Nov. 12, 2024

Episode 347: In the Dynamics Corner Chair: End User to BC Master: Shannon Shares Invaluable Insights

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Season 3 Business Central Partner

🚀Join us for an inspiring chat with Shannon Mullins, Microsoft MVP and CEO of A BC Consulting Group!

 

In this lively conversation, Shannon shares her incredible journey from being a #DynamicsGP end user to becoming a #BusinessCentral consultant with hosts Kris Ruyeras & Brad Prendergast. We dive into insights from the recent #SummitNA conference, the crucial role of data cleansing during migration, and how businesses can gear up to prepare for the transition from GP to Business Central.

 

🔑Key Takeaways:

 

1️⃣Prepare for the big move: Understand the differences between GP & Business Central and why re-implementation is often better than migration.

 

2️⃣Master the tools: Take advantage of Business Central's robust features and automation tools to supercharge your business processes.

 

3️⃣Documentation, documentation, documentation! Learn why proper documentation and customer education are vital for managing inherited code and ensuring smooth transitions.

 

4️⃣Training FTW: Consider the importance of continuous training & learning for both partners and users to maximize Business Central's full potential.

 

5️⃣Community is everything: Reflect on the power of community at events like the recent #BCBash at Summit NA and the opportunities that come from taking career risks.

 

⏰Don't miss out on this thought-provoking discussion with practical tips and Shannon's personal insights. Tune in now and make way for the bright BC future! 🎧🌞

 

Send us a text

#MSDyn365BC #BusinessCentral #BC #DynamicsCorner

Follow Kris and Brad for more content:
https://matalino.io/bio
https://bprendergast.bio.link/

00:00 - GP to BC Transition Insights

08:42 - Transition From GP to BC

21:37 - Partner Preparation for BC Migration

32:33 - BC Implementation Benefits and Challenges

37:42 - System Migration Best Practices and Pitfalls

43:22 - Avoiding Unnecessary Customization Pitfalls

55:32 - BC Community Unity and Celebration

WEBVTT

00:00:00.620 --> 00:00:07.033
Welcome everyone to another episode of Dynamics Corner, the podcast where we dive deep into all things Microsoft Dynamics.

00:00:07.033 --> 00:00:19.754
Whether you're a seasoned expert or just starting your journey into the world of Dynamics 365, this is your place to gain insights, learn new tricks and what GP to BC re-implementation means.

00:00:19.754 --> 00:00:22.341
I'm your co-host, Chris, and this is Brad.

00:00:22.483 --> 00:00:26.312
This episode was recorded on October 25th 2024.

00:00:26.312 --> 00:00:30.045
Chris, Chris, Chris, Look at that fancy shirt.

00:00:30.440 --> 00:00:33.450
I like these fancy shirts Look at that, look at that, look at that.

00:00:33.979 --> 00:00:37.429
Fancy shirt, new logo and new stickers.

00:00:37.429 --> 00:00:52.950
New stickers Many had the opportunity to get these at Summit, and if anybody wants a sticker, they know where to find us and pins we get some pins, all this fancy stuff going on, and when it has it, we may have a new website soon too I don't know yet, though we have to see, we'll have to talk about that later.

00:00:53.790 --> 00:01:04.527
Uh, also, we are fresh off of the summit conference and this was a lot of talk about gp to bc, bc, gp being this big bc bash with us.

00:01:04.527 --> 00:01:20.225
We had the opportunity to speak with Microsoft MVP Shannon Mullins I guess Microsoft MVP is redundant because the M means Microsoft, but MVP Shannon Mullins about what a customer can do to prepare to migrate or we're not going to use the word migrate, as you'll hear Re-implement.

00:01:20.225 --> 00:01:29.694
Gp to BC is what also what partners can do to prepare themselves for BC and also some other cool conversation tips and tricks for GP to BC is what also what partners can do to prepare themselves for BC and also some other cool conversation tips and tricks for GP to BC.

00:01:43.141 --> 00:01:46.170
Yeah, I'm on my audio with my phone.

00:01:46.170 --> 00:01:51.990
Got it, got it Okay, so the dog starts barking or the you know, someone goes crazy and I can walk away.

00:01:52.471 --> 00:01:53.332
All right, perfect, perfect.

00:01:53.332 --> 00:01:56.748
Look at that llama behind you, oh look at my llama.

00:01:56.787 --> 00:01:57.569
Look at it.

00:01:57.569 --> 00:01:58.373
Is that tilted?

00:01:58.881 --> 00:02:00.608
From my perspective, it looks tilted All that.

00:02:01.561 --> 00:02:03.284
It's like one of those tilted bookshelves.

00:02:03.665 --> 00:02:05.730
I thought it was just like all the badges.

00:02:10.719 --> 00:02:16.104
You can't see it, but I've got all my friends all my InsightWorks friends there, nice.

00:02:16.104 --> 00:02:21.647
This is my newest friend that Brian brought me because I miss TechWorks and that was really sad.

00:02:21.647 --> 00:02:22.027
What's his name?

00:02:22.027 --> 00:02:22.527
Do you name them?

00:02:22.527 --> 00:02:23.068
Well, they all have names.

00:02:23.088 --> 00:02:23.669
This is the TechWorks Tamarin.

00:02:23.669 --> 00:02:25.090
Oh, I miss tech work, so and that was really sad.

00:02:25.110 --> 00:02:25.491
What's his name?

00:02:25.491 --> 00:02:25.850
Do you name those?

00:02:25.850 --> 00:02:26.531
Um well, they all have names.

00:02:26.531 --> 00:02:27.972
This is the tech works Tamarin.

00:02:28.633 --> 00:02:31.694
Oh I have a lot of those, to be honest with you, and I didn't know.

00:02:31.694 --> 00:02:32.415
They had names on them.

00:02:33.135 --> 00:02:33.756
They have names.

00:02:33.756 --> 00:02:34.276
I have to go.

00:02:34.276 --> 00:02:35.557
Yeah, the names I wish I had.

00:02:35.557 --> 00:02:40.866
I wish I had you didn have the frog.

00:02:41.127 --> 00:02:43.169
I have the bird.

00:02:43.169 --> 00:02:43.950
You know what is it?

00:02:43.950 --> 00:02:45.231
The toucan, not a toucan.

00:02:45.231 --> 00:02:53.151
The um puffin puffin I have several of them I didn't get any in san diego.

00:02:53.330 --> 00:02:58.487
I got the llama in san diego yeah, I didn't get any at summit.

00:02:58.508 --> 00:03:00.893
Speaking of summit, welcome back to our first week back.

00:03:00.893 --> 00:03:02.723
How are you settling in after the conference?

00:03:03.805 --> 00:03:05.247
oh, wow, um, wow.

00:03:05.247 --> 00:03:07.070
How am I settling in?

00:03:07.070 --> 00:03:10.456
I don't know if I'm settled in yet, I think.

00:03:10.456 --> 00:03:14.324
Just trying to recap on everything you know, that kind of happened.

00:03:14.324 --> 00:03:22.647
I had three crazy PAC sessions at Summit, which was really kind of cool, especially our GP to BC.

00:03:22.647 --> 00:03:25.152
One on the last day was very, very well.

00:03:25.152 --> 00:03:28.034
We had a session with Mariano.

00:03:28.034 --> 00:03:37.328
Well, I had a session with Mariano and Mariano and I have been friends for a long time Him and I go way back in the GP days and McCormick is now in Business Central.

00:03:37.328 --> 00:03:42.882
We worked with McCormick for like over a decade, so that was a great session we had.

00:03:42.882 --> 00:03:47.932
70% of our audience is considering moving to Business Central from GP.

00:03:48.401 --> 00:03:52.912
I will say the same thing, because my session I would say 80% were all GP.

00:03:54.421 --> 00:04:04.474
Yeah, we actually polled the audience, so 70% were end users and on GP for over 20 years, mostly average and all considering moving to Business Central.

00:04:04.860 --> 00:04:06.483
That's great, I'm happy to hear that.

00:04:06.483 --> 00:04:11.812
And I did poll the audience in my sessions as well.

00:04:11.812 --> 00:04:19.112
I didn't ask about products because my topic, I don't think you know, warranted polling them.

00:04:19.112 --> 00:04:22.262
But you both had mentioned the number of end users.

00:04:22.262 --> 00:04:24.788
I had the same percentage.

00:04:24.788 --> 00:04:32.865
It seemed like there were far more end users in my sessions and from hearing from both of you and others, they felt the same way.

00:04:32.865 --> 00:04:44.086
So it's nice to see a conference that's intended for you know, it's by the community, for the community, for end users as well as partners as well, to share some knowledge, just to see a lot of end users there.

00:04:44.086 --> 00:04:58.370
And I will say I hold the gp to bc topic thought because I have a lot of questions for you on that but the riverwalk area was beautiful oh, it was stunning.

00:04:58.610 --> 00:04:59.954
We did it at night, it was.

00:04:59.954 --> 00:05:00.901
It was fantastic.

00:05:00.901 --> 00:05:02.509
And I drugged my 15 year old.

00:05:02.509 --> 00:05:08.930
He was working with me at the booth, he was our intern this year and, uh, I made him go out and he hates touristy things.

00:05:08.930 --> 00:05:12.927
But I said we're gonna do a touristy thing and we did, we did the, we did the boat ride.

00:05:12.927 --> 00:05:17.947
I love boat rides in cities and that was lovely and the restaurants and it was great.

00:05:18.168 --> 00:05:21.963
It was a nice area I'm happy that I was able to get out and walk the river walk.

00:05:21.963 --> 00:05:25.670
I went out for lunch and dinner a couple of times just to see the.

00:05:25.670 --> 00:05:28.307
A lot of times I always say I've been everywhere but have been nowhere.

00:05:28.307 --> 00:05:33.225
So to finally this time I said I'm made a conscious effort to say I'm going to get out and explore.

00:05:33.225 --> 00:05:40.291
Where time permitting was nice to get out and I too enjoy those historical boat rides.

00:05:40.291 --> 00:05:46.062
So the boat ride was beautiful going through downtown San antonio, but the history of it as well, I know a lot of cities.

00:05:46.081 --> 00:06:03.543
Boston has it florida has it in many cities where you can go through the canals and you just get the history I enjoy it and you learn so much about a city, a city in the history of it, which just enriches the experience, and I think you appreciate a little bit more so well, I'm happy to hear that you had it.

00:06:03.562 --> 00:06:20.648
Yeah, those people who are going to DynamicsCon I would say live, because I'm so used to saying live but DynamicsCon, so Molly won't correct me later In Chicago my favorite thing to do in Chicago every time I go is to do the architectural boat tour, so it's the best boat tour in Chicago.

00:06:20.668 --> 00:06:23.387
Sign me up, yeah.

00:06:23.466 --> 00:06:24.250
I'm ready, let's do it.

00:06:27.560 --> 00:06:28.062
Let in Chicago Sign me up.

00:06:28.062 --> 00:06:28.605
Yeah, I'm ready, let's do it.

00:06:28.605 --> 00:06:29.088
Let's do a free day.

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I'll commit to doing that.

00:06:29.610 --> 00:06:30.033
I mean a lot of this.

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We don't get the opportunity to spend some time.

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You know this one.

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I was there for quite a period of time so I didn't have the opportunity to have extra time.

00:06:35.430 --> 00:06:44.250
But I think DynamicsCon will be able to get the schedule to have like a down day somewhere to be able to go and see Chicago Again.

00:06:44.250 --> 00:06:47.995
I've been to Chicago many times, but this time I want to go through and explore.

00:06:48.480 --> 00:07:03.206
I think that's a stage in our lives where, as you get older, you're more interested in history, because when we were over there in San Antonio, I did the ghost tour and they were doing historical conversation as well.

