Steve reads his Blog

Solutions for either Model-driven PowerApps, or for extensions to First-party Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement apps share a lot in common. In fact, almost everything in common. What they do not share in common among each other, or themselves, is quality of build. Customers, Partners and ISVs all build Solutions for various reasons, and the quality is wide-ranging. Who uses Solutions? Unless your b...

I am fresh back from the Microsoft Dynamics Partner Advisory Council meetings last week. AppSource, and the whole ISV strategy was a central topic. Unfortunately I cannot share too much because of NDA handcuffs, but I can share some public themes, and my opinions. You have said this before Yes, I am aware that I have written much about AppSource in the past, in fact, exactly 18 posts. In many of t...

I was listening to Gus Gonzales' recent podcast on  Ten Features that should be removed from Dynamics 365 . As usual, Gus makes some great points, but when he was discussing limits, I think he left out a part of the story, that leads to a larger question. Mismatch We were recently engaged in a P2P scenario, where a partner had quoted a fixed price to their customer, to perform some work that they...

Yes, I know, I made up a new term, "Currentcy". I am sure there is a better word for what I am thinking, but I have already typed this one, and changing it at this stage of the game, would simply require too much effort. But probably not as much effort as writing this whole paragraph to justify it, but now I've gone and done that, so there is really no going back now. So let's talk about Currentcy...

Some of you may know, that one of several things I am involved with, is an ISV Consulting Collaborative called Power ISV . Together with four other ISV-focused Business Applications MVPs, we are helping existing ISVs to modernize, new ISVs get started, and guiding ISVs on other platforms over to the Microsoft Cloud. We also want to reverse the adage, "Those that can't do, Teach", into "Those that...

In this episode of "Steve has a Chat", I sneak up on Charles Lamanna, General Manager of the Application Platform at Microsoft. I called him "out of the blue" at the end of his day, and we chatted about a bunch of things, including the new Open Data Initiative, Licensing, PowerApps, Team Member, ISVs and more. Enjoy!

The photo with this post was from a short-lived marriage that I called the "Can't we all just get along" phase in the Microsoft/Salesforce relationship. This love fest came to an abrupt end when Microsoft acquired LinkedIn, in spite of vehement efforts by Salesforce to block it, leading to irreconcilable differences and a hasty divorce. Since then the two behemoths have been circling and sizing ea...

In a recent post , I referenced this post that I wrote 6 years ago. I thought I would go back and record it, unedited. Let me know if you agree that it sadly still applies to many companies even today. Originally published - May 22, 2012   Let's face it, I.T. is a big expense. As a former CEO of several organizations, I can tell you looking at the I.T. expense is a head shaker. Chalked up as a "co...

Six years ago, I wrote a post that was directed at IT Directors/Managers, about the need for them to re-imagine their roles in the face of the then rapidly growing cloud thing. Today, the role that needs to be re-imagined is that of Microsoft Business Applications Partner. Between Microsoft and the Citizen Developer, the space previously occupied by the Partner is getting narrower. You can't Get T...

So I have actually been having a little fun with the "Steve Reads his Post Podcast", and decided to see if I might take it further. But I didn't want it to be "just another podcast". I thought it might be fun to just call somebody out-of-the-blue with the record button on, and see where it goes. It could be a disaster! You tell me. For my first of this type of podcast, I decided to call Thomas Man...

As I was writing my last post on Re-Thinking, I got an email from some off-shore developer, offering to assist us with any "Dynamics CRM Online" projects we may have. Based on this pretty big clue, I put on my pompous know-it-all hat, and blasted him for offering his ancient skills to a cutting edge partner. His apologetic reply included, "there is just so much to get up-to-speed on, I don't even...

Recently, I found myself looking in the Google Play Store for a mobile app to solve some issue. I found several options that were close, but none met my need perfectly. My choices were: a) continue to live with an unmet need, b) Use one of the apps that was close... but not really, or c) Hire a mobile app developer and build one, which would be insane. The challenges for Business Applications have...

