Interesting news

Waldo

ara3n wrote:

Well it wasn't MS that got Navision to where they are.

Hm, i must say, I've seen a big "boost" since Microsoft bought Navision. Number of Navision consultants have been (at least) doubled in Belgium... . About customers, I don't know.

ara3n

One of reason for this is MS marketing. That's what MS is good at.

Waldo

BlackTiger wrote:

It's not a big problem to double (or triple) number of consultants... Much harder to increase number of customers and professional developers.

Believe me ... you're not going to double your consultants when there are no customers for them ... :-k

Luc_VanDyck

BlackTiger wrote:

PS: I'm absolutely sure what nobody from MS reading this forum!

You wanna bet?

kriki

Luc Van Dyck wrote:

BlackTiger wrote:

PS: I'm absolutely sure what nobody from MS reading this forum!

You wanna bet?

I bed they read this forum!

Waldo

It wouldn't make sense if they didn't ...

Mbad

Waldo wrote:

You're so sure?

Yes.

And hey.
Maybe MS is good at putting out sales materials and doing promotions but isnt that only to the benefit of the partners and hence us(whereever your chair is in the organization)? NAV is still in my mind one of the best tools a business can have(Miklos said it better), and eventhough the direction the program is taking towards integration with other MS products isnt my favorite path, Im sure the MS devoloping team is still focused on keeping that basic structure that is the reason i love developing in Navision. Yes there has been a lot of 'noise' implemented mainly because they sometime try to please, more than implement strong basic structures, but all in all this is a pretty cool program.
I for one look forward to 5.0. For ye of little faith ill bet ya its more about features than streamlining.

ara3n

The string limitation of 250 characters on COM objects has been reported here for several years here now. Nothing has been done about it. Can somebody tell me why?

Luc_VanDyck

There is a difference in "MS is reading this forum" and "MS uses this forum as input to enhance their products".

The first statement is true. I don't know about the 2nd one.

Alex_Chow

Microsoft will make products that will also leverage the sale of their other softwares. You can guarentee that.

I wonder if Microsoft will release one product that will bundle the following for companies with 50 users:

Microsoft Dyanmics
Microsoft Office
Windows Server
MS SQL Server
Sharepoint Server

And the installation of everything in the bundle will be just using wizards. Basically Next... Next... Next... Finish type of deal.

This way, they just buy one product and they're done.

I know this is possible, so don't say it's not possible! :evil:

ara3n

I guess in your prediction, there is no place us the solution centers/ developers, consultants.

Alex_Chow

ara3n wrote:

I guess in your prediction, there is no place us the solution centers/ developers, consultants.

Sure there is. Now consultants can focus on the real business problems instead of on technical problems.

ara3n

I thought that was what Navision original goal. No administration required. Simple server client installation. What has/will change?

Alex_Chow

ara3n wrote:

I thought that was what Navision original goal. No administration required. Simple server client installation. What has/will change?

Yeah, and my point was so that if Microsoft is forcing us to learn all these software, why not just bundle it all into one simple package that we learn and be done with it.

ara3n

MS had sharepoint services and MS office and SQL for how long? I don't see customers buying them in one package. Now if they make them all into one product and have a universal client and sql server? hmmm.

Phenno

Luc Van Dyck wrote:

There is a difference in "MS is reading this forum" and "MS uses this forum as input to enhance their products".

The first statement is true. I don't know about the 2nd one.

Maybe it's true, but, from our (mibuso users) point of view it's the same thing... what good is it if they aren't concerning/reviewing opinions from one of the largest NAV community?

David_Singleton

Phenno wrote:

Luc Van Dyck wrote:

There is a difference in "MS is reading this forum" and "MS uses this forum as input to enhance their products".

The first statement is true. I don't know about the 2nd one.

Maybe it's true, but, from our (mibuso users) point of view it's the same thing... what good is it if they aren't concerning/reviewing opinions from one of the largest NAV community?

That's why they have this:

http://www.microsoft.com/Businesssolutions/Community/Newsgroups/dgbrowser/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.navision&lang=en&cr=US

Phenno

David Singleton wrote:

Phenno wrote:

Luc Van Dyck wrote:

There is a difference in "MS is reading this forum" and "MS uses this forum as input to enhance their products".

The first statement is true. I don't know about the 2nd one.

Maybe it's true, but, from our (mibuso users) point of view it's the same thing... what good is it if they aren't concerning/reviewing opinions from one of the largest NAV community?

That's why they have this:

http://www.microsoft.com/Businesssolutions/Community/Newsgroups/dgbrowser/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.navision&lang=en&cr=US

Looks just like another dynamics community, only under MS's coat, though, I can't see is there MS's persons involved in conversations?

David_Singleton

Phenno wrote:

David Singleton wrote:

....

