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Dynamics 365 - Sales Professional License?

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 Online first launched in 2011 it was aggressively priced at $44/user/month. Compared to Salesforce this was a real bargain. It was also one offering that included multiple workloads, including Sales and Service. Some time later the price was increased to $65, or $50 as an addon to Office 365. I think there was some customer concern that the price was actually too low for the product to be very good. If the competing product is more than double, then this must be a lesser product. When the brand consolidation to Dynamics 365 took place, the Sales app was renamed Enterprise Sales app and the price shot up to $95. Still less than Salesforce, but not so much less that customers were leery of it. To offset this jump several "transitional" licenses were introduced to "step up" existing customers over time. In addition, a new "Promo" license was introduced specifically for Small and Midsized Businesses (SMB) Sales at $40. Shortly after that a second SMB Sales and Service license was added for $65. The sale of these "promo" licenses to new customers ended the first of this week. Evolution of Business Edition to Pro You may have heard the term "Business Edition" floating around, and in fact it still pops up on some Microsoft documentation that has not yet been scrubbed. Business Edition was conceived as a plan for SMB Customers. The first, and only, product that launched under the Business Edition concept was a light version of NAV that had been SaaSified. In the pipeline were also Business Edition Sales App, Service App and a new Marketing App. These "Apps" were intended to be lower cost (+/- $40), and would have limited features, parsing out the Enterprise stuff that SMB did not need. Seemed like a great idea! But, well into the development of the Business Edition apps, Microsoft had an epiphany. "Why develop a specific app to target a customer by size? We should really focus on a solution that targets users with simpler needs, regardless of size." As big a fan of the SMB idea as I was, I could not argue with this logic, and it still worked for SMB, even if SMB was no longer the specific target. For the Marketing App, this meant any size customer could use it, if it met their needs, and why not. But what happened to this Simpler Business Edition Sales App that was being built? The idea of a limited App for users with more basic needs still made sense, regardless of customer size. But did it still need a specific "simplified" App? Could they not just use the same sales app as Enterprise, with some limitations placed on it? It is certainly one less thing to support. And the Dynamics 365 Sales Professional License was born. It is a new app, but it is the same app as Enterprise, but with some limitations placed on this new app. Limitations are fair, since it is priced at $65 vs $95. So as you absorb the information below, remember, there is a difference of $30/user/month. Limitations Whenever you attempt to apply any kind of limits to anything, partners and customers will bitch and complain. Nevermind that it costs less.. "why can't it cost less, and be the same as the full priced one?" This seemed to be the prevailing argument that I was hearing, which makes no sense at all of course. "Why isn't the Big Mac on the Dollar Menu?" I get that nobody likes limits, but even Mercedes Benz sells a shitload of their entry-level vehicles... so clearly there is a market. The better question to ask, is how many of my customers' users can fit within these limits, allowing me to help lower their total cost... where it makes sense. This is really no different than the exercise we undertake for the Team Member license, a severely restricted, but very low cost, license. Who can get by with it? I watched Microsoft over the last year or so, tweak and fiddle with these limitations, trying to get the recipe just right. They needed to balance providing enough capabilities, while not so many capabilities that they cannibalize the full Enterprise license/app. Clearly there will be some cannibalization, but there is an alternative goal.  To revisit the Mercedes Benz analogy, some people who bought the entry-level car, might have bought a more expensive Mercedes if it did not exist. However, most of the buyers of that entry-level car would probably not have bought a Mercedes at all, if the entry-level did not exist. Mercedes opened up their brand to an entirely new audience, many of which will upgrade from the entry-level car eventually. So let's dive into these "limitations". Excluded Completely There are quite a few features of the full Enterprise Sales License/App that are not included at all in the Sales Professional License/App. A few that you should be aware of, that might help your decision process are, Sales goals and Territory Management. For most SMB customers this will not be an issue, but for larger customers these may be important. A few of the other completely excluded existing features are Social Engagement, Gamification, Voice of the Customer (surveys) and Mobile offline Synchronization. A brand new feature called Dynamics 365 for Sales Intelligence is also not included. One more item that is not included, that could be a key point, depending on your plans, is PowerApps. This one bothers me a bit for SMB, as I saw PowerApps coming not play there in the near future. But Microsoft can always adjust this later if it makes sense. The Case for a New Case The Customer Service capabilities of Dynamics 365 are quite significant. They are also part of a separate license/app. A license that might make sense for your Customer Service Organization, but what about the occasional case that needs to be created by a Salesperson. A missing part, or some other issue the customer shared with the Salesperson. The Salesperson certainly does not need the full Customer Service capabilities, but they do need some way to engage and initiate simple cases. Microsoft recognized this need and created a new "Lite" case management capability, specifically for this scenario. It is included with either the Professional or Enterprise Sales license/app. A Salesperson can create, assign and resolve these types of cases themselves, without needing the full-blown Customer Service license. This is an important factor to consider. Specific Limits Microsoft took a two-pronged approach to the Sales Professional limitations. The first was to completely eliminate some features that they felt their target user would not need. The second was to apply some "limits" to other features. This is probably where most of the partner controversy came from. But again, partners would like a full-blown product at a lower cost, because it's easier to sell. Duh. This is also the area where Microsoft spent the most time refining. I recall a conversation where someone on the team told me, and I am paraphrasing here, "We can always raise a limit that is determined to be too low, but we could not easily lower one that was too high". So consider this a test for a brand new license/app, if it does not accomplish the goals, Microsoft can adjust the levers. Freaking out is not required... yet. Custom Entities are limited to a maximum of 15. Business Process Flows are limited to a maximum of 5. Custom Workflows are limited to a maximum of 15. You can install a maximum of 10 3rd party apps (ISV solutions). Each entity can have a maximum of 2 forms. You are also limited to 5 custom reports. I will take credit for the 2nd form, as I reacted almost violently to an earlier plan with a single form. There are some further caveats to understand. 3rd party ISV solutions do not count against the limits of custom entities, process flows or workflows... however those third party apps may be subject to those limits in their own solution. I am seeking clarification on that now. But, if that is the case, then an ISV solution that you install, could itself have no more than 15 custom entities, 5 business flows or 15 workflows. Why might this be the case? Because partners and ISVs are sneaky. Without these limits an ISV would just backfill a customer's Sales App with all of the things that were limited out, and we're right back to cannibalization of the full product license. That's cheating. But again, I am seeking clarification, and will update this post when I get the official public answer. How will this work? This is a question I posed to Microsoft. You can mix-and-match Enterprise Licenses with Professional Licenses. This got my head spinning. If half of my users have limits, and the other half do not, how does that work in a single instance? With different App modules. So beyond just a specific license for Sales Professional, there is also a specific app for Sales Professional. A person who has an Enterprise Sales License can access a Sales Professional app, however, they will be subject to the same limitations, because the Limitations are being applied at the app level. This particular caveat will make you think a little harder about this. Why have an Enterprise Sales license at all for a Sales Professional app? The thinking here is that an Enterprise customer might have people in multiple roles. For example a full app for the main business unit, and maybe a Sales Pro app for another business unit, as one example. An Enterprise user could access both; a Sales Pro user could not access all of the mothership from their app. How will these limits be applied to the Sales Pro App? It will be your responsibility to not expose within your Sales Pro App, any more capabilities than are allowed. Eventually, there will be some telemetry to let you know if you strayed out-of-bounds. Of course, Microsoft will have this telemetry also, so cheaters beware. Upgrading For many customers the Sales Professional License/App will be a great long-term solution. For others, it will be a great introduction. So there will absolutely be circumstances where a customer who started on the Sales Professional License/App will want upgrade to the Enterprise Sales License/App. What does that look like? Simple, just apply an Enterprise Sales License to the user, and give them access to the Enterprise Sales App. This is way better than an earlier discussed concept of separate instances. So that's all I got on the new Sales Professional App. I'll update this post when I have the other answers. Update: 04/09/18 I got the answer from Microsoft. While it was discussed previously, there is no limit on the size of the actual solutions that are installed from AppSource, just a limit on the number of them.

