorsintheirlocalmarkets,

likeExactandAcumatica.Theseareoftensmallercompaniesandthequestionisiftheir

R&Dresourcesarebigenoughtokeepupwithinnovation.”

• SAP–“MaybeMicrosoft’smostdangerouscompetitor.Prettyquiet,butfullyfocused.”

• Microsoft – (according to PaulWhite) “committed to the channel, large Office 365

customerbasewhichoffersa greatup-sellopportunity and agreat new solutionwith

Dynamics365”

DYNAMICS 365 – THE VALUE MESSAGES

ThesearethethreevaluemessagesthatunderpinDynamics365andthatwillbethebase

ofallthecorporatemessagesregardingDynamics365forFinancials:


Dynamics365–wheretobuy?

Dynamics365will notbepartoftheMicrosoftDynamicspricelist.Thisnew solutionwill

onlybesoldviatheCloudSolutionProvider(CSP)program.Microsoftpartnerscanchoose

betweenCSPDirect(akaTier1)orworkwithaValueAddedDistributor inanCSPIndirect

(Tier2)arrangement.InthecomingweeksandmonthseveryDynamicsNAVpartnerhasto

makeachoicebetweenthesetwooptions.

Dynamics365-pricingandpackaging

ThepricingmodelsforDynamics365areprettydifferentfromthecurrentNAVsubscription

pricing.Forexample,therewill notbeatieredmodelanymorethatprovideshighermargins

at highervolumes.Northerewillbebottom-uppricingfromMicrosoft tothepartner. In

contrast,Microsoftwilladvisea‘streetprice'onwhichpartnersgetamargin.

All thesechangesaredue to the standardsoftheCSP programthat isthe ‘new normal’

within the total Microsoft organization. And clearly, the days that the Dynamics teams

couldmakeherownrulesandpricingpoliciesareover!


AllDynamics365pricesareuserbased(‘named’),sothereisnomoreconcurrentpricing.

Atfirstimpression,Dynamics365seemstohaveprettyaggressivepricinglevels!Andthat’s

notjusttruefornewnamedcustomers,butalsofortheexistingonpremiseDynamicsERP

customers.Microsoftoffersa40percentdiscountonthefirst36months’paymentswhen

GP/NAV/SLcustomersupgradetoDynamics365BusinessEditionplan.


DYNAMICS 365 – AVAILABILITY AND ROADMAP

MicrosoftDynamics365forFinancialsBusinessEditionwillbeavailableinUSandCanadain

Q4ofcalendaryear2016.

InCY 2017,Dynamics365forSalesandDynamics365 forMarketingwillbecomeavailable

worldwide.Andontopofthat,MicrosoftDynamics365forFinancialswill beavailablein4

additionalcountries.


4.Dynamics365–Product,PositioningandPre-sales

ThekeynoteofthefirstdaywasmainlyfocusedontheDynamicsNAV2017release.Onthe

secondday,Dynamics365wascentral.MarkoPerisic,generalmanagerforDynamics365,

had just arrived from Tampa (US), where he has presented Dynamics NAV 2017 and

Dynamics365toover7.000attendeesattheUSsummit.

Markostartedhispresentationwithafewbold,butveryclearstatements.“Thecloudis all

aboutbuildingaprospects’journey–NOTaboutbuildingfunctions&features”,forsurewas

one of them. Another interesting one: “Reduction of the partners’ Cost of Sales is the

openingtovolume!”

Thesestatementsclearly underlined that selling, implementing and supportingDynamics

365 isa completedifferentballgamethan thetraditional,serviceorientedmodelaround

theonpremiseversionsofDynamicsNAV!

Themost surprising partofhispresentation,however,wassittingat thevery end.Over

time, Dynamics 365 for Financials will be functional equal to DynamicsNAV. As Marko

explains in the exclusive interview we’ve had with him: “Project ‘Madeira’ initially was

focusedoncompanieswith10-99employees.Butsoonafterwerealizedthatwe canexpand

into a broader set offunctionality to cover the entire SMB segment,which is nowBusiness

Editionas partofDynamics365.Overthenext6-12monthswewillhave paritybetweenthe


Dynamics 365 Business Edition andNAV. The only choice for customer andpartnerswillbe,

whethertheywantanonpremise /hostedsolution(DynamicsNAV)oraSaaS cloudsolution

(Dynamics365).”

“Dynamics 365 for Financials will get functional parity

with Dynamics NAV!”

SoDynamics365 forFinancialswillnotbethelow-end solutionwitha limited setofNAV

functionality, as itwaspositioned in spring. On thecontrary – the two solutionswill be

equaloverthenext6 to 12months. So this insightwilldefinitely shinenew lightonthe

strategicdecisionsthatmanyDynamicsNAVpartnershavetomakeinthenextfewmonths!

Thetrial-5minutestoWOW

ThiskeynotemadealsoclearthatinthenewDynamics365world,Microsoftwantstotake

overasubstantialpartofthecustomers’buyingjourney–beforeknownasthepartnerpre-

salescycle.Mostprobably toprotectpartnersagainstdeliveringatooexpensivepre-sales

cyclewithmostlikelya focusonfunctionsandfeatures.Butforsureto facilitatethelarge

numbersofleadsneededtoreallywinmarketshareorevendisruptthemarket.

Onstage,MicrosoftfirstdemonstratedtheprocessofsigninguptoDynamics365inonly5

seconds.Andthereaftertheysharedtheprocessofatrialtourthat leadstoaWOWinthe

next5minutes.Thiswasarefreshingexperience!Andprettydifferentfromthetraditional,

long-lastingNAVdemonstrationswithatsunamioffunctionsandfeatures.


Inthisprocess,Dynamics365 onlyasksforanemailaddressandthenyoucanstarta free

trial, which caneasily be converted into a deal by selecting the appropriateoption and

fillingincompanyinformation.

During the trial, different so called journeys can be followed to see different areas of

Dynamics365.For instance,byscanninga QRcode themobileappcanbelaunchedora

salesinvoicecanbecreatedstepbystepwithadditionalnotifications.

Whentheprospectisconvertedintoacustomer,itiseasytoimportcustomer/vendor/item

information via excel. Data updated in excelwill alsobeupdated in Dynamics 365.New

featureswhereshownlikePaypalinformationonthesaleinvoice.

Partnerscandevelopasimilarjourneyfortheirownaddonoffering.

THE IMPORTANCE OF APPSOURCE

AppSource isMicrosoft’sworldwideportal where partners can showcase their business

solutions to the worldwide market. There are different benefits for the various target

groups:

• Businessuserscandiscover,trialandacquiresolutions

• ISV’scancreateleads

• SI’sandVAR’scanoffertheirprojectservices

AppSource was demonstrated on stage. The portal has many selection options like

solutions per product, per industry, per language and per region. Microsoft is highly

motivatedtomakeAppSourcethecentralpointinanycustomerselectionprocess.

EXTENSIONS

ThemainmessageonExtensionsinthekeynotewasthattheproducthasbeenextended

sothatnowallobjectstypesaresupported.Alsotherearemoretoolsavailabletomanage

Extensions.

NEW DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT

Marko closed this part of the keynote by displaying a new brand NAV development

environmentbasedonVisualStudiocode.Unfortunately,thedemohadtechnicalproblems


andcouldnotbepresentedindetail.Thebigdifferencewith thecurrentapproachisthat

you don’t write code in a standard object but you only write the differences. These

differencescanthenbedirectlyusedtocreateanExtensioninstallationpackage.

