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Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010—The new way to do business

Monday, January 16th, 2012

Today’s world demands a new way to do business. Organizations continue to wrestle with complexity in a difficult business environment. They face the dual challenge of reducing operating costs while responding to greater customer needs and ultimately increasing profitability. Microsoft Dynamics® GP 2010 strengthens the ability of people and organizations to face these ongoing challenges, so that their businesses can remain competitive and grow.

This latest release of Microsoft Dynamics GP extends the reach of insight, productivity, and collaboration across the entire business, helping to ensure that people—an organization’s most powerful asset—and the different ways they work continue to drive business success. New capabilities deliver faster access to personalized business intelligence, enhanced ways to streamline business processes, and new ways to build stronger business relationships.

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 makes it easier for people to work faster and smarter. Employees can make rapid, informed decisions and take action with enhanced insight that is personalized, simple to access, and extended across the organization through familiar Microsoft Office applications. In addition, this release continues to remove barriers that get in the way of working effectively to better connect people, information, and processes across applications and systems.

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 continues to deliver on the promise of a comprehensive ERP solution that goes beyond basic business management and extends easily to meet unique business needs. Simple to implement and use, the solution delivers innovation that enables all people in an organization to work with information in ways that are familiar to them—today and into the future. It’s the new way to do business.

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The New Way to Do Business: Extending Connections with Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

“Works well with others”—a term you’ll remember from childhood report cards. In today’s business world, that term spans everything that technology can offer organizations for extending connections. Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 brings home a high mark, taking full advantage of Web services, integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and a simplified platform to bring together employees, customers, and vendors across applications and systems efficiently and cost-effectively.

To start, developers can quickly choose from more than 350 Web services that offer better performance and easier integrations. We’ve also developed a straightforward integration platform based on Web services
that connects applications to and from Microsoft Dynamics GP and enables developers to create independent integration adapters. And connections through Web services integrations no longer depend on Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS)—eliminating the need to buy separate servers and greatly simplifying infrastructure and IT management.

This latest release helps sales, service, and business management staff collaborate through built-in integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Sales and service information flows directly to the back office and provides people with a complete view of customers, contracts, pricing, product and service availability, and more. In addition, we’re offering an important innovation with the Extender tool. Without writing new code, organizations can capture and consolidate business-specific information—for example, every unique detail related to a customer, client, or vendor—that’s previously been housed in separate systems. People now have a centralized source that simplifies reporting and tracking and lets them work together more easily on cross-team and cross-department tasks.

All our innovations work to strengthen business relationships. One quiet, but important example: while working in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010, employees can connect at a deep level with customers and vendors through instant messaging. They can hold ad hoc conversations, hold a Microsoft Office Live Meeting, share views of customer and vendor information, and create and deliver sales quotes, sales orders, and purchase orders—all within an instant message.

We’re delivering a solution that extends connections so that everyone in your organization—and the systems that help your business run—work well together.

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010. The new way to do business.

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Bonus Depreciation and Bonus Licenses!

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

In the past, we’ve discussed how there are two levels of pricing for Dynamics GP, Business Essentials and Advanced Management. These licensing models offer anywhere from $35,000 - $100,000 + worth of software functionality. Right now  through December 22nd,  Microsoft is offering the following special promotion:

If you purchase 5 licenses by year end, you pay only $3,000. This is for either version of software, the Business Essentials OR the Advanced Management. This is a potential savings of anywhere from $8,000 - $17,000! Even if the timing is not right, but you know GP is the solution of choice down the road, you could still purchase a very elaborate system for pennies on the dollar and simply hold onto this system until you are ready to implement.

The other interesting note as it relates to year-end, is a piece about Bonus Depreciation (this if you remember was a part of a Tax Relief Act). Basically, this purchase could be completely depreciated if purchased by December 31st:

In general taxpayers who placed-in-service “qualifying property” after September 8, 2010 and before December 31, 2011 can get 100% bonus depreciation for these assets. Not wanting to waste a good set of regulations, the old bonus depreciation regulations will apply until the IRS issues a new set. As it was before, bonus depreciation is mandatory unless the taxpayer elects out of it. The election out can be by class of asset or for all qualifying assets in a company. The basic rules are as follows:
1. The original use of the property must begin with the current taxpayer. 2. Used property cannot qualify, although current improvements to that property may qualify.
3. The property must be purchased and placed in service from January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2012. The “written binding contract” (WBC) rules do apply to the placed-in-service dates. In other words, if the property is purchased or constructed pursuant to a WBC dated before January 1, 2008, it is not eligible for bonus depreciation. However, if the WBC is before September 8, 2010 and the property is placed-in-service after September 8, 2010, it is eligible for 50% bonus depreciation with one exception, discussed below.
4. The property must have a General Depreciation System (GDS) life of 20 years or less.

Don’t forget the other promotional specials going on now through December 22nd! 

Contact us for more information.