Dynamics 365 - Our Big Leap into CDS

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 CDS 2.0, which is what we used to know of as the XrM Platform. All of Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (CRM) runs on top of this platform, with other Dynamics 365 products making their way there over time. Second, an effort has been underway to decouple Microsoft's Dynamics 365 First-party apps from one another, and the underlying "CDS" platform. This would put them in the same position as third-party applications. Think of the Enterprise Sales App as now being a standalone product, that can be "installed" on CDS, either by itself, or alongside other first, or third-party apps that are similarly installed, like Dynamics 365 for Marketing, Field Service, ClickDimensions, etc.. Or... CDS can exist, without any first-party apps. I covered some of this in my last post, so excuse the redundancy. A Door Opens This last bit, about CDS existing without any First-party apps, is what we are focused on with the new RapidStart CRM. But before I get into why we think that makes sense for us and our customers, we have to take a short stroll down memory lane. I wouldn't be a post be me, if I didn't drag you back there, but the context is necessary. RapidStart 1.0 The original idea for RapidStart, was not original at all. In fact, other partners had been in the market with many variations of a "*Start", before we even became a Microsoft Partner in 2011. The idea is simple, and straight-forward, provide an ability for new users of Dynamics 365 to get started, with basic features, at a low cost. For us, like the other partners that were doing similar things, it was a "door-opener". We'll get you to come on-board with us, get you setup with some basics, and then help you grow from there. While some partners had created some I.P., maybe a solution, for many it was offered as a "Service"... maybe even a loss-leader. At about this same time, Microsoft was chirping in every partner's ear, that we needed to create repeatable I.P., otherwise, we were all doomed. Most partners heard this, many dismissed it as hyperbole, and most are doing just fine without converting their project services practice into an application development company. But, others took the bait, including us. I.P. Anyone? RapidStart began in 2011 as a Service offering. Later we created some I.P. in the form of a solution, and later still, we created some external I.P., our Wizard Portal. The entire offering was announced on stage at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in 2015 (what is now called Inspire). With Microsoft on-board, RapidStart really started taking off, averaging over 100 deployments a year. I will confess, that I got a little nervous when Microsoft announced the "Business Edition" for SMB, followed by great relief, when they later dropped the approach. In the meantime we had continued to evolve the RapidStart offering based on customer feedback. RapidStart had transcended from a "means to an end"... it had become an end of its own. At Microsoft's suggestion, we built a channel and together we signed up over 300 partners globally to resell and support RapidStart. Today RapidStart is the leading global solution for what Microsoft calls a "Packaged Deployment". It is one of the few third-party apps to receive the Certified for Microsoft Dynamics designation... and it's available pretty much everywhere. Things were looking pretty good. The Other Shoe While some larger companies had utilized RapidStart, by and large, it was mostly SMB focused. When Microsoft made the branding change to Dynamics 365, a new licensing model debuted with it. With much higher prices than we had previously seen for Dynamics. To be fair, this was not just a price increase for the same thing, many features and capabilities had been added, and a price increase was long overdue. But most of these new capabilities were Enterprise focused: so for most SMB customers, it was basically just... a price increase. Fortunately, Microsoft announced some promotional pricing for SMBs, dropping their price down to $40. Whew! These promos were originally intended to fill the gap until Business Edition was ready to roll out, but once Microsoft abandoned the Business Edition approach, these promos were doomed. Indeed, they fell off the price list a few months ago. While not specifically an SMB motion, Microsoft did create a licensing version of their Sales App called Sales Professional. Sales Pro is designed for users with more basic needs.. sounds kind of like SMB. This new Sales Pro App is priced at $65, 61% higher than the expired SMB promo. Ouch, that is going to make things tougher (granted, I know it is not an apples-to-apples comparison). But, while targeting users with more basic needs, the Sales Pro App is actually not any different from the full Enterprise App, except there is a list of written limitations that go with the price. I wrote about those limitations here, and about paper licensing here. So where does all that put US today? Actually... in a much better position. The primary goal of RapidStart 1.0 was to take an "enterprise level" product, and knock it down to size, so that companies of any size could actually get it successfully launched and adopted. While the needs of SMB are typically less advanced, this was also true for many enterprise level customers. RapidStart 1.0 did an excellent job of taking something complex, and making it simple. A lot of the way RapidStart 1.0 did this, was by "hiding" advanced things. There were a lot of advanced things in the enterprise apps, so RapidStart 1.0 was a pretty robust solution. But there were some challenges. Even though the bag looked light, it was actually very heavy, as it still held all of this hidden complexity. Also, customers were paying for all of this hidden complexity that they neither needed, or wanted. A Platform License As recent as 6 months ago, I was told by Microsoft that a platform, without any first-party apps, was never gonna happen. It appears that they have revisited that stance. With a PowerApps P2 license, you can indeed provision a CDS environment, without any first-party apps. For certain ISVs, like us, this "pivot" was a "game-changer". We have all no doubt heard a lot about PowerApps, mostly in the context of Canvas Apps. But "Model-Driven" PowerApps was the new secret sauce for us. This allowed us to approach the problem we are solving for, from the other side. Instead of starting with a mountain, and shaving it down to a hill, we started with a bump, and built our own hill. RapidStart CRM 2.0 The new RapidStart CRM is a simple-to-use CRM solution, built on top of CDS, without any first-party apps. The original goal remains unchanged: "provide an ability for new users of Dynamics 365 to get started, with basic features, at a low cost". Like RapidStart 1.0, we expect that many customers who launch with RapidStart, particularly larger customers, will "graduate" to the full first-party apps. In fact we are making this transition very simple to do... just one click. No migration, no downtime, no issues. Of course the licenses will need to be upgraded to the desired first-party app licenses. Also, like RapidStart 1.0, we expect many customers to be perfectly served by RapidStart CRM, particularly smaller customers, who will continue using it indefinitely. So I will have a lot more to tell you about RapidStart CRM in future posts, including our Industry specific "RapidStarts". In the meantime, you can learn more at https://rapidstartcrm.com.

