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D365 Customer Engagement and the MS product renaming

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I’ve often read about “Customer Experience”, a relatively new Dynamics 365 product from Microsoft. At first I couldn’t even figure out what it was. As it is often the case, there is a lot of nonsense being spread, especially by people in the acquisition sector who have no idea about and confuse CRM and ERP.

Microsoft is known for renaming products. What do marketing and product management think or want to achieve? Who knows it. It has been confusing customers since many years, also anyone who deals with MS products. At some point they will rename Windows or Word or Excel.

Microsoft CRM, i.e. Customer Relationship Management from MS: It was known by that name for a long time. You knew what that was. What happened to it? First it was renamed to Dynamics CRM, because the MS products are SO dynamically … whatever that means. But that was kind of ok. Then… to Dynamics 365? Yes and no. The term is used for everything, including ERP products. Actually it is the name for the “product family” as MS calls it. CRM became D365 Sales, D365 Marketing, D365 Customer Service (CS), all CRM systems with different feature weightings.

Now there is also the so-called “Customer Engagement” or CE for short. What is that? A mixture of D365 Sales, D365 Marketing, D365 Customer Service, AI stuff, etc. So a mishmash that can do everything, more or less. The jack-of-all-trades, just think of Sharepoint. That’s something like that too. Somehow anything can happen and nothing will happen. But again, that’s what you need. Why all this? To compete with Salesforce. Does it work? Who knows.

Addition: The ERP products are D365 Business Central (formerly Navision or Dynamics Nav), D365 Finance & Operations (formerly Axapta, Dynamics AX). The latter is available in 2 versions: D365 Finance and D365 SCM … and 2 other versions. Why multiple ERP products? No idea. There are also more, there is Great Planes (GP) too. But that has already been abandoned. Well, SAP also has several ERP systems running. So whatever.

If you would like to find out more about it, just get in touch.

#d365ce, #d365cs, #d365bc, #d365fo, #d365scm, #d365, #dynamics365, #businesscentral, #navision, #crm, #microsoft, #customerengagement, #kalchmair, #erp

About me

ERP Consultant for Dynamics NAV & Business Central, Enthusiast, Community Contributor, Microsoft MVP

Born in a small village in Upper Austria, now living in Vienna, archer started software developing with the age of 14. Now he’s a highly experienced Project Manager, Consultant and Software Architect for Business Solutions in Dynamics NAV/BC & .Net. He is an autodidact, interested in a variety of technical stuff. Archer has a Master degree in Computer Sciences from Kepler University, Linz, Austria.

Since 2014 he made many, many awsome contributions to the main NAV forums like community.dynamics.com, dynamicsuser.net and mibuso.com, where he is member and moderator, sharing his knowledge and experience. On his NAV blog Archer publishes solutions for daily issues, tutorials and news stuff. The wish to help, support others is the motivation behind the scenes.

He received the MVP Award 2016-2018! 🙂 Great thing.

He earned the MCC Award from community.dynamics.com 5 times.

His real name is Dipl.Ing. Franz Kalchmair. You can find his linkedin profile in the bottom area of the sidebar.

For some reasons he uses the alias ‘Jonathan Archer’.

cheers

 

Zetadocs for Nav 2016 published

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hi all,

Zetadocs for NAV is a document management system (dms) for Dynamics NAV. Documents like Word, Excel, Powerpoint or pdf docs are saved onto an archive system. The archive can be a file share (network share) or Sharepoint. Delivered are a nav factbox to upload documents e.g. by drag and drop and a doc list control, which can be embedded in nav in sales and purchase documents (sales order, purchase order, …). but … Zetadocs does not support production orders! 😦

Zetadocs can automate and streamline business processes for processing and approving supplier invoices, emailing sales invoices and notifications, capturing proof of delivery, and managing travel and business expenses.

Zetadocs supports Nav 2009 – Nav 2015. And now … it also supports Nav 2016, Windows 10 and Office 2016.