Themaingoalofthismodernizationisofcoursetoattractnew,young,moderndevelopers

forthemodernizedNAVplatform.Whichisagoodthingofcourse!Arelevantquestionfor

theNAV channelhowever, iswhatthisnew environmentmeansforthecompetenciesof

theexistingdevelopmentcrews.

OVERVIEW OF ANNOUNCEMENTS

Towrapitalltogether,here’sanoverviewofthethreemostimportantannouncements.

Interestinglinks

AdditionalinformationaboutDynamics365andAppSource:

http://aka.ms/AppsForFinancials




5.DynamicsNAV2017-coremessages

USER EXPERIENCE IMPROVEMENTS

AllnewExperiencesforMSDYNAMICSNAV2017,Win,Web,TabletandPhone.

Higherperformance,newexperience.

Swappingtheengine,whiledriving!

Features

• EasyusabilitymanagementinNAV2017onyourmobile

• clearerimagesandnewformats

• Incrementallistsasdemandforfasteraccesstoinformation

• New components technical (Brick field group, Mediaset field, Extended datatype

property,Scopeactionsandgestureproperty,Cardpageidonlistparpages,RefreshOn

Activate)

• Ribbonishidden

• NewfeaturesonbuttonhowistheLearnmorebutton

• NotificationisBluebarwithinformation,withbuttonnotificationswithaction,Clipping

message,Notification,max3actions

• Wizards,groups,subgroup,etc.

• Themainlimitationisthatdatasetscanbetaughtonlythefirstimageofasetreceived

DataSetMediaSet

Supportedversions

• Android6,7

• wind10

• IOS9and10


ClientAddinImprovements

• Refreshevent

• DynamicallystretchtofillavailablespaceonCards

• Chromelessadd-ins

• Loadstylesheetsformurlinsteadofembedded

• SupportforlegacyIE7mode

• Microsoft.Dynamics.NAV.openWindow

• GetEnvironment.UserInteractionMode

Future

• NewKeyboardshortcuts

• OptimizationofListnavigation

• EasierSelection

• MoreOperationalandProductivity

• Personalizationprofile,show,hide,reorder,rename,importance

MoreInformation

http://aka.ms/navgetready

DEMOS AND THE DEMO ENVIRONMENT

DynamicsNAV2017somewhereinalldevice.

ItiseasytocreateaDEMOinhttp://aka.ms/demonav.

YoucancreateaDEMOinMSDynamicsNAV2017on20minutes.

Steps

1. CreatetheVM–Azureportal,SELECTSIZE,LOCATION,USER,ADDHTTP80…

2. InitializetheVM–certificate,publicaccess,your solution.CreateAzureVM.Welcome

toMSDynamicsonMSAzure.DeployVM.Createademofolder.InitializeVManAzure.

SelectNAVLanguage.UseDatabaseFile.Username,password,andDNS.Certificatefile,

configureNAVtouseSSL,openportsforclients…

3. DemoPackage–Office365,BingMaps,MSBand,ClickOnce,PowerBI,etc…

4. Access the demonstration environment using username password authentication,

configureappoption.

5. Sharepointpart…setupthispart.

6. Scripttocreateportalandtheirdashboard.

7. Clickoncesetup.




http://aka.ms/demonav

http://aka.ms/demonav

8. Createmanifest.

9. DEMO\installclickonce.

10. BingMaps integration. It’s an Extension, publis and install. Acces web client. Show

customermap.

11. Power BI integration, powerBI.COM. Need a private certification. DEMO/PowerBI.

InstallPowerBI.YouneedtheurlcertificateforapppowerBI.

AzureSubscription

IfyoudonothaveanAzureSubscription,pleaseopenabrowser andnavigatetohttps://

azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/andfollow thesignup processforcreatinga

freetrial.

Office365Subscription

If you want yourdemo environment to be integratedwith Office365,youwill need an

Office365 subscriptiononwhichyouareadministrator. Ifyoudo not haveanOffice365

subscription,whichcanbeusedforyourdemoenvironment,youcansignupforafreetrial

hereandfollowthesignupprocessforcreatingafreetrial.

You can also spin up a demo tenant of Office 365 with data from http://

demos.microsoft.com.


https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/




https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=510938&culture=en-US&country=US

https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=510938&culture=en-US&country=US

http://demos.microsoft.com




BingMapsdevelopmentkey

If you do not have a Bing Maps development key, you can navigate to https://

msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff428642.aspx and follow the process to create an

accountandgetadevelopmentkey.

PowerShell

You need to haveMicrosoftAzurePowerShell installed beforeyou can create a Virtual

MachineusingPowerShell.

FollowthislinktoreadabouthowtogetstartedwithPowerShellandMicrosoftAzure.

MORE INFORMATION

Partnersource

ApageonPartnersourcecollectsthe

informationaboutDemoEnvironmentsand

videoscanbefoundhere

Video

Avideoshowinghowtosetupademo

environmentend2endcanbeviewedhere

HowDoIvideos

HowDoI:MakeaMicrosoftDynamicsNAV

DemoInstance

HowDoI:BringyourMicrosoftDynamicsNAV

Demoinstance“in”Office365

HowDoI:InstallandusetheClickOncedemo

package

HowDoI:InstallandusetheBingMapsdemo

package

http://dirdemo1.cloudapp.net/

Internetinformationservices

Inthispagecandownloadcertificate

Integratethedemonstrationenvironmentwith

powerBI

HTTP://AKA.MS/DEMONAV

WhatyouknowbyDemoNAV

http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/

calculator

Costscalculatedpermonth


https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff428642.aspx




https://azure.microsoft.com/da-dk/documentation/articles/powershell-install-configure/

https://azure.microsoft.com/da-dk/documentation/articles/powershell-install-configure/

http://aka.ms/DemoNAV

http://aka.ms/DemoNAV

http://mediadl.microsoft.com/mediadl/www/d/dynamics/partners/MS_DYNNAV_CreateVM_Azure_WPC_ManOnAMission.mp4

http://mediadl.microsoft.com/mediadl/www/d/dynamics/partners/MS_DYNNAV_CreateVM_Azure_WPC_ManOnAMission.mp4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrpYMdP24GQ&list=PL5B63EF419A3B59C8&index=1




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bvb2PYqgwQ&list=PL5B63EF419A3B59C8&index=2




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLwfvrLK2kM&index=13&list=PL5B63EF419A3B59C8




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jycj_4O7di8&index=14&list=PL5B63EF419A3B59C8








http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/calculator




EXTENSIONS AND EVENTS, OVERVIEW

EXTENSIONS

Itisthinkingaboutcreateverticalssolutions

HowcreateExtension

• Createanewextension

• Customreportlayouts

• Multilanguagefiles

• Tenantwebservices,.NETaddins,debugging

• Extensionmanagementpage

BUILDANDDEPLOYEXTENSIONINNAV2017

Stepstobuildanddeployextension

• DevelopmentEvent

• BuildisinPowerShell

• Doapackage

• Publishyourextensionintheserverinthetenant

Event

CreateanEventinanExtension

Steps

1. DevelopmenteventandreportinNAV.

2. BuildsolutionextwithPowerShellISE.ExistinPowerShellsomehelp

3. Createafolder

4. ExportOriginalobjects

5. Updatedobjects

6. ExportDatafileinthisfolderwithupdatedobjects

7. CompareobjectsbetweenoriginalDDBBandupdatedBBDD

8. Exporterdate

9. Exporterwebservice

10. Compilecomponentsforextension

11. PublishextensionandcreateaManifest

12. Createpackageextension


What’snewforExtension

Themostimportantfeature,isthatAllObjectsareincludedinextension.