Dynamics 365 for Marketing - A Giant Tripped by a Grain of Sand

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 Marketing Automation platform out there, this one makes them all look like antiques. Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing is a virtual showcase of everything Microsoft can bring to the table... and most of that, only Microsoft can bring to the table. It is built on the Modern Dynamics 365 UI, it runs on the Common Data Service, it utilizes the Custom Control Framework, it incorporates Azure Customer Insights, it leverages Voice of the Customer and Social Engagement. It makes all other Email-Centric Marketing Automation platforms look naked. More than just Marketing on Steroids, it also includes complete Event Management capabilities. The current list goes on, and the future roadmap is robust. Who was it for? Even the simplest of marketing automation platforms have some necessary complexity in order to achieve results. Successful marketing is a blend of Art and Science, and Dynamics 365 Marketing allows for both. But this ability to blend right brain and left brain creates some necessary complexity. So, it is not for the smallest of businesses. Nor is it for a larger business, with very simple needs. The sweet-spot is the mid-sized business, or a division of an Enterprise business, think 50-500 employees. Certainly there will be use cases for smaller or larger businesses, but this is the wheelhouse. It is also better suited for B2B than B2C. Fortunately for Microsoft, there are a ton of businesses that meet this criteria. The Grain of Sand "Steve, you seem highly impressed, why don't you think people will buy it?" Obviously, a tremendous amount of time, energy and resources were brought to bear by the engineering team in building this marvel. We have been engaged with this team for over a year, and have witnessed them methodically craft each aspect of this product to become the New Standard in Marketing Automation. An incalculable number of man-hours went into engineering this marvel... and then an extra 5 minutes was added to determine the licensing model. Umm.... So I am not exactly sure how this came about. In one picture in my head, I imagine an Intern, we'll call him Justin, who is called into is boss' office and told "Go figure out a way to license this new Marketing app, but don't spend too much time on it, you need to get back to more important things like sorting our partner list alphabetically". Justin thinks "Hmm.. marketing... maybe I will see how the other marketing apps do this". A quick scan of the marketing apps that show up in the first page of a Bing search reveals that, many of them are sold based on number of contacts. That makes sense, and 5 minutes later Justin is bouncing back into the boss' office. "Hey boss, I figured out that marketing app thing, we can base the cost on the number of Contacts". "Great job Justin! Now get back to something really important, I want all of the pens in my top drawer arranged by color, starting with blue... no... red". The Licensing Model Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing is available to customers right now. Like many of the Dynamics 365 products, it is available as both a standalone application as well as an addon to other Dynamics 365 products. The standalone version costs $1,500/month, for up to 10,000 Contacts in your Database. You can add increments of 5K contacts for an additional $250/month. When purchased as an addon to an existing Dynamics 365 app, the cost drops to $750/month for those first 10K contacts, and the same $250/month for each additional 5K contacts. In both cases you are entitled to send 10 times the number of emails as your number of contacts. Well, this is indeed a pretty simple to understand licensing model. In fact, it is one of the simplest licensing models that Microsoft has for any Dynamics 365 product. It is so simple in fact, that I don't even need a piece of scratch paper to see that none of my customers could even afford it. Contacts vs Contacts Contacts in competing Marketing Automation Platforms are quite different from Contacts in Dynamics 365. Yes, both records indicate a person, but in one case, the only reason the person is there is to market to them. In Dynamics 365 it is very common that the vast majority of Contacts in our systems are not being marketed to, and never will be. CDS promises to add even more non-marketable Contacts to that database from everything else it connects to, like ERP. Thousands of Vendor contacts for example. I have hundreds of Microsoft contacts. You may have customer contacts in your system that belong to your partners or resellers that you don't market to. Inactive contacts, deceased contacts, competitor contacts, your own employees.. the list is really endless. We have Small Business customers with over 100K Contacts, larger customers could have millions. Let's do some math. Let's say I want to market to 10K people, which is a lot, and I'm gonna bang them with a message 10 times a month, which is also a lot. I already have Dynamics 365 Sales, so $750/month is a pretty good price for me to be this level of annoying! However, I also have 90K other non-marketable contacts. I obviously can't just delete them, so I have to apply a force multiplier to my $750 number bringing my cost to $5,250/month. A non-starter. This is the point where the boss at Microsoft's palm smacks his forehead.. hard. "Justin, you Idiot!" I may be fat, but you're ugly, and I can diet. There is good news here. At least we are not working with a low cost offering that is actually crap. This is an awesome product... with a bad licensing model. Thankfully, this is fixable. I am sure that Microsoft was not counting in their projections that tens of billions of dollars would come in from this. This is a classic unintended consequence of a moronic action. Microsoft is not stupid. Well maybe Justin... and his boss, but everybody else is very smart. Based on their rising stock value, they clearly know how to grow a customer base, and also will recognize impediments to that, like for example an exciting product, that no one is buying. In fact, the simple fix is already within the solution. How it should have been licensed? Remember in the first paragraph, in the litany of features I rattled off - there was one called "Customer Insights". This is an Azure Machine Learning Service that is attached to every Marketing Deployment. What "ultra sophisticated" job does this do? It counts shit. Okay, it does a lot more than that, but counting shit is one of the things it does, in order to do everything else it does. What does it count? Outgoing Emails, Email Responses, outgoing event invitations, event landing page views, etc. It is counting every damn thing. Of the multitude of things it is counting, many of these could be categorized as "Marketing Touch Points".  You can probably see where I am going here. Dynamics 365 Marketing should be licensed based on the number of touch points. For example, for $750/month, you get 20K touches, or whatever the math is that makes sense. Associating Cost to Value The current licensing model has no more relation to the value received, than if Microsoft were to charge based on the number of hairs on your arm. A "Touch Based" model on the other hand, is directly tied to the value, at a one-to-one level. I send you a marketing email, boom, I touched you. I am more than happy to pay for that. Like cell-phone minutes, Touches should also rollover for seasonal businesses. Maybe my touches are lighter early in the year, but in November we blow out all our touches for the Christmas sale, etc. Touches are also what drive Microsoft's costs for the service, so they are getting a one-to-one return on their cost. I will now take a bow... {mic drop}.

Dynamics 365 - Business Central vs. Customer Engagement

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 Sales Application at a lower cost. Where do they fit in the picture? Don't Say SMB It's not that SMB (Small and Midsized Businesses) is now a dirty word in Dynamics, rather Microsoft would prefer not to segment their Dynamics products by company size anymore. Once you lay the SMB brand on a product, you kind of remove it from consideration for any non-SMB. What is more important is the complexity of a business... any business. This should really be the determining factor for what product(s) will best suit a customer. All SMBs are not necessarily simple, as I wrote here, nor all all large businesses complex. "Dynamics 365 Business Central" and "Dynamics 365 Sales Professional" are good examples of size-neutral product names. Maybe next we will see "Enterprise" changed to "Ultimate", for size-neutrality across the line. I can hear you... I'm standing right here... SMB represents a pretty good sized customer base, it actually dwarfs all other segments combined in sheer numbers. SMB has also gotten used to "Special Treatment" from everybody, credit card issuers, office supply discounts, small fleet programs, government programs, you name any business need, and there is a special deal, just for them. Some of these deals are so good, larger businesses try and pass themselves off as "small" just to take advantage. So has Microsoft abandoned the SMB? Not at all, they are just leaving it up to you to figure out what products you need. Would it be easier if there were a flashing sign over the one product that fit you best? Maybe, but given the fact that all businesses are different, wouldn't you prefer making the decision of what is best for your needs? We'll see. What's in a Name? What do you think of when you hear the name "Dynamics 365"? If you are thinking that this is a single product, you would be incorrect, Dynamics 365 is a family of products, all focused on "Business Solutions". "Isn't email a business solution?" Sure, you use email in your business, but it is really a communication tool, so email falls within the category of "Productivity Solutions", along with everything else that is part of "Office 365". The line between Business Solutions and Productivity Solutions is a little fuzzy, even for people who use these terms daily like me. We can make it even fuzzier by integrating the two sides, but that is a post for another day. The key here is that Dynamics 365 is a family of "different" Business Solutions, sharing a top-level name. Some of these products are vastly different, not only in what they provide, but the platforms upon which they are built, they ways in which they are customized, and even the UIs in which they are presented. In many ways it is like a Chinese menu from which you can assemble your own custom plate, but in some areas there are forks in the road that must be taken. Over time some of these forks will be eliminated, but today you will have to make some forking decisions. Dynamics 365 Business Central One of the first forks in the road that you will come to is what I call the CE/BC crossroads. "CE" is Customer Engagement, which itself it not so much a product, but a sub-category of products that sit on a particular platform that we used to call CRM. I will cover this below, but know that CE and BC are two different platforms, which I will also cover below. Business Central (BC), as I said before is a fully SaaSified version of NAV. What does that mean? It means that Microsoft has built this product on their own servers in a multi-tenant configuration which allows for Microsoft to offer this product to customers on a monthly subscription basis. This is the same path that CRM took a few years ago, and the same path that Office 365 was launched on. It is the path of all future products coming from all modern providers. So that kinda had to happen.. and it did. Dynamics 365 Business Central is the evolution of NAV, a product that was primarily an ERP (Finance and Accounting) system that was primarily targeted to Mid-sized business. Like many ERP systems, it also has some basic sales capabilities, so for certain businesses it could be considered an "all-in-one" solution. In fact, NAV powers businesses of all sizes, from very small SMBs all the way up to full-on enterprise customers. Business Central is, for all intents and proposes, NAV in the cloud, so there is no reason to think it cannot do the same. Customer Engagement The Customer Engagement sub-category includes things like Sales, Service, Marketing, Project Service and Field Service. Notice, it does not include Finance or Accounting. There is no General Ledger in Customer Engagement. Therefore, Customer Engagement is clearly not an "all-in-one" path. You will still need another system for Accounting and Finance... like for example... Business Central. "What a minute, you said BC is an all-in-one, so why would I need two?" Depending on your needs, you may not, BC could be all you need. How would you know? It will depend primarily on how complex your Sales needs are, as well as you needs for Service or Marketing, or Field or Project services, if you have those. While Business Central is very strong on the finance and accounting side, its Sales capabilities are quite light, at least in comparison to the Sales capabilities of Customer Engagement. Are your sales needs sophisticated or complex? Do you have a Customer Service or Marketing need? If so, then you will probably take the Customer Engagement fork in the road. Forking Convergence The great Yogi Berra once said, "When you come to a fork in the road.. take it". So if you choose a fork today, do they ever connect up again? I'm glad you asked; yes they can. For example, let's say you started with the BC fork, and later your sales needs became complex. You can certainly add Dynamics 365 Sales Professional and it could "take-over" the sales aspects of Business Central. Or coming from the other side, let's say you already had an ERP system in place that you were satisfied with, so you took the Customer Engagement Fork for something like Dynamics 365 Sales and/or Dynamics 365 Marketing. Later for some reason, like maybe outgrowing QuickBooks, you decide you want to add BC to the mix, no worries, your sales system doesn't change, it just starts talking to your BC Finance and Accounting system, via integration. The Big Mac Customers will choose a path, based on where their needs are deficient; if it is Sales, but their ERP is okay, they will head down the Customer Engagement fork. If their ERP is lacking, but their sales are okay, they will head down the Business Central fork. But what if everything is crap? Then maybe these forks become parallel paths, with the integration occurring as they go forward down both. Of course it's more than just integrating between CE and BE, any customer will also want to integrate Office 365 into the mix. All of this is possible; it isn't necessarily as simple as checking a box, but this is where your knowledgeable Microsoft Partner will help. Frankly, your partner will also be able to guide you on the best path, based on your specific needs, because there is no solution that is "Best for SMB" or "Best for Enterprise" anymore. There is only what is Best for You.