That's why they have this:

http://www.microsoft.com/Businesssolutions/Community/Newsgroups/dgbrowser/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.navision&lang=en&cr=US

Looks just like another dynamics community, only under MS's coat, though, I can't see is there MS's persons involved in conversations?

I'll give you a hint, see the bit that says "microsoft.com" it sort of gives it away. :shock:

Phenno

David Singleton wrote:

Phenno wrote:

David Singleton wrote:

....

That's why they have this:

http://www.microsoft.com/Businesssolutions/Community/Newsgroups/dgbrowser/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.navision&lang=en&cr=US

Looks just like another dynamics community, only under MS's coat, though, I can't see is there MS's persons involved in conversations?

I'll give you a hint, see the bit that says "microsoft.com" it sort of gives it away. :shock:

I do understand that that is MS's newsgroup, the question is: do they read it with attention? (same for mibuso)

David_Singleton

Phenno wrote:

I do understand that that is MS's newsgroup, the question is: do they read it with attention? (same for mibuso)

If you make the topic as a "Suggestion to microsoft" it should be reviewed, but obviously if only a few people say "yes" to wanting the suggestion it will not have much weight.

Keep in mind that there are over 1,000,000 Navision users, Microsoft have to have a product that suits the majority of those 1,000,000, and that's what they do. Also rememebr that for those users, priority number one is being able to do their job, entering orders, enquiring on stock, shipping goods, running a set of financials. i.e. Business applicaitons.

Phenno

David Singleton wrote:

If you make the topic as a "Suggestion to microsoft" it should be reviewed, but obviously if only a few people say "yes" to wanting the suggestion it will not have much weight.

Keep in mind that there are over 1,000,000 Navision users, Microsoft have to have a product that suits the majority of those 1,000,000, and that's what they do. Also rememebr that for those users, priority number one is being able to do their job, entering orders, enquiring on stock, shipping goods, running a set of financials. i.e. Business applicaitons.

I hope you are right :roll:

To clarify, I do not have negative opinion about that, after all MS made a tremendous package called MS Office and they didn't make that without user's help.

I'm just learned by many MS's answers that goes like "it's made by design and No, we will not change it whatsoever cause we don't think that is a bug or design problem".
I would rather look at this (and those) communities as great and helpfull place for dynamics users but with not too big, direct, impact to MS.

DenSter

I can tell you from personal experience with everyone at Microsoft (without exception) that there is a VERY strong customer focused culture at MSFT. We might argue that they are not the fastest responding to it, but it is VERY important to MSFT what their customers think. When they bought NAV though they did not think it was going to be this good for them, so they just took a while to warm up.

Alex_Chow

Phenno wrote:

Looks just like another dynamics community, only under MS's coat, though, I can't see is there MS's persons involved in conversations?

Believe it or not, I actually see Microsoft posting replys from time to time.

Alex_Chow

DenSter wrote:

I can tell you from personal experience with everyone at Microsoft (without exception) that there is a VERY strong customer focused culture at MSFT. We might argue that they are not the fastest responding to it, but it is VERY important to MSFT what their customers think. When they bought NAV though they did not think it was going to be this good for them, so they just took a while to warm up.

From the Microsoft people I met at Directions in Atlanta, GA, I agree very much with your statement.

Microsoft does geniuely care for their customers. All these changes are designed with customer focus. Now, whether these changes will actually bring customer happiness is a separate issue.

David_Singleton

In version 5.1 we will have the ability to use lookup forms. =D>

This to me shows that Microsoft listen to their community. I made it known that this was a genuine need for Navision, I assume that I wasn't the only one.

Microsoft is very strong in the community, and they know how to use the community to make their products better. They listen to posts on all the forums, but not directly. Instead they have MVPs. MVPs listen to what people want, and pass that information to Microsoft.

But keep in mind that Microsoft are not going to change the product because one or two loud voices want it. They are going to sit down and listen to rational arguments and make sound business decisions. They are here to make money in the the long term, and that means happy customers, and that means good products.

Yes there have been a lot of things we don't like, but Microsoft buy out Navision is not only the best thing that ever happened to Navision, its also the only reason we are all still employed.

Savatage

I do once in a while try to answer questions on that forum, but it's been duscussed in the past how hard it is to follow a thread on that.

Just a bad forum.. I usually try to direct them to mibuso.com and dynamicsusers.org.

Hopefully MS just doesn't view that forum - they might get the impression that everything is OK due to the very few posts.

Alex_Chow

Savatage wrote:

Hopefully MS just doesn't view that forum - they might get the impression that everything is OK due to the very few posts.

Yeah, the UI is terrible on that forum. I go on there every once in a while. However, most users on there eventually find their way here, thanks to you of course.