Objectstypes

• Objects(Pages,Tables,MenuSuites,Codeunits,Reports,XMLPorts,Queries)

• NET Add-ins (Server-side . NET interop add-ins, Client-side JavaScript extensibility

controladd-ins,Client-SideWinFormsextensibilitycontroladd-ins)

• Data (Permissionsetsper tenant,Webservicespertenant,Tabledata,Customreport

layouts)

• Translations(Languagefiles)

• Developing(ImprovedupgradeAPIs,Debuggingandcodecoverage)

Debugging

WecandebuginstalledextensionusingWindowsclient

Wecanselectextensionobjectsthesameasbaseobjects

Wecansetbreakpointsbasedonlinenumber

ExtensionManagement

NewPagetoinstallanduninstallextensioninMSDynamicsNAV.

FUTUREVERSIONEXTENSION

You’lluseVisualStudioCodetogenerateyourcodeandcreateextension

You’llhaveanewbrowserbasedUIPageDesigner

You’llhavea solution Apps,withoptimizationsto support largeapplicationsdeployed in

SaaSasextensions.


CONCLUSION OF THE DIRECTIONS MS DYNAMICS NAV 2017

MSDynamicsNAVevolveswiththemarketand increasesits functionalityandusability in

the cloud. This new version adapts to different mobile devices: MS Dynamics NAV

everywhereinalldevices.

With the integrationofMS Dynamics and Office 365,Microsoft created a rangeof new

featuresandinformationbetweenthedifferentplatforms.Amucheasiersolutionto use,

fromthedifferentplatformsanduserfriendly.

With Extensions,a newworld of opportunities for ISVsopens.Anda newmethodology

Object-oriented languages is created. These Extensions will have a lower cost of

developmentandmaintenanceandaremucheasiertointegrate.

Theupgradeoftheversionswillbemuchmoreagileandfaster.

AppSourceportaliswherewecanfindthesolutionspublishedandcertifiedbyMicrosoft.

It’sstronglyrecommendedtodevelopPartnerIPandpublishitinAppSource.

The new design development with Visual Studio Code opens up a future full of new

expectationsandinlinewiththecurrentmarket.

Microsoft PowerApps is a service for creating and using custom business apps across

platforms.Thisconnecttocommondatamodelorexistingsystemsanddatasources.Build

apps,formsandworkflowswithoutwritingcode.Youwouldpublishappsinstantlyforweb

ormobile.


6.DynamicsNAV2017–miscellaneous

EMBEDDED POWER BI

From NAV2017 it is possible to havePowerBI information directly in your role center. It

worksforallapplications(Windows,WebandPhone).

Thereare two PowerBIversionsavailable.PowerBI Freeand PowerBIPro.Pleasetakea

look on powerbi.comto seethedifferences. Twomain differentiators:data capacityand

cuberefreshpossibilities.

Ifyouwanttohavepowerbiinformationavailabletherearetwostepsinvolved:

1. ConnecttoAzureActiveDirectory,thisneedstobedonebytheITdepartment.

2. Creating theAzurePowerBI app canbedoneviaAzuremanagementportalor faster

viahttp://dev.powerbi.com.

3. WhenyoulogintoNAVyouwillseeanewpart“PowerBI”.Youneedtologintopower

bi toseeyourpowerbi reports.InthebackgroundtheconnectionbetweenyourNAV

credentials andPower BI credentials is saved (it looks that single sign on is still not

working,needstobechecked.ProbablythereisadifferencebetweenNAVonpremand

NAV365.

4. YoucanselectthePowerBIreportswhereyouhaveaccessto.

5. After selecting a report, the Power BI view will be expanded so you can see the

completePowerBIdashboard.

6. ThePowerBI report that isvisible inNAV is the report with the leftmost tab in the

PowerBIdashboard.

7. Powerbi.comistheplacetolearnmoreonPowerBI.

Someknownissues

TheconnectionbetweenNAV andPower BI ismadevia odata feeds(NAVwebservices).

ThereneedstobedataintheNAVtables,otherwisetheconnectionwillbreakandthusan

erroristhrowninthePowerBIdashboard.


http://dev.powerbi.com

http://dev.powerbi.com

Extensionhands-onlab

Viaascriptallthestepstocreateanextensionandtoinstallanextensionwhereexecuted.

AfewnewoptionsareincludedinNAV2017

• Includewordreportlayouts

• Includewebserviceinformation

Andasalreadymentionedallobjecttypescanbeaddedintheextension.

NAV2017 IMPROVEMENTS

PeterBorringgaveanoverviewaboutthenewfeaturesinNAV2017

• Invoiceenhancements–Paypal,emailnotifications,samplelayouts

• Itemattributesandcategories

• FocusingonlowerSMBmark,noplansforfullproductinformation(PIM)

•Possibletocreatecustomitemattributes,designedforwebstoreintegration.

•Withcategoriesyoucan ‘connect’differentitemsto thesameitem attributes(with

differentattributevalues).

• OnlineverificationandlinesupportforOCR

• In NAV2017 it is possibleto verify captured information (Lexmarkwebpage) and if

neededchangeit.

• In NAV2016 it was possible to scan and capture expensesclaim (write to general

journal line). The functionality is extended and now invoice lines can be captured.

Iteminformationistranslatedviacross-referencefunctionality.Incaseanitemcannot

befoundageneralledgeraccountisused(specifiedviasetup).

• Payrollimport

• ImportpayrolltransactionsintoNAV2017.

• SpecificpayrollextensionsarecreatedbyMicrosoftfocusingontheUS/CAmarket.

Additionalinformationcanbefoundviahttp://aka.ms/NAVGetReady

MACHINE LEARNING

With this release,DynamicsNAV 2017 enters theworld ofmachinelearningand thefirst

stepofthisjourneyistobringtheTimeSeriesAPItoDynamicsNAVDevelopers.

Letmestartwithashortexplanationofwhatmachinelearning(predictiveanalytics)means

ingeneral.


http://aka.ms/NAVGetReady

http://aka.ms/NAVGetReady

Thecurrentwayofbuildingsoftwareis:

• Asmartguycreatesanalgorithm.

• A user inputs some value, and the system applies the algorithm and returns some

results.

Tocreatea goodalgorithm,youmustbea domainexpertandhavedeepknowledgeofa

specific industry. The worst part here is that someone must update the algorithm

programmatically or by changing the setup on a regular basis to adapt to changeable

businessprocesses.

Machinelearninghelpsyoudothingsinadifferentway:

• Ittakeshistoricaldata,automaticallyanalysesitindifferentways,andthentriestofind

thealgorithmbyitself.(ModelorExperimentinAzureML)

• Theuserinputssomevalue,andthesystemappliesthemodelandreturnsresults.

• Thesystemusesthenewuserinputtoadjustthemodel.

Actually, this isnotcompletely true, because ifthe system triesto analyse theincoming

data in different ways, it will be very expensive. Each attempt requires significant

computation efforts. That iswhy this approach isnot used. Instead, thedomain expert

helpsthesystembyadvisingbetweentheavailablealgorithms,andsystemdoestherestof

thework.

Oneofthemostpopulartopicsformachinelearningisforecastingbasedonhistoricaldata.

Manyalgorithmsthat cando this,butyoudo not haveto know them,becausewehave

wrappedthemforyou.Wechosefiveofthesealgorithms,wrappedtheminoneAzureML

experiment, added logic that compares different results and returns the best one

accompaniedbyanindicatoroftheprediction’squality.ThereisagenericAPIontopofthis

thatallowsDynamicsNAVdeveloperscreatetheirown functionalitythathelpscustomers

findthebusiness-criticalinformationthatmaybehiddenintheirdatabase.