00:07:03.206 --> 00:07:08.543
So I'm excited about Chicago tour, and they were doing historical conversation as well, so I'm excited about chicago.

00:07:08.543 --> 00:07:21.706
So uh, shannon, if you have any ideas like that historical museums or even like museums I'm always uh perusing around yeah, let's all uh have a little fun day in chicago, maybe a pre-day or a post-day absolutely, absolutely chicago.

00:07:21.846 --> 00:07:28.163
Uh, before we jump into the conversation, would you mind telling everyone a little bit about yourself?

00:07:29.687 --> 00:07:31.732
Yeah, my name is Shannon Mullins.

00:07:31.732 --> 00:07:37.050
I'm Microsoft MVP for five years now, so just hit my five-year mark, which is exciting.

00:07:37.071 --> 00:07:38.113
Congratulations, congrats.

00:07:38.339 --> 00:07:42.206
Thank you, feels like yesterday, so it flies by five years.

00:07:42.206 --> 00:07:49.184
And I am the CEO of ABC Consulting Group, so we're a business central practice.

00:07:49.184 --> 00:07:58.100
And then I'm also the CEO of my new app company, bc App Maker, which we just launched and got on AppSource within the last month.

00:07:58.100 --> 00:07:58.961
So that's exciting.

00:07:58.961 --> 00:08:03.591
Yeah, congratulations on the MVP.

00:08:03.612 --> 00:08:07.987
Congratulations on the MVP, congratulations on the BC app maker.

00:08:07.987 --> 00:08:10.107
I think there's a definite need for that.

00:08:10.107 --> 00:08:13.946
Uh, I saw you doing that and I was like damn, she took my idea.

00:08:13.946 --> 00:08:21.370
But that's okay, uh, and congratulations also on your company.

00:08:21.370 --> 00:08:25.261
I know you did that a couple of years and it seems to doing extremely well, so I'm happy to see that for you.

00:08:25.261 --> 00:08:38.130
And as we started talking about, we started talking about the sessions you had mentioned in your sessions of GP to BC and Chris talked about in his sessions and we've had conversations with many at the conference there on GP.

00:08:38.130 --> 00:08:41.832
You're looking to potentially move to Business Central.

00:08:41.832 --> 00:08:46.057
Could you tell me a little bit of your history with GP?

00:08:47.057 --> 00:08:50.720
Yeah, so I have two degrees in accounting.

00:08:50.941 --> 00:09:15.710
I have a master's degree in accounting but when I was finishing my bachelor's degree, I actually got a position as an accounts receivable clerk for a mortgage company down in Tampa and they actually pulled me off of that and put me on a project moving us from QuickBooks to Dynamics Great Plains At that time it wasn't even Dynamics, it was just Great Plains and so I was on that.

00:09:15.710 --> 00:09:22.860
That was actually like one of my first projects coming out of college was doing this migration and I was working with Microsoft Partners.

00:09:22.860 --> 00:09:31.058
At the time Microsoft had a group called Microsoft partners and I got to be part of that process and really just enjoyed it.

00:09:31.058 --> 00:09:54.927
You know, I enjoyed the whole process of migration and integration and at the end of that project they actually wound up offering me a job, which is a long story because, you know, back then I was like there's no way I could travel and leave my kids and I had young kids at the time and uh, here I am, you know, 20 years later, over 20 years later, doing exactly what I turned down.

00:09:55.528 --> 00:09:59.927
Uh, at that point, you really are a jet setter.

00:09:59.927 --> 00:10:04.384
These days, it's always like you know they have like the where in the world is Waldo back from when I was younger.

00:10:04.384 --> 00:10:06.087
Now it's where in the world is Shannon.

00:10:06.789 --> 00:10:08.693
Yeah, so that was my history of it.

00:10:08.693 --> 00:10:20.840
I mean, I started as an end user and a super user, obviously as part of the project, and then went on to take four more roles in private accounting before I finally got into consulting.

00:10:21.160 --> 00:10:32.761
So my history with GP is very, very rich and goes back very, very far so you were an end user for gp and you use it for many years, many years, and you have a deep understanding of the application.

00:10:32.761 --> 00:10:33.946
When did you transition to bc?

00:10:35.471 --> 00:10:46.748
yeah, my last year of like private accounting, um, I was like an acting cfo slash controller and, uh, part of our project was to get all of our sql reports uh converted from Crystal Reports.

00:10:46.748 --> 00:10:54.288
So I actually learned how to do SQL reporting and got a lot into the database admin stuff and so I really found it fascinating.

00:10:54.288 --> 00:11:00.388
You know, accounting is kind of repetitious, you do the same thing over and over again and I was like Are you saying it's boring?

00:11:01.721 --> 00:11:05.772
I mean, I love my accountants and I still love accounting, I still use it a lot.

00:11:05.772 --> 00:11:10.350
But yeah, it's kind of boring who's to say how it is.

00:11:13.345 --> 00:11:20.440
So when I moved to Charlotte I had the choice of going back into private accounting or I thought, well, maybe I could be a consultant.

00:11:20.440 --> 00:11:24.940
You know, maybe at this point this is a good time to get into the consultant uh type roles.

00:11:24.940 --> 00:11:27.645
And I applied for a lot of accounting jobs.

00:11:27.645 --> 00:11:36.125
And I applied for uh one consulting job with enderdine artists, which was out of charlotte, and I thought they're not going to hire me because I don't have consulting background.

00:11:36.125 --> 00:11:37.187
And sure enough they did.

00:11:37.187 --> 00:11:40.663
They took a chance on me and the rest is kind of history.

00:11:40.663 --> 00:11:41.524
That's all it takes.

00:11:41.524 --> 00:11:44.370
One chance, one chance, one chance, yeah.

00:11:46.212 --> 00:11:46.894
You both hit it.

00:11:46.894 --> 00:12:09.451
It's true, sometimes you just need that one opportunity or that one chance that somebody will give you, and I'm more attentive to that, and this is what I even say now it's sometimes it's somebody's ability to be able to do something, as the drive and the energy that they have you know their aptitude as well to be able to do something, that makes for a great consultant, for a great, whatever right, whatever they want to do, the passion that does it.

00:12:09.451 --> 00:12:17.745
It's not necessarily the experience because, even more so in this bc world, because it's changing by the day, like I have to spend time every day keeping up with it.

00:12:17.745 --> 00:12:24.645
So being in it for 20 years in one year doesn't, you know, make someone more, uh, more of a fit.

00:12:24.645 --> 00:12:29.107
It's the personality, their ability to learn and maybe some of their other experiences that will help them.

00:12:29.399 --> 00:12:32.149
But sometimes it's not about waiting for opportunity.

00:12:32.149 --> 00:12:45.386
It sounds like I mean, I've been following, you know, your path to success of like also creating your own opportunities as well, because sometimes it's not, you know, waiting for opportunity.

00:12:45.386 --> 00:12:51.264
It may never come, so you have to put yourself in a position where you could create that opportunity yourself.

00:12:51.264 --> 00:12:52.087
That's awesome.

00:12:52.200 --> 00:12:56.150
I love that because I, you know, I was afraid of even before I started.

00:12:56.150 --> 00:12:58.327
I thought, oh goodness, what are they going to put me into?

00:12:58.327 --> 00:13:02.203
You don't know when you're getting into consulting.

00:13:02.203 --> 00:13:06.870
And they actually put me into support to start with and that was an exciting challenge.

00:13:06.870 --> 00:13:13.450
But yeah, I think you get into it and you just have to take a chance and, like you said, chris, don't wait for someone to.

00:13:13.450 --> 00:13:18.289
Just no one would have knocked on my door and said, hey, do you want this role?

00:13:18.289 --> 00:13:31.924
So if you're an end user and you're listening to this and you're like I really dream of getting into consulting, maybe do a sanity check before you do that.

00:13:31.924 --> 00:13:33.350
But also, you know, just apply and you never know.

00:13:33.350 --> 00:13:34.595
I mean, if you have the application background, that's huge.

00:13:34.595 --> 00:13:34.774
You know.

00:13:34.774 --> 00:13:42.886
You guys both know you're in practices like getting a consultant that has application background is worth its weight in gold, even if you don't have the consulting experience.

00:13:43.269 --> 00:13:43.831
Absolutely.

00:13:43.831 --> 00:13:49.745
And understanding how it's used, because that's what consultants do is they help with the implementation and implementation for it.

00:13:49.745 --> 00:13:51.222
So that's.

00:13:51.222 --> 00:13:51.785
It's great.

00:13:51.785 --> 00:14:05.687
If you know, microsoft recently announced, prior to Summit the whole, what people are calling the end of life of GP or the, you know, the death of GPp.

00:14:05.687 --> 00:14:08.332
What does that mean?

00:14:08.332 --> 00:14:09.984
Like what?

00:14:09.984 --> 00:14:11.889
What's the significance of the announcement that they had?

00:14:11.929 --> 00:14:15.245
made yeah coming from someone's gp?

00:14:15.245 --> 00:14:16.326
Yeah, yeah.

00:14:16.408 --> 00:14:21.984
So let me give you a little background of how I got to where I'm at, because you know I'm not I.

00:14:21.984 --> 00:14:24.970
I do some gp work, but I'm now mostly team bc.

00:14:25.730 --> 00:14:44.826
But uh, wait a second, you can't be a trader I'm not a trader, I'm a migrator or something like that, I don't know how to put it I still, you know, gp gpug forever, because you know that's my roots, my history, and I have lots of friends and, and you know, still a passion for the product.

00:14:44.826 --> 00:14:48.974
But you know, at the same time things change, technology changes.

00:14:48.974 --> 00:14:54.909
I used to be a Windows phone user and now I'm an Apple user, so you, can change.

00:14:54.950 --> 00:14:56.272
Yes, I like to know you can change.

00:14:56.272 --> 00:14:58.961
I still like you If you would have told me you were an Android user.

00:14:59.863 --> 00:15:02.164
Oh, no, no, no, sir, I remember Windows Phone.

00:15:02.164 --> 00:15:03.206
I mean, people can change.

00:15:03.666 --> 00:15:04.447
I remember Windows Phone.

00:15:04.466 --> 00:15:07.190
Yeah, chris and I we might have been the only ones, but we had Windows Phones.

00:15:07.811 --> 00:15:08.792
I had the Nokia.

00:15:08.792 --> 00:15:10.352
I got the Nokia Windows Phone.

00:15:10.352 --> 00:15:11.354
I love that phone.

00:15:11.573 --> 00:15:13.856
Mario and I said that in our session.

00:15:13.856 --> 00:15:21.765
We said you know, it's funny how people are very resistant to change, you know, especially when it comes to software and hardware.

00:15:21.765 --> 00:15:28.813
But then look at us all who didn't have cell phones growing up or didn't have all this technology, and we adapt over time.

00:15:28.813 --> 00:15:30.880
Right, and so I think that's what I had to do.

00:15:30.880 --> 00:15:42.282
Um, but before I moved to Nashville I was with inner dine still, and, uh, one of my coworkers had went to a Microsoft conference and he came back and he said at this conference you wouldn't believe what I learned.

00:15:42.282 --> 00:15:45.649
He said GP is going to become nav and nav's going to the cloud.

00:15:45.649 --> 00:15:46.912
And I go.

00:15:46.912 --> 00:15:49.378
That literally makes no sense.

00:15:49.378 --> 00:15:51.582
Why would Microsoft do that?

00:15:51.582 --> 00:15:52.424
Because no.

00:15:52.504 --> 00:15:56.681
I'm being serious Like nav's going to the cloud and GP users are going to move to nav.