Dynamics 365 for Marketing - The Giant Stands Back Up Back in April, I wrote a post called " Dynamics 365 for Marketing – A Giant Tripped by a Grain of Sand " about Microsoft's new Dynamics 365 for Marketing Application. It was not a favorable post. Regardless, Microsoft added us to a very small Pilot program for the product in a, "Keep the troublemakers close" strategy. A lot has changed since th...

As an experiment, back in February, I thought I would try using the LinkedIn "Create an Article" feature, to see how it compared to just posting to LinkedIn from my own blog. I can confidently report that the test was a huge failure. Anyone thinking of using LinkedIn's "Create an Article" feature... don't, it gets almost no traffic at all. But I did like the Article, and hardly anybody saw it, so...

Sometimes people ask me where I come up with post ideas, here's one way. I saw a LinkedIn post today from a recruiter, suggesting the use of "freelancers" for Dynamics 365, and presumably other Microsoft Business Applications. While freelancers may have a place in the process, there are some very good reasons, that you should seriously consider an actual Microsoft Business Applications Partner ins...

There seems to be quite a bit of confusion lately about Dynamics 365 and PowerApps, particularly now with Model-Driven PowerApps. Microsoft's #FreightTrain, seems to have become a #BulletTrain of innovation, and sometimes things like "naming" and "explaining" lag behind. Let's see if I can unpack this one. Warning, this is a long post, so you might want to listen to it instead. The PowerApps Path...

Mobile phone apps ruined everything. As a result of minimal processing power and small screen size, mobile app developers had little choice but to keep things basic. Given that mobile devices are used by everyone on the planet, including a lot of people who are not particularly smart, mobile apps also had to be "simple". Now everybody thinks that everything should be as simple to use as a mobile p...

Dynamics 365 Customers and Partners have had a few changes pushed to them in recent years. Dynamics 365 was evolving at a pretty rapid pace since it hit the cloud, and when James Phillips took over the team, he took both of his feet and smashed the gas pedal. It's like the USS Enterprise when it hits Warp Drive (I get a chill every time I see that). Trees in the Forest I have been seeing a lot of...

There is no need to panic...yet. Procrastinators can freely ignore this post, for now. But if you are one of those people who hates scrambling at the last minute, then maybe this will interest you. Waves Microsoft likes to call the significant updates for Dynamics 365 "Waves". They have also announced that there will be two major Waves each year, with minor "ripples" ongoing. The thing about "wave...

I was chatting with another Dynamics 365 partner the other day. He was talking about his existing customers, and how once deployed, configured and tweaked etc., he did not do much follow-on work with them. He was however, spending tremendous effort trying to get new customers.  I thought, "I think you are missing something here". Opportunities It is pretty easy, when focusing on new customer deplo...

Part of the huge April wave of feature releases for Dynamics 365, were some license tweaks and a some new license types. I already discussed the new Dynamics 365 for Marketing license here , but in this post, I want to focus on the new Dynamics 365 Sales Professional License. A Little History Bear with me, but we need to take a short walk down memory lane to get back to today. When Dynamics CRM On...

Microsoft recently announced the availability of the Common Data Service (CDS), as a platform, accessible with a PowerApps P2 license. A few folks got kind of excited, many others said "So what?", and most have no idea what I am talking about right now. But our firm has bet the farm on it. Star Alignment Several things have happened that have led to where we are today. First, CDS 1.0 gave way to C...

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing has finally launched! It has been available for purchase since the first of this week. An awesome platform of modern technology, able to do things not even possible before. How many eager customers have clamored to jump on board this revolutionary marketing #FreightTrain of innovation? My guess...none. The Product is... Awesome! Compared to every other Marketin...

Microsoft recently announced Dynamics 365 Business Central, the official name for the product that was code-named "Tenerife". This is the long anticipated, fully "SaaSified" version of "Full" NAV, and it is available now. At the same time, Microsoft also announced a new Customer Engagement option, Dynamics 365 Sales Professional, a feature limited version of their full Dynamics 365 Enterprise Sale...

I recently wrote a couple of posts about Dynamics 365 for Marketing, that some may have deemed negative. I, like many other partners and customers, had a few issues with it. But make no mistake, I am a huge fan of the offering, and I am confident those hiccups will be resolved... some steps have already been taken. But for many, the application, as delivered is actually perfect. An ABM Engine I wr...