ThisisthebestAPIforthefollowingreasons:

• Thecurrentimplementationdoesnotrequireyouto re-trainthemodelasthisisdone

whentherequestissubmitted.

• Morethan300tablescontainbothDateandDecimalfieldsinDynamicsNAV.Thisisthe

most typical table structure in business applications (28%), and they are good

candidatesforanalysiswithaTimeSeriesAPI.


7.Extensions

Welcometothenewworld:ThereisaAppforthat!

YoucanextendandcustomizeaMicrosoftDynamicsNAVdeploymentwithoutmodifythe

originalapplicationobjects.

Extensions enablepartners and ISVs to customize and extendMicrosoft DynamicsNAV

2016,withoutdirectly altering the source code.Distributed via an Extensions “Package”

file, Extensions can easily be installed or uninstalled, giving customers complete control

over the additional functionality that they need. A full suiteof new cmdlets to manage

ExtensionsisprovidedintheAdministrativeShell.Becausethesourcecodeisnotdirectly

modified,Extensionsarealsoeasilyupgraded,eliminatingcodemerging.


AtthekeynoteAdamTrukawkaandMortenJensengaveafirstoverviewaboutextensions:

WhyExtensions?

• easilyinstallable

• uniquepertenant

• easilyupgradable->muchcheaper

Forthefutureextensionswillbetheoneandonlywaytodevelop!

POWERSHELL

Since version 2016, NAV includes Windows PowerShell cmdlets for administration, for

developmentandfilemanagementofapplicationobjectfilesandextensionpackages.The

cmdletsareavailableintwoWindowsPowerShellmodules:MicrosoftDynamicsNAV 2016

AdministrationShell andMicrosoft DynamicsNAV 2016 Development Shell.PowerShell is

essentialtohandle,installanddevelopextensions.

WHAT’S NEW FOR EXTENSIONS IN NAV 2017?

• Exportdatafromnon-companyspecifictableaddedaspartoftheExtensionusingnew

cmdlet

• Anewdatabaseupgradefunction

• Publishwebservicesforsingletenantoralltenants

• Publishedwebservicesforalltenantscan’tbeunpublishedinasingletenant

• Anewpagetoinstallanduninstallextensions

• Extensionscanbedebuggedontheserver

• Newobjectcanbeusedforextensions:Reports,XMLports,Queries

• NET-Add-ins

• Server-side.NETinteropadd-ins

• Client-sideJavaScriptextensibilitycontroladd-ins

• Client-sideWinFormsextensibilitycontroladd-ins

• Data

• Webservices(pertenant)

• Tabledata(newtablesaddedforextension)

• Customreportlayouts

• Translations

• Languagefiles


• Developing

• ImprovedupgradeAPIs

• Debuggingandcodecoverage

EXTENSIONS & EVENTS

Use events to customize functionality – for example, add new fields and invoke events

usingthesefields–withoutdirectlychangingsourcecode.

Extensions are self-contained andmanaged, eliminatingmany of the import and merge

conflictsofthepast.MultipleExtensionscanberunona system,soyourfunctionalitycan

bedistributedinamuchmoremodularfashion.

Upgradeconcepts

Out-of-bandupgradescaneasilybeperformedwithouttheneedforcoresystemupgrades.

• Usesystemfunctionswhendoingadditivedatarestore

• Usecustomcodewhentheschemahaschangedsignificantly

becausethereisnoabilitytoruncodeonuninstall.

OnekeypointfordevelopingExtensionswillbetheEventsandEventbaseddeveloping.

EventsareusedtoconnecttheextensiontotheoriginalcodeofNAV/Dynamics365.

Eventscanbe/havethevalue:“publisher”or“subscriber”–Thepublisherisspecifyingthe

hookpointandthesubscriberisconsumingit.


AnimportantthingsaidbyMichaelHammondinasessionwas“PushvsPull”.Thatmeans

extensionsshouldpush data to lowerlayers, and lowerlayersshouldnottry topulldata

fromextensions!

Therewill beanobjectrangeprovidedtoeachqualifiedpartnerforlicensingliketodaywith

sourcecustomizations,butthatdoesnotworkforDynamics365customers.

ServicesoutsideNAVcanbeusedasembeddedlogicwhereyouhaveaccesscontroltothe

serviceforeachtenant.

You can provide a license key to each customer that they need to enter to enable

functionality.Theycaneithervalidateinapplicationorviaservicecall.

Roadmap

FromNAV2016toNAV2017,Extensionsbecamemuchmorepowerful(Roadmap)andwill

getevenmorepowerfulwithfutureversions.

New objects(pages and tables)willbeaddedand developingwill bemorecomfortable

usinganewbrowserbasedUIpagedesigner.AneweditorbasesonVScodenamed“Visual

Code”anda newcompilerwasannounced,andsolutionappswillbeprovidedtosupport

largeapplicationsdeploymentinSaaSasextensions.

ThenewdevelopmentenvironmentpreviewwillcomeatChristmas2016.


Partnersshould use“test driven development” tobuild extensions–that means a code

unitshouldmakethetestsinsteadofmanualtesting.

WHERE DO CUSTOMERS GET THE APPS FROM?

AppSourceis thepremierdestinationtomarketanddistributeyourapps,contentpacks,

andadd-ins—allbackedbyabrandthatbillionsofcustomersalreadyknowandtrust.

Very soonitwillbeannouncedhow it ispossibletobillyourcustomers–forthemoment

theappsareonlyforfree.

A validation process is installed at Microsoft that will check the code as well as the

commercialneedoftheapp/extension.

CONCLUSION

• Extensionswillmakeupgradesmucheasier!

• Extensionswillbemoreandmorepowerfulinfutureversions!

• Extensionswillbetheoneandonlywaytodevelop!

• ExtensionstogetherwithPowerAppsandFlowwillincreasepotential

• AppSourcewillbethewaytosellapps/add-ins/solutions

• PowerShellisessentialtohandleextensions!

• Partnercreateanapp+asolutionapptoupsell!

Interestinglinks

Learningplan/lifecycle/relatedresources

https://mbs.microsoft.com/Files/partner/All_Products/Readiness_Training/ReadinessTrainingNews/

Learning_Plan_Extensions_20160527.pdf

Buildingappsforfinancials

https://mbs.microsoft.com/Files/partner/All_Products/Essentials/Partner_Strategy/

AppsForFinancialsTheOverview.pdf

Implementextensions

http://community.dynamics.com/nav/b/ishwarsblogspot/archive/2016/09/27/implement-extensions-

in-nav


8.ExclusiveinterviewwithPaulWhite


PaulWhiteisresponsiblefor theProductMarketing

ofDynamics CRM,NAV,GP,SL andDynamics 365,

the business applications with which Microsoft

servestheSMBmarketworldwide.Wemethim for

anexclusiveinterviewforthisreportinPrague.

Main topics for this interview are of course the

announcements around Dynamics NAV 2017 and

Dynamics 365. And what this all means for the

transformationoftheDynamicspartnerchannel.

EXCLUSIVEINTERVIEWWITHPAULWHITE

“WithAppSource,partnerscangetamuchgreaterreturnontheirIP”

PAUL WHITE:

“The biggest challenge is in marketing”

Paul -with all the recent announcements

aroundDynamics365,whatisyouropinion

on the status of the transformation

processinMicrosoft’sSMBchannels?

“Whenwestartedthiswholeprocesssome

4yearsago,Ihopedthat30percentofour

partners would be able to transition to

rapid cloud deployment, subscription

pricing, product managed and packaged

verticalization. But to be honest – I may

havebeenoveroptimistic. Insaying thatI

don’t mean to imply any criticism of our

PartnerCommunity.There’snodoubtthat

thisshiftisverysignificantandchallenging.

