Note: The following report is submitted by one of our 90Minds members. I am reposting this on their behalf.

I am at Microsoft Convergence this week.

It is pretty clear the cloud is coming. We have been working with Server Virtualization lately. The new tools from Microsoft with the virtualization technology is a “game changer” as Sage would put it. Microsoft is investing 70% of $9B R&D in Virtualization in 2010 and 90% over the next couple of years.

Sounds like Iron Mountain may offer Server VHDs with their STAAS offering. If this is the case, we may see Server OS turn to a commodity market like IIS and other Web hosting servers.

GP has been on a back burner for the last year or 2. GP 2010 is being released over the next couple of weeks. Lots of new features, workflow, roles, etc out of the box. Tight integration with Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Exchange 2010, etc…

Unified Communication is embedded in the GP 2010 app. This may have little impact in the next 1-2 years, but we could easily see adoption as the kids enter the workforce. Instant messaging is becoming increasingly important for younger workers and will most likely become more prominent.

Management Report is FRx with a new wrapper.

Was not really impressed from all of the hype.

They made the point FRx was being retired and MR is only being released for Dynamics products several times. Seems like a stupid strategy mainly to punish other publishers to find alternative solutions. May backfire if some find/make innovative solutions.

Definitely feel Microsoft is providing a good vision much like Sage did in the Hannah/Butler days of the past.

They claim 94 million devices pulled updates for Windows 7 workstation during last release. Pretty impressive. Time to saddle up folks. Windows 7 and 64 bit is here to stay. Apps better deal with it or they will quickly be in the ‘ol DOS category. We plan to have strategic sessions with most of our clients for a migration strategy over the next 18 months.

Data Protection Manager is an excellent tool for midsize business data managment with nice tools/solutions for mobile users with infrequent connections to corporate networks.

Word on the street – Microsoft has fixed the Integration adapter between GP and CRM.

Lots of excitement and enthusiasm in the reseller base. This is users and resellers. Microsoft has 8,500 at the conference. It definitely feels like a large crowd. (ie., bathroom lines are long, exit doors are clogged and meals have a wait) There is definitely a buzz at the conference that I have not seen or felt for several years at Sage or Microsoft.

Most notable is a learning center. Microsoft has 100s if not 1,000s of online demos and hands on labs. There has to be at least 1,000 workstations with dual monitors and headsets in a large room. An impressive sight.

First time that I have been in an old Olympic venue. Big place with large conference rooms…. Cool to imagine the history.

Scott today filed this report to 90 Mind group members and I’ve asked Scott if I can reprint it verbatim to give readers an attendee’s point of view about the conference happenings.

Keep in mind that these comments are based on the first day of Convergence. There may be other announcements later in the conference and we’ll take care to update the story as additional information is released.

Microsoft Convergenge 2009 Day 1 Field Report

From: Scott Hickman
Date: Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 8:37 AM
Subject: [sageresellers] Second Day in New Orleans with Microsoft
To: sageresellers

I am in New Orleans at the Microsoft convention. There has not been anything earth shattering. The Keynote indicated that we will be “blown away” on Thursday. We shall see.

Notable items

Over 4,000 partners attending (pretty strong for Dynamics)

Beginning to develop business applications around their “surface” hardware. (ie., touchscreen Kiosk in warehouse)

50 tips on Dynamics GP in 50 minutes – great session – great idea

They are pushing green green green. No bottled watered – they gave us a refillable water bottle. Plastic cups are made of corn. Ink pens are called Vegetals. I still have not seen paperless out of the box with GP though. They want us to give our water bottles to NOLA schools. Recycle our name badges which are made from recycled material and corn.

No nightly entertainment. Sessions go until 6:00. There are a few left over snacks on the table and then you need to leave. Kind of like the last day on a cruise ship. Free beer and alchohol is also past bye-gones .

Heavily pushing CRM. CRM resellers are optimistic about their practices. Say they are recession proof. Engagements are t y pically $50K implementation, $25K software and 20 users.

CRM integration with Dynamics – GP is comparable to Sage’s solution. Just a bunch of synchronization. They are coming out with a new integration this year.

Dynamics RMS is mysterically missing.

Good NOLA band openend up before keynote. Much better than the broom stunt.

I will post the “blown away” news tomorrow if I think the group’s heart and health can take the shock.

Scott

via: Scott Hickman – ServiceWorld Computer Center – Missouri

Update - I also spotted this Microsoft Convergence update from ZDNET which mirrors all of Scott’s observations.

It will roll the analytics, dashboarding and scorecarding into the enterprise version of Sharepoint server for free.  It seems to be killing off the Planning and Reporting application that was supposed to eventually replace FRx, their Dynamics unit’s financial reporting tool that came along with the original Great Plains acquisition.

There have been rumors for a while that FRx was no longer going to be enhanced and eventually phased out.  This article essentially says FRx now lives on.

Given the huge knowledgebase of expertise out there, including among our 90minds members, this is great news for the simple and easy to utilize tool known as FRx.

via Clients First Business Solutions