Dynamics 365 for Marketing - ABM Redux

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 wrote a post over a year ago about Account Based Marketing (ABM). Well, what is old is new again, and ABM is having quite a renaissance. Dynamics 365 for Marketing is tailor-made for ABM. Some have complained that it does not engage with "Leads", but Leads is a CRM construct, it is not a Marketing term in the Account Based Marketing approach. In ABM, it is all about Accounts and Contacts, and delivering far more personalized and targeted messages. Origin of Leads I can imagine, way back in the day, before Leads was a thing, that it was all about Accounts and Contacts. Prior to email, in a B2B scenario, you got new business from referrals, and good old fashioned beating the pavement. You would be lucky to get 500 prospects to work on. There were companies that you could hire called "Clipping Services". These companies literally scanned newspapers, and clipped out articles that would meet your criteria, like a new building announcement for your concrete business. Once a week you would get an envelope in the mail, that had maybe a dozen clipped articles in it. Then along came email, which transformed from a business productivity tool, into a marketing tool overnight. Suddenly your message could reach thousands of people at once with a single keystroke! Forget going to the local chamber meeting and shaking hands, I can blast the whole world from my desk. The mad scramble was to get email addresses, and there were plenty of companies that could provide them. Back then, we didn't hide our email address... we put it everywhere, and it was scraped over and over again. Suddenly, I have 100,000 email addresses of complete strangers. I don't even know if they are possible buyers of my product or service... but it costs me nothing to send them a message. This new "category" of unknown person became what we now call Leads. Leads are a Cancer Hell, I did it... everybody was doing it. I had a half a million email addresses of strangers, that we regularly blasted unwelcome messages to, for whatever crap was slinging back then. My generation "invented" spam in the early 90's. Your welcome! Why "SPAM"? Some said it came from a Monty Python skit where a waitress repeats the word SPAM from the menu, and a group of Vikings in the corner sing “SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, lovely SPAM! Wonderful SPAM!”. SPAM singing was drowning out conversation and SPAM itself was unwanted. Who knows, but it's here now. Leads were that pile of poor bastards that received these SPAM messages. Fast forward to today, and in spite of many laws enacted, Spam is more prevalent than it ever was. A driving force of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is Spam, in addition to personal privacy, which of course Spam tramples all over. So, in almost all cases, most "Leads" in a CRM system are simply... structured Spam targets. Epidemic to Pandemic GDPR is a law of the European Union. So, if you are in the United States you might think you don't have to worry about it. And in many cases, you would be right. But if you have EU based people that you engage with, customers, vendors, employees, and yes, Leads, you are subject to this law. But, mark my words, GDPR will become the standard for future global regulations. The end of the Spam era is on the horizon. Even Facebook is taking steps to curtail Spam in their platform. "But Steve, there will always be law breaking spammers". Maybe, but with today's ability to track down spammers, and the fines that will be levied, it will take a huge chunk out of it. It seems the EU at least, has actually gotten serious about it. You might say the whole concept of "Leads", as I defined it here, is about to be deprecated. Is ABM the Alternative? In a nutshell, to be effective with ABM, you have to get quite "personal". It is impossible to get "personal" at scale, so the numbers will go way down. You will still be engaging with people you do not know, but at least you will know they are actually prospects for your products or services. For some industries this is a normal way of business. Take, for example, an Aircraft Seat Manufacturer. They can probably count on two hands the total number of prospective customers for their products. For that business, it is all about personal and specific messaging. I gave an example of the content of the type of message I am referring to a year ago in that other post, but since you are too lazy to click on the link above, I will copy it here: "Hi Bob, I heard that you are new in role at Acme, but poking around I noticed that you had experience in experimental widget development when you were at OldCo. I can see why Acme brought you on board, given their new focus on widgets. Clearly CompeteCo has been making some strides in this area also, based on their latest patent filings. It seems to me that given Acme's history, being the first to come to market with a Whatsit, Acme should be able to leverage that at the upcoming World Widget Symposium in Chicago. I also noticed that Acme recently acquired WidgetCorp, who has done some pretty amazing things in the Widget space. I also read a few of your blog posts on Experimental Widgets, and found your comment that "Widgets will rule the world one day" to be interesting. I was hoping that we could schedule a time for a brief chat so I could learn more about your goals for expanding Acme's Widget line, and see whether our Widget Blaster Solution could assist you with that. Would you have any time in the next week for a call? Account Based Seller" Obviously, this will probably get more attention than what Bob typically sees today, for example: "Hi %FirstName%, I repersent Intergalactic Mop Company. I don't know if you even wash floors, but if you do, we have the best mop for it. Please reply, and I will call you immediately to discuss your Mop needs, and a special offer just for our %INDUSTRY% customers! If you don't have anything to do with cleaning floors, but you know someone who does, kindly reply to me with their email address. If you don't want to hear about Mops, reply with "remove" in the subject line, and we will promptly ignore that. Disrespectfully, Seller who wasted a keystroke sending you this" To be fair, regardless of the message sent, if sent to someone you do not know, and who did not consent to receive it, it's still Spam. And that is the Catch-22. How does one consent to receiving your messages in the first place? I'll let you chew on that one. A New Numbers Game Why is it that I still get emails from Nairobi, letting me know that the King needs my help with a $565,000 money transfer, and I can keep half of it for assisting? Because some damn fools click it. Still? Do they live under a rock, and only crawl out to check their email every 10 years? How can these scams, that everybody on the planet now knows about, still work? Apparently... not "everybody" knows. To find that .01% of the global population that dwells in caves, you gotta send out a shitload of spam. It is a pure "Numbers" game. Like multi-level marketing, but that's another topic. ABM is about numbers also, but much, much smaller numbers. Even against those numbers, you will want to Segment tightly, and track every single interaction. Again, Dynamics 365 for Marketing is built for this. Dynamics 365 for Marketing There will be some who insist on using Leads, I get that. We have kind of been programmed for that for many years, and it will take many more to de-progam our thinking. Obviously, Microsoft did not intend to build a Spamming Engine, but they also cannot stop you from improperly using the product. Circling back to GDPR, Dynamics 365 in general has built-in GDPR Compliance capabilities, which are focused on Contacts, so marketing against another disconnected entity like Leads, could present some compliance challenges for you. If you insist on using Leads, Microsoft has written a post on how you can use Leads, and associate them with Contacts so you can stay compliant. Here's a link to that. There is certainly a lot of buzz around Dynamics 365 for Marketing, and I think there is quite a bit more to come. I know I'll be watching closely.  