Microsoft has wrestled with similar

challenges.

What’s the difference between the 30%

whowillmakeitandthe70%thatmaynot?

I think it starts with understanding the

nature of the sh i f t that we are

experiencing.Thisisn’taMicrosoftagenda

– every other vendor has the same

challenges. We’re in the middle of a

fundamental change in themarket.Buyer

behavior ischanging.BizAppsaregetting

“commoditized”. That’s what creates the

imperativeforPartnerstodrivedowntheir

cost of sale, that’s what demands that

Partnersthinklifetimevalue.

Those Partners who want to stay where

they arehave theopportunity to continue

toservethesignificantonpremisemarket

thatwillcontinuetoexistforsometimeto

come.OtherPartnerswillseethelaunchof

Dynamics 365 as a great moment to

expand into the SaaS market which is

growingmuchmorequickly–andpresents

interestingnewopportunitiesforISV’s.”

You’ve been at the two DIRECTIONS

events yourself, both in the US and in

EMEA.Whatisyourtakeonhowwellthe

NAV partner channel understands all the

announcements around NAV 2017 and

Dynamics365?

“First of all: it is fair to say there is a lot

going on. Keeping up is a challenge for

bothourpartnersandourownemployees.

We’ll be repeating the story at every

opportunity and work hard at being

consistent.TheDirectionswebinarswedo

are one opportunity for Partners to stay

current. Your publication is also really

helpful.


Beyond thatgeneralobservation–I think

thatduringthetwoeventsourOnpremise

ANDcloud–DynamicsNAVANDDynamics

365storyreallyresonatedwithpeople.”

In your belief, what is the biggest

challenge for partners in this trans-

formationprocess?

“The biggest challenge for the average

Dynamics NAV partner today is in

marketing. Buyer behavior has changed.

Whenapotentialprospect isbeginningto

think about buying – you

needtohelpthemfindyou

(SEO, SEM, Lead Nurture).

That’s job #1 – digital

marketing.

Once they have found you

online–youneed tomake

surethatyourwebsiteand/

ortrialexperienceissufficient

topersuadethemthatyoumustbeontheir

short list. Even before they every get in

touch with you. That’s job #2 – product

marketing.

Productmarketing isabout understanding

the market and the business issues that

youranonymousprospectwillwantsolved.

Product marketing is about working with

Developers to meet that functional

requirement in a way that is really

compelling. Not in terms of weight of

functionality –butquality/elegance of the

experience. Product Marketing is then

about demonstrating that, unattended,

online.

Both Job #1 and Job #2 are problematic

because, most NAV partners today are

either Sales led or Development led.

Successful Partners will be those that

invest more in marketing competencies –

either in their own teams and/or in co-

operationwithstrongmarketingagencies.”

How should partners differentiate their

offeringsovertime?

“Today, the Intellectual

Property(IP)atmostpartner

companies has two arms

and twolegs.Theproblem

is that employees can get

upandgo–and arereally

quite difficult to scale.We

believe Partners need to

distillthewisdomthattheir

consultants have developed and package

thisup,productizeit–createExtensions–

and publish them as App’s in AppSource.

Workingthatwaywebelievethatpartners

cansecuretheirIPandgetamuchgreater

returnonit.

AppSourceisthedestinationthatMicrosoft

willpromotetocustomerandpartners.It’s

akeypartofourstrategytoamplifytheISV

opportunityaroundDynamics365.”


Successful Partners will be those that invest

more in marketing competencies

“

You have announced an offering to

migrateexistingNAV,GPandSLcustomers

to Dynamics 365. Can you clarify that

offering?

“The majority of our existing customers

chosetobuyperpetuallicenses.Theymade

anup-front investmentthat -asandwhen

they arereadytomoveto thecloud–we

want to help them“tradein”.This“trade

in”takestheformofa40percentdiscount

onthefirst3 yearsof theirsubscriptionto

the Business Edition Plan. We want

Dynamics 365 to be themost compelling

option for any existing NAV, GP and SL

customer.Somepartofthatstory isabout

theproduct/serviceweoffer.Somepart is

abouttherangeofadditionalsolutionsthat

ourPartnersmakeavailable inAppSource.

Somepartofthatstoryiscommercial.”

What istoday’spositionofDynamicsNAV

managedservices?

“TheIPthatNAVpartnershavedeveloped

is key to the future of this community.

We’re working hard to protect it. That’s

whywe’veworkedtore-engineertheNAV

productforthecloudinasnon-disruptivea

way as possible. Last yearwe announced

theManaged Service for partners. Today

about around 20 NAV partners have

onboarded their solutions to this NAV/

Azureplatform.Thisyearwe’veannounced

Dynamics365.Overthenext12monthswe

willbeworkingwiththese20partnersand

a number of other key ISV’s to migrate

themtoDynamics365.”

What happens to Dynamics NAV, GP and

SL?

“All productsgoforward.Ourcommitment

to cloud and Dynamics 365 changes

nothing about our commitment to

DynamicsNAV,GPandSL.Werespectthe

investment that customers and partners

have made in these products. We are

committedtohelpingthemmakethemost

oftheirinvestment.”

What isyouradvicetopartnersregarding

theCSPprogram?

“Themost importantthingforPartnersto

do is to get familiar with CSP. It is the

licensing model with which we want to

servetheSMB segment.Partnerswillneed

tomakeastrategicdecisionaboutwhether

they want to be a Direct CSP partner –

contractingdirectlywithMicrosoft–orbuy

through an Indirect CSP partner – a

distributor. There are different roles and

responsibilities associated with each

option.”


The most important thing for Partners to dois to get familiar with CSP.

“

37

A lot seems to bechanged in the pricing

strategiesofDynamics365comparedwith

thecurrentDynamicspricingpolicies.Can

youexplain?

“ThenewDynamics365pricingisdesigned

to be clean, simple, transparent and

compelling. The Business edition of

Dynamics 365 will only be available on a

subscriptionbasis,throughCSP.Customers

will be able to license each application

(Finance,SalesorMarketing)onaperuser

permonthbasis.Alternatively,theywillbe

abletolicenseuserswitha“Plan”.ThePlan

enablesuserstomixandmatchfunctionality

from across the Business edition –

Financials, Sales and Marketing. This

flexibilityisdesignedtoreflectthefactthat

mostrealworldjobsnowcrossdepartmental

boundaries. The Plan also provides users

withfulluserightstoPowerAppsandFlow.

The pricing models for Dynamics 365 are

also designed to be really compelling –

bothfornew customersand,asandwhen

theyareready,existingcustomers.”

Finally – what is your advice to the

DynamicsNAVchannel,Paul?

“First of all: take the pre–view from

Dynamics 365 and learn more about this

new cloud solution. My number two

advise: understand the CSP model. Since

this will be the most important license

model for Dynamics partners for the

comingyears.Andlastbutnot least,don’t

forgettofeelgoodaboutalltheinvestments

thatMicrosoftismakinginDynamicsNAV!”

Interestinglinks

Paul’sLinkedInprofile


https://uk.linkedin.com/in/paulwhite7

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/paulwhite7

9.ExclusiveinterviewwithMarkoPerisic


Marko Perisic is the General Manager for

Dynamics365BusinessEditionplusallMicrosoft’s

other ERP solutions for the SMB markets,

including Dynamics NAV. This responsibility

includes the product strategy and product

development. We met Marko for an exclusive

interview for this report in Prague. Main topics

fo r t h i s i n te r v i ew a re o f cou r se the

announcements aroundMicrosoft Dynamics 365

andDynamicsNAV2017.