Supported OS and Compatibility List
Zetadocs 7.1 Installation Guide

Features
The Zetadocs suite of NAV business process add-ons for processing and approving supplier invoices, emailing sales invoices and notifications, capturing proof of delivery, and managing travel and business expenses.

if customizations are needed, zetadocs provides a sdk, for which you need a developer license.

cheers

Limitations of Demo & Msdn License

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Following you find an often searched clarification about the demo/cronus license shipped with each nav setup and the msdn license shipped, if downloaded using msdn abo.

The Demo License
The demo license is automatically installed when you install the Demo Option. The demo license works with the CRONUS International Ltd. demonstration database, has serial number 000, and includes granule 540. The license allows access to the entire base application and limited access to the development system.

Properties of the Demo License
When the demo license is installed, you can:

  • Start up to two simultaneous client sessions on any platform.
  • Create up to two companies.
  • Support an unlimited number of web users.
  • Run in any supported language.
  • Use all application functionality, including add-on products, local extensions and customizations in current and previous versions. This means that you can run, but not modify, all object types within the range 1 to 99,999,999.
  • Run and modify table 18, pages 21 and 22, report 101, and XMLports 99,008,503 and 99,008,510.
  • Run, modify, and create fields 99,990 to 99,999, page 99,999, report 99,999, and MenuSuite 90.

Limitations of the Demo License
The demo license does not allow you to:

  • Import objects in text format, except for page and report ID 99,999.
  • Enter dates in months other than November, December, January, and February.
  • The demo license can only be used with demonstration companies such as CRONUS International Ltd..
    Country/Region Versions

When you run a country/region version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, the license must correspond with the country/region version that you have installed, e.g. for german version the company is “CRONUS AG”.

The MSDN license
The MSDN license file gives access to Microsoft Dynamics NAV functionality, with the following restrictions:

  • You can only enter dates in November, December, January, and February.
  • The size of the database can be a maximum of 100MB.
  • You are only allowed to make 4000 write transactions in a database.

In addition, you can modify the following objects in the Object Designer:

  • Table 18 can be modified. Fields from 99,990 through 99,999 can be inserted.
  • Forms/Pages 21 and 22 can be modified. Forms/Pages 99,998 and 99,999 can be inserted.
  • Report 101 can be modified. Report 99,999 can be inserted.
  • MenuSuite 90 can be inserted.
  • XML Port 99,999 can be inserted.

With the MSDN license, you can create new objects (tables, forms/pages, reports, and so on) in the object range from 123,456,700 through 123,456,799. It is not possible to edit the standard Microsoft Dynamics NAV objects or the objects dedicated to customer solutions.

Nav 2016 Videos – Part 2

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hi,

following a list of the next couple of tutorial videos. Have fun.

How Do I: Use the Posting Preview in Microsoft Dynamcis NAV 2016

How Do I: Work Natively with CRM in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016

How Do I: Use Positive Pay in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016

How Do I: Use Events in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016

How Do I: Use the Deferrals Functionality in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016

How Do I: Ensure Development operates with Functionality in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016

What is new in Microsoft NAV 2016- iPhone and Android app

Demo Dynamics NAV 2016

How Do I: Create an Invoice Using the Lexmark ICS for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016

How Do I: Subscribe to CAL database, Page and System Events in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016

Nav 2016 Video – Part 1

to be continued …

cheers

Dynamics NAV 2016 Tutorial Videos

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Hello all,

i created a list of the very first tutorial and info videos about Dynamics NAV 2016. And here it goes … 😉

The roadmap for Nav 2016

How Do I: Set up the Currency Exchange Rate Update in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016

How Do I: Design pages for Use on all Devices in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016

How Do I: Get Started with the Universal App for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016

How Do I: Create an Extension Package in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016

How Do I: Deploy and Manage Extensions in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016

How Do I: Implement Deep Linking to Pages in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016