Dynamics 365 and the Citizen Developer

There has been quite a bit of chatter in the channel lately about this new "Citizen Developer" role that Microsoft is attempting to better support. Not surprisingly, many "real" developers have been none to pleased with the idea. I thought I would try and unpack this sticky-wicket a little bit. New Term for Existing Crowd I'm not sure if Microsoft coined the term "Citizen Developer" or not, but they did recently start using it... a lot. It is primarily used to describe a person at a customer organization who has some level of technology skill, or at least comfort. It could also be used for Partners, who typically have technology skills, but might not actually be developers. These people are not new, they have been around forever, we just have a new term to describe these "citizens". Developers When you think of the term "Developer", you probably imagine some person in a darkened room, typing at lightning speed, what appears to be gibberish on the screen. That is probably mostly true. These would be the people who write code, and can actually read it. Everything that is delivered to you by Microsoft is based on code written by developers. Coding is a high specialized skill, not something you are going to pick up over a weekend from a "For Dummies" book. Developers for Dynamics 365 are typically associated with a Dynamics 365 Partner. So I personally do not think "Developer" is the right term to use for this role, it probably should be "Citizen Configurator". Configurator Even though my auto-correct is telling me that "configurator" is not a word, I am still going to use it, as it is a good description. Configuration generally refers to things that can be done, including vast customization, without needing to actually write any code. You will be hearing terms like "No-Code" or "Codeless" a lot going forward, meaning that you can customize business applications to your needs, within the applications and the options and processes that are available, without requiring the services of a Professional Developer. This is 100% true, but it's not the whole story. Before I get into the rest of the story, why is this "No-Code" even a hot thing? Dam Busting In the not-to-distant "pre-Cloud" past, with Dynamics Business Solutions, if you wanted to do anything different than the way the application was delivered, you had little choice but to engage a Developer. Simple actions on a form often required someone to write Javascript, and it only got more complex from there. Of course before you fully realized this, you would have already purchased your hardware and licenses, so development... was just another expense that you were now committed to. Whatever you ultimately paid, and kept paying, to a developer, did not impact Microsoft one way or the other. Microsoft already got paid for the software, and they did not make any money on the relationship you had with the developer, that was just between you two. However, all of that changed with the Cloud. Microsoft no longer gets paid upfront, they now get paid monthly. Combined with the elimination of your server expenses, your commitment level to using the products is significantly reduced. Instead of having to generate a ROI on the huge upfront investment you made, if things don't feel right for any reason, you can cancel, and are only out a couple of bucks. This new cloud "Dynamic" changed everything... for Microsoft... Partners... and their Customers. Customers are no longer "stuck", in fact, it is the opposite, cloud has empowered customers. But customer empowerment arrived with some unintended consequences. If they discover a high development cost will be involved, they can, and many did, just pull the plug. So, while not entirely eliminating the need for Developers, Microsoft had no choice but to at least attempt to minimize it. Some customers were leaving, and others were not starting, as a direct result of high development costs proposed by partners. Again, costs that did not accrue to Microsoft in any way, but instead got in Microsoft's way. I can't blame Microsoft, I would do the exact same thing. You can't have the channel you depend on to sell your products, be the very reason customers won't buy them. From Balmer screaming "Developers, Developers, Developers", there is now a growing "cold war" between Microsoft and Developers, at least in the Business solutions space. The winner is going to be the customers, and these "Citizen DevelopersConfigurators". Specific Efforts The no-code mindset has swept through Microsoft, and nowhere is it more evident than in the Business Solutions business. Things like App-Designer and the Business Process Designer that sit within the apps, as well as things like Flow and PowerApps that are connected to the applications. The entire Dynamics 365 for Marketing Application, for example, is code-less. Microsoft is attacking every aspect of their business solution applications that typically generate a need for, and cost of, Developers. The only people this is bad news for, are developers, who made a living doing many things that Citizen Configurator can now do. And Microsoft is not finished, they are just revving up this no-code revolution. A Jet gets a Steering Wheel Before we get too carried away with the possibilities... imagining that Dale, who is a whiz with a smart-phone, will suddenly be able to "Digitally Transform" your business on his own, there are a few other pieces to consider. Like... who will be the "Citizen Architect"? Even Developers are typically executing on a plan engineered by someone else; usually an "Architect". Similar to the Architect/Builder relationship in a construction project. While a Builder might construct the staircase, it was an Architect who determined where it will take you. In fact, the most critical key to success with Business Solutions is not being able to build your own Business Process... it is understanding what that Process should be. Microsoft is still quite a ways from everything being push-buttons and check-boxes. But what we are already discovering, are "Citizen Configurators" using what they are able to use, to build overly-complex solutions to problems that could have been simply solved by other means. For some, Flow is the new hammer, and every issue is a nail. I have seen more and more Dales lately; they're building endless loops, dead-ends and forks to nowhere, using "logic-less" logic. Help or Hurt? In this post, I may seem to have gone back and forth on the "Citizen Configurator" role. In truth, it will depend on how a customer uses it. If a customer is of the opinion that these new capabilities will allow them to successfully deploy business solutions without any outside help, they will be in for a surprise. In a worst-case scenario, a customer with no budget, heads down the "Citizen" path, makes a huge mess, and has no funds to fix it. This is not theoretical, it happens all the time. In a best-case scenario, a customer heads down the "Citizen" path, and builds a usable system, that is missing 90% of the available power. "So Steve, you're saying you don't like the Citizen role?" Actually, I am a huge fan. We've Seen This Before Back in the old days, if you wanted a website, you hired a web developer. They would build you a lovely website. Then you moved... and the only person who could change your address on the website was the developer. This "Nickel and Diming" infuriated many. Then along came Content Management Systems (CMS). Now you could easily change your address yourself. But this did not make you a web developer. We have all seen websites out there built by DIYers. Bringing this back to Business Solutions and Dynamics 365, if you truly want to succeed, you will need a team. On this team should be a Dynamics Partner who can not only "Architect" a solution to actually solve your needs, but can bring in development expertise where it is the best option. "What about Dale?" Dale is absolutely a key member of this team. Thanks to Microsoft, some of the things that only your partner could help you with in the past, Dale can now do as part of the team. Will this dramatically reduce the cost of Deployment? Over time, as Microsoft makes more tools available for the Dales, deployment costs will come down. You will always need an Architect in order to get maximum value out of the vast palette of Dynamics 365. But today, Dale should at least be able to limit the nickels and dimes.  