EXCLUSIVEINTERVIEWWITHMARKOPERISIC

“StartresearchingthepossibilitiesofDynamics365now!”

MARKO PERISIC:

“Dynamics 365 for Financials will get functional parity with Dynamics NAV!”

Aswe speakwe’re almost at the end of

DIRECTIONS EMEA. Two weeks ago you

wereattheUSeditionofDIRECTIONSand

earlier this week at the UG Summit in

Tampa.What isyouroverallfeelingabout

the launches of Dynamics 365 and

DynamicsNAV2017?

“I’ve experienced a lot of excitement

around these launches and our plans for

thenear future. Bothwith partners,with

analysts and the press. Of course we’ve

also received lots ofquestions.And some

partnersaresomewhatconfusedduetoall

the different announcements. So going

forward wewill focus even more on our

communicationinordertogeteveryoneon

samepage.”

Talkingaboutcommunication–we’veseen

opendiscussionsonLinkedIn lately. Isour

observation right that Microsoft has

changedthecommunicationstyle?

“InwhatInowcalltheolddaysweusedto

have long release cycles and long

disclosure periods before we officially

announced a new product version. In

today’sworld we announce new versions

so much faster thatwehad to adapt this.

AndforDynamics365,weshipanupdate

everymonth,therebythedisclosureperiod

isnow onlyeffectively30 daysandwetry

toavoidkeepingnewsasecret.Instead,we

focusonforwardcomingfunctionalityand

try to get everyone on the samepageas

soonaspossible.Thecostofdelayisbigger

thananypotentialrisksofearlydisclosure.”

ManyNAVpartnersseemtobe surprised

by theannouncement that Dynamics 365

for Financials BE will befunctional equal

with Dynamics NAV in the next 6 to 12

months.Canyoufollowtheirreasoning?

“Yes, tosomeextent. InApril 2016where

we’ve announced Project “Madeira”, and

initially itwasfocused on companiesfrom

10-99 employees. But soon after we

realizedthatwecanexpandintoabroader

setoffunctionalitytocovertheentireSMB

segment,which isnowBusinessEditionas

part of Dynamics 365. Over thenext 6-12

months we will have parity between the

Dynamics 365 Business Edition and NAV.

Theonlychoiceforcustomerandpartners

willbe,whethertheywantanonpremise/

hostedsolution (DynamicsNAV)oraSaaS

cloudsolution(Dynamics365).”


After the many discussions on LinkedIn

and in other forums, we expected an

extensivepresentationonthenewversion

of Extensions and its possibilities at the

keynote.However, you spent less than 2

minutesinyourpresentationonthistopic.

“The keynote was not the place for

clarifications of detailed discussions. We

covered the strategic direction and

ambitionswith Extensions.Asa follow up

tothekeynote,thereweremanybreakout

sessions and Q&A to dig deeper into all

questionsaboutExtensions.Extensionsare

theway going forward to add

functionality in both Dynamics

365BEandDynamicsNAV.That

couldbebothstandardadd-ons

and customized functionality

forasinglecustomer.Thegood

thing about Extensions is that

they’renot touched in case of

upgrades.Inaddition,theApps

thatpartnersbuild forAppSourcearealso

basedonExtensions.Soitmakessensefor

all partners to start to delve into the

possibilities of Extensions. It is also a

continuedinvestmentfromMicrosoft.”

Can youclarify onconfusionaboutApp’s,

ExtensionsandSolutions?

“In short you could say an App is an

Extension that has been published in

AppSource. And a Solution is an App

created by an ISV. I will also writea blog

aboutittotakeawaytheconfusion.”

[GK-thatblogwascreatedbyMarcothatsame

evening:http://iturl.nl/sn-dba7]

How should partners anticipate on new

developmentsfromMicrosoft?

“Lot of information will be published on

the public roadmap. On this public

roadmap,partnerscanreadaboutmostof

the developments to come. Because we

willwork withmonthly releases, itmakes

less senseto be hiding information about

relatively small changes. Microsoft wants

to be more open about roadmap

information and the Microsoft Dynamics

team likes this change. Bigger changes

mightnotbevisibleonthepublicroadmap,

but we will ensure that if

there are any, we disclose

them in time and with

information for partners to

adapt easily. Extensions are

oneexampleofthat.Wedid

a lotofworkonthispriorto

exposingtheminNAV2016.”

AreTAPprogramsobsoletewith a public

roadmapinplace?

“TAP programs will still exist. The bigger

changeswillbe shared in these programs

andgo-livecustomersarestillanimportant

partofit.”

Will Microsoft support multiple environ-

mentsforDynamics365development?

“Yes, Microsoft sees that partners and

customerswillneedmorethan1tenantper

domain to work with. We are currently

workingonasolutionforthat.”


Extensions are the way

going forward to add

functionality

“

http://iturl.nl/sn-dba7

http://iturl.nl/sn-dba7

WhatarethetopGoDo’sforpartners?

“If you have success with an on-premise

business today, keep it successful. But in

the meantime start exploring Dynamics

365. Embrace Extensions. And start

bui ld ing IP with Extensions. This

technologywillbepushedbyMicrosoftas

the technology to build solutions for the

comingyears.”

Can you elaborate about the integration

between Dynamics NAV and Dynamics

CRM?

“Wealready haveaniceintegration today

andwearestillimprovingthatintegration.

WewilluseMicrosoftFlowtobuildfurther

integrat ions with Dynamics CRM.

Scenario’swithDynamics365Saleswithout

Dynamics365Financialsandviceversawill

still be supported, depending where the

partnerstarts–bysellingaCRMsolutionor

by sellinga full business solution. Youcan

expectthattheboundariesbetweenthese

productsblurmoreandmoreovertime.”

Will Apps be interchangeable between

Dynamics NAV 2017, Dynamics 365

BusinessEditionandDynamicsEnterprise?

“PowerAppswillbeabletosupportseveral

platforms and even combinations of

different data sources. Apps will also be

interchangeable for a great part between

NAVandDynamics365,but theremaybe

some differences by the nature of

Dynamics 365 being a SaaS offering.

Attention has to be paid on required

dependencies.”

What are your ideas about localization of

Dynamics 365 for Financials? From a roll-

out perspective, the current plans look

prettyslow.

“The launch of Dynamics 365 will be the

first time ever that Microsoft brings fully

localized “fit and finished” business

solutionstothemarket.Traditionallyitwas

thepartnerchannelwhodeliveredthislast

mile.Well,that’saprettybigchangeinour

model! So it’s not just development

capacity that we need, but much more

highly specialized localization knowledge

and capabilities. And of course these

resourceswilldifferpercountry.Thisistop

ofmymindandweareworkingon some

verycreativewaysofacceleratingthis.


Embrace Extensions. And start building IP with Extensions.

“

42

We seemultipleoptionsto speed up this

wholeprocess. One of them is to put the

partner made localization in an Extension

and use that Extension on the core

Dynamics365 platform. Inthat option we

willtry tolimitthenumberoflocalizations

percountrytojustone!”

Final question - what is your advice to

Dynamicspartnersgoingforward?

“Many of our partners are still in their

comfortzonestodayandbyresulttheyare

not really motivated to start the business

transformationprocess.

My advice to these partners is to start

researching the possibilities of Dynamics

365 andall thenew technologies anyway,

because only then business owners can

make thought-out decisions about a

healthyfuture.Ofcoursepartnershaveto

continue their current on premise based

activities as well. But I don’t think that

there are many partners who can afford

NOT to embrace all these new tech-

nologies!”

