Microsoft Response Point Future: RP Program Manager Say "There are no current plans for future version releases of Response Point..."

At a Microsoft Response Point town hall meeting today, RP program manager John Frederickson says "There are no current plans for future version releases of Response Point, but MS will continue to evaluate specific feature requests and continue to maintain the product...We are not prepared to commit to a next version release today..." Later on John said, "RP is in maintenance mode..."

To questions about the future of RP John said "RP is funded for FY2010...RP will be evaluated for ROI from year to year like all Microsoft products..."

John also noted the Response Point does have a budget for marketing activities for FY2010.

From my experience with how Microsoft handled the discontinuation of the Microsoft Small Business Financials product, current RP developements sound eerily similar. The first step was putting the product in a "holding pattern". One difference that I can see is that there appears to be a much more active partner community. (Could Harry Brelsford have anything to do with that? ;-)

My opinion remains that if you are a good VAR (or Trusted Advisor), work with Microsoft resources and you have the possibility of emerging stronger than before.

You might have interest in my previous post that talks a little about RP Var Survival.
My Research on Windows Based Phone System Compared to Response Point.

Dynamics CRM to Dynamics GP Integration is HERE!

A two way integration between Dynamics GP and CRM has finally arrived in BETA form! To CRM and GP partners this is an exciting announcement. See more at:

http://blogs.msdn.com/dynamicsgp/archive/2009/06/23/microsoft-dynamics-crm-4-0-beta-adapter-for-microsoft-dynamics-gp-integration-demomate-now-available.aspx

Dynamics GP: How To Easily Create a Test Company? WillowWare Helps Out.

We were just talking the other day how to easily create a sample/test/demo company from a live company. Our other requirement was the ability to refresh the sample company. Doing it with SQL scripts isn't totally a no brainer...but I did run across a product from willowware.com that seems to do just what we wanted!

How to Upgrade SBF to GP Documents

Having difficulty finding how to upgrade or step up SBF to GP? Here is the link:
https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/downloads/migrationtools/sbf90togp90.htm?printpage=false

You will need Partnersource access.

Windows based Phone System PBXnSIP v4 Overhauls User Interface

PBXnSIP, Windows based phonesystem, has released version 4 beta. It's hard to miss the newly refresh user interface that now includes context sensitive help. PBXnSIP has many legacy pbx features, is use by ISP's and managed service providers and from our experience is very stable.

My Quick Slideshow of PBXnSIP v4 Beta:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mattmlandis/PbxnsipV4Beta#slideshow/5346433834075244306
Below is an illustration of the new UI.

From pbxnsip v4 Beta

Dynamics GP Field Service as PSA Software Set to Save IT Service Company 624 Hours a Year

We are implementing Dynamics GP Field Service as a PSA (Professional Services Automation) solution for our own IT service company. We reviewed ConnectWise, Autotask, TigerPaw & Dynamics GP with Field Service. We realized the only way to get a completely integrated system (sales, inventory, financials and service management) was with GP Field Service.

The previous system consisted of a web based time tracking system and ERP. There was no link between them so all invoices were retyped into ERP. Customer information needed to be cut and pasted into the time tracking/service request system from the ERP. A Outlook appointment needed to be manually entered. So the service manager spent quite a bit of time flipping between ERP, Time tracking system and Outlook for a new service request. The whole service request entry time was approx. 5 minutes.

With Dynamics GP Field Service and a GP Field Service tech module the process has been greatly streamlined. Adding service requests requires having only Dynamics GP open. We added a button to automatically generate an Outlook appointment for the service call. GP Field Service has the ability (built-in) to SMS the tech when a new call comes in. The service manager now spends approx 1 minute or less adding new service calls.

For the technician entering time into GP Field Service there have been been improvements too. We were not quite satisfied with the effeciency of Field Services Anywhere module included with GP so we wrote a small application that techs use to enter time into GP Field Service via GP Web Services. The tech literally has only 3 clicks to start the timer on a service call. One click selects which service call, one to press the START button and one to click into the "description of work" field. As soon as the service call is clicked the tech can see the problem, customer name, contact, address, big note and phone number. Since we are IP phone experts we have a button to dial the client's phone number using the tech desk phone. There is a button to run a SQL reporting services report that shows the tech their own utilization for the day. I would expect this interface will save several minutes per call but won't figure this in my equation.

Immediate Time Savings in One Week:

Service Manager
89 Service Calls were setup. The prior system required approx. 5 minutes to setup a service call. In Dynamics GP Field Service we are seeing times of 30sec. to a minute.
Old: 89 * 5min. = 7.41 hours
New: 89 * 1min. = 1.48 hours for a savings of 5.93 hours per week for the Service Manager.

Invoice Entry Person
The normal time to create invoice weekly was approximately a day. Due to a Navigation List bug (and yes it's a bug...I'm being really honest here ;-) we tested doing the weekly invoices a little early. (ahem) It takes minutes to do what used to be a day job. But I'm going to say 2 hours to allow for printing and putting in the mail.
Old: 8 Hours
New: 2 Hours for a savings of 6.00 hours per week for Invoice Entry.

If my figuring is correct that is about 624 hours a year.

I'd like to show some of the management reports (using SRS) we have but I guess that should be another post.

Bing: 76% Google, 17% Bing and 5% Yahoo.

For those of you in marketing and website search optimization, you might want to keep an eye on Bing.com. Microsoft's new search engine seems to be getting some traffic. Monitoring our own website I noticed Bing.com was driving a fairly high percentage to us: 76% Google, 17% Bing and 5% Yahoo (small % other).

Microsoft is doing the "I'm a Mac" play on Google with some very catchy ads promoting Bing and insinuating that Google returns confusing results. I don't know if the facts support the ads, but the ads are interesting.