00:15:56.681 --> 00:16:02.413
And I was like are you, are you sure, Like you know, doing like a sanity check?

00:16:02.413 --> 00:16:22.546
And I think at that point it was kind of the writing on the wall because, you know, doing like a sanity check, and I think at that point it was kind of the writing on the wall because you know, Errol had mentioned it and a lot of partners were upset and I mean, this was a long time ago, you know, compared to now, and when I moved to Nashville, part of my job or part of my role here was to build the Business Central Cloud practice, having zero Business Central Cloud experience or nav background.

00:16:22.546 --> 00:16:38.442
So I was already kind of prepping for that, I was already aware of it, and there were several partners who are currently still GP partners, who are also aware of it, but chose a different path of mindset of we'll just keep supporting GP forever, which is fine.

00:16:39.527 --> 00:16:54.934
But I think for the customers, the thing that's been the saddest for the customers is that Microsoft has been very transparent about the path that was going to happen for many years and a lot of customers were being told, hey, we're going to let it live forever.

00:16:54.934 --> 00:16:59.288
We're going to keep it going, and that was never Microsoft's messaging.

00:16:59.288 --> 00:17:10.314
And so now I think this end of life is actually surprising to some customers, which is surprising to me, because it's never been a non-transparent message to the partners.

00:17:10.314 --> 00:17:15.131
But end of life doesn't mean you have to jump off of it tomorrow.

00:17:15.131 --> 00:17:28.008
It just means you need to figure out what you're going to be doing over the next five or six years, getting a plan together and deciding which you know, which software package you know fits best for you and your company.

00:17:30.501 --> 00:17:53.045
So with that you bring to another important point and something I've been thinking about and again paying attention to this and talking with GP users last week, as well as other individuals such as yourself, chris, and many others in the community week, as well as other individuals such as yourself, chris, and many others in the community A customer that realizes that there's an end of life, gp again.

00:17:53.045 --> 00:17:57.941
They don't have to make the decision today or tomorrow and, you know, just for selfish reasons, I'll say they're moving to BC.

00:17:57.941 --> 00:17:59.746
Right, because that's my passion.

00:17:59.746 --> 00:18:00.949
I'm one of those, you know.

00:18:00.949 --> 00:18:02.251
I think I would be the same way.

00:18:02.251 --> 00:18:05.265
I'd hold on to BC even if the writing was in the wall until I went into the grave.

00:18:05.885 --> 00:18:14.430
But if a customer was planning to move or they made the decision, okay, I'm using GP today, I need to move to Business Central.

00:18:14.430 --> 00:18:16.082
I choose to move to Business Central, not need.

00:18:16.082 --> 00:18:18.407
What are some things that they can do?

00:18:18.407 --> 00:18:29.755
Someone who has experience with both applications and successful Business Central implementations what do you think customers can do to prepare themselves to move from GP to BC?

00:18:31.840 --> 00:18:35.048
Yeah, so a few things, and we mentioned this in our session last week.

00:18:35.048 --> 00:18:37.849
So first thing is data cleansing and data cleanup.

00:18:37.849 --> 00:18:42.030
We have a lot of tools in the GP stack that still don't exist in BC.

00:18:42.030 --> 00:18:53.243
I don't know if BC consultants are aware of this, but like we can mass combine and delete GL accounts so you can take history from two accounts, combine them together and delete the old account.

00:18:53.243 --> 00:18:59.123
We had mass customer combiner, mass vendor combiner, mass item combiner.

00:18:59.123 --> 00:19:04.113
Like, we have some tools in the GP stack that just don't exist in the BC stack.

00:19:04.299 --> 00:19:19.203
So when you're considering using something like a migration tool and you're going to take your data, that's at 20, you know most of the users that I met last week 20 year users, right, 20 years of data and then you're just planning on dumping it into the cloud.

00:19:19.203 --> 00:19:26.289
Not a very good plan, especially when you're going to get out of the box Power BI reports dashboards.

00:19:26.289 --> 00:19:29.392
Maybe you want to do reporting on state and all your states are a mess.

00:19:29.392 --> 00:19:33.566
You plan on using email functionality, but your emails are all a mess.

00:19:33.566 --> 00:19:35.551
I mean some of the data that we take out of GP.

00:19:35.551 --> 00:19:38.847
I'm just like wow, I can't believe people were living with this data.

00:19:38.847 --> 00:19:43.467
So data cleansing is one thing that is very important to do during this process.

00:19:43.467 --> 00:19:49.848
Redesigning a chart of accounts, I always recommend if you hate your chart of accounts in GP, you hate all the segments.

00:19:49.848 --> 00:19:53.926
Now is the best time to do that change as you're making that move.

00:19:54.808 --> 00:20:01.590
But I think the other thing that has really made us successful as a company is we do not do any implementation without a discovery.

00:20:01.590 --> 00:20:05.488
We don't use any kind of tool where we just throw a database into a tool.

00:20:05.488 --> 00:20:13.630
I literally hate the idea of that because you could miss integrations, you could miss custom processes that people are doing that you just don't hear about.

00:20:13.630 --> 00:20:18.949
But also you know a lot of the GP users that come to me and they're like I don't know what my.

00:20:18.949 --> 00:20:21.323
I don't know what BC is, I don't even know what it looks like.

00:20:21.323 --> 00:20:22.365
So why would I buy it?

00:20:22.365 --> 00:20:27.394
And I'm like I wouldn't buy it without seeing it and seeing how my data is going to look inside of it.

00:20:27.394 --> 00:20:35.190
So we do like a custom discovery with them and say, hey, let's see your data in GP or GP data in BC.

00:20:35.190 --> 00:20:46.391
Let's kind of run through some of your processes, see what those will look like so that you can envision it, right Cause once you can envision it, then you're oh okay, that makes sense, but it's scary when you don't know the product.

00:20:47.231 --> 00:20:53.926
Um yeah, it's scary it's yeah, you'll send me off on a tangent on that, so I want to hold that thought.

00:20:53.926 --> 00:21:00.267
So, chris, okay, and let's just say brad, hold that thought I wrote it down.

00:21:00.287 --> 00:21:08.913
This is a sidebar that I want to have with you, because you hit on a key point and I had similar conversations last week and I wish I had the opportunity to include you in the conversation.

00:21:08.913 --> 00:21:11.042
I know we were all running around it's.

00:21:11.042 --> 00:21:12.488
You know, I feel like I saw nobody.

00:21:12.488 --> 00:21:14.845
I saw everybody, but I saw nobody.

00:21:14.845 --> 00:21:19.362
It was so hard, it was difficult, but let's go back to some other things.

00:21:19.362 --> 00:21:31.842
I mean, I think you're hitting on some key points and I have this excitement and I'm using my best discipline to not just cut you off because the information is so great, but I have so much bottled up in me that I want to just spew.

00:21:35.989 --> 00:21:36.409
We love it.

00:21:37.832 --> 00:21:40.582
So what are some other things they can do to prepare, as you talked about?

00:21:40.582 --> 00:21:42.227
You talked about ensuring you have a discovery.

00:21:42.227 --> 00:21:45.175
Analyze your data, your data cleanup, you know?

00:21:45.175 --> 00:21:45.640
Look at your business.

00:21:46.280 --> 00:21:51.933
Yeah, I think, also doing some like pre-training before even getting into the product.

00:21:51.933 --> 00:22:05.451
So something that I've, you know, told a lot of the GP customers last week is like spin up a trial, because you can go and spin up your own trial and here's some of the learning paths and learning courses that you can do online on your own.

00:22:05.451 --> 00:22:07.705
You know, as an end user, just to start to prep.

00:22:07.705 --> 00:22:16.287
It's kind of nice to get in there and, like before you go through thorough training or a conference room pilot, just kind of know what BC is, how to navigate around, how to get it.

00:22:16.287 --> 00:22:30.271
I mean, you get a free 30 day trial, and I think you can extend it for 30 days as well with Microsoft, and so you can just kind of use that as your base to explore it, play on your own, and that's kind of fun, you know, to have a sandbox.

00:22:31.520 --> 00:22:38.586
Yeah, I have a 30 day trial that I signed up, but I think I've had it for like 90 days and I think I don't know what the rules are.

00:22:38.586 --> 00:22:48.795
I don't know what the rules are, but I didn't create a production company.

00:22:48.795 --> 00:22:52.164
I only created a sandbox and I, my Cronus is sandbox.

00:22:54.369 --> 00:22:56.138
I think you can keep Cronus going.

00:22:56.138 --> 00:23:05.228
Yeah, I think you can keep Cronus going, but if you plan on using production and then you want to actually have it as production, then I think at that point, I think that is the differentiators.

00:23:05.400 --> 00:23:12.067
If you set up your own company, that only has the 30 day trial, but if you keep Cronus listen, I didn't see that anywhere.

00:23:12.067 --> 00:23:13.224
I guess I could read or ask.

00:23:13.224 --> 00:23:16.585
I mean, I know enough people to ask, but I figured I'm keeping it.

00:23:16.585 --> 00:23:28.644
Cronus, I'll stick around and, as Chris's point, I actually probably should look voices to see if I'm being charged you probably have so many subscriptions man you forgot I love it yeah

00:23:29.345 --> 00:23:31.608
to go back in your discovery really quick.

00:23:31.608 --> 00:23:35.261
I I want to add a little bit on the importance of the discovery.

00:23:35.261 --> 00:23:43.428
But during the discovery, one of the things that works well for me and I mentioned this in the past is having business central up uh along the way.

00:23:43.428 --> 00:24:03.903
And so any, any short wins where you can, where they may be sharing a process that they do now, you can quickly jump into business central and say here's how you would do it and, and that alone, a small little win, get them super excited about the product and then after that, yeah, you'd want to give them a trial, or they get a trial and they can play around a little bit further.

00:24:03.963 --> 00:24:06.390
But that is super helpful.

00:24:06.390 --> 00:24:07.372
We did that yesterday.

00:24:07.372 --> 00:24:10.509
We actually were doing a big NAV2VC project.

00:24:10.509 --> 00:24:13.589
A customer that has like 18 legal entities.

00:24:13.589 --> 00:24:16.349
They've been on NAV forever, nav 2009.

00:24:16.349 --> 00:24:26.480
And so they're explaining how they are getting contracts signed for vendors and they're using DocuSign for every vendor sign up and I was like, oh, that's super expensive.

00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:33.421
I go here, let me show you this Power Automate flow that's free, using Microsoft forms and approvals and you know.

00:24:33.421 --> 00:24:37.491
And so I like brought it up and I showed them and they're like, ooh shiny.

00:24:37.491 --> 00:24:42.888
So it's exciting you know, it's a win.

00:24:43.059 --> 00:24:44.594
Yeah, it's cool to envision it.

00:24:44.594 --> 00:24:49.268
I think that's great practice, chris, for sure no, it is important.

00:24:49.528 --> 00:24:57.711
It is important to look at everything as you're moving to a new system, whether you're upgrading or migrating, or even a fresh install.

00:24:57.711 --> 00:25:02.636
If you'd like to do a fresh install, when you talk about bc, to me bc now has expanded it's.

00:25:02.636 --> 00:25:04.022
We're implementing a system.

00:25:04.022 --> 00:25:06.040
Bc is one of the pieces you brought up.

00:25:06.040 --> 00:25:13.894
A key point that you can, you know, ensure that someone's aware of what you can also integrate with, because the solution doesn't always have to be within BC.

00:25:13.894 --> 00:25:21.493
Power Automate works well with BC, you know, and the Power Platform, power BI for reporting, you know, data warehouse integration with the business.

00:25:21.493 --> 00:25:22.644
So those are all options that you can go with to warehouse integration with the business central.

00:25:22.644 --> 00:25:23.259
Those are all options that you can go with.

