implementing the microsoft dynamics student certificate program: process and curriculum utah valley...

Implementing the Microsoft Dynamics Student Certificate Program: Process and Curriculum

Utah Valley UniversityTechnology Management

Anne Arendt, Assistant Professor, Assistant [email protected]

David Johnson, [email protected]

The Technology Management department at Utah Valley University (UVU) implemented the Microsoft Dynamics Academic Alliance Program in fall of 2014 under the direction of the authors.

Overview of Presentation- Academic Environment- Timeline for Implementation- Dynamics GP Curriculum- Dynamics CRM Curriculum- Lessons Learned- Next steps- Conclusion

Utah Valley University Academic Alliance

Utah Valley University– 30,000 + students– 576 full-time faculty– 3,400 employees– Focus on engaged learning

Technology Management Department– Within College of Technology & Computing– 250 + Majors plus two general education classes– 8 full-time faculty; 10 Adjunct instructors– Focus on hands-on learning– Emphasis on Excel skills– Certificates and Certifications

2+2 Degree (AAS > BS)Upper Division Courses in:Innovation and change management, entrepreneurship, project management, quality assurance, ethics, organizational information technologies, financial management, human resource management, marketing, and overall technology and operations management.

Fit with MS Dynamics Student Certificate program- Meets university and department objectives- Fills a need in the community (GP customers, small businesses)- Support from Microsoft – free software and training- Several MS Partners in the area- Although not without challenges

Technology Management Curriculum

• Three year implementation period• Professor to Microsoft Dynamics Academic Alliance

pre-conferences • GPUG user group (alliances established)• Installation of GP 2010 on a university server• One semester sabbatical to learn GP for Professor

• GPUG conference

• GP 2013 installed locally – used desktop client initially

• Applied for and Implemented program • GP2013 R2 switched to web client; CRM web client

• Online classes

Certificate Program Implementation

The faculty decided to utilize two of our BS degree courses to apply for the program with about 50 hours of Dynamics student learning in each.

1 - MIS course (TECH4420) - use GP * internal learning and training of faculty * utilized e-learning and other GP training materials2 - Marketing course (TECH4200) – use CRM * Curriculum and lesson materials received from CRM training class prior to the MSDAA conference last year

Certificate Program Implementation

The first five weeks of the semester provided a lead-in to the hands-on use of Dynamics GP. • Week 1: Overview of information systems• Week 2: Infrastructure to support ERP systems & IT

role• Week 3: Management decision making using

decision support systems, review of Excel• Week 4 & 5: Central role of databases--data

warehouse, big data, design (E-R diagrams), relational databases

With this background, it was felt that student would be well-prepared for hands-on experiences in how an actual ERP system worked using the sample Fabrikam data provided with Dynamics GP.

GP Dynamics Curriculum (TECH4420)

Pattern of Dynamics GP Lessons: - Readings, - Demonstration and videos, - Hands-on laboratory exercises developed by the faculty - Students take screen shots and submit to

demonstrate completion - Homework assignment, and - Periodic quizzes.


GP Lesson 1: Week 6 - Overview of Microsoft Dynamics GP ERP System• Access Dynamics GP • Set User Preferences & customize• GP Roles • Fabrikam – its employees, products, customers. • To assess learning, students were required to write a

report about the company.


GP Lesson 2: Week 7 - Accounting & Financial Data - The Heart of ERP• Chart of Accounts for Fabrikam• General Journal file for Fabrikam• Account transactions (simple and complex)• General Ledger (GL) • The generation of financial reports (Balance Sheet

and Profit and Loss)—not in web client • SmartLists


GP Lesson 3: Week 8 - Reporting Data from ERP• SmartList Builder to create a report • Create a refreshable Excel report using the desktop

client since this builder was not available with the Web client.

• Review Polino’s spreadsheet (GP 2013 tables and fields)


GP Lesson 4 - Week 9: Sales and Accounts Receivable• “All Sales Transactions” navigation list, selecting an

invoice and then drilling-down to the “Item Detail” level.

• Customer & salesperson maintenance cards and the creation of a sales order transaction covered.

