Discrete but powerful dashboard in MS Dynamics Nav.

 Discrete but powerful dashboard in MS Dynamics Nav.

3rd Tier ERP software, often offer a main screen with essential KPIs, that have been conspicuously and frustratingly absent from larger products, such as Microsoft Dynamics NAV. This apparent paradox is explained by the versatility and flexibility of the later that make the universality and relevance of simple  ’one size fit all’ KPIs less probable. To be on par, these products would have to offer configurable KPIs.

Although this has not been prominently marketed by Microsoft, this capability exists since the release 2013 of NAV, building on its trademark dimension feature and the new, dashboard like, role centers.

At the junction of these two techniques is a role center part called “Finance Performance”, which allow putting KPIs on the users’ main screen such as these:

Due to their graphic representation, these charts would rapidly occupy the whole estate available  on the role centre, leaving no space to other type of parts, such as the well touted  ‘Activities’ Part (that allows monitoring the number of documents by status),  the notification area…

An elegant solution has been adopted, with a capability to cycle through from one chart to the next within a single part, via the ‘Previous Chart’ and ‘Next Chart’ buttons.

How to do it

To produce charts such as the above, the following steps are needed

• Create an account schedule: In this schedule, the lines would contain either different accounts or the same account(s) filtered by the different values of one particular dimension, set in the related ‘Dimension totaling’ parameter.

•  Create a column layout setup:In this layout, each column would be filtered by the different values of one particular dimension, set in the related ‘Dimension totalling’ parameter. Alternatively, it would represent a different period, described in the Comparison Period Formula (typically FY[1] to FY[12]).          

•   Go to Customize > Customize This Page and add the part called ‘Finance Performance’ into the Role Centre Layout.

• Back to the role centre, find the new,  empty part and click on its “Select Chart” button,.                                Add a Name in the “Account Schedule Chart List” that has opened, and click on the “Edit Button.

• Complete the Account Schedules Chart Setup, as per the following guidelines.

a.       Select the Account Schedule name and Column Layout Name representing the two criteria to be cross analysed

b.      Select which of them will be used for the X-axis of the graph

c.       Define the type of representation desirable on the Y axis

d.      In case all the values defined in the account schedule and column layout do not appear, click on the edit button to select the remainders

Dear readers if you have any queries / suggestions regarding configuration of dashboard charts please feel free to coordinate with us at info@ibizcs.com or visit us at www.ibizcs.com.

Author : Dr. Frederic Dillenseger 

Difference Between MS CRM and Relationship Management of MS Dynamics Navision

A smart comparison between MS CRM and Relationship module of MS Dynamics Navision.

S. NO.	Functionality	MS CRM	Relationship Module in Navision
1	Lead to Cash Visibility: Track interactions, communications, offers, and orders throughout the sales cycle so you can drive sales excellence with every interaction.	Available	Offer and Sales Excellence through interactions are not available.
2	Data Access: Make sure the right people have easy access to your valuable sales data with role-based forms, personal views, and field-level security.	Available	Available
3	Streamlined Goal Management: Instantly define and track sales quotas at individual, team, territory, and organization levels with intuitive goal management capabilities.	Available	Tracking of sales quota is based on sales person only
4	Real-Time Forecasts: Keep your pulse on sales performance and improve financial planning with real-time sales forecasts and pipeline reports.	Available	Sales forecast /Pipeline reports are not available with much details
5	Mobile Productivity: Continue to work the deal, engage with customers, and manage your sales pipeline with offline support and robust mobile device solutions	Available	Lack of mobile Integration on CRM
6	Pinpoint Segmentation: Identify high-probability prospects and instantly create targeted marketing lists with powerful segmentation tools and conditional formatting rules.	Available	Available
7	Quick Campaigns: Enable your sales and marketing staff to rapidly create impromptu campaigns by using pre-built campaign templates and the guided Quick Campaign feature	Available	Templates Campaigns are not available
8	Native Outlook Experience: Improve efficiency by centrally managing email messages, appointments, tasks, contacts, and customer information right from within Microsoft Outlook	Available	Few functions are not in sync. E.g Task from Outlook are not getting converted to TODOs. Email from outlook not get converted to Interactions etc.
9	Simplified Communications: Simplify your communications with built-in mail-merge capability, email templates, and one-click conversion of email messages.	Available	Available
10	Campaign Life Cycle Management: Define and track campaign budgets, tasks, activities, and collateral with holistic campaign management capabilities.	Available	Limited functionalities in Campaign management.
11	Intelligent Lead Management: Seamlessly track lead details across the organization, zero in on high probability leads, and instantly route them to the most appropriate resource	Available	Available
12	Holistic Response Tracking: Drive closed-loop campaign execution by easily tracking responses and converting email responses to leads or opportunities with just a click.	Available	Manual update is required at Lead and opportunity
13	Insightful Connections: Uncover new leads, identify influencers, and better understand social trends with the Connections feature and the Social Connector.	Available	Limited connection with Social Media at Contact/Customer Level
14	Seamless Event Management: Improve the effectiveness of marketing events and easily track attendee data with built-in event management capabilities.	Available	To be managed through campaigns
15	Full Interaction History: Track the details of every interaction, including offers ,orders, contracts, and cases, so you can provide the right service at the right time	Available	Available
16	Streamlined Case Management: Take advantage of intuitive case management capabilities to streamline case creation, tracking, resolution, and escalation.	Available	Not Available
17	Service Scheduling: Manage field service appointments, facilities, and resources with the powerful unified service scheduling feature.	Available	Not Available
19	Insightful Service Analytics: Deepen insight with out-of-the box or configurable dashboards, drill-down analysis, and inline data visualization capabilities.	Available	Available
20	Service Queue Management: Build queues against any entity, user, or team and streamline work state management for improved efficiency.	Available	Not Available
21	Service Record Auditing: Improve visibility into service and support activities and effectively meet service level agreements (SLAs) with system-wide auditing.	Available	Not Available
22	Guided Service Processes: Streamline case resolution and escalations with guided dialogs, automated processes, and conditional formatting rules.	Available	Not Available
23	Service Goal Management: Instantly track service goals, such as first call resolution, average call time, and more with comprehensive goal management capabilities.	Available	Not Available
24	Knowledge Management: Up-level your customer service skills by creating, retrieving, and sharing knowledge through a shared knowledge repository.	Available	Not Available

