Reporting From Directions 2006

Marije_Brummel · 2006-10-30

Starting

First thing to say is: My appologies for not reporting on a daily bases. Directions is way different from TechEd and much busier for me.

I have also had troubles getting online with my laptop, so I had difficulties reading my email and even listending to my voicemail. My appologies for that also.

About me

For those of you who do not know; my life turned kind of upside down the last couple of months. It was about 6 months ago I got an email saing: You have been rewarded MVP. About a week later, an email came asking for help at TechEd by Microsoft as a MVP. I figured since a MVP award only lasts for 12 months it would be wise to go, since it might be my only chance.

At TechEd I met David and Karen Studebaker from Liberty Grove Software, they have been in the Navision channel for ages. They are serving the US partners with their expertise, especialy doing Upgrades, Training, Development and Consultancy. We were talking about a lot of things and one of those was my intention of starting my own business helping partners.

I started my own business about 4 weeks ago and I joined Liberty Grove as an European Associate. It is a company serving partners and customers helping them implementing and working with Navision. David and Karen were a big help for me profiling myself, they were also the ones inviting me to come to Directions in Atlanta. Please note therefor that visiting Directions was not part of the MVP program.

About Directions:

Directions is an event by Microsoft NAV Partners for Microsoft NAV Partners leaning new things about NAV [5.0/5.1] and meeting each other and learning about each others stengths.

About 5.0 and 5.1

I think there is no need in discussing the delay of the new client being now the 5.1 client instead of the 5.0 release. At directions we have had a lot of discussion about this, but I personaly I do not think this is any suprise. I have not had access to the internet for a couple of days but I think there has been lots of discussion about this going on online.

The delay; This is not a suprise to me, unfortunately. Personaly I 'd rather have a good release than a forced one. Some of you might now that I was able to play around with the new client for half a day at TechEd Boston. I did not have the same pleasure today but what I did see were the huge improvements they have made since June this year.

I have very much confidence in the 5.1 team in to delivering a great release, looking at the improvements they have made since june; imagine them having a full year to finish the product. I have met some of the people working on the product directly and they are so entousiastict about it.

Details about where the discussion went is just not a thing I want to mention since this was not a open event like TechEd.

Progress

Just as an example: At TechEd I missed the Lookupforms, because they have these nice dropdown lists, but you cannot filter on those. I was happy to see here that using a Lookupform had become an option.

Wrapping up

When writing this I am waiting for my airplane to leave for Germany, my in-between stop for Amsterdam.

Nice to know

What I also would like to mention is that my reports from TechEd were read by the Senior Product Manager of Navision in Denmark which I think is very good to know for our newsgroups/forums. I won't mention is name to avoid him being swamped with emails.

Next

Next up for me will be Convergence Munich and TechEd Barcelona. Both a lot closer for me and without the jetlag wich will probably kill me the next couple of days.

Personal Note

I would like to thank David and Karen Studebaker for inviting be. As mentioned I will be their european associate.

One of the best things about Directions was to meet al the great partners implemening the NAV product in the US.

SQL

For my SQL performance tuning in The Netherlands and Belgium I found a partner in SQL Perform by Hynek Muhlbacher.

Info

www.libertyforever.com
www.sqlperform.com
www.brummelds.com

Best regards,

Mark Brummel

David_Singleton · 2006-10-30

Hi Mark,

great Blog.

The lookups issue was an important one, (I think a lot of us send a lot of emails asking to keep that, so great news).

Congrats on joining up with Liberty Grove, David Studebacker has been around on www.dynamicsusers.org as sponsor and moderator since way back in the NOLUG days. No doubt he is one the very much respected names out there, and I think in joining them you have made a very wise move.

See you at Convergence.

(copy from my reply to your blog).

David_Singleton · 2006-10-30

Sorry I missed the SQL bit, definitely it looks like you are finding the right people to partner with. You know my respect for Hynek , and you really could not have chosen better partners. \:D/

daves · 2006-10-30

I just wanted to thank both Mark and David for the kind words. Having an association with Mark is Liberty Grove Software's privilege.

To expand on Mark's comments about 5.0 and 5.1:
I felt this was a very wise move on Microsoft's part. I know we all want to get access to new technology as soon as possible, but we have to realize that our client's want everything to just go smoothly and keep working well. I think that releasing the new functional features as V5.0 and then the new technology features as V5.1 will make the transitions much smoother and easier to swallow for all.