Dynamics 365 - Strategy Simulator

There are a lot of opinions floating around the Dynamics 365 channel today. Talk to any partner and they will say things like "If it were up to me, I would do this or that... but don't tell anybody I said that". Seems to me, if we don't tell anybody what we think, we should not be entitled to complain about any results! "Microsoft wouldn't listen to me" This is the most common response I get, when I suggest to someone that they should share their opinions with Microsoft. Whispering to each other in the corners is not going to accomplish anything. If you have built a practice that is dependent on Microsoft, you have an obligation to yourself and your company to make yourself heard; and I have found that Microsoft is not just willing to listen, but is usually eager to hear! That does not mean that they will act on your particular suggestion, but as a Partner Led company, partner opinions are core to everything they need to accomplish. If they built some thing that no partner liked or agreed with, then no partner would sell it! In fact, Microsoft has significant motions in place to get this exact kind of Feedback, from the MVP Communities to Partner Advisory Councils, and more, including the Dynamics 365 Strategy Simulator. Pilot for a Day You know those flight simulators that they train pilots in, so Microsoft has a secret one, 24 levels below a non-descript building on campus. What if James Phillips were to say to you, "Okay smart guy, you take a turn in our "D365 Strategy Simulator". Umm... it is one thing to voice an opinion about some particular aspect that impacts your particular footprint, we could all do that pretty easily. But that is only navigating for your practice, at the end of the day, even if a course could be plotted that satisfied every partners' viewport, it would crash and burn. While Microsoft may be Partner-Led, partners are not the customers. So, let's try that again, but this time, don't solve for partners, solve for customers. The Invite So I get this email from Phillips, "Steve, we have identified you as an opinionated know-it-all, and wanted to invite you and some other opinionated know-it-alls, to spend a day in our Dynamics 365 Strategy Simulator. Be on campus this Friday at 5AM at bus stop #12452". So I arrive at exactly 5AM and there are already several other partners, that we all know very well. We all get on the bus, and the blindfolding process seems to take longer than it should, but we are eventually underway. After about 30 minutes the bus stops, and I can hear a big garage door closing. We are all led, still blindfolded, down a corridor and guided into an elevator, as the door closes, we are told we can remove our blindfolds. The elevator has only one button, and Phillips pushes it and we start to go down. The ride takes a full 3 minutes, but stops smoothly and the door opens to a cavernous room. In the middle of the room is a large capsule, with a door on the back of it, sitting on a bunch of metal arms and levers. I snuck a photo of it when Phillip's back was turned. Pre-Flight We are ushered into a small auditorium, and sent down two rows to sit, I am in the back row. The first problem is that I am sitting right behind James Crowter, and he's pretty tall so I have to crane my neck to see. I look to my right to see who is talking, when we are supposed be be quiet, of course... Joel Lindstrom. Anyway, on the stage stands Phillips, and right behind him from left to right are Marko, Param and some AX guy I don't know. Above their heads are three large monitors, side by side. Each monitor is displaying various data about a particular platform like pricing, structure, licensing, functionality, etc. From left to right the monitors are NAV, CRM and AX. As Phillips opens his mouth to speak, George Doubinski jumps up from his seat and says "I am the only real developer here... just saying" and sits back down. Phillips looks at him for a few seconds, and then continues, "Behind me you will see an overview of the items that you will be able to control in the simulator. Each of you will have full control over every aspect of these items". I hear Mark Smith say, just loud enough for everyone to hear: "Brilliant!". Then I notice that Marko is kind of tipping his head, and darting his eyes up, motioning towards the NAV monitor. Phillips catches this out of the corner of his eye, and turns to Marko, who smiles sheepishly and stops. Param rolls his eyes, but the AX guy didn't notice. I also see Alysa Taylor, over by the door, whispering to some guy I have not met before, his name tag says, "Hi, I'm Hayden". We will be taken, one at a time from here to the simulator, and Crowter goes first. He stands and passes Sarah Critchley, who I can see is laser focused on her phone, I lean forward to see what is so important, at a time like this, and see she is editing a new cat emoji. The Simulator About an hour passes, and Crowter re-enters the auditorium. I can't tell from his face, whether he passed or failed, and he is not letting on. Before I get a chance to lean in and ask him how it went, my name is called. "Right Now Mordue!" Ugh. Phillips leads me into the main room, and the door is opened on the back of the capsule, and a staircase unfolds. He motions for me to enter, apparently I was climbing the stairs too slowly, because he kinda pushed me over the last one, and then slammed the door shut. It is quite dark, just a red glow, enough where I can make out shapes. There's a chair in front of me that looks like Captain Kirk's Star Trek chair, and I circle around and sit in it. As I sit, a metal seat-belt comes out of the left side and crosses my stomach and clicks into the right side. I look at the armrests, and it looks like almost all of the padding has been scratched off, and even the metal underneath has what looks like claw marks. Suddenly, I am awash in bright light as three monitors fire to life, in the same orientation as the auditorium. Below each monitor are switches, levers and dials to adjust what is on them. Below the middle monitor is a small LED that says "Mission One: Solve for Enterprise". It flashes a few times and then says "Begin", I feel a slight jolt as the simulator comes to life. Mission One Hmm, Solve for Enterprise... not my area of expertise, but I'll take a shot, because it doesn't look like I can skip it. First, I reach to the left, under the NAV monitor. I am remembering Marko saying that NAV can be used for SMB, all the way up to Enterprise, but most of the NAV partners I know, are not focused on Enterprise. I don't know AX that well either, but understand it to be a more complex product aimed at enterprise. So I turn off all of the NAV capabilities, and on the right, I crank up all of the AX levers. In the middle, where the CRM label has been crossed through with a sharpie, and Customer Engagement has been hand written below, I also start turning up levers. Field Service: On, Project Service: On, anything marked "Insights": On. A new monitor lights up below, that I had not noticed before, it is not very tall, but it spans across and under all three of the big monitors, and flashes CDS before showing a whole bunch of other dials, and I see a new set of levers below it. I flip them all on. I sit for minute... thinking... looking at the glowing green button on the right armrest labeled "Start Simulation"... I press it. I hear laughing erupt outside of the capsule, apparently the crew has seen this configuration before, I fear that I won't do well, but hey, this is not my area of expertise. I have no doubt that Joel will crush my score on this one. The capsule rocks around for a bit and then stops, all monitors go dark, the LED says "Simulation Completed". It did not say "Mission Accomplished", so I have no idea what happened, but before I can even think further about it, the LED flashes, "Mission Two : Solve for SMB". Mission Two Now we're talking, SMB is my wheelhouse. The three big monitors light up again, the same as they started in the first simulation. The first thing I do, is turn everything on the right (AX) side off. When Microsoft says SMB, I assume they are really meaning upper small to middle sized companies, as nobody makes any money on the 5 seat deals, so that is the lens I am thinking about. I look at CRM, ugh, I mean Customer Engagement next, as that is what I know. First thing, turn off Field Service and Project Service. My goal is to solve for the meat of the SMB market, not the fringes, so I go ahead and turn off Customer Service for now also. This is going to focus on Sales, the door that 90% of SMBs enter from. Insights? Too complex for most SMBs, at least to start, so I push those levers down, but not all the way. Appsource? Yes, yes, that one goes full to the top, SMB would rather buy than build any day. Plus, some of the enterprise features I turned off, will be filled by SMB focused products from Appsource. As I make adjustments, new windows appear, based on the selections I have made, a new one pops up in the corner now, it is labeled Business Edition in a crossed through font with a question mark next to it. I know that regardless of that they end up calling it, this is the simplified UI, so I push all of those levers to the top. A box flashes at the bottom of the window, "Do you want to change the default price of $40/user?", I check "No". I lean back, feeling pretty good about this configuration, I let me head loll to the left, and I am facing the NAV monitor. Hmm, NAV, I am not an NAV partner, but something is telling me that is is important for this simulation. I look down to the LED and it is flashing: "Create a branch of this simulation?" I think about this. Many customers that I have encountered in the SMB space have been looking for just a sales solution. Is that because they are not interested in an end-to-end solution, or because I do not know enough to offer one? If I did, and I offered it, wouldn't that give me an even stronger competitive advantage? I decide to create a branch of what I started and find out. I look at the NAV monitor... it does not say Tenerife yet, but that just came out and the guy with the Sharpie hasn't got to it yet. I see a lot of items on the screen that I do not understand, and the levers look foreign also, but I do recognize a few. One says SaaS on the top and on-premise on the bottom. I place it to about 80% SaaS, because I know there will still be some customers who are ignorant to the cloud. I tweak a few other levers that I really don't understand, but I need to move them somewhere, as I am sure the defaults are not what I want. I notice another lever that says "re-factor platform?" Looking down at the LED, I see that I can create yet another branch of the simulation from here. I press it. When I select "re-factor platform" for my new branch, I notice some new grab handles on the windows. I had just talked to Crowter the other day, and he floated an idea by me as a CRM guy, for my opinion. Hoping he did not notice the "Create a Branch" option, I am going to steal it and see if can beat him in this simulation with his own idea... I'm not proud. I take the grab handle at the top of the NAV screen, and drag the entire screen over to the middle one, and drop it on top of the XRM box. What if NAV were actually a CRM App built on XRM? That would take care of any integration challenges. I know we have CDS, but would this not be easier. One UI, a platform within a platform instead of next to it... I'm liking this idea, thanks Crowter, ya sucker. A box appears, "Do you want to change the default price of "TBD?" Hmm, this is a good question. Knowing that in the App model, different users could use different things, and I already accepted the $40 price for Sales only, I decide that for this NAV App a good price would be $75/user. It does not give me an option to create a price for Sales and NAV, but that may not come up that often anyway. I press the button on the armrest to start all simulations. The capsule rocks back and forth for what seems like a long time, and then everything goes dark again, just the red glow. Nothing is happening. The seat belt slides back open, so I assume I'm done. I stand and turn towards the door and it opens, I squint from the light and I see Phillips waving me out. He leads me back to the auditorium, and as I enter I hear, "Right Now Lindstom!" Post Flight As my eyes adjust, I notice Crowter sitting in front of me. I lean in and say "James, did you see the branching option?", and he says "what branching option?". I lean back and smile. Several hours pass, and finally everyone has returned to the auditorium. The last one to return is Chris Cognetta, he is backing into the room, still turned towards the simulator, I think he is explaining to the simulator crew how simulators work. It's quiet now, but I can hear George grumbling about a lever in the simulator that was sticking, and obviously not well designed. Marko, Param and the AX guy are nowhere to be seen. Alysa is still whispering to "Hi, I'm Hayden", and pointing at some of us, although I can't tell who. Phillips clears his throat, and says "Thank you for your participation, the crew will re-blindfold you and return you to the bus stop". Before I can stop myself, I blurt out "Wait!! Who won?", Phillips shoots me a glance, pauses, and says, "Hopefully, we all did". Next steps for you As you can clearly see, Microsoft is extremely willing to take feedback from partners. The next time you see Phillips, Marko, Param, Alysa, "Hi I'm Hayden", or the AX guy. Tell them you want to crack at the Dynamics 365 Strategy Simulator. They will probably deny its existence, and I will probably get some serious heat from them for exposing it. But don't take no for an answer.

