Ed Kless 

LinkedIn

Twitter

Sage Advice Podcast

The Soul of Enterprise

 

Jason Gumpert

MSDynamicsWorld.com

LinkedIn

Twitter

MSDW Podcast

 

Wayne Schulz

LinkedIn

Twitter

SMB Jumpstreet Podcast

 

Peter Wolf

LinkedIn

Twitter

SMB Jumpstreet Podcast

Channel Q: CRM News & Info

 

Bob, Todd & Darcy

Enterprise Software Podcast Hosts Page

 

Sage CEO Circle

Alliance Solutions Group – Sage NA Partner of the Year

Sage Summit Atlanta May 9 – 11

HPE Team with Financial Force

Benioff claims to feel fooled by Nadella

Microsoft Unveils New Lightweight CRM

Taylor Macdonald LinkedIn / Twitter

Heirloom Market BBQ

Aaron Harris LinkedIn

 

Sage Summit Paris

Intacct Customer and Partner Conference

#IntacctSelfie

Key2Act Synergy Customer Event

Oracle/NetSuite deal still not sealed

Sikich Acquires SCS

Socius Adds Master VAR Affiliate

Stan Mork LinkedIn / Twitter

Information Technology Alliance (ITA)

Manny’s Steak House

Shawn Slavin

Microsoft Ends New Sales of Parature 

Diane Haines at OpenSesame

Robert Half Tech on Twitter

Avalara Gets More Funding

NAV Directions

UG Summits

Stacy Dose Twitter / LinkedIn / Company: Njevity

Jen Kuntz Twitter / LinkedIn / Company/Blog: Kuntz Consulting

Tim Wappat Twitter / LinkedIn / Company: Canford Audio PLC / Blog

Adriana Di Vito Twitter / LinkedIn / Company: Sologlobe

Anya Ciecierski Twitter: Anya Herself / ERPSoftwareBlog / CRMSoftwareBlog

Anya’s BLOGS: http://www.erpsoftwareblog.com/ http://www.crmsoftwareblog.com/ / LinkedIn

Website Pipeline blogs GPUG Summit 2016: http://blog.websitepipeline.com/blog/website-pipeline-wrapup-gpug-2016

Podcasting while in Tampa: https://twitter.com/4mcadam/status/786688231584792576

Guerilla marketing spotted downtown: https://twitter.com/darcybo/status/786204384090816512

Steve Endow, SQL Superman: https://twitter.com/jenkuntzGP/status/786612476246827009

Kicking off #GPUGSummit 2016 from Amalie Arena: https://twitter.com/AnyaCWMktg/status/786175467770540032

Paige Erickson out at Sage

Sage new global president

Benioff calls Oracle / NetSuite deal “desperation move”

Benioff Loves Ellison

Microsoft HP

HP and Microsoft “outright competitors”

HP and Microsoft integrated hybrid IT infrastructure

Guthrie calls HP a “takeout”

Ray Rebello LinkedIn

Ray Rebello Twitter

Doug Johnson LinkedIn

 

 

QBO:  1.5 M subscribers (up 25,000 from the April quarter) – 80% of QBO subscribers are new users, more than 600,000 of these users are linked to accountants,  competitor Xero claims 717,000 subs globally with 62,000 of those in the US (March 2016)

http://bobscottsinsights.com/4904-qbo-passes-1-5m-subscribers

 

Dreamforce – San Francisco, CA:

  • Tuesday, October 4, 2016–Friday, October 7, 2016
  • $1,799 ( 160,000 – last year registration link )
  • Free expo (only – no food/housing/entertainment) available for Thurs/Fri.  link
  • Sponsors: Microsoft (Innovation), Sage (Platinum), Intacct (Gold) – Entertainment U2 on Tuesday PM
  • Speakers: Melinda Gates (Gates Foundation), Tony Robbins (Robbins Companies/Motivational), Billie Jean King (Sports Legend)

 

50th Episode tweet:

https://twitter.com/EPSWPodcast/status/765312547784388609

 

WPC 2016 Highlights (via Peter Wolf) 

General WPC comments

  • Very well done show – you don’t see many partner-only shows of this size
  • Lots of energy and excitement
  • Venue was great. Food was great.
  • Tons of content – focused on a wide variety of partners and roles within organizations.
  • Great speakers and subject matter experts – doing sessions, at the booths, at breakouts, available to talk with.
  • Lots of networking opportunities – plenty of breakout networking sessions so smaller groups could interact with peers
  • Connect meeting slots – added to the energy – people coming together to meet in shared space to discuss partnering opportunities
  • Business was getting done – not just talk about things
  • Large amount of people – still ran in to people travelling in the same circles – regional areas, certain booths, certain networking events – pulled people and businesses with common interests together
  • The biggest downside was there was too much to take in – couldn’t do it all.