• “SAMPL Customers past Due Customers” Excel report and the “Aging” report for one of these customers.

• Letter Writing Wizard demonstrated from the desktop client since that feature was not available in the Web client.


GP Lesson 5: Week 10 - E-commerce & Customer Relationship Management• Inventory setup window to see the classes, types and

options • Item Resource Planning - various parameters for inventory

mgmt. • Asset navigation list • Financials Set Up window• Develop a SmartList from the Asset General Information

Master table, export the list to Excel, and created a pivot table showing total acquisition costs for each asset class.


GP Lesson 6: Week 11 - GP Inventory and Fixed Asset ManagementWeek 12 - Supply Chain Management, Purchasing & Accounts Payable

• Vendor table• Purchase order generation and use

• Generation of a PO, the receipt entry when the ordered items were received, the entry and payment of vendor invoices, and the account distributions for the transaction.

• Shipments received but not invoiced• SmartList to see which payables were past due. • Generating and printing checks for vendor invoices.


GP Lesson 7: Week 13 - Human Resources Management & Payroll• GP’s HR capabilities including maintaining basic

employee data, employee benefits, defining supervisory relationships, employee dependents, and employee reviews.

• The payroll features of GP were not covered. • Dashboards:

• SmartList from the Payroll Master table• Export the data to Excel.• Use the Excel file to creating an HR Dashboard


Remainder of class: - Information security, - Computer crime and digital forensics, - Workflow (discussed GP capabilities), - Content management (discussed Sharepoint capabilities), and- Future trends in information technology.

Final exam: - Part 1: multiple choice and true/false questions covered the MIS content. - Part 2: Hands-on use of GP.


Dynamics CRM Curriculum (TECH4200)

• Utilized TECH 4200 Technology Marketing and Distribution course.

• Content of previous course was significantly modified.– Original version of the course did not make use of any database-driven

systems.– Focus was on the development of marketing plans and materials for

management and case study analysis.

• Structure of the curriculum and key areas of content came from:– MS CRM curriculum – Research of relevant literature


• First weeks: students and instructor worked together to define Starboard Lashing.

• The instructor set up the MS Dynamics CRM to include data and resources relating to the company.

• The instructor set up access for each student and ensured each had applicable records and resources associated with them.

• Instructions, as was the case with MS Dynamics GP, are detailed, often customized, and in a number of cases include graphical depictions as well as written descriptions. Custom video tutorials created and incorporated Spring 2015 as well.

Modules 1 & 2:

• Focus on describing customer relationship management systems generally

• Description of CRM context and definitions• Potential CRM strategies and tools


Modules 3 & 4:• Students get their first actual experience with Dynamics

CRM.• Each student assigned a small number of customers

which had already been entered in to the system.• Student was to identify their customers, add posts and

activities for each, and complete activities as necessary to resolve case.

• Next they add a case of their own to a customer of their choosing. They need to include details for the case.

• Lastly, they complete a module review in which they answered multiple choice questions relating to the CRM.


Modules 5 & 6:• Create a marketing campaign (and associated

marketing list and schedule dates) for a 10 person static list.

• Create a marketing campaign (and associated marketing list) for all of their dynamic current open leads

• Create a marketing campaign (and associated marketing list) for a dynamic contact marketing list based on a city in Utah.

• Add email addresses for open leads and create a marketing email activity


Modules 7 & 8:• Module seven focused attention on measuring

business performance including profit and customer satisfaction.

• In module eight, students completed group work on the pseudo company Starboard Lashing and assessed sales and business performance.

• Students also independently completed a midterm exam.


Modules 9 & 10:• Convert a lead to an opportunity.• Change a lead to disqualified.• Create, maintain and use sales literature.• Create, maintain and use competitors. Find a

company that could be an actual competitor to Starboard Lashing. Add real company information.

• Create a product.


Modules 11 & 12:• Students completed an assessment of Starboard

Lashing using dashboards and reports located within MS Dynamics CRM;• However, for the first term at least this

assignment had to be modified and replaced due to issues in establishing access for students to dashboards and reports.