Both the systems are unique in its place after referring above given comparison, people can easily say MS Dynamics Nav. Relationship module is not as powerful as MS CRM when we talk in context of Customer Relationship Management. At our development centre in IBIZ Consultancy Services Pte Ltd in Singapore , we developed the connectors and Plug ins which enables data flow both sides nicely and empowers the system . For more information on MS CRM / MS Dynamics Nav and their integration , please write to us at info@ibizcs.com OR visit us at www.ibizcs.com.

Author : Mukesh Mittal (Business Advisor)

Reviewed by : Gunalan Kalairajan (Consulting Head)

Disclaimer: All the articles published at ibiz.blogspot.com are the intellectual property of Ibiz Consultancy Services Pte. Ltd. 

Increase your sales by knowing your product position in Market!!!

Increase your sales by knowing your product position in Market!!!

For any company, Customers and stakeholders are talking about you somewhere on Facebook,Twitter, or blogs. How do you learn about it? Well, you can get powerful social insights by connecting Microsoft Dynamics Navision Online to Microsoft Social Listening.

Microsoft Social Listening collects data from social media websites and presents it to you in easy-to-consume charts and graphs that you can use to spot emerging trends in people’s comments it may be regarding product feature enhancements or may be services related to products whether they’re positive, negative, or neutral. 

You can drill down into the data and see who is mentioning you, where they posted the comment, and exactly what they said. Armed with these insights, you can pinpoint what you’re doing right, and address potential issues before bigger problems arise. This is an excellent feature for OEM to enhance the product value in market

Configuration of Social Listening into MS Dynamics Nav. 2015 is very easy and user friendly …to know more about such features coordinate with our consultants at info@ibizcs.com or visit us at www.ibizcs.com

Author: Mukesh Mittal (Business Advisor)

Reviewed By: Gunalan Kalairajan (Consulting Head)

10 Tips to Get Started with Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2

Repost: 10 Tips to Get Started with Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 - IBIZ Consulting Services

Microsoft License Price Realignment Scheduled in July 2014

Microsoft has announced that it is going to realign Dynamics AX, NAV and GP user price across versions and licensing models effective 1st July 2014. Grab the golden chance to acquire additional user licenses before the price increase! 

Read the complete post at ow.ly/vQ28V 

Microsoft Services unaffected by OpenSSL "Heartbleed" vulnerability - Microsoft Security Blog - TechNet Blogs

Repost: Microsoft Services unaffected by OpenSSL "Heartbleed" vulnerability - Microsoft Security Blog - TechNet Blogs

New Options for CRM Online License

Since the launch of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online in year 2008, Microsoft has offered a single seat at a single price point. While this is simple and straightforward, many customers have requested to have more flexible options like ones for on-premise licenses.

In conjunction with the major release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, Microsoft will introduce 3 types of CRM Online licenses and offer customers the freedom of choice to mix and match license types needed based on functional roles.

The 3 license options for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online are:

Professional - For core CRM users who need full capabilities of CRM such as sales force automation, marketing management and customer care.

Basic - For sales, marketing and service users who need to manage and access accounts, contacts, leads, cases, custom applications and reporting capabilities.

Essential - For light-weight users who need to access custom built applications.

With these 3 options, customers are truly given the power of choice to mix and match licenses, so they are not forced to fit every user into the same license, thus, saving costs in the long run. Another piece of good news is that all 3 licenses allow users to access mobile CRM application at no additional cost. Users are given the freedom to access CRM applications on tablets, smartphones, laptops or desktops.