Interestinglinks

Marko’sLinkedInprofile


https://dk.linkedin.com/in/markoperisic

https://dk.linkedin.com/in/markoperisic

10.ExclusiveinterviewwithJenniferDorseyandLotteCordtIhlemann


EXCLUSIVEINTERVIEWWITHJENNIFERDORSEYANDLOTTECORDTIHLEMANN

“Themarketingmanagershouldbepartofthepartners’LeadershipTeam!”

JenniferDorsey is directorERPvolume

marketing. Lotte Cordt Ihlemann is

senior marketing manager. Both are

involved in the worldwide marketing

around Dynamics NAV and Dynamics

365. We’ve met them for an exclusive

interviewatDIRECTIONSEMEA 2016 in

Prague.

JENNIFER DORSEY AND LOTTE CORDT IHLEMANN:

“We go to market as Dynamics 365”

From a positioningpoint ofview,howdo

youseeDynamics365?

“With Dynamics 365 for Financials,

Microsoftwillregainaccesstoapartofthe

marketthat ithasleftwithDynamicsNAV

some years ago. That is the 10 to 99

employeessegmentwhereDynamicsNAV

wasoftenperceivedastoocomplexand/or

tooexpensive.The‘ANDstrategy’thatPaul

Whitepresentedherein Praguewill allow

partners to continue their current on

premise,servicesorientedbusinessand at

the same time start a cloud oriented

businessarmbasedonDynamics365.”

How does the launch of Dynamics 365

influence the branding of Microsoft’s

offeringsforbusinesssolutions?

“We have chosen Dynamics 365 as our

overall brand in a way that you can

compare with Office 365 as our overall

brand for productivity. On the highest

branding level,we don’t differentiate the

brandingtoSMBandEnterprisecompanies

–wegotomarketasDynamics365.”

What istheoverallvaluemessagearound

Dynamics365?

“Lastspringwe’veworkedprettyintensive-

ly with small focus groups on the 10-99

employees segment. Both Microsoft

customers and non-Microsoft customers.

We’ve build a number of business value

scenario’sbasedontheirinput.Inthenext

phase we went from qualitative to

quantitativeresearchbysurveying a larger

number of SMB’s. Typical questions in

thosediscussionswere‘Whatareyourtop

business concerns?’ and ‘How does your

existing solution score on all of these

aspects?’. Finally, we’ve distilled these

threecore valuemessagesforouroverall

Dynamics365forFinancialsoffering:

1. Connectingyourbusiness

2. Makebetterdecisions

3. Startandgroweasily

The last step was to align these value

messages with the overall Dynamics 365

messagingandvalueproposition.”


Whatarethetrends inPartnerMarketing

competencies?

“We see a pretty big split between the

marketingrolein theold, traditionalworld

and that sameroleintoday’s new,digital

world. To achieve success with Dynamics

365andDynamicsNAV,partnersmustscale

their marketing reach using digital

marketing andmarketing automation. For

that reason, strong digital marketing

competencies are a necessity! These

competenciescanofcoursealsobehelpful

for the project side of the partners’

organization. Since the more project

focused prospects also do their research

online.”

In a world where ‘Marketing is the new

Sales’,whatshould ideally betheposition

ofmarketing?

“Marketing will play a crucial role in the

future success of any Microsoft partner

company.For thatreason,webelievethat

themarketingmanagerdefinitelyshould

haveapositioninthepartners’Leadership

Teamandwork very closelywiththesales

teamtobemostsuccessful.”

Whatarethebestmarketingpracticesthat

you see in today’s worldwide Dynamics

NAVchannel?

“Business success in any given partner

company depends of course on many

variables. However, if we focus on the

Marketing role, we see a number of

identicalcharacteristics:

1. Without exception these partners all

focusonatargetedaudience.Thatcan

be both a verticalmarket, but also a

horizontalmarket inwhich they add a

uniquevaluetocustomers.

2. Ontopofthatthesepartnershavean

in-depth knowledge of the business

pain points of the companies in this

audience.

3. And finally they speak the specific

languageofthisaudience.

4. They have strong digital marketing

competencies, attracting their target

audience, drive them through the

marketing funnel online and success-

fully transition leads to their sales

teams. During this journey they

leverage Microsoft content and

resourcesbut tailor theirmessagesto

theirtargetaudience.


Marketing will play a crucial role in the future success of any Microsoft partner company.

“

5. Ontheorganizationalside–marketing

has a position in the partners’

LeadershipTeam.”

Finally, what is your advice to the

worldwideDynamicsNAVchannel?

“Today, any Dynamics NAV partner has a

myriadofopportunities.Soourfirstadvice

topartnersistodecidewhichopportunity

to go after and (re-)define their business

model accordingly. Importantpartofthat

decision istodecideontherightcustomer

audience.Secondadviceistodecideonthe

bestpropositionforthataudience.

Andour third and last advice isto switch

from a sales-only focus to a focus on

marketingandsalesinstrongpartnership.”

Interestinglinks

Jennifer’sLinkedInprofile

Lotte’sLinkedInprofile

Dynamics365BusinessEditionlandingpage

DynamicsNAV2017productresourcesand

traininglinks

DynamicsNAVmarketingresourcesforpartners

Roadmapsiteforcustomerandpartners

Dynamics365Pricingandlicensing


https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-dorsey-aa4b331

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-dorsey-aa4b331

https://dk.linkedin.com/in/lotte-cordt-ihlemann-47b4312

https://dk.linkedin.com/in/lotte-cordt-ihlemann-47b4312

http://iturl.nl/snZ3vAq

http://iturl.nl/snZ3vAq

https://aka.ms/NAVGetReady




https://aka.ms/NAVMarketing

https://aka.ms/NAVMarketing

http://iturl.nl/sneAe

http://iturl.nl/sneAe

http://iturl.nl/sn_PRA4

http://iturl.nl/sn_PRA4

12.Conclusionsandrecommendations

It'saninterestingquestion,ofcourse,whatyouasaMicrosoftNAVDynamicspartnercan

dopracticallywithallthesechanges,trendsandnewinsightsaspresentedatDIRECTIONS

EMEA2016.That'swhyweofferyouaseriesofconcretebusinessrecommendations.Asfar

aswe'reconcerned,thesetopicswouldfitwellon theagendaofyournextmanagement

meetingorwalkinthewoods.

1. Validateyourstrategy!

Thecontinuouschangesinpartnerpolicy,constantnew possibilities inyourDynamics

solutionsandtherapidlychangingmarketdemandforceeveryDynamicsNAVpartner

totakeaseriouslookatyourbusinessmodel.HowdoesmySWOTanalysislooktoday?

HowdoIearnmoney today?AndwhatdoIhavetochangetokeepearningmoney in

the coming years? What distinguishes me from other partners? And will that

distinctiveness be relevant next year to themarkets in which I want to be active?

Changeordisappear!

Recommendation:checkevery3to6monthswithyourboardwhetheryourcompanyis

still on track from a strategic standpoint. Have outsiders present for this. After all,

outsidershavenoemotionalbondswithyourcompany.Itallowsthemtoseemoreand

toexpressthemselvesmoresharply.

2. BusinessSolutionsfromMicrosoft!

Atanacceleratedpace,Microsoft ismakingthe switch from“stand-alone”Dynamics

NAVto“BusinessSolutionsfromMicrosoft.”AndtoDynamics365ofcourse,although

that full solution will not be available shortly everywhere. Your specific Dynamic

solutionshouldnowbeofferedincombinationwithotherpartsofthestrongMicrosoft

stack. Thesestack solutionsaremoreattractivefor your customers thanstand-alone

systems.Sotheywillhelpyouwinthebattlewithyourdirectcompetitors.

