Microsoft Convergence Field Report – Day 2 (waiting to be blown away)
The third day in New Orleans was somewhat quiet. We spent some time in the expo and it is surprising to see many of the same vendors that lurk at Insights as well.
GP does not have an out of the box Paperless solution. They can print registers to electronic files. There is a 3rd party available for rougly $1K per year for 5,000 documents. It is $400 for additional 5,000 blocks.
Their business portal solution has continued to develop and quite frankly is becoming very impressive based on Sharepoint. There are two installs (Windows Sharepoint Services and Microsoft Office Sharepoint Services) coined as WSS and MOSS. MOSS must be licensed and WSS is free. Again, BP ships out of the box and is an impressive Intranet site.
We spent some time with modifier which allows form (screen) customization. It is very powerful with most visual basic events available. The lost_focus and got_focus events are needed addition for Sage as well as load events. The customizer module is more powerful, but it is also more difficult to use than MAS. It is a double edge sword.
Ship Data Entry features are still not available. They have some advanced picking features but MAS’s ship data entry seems to be more specific to a shipper’s “role” than GP’s screen. GP feels more like invoice data entry in the old days of MAS. The advanced distribution features are impressive – but would need a thread of their own.
I also spent some time with Manufacturing this trip. I will need to test some of the details. (ie., WIP reconciliation when Manufacturing Orders are partially completed.) I saw a few items that I wish MAS would do; however I would need to also evaluate vice versa.
We made a side trip to Brad Pitt’s reconstruction of the Lower Ninth Ward. The destruction is amazing. The whole Lower Ninth is now a field with about 15 houses. Brad built most of them and a church built another. He has pushed green technology and storm sustainablility. One of the houses is mostly off grid. Electric bills are $3 – 8 per month. The cost of the panels on the new houses are less than 50% of the original homes less than two years ago. They also had Gustav come through after the constuction. The storm brought 130 mph winds. The houses withstood and the windows were left unboarded since they are tempered glass. Brad’s initiative is starting to set standards in green technology and building standards globally. www.makeitrightnola.org.
There is a 40 story Hyatt that sits hauntingly empty downtown.
Today – I am promised to be “blown away”. I must go prepare.
via: Scott Hickman
© 2009, Wayne Schulz. All rights reserved. Formed in 2005. the 90 Minds Consulting Group is a collaboration of 100 Sage partners who independently join together online in a 24 x 7 private communication network to solve difficult issues for their customers. The group is not affiliated with Sage and our collaboration provides for unparalleled member access to early warnings of bugs and other issues which members in turn are encouraged to use to provide an exceptional customer experience.
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