00:25:24.020 --> 00:25:31.690
So we talked about a couple of things that customers could do to prepare themselves for business central implementation.

00:25:31.690 --> 00:25:34.346
Let's flip it around right.

00:25:34.346 --> 00:25:43.365
So now let's you know GP has, you know, the death of it in the crosshairs, I guess GP's in the crosshairs.

00:25:43.365 --> 00:25:55.790
So there'll be a lot of GP users looking to migrate to Business Central and there'll be partners that will need to implement GP users in Business Central.

00:25:55.790 --> 00:26:03.826
Is there anything partners can do to prepare themselves for the influx of GP customers looking to move to Business Central.

00:26:05.210 --> 00:26:05.530
Yeah.

00:26:05.530 --> 00:26:09.153
So I'll just give you kind of a history of what I've been working on with this.

00:26:09.153 --> 00:26:38.861
I started last year I think you had Cecile on the show, so Cecile Amber Bell, who's also a GPUG, all-star training last year and so we went through, you know, just intro to BC, setting up BC administrative, and I was like, well, this is kind of fun to kind of share the knowledge because I don't think a lot of people know this.

00:26:38.861 --> 00:26:47.674
But when I got started there was no training courses for partners to become BC and BC was new even to the nav community.

00:26:47.674 --> 00:26:52.800
So like we all were on the struggle bus of the cloud, right, and there was no resources.

00:26:52.800 --> 00:26:56.156
And I felt like a lot of people in the nav BC community they're just weren't willing to help.

00:26:56.156 --> 00:26:59.673
Um, you know, especially you're coming from another product as a partner.

00:26:59.673 --> 00:27:05.413
It's just, yeah, it was a different world and so now it's really cool because we have the resources.

00:27:05.413 --> 00:27:08.241
So I started doing these paid training classes for partners.

00:27:08.241 --> 00:27:11.073
Um, I started out with Brian Hacks Group in Canada.

00:27:11.073 --> 00:27:19.156
I went on site and trained them how to do GP to BC and then all of a sudden people were asking, hey, can you do that class again?

00:27:19.156 --> 00:27:20.220
And so I did it again.

00:27:20.781 --> 00:27:37.486
Well, back about four months ago, Microsoft called me and said hey, we're thinking about doing this GP to BC cohort where we're training partners in not only the transactional training, the admin training, but also pre-sales marketing, go-to-market everything like that.

00:27:37.486 --> 00:27:43.022
So do you want to be the trainer for the product from a GP to BC perspective?

00:27:43.022 --> 00:27:46.361
But then we will also do the other trainings as part of the cohort.

00:27:46.361 --> 00:27:49.779
So we started our first cohort in September.

00:27:49.779 --> 00:27:52.977
We ended that one just a few weeks ago.

00:27:52.977 --> 00:27:54.259
It went really really well.

00:27:54.361 --> 00:27:57.496
So I was training GP partners that I've known a long time.

00:27:57.496 --> 00:28:14.950
It was really kind of cool to do an administrative training and then a transactional training and pretty much show them core finance start to end, how you do that from both an admin setup and a transactional setup.

00:28:14.950 --> 00:28:21.804
But while we're going answering the questions of okay, does it have this, does it have this, what about this in GP, what about that in GP?

00:28:21.804 --> 00:28:34.220
And that's going to be hard for NAV BC partners to help a GP partner because you don't know what we had and we are still missing features in BC and so, yeah, being able to train people that way.

00:28:34.220 --> 00:28:35.021
So it's been really fun.

00:28:35.021 --> 00:28:37.538
So we have our next cohort that starts Monday.

00:28:37.538 --> 00:28:43.875
That's a four-week cohort, and then we have one more planned that's going to start in February.

00:28:43.875 --> 00:28:48.309
So, brad, I can give you the link if you want to put it with the video for those people who are watching.

00:28:48.309 --> 00:28:48.570
Absolutely.

00:28:48.536 --> 00:28:50.182
But so, brad, I can give you the link if you want to put it with the video for those people who are watching.

00:28:50.182 --> 00:28:50.586
Microsoft is leading that.

00:28:50.586 --> 00:28:53.217
Microsoft's investing in it, so they're calling it the Reskill program.

00:28:53.217 --> 00:29:08.904
They already had the Skill Up program that they were doing for folks coming from other backgrounds coming into consulting, and now this is taking GPSL partners and bringing them into the BC Nav world and really helping skill them up.

00:29:08.904 --> 00:29:11.719
So, yeah, it's really cool.

00:29:11.719 --> 00:29:14.078
I wish they would have had this program when I started.

00:29:14.078 --> 00:29:15.316
It wasn't even an option.

00:29:15.316 --> 00:29:24.430
So I feel I feel fortunate to be part of it, to give back, you know, because a lot of people gave to me and helped me out during my process.

00:29:24.430 --> 00:29:26.538
So it's really kind of cool to give back to the community.

00:29:26.538 --> 00:29:27.911
It is nice to give back.

00:29:28.010 --> 00:29:32.957
It's also helps for the success of the product I look at you know I keep saying rising tides raise all ships.

00:29:32.957 --> 00:29:40.885
We've been saying for a while and you know, successful implementations lead to more successful implementations lead to people wanting it, so anybody who works in the industry.

00:29:40.965 --> 00:29:41.507
Everybody wins.

00:29:42.369 --> 00:29:42.810
Everybody does win.

00:29:42.830 --> 00:29:45.755
Customers also win, which is most important, because they have successful implementations.

00:29:45.755 --> 00:29:47.076
Back to that link.

00:29:47.076 --> 00:29:52.184
Can you tell us what that link is, just to anybody who may not be able to see the show notes, just so they can search and look it up?

00:29:52.569 --> 00:29:53.973
My guess is, and I don't know it.

00:29:53.973 --> 00:29:57.673
Off the top of my head but it's probably akams slash reskill.

00:29:57.673 --> 00:30:03.451
But yes, I will definitely get you the link If you just look at the Microsoft reskill program.

00:30:03.451 --> 00:30:08.234
And Microsoft's also got for the customers listening.

00:30:08.234 --> 00:30:09.536
We'll also include the link.

00:30:09.536 --> 00:30:15.119
They have a GP transition page where there's a lot of resources out there for you to.

00:30:15.119 --> 00:30:21.924
You know, do your own research on moving to BC and you know different offers that are involved and things like that.

00:30:21.924 --> 00:30:23.586
So I'll include the links for both of those.

00:30:24.266 --> 00:30:25.928
Yes, definitely, please.

00:30:25.928 --> 00:30:32.260
We'll have to share those, because I know that individuals get a little nervous when they see that happening.

00:30:32.260 --> 00:30:37.076
They do have time to prepare, which is good, you know it's not something somebody has to worry or stress about it today.

00:30:37.577 --> 00:30:42.336
But, as with anything else, if you wait until the last day you may have a problem.

00:30:42.336 --> 00:30:48.117
Right, you still can maybe run the software, run the applications, but as technology changes and things change you, you may have a challenge.

00:30:48.117 --> 00:30:53.538
So, as we've been talking about, there are things you can do to prepare for.

00:30:53.910 --> 00:30:54.412
Did NAV.

00:30:54.412 --> 00:30:57.381
People still have the same amount of time to prepare as well.

00:30:57.381 --> 00:31:03.818
I felt like it was cut pretty short, Like NAV 2018, it's like done, you're BC 14 now.

00:31:04.922 --> 00:31:05.403
That was it.

00:31:05.403 --> 00:31:08.140
Well, I mean, technically, you can still run NAV 2018.

00:31:08.140 --> 00:31:11.710
You're just not getting any of the maintenance type issues.

00:31:11.710 --> 00:31:18.163
And I do think that the adoption from NAV to Business Central was a little easier.

00:31:18.163 --> 00:31:23.502
I mean, again, it's different look and feel, but a lot of the core functionality hadn't changed.

00:31:23.502 --> 00:31:25.549
It was a little bit easier.

00:31:25.549 --> 00:31:37.638
It was a little bit easier, but I think individuals going from GP to BC might have a wider gap of transition, which leads me to ask you this I have a list of questions for you.

00:31:38.559 --> 00:31:45.585
What are some of the key differentiators between GP to BC that aren't in there?

00:31:45.585 --> 00:31:57.719
And one thing that I hear and I'm happy that you mentioned maybe even not directly is even the differences of I have a chart of accounts here.

00:31:57.719 --> 00:31:58.321
It's called chart of accounts.

00:31:58.321 --> 00:31:59.046
Is it called chart of accounts here?

00:31:59.046 --> 00:31:59.910
I have a process for accounts payable here.

00:31:59.910 --> 00:32:01.112
What is it called here?

00:32:01.112 --> 00:32:03.938
Because some of the naming is not the same.

00:32:03.938 --> 00:32:19.806
So I know that some of the processes and even if you're going through an implementation, talking about one from business central speak, as I'll call it, to someone who doesn't understand business central speak is like someone speaking two different languages, trying to communicate and understand each other.

00:32:20.230 --> 00:32:26.099
Yeah, it's not a one for one mapping right, so I think whole systems can accomplish the same goal.

00:32:26.099 --> 00:32:27.290
It's just how you get.

00:32:27.290 --> 00:32:33.059
There is different terminology and different processing, so I really hate the word migration.

00:32:33.059 --> 00:32:44.836
I'm writing a book on how to re-implement from GP to BC because I think that's the best path and part of that process I'm talking about is, hey, be aware of in BC.

00:32:44.836 --> 00:32:49.355
This is how we're going to process, right, and it's not the exact same how you do it in GP.

00:32:49.355 --> 00:32:56.032
So some things that are missing that we just don't have.

00:32:56.053 --> 00:32:56.996
I talked about the combiner modifiers.

00:32:56.996 --> 00:33:01.231
We don't have that in BC yet Rob Del Prado had messaged me last week he had a customer who's running scheduled.

00:33:01.231 --> 00:33:06.002
We called it like scheduled invoicing, scheduled financing in GP.

00:33:06.002 --> 00:33:11.453
That was a functionality we had in GP where we could do a loan amortization with scheduled payments.

00:33:11.453 --> 00:33:13.599
That was part of out-of-the-box functionality.

00:33:13.599 --> 00:33:15.935
We don't have that in BC.

00:33:15.935 --> 00:33:19.829
You could do multiple ship-to addresses on sales orders and purchase orders.

00:33:19.829 --> 00:33:26.923
Every line could be a different ship-to or drop ship or whatever you wanted.

00:33:26.923 --> 00:33:30.029
You could have one sales order with multiple addresses.

00:33:30.029 --> 00:33:32.094
You can't do that in BC.

00:33:32.094 --> 00:33:35.141
We don't have mass ride-offs in BC.

00:33:35.141 --> 00:33:40.199
We don't have mass supply in BC, so we're missing some of the functionality that we had is the biggest thing.

00:33:40.199 --> 00:33:44.336
It's okay, but we also gain a ton of benefits on the BC side.

00:33:44.376 --> 00:33:45.740
That's what I was going to say.

00:33:45.740 --> 00:33:51.423
Now let's talk about the ads of what you're going to get.

00:33:51.442 --> 00:33:52.333
Huge, so one.

00:33:52.333 --> 00:33:56.058
It's so funny we're doing a Power Automate project for a GP customer.

00:33:56.058 --> 00:34:04.423
It took us four weeks to get in, to get credentialing, rdps, vpns, to just get into the server to help the customer.

00:34:04.423 --> 00:34:15.617
Right, bc, I've never had this issue like maybe a day delay in someone accepting the link, but that's the most delay we're seeing.

00:34:15.617 --> 00:34:18.782
So the ability to access BC from anywhere is probably the greatest one that you're going to get.