Recommendation:makea listofthosecontiguousMicrosoftsolutionsthatofferadded

value in your target market. Look carefully at the concept of Dynamics 365 to

understand how you can best prepare. Alternative possibilities for gaining this

knowledge include cooperation with specialized Microsoft partners or acquiring


specialized companies. The simplest first step is of course the internal adoption of

Office365.

3. ExplorethepossibilitiesofDynamics365

ManyNAV partners are still in their comfort zones today and by result they are not

really motivated to start the business transformation process. Our advice to these

partners is to start researching the possibilities of Dynamics 365 and all the new

technologies anyway. Only then business owners can make thought-out decisions

aboutahealthyfuture.

Recommendation: create an internal team that starts collecting knowledge and

exploringthepossibilitiesofthevariousnewtechnologies.Ontopofthatunderstand

thebusiness conditions for successwithDynamics365. Free up timeand budget to

attendseminars,workshopsandtrainingsessions.

4. Transform(morerapidly)tothecloudyourself!

Microsoft is betting convincingly on the cloud. But how far along are you in your

transformationtotheworldofsubscriptionpricing,clouddeliveryandnewpurchasing

behaviour?Haveyouactuallyalready started? Areyougoing forwardquicklyenough?

Makesureyoudon'tgetleftbehind!

Recommendation:freeup time for thistransformationprocess.Thismay just bethe

biggestandmostimportantchangethatyouwillencounterduringyourworkinglife.So

youhaveevery reasontofocustime,moneyandattentiononthisstructurally.Attend

seminars.Taketrainingcourses. Talk tocolleaguepartnersand toMicrosoft.Visit the

websites of leading providers - indeed, also outside your own country or vertical

market.Beamysteryguestinwebinarsandwebdemosgivenby cloudsuppliers.And

don’tforgettoimplementthecloudversionofDynamicsNAVinyourownorganisation.

IncludingOffice365andDynamicsCRM!

5. UnderstandCSP

Themost important thing forpartnersto do isto get familiar with CSP. That is the

licensingmodelwithwhichMicrosoftwantsto servetheSMB segment.Partnerswill

needtomakeastrategicdecisionaboutwhethertheywanttobeaDirectCSPpartner–

contracting directly with Microsoft – or buy through an Indirect CSP partner – a

distributor.Therearedifferentrolesandresponsibilitiesassociatedwitheachoption.


Recommendation:makehasteinexploringCSP!Whatdoesthatprogramexactlymean

toyou?Whichnewpossibilitiesdoesitoffertoenhanceyourvalueproposition,towin

morenewcustomersandtoenlargeyourshareofwalletwithyourexistingcustomers.

Understandthepro’sandcon’softhetwooptions:DirectandIndirect.Ifyouchosethe

Indirectoption-makeashortlistofpotentialpartners,createa listofKO-criteria,talkto

afewCSP’sandmakeyourchoice.

6. Improveyourpositioning!

In theworldof cloud solutions, the bordersaredissolving rapidly. Youwill often be

comparedwithsuppliersyou'veneverheardof.Tokeepoutoftheviciouspricespiral,

you have to position yourproposition (even) better! For most partners, that means

specializing. For others, it maymean the step frommacro-verticals to micro-vertical

markets.

Recommendation: make haste in preparing your company for the continued

“verticalization round.” Do you already work somewhat vertically? Then challenge

yourselftorefinethisprocessfurther.Cloudverticalsoftentendtobe“narrower”and

morespecific thanwhat iscustomary in theon-premiseworld. Shift your focusfrom

macrotomicroverticals.Freeuptimeandbudgetforthisprocess.Registerfortraining

and participate in seminars. Embed the responsibility at the right place in your

organization.

7. Makeyourmarketingperfect!

Increasingly, marketing is developing into the central role in a Dynamics partner

business! Potential buyers will be able to find you only if your marketing is well

structured. Relevant business content must support and accompany your prospects

duringtheirbuyingjourney.Prospecteducation israpidlygaininginimportance.Asare

digital marketing and social media. Nonetheless, that domain remains a mystery to

manypartners.

Recommendation: perform an analysis of your current marketing operation. And

establishwhat'snecessary tosatisfy thenew “marketrequirements.”Thengetdown

to business quickly - you have no time to lose! Hire the best marketing person or

externalmarketingservicethatyoucanafford.Considerapositionforyourmarketing

manager in your Leadership Team. And bea challenger in this, too: fast, different,

daring.Experimentandwin!


8. Createintellectualproperty!

In the cloud model, it's all about added value! This is expressed in thebundling of

intellectualproperty (IP) - often focused on a specific targetmarket - and associated

services.

Recommendation:startmakinganinternallisttodayofallthecodeeverdeveloped,no

matterhow small,ofthe IPandofanystandard servicesalready available.Thisis an

important starting point for bundling IP and services.Putyourself in thecustomer's

shoes and, from thatperspective, think about theuseful and relevant functionsand

services youcan add to this. Thebroader and moreattractiveyourproposition, the

greater thefootprintyou leavebehindwithyour customers.And themoredifficult it

willbeforyourcustomertosayfarewelltoyouatanygivenmoment.


13.Accesstothepresentations

TheDIRECTIONSEMEAorganizationcommitteeprovidesaccesstothepresentationsthat

speakers have shared plus many pictures to the partners who have not been at

DIRECTIONS.Pleasevisit http://www.emea2016.com/ for details.Thepassword to unlock

theslidesis:SeeYouInMadrid.

14.DIRECTIONSEMEA2017

The2017editionoftheDIRECTIONSEMEAConferencewilltakeplaceinMadrid,Spainfrom

October4thtill6th.Thatwillbethe10thanniversaryofthisgreatpartnerevent.

In2017youcancountonourreportserviceagainsincewewillwriteanotherreportonthis

newDIRECTIONSEMEAedition.


http://directionsemea.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=ae8dd60f7a5de3e0dddf1916d&id=efdbe9e971&e=ebf63670f1

http://directionsemea.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=ae8dd60f7a5de3e0dddf1916d&id=efdbe9e971&e=ebf63670f1

15.Abouttheauthor

Guus Krabbenborg has been active in the

worldofbusinesssoftwareforover25years.

He held various sales and management

positions at Philips, Digital Equipment and

Navision Software. Hewas also co-founder

and co-owner of Dutch Dynamics partner

DBSBusinessSolutions.AfterheleftNavision

Software, Guus worked as an independent

advisor and trainer for Microsoft Dynamics

partnersatTerDegeTraining&Consultancy.

Since2007,Guusisco-founderandpartnerin

Partner Master Class Partner Master Class,

theDutchPartnerDevelopmentCenter.This

company provides business training and

partner business coaching to Microsoft

Dynamicspartnersallovertheworld.

Inaddition,Guusisco-founderandpartnerin

QBS Group QBS Group. This company,

affiliated with Partner Master Class, is the

Value Add Distributor for the Microsoft

Dynamics SMB partner channel in Europe.

Today, QBS serves over 350 Dynamics

partnersin15countriesalloverEurope.

For this DIRECTIONS EMEA 2016 report he

worked closely together with a few co-

authors–all fromQBSGroup.Many thanks

toJavier Belvis,JanBoes, JaspervanGeest,

ThomasNeusserandSvenNoomen fortheir

contributions.Andaspecial thankstoRachel

Haines for monitoring and improving the

wholereport.

Guuscanbereachedbyemailat

[email protected].


GUUSKRABBENBORG

›Co-founderandpartnerinPartnerMasterClass

›Co-founderandpartnerinQBSGroup

›Publicist

›Presenter

›Microsoftwatcher

http://www.partnermasterclass.com

http://www.partnermasterclass.com

http://www.qbsgroup.com

http://www.qbsgroup.com

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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