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Let the Countdown Begin: Convergence 2012 Houston

Monday, October 31st, 2011

Save the Date

The Microsoft Dynamics® Convergence® 2011 conference was a smashing success, and now is the time to look toward a new frontier. Start planning now to join us next year for Convergence 2012.

March 18 to 21, 2012
George R. Brown Convention Center
Houston, Texas

 

Convergence is the best opportunity for you to get a firsthand look at the latest innovations that will help you optimize your business and improve your bottom line.

A World of Reasons to Attend

Convergence 2012 is “A World of Opportunity.” It will be an experience rich with business value where you’ll learn, share, and establish new relationships. Since this Convergence is actively targeting a global audience, the opportunity for you to make new and valuable connections is greater than ever before.

 

We Hope to See You There

Contact us if you have any questions about Convergence 2012. We look forward to seeing you in Houston next March!  

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A First Look at GP 12

Tuesday, October 11th, 2011

The next release of GP has some very exciting new features.  This is the first release of GP that is geared towards cloud environment deployments.  The “Software as a Service” initiative Microsoft has been plugging for quite some time has come to Dynamics GP 12.

·         Web Based Architecture – Dynamics GP 12 will be deployed in 2 distinct architectures.  We can deploy using the standard 2-tier client/server architecture with a SQL server and either workstation installations of a terminal server/Citrix server.  GP 12 will also be able to be deployed using web client architecture.  The SQL server will remain the same, but now we can deploy a web server to serve up the client via Internet Explorer using ASP.Net and Silverlight.  No more client installations on workstations or Terminal Server/Citrix servers.

·         Named System Database – GP 12 will now allow you to rename the DYNAMICS database which will vastly simplify cloud hosting by allowing multiple customer organizations to be hosted in multi-tenant SQL environments on one instance

·         Multitenant Service Architecture – Multi-tenant services will create a tenant configuration service that can be used by GP Web, Web Services, eConnect, Integration Manager and other applications as needed in order to support multiple customer organizations on a single instance of the application.

·         Printing – GP 12 will now allow you to change the printer at the time of printing the documents (I can hear everyone clapping as I write this).

·         Bin Transfer History

·         Enhanced Document Attachments

·         Reason Codes for Stock Movements

GP 12 is due out towards the end of 2012.

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Year-end Payroll Tax Updates

Monday, October 10th, 2011

Year-end is approaching quickly. If you are processing payroll using Dynamics GP, be ready for the following tentative schedule from Microsoft:

  • US Payroll 2011 Year End update will release mid-November 2011.
  • Canadian Payroll Year End Update will release mid-December 2011
  • US Payroll 2012 Tax Round 1 will release mid-Decmeber 2011
  • US Payroll 2012 Tax Round 2 wlil release in January 2012

Remember, supported versions include Microsoft Dynamics GP 10 and GP 2010 (version 11).  If you are currently using version 9.0, please contact us for an upgrade estimate.

 

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Looking to connect with other GP Partners?

Monday, September 19th, 2011

“They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself” 

     Andy Warhol

Dynamics GP Partners:  Do you remember Stampede?  Are you looking for an opportunity to connect, gain insight, improve your bottom line?  Are you looking for new strategies while preserving the core that’s made you successful?  If so, you need to attend GP Partner Connections 2011, November 6-8 at Caesar’s in Las Vegas.

Connections has become an exclusive planning, training, and networking conference for Dynamics GP partners from all over the country.  This will be the 3rd year of a grass roots effort to bring value back into the Partner Channel. 

Who should attend?  Consultants, Developers, Practice Managers, Project Managers, and business leaders in any Dynamics GP ISV or Consulting practice. 

Save $100 by registering by 9/30/11.

Contact me for more details, and for more information on the breakout sessions, go to the GP Partner Connections website:  http://www.gppartnerconnections.com/ 

Take the time to change. 

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GP 2010 R2: Email and Word Templates

Monday, August 8th, 2011

We still love the Word Templates in GP 2010. The main issue, however, was that not all reports were available as a template.  Users spoke, and the developers listened!  With GP 2010 R2, a new tool called the MS Word Template Generator is available.  Any report available in Report Writer can now be processed through the Word Template Generator.  Here are the basic steps:

1) Report Writer generates a data file (an XML file)

2) The Word Template Generator creates a template based on the data file

3) The template is imported into GP and can be edited as necessary (there’s an add-in for WORD that allows you to view and select GP fields).

4) When you print the report, choose Template instead of Standard

 

A few of the benefits of Word Templates:

1) Users are able to re-format templates in a familiar environment (Word)

2) Templates can be assigned to specific customers

3) No more multiple reports dictionaries for multiple companies!  Reports can be assigned to specific companies.

 

GP2010 R2 has new email capabilities, as well.  Any report window that has a Print button now also has an Email button. Users can generate a custom message, add data fields from the transaction window, and send!  The report is static, in an HTM format, and can be viewed using a web browser by GP users and non-users.

Thinking about moving ahead to GP2010 R2?   Gilchrist Scott is offering discounted rates for upgrades scheduled in August. Contact us soon to talk about upgrading. (207) 761-2133.

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