What an exciting time to be in our industry!
I have been involved in the technology arena since 1985 when I was tasked with putting a restaurant inventory management system and PC together (2 – 5 1/4 inch floppy drives on that baby!) and have been swimming for the last 15 years in the Microsoft channel partner stream. I was part of the Beta version 1 team when Microsoft was releasing their CRM product and been a part of the full Dynamics CRM journey that brought us to today.
In just the last couple years, we have seen technology advance business applications to new levels. We have only scratched the surface with the introduction of AI and IoT (Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things) as a functional part of those business apps. The recent emergence of Microsoft as the vendor of choice for apps, data, and computing power in the cloud as well as LOB (line of business) executives seeing the value these strategies bring to their companies has been unprecedented.
All of that brings us to this week. Microsoft is taking the wraps off the new iteration of its business apps with the public showing of Dynamics 365 tomorrow, Tuesday, October 11. The live streaming event will start at 11:30am PST. We have some of our team at the event itself while the rest will stream it. Since we have had the opportunity to see much of it under NDA this last month or so, I am expecting it to be a good show/demo.
If you want to see that unveiling, here is the link to the live streaming event – https://community.dynamics.com/b/msftdynamicsblog/archive/2016/10/10/tune-in-tomorrow-for-the-dynamics-365-unveiling Tuesday, October 11, 11:30am PST.
What everyone gets to see tomorrow will be great, the true power of this Microsoft strategy will be better understood as the next iterations get revealed over the following 6-18 months. For our existing CRM customers and users, you can think of Dynamics 365, in the short term, as a new licensing construct as well as a rebranding of CRM combined with ERP. In the medium to longer term, it will help you change the way you experience business.
Instead of regurgitating what we are allowed to say under NDA – which gets lifted today or tomorrow, depending on who you believe – I would direct you to a couple great blog posts – one from Microsoft and another from Jukka Niiranen, a CRM MVP whom I always enjoy reading.
Official Microsoft blog – https://community.dynamics.com/b/msftdynamicsblog/archive/2016/07/13/reinventing-business-processes
Jukka Niiranen – http://survivingcrm.com/2016/07/dynamics-365-next-chapter-ms-cloud-business-apps/
I will post more details about Dynamics 365, our thoughts on how to be ready and how to take advantage of what will be offered. These posts will be uploaded over the next couple days and weeks and will cover what we feel are the best or most critical pieces of information our customers and prospects need to know. For now, let me just end with how I personally feel. The outlook for our customers, our staff, and our company is fantastic – I am excited to see the next evolution in business apps and customer experience evolve within the growing Microsoft experience.
As always, we will be contacting each of our existing customers directly to discuss what the changes may mean for you. If you are not currently a customer and have questions, just let us know. We are always happy to help.
More information over the next couple weeks…
By Ken Farmer, President, xRM³, Microsoft Dynamics 365 partner, San Diego, Southern California. Click here to contact a Dynamics 365 expert.