Alex_Chow · 2006-10-30

It was a pleasure meeting you in person Mark. I was expecting to see an old, short, and fat guy, but you definately don't fit that profile.

I want to post some key features of 5.0 on this forum but I'm not sure if it's legel for me to do so. It seems, feature wise, they've really listened to partners and created some very useful features that will benefit companies right away.

Directions is indeed very different from TechEd since it's mainly sponsered by partners for partners. Hopefully, I will see more of the people on this forum in events like this.

Marije_Brummel · 2006-10-31

deadlizard wrote:

... I was expecting to see an old, short, and fat guy, but you definately don't fit that profile...

Thanx I guess... 8)

kriki · 2006-10-31

deadlizard wrote:

It was a pleasure meeting you in person Mark. I was expecting to see an old, short, and fat guy, but you definately don't fit that profile.

Now, was this an insult or a compliment?

Marije_Brummel · 2006-10-31

I always look at things positively so...

David_Singleton · 2006-10-31

Young slim tall guy \:D/

Luc_VanDyck · 2006-10-31

You forgot the "guy" part

David_Singleton · 2006-10-31

Luc Van Dyck wrote:

You forgot the "guy" part

:shock:

Alex_Chow · 2006-10-31

The long hair threw me off a bit... But yeah, I'm pretty sure Mark is a guy.

Marije_Brummel · 2006-10-31

Luc Van Dyck wrote:

You forgot the "guy" part

=D>

That is one more beer for you to buy me next week Luc.

Luc_VanDyck · 2006-10-31

Good thing I remembered this thread: Going to Convergence EMEA, where someone else told us he would pay for the beers.

kine · 2006-10-31

It's a pity that I am not drinking beer...

David_Singleton · 2006-10-31

kine wrote:

It's a pity that I am not drinking beer...

How can someone from the country that makes the second best beer in the world, post that he doesn't drink beer on a forum based in the country that makes the best beer in the world in a discussion about a trip to go to the country that makes the third best beer in the world.

Need to bring English language, and fourth best beer into this thread some how :whistle:

David_Singleton · 2006-10-31

kine wrote:

It's a pity that I am not drinking beer...

Actually problem is that you joined after I left. If I was still there, things would be different \:D/

Kowa · 2006-10-31

kine wrote:

It's a pity that I am not drinking beer...

If you don't like the normal beer taste , don't forget to try wheat beer ( Weißbier or Weizenbier). It is much less bitter.You can even get wheat beer without alcohol which tastes quite nice too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_beer

David_Singleton · 2006-10-31

Kowa wrote:

kine wrote:

It's a pity that I am not drinking beer...

If you don't like the normal beer taste , don't forget to try wheat beer ( Weißbier or Weizenbier). It is much less bitter.You can even get wheat beer without alcohol which tastes quite nice too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_beer

Actually one of the best weißbiers (psenice) around is Peagus. This beer is from Brno, where Kamil is from. In my opinion, peagus is better than Erdinger. Though I know that will start a lot of arguements.

kine · 2006-10-31

This topic is turning into the long "Beer" thread... :-)

There are my "why":
1) I don't like alcohol (excluding Alcohol 120% ;-))
2) I don't like bitter taste
3) I am opposite to my brother... 8)
4) I hate drunken people
5) I know, that I would have problems to stop in time...

But I must agree: Yes, Czech beer is the best one. Other, better things are not beers... :-)

Actually problem is that you joined after I left. If I was still there, things would be different

And David, no, there will be no difference... :-) People around me are trying to change that whole time...

David_Singleton · 2006-10-31

sow far too ju aij maj
for tu naj mi too saj
mucahcita mia kara vera
an naj dej sej aj

gud baj.

can't say much more than that

David_Singleton · 2006-10-31

kine wrote:

This topic is turning into the long "Beer" thread... :-)

...

Well I think the old beer thread has finally died. Amazing to realize its more than five years old now..

http://www.mbsonline.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6908

Oddly I see that back then I ranked British Beer 3rd, and German 4th.

I hope Munich has something to offer.

Alex_Chow · 2006-10-31

No love for American beer? My personal favorite is Budweiser.

Please don't make fun of me.

Marije_Brummel · 2006-10-31

deadlizard wrote:

No love for American beer? My personal favorite is Budweiser.

Please don't make fun of me.

Says the guy who started this

I love Weissbeer 8)

Thursday and Friday I will be in Belgium... looking forward to that =P~

kine · 2006-10-31

deadlizard wrote:

No love for American beer? My personal favorite is Budweiser.

Please don't make fun of me.