Dynamics 365 - Paper is Rock and Scissors

It should be news to no one that Microsoft's Business Solutions are exploding with new capabilities by the minute. An enormous amount of money and effort is being brought to bear to push the envelope, raise the bar, and then raise it again. The advancements have been nothing short of incredible, but one thing has not kept up with the pace... Trusting One thing that Microsoft has always been, is trusting. Even in the on-premise days, which for many are still today, but that's another story, customers would sign a Volume Licensing Agreement. In that agreement the customer would obtain the right to install 500 licenses of Office, for example. This is what we call a "Paper License". In fact, with that Volume Licensing key, they could install a thousand copies, but the deal was that they would not. It was a trust thing, call it the "Honor System". This "Honor System" concept has no doubt cost Microsoft billions of dollars over the decades in uncollected revenue. Even though it eventually spawned the "Software Asset Management" process, the "Honor System" is hard-wired in to the corporate culture. Honor Among Thieves The problem with Honor, is that not everyone is honorable. This Honor System approach of course permeated the Business Solution side of the house as well. No doubt, Microsoft has been taken advantage of there also. The Licensing Layer As the engineering and development team is firing off new capabilities like a Gatling gun, the licensing team is charged with figuring out how much to charge for these things. Part of figuring out what something should cost, is figuring out what it is worth to users. Sometimes you come to the realization that not enough users will agree to your idea of value, so an accommodation is made for a lower price version. But in order to get that lower price, we'll exclude a few things. This would not be an issue if those things were actually excluded from the product for that license. But that would require the development team to stop all that "envelope pushing and bar raising" for a while, and either build a specific version, or somehow lock down the current one to comply with this lower price option. So instead, Microsoft will draft a document (paper license) outlining what you can, and can't, do with this particular license, and rely on the historical Honor System. But we have already determined that not everyone is honorable. Two Types of Thieves I would assume that there are plenty of organizations that are knowingly and intentionally exploiting the honor system. They agreed to the restrictions on, for example Team Member, with their fingers crossed behind their back. I have no sympathy for them. But more often than not, the actual users of the products are not the people who bought them. Indeed there is a document somewhere, oh here it is, The Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide. It is pretty clear right there in Appendix A of this 52 page document what a Team Member can do. So who read this? Do the users have it? Most likely not. Lookie What I Can Do You are a user in your organization. You have been issued a Team member license. Maybe I.T. explained a few things about what you can't do, and you're like blah, blah, thanks. You go back to your desk and start to use the product. Wait a minute... I thought I.T. said I could not create an Opportunity... but I certainly can. "Hey Dana, check this out, I can create an Opportunity". Dana: "I thought I.T. said we couldn't?". "I.T. is a bunch of morons, they don't even know how the product works! Make sure we tell everybody." "Will do!" And just like that, this organization is in severe breach of the terms of their licensing. Who is Responsible? It's kinda Contracts 101. When you go buy a new car, and sign the loan document, who is responsible for payment, and maintaining insurance? You are. Granted, you signed a 3' long document that you could touch, feel and leave with a copy of. In the online world, these documents usually sit behind a hyperlink under a "Agree to Terms" checkbox. Regardless, the customer is ultimately responsible for making sure their users are not using things, in a way they are not supposed to, even if there is nothing more than an online document somewhere preventing it. The lack of technical "locks" places a huge burden on the customer. Microsoft understands this, and efforts are underway to provide these locks for the first time. Customers should breathe a sigh of relief. But will that be smooth? Another Snake in the Woodpile Most Partners are up-to-speed, and take great lengths to ensure that their customers understand the limits. But a few are actually co-conspirators. Some partners would be happy to engage with a customer who plans to explicitly violate the terms of the agreement. "I won't tell, if you don't tell". Even worse, I have heard of some partners who knowingly sold customers restricted licenses, without letting the customer in on the rules. I have no sympathy for either of these partners either, although I do feel for the unknowing customers. Today, with CSP, the partner is selling the license to the customer, there isn't even a checkbox, the customer is oblivious. Who is responsible there? I would have to assume that the customer would get a pass there on past use, but now that they know... A Rude Awakening Let's assume that Microsoft was going to spend the technical bandwidth to build locks, on everything. For those in compliance, it means nothing. But for the knowing and unknowing thieves, it shall be significantly disruptive. "Hey Dana, I can't create an Opportunity... must be a bug, are you able to?" "Nope" "Well, we're all creating Opportunities, what do we do?" Here's what you do. You either stop creating opportunities, because you can't anymore, or you upgrade your licenses so you can. "How much more is the license I need to create opportunities?"  Minimum of 8X. "WTF?" Seeing as Dynamics 365 is already significantly cheaper than Salesforce.com, you should not have expected that your cost would be an eighth of that! A Soft Hammer Microsoft is not an evil empire. They have known for decades that paper is not enough. They share some responsibility here. It's like I lent you my car to go to the store, I guess it's partly my fault for not specifying that I meant a store in my state. So I expect that when the time comes, everyone will have been given way more time than necessary to get into compliance. Although I, for one, will not bat an eye, if they decided to smash the intentional thieves and co-conspirator partners right out of the gate. Users Down, Revenue Up Imagine if Microsoft could snap their fingers and instantly have everyone in the world paying for what they are using. There is probably a higher ROI on that, than anything else they could do. But clearly, some users will ultimately be lost. The thieves will cancel immediately, and even some of the unknowing will have to cancel, when they can't pony up the 8X. The few Partners who built a business around this scheme will fold up their tents. Knowing Microsoft, they will provide an easier path for the unknowing customers to get into compliance than having their cost octupled immediately. But most will stay with the platform that they have now adopted. For some of their users, compliance will not be an issue, for others they will upgrade to the proper license. At the end of the day, I expect Microsoft's revenue to be up as a result. Which is one more reason they should take care of this sooner rather than later. My advice to customers, review the licensing agreement, then review your use of the product, if those two things are out of sync, fix it now, while you have the time to do it in an orderly fashion. So when the time comes, your business will not be disrupted, in fact, you will not feel a thing. If you are not sure, contact us we'll help you sort it out.