00:34:18.782 --> 00:34:23.382
One single sign on one Microsoft World access, worldwide Huge.

00:34:24.570 --> 00:34:28.240
BC Online has a big benefit, just that whole ecosystem, like you said.

00:34:28.389 --> 00:34:29.695
And that's a small fraction.

00:34:29.695 --> 00:34:31.596
Yeah, it's all tied together.

00:34:31.675 --> 00:34:33.255
Yeah, and we talked about the Power Platform.

00:34:33.255 --> 00:34:38.630
So you know, I don't know I'm sure you guys have heard this but Project Yellowstone is now becoming live.

00:34:38.630 --> 00:34:50.710
Kenny was publishing 15 apps on AppSource for Power BI alone, so 36 out-of-the-box Power BI dashboards are going to be available on this new release for BC users.

00:34:50.710 --> 00:34:51.472
That's huge.

00:34:51.472 --> 00:35:03.572
You've got Power Automate, you've got Power Apps, you've got the combination of being able to connect to Excel and SharePoint and OneDrive without all these complex mappings and things like this.

00:35:03.572 --> 00:35:07.382
So you're really walking into a product that has so many benefits.

00:35:08.269 --> 00:35:18.235
And one of the things that really bothered me in the last few weeks is I was seeing rumors after the end of life announcement that well, BC doesn't have the ISVs that you're you know you're currently using for GP.

00:35:18.235 --> 00:35:19.132
That's not true.

00:35:19.132 --> 00:35:33.239
Mariano and I listed at least 12 GP vendors who have made the BC switch who are now in BC, Binary Stream being one of the biggest ones that I've worked with for, you know, over a decade um, they're in both products.

00:35:33.239 --> 00:35:34.902
Mccormick's now in both products.

00:35:34.902 --> 00:35:36.434
Integrity data is in both products.

00:35:36.434 --> 00:35:41.534
So people that we were used to using in the gp space are now in bc um building apps.

00:35:41.534 --> 00:35:45.443
And then we've got what is it 8 000 apps on app source for business central?

00:35:45.483 --> 00:35:50.563
now, I think it's I can't keep up I mean six, I think it was over six thousand, I think it's like I can't keep up.

00:35:50.563 --> 00:35:50.784
I mean Six.

00:35:50.784 --> 00:35:51.485
I think it was over 6,000.

00:35:51.485 --> 00:35:52.307
I think it's creeping up fairly quickly.

00:35:52.347 --> 00:35:52.708
It's still an ad.

00:35:52.708 --> 00:35:53.110
It's huge.

00:35:53.873 --> 00:35:54.942
It's massive right.

00:35:54.942 --> 00:36:06.612
There's a lot of opportunity in again with anything, yeah, so even if BC can't do it, there's probably an app already for it or somebody's building one, and so you know it's so cool.

00:36:07.132 --> 00:36:08.052
It takes time.

00:36:08.052 --> 00:36:12.315
It takes time Eventually, you know solution is going to move there.

00:36:12.315 --> 00:36:14.335
Obviously, the path is written.

00:36:14.335 --> 00:36:35.047
And just to go back to what you were saying you know earlier about migration, yeah, you really have to look at a re-implementation, a brand new implementation, because, like you said, there's some features that doesn't exist in Business Central, but there's also features in BC that never existed in GP, that they could take advantage of.

00:36:39.329 --> 00:36:40.271
So you got to look at it.

00:36:40.271 --> 00:36:40.733
All right, you did it.

00:36:40.733 --> 00:36:41.554
Now I have to go back to my thoughts.

00:36:41.594 --> 00:36:44.519
Okay, you started talking about this all right with an implementation.

00:36:45.362 --> 00:36:51.472
I like the new implementation versus migration process.

00:36:51.472 --> 00:37:03.041
You also said something in conversation where, you know, with a discovery and understanding someone's business process, for many, many years in Business Central I've seen people go through a discovery.

00:37:03.041 --> 00:37:09.599
Someone explains their process as it is today and then they say, ok, well, you need to have these modifications.

00:37:09.599 --> 00:37:13.050
We're going to make these modifications, we're going to put it into the system and have it to work with you.

00:37:13.050 --> 00:37:21.815
Okay, I'm of the mindset now and I'm going to say and I want your opinion on this and don't agree with me if you don't why do we do it that way?

00:37:21.815 --> 00:37:30.423
Why don't we say here is the application, let's put your business in it, see how it works with no modifications?

00:37:30.423 --> 00:37:38.751
Along the way, we can determine.

00:37:38.751 --> 00:37:42.023
Maybe you need a modification for a specific process or maybe you can change your process slightly to have the efficiencies of using it.

00:37:42.083 --> 00:37:43.186
Because I can't tell you.

00:37:43.186 --> 00:37:48.434
I'm furious about this in a sense, but you can't tell, because these are some of the conversations I had last week and I was talking to them.

00:37:48.434 --> 00:37:49.978
It was like why are we doing it this way?

00:37:49.978 --> 00:37:51.476
Are many partners doing it this way?

00:37:51.476 --> 00:37:54.210
Because the modification may be unnecessary?

00:37:54.210 --> 00:37:57.219
And how can you tell someone they need to make a change before they even touch it?

00:37:58.110 --> 00:38:00.416
Two, I can't tell you the amount of modifications.

00:38:00.416 --> 00:38:07.338
I went in afterwards and found they couldn't use business central a certain way because the modification prevented it, because they wanted it to go a certain way.

00:38:07.338 --> 00:38:10.724
And three, I'm not counting, but let's just pretend I said.

00:38:10.724 --> 00:38:19.722
Three, what was I going to say for three, the modification that you're making, that's a business requirement, may not be a real requirement.

00:38:19.722 --> 00:38:22.117
It may be a limitation of the previous system.

00:38:22.117 --> 00:38:27.335
Because I will go back to the very early days of my consulting One of the first implementations.

00:38:27.335 --> 00:38:34.925
I went on back when I was a young boy, because I've been doing this for a long time when I was in kindergarten and we used to do things differently.

00:38:34.945 --> 00:38:36.405
This was actually before, like the internet.

00:38:36.405 --> 00:38:37.788
We used to use pc and dial up.

00:38:37.788 --> 00:38:38.773
I said this on many episodes.

00:38:38.773 --> 00:38:39.739
I went to an implementation.

00:38:39.739 --> 00:38:48.400
We did the sales and the guys and the president of the company and the management said, well, if you can replace this president report with the vision, we'll do it.

00:38:48.400 --> 00:38:49.744
And we looked, we looked at it.

00:38:49.744 --> 00:38:50.425
We said, yeah, we can.

00:38:50.425 --> 00:38:53.016
Long story short, that was the core.

00:38:53.016 --> 00:38:57.376
One of the core requirements that they had to go to Navision at the time was Navision.

00:38:57.376 --> 00:39:00.490
They'd love the product for other things, but this was the most important report.

00:39:00.490 --> 00:39:02.456
So I said, okay, we can do it.

00:39:02.456 --> 00:39:05.682
And we looked at it and it really wasn't a big thing.

00:39:05.682 --> 00:39:09.356
But back then it was like the green paper, you know, cause everybody was coming from those old systems.

00:39:09.356 --> 00:39:14.297
So it was like this thick Right and we'd like put it on like, oh, now you can do it online, you can preview it.

00:39:14.297 --> 00:39:15.059
It was great.

00:39:16.411 --> 00:39:18.396
I traced through what they did with that report.

00:39:18.396 --> 00:39:38.077
Okay, it ended up on the president's desk.

00:39:38.077 --> 00:39:39.518
He threw it away.

00:39:39.518 --> 00:39:40.878
Why Hold on?

00:39:40.878 --> 00:39:45.641
Hold on, because that report was printed by a woman in the office.

00:39:45.641 --> 00:39:46.581
She then handed it to someone else.

00:39:46.581 --> 00:40:00.467
Implementations ask why someone's doing something, and if they can validate why they're doing it, or they can articulate why they're doing it, then it reaffirms that they're doing it the way they need to.

00:40:00.467 --> 00:40:03.788
You know, because oftentimes, how many times have you heard oh, we've always done it this way.

00:40:03.788 --> 00:40:05.068
I don't know why I'm doing that.

00:40:05.068 --> 00:40:09.335
I don't know why I put the external document number in there, but it has to be there.

00:40:09.273 --> 00:40:09.530
I understand doing that.

00:40:09.530 --> 00:40:10.753
I don't know why I put the external document number in there, but it has to be there.

00:40:10.753 --> 00:40:11.010
I understand the value.

00:40:11.530 --> 00:40:13.900
I went on a tangent.

00:40:13.900 --> 00:40:19.012
No, that's valid, brad, because we get a lot of those all the time.

00:40:19.012 --> 00:40:20.313
It's just they don't understand the value.

00:40:20.313 --> 00:40:22.697
They just did it, and they may understand why.

00:40:22.697 --> 00:40:24.360
Someone may understand go.

00:40:24.360 --> 00:40:25.342
Oh, I know why.

00:40:25.342 --> 00:40:29.798
Because our president needs it and that could be enough for them.

00:40:29.798 --> 00:40:33.518
That could be enough reason for them to want to do it, but they don't understand the value of it.

00:40:33.518 --> 00:40:36.039
You know, is it a decision-making value?

00:40:36.250 --> 00:40:38.358
I see Shannon wants to talk too, but I'm going to say the last thing.

00:40:38.358 --> 00:40:41.380
And this is why I like the re-implementation versus the migration.

00:40:41.380 --> 00:40:49.923
Because the re-implementation you talked about with the data cleanup you can get it ready for the new system versus trying to force that data over.

00:40:49.923 --> 00:40:57.759
It doesn't mean you can't report on it, like you can't put it in a data warehouse and report alongside of it.

00:40:57.759 --> 00:41:04.340
But that reimplementation, if you're just going to move bad poop over to a new system, it's still the same poop, just with different lipstick.

00:41:04.340 --> 00:41:05.934
What are your thoughts on that?

00:41:05.934 --> 00:41:06.777
I want to hear you.

00:41:06.809 --> 00:41:10.300
I think it's the same with just using these migration tools.

00:41:10.300 --> 00:41:18.581
We're taking the same processes that we did and we're assuming BC can do them, and then we're getting frustrated at BC because it doesn't do what we expected it to do.

00:41:18.581 --> 00:41:33.722
And so, having this mindset and I think you were in my session in wherever we were I go to many places Denver with DynamicsCon, where I talked about app source versus customization versus, you know, core product.

00:41:33.742 --> 00:41:35.050
We still have to do one together.

00:41:35.050 --> 00:41:36.211
We absolutely do.

00:41:36.211 --> 00:41:38.757
Let's submit it this week.

00:41:39.297 --> 00:41:42.463
We'll do it together, but it was a good session.

