Category : Office 365

Performing miracles remotely and other remote Microsoft Dynamics GP consulting

Microsoft Dynamics ERP ConsultantWith the power of the Cloud, remote desktop access, and increasingly refined processes we’ve found that more and more of our client work for Microsoft Dynamics GP (ERP) and Microsoft Dynamics 356 (CRM online) implementations, upgrades and integrating 3rd party products, has been completed remotely via secure connections from our offices rather than traveling onsite to our client’s location (in Atlantic Canada, Central Canada or USA).

So what’s changed?  We did a quick poll among our Endeavour Solutions’ Canadian consultants in Toronto, Halifax, London and Montreal, the results were much along the lines of what you might expect, but do indicate a clear trend none the less.

1)      Change in customer mindset

2)      Improvement in technology and remote connections

3)      A refinement of processes and the more predicable nature of consulting engagements

Now, most of the consultants interviewed, still stressed the need to meet with clients as part of their relationship building process, but some did concede that they’ve been able to build and maintain a number of strong long-term relationships via phone, email and webcam.

Change in customer mindset.  The general consensus was that more and more clients, new and existing, were willing to have their Endeavour consultants work remotely.  This was both due to their comfort and trust in working with Endeavour Solutions, as well as a general shift from what used to be a lot of collaboration and joint discovery of the issues and potential solutions, to more of a reliance on Endeavour as a trusted adviser and a more simplistic, get-it-done attitude.  To sum it up, more and more clients are buying ‘results’ and are less concerned with paying for ‘bums in seats’.  For example, on an eight-week project, one of our consultants traveled to the client’s office (Dynamics GP Michigan client) only once for an initial kick-off, and the rest of their Dynamics GP upgrade was performed remotely, including the implementation of a new manufacturing module along with the associated testing and training.

Technology Improvements. This is thanks to both better network stability and bandwidth that is seen across Canada and the majority of the United States.  It’s also because of the greater prevalence and use of proven network security, firewalls and systems being extended to external stakeholders.   Our technical consultants also stressed that the newer versions of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016 and Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM were designed for browser use (web client) incorporating a modern Service Based Architecture which provides a streamlined means of supporting mobile, cloud and secure remote connectivity.  This is further echoed in Microsoft’s “mobile-first, cloud-first” mantra in support of its efforts to help Dynamics Users “Re-invent [their] productivity and business processes”  with mobile, cloud and applications such as Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016.

Refined Processes: Endeavour is now in its 27th year in business as a Microsoft Dynamics GP ERP (Great Plains), Microsoft Dynamics 365 for CRM and Microsoft Office 365, Azure & cloud consulting firm.  With over 400 active clients coast to coast in Canada and internationally including the United States and South America, we have refined, updated and optimized a number of internal processes to help improve efficiency and predictability of customer engagements.  These methodologies, used by our consultants in Toronto, Halifax, London and Montreal, with additional remote support for Edmonton Alberta and Ottawa Ontario, have also created an increased level of predictability and confidence in delivering projects on-time, on-budget and now remotely.

To learn more, contact Steve Ewing, Director Business Development @ Endeavour Solutions Inc.

Save with the exchange rate for USA Remote Dynamics GP Consulting from Canada www.endeavoursolutions.ca/USA

Interesting and Innovative Projects by Endeavour Solutions (Endeavor Solutions) www.endeavoursolutions.ca/dynamicsprojects

Follow us on LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/company/endeavour-solutions-inc-

 

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Top 3 Excel Functions for Microsoft Dynamics

Excel has been a key part of Microsoft Office and continues to be enhanced in Office 216, part of Microsoft Office 365 (Office 365 Consulting in Canada).  As a complement to Microsoft Dynamics, Office 365 and Excel 2016 not only provides additional functions and usability, but there are now dedicated mobile apps,  browser-based online versions as well as the traditional Office desktop workhorse apps for Mac and PC.

The following are a quick Top 3 Excel Functions for Microsoft Dynamics
1. Excel templates in Dynamics CRM and GP.

There are a number of great ‘canned’ reports within Dynamics GP and CRM.  Some of the more popular GP ‘canned’ reports include: Export Chart of Accounts, Sales Analysis, Purchasing Analysis and Inventory Analysis. New within Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2016, you can now create your own Excel templates and reports. This is an exciting new function within Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2016.  Excel templates can now be formatted and embedded within CRM and made available as a personal or system-wide template.  This means the full capabilities of Excel formatting, including Pivot Tables, Pivot Charts, conditional formatting or offline calculations that can’t be easily handled inside CRM, can now be created as templates and made available to all users.


CRM Dynamics Canada reports


2. Excel PowerPivot for advanced slicing and dicing.

This this free add-in within Excel, simply type into the search “Power Pivot”, Excel will point you to the data analysis add-in called Power Pivot.  Vlookup and Hlookup are good, but being able to use a graphical interface to create joins between multiple tables via Power Pivot makes the consolidation and analysis of information a breeze.  Within Excel 2016, Power Pivot has been expanded to include that ability to preview and filter (ETL) before extracting data from a view, instead of downloading the entire Dynamics View or SmartList. This is a great time saver when you are dealing with large data sets with, hundreds of thousands or millions, of rows of transactional data. We recommend that you get some help from an expert (Endeavour Microsoft Dynamics Consultants) to build and create the custom connections to views or database tables in Dynamics CRM or Dynamics GP before performing your slicing and dicing.  Be sure to periodically reconcile a simple PowerPivot report against your current reporting system to confirm that you are capturing each of the right tables and transactions.