How Do I: Create and use Incoming Documents in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016

How Do I: Modify, Assign and Process Email for Word Forms in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016

What’s new in nav 2016 Power BI

How Do I: Configure and Access the PowerBI.com Content Package for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016

How Do I: Develop Using a Device Camera and Location in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016

What’s new in Nav 2016 Workflow

How Do I: Create and use Workflow in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016

How Do I: Automate Daily Test Execution in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016

Installing & using the Dynamics NAV 2016 Image Library

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 and NAV 2016 on iPad

also follow featured videos on
http://www.goerpcloud.com/microsoft-dynamics-nav2016-release-new-features-using-nav-with-windows-10/

Nav 2016 – Videos Part 2

cheers

run a job monthly

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jobs can be run using job queues. in the job queue entry card you can set a codeunit or a report to run periodically. periods can: minutes to days. it is also possible to run a job once a week.

not possible: run a job monthly.

here are some solutions.

the simple solution:
goto page “job queue entry card” and set “no. of minutes between runs” to a value like 43200 (= 60 * 24 * 30). that is the minute value for an average month. the exact average value is 60 * 24 * 365,25 / 12 = 43830 min.

advanced solution:
edit cu 448 and change fct. CalcNextRunTimeForRecurringJob according to your special needs. There change the calc. formula for NewRunDateTime.

to run a job monthly set “No. of Minutes between Runs” to 0.
create new global var. Monthly: Boolean.

change fct. CalcRunTimeForRecurringJob:
…
IF Found THEN
NewRunDateTime := CREATEDATETIME(DT2DATE(StartingDateTime) + NoOfDays,NewRunTime);

IF Monthly THEN BEGIN
LastOfMonth := CALCDATE (‘CM’, DT2DATE(StartingDateTime));
NewRunDateTime := CREATEDATETIME(LastOfMonth, NewRunTime);
END;

new fct. RunMonthly(monthlyPar: Boolean)
Monthly := monthlyPar;

Export data to Excel using ODBC in NAV 2013/2015

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In the Nav Forum community.dynamics.com one member asked for usage of ODBC in Nav 2013, because it was used in the older version 3.6 for exporting data to Excel. So i researched a little bit and wrote some test code. Here is the result.

Odbc can be used in Nav 2013 (or higher) with the according .net classes.
Following sample code inserts 2 text values into an excel sheet.

– preparation of excel file
create a new excel file, for that sample with format excel 97-2003 xls.
save it into folder c:\temp, call it book1.xls.
the first sheet must have the name ‘Sheet1’.
write FName into cell A1, LName into cell B1.
save the excel file, close excel.

the prepared excel sheet:

– variables: set property runonclient of dotnet variables to yes
OdbcConnection : DotNet : System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConnection.‘System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089’
Command : DotNet : System.Data.Odbc.OdbcCommand.‘System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089’
Query : Text
CmdResult : Integer

– the sample code:
OdbcConnection := OdbcConnection.OdbcConnection;
OdbcConnection.ConnectionString := ‘Driver={Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls)};DBQ=c:\temp\book1.xls;ReadOnly=0’;
OdbcConnection.Open;
MESSAGE(FORMAT(OdbcConnection.State.ToString));

Query := ‘insert into [Sheet1$] (Fname,Lname) values (?,?)’;
Command := Command.OdbcCommand(Query, OdbcConnection);
Command.Parameters.AddWithValue(‘?’, ‘value 1’);
Command.Parameters.AddWithValue(‘?’, ‘value 2’);
CmdResult := Command.ExecuteNonQuery;
MESSAGE(‘Odbc Command Result: ‘ + FORMAT(CmdResult));

OdbcConnection.Close;
MESSAGE(FORMAT(OdbcConnection.State.ToString));
CLEAR(OdbcConnection);

result:

It seems that using Odbc is an interesting alternative to table Excel Buffer.

cheers