00:41:42.650 --> 00:41:48.793
I mean because you know we always lead with the mindset of we want to customize last and that's the way your partner should be leading.00:41:48.793 --> 00:42:00.036


And you guys it sounds like you do the same thing because you know we get into these discoveries and I always tell them we need the people actually doing the product in these discoveries, right, whoever's working in GP right now.00:42:00.036 --> 00:42:04.112


I need them on the calls, but I also want some executive people on the calls.00:42:04.112 --> 00:42:05.514


And why is that?00:42:05.514 --> 00:42:13.804


I want them to hear what their end users are doing, because a lot of times, as we get into these discoveries, the CFO will be like timeout, what the heck are we doing?00:42:13.804 --> 00:42:15.112


Like, why are we doing that?00:42:15.112 --> 00:42:16.335


They had no idea that.00:42:16.496 --> 00:42:17.860


You know someone's pressing the button.00:42:17.860 --> 00:42:19.574


They've been pressing a button for 30 years.00:42:19.574 --> 00:42:21.621


Or they're taking an Excel file.00:42:21.621 --> 00:42:26.722


They're spending two days formatting it so they can import it into a system and someone's going you do what?00:42:26.722 --> 00:42:27.922


Why are you doing that?00:42:27.922 --> 00:42:29.983


We could have integrated that you know years ago.00:42:30.063 --> 00:42:36.567


And so, um, this idea of like trying to automate as much as possible, going into a new system is my mindset.00:42:36.567 --> 00:42:49.623


Like you should try to automate as much as possible, you should try to leverage the free tools that Microsoft's giving you, um, and then you should get a fresh, clean start on your data, how you're processing and, like you said, brad, try to use the core system.00:42:49.623 --> 00:42:53.221


Like BC is a very robust system, especially compared to GP.00:42:53.221 --> 00:43:02.494


I personally think it's got more robust functionalities, especially when it comes to distribution, manufacturing, service projects like we have.00:43:02.494 --> 00:43:22.456


We have some really robust features and so why are we not trying to leverage the system first and I've come in, like you, I've come in where other partners have done the implementation I had I literally have seen customizations where their field already existed and the partner didn't know what they were doing and they created the field again and I go, can you want to personalize?00:43:22.516 --> 00:43:24.420


and I'm like, go to personalize, add field.00:43:24.420 --> 00:43:30.456


Bam, there's the field that they never saw because the partner didn't know what they were doing Too many of those.00:43:31.097 --> 00:43:51.284


And the application is evolving so rapidly and the functionality is being added that you really need to, and this goes back to where you had mentioned training and working with someone who understands the application, because the days of oh, we're just going to develop it because we don't know the application, don't work anymore.00:43:51.630 --> 00:43:53.237


I mean back in the early days in the vision.00:43:53.237 --> 00:43:57.398


I've seen people rewrite entire systems because they didn't understand how sales are processed.00:43:57.398 --> 00:44:02.489


That's not going to work because there's a carrying cost of the modification and the features that are coming out.00:44:02.489 --> 00:44:04.697


You actually do put yourself in a box.00:44:04.929 --> 00:44:15.396


In some cases it's replicating it, so kick in the tires as I call it and just go through your entire business cycle and see what works and it will save you.00:44:15.396 --> 00:44:24.201


It may sound like it's timely up front, but it will save you so much time in the end and ongoing time Developments.00:44:24.280 --> 00:44:26.561


Actually, the development option is actually.00:44:26.561 --> 00:44:39.239


I feel like it's further out now because if you look at on the NAV Navision days, brad and Shannon said where you know you look at it, can you do it out of the box, can you change your process?00:44:39.239 --> 00:44:40.028


And is there an ISV?00:44:40.028 --> 00:44:48.476


And an ISV is typically something that a partner has maybe a handful of them that they always recommend and then do development, a handful of them that they always recommend and then do development.00:44:48.476 --> 00:45:03.394


Now, with Business Central, it's now further out, not only with new features coming out consistently that Microsoft's putting out, but you know, of course, look at out of the box, can you do it, can you change your business process?00:45:03.394 --> 00:45:04.519


You look at the app source.00:45:04.519 --> 00:45:07.552


There's now thousands of choices.00:45:07.552 --> 00:45:11.702


You don't have to depend on your partner to only sell you three things.00:45:11.702 --> 00:45:20.809


Right Now you have 6,000 plus or so and then you have Power Automate as another option right Before you even do a customization.00:45:20.809 --> 00:45:27.581


So now it's extending that path for you before you even decide to do a customization.00:45:28.403 --> 00:45:28.985


It is amazing.00:45:28.985 --> 00:45:34.239


Again, I will say there are 6,000 apps or whatever the number will be whenever this is out today.00:45:34.239 --> 00:45:37.139


But just because there's 6,000 apps, it's like anything else.00:45:37.139 --> 00:45:42.358


You should evaluate those apps before you assume they're going to work well for you.00:45:42.358 --> 00:45:49.836


And I will always say anytime someone talks about apps just because two apps don't work well together doesn't mean they're bad apps.00:45:49.836 --> 00:45:53.601


So I don't like to see someone say, oh, this app doesn't work well because I tried to do this.00:45:53.601 --> 00:45:55.876


Apps have a specific function.00:45:55.876 --> 00:45:57.717


They may not work well together.00:45:57.717 --> 00:46:03.250


They may be great individually, but they may not work well together because they serve two different functions that compete each other.00:46:03.250 --> 00:46:14.159


I did see someone put in two apps that didn't work well together because one had a specific action on a field, the other one had, like the exact opposite action on the field and they wanted these.00:46:14.159 --> 00:46:20.932


You know, simply put, but they wanted these apps to work together but they didn't because they weren't intended to do the same thing.00:46:21.052 --> 00:46:23.766


Other areas were what they needed, but there was an overlap.00:46:23.786 --> 00:46:33.626


Well, and a good partner will help you figure out what those conflicts might be and then may work with both app providers to say, hey, can we slightly modify, you know one of these apps to to make it work together.00:46:33.626 --> 00:46:43.056


Um, I will say, like my relationship with binary stream, we kind of do a lot of app uh relationship building between apps that we recommend and binary stream.00:46:43.056 --> 00:46:45.932


But I always recommend to customers, like, get a partner involved.00:46:45.932 --> 00:46:49.568


When you're, you know, summit's a great, a great way to explain this.00:46:49.588 --> 00:47:01.369


You guys were in the expo hall I didn't even get through one aisle of the expo hall in two days and the the users walk in and they're like, holy, ap automation tools and ar automation tools.00:47:01.369 --> 00:47:04.923


And you know they're walking through and like this is so cool, this is great.00:47:04.923 --> 00:47:18.887


But they're talking to an isv that doesn't know their system, doesn't know their solution, doesn't know what was built and so they could fall in love with something that just is not going to work in their you know, their current environment, their current status.00:47:18.887 --> 00:47:22.003


So that's where your partner having a good relationship with your partner comes along.00:47:22.003 --> 00:47:35.972


Who can give you like good advice and say yeah, that'll work or that won't work, because you know it's overwhelming for a customer to try to figure that out on their own oh it is, and they can find every it is shiny new, uh, shiny new object, which is good too.00:47:36.494 --> 00:47:38.041


So I went on that tangent.00:47:38.041 --> 00:47:46.853


I don't know if you, anyone, I give anyone even the chance to respond, but that's kind of been the thing that has been on my mind for the past several months, as I'm seeing these implementations.00:47:47.394 --> 00:47:51.451


It's developed last and, like you said, it's, it's aj.00:47:51.451 --> 00:48:02.043


I did the development uh track or academy session prior to, and we even did something where I created an api page quickly to expose some information.00:48:02.043 --> 00:48:04.068


Aj then was able to again.00:48:04.068 --> 00:48:07.556


We did this live how quickly it was to create an api.00:48:07.556 --> 00:48:21.030


And then AJ was able to develop because he does really well with Power Platform as well was able to create something in Power Platform to ingest that API to read some of the data so they can then go continue to process.00:48:21.030 --> 00:48:32.726


So it's important to take a look at the stack that's available to you and how you can solve a solution, because anything that you put in, you do have that carrying cost with you to maintain that as you move forward.00:48:32.905 --> 00:48:42.900


So, taking advantage to piggyback on that something that I'm seeing because we've inherited, you know, a couple dozen customers in the last year, um, cleanup work, uh, from another partner.00:48:42.900 --> 00:48:56.335


But I will say, uh, one of the worst things that we're seeing is that we have customers who have code that they don't even know what the code does, why the code's there.00:48:56.335 --> 00:48:59.103


The partner created the code as like a PTE.00:48:59.103 --> 00:49:16.436


There's no GitHub, there's no DevOps, there's no deployment tool that this code is kept in, nobody has contact with it, and so what I'm seeing is a lot of I'll call them ad hoc developers creating code and then just leaving it stranded for these customers to deal with, and it's such a horrible practice.00:49:16.436 --> 00:49:18.655


It's terrible because-.00:49:19.010 --> 00:49:22.032


You're going to get me on a fire right now Steve Andrew and.00:49:22.032 --> 00:49:23.315


I talked about this at that point.00:49:25.349 --> 00:49:31.302


I'm just going to be quiet because I want to have another episode on that and I'm trying to line that up, but you just triggered me.00:49:31.302 --> 00:49:32.387


I'm a functional person.00:49:32.387 --> 00:49:34.056


I'm a functional person.00:49:34.170 --> 00:49:37.840


It's frustrating for me because you know we're working with one customer we just inherited.00:49:37.840 --> 00:49:45.059


We have code in their environment that's named after SOWs, or work orders, so it's like QX-75.00:49:45.059 --> 00:49:48.259


No description of what the code does.00:49:48.259 --> 00:49:53.784


It's sitting there and we can't download the code and the customer doesn't know where the code is and the developers aren't responding.00:49:53.784 --> 00:50:07.652


And so here we are with this customization that the only thing we can do is uninstall it and see what breaks wait, wait, wait wait, wait, because then you get that email saying oh, your extension's not compatible with 25.00:50:07.594 --> 00:50:08.237


You need 20 emails over the weekend.00:50:08.237 --> 00:50:09.867


20 emails over the weekend against 25 saying saying oh, your extension's not compatible with version 25.00:50:09.867 --> 00:50:10.030


You need to upgrade it.00:50:10.030 --> 00:50:16.396


20 emails over the weekend 20 emails over the weekend against 25, saying all of these extensions are going to break.00:50:16.769 --> 00:50:18.556


Wait, I got 20 emails from somebody too.00:50:18.556 --> 00:50:20.416


I have to see if you're on that same list 20 emails.00:50:22.394 --> 00:50:24.280


No, but it's not about the functional side too.00:50:24.280 --> 00:50:37.768


I mean, you look at it from a business aspect of you trying your very best to save this client and you literally can't do much if nothing is documented, which is really, really frustrating.00:50:37.788 --> 00:50:38.570


Yeah, 100%.00:50:40.898 --> 00:50:43.153


It is, and, as a partner, anybody who's doing it, you know.00:50:43.153 --> 00:50:51.009


Again, as a business owner, again, they work with partners or they work with other consultants, individuals, because you don't have to have a partner for some of these things.00:50:51.009 --> 00:50:58.420


Right, you can work with people, work with independent consultants, but all the independent consultants, all the partners, and should work with the customers to educate them.00:50:58.420 --> 00:50:59.835


And customers should also be educated.00:50:59.835 --> 00:51:07.873


If somebody is making a modification for me, I should have access to that code, right, unless it's an app or an ISV or IP that they're purchasing.00:51:07.873 --> 00:51:09.516


Again, depends on your arrangement, your agreement.00:51:09.516 --> 00:51:17.918


But they do not realize how hurtful it could be to their business, to the point where, depending on what it is, you could shut them down if it's no longer compatible.00:51:17.918 --> 00:51:21.043


Nobody can edit or nobody touches, nobody knows what it does, and automated testing.00:51:21.043 --> 00:51:27.219


You need to make sure you have deployment against future releases and all of that we won't get into that, but I will say this from a gp from00:51:27.900 --> 00:51:32.717


a gp to bc perspective though just to reel it back into the conversation we're having today.00:51:32.717 --> 00:51:35.389


In gp world it was probably similar to nav world.00:51:35.389 --> 00:51:41.137


You could build a customization and then never upgrade gp, and so you never worried about this code until you had to do an upgrade.00:51:41.137 --> 00:51:50.378


And this is why a lot of on-prem customers just an upgrade, because they didn't want to deal with the cost of upgrading their their you essentially what they created in GP.00:51:50.378 --> 00:51:53.543