Please, do not mention Budweiser within connection with "American beer" on forum, where are Czech posters... 8)
(see http://www.budweiser1795.com/index.php?s=2&l=2)
It can start war about this topic... :-$

Kowa · 2006-11-01

kine wrote:

This topic is turning into the long "Beer" thread... :-)

There are my "why":
1) I don't like alcohol (excluding Alcohol 120% ;-))
2) I don't like bitter taste
3) I am opposite to my brother... 8)
4) I hate drunken people
5) I know, that I would have problems to stop in time...

Have you tried Erdinger Non-Alcoholic ? It is my favourite, I don't like bitter beers too.
http://www.erdinger-alkoholfrei.com/ind ... iv=produkt
The only problem is most people around you drinking normal beer will get drunk while you stay sober.

Miklos_Hollender · 2006-11-01

Hello Mark,

can you please ask MS the following questions?

Do they EVER plan to add/change:

On the business logic level:

- break those very complicated costing/tracking/reservation/mfg planning code that is very, very hard to understand and debug into smaller chunks

- break those long, deadlock-prone posting processes into smaller chunks, for example, create posted documents with only item/value/customer etc. ledger at first and be able to batch post g/l, dimensions etc. only later

On the C/SIDE level:

- proper ordering of operators ( IF Code1<>'' AND Code2<>'' instead of having to write IF (Code1<>'') AND (Code2<>'')
- DDL (creating fields, tables programatically)
- more towards OO (be able to subclass a form for example)
- ISTEMPORARY attribute for record vars to be able to write IF RecVar.ISTEMPORARY THEN RecVar.DELETEALL to protect against somebody accidentally changing the Temporary property or copy-pasting the code
- proper tree controls instead of the complete mess they are managed today in f.e. Business Analytics setup

Miklos_Hollender · 2006-11-01

forum based in the country that makes the best beer in the world

You mean Leffe Dark and stuff like that? Not bad, but I think far from the best. I consider the Union beer of Slovenia the real best one - somehow finding the perfect balance between bitterness and sweetness.

Phenno · 2006-11-01

Miklos Hollender wrote:

forum based in the country that makes the best beer in the world

You mean Leffe Dark and stuff like that? Not bad, but I think far from the best. I consider the Union beer of Slovenia the real best one - somehow finding the perfect balance between bitterness and sweetness.

Phhhoooooohhh, I would not agree with that, but if you ask me, there are few good beers in this area (balkan's countries....)
my 2 cents goes to:

Karlovacko (Karlovac, Croatia)
Sarajevsko (Sarajevo, Bosnia&Herzegovina)
Niksicko (Niksic, Montenegro)

and to special editions:
Ozujsko (Dark beer, Zagreb, Croatia) and
Sarajevsko (Dark beer, Sarajevo B&H which can be found only in a brewery near beer manufactury).

Very important part of beer is great quality of water, which we do not lack of it...

Waldo · 2006-11-01

Luc Van Dyck wrote:

Good thing I remembered this thread: Going to Convergence EMEA, where someone else told us he would pay for the beers.

Okay ... so we'll have to drink a lot

\:D/ .

Mark, great blog! Thanks for the info.

About the beers, there's no discussion. Belgium is the land of beers (and fries). Mark, tomorrow you'll know why

Alex_Chow · 2006-11-01

Miklos Hollender wrote:

Hello Mark,

can you please ask MS the following questions?

Do they EVER plan to add/change:

On the business logic level:

- break those very complicated costing/tracking/reservation/mfg planning code that is very, very hard to understand and debug into smaller chunks

- break those long, deadlock-prone posting processes into smaller chunks, for example, create posted documents with only item/value/customer etc. ledger at first and be able to batch post g/l, dimensions etc. only later

On the C/SIDE level:

- proper ordering of operators ( IF Code1<>'' AND Code2<>'' instead of having to write IF (Code1<>'') AND (Code2<>'')
- DDL (creating fields, tables programatically)
- more towards OO (be able to subclass a form for example)
- ISTEMPORARY attribute for record vars to be able to write IF RecVar.ISTEMPORARY THEN RecVar.DELETEALL to protect against somebody accidentally changing the Temporary property or copy-pasting the code
- proper tree controls instead of the complete mess they are managed today in f.e. Business Analytics setup

These questions actually never came up. But the questions we were grilling the Microsoft reps on were generally on the over technical complexity of the software.

There was one partner that stated that the software looks like it will require an internal IT department to support it.

Reporting From Directions 2006

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