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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Live Mesh: Possible Futures with Dynamics

Now that we have had time to look through and talk about the new Live Mesh offerings I posted by yesterday, lets now delve into the possibilites that await us with Live Mesh and Dynamics.

Like I said yesterday, security is something that will need to be better understood, for corporate data, etc. But let's put that aside for now, and come back to that at a later date.

Instead lets look into the future, and see what we could possibly do with this. What about an Advanced Meshed Product Configuration for Dynamics? Or Host bits of a clients CRm instance? What about the next level of EDI that could be accomplished between companies with such an offering as Live Mesh?

The last one there is more of an udner the sheets type of thing, but you could see were such offerings could benefit customers. Before we continue on though, in thinking of possibilties for the a Live Dynamics Mesh offering, lets really look at what is trying to be accomplished with this new offering.:

synchronization and collaboration

That is the "theme" of these current offerings. The nature of a mesh though is to offer a 'fabric' if you will, of allowing that buzz word of 'cloud computing' to be in acted. Still the current "theme" is the focus, and so if we start with Collaboration first. Collaboration, for a clients internal users. Collaboration, for clients external users. Collaboration, for a clients Customers / Vendors, outside entities that would want to Collaborate with a given client instance.

So think of Collaboration based needs... live virtual meetings, white boards, shared projects with both public, semi-private, and private parts to them. In these terms, we could easily see applications that could be developed, or should I say Live Mesh Experiences that can be put together that cater to such offerings. Building on that, then you could see a step into Dynamics AX / CRM for having that Live Mesh Experiences to feed from and too a Customers Dynamics AX / CRM instance. And the Live Mesh Experience could be hosted with you the Vendor, with Microsoft, with the Client or split depending on what all makes that Live Mesh Experince up.

Take the next part of the theme, synchronization. From this theme angle, the theory of decoupled computing, with the ability to work offline / online and allowing the Live Mesh Exp. worry about the in-between could really open a lot of doors for users that need to be on the go, but still need access to data and feeds either while disconnected from the cloud, while connected and then back after being disconnected and having their offline world always synced with their online world. This theme angle, takes a 'middle man' apporach in that is lives behind the scenes and becomes a part of a Live Mesh offering. So you can take the Collabrative Mesh you created, and make sure that is works where ever a user is, offline or on.

In the real world, the sync part is something that will still not always be there. But if the ability exists for a user to continue and pick back up with correct updating, and so forth, the the cloud can really become more of a reality and the hosting of each of the different parts of the Mesh are unknown to the User Exp., and should not care. The Mesh Exp. should take care of this for the user, and allow the hybrid hosting of the future to truly work.

Alright, I believe we have opined enough on the new Live Mesh offering. As you can see though, most exciting possibilities, that are not that far from the Dynamics realm of reality.

Check back soon!

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Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Ten things to know about Microsoft’s Live Mesh

Mary Jo, over at ZDNet, just did a wonderful post last week on the newly released Microsoft "Software + Services platform for synchronization and collaboration" (if I may quote her description.).

Anyway click on the title of this post to be directly taking to that blog entry. Ten things to know about this new Live Mesh service:


  • The definition

  • The Codename(s)

  • The team

  • The buzzwords

  • The guts

  • What about sync?

  • What about Silverlight?

  • Live Mesh-ism

  • Consumer vs. business

  • The timing



All covered in her wonderful post. She really takes you through what you should know about this new Live Mesh Service offering. What I want you to think about after / during your reading of her post is * Dynamics AX / CRM * and how different aspects of the business solution and instance for customers could benefit for such a Live Mesh Service. Think about the possibilities, if this continues to get expanded upon.

The biggest hole I see Not covered is security. Anyway very interesting on the future aspects of these types of Software+Services Mesh'es. Closer and Closer to more Corporate Hybrid Offerings...

Check back soon! I have a great post coming soon, from an interview I am doing with two Top level Microsoft Business Solution Execs.

For reference:


Behind the Mesh:


And, Mesh Developer Stack:


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Monday, April 21, 2008

American of Martinsville: Manufacturer Gains Confidence from Expert Guidance and Embraces IT Overhaul

A recent case study was created and posted by Microsoft, about Sunrise Technologies, Inc. Customer 'American of Martinsville'.

A Direct link to that case study can be found here: Case Study Link

"Furniture manufacturer American of Martinsville relied on a 28-year-old mainframe system to run its business. The company needed a change but didn’t know what was possible with new technologies. The company’s executive team attended a Strategy Briefing at a Microsoft® Technology Center (MTC), which helped the group gain consensus about the need to invest in technology and better understand how to increase efficiency through integrated software."

You can read the full PR from Sunrise here: Sunrise Press Release Link

Check back soon!