And so now you don't have a choice, right?00:51:53.543 --> 00:51:59.601


You've got that five month window to figure out something, some kind of game plan, with your code.00:51:59.601 --> 00:52:09.974


And so it's good for those GP customers to be aware that you are partly responsible for your own code, making sure you know where your code is, making sure someone can support it.00:52:10.735 --> 00:52:14.103


I've seen a lot of GP customers come in and they're like oh, I can do AL.00:52:14.103 --> 00:52:17.358


They watch some Eric Hogard videos, and they're like I'm just gonna.00:52:17.358 --> 00:52:24.375


I love Eric, but everyone who I talk to who is like an ad hoc developer that you know they, they watch some YouTubes.00:52:24.375 --> 00:52:26.297


And so now they're like okay, I can do AL.00:52:26.297 --> 00:52:28.181


And I'm like well, guys, where's your repo?00:52:28.181 --> 00:52:29.141


Oh, we don't have a repo.00:52:29.141 --> 00:52:31.425


We just opened this up in Visual Studio and coded it.00:52:31.505 --> 00:52:35.239


I'm like hmm, yeah, I mean, that's not the intention of what Eric's doing.00:52:35.239 --> 00:52:52.237


Eric's is geared towards more developers and showing them, but, like you said, it's people take this and they're like oh, I'm now an AL developer code upload, so it's the responsibility and also keeping up with the upgrades, because you do have to keep up with the upgrades.00:52:52.349 --> 00:53:04.179


You know it's cool that Microsoft's releasing hundreds of new features next month, but a lot of customers just assume that the partners are going to take responsibility in BC world to do the testing and all of that for them.00:53:04.179 --> 00:53:09.054


So there's an ownership that I'm seeing A lot of partners are not explaining to their customers.00:53:09.054 --> 00:53:12.643


Right, as we go live, we're like okay, we're going to do admin center training.00:53:12.643 --> 00:53:17.411


They're like what's admin center?00:53:17.411 --> 00:53:21.530


I'm like this is what you're going to be responsible for as a customer, of maintaining your upgrades, knowing when your upgrades are coming, setting your upgrade windows.00:53:21.530 --> 00:53:26.454


I want them to know because if they ever want to leave me, they should know.00:53:26.454 --> 00:53:28.577


Hey, this is when upgrades happen.00:53:28.577 --> 00:53:31.081


This is what I need to do and this is the testing I need to do.00:53:31.081 --> 00:53:33.063


We didn't worry about that in GP world.00:53:33.063 --> 00:53:35.465


You know it's just like you upgraded when you planned it.00:53:40.315 --> 00:53:40.936


That's good yeah.00:53:41.036 --> 00:53:42.657


It's the days of Oto, which is good.00:53:42.657 --> 00:53:47.824


But just to jump onto another thing we talked about, I'm going to quiz you before I talk about the next thing.00:53:47.824 --> 00:53:48.505


Did you we?00:53:48.525 --> 00:53:48.786


talked about.00:53:48.786 --> 00:53:50.407


I'm going to quiz you before I talk about the next thing did you.00:53:50.447 --> 00:53:51.289


Did you get a sticker.00:53:51.409 --> 00:54:00.248


I didn't get a sticker and I didn't get a little badge for my lanyard wait, whoa Chris oh, I got some for you.00:54:00.268 --> 00:54:05.570


You didn't get her a sticker in a pen, so I will tell you this if you can get it to me by Thursday next week.00:54:05.590 --> 00:54:09.945


Then I will wear it in Vienna in honor of both you who I know can't go to Vienna.00:54:09.945 --> 00:54:10.967


So Chris.00:54:11.148 --> 00:54:12.271


Yes, send it over to her.00:54:12.271 --> 00:54:13.175


Chris has them.00:54:13.195 --> 00:54:15.181


Send me send me your address.00:54:15.181 --> 00:54:15.541


Do you have?00:54:15.561 --> 00:54:16.925


stickers too, to send her.00:54:16.925 --> 00:54:17.929


You can distribute them.00:54:17.929 --> 00:54:21.001


Yeah, send her a pack pins, because you know I love stickers.00:54:21.061 --> 00:54:24.126


I've got, I love stickers, but I have stickers.00:54:24.126 --> 00:54:30.356


Oh, I love the shirts too, fancy, I love it so I will say this look at that.00:54:30.740 --> 00:54:46.327


I know we're talking about me, um, but I'd love to talk about you guys because I was telling brad, uh, I just did the long drive to texas and back for summit with my son and I listened to probably at least 12 of your episodes on the road, and so I normally don't get to watch these.00:54:46.327 --> 00:54:48.606


I get to listen to them, but it is really.00:54:48.606 --> 00:54:55.987


I really appreciate what you guys are doing, cause it's really cool that I get to hear what some other partners are doing and Microsoft's doing and ISVs are doing.00:54:55.987 --> 00:55:00.248


Like it's really kind of cool to listen in and and great to be part of this.00:55:02.139 --> 00:55:04.664


So thank to listen in and and, uh great to be part of this.00:55:04.684 --> 00:55:05.246


So thank you for inviting me.00:55:05.246 --> 00:55:06.228


No, we appreciate it, we appreciate your time.00:55:06.228 --> 00:55:09.380


Again, I tell everybody, time is the precious resource of life.00:55:09.440 --> 00:55:19.889


It's the currency that once you spend it, you can't get it back, and who you spend your time with, or what you spend your time doing, you have to be uh conscientious of, because that's time that, again, you're not getting back.00:55:19.889 --> 00:55:28.467


Uh, speaking of that, and gp moving on, we used to have this fabulous gp, or we still do.00:55:28.467 --> 00:55:32.199


I guess you could say I don't go but like a gp online party.00:55:32.199 --> 00:55:45.936


At summit right this year, there was a new bc called the BC bash, which I am happy to see.00:55:45.936 --> 00:55:47.085


We have a BC bash.00:55:47.085 --> 00:55:54.532


It was the first annual BC bash, which also was the brainchild I guess you could call it of you and Tanya.00:55:54.771 --> 00:55:56.726


Yeah, I'll give you a little backstory on that.00:55:58.661 --> 00:55:59.724


I do want to hear the backstory.00:55:59.724 --> 00:56:04.690


That's what I was going to ask you and I'm going to say this is Nashville will be crazy.00:56:04.690 --> 00:56:04.972


That's all.00:56:04.972 --> 00:56:05.614


I'm want to hear the backstory.00:56:05.634 --> 00:56:07.277


So I was going to ask you and I'm going to say this is Nashville will be crazy.00:56:07.277 --> 00:56:07.840


That's all I'm going to say.00:56:08.900 --> 00:56:10.005


I'm not even saying anything else.00:56:10.005 --> 00:56:19.311


I'm looking forward to Orlando next year and seeing what the BC bash is going to be, but I have a feeling Anyway.00:56:19.612 --> 00:56:20.152


Yeah, it was.00:56:20.152 --> 00:56:27.954


It was very funny because I woke up the morning of the party and I was like, oh my gosh, we're hosting a party today, like you know.00:56:27.954 --> 00:56:39.862


It's just the magnitude of doing that, because chris dawkins and I have been very good friends I don't know if a lot of people know that, but he owns power gp online longevity been very good friends with him and melissa for a long time in fact.00:56:39.862 --> 00:56:41.726


We'll always go to their party and support them.00:56:41.726 --> 00:56:48.385


And, um, I was with tanya a few years ago and we were like we should do a roller skating party at one of these conferences.00:56:48.385 --> 00:56:58.362


Like we had this idea of doing a glow-in-the-dark roller skating party, um, and then we thought alcohol, roller skates, liability, and yeah, maybe we're not able to do this.00:56:58.362 --> 00:57:00.405


Yeah, broken fingers, broken fingers.00:57:00.405 --> 00:57:04.653


So that kind of went down the yeah, broken necks, chris, broken necks.00:57:04.719 --> 00:57:06.106


You fall, you break your leg and your neck.00:57:07.320 --> 00:57:10.527


I thought fingers would be calming because you fall and you try to catch yourself.00:57:10.840 --> 00:57:16.527


Yeah, we don't want injured consultants or users, and so last, year we were in.00:57:16.547 --> 00:57:19.940


Portugal, people that don't know Tanya and I travel a lot together.00:57:19.940 --> 00:57:21.302


You know, tanya and I travel a lot together.00:57:21.302 --> 00:57:23.224


We both do kind of similar things.00:57:23.224 --> 00:57:24.344


We don't compete against each other.00:57:24.344 --> 00:57:31.731


We've been good friends for a long time now and so we travel together and we'll be in Budapest next weekend together planning next year.00:57:31.811 --> 00:57:38.097


But we were in Portugal and we're sitting there over a glass of wine and we're like we really need to have a BC party.00:57:38.097 --> 00:57:46.528


And mostly because GP was a very tight-kn knit community, it was for a long time like GPug grew and grew and it was huge and everyone was very tight.00:57:46.528 --> 00:57:49.347


And so the PowerGP party celebrating the GP community.00:57:49.347 --> 00:57:50.731


We loved that idea of it.00:57:50.731 --> 00:57:56.788


And so now you've got the GP people switching over to BC and there was no BC party.00:57:56.788 --> 00:58:00.706


And we're like well, this kind of stinks, do you go back to the GP party every year and just be a BC user?00:58:00.706 --> 00:58:03.679


And so we had this idea're like, well, this kind of stinks, do you go back to the GP party every year and just be a BC user?00:58:03.840 --> 00:58:06.849


And so we had this idea of like what if we did a similar party?00:58:06.849 --> 00:58:09.389


We did not intend on having it in the same venue.00:58:09.389 --> 00:58:17.420


It's very funny that the Dobkins and I both planned the same venue without knowing we announced within like a week of each other and both at the same venue.00:58:17.420 --> 00:58:19.527


But yeah, it was just.00:58:19.527 --> 00:58:20.550


It was really interesting.00:58:20.550 --> 00:58:25.364


But that party we had, I think, close to 750 people our first year.00:58:25.364 --> 00:58:39.030


We had mike morton out on the dance floor and, uh, blage and kenny and everyone having a great time dancing and having a good time no, I went over there, it was it was a pretty nice event and, uh, it was also co-sponsored by.00:58:39.050 --> 00:58:39.791


We did so.00:58:39.791 --> 00:58:40.393


We had a notice.00:58:40.393 --> 00:58:43.226


We had erp connect consulting, which has been colin, all of his tools that he's building and it was also co-sponsored by we did.00:58:43.246 --> 00:58:44.489


We had some co-sponsors also for putting on the podcast.00:58:44.489 --> 00:58:52.750


We had ERP Connect Consulting, which has been Cole and all of his tools that he's building for Business Central, and then my buddy, my lifelong buddy and friend, anthony from Cosmos.00:58:52.750 --> 00:58:57.753


We go way, way back so to have those sponsors come in the first year and it was funny.00:58:57.753 --> 00:59:02.663


I asked a lot of ISPs and sponsors to be part of it and they were like I don't know.00:59:02.663 --> 00:59:14.728


You know we have already our sponsorship money and now we have like a line of people who want to sponsor next year, which is great because we need it I was going to say I bet you do, because that was such a success that it was on there.00:59:15.429 --> 00:59:22.150


Um, I, I was able, I was fortunate enough to to go for a short period of time myself too, when, when I put on the nice fluorescent glasses.00:59:23.442 --> 00:59:24.385


The blue drinks were good.00:59:24.385 --> 00:59:25.963


Actually, that was Mike.00:59:25.963 --> 00:59:27.889


Wharton's favorite drink the BC Buzz.00:59:27.889 --> 00:59:30.648


I was buying him drinks and I said, mike, what do you like?00:59:30.820 --> 00:59:32.525