PowerPivot for Microsoft Dynamics


3. Creating budgets within Excel and re-importing them back into Dynamics GP.

Under the Financial Card in Dynamics GP, you can use the ‘Budget Wizard for Excel” to create GP friendly budgets that can be re-imported into GP for actual vs. budget comparisons.  To help kick-start your budgeting process, you can export an Excel budget template with starting data from Microsoft Dynamics GP based on:

  • A percentage change +or- from the open year, or
  • A percentage change +or- from a previous year, or
  • A percentage change +or- from a previous budget, or
  • A blank Excel budget template that you can populate from scratch before re-importing back into Dynamics GP.

Budget template for Dynamics GP


 

For more sophisticated budgeting and forecasts, you may also want to consider Endeavour Solutions’ approved Dynamics ISV partner, Prophix for automated budgeting workflows in support of a collaborative approach to setting budgets and forecasts.  With their new cloud-based options, Prophix is now more affordable for Microsoft Dynamics users in the mid-market. See Endeavour’s dedicated Prophix page at www.endeavoursolutions.ca/Prophix

 

About Endeavour Solutions Inc.

Endeavour Solutions is a Microsoft Gold ERP and Microsoft Silver CRM Partner focusing on development, implementation, upgrades, support and training for Dynamics GP, Dynamics CRM. and Office 365. With offices in Toronto, Halifax, London, Montréal and Edmonton we have more than 400 active clients in every province in Canada. In 2016, Endeavour was named to the Microsoft President’s Club – The top 5% of Microsoft Partners Worldwide.  See our Innovative projects www.endeavoursolutions.ca/dynamicsprojects

 

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Congratulations Endeavour – Microsoft Cloud Certification – Way to go Team

A special congratulations to consulting the team at Endeavour for their latest in Microsoft Cloud certifications for Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions Provider within the Microsoft Partner Network.

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” Congratulations Endeavour – Microsoft cloud certification – way to go team!”

Office 365 Enterprise Canada Endeavour365 Cloud Logo banner

This certification is a great testament to the hard work and success that our clients have been able to achieve with Microsoft Office 365 Enterprise and other Microsoft cloud services including Azure Active Directory and Azure hosting.  Microsoft Canada now offers Office 365, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Azure in Canada hosted out of the ultra-secure new Microsoft Canadian data centers in Toronto and Québec City.
More info on Endeavour Solutions Inc. and the Microsoft Cloud see:
e-Business, Cloud, Mobile and Custom Integrations
More info on Endeavour365 for Office 365 Enterprise, Microsoft Cloud and e-mail Migration see:
Microsoft Office 365 with Endeavour Solutions

As a value add to new and existing clients, we are also now selling Canadian Dollar Microsoft licenses for Windows Server, SQL Server and other small, mid-market and enterprise software and user CALs in Canada.  see  www.endeavour365.ca/licenses

About Endeavour Solutions Inc (ESI)

Endeavour Solutions is a Microsoft Gold ERP and Microsoft Silver CRM Partner focusing on development, implementation, upgrades, support and training for Dynamics GP, Dynamics CRM. and Office 365. With offices in Toronto, Halifax, London, Montréal and Edmonton we have more than 400 active clients in every province in Canada.

See our Innovative projects www.endeavoursolutions.ca/dynamicsprojects

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New Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016 released May 2016

New Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016 released May 2016

https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/northamerica/GP/downloads/product-releases/MDGP2016_Release_Download

Dynamics-2016-LogoWe recommend GP 2016 for new clients and new installs.  For existing clients and upgrades, we suggest that you hold off on upgrading till mid summer so that any ISV or add-in products can also be upgraded.   Also worth nothing, as of the release date, Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016 does NOT support Microsoft Office 2010.

We suggest you consider upgrading to Office 365, which includes Office 2016.  see Endeavour365.ca/overview for more info.

On a side note, Dynamics GP 2016 will also be referred to as Dynamics GP 2016 R1, as Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016 R2 may be released in the fall/winter of 2016.  Some past articles may have referenced Microsoft Dynamics GP 2015 R3, which was renamed to Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016.

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Spring 2016 Update on Microsoft Canada Cloud and Azure & Office 365 in Canada

Endeavour Solutions is pleased to present the following Spring 2016 Update on Microsoft Canada Cloud and Azure & Office 365 in Canada

As a follow up to Microsoft’s June 2015 announcement of their plans to deliver locally hosted Microsoft Cloud services–Microsoft Azure‚ Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online –from Canada‚ today marks their next major milestone: the start of the Azure Private Preview!

Starting mid March 2016‚ a group of customers and partners have started testing Microsoft Azure (via their Private Preview) as a locally hosted service in Microsoft’s Toronto and Quebec City datacenters in Canada.

The response to the Azure Preview has exceeded Microsoft Canada’s expectations. Available via Endeavour Solutions, Microsoft’s cloud services empower Canadian businesses of all sizes and across all industries to move to the cloud. Today’s exciting news brings us one step closer to delivering Microsoft Cloud services to Canadians‚ from Canada.

With this Spring 2016 Update on Microsoft Canada Cloud and Azure & Office 365 in Canada, Microsoft remains on track to deliver all of their cloud services‚ hosted in Canada‚ with general availability for Azure currently scheduled for Q2 2016‚ followed closely by their flagship productivity solutions: Office 365 (Endeavour Office 365 and our new Endeavour365.ca brand) and Dynamics CRM Online (Endeavour Dynamics CRM).

data management resized for website2    Microsoft AZURE    Office 365 Enterprise Canada

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