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Thursday, April 17, 2008

uBid to un-Oracle, and go-Microsoft Dynamics AX

Recently over at MSDynamicsWorld.com, the News Editor posted an article, talking about the recent Microsoft Win for Dynamics AX, with uBid. Here is the direct link for that article on MSDW: MSDW Article for uBid Win

So what the news editor over at MSDW is correct, in that Microsoft is really showing how Dynamics AX can help lower the TCO for clients, by clients going to Dynamics Ax and CRM, which can help compmanies maximize their dollar, in possible tough times, like we see in the current U.S. economy.

The offical Microsoft Press Release can be found here:
Microsoft Officel PR for uBid Win

So like the title says, uBid is saying bye-bye to Oracle / Sibel and hello to Dynamics AX+CRM. If you look a market trends, a lot of this seems to be happening, even more so as companies try to maximize their dollar on the level of total cost of ownership for the systems that run their respective businesses.

Tough times or not, Dynamics AX is a clear great choice... but here is one were it pays for your company to move to Microsoft, and away from higher TCO systems... such as Oracle, among others.

Check back soon!

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Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Tory Lowitz of American Apparel speaks at Tech West

Well Check this out, from the Sunrise PR wire:

"Apparel Magazine's Tech West event at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Irvine, California featured many speakers including Tory Lowitz, Director of Product Development for Los Angeles-based American Apparel. American Apparel is a customer of Sunrise Technologies using the Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP solution.

Lowitz's presentation provided information about how American Apparel is growing and using technology, such as Microsoft Dynamics AX, to improve their day-to-day operations."

And the direct link the the article:
Article Direct Link

From the Article:
"... Apparel Companies Turn to Tech Help During Down Cycle ..."

and


"... American Apparel had been using about four different software systems to manage its business but recently installed the first phase of an enterprise system from Microsoft Corp. called Microsoft Dynamics AX, provided by Winston Salem, N.C.–based Sunrise Technologies.

“We wanted more control [using one system],” Lowitz said. “We now have a live tool to stay on track with areas like bill of materials. That alone has been a huge change. All of our departments are on the same page now.” ..."


This is how Dynamics AX is done: Sunrise Technologies, Inc.



Check back soon!

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Friday, April 11, 2008

Book Review: Quality Assurance for Dynamics AX-Based ERP Solutions

Well Recently I was sent a copy of a new book geared for Quality Assurance in the development and customization of Dynamics AX. This book was sent to me, to review by the books publisher, PACKT Publishing.

The books title is: "Quality Assurance for Dynamics AX-Based ERP Solutions" and the targeted audieance is entry level to mid level professionals.

So to kick this review off, let me start with saying it gets: 3 out of 5 stars. I have to be honest I wanted to give it 2 stars, but because of it's target level, I will get it a 3.

There is some good content in this book. Great structures, and wonderful information around what one could call the Quality Assurance space. Still the content, you can tell was rushed to publishing. There is much lack of supporting content, walk throughs, examples, images / screen shots, etc. etc. Also the cost is way to high, for the content that you get from this book.

All in all, if your a newbie to Dynamics AX stretching to get your hands on material that you can carry around with, then you might want to look at this. But beyond that, I would not recommend this book. Maybe if it had more supporting content, and the price was about $10-12 bucks cheaper than it's current price of $39.00, then it would be a nice buy.

A direct link to this book can be found here, with a 10% discount: Link to book

Check back soon as I plan to pick back up on posting!



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Friday, April 04, 2008

Sunrise Technologies, Inc – Elite Presidents Club Member – Is looking for new talent to add to it’s team!

Sunrise Technologies, Inc. (Sunrise Web Site Link), a Microsoft Gold Certified VAR and member of the elite Presidents Club, is looking to fill two positions on it’s team:

- A Senior Financial Consultant, that has good, recorded experience working within Dynamics AX with a heavy emphasis on the Financials.
- A Senior Technical Architect, that has extensive work Technically with Dynamics AX and some exposure to the different possible other products of the stack that surronds Dynamics AX. (ie: .Net, SQL Server, IIS, Web Services, SharePoint, Office Development, etc.)

If you are looking for a standard consultant job, don’t apply. But if your looking to join a team of people, that make up the company called Sunrise, a company that has seen wonderful, planned growth, and you are wanting to be a part of that winning team, then please apply for these jobs by sending your resume to: Barbara.McCuiston@sunriseconsult.com or visit the web site for more information at: www.sunriseconsult.com

Thanks and check back soon!

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Thursday, April 03, 2008

AX Developer Survey

Well DAXGuy, over at daxguy.blogspot.com posted about a new Developer Survey, that is stated to be feeding a research program by the MorphX / X++ Development team at Microsoft.

This survey is trying to give a voice to all those technical people, who live and work in and around the DAX platform. There are a good bit of questions, and spots where you can give your input.

If your interested check it out: AX Developer Survey

Thanks DAXGuy for bringing this to the DAX Community!

Check back soon here as well, as hopefully I can pick back up on some great post in the near future!

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