Satya Keynote

  • I think Satya is a decent speaker – energized, passionate without seeming manic (not mentioning any names), and seems to have a clear vision
  • You get the sense that he knows what is going on and is a key architect for the vision and execution.
  • Overall I think the current direction is strong. Microsoft has a clear vision for the cloud and are establishing different pillars to help them reach that vision. Azure, Office 365, Dynamics 365 – these will all help drive value for customers and sales for Microsoft and Microsoft partners.
  • https://partner.microsoft.com/en-US/wpc/wpc-2016-vision-keynotes

Holo Lens

  • This is just crazy, cool, game changing stuff
  • I feel like this is when spreadsheets and personal PCs were first introduced. A few people really get where it’s going but the rest of us should be prepared to be shocked by what comes next with this technology.
  • You can present information in real time and overlay the real world. Imagine walking through a museum and seeing more details popping up. Or reading a book and getting additional information about a passage or a list of characters if you are like me and can’t always keep track of who’s who half way through a book. Or taking a tour of a city and getting historical facts – or current news. Or going through a store and seeing best prices, promos, additional information like reviews, etc about products.
  • I can imagine a world where people don’t carry computers – they carry holo lens visors – game system, phone system, business system, information system
  • 59:00 mark in Satya keynote

Microsoft Flow – automation and workflows across applications

  • This is interesting stuff. Good complement to PowerBI which provides analytics across multiple products.
  • Is it just a super charged If This Then That replacement? (https://ifttt.com/)
  • How will it all work and how will it play with existing workflow and automation pieces in the various products?
  • Need to find out more about this.
  • https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/

Trade show floor

  • Laid out very nicely – lots of great vendors and booth space arranged in a high energy pattern
  • Regional areas for people to hang out and meet and hear about regional parties and opportunities
  • Again – business was being done. I’m sure the perspective might be different depending on which vendor you ask but I saw a lot of constant activity throughout the show floor during the conference.

Dynamics 365

  • Strengths: integration, solution centric vs point solution centric
  • My own experience is that the integration concepts have power and interest people
  • Time will tell: how do customers actually buy? How will partners sell?
  • Around 14:00 mark in Satya keynote

Appsource – third party ISV marketplace

  • Seems well put together – they already have products in the catalog
  • Again – time will tell on this. Will customers find this? What about related services for the more complex add-ons?

 

PC World article on Dynamics 365: http://www.pcworld.com/article/3092270/microsofts-new-dynamics-365-will-bundle-erp-and-crm-in-the-cloud.html

 

Microsoft just delayed a key part of its secret weapon in the cloud wars with Amazon and Google

http://www.businessinsider.com/wpc-2016-microsoft-azure-stack-changes-2016-7

 

Link to resources for people that couldn’t make it:

https://resources.wpc.microsoft.com/session-resources.html

 

Other related stories:

https://blog.sbsgroupusa.com/2016/08/03/wpc-2016-the-dynamics-channel-gets-slapped-in-the-head/

http://www.dynamicsbusiness.co.uk/2016/07/qa-on-dynamics365.html

https://appsource.microsoft.com/en-us/

 

 

NetSuite/Oracle acquisition news – http://www.pcmag.com/news/346562/oracle-buys-first-cloud-company-netsuite-for-9-3-billion

New Sage Partner Program Notes (via Diginomica) – http://diginomica.com/2016/07/25/sage-in-rally-cry-to-partner-ecosystem-to-support-cloud-growth-sage-in-rally-cry-to-partner-ecosystem-to-support-cloud-growt

Sage and Office 365 / CSP program – http://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/news/12236557/sage-and-microsoft-partner-to-empower-accounting-professionals

Guest Co-Host Peter Wolf: LinkedIn | @AzambaInc

Wayne Schulz: Website | LinkedIn | @mas90guru

 

Invictus Games

Darcy’s blog on Invictus Games

Invictus Games Tweet from Kensington Palace

GPUG Amplify

GPUG Ustream Videos

Fabrikam Day proposal for GPUG Amplify 2017

AKA – Green Beacon Merger

Microsoft and Jet Reports Unveil New Excel-Based Reporting Product for Microsoft Dynamics GP Users

Is Management Reporter Being Discontinued? No!

Bob Scott Thinks VARs Need a New Name

Cert Prep Sessions at Sage Summit

KeyedIn Integrates with Sage Live

Salesforce Acquires Demandware

Benioff Responds to Questions About a Microsoft Takeover Bid

Satya at Citrix Conference

NetSuite SuiteWorld

NetSuite Top Partners