He says ooh, I really like this BC Buzz.00:59:32.547 --> 00:59:33.188


This is good.00:59:36.119 --> 00:59:36.460


So all.00:59:36.460 --> 00:59:39.724


I have to say is for next year is I just need to make sure I just have that VIP?00:59:39.744 --> 00:59:47.554


Yes, so next year we are planning on having unlimited drinks and VIP passes for the BC folks, so that'll be really exciting.00:59:47.554 --> 00:59:49.976


You know we're an open community party.00:59:49.976 --> 01:00:06.032


We don't we're not going to discriminate, but it is cool to celebrate with the BC community and members and users, and some of the people that were at our party were actually GP users considering moving to BC, so they got to see how fun the BC community is and, yeah, that's what it was and again it is.01:00:06.112 --> 01:00:06.233


It's.01:00:06.233 --> 01:00:08.034


It's the BC community.01:00:08.034 --> 01:00:09.054


You're talking about the GP community.01:00:09.054 --> 01:00:11.956


I'm not going to take away from that because I don't.01:00:11.956 --> 01:00:19.186


I can't even comment on it because I'm not part of it, nor have I attended any of the events.01:00:19.206 --> 01:00:33.201


But the BC community, really is a tight knit community, even more so now than it was many years ago, and I think it's because we all have to move forward together and that community is partners, and partners as well as customers included in that too, because there are many customers that talk with many partners when they're there.01:00:33.201 --> 01:00:38.519


They, you know, share knowledge and share stories, so I'm very appreciative that you had the BC badge.01:00:38.699 --> 01:00:39.661


I'm looking forward to it.01:00:39.661 --> 01:00:45.773


As soon as you know, I complained about having to register, but as soon as the registration, opens up, I'll register for that one.01:00:47.340 --> 01:00:48.083


But I was able to get in.01:00:48.083 --> 01:00:49.230


I do want to say something.01:00:50.103 --> 01:00:52.019


Even without my registration, I managed to get in.01:00:52.099 --> 01:01:00.027


Because, as I was getting ready and just thinking about talking about this topic today, I want to think of like BC and GP as the data, the data or not the dataverse.01:01:00.027 --> 01:01:02.532


We like the dataverse but the multiverse.01:01:02.532 --> 01:01:06.992


So my I'm a single mom of two boys, so I know all the marvel movies.01:01:06.992 --> 01:01:10.222


I've watched them since my kids were little, which you know.01:01:10.423 --> 01:01:34.612


For a girl, you usually don't know all these movies, but spider-man right lived in two alternate universes and he didn't know they both existed and so I kind of like to think of that as the gp and bc communities coming together, like we both lived in different universes yeah, that is, and we're in one, even the old nav partners and the mbps are like the avengers.01:01:34.612 --> 01:01:35.615


We're all helping.01:01:35.615 --> 01:01:41.148


You know everyone come together into one universe and you know, trying trying to save the products.01:01:43.260 --> 01:01:45.603


And that soundtrack you play that soundtrack.01:01:45.603 --> 01:01:46.567


Wait, man.01:01:47.121 --> 01:01:49.661


Wait, wait wait, wait wait, wait, wait.01:01:50.465 --> 01:01:51.380


I want to be Captain.01:01:51.420 --> 01:01:52.885


America Wait.01:01:53.204 --> 01:01:53.706


Chris, what are?01:01:53.726 --> 01:01:58.248


you, let's do this, let's do this next year.01:01:58.288 --> 01:02:00.065


Because we're going to be in Orlando right.01:02:00.840 --> 01:02:03.028


Orlando, the world of Marvel and Disney.01:02:03.028 --> 01:02:13.251


You can do the GP parties of one universe right the alternate universe, or you can have you know, costume parties of the other one.01:02:13.460 --> 01:02:14.885


But then you can have it themed right.01:02:14.980 --> 01:02:16.947


This year you did the theme with the neon and everything.01:02:16.947 --> 01:02:17.608


It was beautiful.01:02:17.608 --> 01:02:29.202


Like I like the theme right With the ice cubes.01:02:29.222 --> 01:02:30.385


The neon glasses, the bracelets, everything that was neon.01:02:30.385 --> 01:02:31.148


Is it called neon glow in the dark.01:02:31.148 --> 01:02:33.699


But in orlando I kind of like this because we would be very close to universal yeah, it's a perfect spot for it.01:02:35.403 --> 01:02:38.231


We'll be there for universal and disney marvel.01:02:38.231 --> 01:02:41.514


No, it's a disney um my kids would be yelling at me right now, mom.01:02:41.514 --> 01:02:41.867


That's not universal.01:02:41.867 --> 01:02:42.525


It'd be pretty at Disney, my kids would be yelling at me right now, mom.01:02:42.525 --> 01:02:42.817


That's not universal.01:02:44.119 --> 01:02:45.525


It'd be pretty cool for characters.01:02:45.846 --> 01:02:46.628


But that would be good.01:02:46.628 --> 01:02:48.905


That would be close to Halloween.01:02:49.405 --> 01:02:54.766


Yes, see, if you have a big BC Halloween, bash Big ideas coming next week.01:02:54.940 --> 01:03:11.728


But yeah, no, I think it's really cool that we have these two universes coming together and I think that is something that the customers are seeing is that the unity of the GP partners who are learning and moving over, still supporting their GP customers but now engrossing into this BC world that we now get to be part of.01:03:11.728 --> 01:03:12.851


It's really kind of cool.01:03:12.851 --> 01:03:28.268


And you know, bc Navug had a very strong robust group and GPug had a very strong robust group, and so now you bring these two groups together with people who are very passionate and I think the GP users, as they're learning to love BC, they'll become part of that BC community as well.01:03:28.268 --> 01:03:33.445


So I expect the BC Bash will just continue to grow, because that community is going to continue to grow.01:03:34.228 --> 01:03:39.219


Yeah, yeah, and I like your message there about the two universes coming together.01:03:39.219 --> 01:03:39.621


It's so cool.01:03:39.621 --> 01:03:43.846


I together, I didn't know you guys, but I do like the message Six seven years ago I didn't know.01:03:44.266 --> 01:03:49.824


you know all of you and everybody who's part of the VC Navog board and advisory and programming committee.01:03:49.824 --> 01:03:58.925


Like we both lived in the same universe summit, but we didn't know each other, which is just wild to say, okay, I didn't know these folks and now they're my friends.01:03:59.989 --> 01:04:06.411


It is, it's been really kind of cool honestly yeah, it is great it is.01:04:06.411 --> 01:04:08.963


It's been amazing.01:04:08.983 --> 01:04:20.239


And definitely would like to thank you for your time today, taking the time to speak with us to share your knowledge on what customers can do to prepare for GP, what partners can do to prepare for GP and then also some of the differentiators of it.01:04:20.340 --> 01:04:32.469


And also thank you again for putting on a celebration or sponsoring a celebration with the other sponsors for the summit conference, because it does make for a little fun at the conference and it's nice to have something where a lot of people can go to.01:04:32.469 --> 01:04:36.161


And again, you said you had 700 plus individuals attend.01:04:36.161 --> 01:04:43.963


So it's nice to have a venue that, after the sessions, can get out, relax and it's big enough where you can meet several different people.01:04:43.963 --> 01:04:51.271


See, that's the big part of it is having a venue that you can have that many people where you can find people to talk to, uh, while you're going through it.01:04:51.271 --> 01:04:53.608


You just need to have a quiet room so people can talk.01:04:53.608 --> 01:04:54.873


That's all, uh.01:04:54.873 --> 01:05:09.588


But if anybody would like to get in contact with you to learn a little bit more on how you can help them learn how to use Business Central, migrate their GP not migrate, excuse me, re-implement their system in Business Central from GP or even implementation services.01:05:09.780 --> 01:05:11.226


Yeah, so several ways.01:05:11.226 --> 01:05:17.367


You can go to my main website, which is abccgroupcom, so we've got a full website there.01:05:17.367 --> 01:05:18.543


We've got a contact us form.01:05:18.543 --> 01:05:19.849


You can follow me on Twitter.01:05:19.849 --> 01:05:25.648


I'm at one shannon mullen one um without an s, that was taken um.01:05:25.648 --> 01:05:28.503


And then I'm very, very active on linkedin um, as you both know.01:05:28.623 --> 01:05:42.168


so, uh, just look me up on on linkedin, you'll find me and follow me there we'll put a link to your linkedin profile on there and uh, so I just can contact you and again we appreciate your time and thank you for all that you do.01:05:42.168 --> 01:05:45.021


I know we're really appreciative of it and you're doing a lot of great things.01:05:45.021 --> 01:05:50.121


And I will say for the record, like I told you at the conference, I think your name's genius.01:05:50.121 --> 01:05:51.605


That's all I'm going to tell you.01:05:51.605 --> 01:05:54.672


The company name is just marketing genius.01:05:54.692 --> 01:05:56.443


You and I had a long conversation about it.01:05:56.443 --> 01:06:01.030


I don't need to say anymore, but I will go on the record and say, like I told you when we were speaking, I think it's genius.01:06:01.030 --> 01:06:03.695


Thank you, guys, thank you.01:06:03.835 --> 01:06:07.242


Thank you again, have a good afternoon Bye.01:06:10.005 --> 01:06:17.061


Thank you, Chris, for your time for another episode of In the Dynamics Corner Chair and thank you to our guests for participating.01:06:17.380 --> 01:06:18.922


Thank you, brad, for your time.01:06:18.922 --> 01:06:22.443


It is a wonderful episode of Dynamics Corner Chair.01:06:22.443 --> 01:06:25.907


I would also like to thank our guests for joining us.01:06:25.907 --> 01:06:28.929


Thank you for all of our listeners tuning in as well.01:06:28.929 --> 01:06:43.438


You can find Brad at developerlifecom, that is D-V-L-P-R-L-I-F-Ecom, and you can interact with them via Twitter D-V-L-P-R-L-I-F-E.01:06:43.438 --> 01:06:56.791


You can also find me at Mattalinoio, m-a-t-a-l-i-n-o dot I-O, and my Twitter handle is Mattalino16.01:06:56.791 --> 01:07:00.487


And you can see those links down below in the show notes.01:07:00.487 --> 01:07:01.831


Again, thank you everyone.01:07:01.831 --> 01:07:03.405


Thank you and take care.
Shannon Mullins Profile Photo

Shannon Mullins

CEO | MVP

Chief Executive Officer and Founder of A BC Consulting Group Dynamics practice in Nashville, TN.

Certified Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Functional Consultant

Former roles include: Chief Revenue Officer, Dynamics Senior Consultant, Corporate Controller, Senior Accountant

• Motivational leader
• Proven Sales performance
• Microsoft Dynamics ERP Specialist
• Reporting Guru
• Corporate Trainer
• iInternational Conference Speaker

Analytical, self-driven and accomplished software leader with a wide variety of experience in several industries.

Excellent management, project management and implementation skills. Top performer in demo and pre-sales of software.

Over 20 years of accounting and management experience.

Proven success in the oversight of the corporate accounting function. An excellent leader committed to financial oversight in alignment to GAAP, cost management, and internal controls. Strong combination of software knowledge with exemplary management, verbal and written communication skills.

Extensive software knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics 365, Business Central, Office 365, Dynamics GP, Dynamics NAV, CRM, QuickBooks, QuickBooks Online, Ceridian PR/HR, SQL , ODBC, Power BI, Visual Studio, SQL Report Builder, SSRS Reporting, Crystal Reports, Excel, and Access.

Corporate and national conference trainer & speaker.

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