Section for Partners

matttrax

How about a section for partners to ask questions specifically about the partnership? My company has just become a partner and it seems like the information we need is never on PartnerSource or partner.microsoft.com.

I don't know if it would be a good idea to have everyone have access to it, as there are obviously some things that customers are not supposed to know. But it seems like there has to be something better than Google, Microsoft Search, and calling the support line every time.

Luc_VanDyck

But how in the world can I determine if someone is a partner or not, if not anyone can have access to that forum? I can't ask Microsoft to screen the e-mail adresses of people who wants to have access to the partner forum, can't I?

kine

If you need something like that, Microsoft itselfs has managed forum just for the partners... I know that it is pitty that it is not part of Mibuso, but as Luc wrote, it is not possible to split users into different groups...

Timo_Lässer

There is one possible way to determine if the user is employed at a Microsoft Partner:

The user must put his company e-mail address in his mibuso account.
Then he sends a pm to Luc to grant access to the mibuso partner area.
Now, Luc can check if the domain belongs to a microsoft certified partner using the Microsoft Partner Directory.

If the user changes to another employer (non microsoft partner), the e-mail address will be no longer valid, so it is possible to test the validity of the e-mail addresses of this group from time to time.

To avoid that a user changes his e-mail address after Luc has granted him access to the mibuso partner area, the user should be deleted from the partner group if he changes his e-mail address in his profile.
If he changed to another Microsoft Partner, he can ask Luc again.

What do you think about this?

DenSter

Are you kidding :shock: ? On the bottom of the forums page it says "We have 14827 registered users". You are honestly thinking that Luc will go and check 14827 email addresses against the Microsoft partner directory?

Luc_VanDyck

Timo Lässer wrote:

What do you think about this?

I think you are dreaming
Luc doesn't have time for this.

Timo_Lässer

DenSter wrote:

You are honestly thinking that Luc will go and check 14827 email addresses against the Microsoft partner directory?

No, surely not...

Timo Lässer wrote:

The user must put his company e-mail address in his mibuso account.
Then he sends a pm to Luc to grant access to the mibuso partner area.

.

Due to the fact that many of these 14827 users are inactive, many are end user and not all want to put his company e-mail address in their profile, it will be possible.

If Luc really would create such an area here on mibuso.com, he could write a notice in the announcement, that it could take some time until he checked each user.

After this start-up, it may be only a few users per week which ask for access.

DenSter

Luc Van Dyck wrote:

Luc doesn't have time for this.

I think that says it all

matttrax

You could link an account to a windows live id and check their access level when they login (partnersource v. customersource). I've never played around with the Windows Live API but I'd imagine there is functionality in there for it. Just a thought.

Luc_VanDyck

I don't think we have access to the Parnersource/Customersource information from Microsoft, using that API.

Alex_Chow

matttrax wrote:

How about a section for partners to ask questions specifically about the partnership? My company has just become a partner and it seems like the information we need is never on PartnerSource or partner.microsoft.com.

I don't know if it would be a good idea to have everyone have access to it, as there are obviously some things that customers are not supposed to know. But it seems like there has to be something better than Google, Microsoft Search, and calling the support line every time.

The information is on there. You just need to search for it. There are a lot of requirements depending on which competency you want to get, that's why it seems overwhelming.

Spend some time on the site and familiarize yourself with the site. You need to do it if you're seriously about becomin a good solution center. And not relying on a 3rd party website to provide the content for you.

matttrax

Becoming a partner is easy. Absolutely, once you know where to look, everything is outlined very well on the steps you have to take. It's how you operate after you become a partner that is the challenge. Luckily we're not looking at taking on any new customers anytime soon.

PartnerSource certainly has a wealth of information on it, but saying everything you need to know is on there is far from the truth. That's like saying CustomerSource has everything an end user wants to know on it. If that were true there wouldn't be a need for this site.

Maybe I'm just frustrated by it all. Or maybe our company's situation is way more complex than most. I just thought it would be nice if there was a place where things like this could be discussed instead of calling a partner line where the person doesn't even know what Dynamics is (I don't think I've ever called and had the person not have to go ask someone else, seriously).

I can see how it would be trouble to implement, though.

Alex_Chow

There are a ton of partners out there that are functioning fine without it being discussed in any 3rd party forums. Just spend your due dilligence on the site. You're going to need the information provided on the site and it's worthwhile to try to figure out how to find the information you need on the site.

For the record, Customersource has everything the customer needs on it. It has the same manuals consultants use to pass exams and it explains what each field in Navision does in detail. Whether or not the customer actually use or read the manual is a separate issue.

Just my opinion...

DenSter

I agree it's all there, and that people need to make themselves familiar with the resources at their disposal. You have to admit though that it is definately not very user friendly.

matttrax

Yeah, at least they say they are making improvements. If it really is all out there it sure isn't easy to find Hopefully a better interface will help everyone.

Alex_Chow

Well... I use Partnersource frequently and I have no user interface issues with it. Maybe I'm just used to it and forgot the time it took me to be familiar with it.

DenSter

really... when I need a product update, and I set a filter on product = NAV,it also shows me AX and GP stuff. Things are not store in a consistent manner (e.g. you get a hotfix under 'product releases' instead of hotfix/update) I don't think it is user friendly at all. Once you know where to look it's not as bad I guess.

David_Singleton

WOW what a weird thread. :shock:

Partner Source (IMHO) is the most unusable web site I could ever imagine using. I can not believe there is a single person out there that could ever praise that site.

Seriously, is there anyone else out there that thinks that partner source is easy to use, and especially anyone that honestly can find stuff on there?

Alex_Chow

Umm.... me.... :oops:

I'm usually able to find the stuff I need on there. Don't know... Perhaps I'm just lucky? O:)

David_Singleton

Well maybe you know the secret trick. For example, I just typed in

NAV 5.00 SP1

I get 7 results not one of them is a link the NAV 5.00 sp1. I get road maps and a Dynamics AX direction statement, some stuff about convergence 2007, but no SP1.

How can that make any sense.

Maybe we could get them to allow Google to spider the site, and we could use Google to find stuff?

ara3n

I have all the version 4.0 sp3, 5.0 and 5.0 sp1 bookmarked, otherwise i wouldn't find them. I got the links through newsletters and bookmarked them.
I go to partnersource as last resource.
Maybe they are doing it on purpose? The less people use it, the less they will be asked about it.

Luc_VanDyck

ara3n wrote:

Maybe they are doing it on purpose? The less people use it, the less they will be asked about it.

I pay them for making their site user-unfriendly :^o

Alex_Chow

Ok, user friendliness and whether or not the search comes up correctly are 2 separate problems.

I think the site is pretty user friendly, but the contents that the search brings up leaves more to be desired. However, you can still find the information you need if you're a little cleaver with how you do the search.

DenSter

Well we can argue about that of course. If I see a user interface that looks very friendly, very easy to use, quickly responding, everything you'd want in a UI, with two buttons, one that says 'Green Screen' and one that says 'Yellow Screen', that sets certain expectations about what to expect from the interface.

Now when I click the button that says 'Green Screen' a yellow one comes up, and when I click the button that says 'Yellow Screen' and a green one comes up, to me that is quite the opposite of user friendly.

You can put the search capability in a handy place, but if the search itself doesn't work properly, I don't think it's user friendly at all. When I select NAV as a product, I don't want to have to wade through 100's of AX, GP and/or SL entries.