Dynamics 365 goes PaaS with PowerApps

It was less than a year ago... I was asking Dynamics 365 leaders about the possibility of Dynamics 365 being offered as a "Naked" platform. The strategy, that has been successfully employed by Salesforce.com for years, did not seem like it was on Microsoft's radar. I was told "Never gonna happen". Fast-Forward to a month ago... It happened. Seems Like Yesterday It wouldn't be a post by me, if I didn't first take you down some long-winded path of how we got here, before I get into "here"... and this is a post by me. So we're going to go back in time, to the day before "Dynamics 365" became a brand. The product I am referring to was called Dynamics CRM Online. This was Microsoft's answer to Salesforce.com, a CRM that was Cloud from day one. I won't go all the way back to 2011, when Microsoft clumsily stepped into the ring with Salesforce. Those early bouts were too painful to remember. But even though Dynamics kept getting knocked down, they kept getting back up. From first-round knockouts, Dynamics persevered... progressively making it to three rounds, then five, then eight, up to the occasional draw. For the ardent battle watchers, Salesforce.com is still winning, but their corner must be concerned about the trajectory of Dynamics. Just another acquisition Microsoft was on an acquisition tear a couple of years ago. In a seemingly desperate attempt to shore up their weaknesses against the reigning champion, Microsoft bought a bunch of crap to bolt-on to Dynamics. Since most of these have gone down the drain, how is it that Dynamics is closer now to knocking out Salesforce, than ever before? It is actually because of Field One. Huh? Field One was a third-party solution that provided field service capabilities for Dynamics CRM Online. Were these "capabilities" the secret weapon? Not even close. But there was something unique about the Field One acquisition that ultimately led to a huge light-bulb going off that changed everything. Nativisation I know, I made up another word, deal with it. In the Dynamics world, when it comes to third-party solutions, there is this idea of "Native". What it means is that the solution was built within Dynamics, using Dynamics as the platform. The former Microsoft Dynamics Marketing, Parature and other acquisitions were not built on the Dynamics platform, Field One was. A better known example of a Native solution is ClickDimensions. The evidence is undeniable, Microsoft's success with Native solutions, versus trying to incorporate non-native solutions, is clear. In case I lost you, Native is better. I am sure Microsoft would love to have figured this out, before they had squandered so much capital on non-native options... but some things just have to be learned the hard way. They Know Now With the Field Service example, Microsoft dove into their own development capabilities to build Project Service.. kind of a fork of Field Service, as both share many resources. Coming some time later, but with the same native-built mindset, was Dynamics 365 for Marketing, but I am getting ahead of myself. Let's talk about the "pivot". Pivoting A "Pivot" in the software business is when you change directions. Sometimes you pivot because you are failing, other times you pivot because you see a better path than the one you were on. Dynamics has been a pivoting machine. This includes "re-pivoting", where you pivot back from a previous pivot, like the "Business Edition '" pivot(s)... but I digress. A major pivot that Microsoft made, was to rebrand all of their disparate Dynamics offerings under a new name "Dynamics 365". Sometimes one pivot, leads to other pivots. In this case, for Customer Engagement, in particular, it was the idea of separating apps. Separation Anxiety It starts with licensing. Dynamics 365 included Sales, Service and Marketing as a complete, single SaaS offering. This Field Service thing was a separate add-on solution, so It was priced separately, as was the Project Service offering. Seems like it makes sense to go ahead and separate the other workloads as well, so suddenly Sales and Service are licensed separately. Unfortunately, Sales and Service were not "separated", from either each other, or the underlying platform. No problem, a paper license will solve that! So, if you are keeping up, we now have separately priced workloads. We were hearing from Microsoft that Sales and Service would eventually be physically separated from each other, as well as the platform, but it was not clear at that time, how that would be accomplished. The CDS Pivot The CDS Pivot, among other things, provided the means for Microsoft to untangle Sales and Service from the platform. I am not sure at the time of this writing, where they are on the separation of Sales and Service from one another, but at least they got the twins out of the mother. And what is the mother? CDS (Common Data Service). CDS is the underlying "Naked" platform upon which Sales, Service, Field Service, Project Service and the new Dynamics 365 for Marketing are installed upon. These "apps" as we now call them, are the "First-party" apps, the ones that Microsoft owns. But wait a minute... did I say Naked? The Naked Platform Today, as a result of all of this pivoting, we now have a new option. We have the ability to provision the Dynamics 365 platform, without any first-party apps... a naked platform. Okay, it is not completely naked. It includes what is known as CRM Prime, think of that as some basic building blocks. Things like Accounts and Contacts as record types (entities), as well as functional things like Activities, etc. But no Sales specific things like Leads, Opportunities, Quotes, Orders, and Invoices for example. Almost naked. But it does include the XrM development "engine", meaning you can build whatever you want on top of those basic blocks. This platform is available under the name PowerApps, and in particular "Model-Driven" PowerApps. The license required to utilize it is called the PowerApps P2, and it costs $40/month/user. If you are thinking that this sounds a lot like that thing they said they would never do less than a year ago, you would be right. It's called a pivot. Who Cares As a customer, with Sales related needs for example, you might be wondering, what's the point? Obviously you need the robust Sales capabilities of the first-party Sales app, otherwise CDS is just a glorified Rolodex. That would be a fair read. In the large majority of cases, I see the first-party apps as being the appropriate starting point. Why on earth would you spend the money to have someone build all of that on the naked platform, if it already exists? It would not be to save money, that's for sure. The first-party apps are highly evolved, sophisticated solutions. It would not be economically viable to attempt to replicate them, to save a couple of bucks. But what if your needs are unique? I know, everybody thinks their needs are unique. From talking to thousands of customers over the years, I can tell you, what most of you think is unique, is just configuration. But occasionally, you will find that situation where the first-party app will require so many development level changes, that there is not much left of the first-party app. In many of these cases, I see where it would be more economically viable to "roll your own" on CDS. Protection Pivot So Microsoft's first thought when all this came about was "OMG, Customers might build their own solutions and not buy our First-party apps". So up until very recently, it was a requirement that to get CDS, you had to buy one of their first-party apps. To me this seemed like a lack of confidence in the value of their first-party apps. Salesforce is not lacking any confidence, they have had a platform-only license for years, and it has not hurt their first-party apps. In fact, it probably drove many first-party app sales. As they thought this through, it seems Microsoft came to the same conclusion, and we had another "pivot". Mix and Match For the customer, it is not a "one or the other" option. Sure, you can go with pure CDS and build everything from scratch. But what if the first-party Sales apps works great for you... but the "Service" app does not? No problem, the PowerApps license is included with most of the First-party apps. Meaning you can use the Enterprise Sales App for sales, but build you own unique service app on CDS. BTW, they both are running on the same underlying database, meaning your same Accounts, Contacts etc.. PowerApps is PaaS I don't know that I have heard Microsoft refer to Model-Driven Powerapps on a bare CDS as a "Platform as a Service" (PaaS) offering, but that is what it feels like to me. Just one more area where Microsoft is leading with "Platform". Like I said, for certain customers, this will be huge, for most it will be "So What".  But one camp that is drooling at the mouth is ISVs. Powered by PowerApps is Microsoft's answer to Salesforce's Force.com platform. A quick internet search for "Powered by Salesforce" will return a bunch of ISV solutions. Most of these solutions are vertically specific, highly targeted applications. This is an area where Microsoft would like to land some punches, and PowerApps is a new fist. I foresee, in the very near future, "Powered by Dynamics 365" will return similar results. Specific Vertical applications, for which the requirements were not contemplated by the first-party apps. So we start a new championship bout, the announcer says "Let's get ready to ruummble"... ding, ding  .

Dynamics 365 - CDS for Non-Techies

Steve wrote about CDS for Non-Techies recently, in this podcast, he reads that post to you.