Modules 13 & 14:• Students focused on planning and managing their

own CRM system implementations.• During module thirteen they worked in groups to

establish a training plan as well as an overall customer service plan.

• During module fourteen they put all of their group work together for a presentation which occurs in module fifteen--the final module of the class.


Lessons Learned - CRM• Importance of checking and re-checking external resources

and systems throughout the term.• Have a backup plan for all external resource use, even if the

originator is a company such as Microsoft.• Check student access to all content (dashboards and

reports).– situation was used as a learning opportunity relating to system

implementations, training, and unexpected challenges.

• Giving students administrative access as well as access to all system roles other than customization.– In one case a student changed some of the default settings for adding

pricing to items in the online catalog which affected everyone else.– Again this was used as a learning experience in the classroom.

Lessons Learned - CRMAdding specific information for each student required the instructor to spend time individually setting up each account.

– While this is quite real-world, it does require not only extra work but documentation as well.

There was a lack of a useful CRM data.– Creating fictional company was time consuming.– Considered use of default sample data supplied by

Microsoft.• Minimal data,• Not clear how to get deleted sample data back again.

Lessons Learned - GP

• The Dynamics GP class was a bit easier since sample data was included,

• However the authors did have to add more records in certain areas to demonstrate the capabilities of GP.

• Much of the existing data was not helpful because it was inconsistent.

A rich sample database for both CRM and GP would go a long way to show meaningful results to students’ analysis.

The use of the GP Web client proved to be a two-edged sword.• Performed much faster than the desktop client had

but,• lacked the full functionality and reporting available in

the desktop client.Problems with students deleting records from the sample data.• One of the GP students (accidently or on purpose)

deleted a record about which a question was being asked on the final exam.

• Utilize a backup copy of the sample data for each new term rather than having to clean up the previous semester’s data.

Lessons Learned - GP

Anonymous survey given in each class near the end of the term.Distributed and collected by a third party

Benefit derived from the use of MS Dynamics GP and CRM, - 31% responded that it was very beneficial, - 65% that it was somewhat beneficial, and - only 4% that it was not beneficial.

Should we continue to pursue the Student Certificate program, - 58% responded with a definite yes, - 35% with a qualified yes, and - 7% with a no answer.

Overall the incorporation of MS Dynamics GP and MS Dynamics CRM was seen as positive by students

Student Survey

Students’ comments: 1. The department needs to advertise the

certificate program more widely. 2. Students wanted more in-depth use of

Dynamics CRM. 3. More clarity needs to be added to the GP

labs and assignment to guide the students’ learning.

Feedback

Spring 2015 Semester

• Both classes being taught by the authors online as Internet classes.

• Each class has approximately 40 students. • Minor revisions were made based on

survey.• Courses offered online instead of

traditional, poses its own challenges.

Spring 2015 New Challenges

New challenges:• Number of students changed account setup,

customization of data per student, method of grading.

• System issues and/or access issues.• Moderation of accounts needs to be with

department.• Cannot require students to get Live accounts nor

can set up for each, making use of training resources an issue. Since online cannot show in class.

Spring 2015 New Benefits• Two students able to apply for certification end of

last term.• Seventeen additional students this term,• More expected following term.• Increasing familiarity with systems making use in

classrooms smoother.• Courses being built for any platform (traditional,

online, blended) and for multiple instructors.

Future Plans• Upgrade to GP 2015– Hoping Web client will be fully functional

• Install Dynamics CRM on college servers• Work on improving Fabrikam sample data• Develop a better sample database for CRM• Continue to offer both courses• Utilize GP in several other courses• Further promote certification at institution

Conclusion

• The Student Certificate is a good fit for our department

• Faculty training is key• Considerable effort is required to implement the

program• Challenges will continue over time (can be used

as learning experiences)• Students appreciate the hands-on lessons• We intend to continue and improve • It can be done – may you have success with your

efforts

implementing the microsoft dynamics student certificate program: process and curriculum utah valley...

Documents

use of dynamics gp

pattern of dynamics

installation of gp

gp training materials

financial management

project management

operations management

professor gpug conference