Navigating Technology- Julie Yack's Blog

Every business uses technology.  This is business management software, or business applications. These business applications can be quite simple or quite complicated.

Microsoft’s Business Applications include a suite of products and services called Dynamics 365. Dynamics 365 applications can be organized into a few different groups.

Sales and marketing

Service

Finance

Commerce

Supply chain

Within the sales and marketing group you will find Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Marketing, and Dynamics 365 Customer Insights.

Within the service group you will find Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Dynamics 365 Field Service, Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, and Dynamics 365 Customer Voice.

In the finance group you will find Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Project Operations and Dynamics 365 Human Resources.

In the commerce group you will find Dynamics 365 Commerce, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Fraud Protection, Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management, Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Dynamics 365 Marketing.

Within the supply chain group, you will find Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Insights, and Dynamics 365 Guides.

You probably noticed that a few of the products I mentioned were repeated.  That’s because these products are versatile and can support businesses in different ways.

Additionally, these products are built to work directly with other Microsoft products such as Microsoft Teams, Power Bi, LinkedIn Sales Navigator and more. 

Dynamics 365 products also work well with products made and maintained outside the scope of Microsoft.  These are called integrations.  Some of these integrations require a simple plug-and-play connector and others require a professional developer to write code to allow communications between the systems to share data and actions.

These Microsoft Business Applications are robust and solve many business problems.  They are also configurable to allow businesses to offer users the applications they need to do their jobs.  They are also customizable to allow professionals to pick and choose what to offer users with a strong foundation of the Dynamics apps.

Careers in Dynamics 365 are quite varied.

Let’s think about what it takes to make and support business software.

First you have to plan and design the solutions. This requires industry experts who understand what the business needs.  You’ll need someone to capture and document the needs and solutions.  And you’ll need a solution architect to orchestrate the overall solution to be made.

Then you need to build the solution that was just planned.  If this is with Dynamics 365, you will need professionals skilled in configuration of the apps, who also understand the requirements of the business.  Sometimes you need professional developers to write code to build these applications.  You need team members proficient in automation.  You need a team to test the solutions.  You need someone to train users.  And so on.

This is of course an over-simplified narrative.  But the point is that with Dynamics 365 you can find great career opportunities for skilled professionals. 

Looking to learn more about Dynamics 365?  Join our user group for learning.  https://aka.ms/BAPCommunity  

Wow, it's been a hot minute since we've all met in person, no?

I am immunocompromised and as vaccinated as vaccinated can be.  My doctor and I decided I can travel again, even speak at events.  So, come October, I'll be out there with you all.

I had written a post about being prepared for an event (CRMUG Summit 2016 to be precise).  And it is all still good advice.  But now we have to add a a few more items to the list.

• We all missed in-person events, but many of us are still terrified of germs and have spent the last few years avoiding them.  Please don't be the person that gets me (or other vulnerable people) sick.  If you suspect you have an active contagious anything, stay home this round.
  
  
• Don't be offended when someone like me is wearing a mask, or asks your vaccination status before giving that hug (can we establish a V hand signal, like V for victory and V for vaccinated??).  There are still people dying from COVID and flu.  I'd rather not be one of them.
  
  
• Remember what we all loved about being in person.  Talking about the cool things we've been doing.  Sharing our stories from the field. Learning from each other.
  
  
• Be forgiving.  We've all had an isolating couple of years.  We may have lost some of our social skills, we may have gained a few pounds, many have lost loved ones.
  
  
• Be smart. Wash your hands often.  See a sanitizer station- use it.  Don't sneeze or cough toward others.
  
  I'm really getting excited about seeing my community again.  I really did miss you all.
  
  
  
  Original list:
• Minimize distractions back at the office. Work extra hard now to avoid the trap of trying to work AND attend the conference. If you find yourself replying to emails three times in every session you attend, you aren’t really going to get much out of the session. If you have to keep up with the folks back at work, set aside time and plan for a session to spend working in a quiet corner instead of being partially engaged in several sessions.
• To ease the stress of leaving behind people at the office that would rather be at the conference with you, get their questions to take with you. What are their burning questions or concerns? Make sure you find the answers and resources to take back with you. Share the schedule with them in advance and then set up a lunch-and-learn the week you return and share your new knowledge and skills.
• Dress for comfort. Now, I will say no jammies for sure. But also, not a suit. Good shoes are the best thing you can bring. Promise.
• Stash some good snacks in your bag. You may find yourself in a great discussion and miss a conference meal or break. So grab some granola bars, some durable candy, whatever helps you make it to the meal later on. And drink water. You will be walking more than you plan, avoid dehydration.
• Every speaker, planner, expert is approachable, so approach them. Raise your hand in the session. Wait after the talk to ask your question. Find them at lunch and sit at the same table. Go to the medics’ station. They are there to share their knowledge. So let them.
• Plan your sessions in advance, mostly. Be open to last minute choices.
• Get yourself a fresh CRM trial before you go so you can immediately try that new cool thing you learned. Ok, get at least THREE new free trials. I suggest one that is bare, one that specializes (like sales or service) and one with a solution like Field Service or Project Service in it. Different things work different ways with added customizations or data.
• Take notes. Doesn’t matter if you’re a pen and paper person (me too!), if you like to scribble on your tablet or if you type it all organized. Take notes. I promise you won’t remember it all the next day.
• There will be booze. Don’t be THAT person that acts a fool and gets everyone to pull out their cameras and you find yourself rather embarrassed.
• Make friends, make memories.

Both Dave and I have worked for the “BIG” publishers and while there’s nothing wrong with that, one day we decided that we could do this publishing thing ourselves (ok, he did and kinda dragged me kicking and screaming).  Well, once again, my hubby proved to be smarter than I and this was a great idea.  Our 4th book together has been released, the full on marketing push started yesterday and today the global press releases went out.  There’s a link below where Yahoo! Finance picked it up.

The new book, Silverlight + CRM is a great resource for CRM developers that need to get up to speed on Silverlight and how to make it work well with Dynamics CRM 2011.  This is a need I have seen over and over again.  This comes up with clients, friends, user groups.  We hope to fill a gap and get other professionals up to speed and making some great software.  This book covers where others have not yet.  Go to Amazon and search for Silverlight CRM and the results are few!

We’ve got code samples/library and you’ve got direct access to the author/editor/publisher like you wouldn’t have from one of the big guys.

The book retails for $69.99 print and $29.99 for electronic.  Head over and use these discount codes directly on our site.

And yes, we are fast at work on the revised CRM as a Rapid Development Platform book with CRM 2011 content.  It’s CLOSE.

Using Silverlight with Your Dynamics CRM 2011 from Industry Guru David Yack - Yahoo! Finance