Every company is in the service industry, right? Expert pointers for how to best perform for your best accounts from Inc. Magazine.

1. Be accessible. Be very accessible.
2. Mind the customer’s mood.
3. Bring expertise to the table.
4. Make sure your staff is equipped.
5. Know the competition.
6. Be innovative.
7. Don’t fear the online tools.
8. Nurture your relationships.
9. Add value to your relationship.
10. When in doubt, ask what your customers want.

Read the full article for all the details and more great advice on 10 Ways to Support Your Best Customers.

Participate in the survey: What is your biggest concern as we head into the 2nd half of 2011?.

I enjoyed reading about how quick decisions can impact culture in Rework, by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier. Here are some highlights and thoughts:

When you put off decisions, they pile up. Piles end up ignored, dealt with in haste, or thrown out. As a result, the individual problems stay unresolved. Whenever you can, swap ”Let’s think about it” for “Lets decide”. Commit to making decisions. Don’t wait for the perfect solution. Decide and move forward.

When you get in a flow of making decision after decision, you build momentum and boost morale. Decisions are progress. Each one you make is a brick in your foundation. You can’t build on ”Lets decide later”, but you can build on ”Done”.

Don’t postpone decisions in the hope the perfect answer will come to you later. It won’t. You are as likely to make a great call today as you are tomorrow. It doesn’t matter how much you plan, you will still get some stuff wrong. Don’t make things worse by over-analyzing and delaying. Long projects zap morale. The longer it takes to develop, the less likely it is to launch. You don’t have to live with a decision forever. If you make a mistake, you can always correct it later.

Make the call, make progress—get something out now, while you’ve got the motivation. When we model a culture of quick decision-making we’ll also build a motivated, optimistic environment, and amazing momentum.

Hunger is a silent epidemic that stretches all across America. One in six Americans live in hunger. Many are hard working families forced to go without meals often for days at a time. Watch this video to see how eSoftware Professionals helps Feeding America, the Nation’s leading hunger relief charity, harnesses the power of Microsoft Dynamics NAV to deliver over three billion pounds of food quickly and efficiently across the country to help those in need.

Feeding America Video

Watch this short video Helpful Tips to modify Word Templates in Dynamics GP. You’ll learn how to work with Gridlines and Bookmarks.

Adding Gridlines allows you to see the tables and cells that are part of the Word Template documents. Gridlines also ensure that new fields added to the report are within a table or cell and not places within blank space on the document.

GP 2010 Word Template documents contain Bookmarks that are essentially the indicators of start and stop points of the data. Adding Bookmarks in Word Options insures they are not deleted by mistake. Missing Bookmarks will cause data to not populate on the document.

Check out this article, “How Microsoft Dynamics Partners Are Evolving with the Cloud,” by Barb Levisay in Redmond Channel Partner. eSoftware Professionals’ own Gretchen Freeman-Cromar is quoted in the article. See excerpts below.

Build Customer Trust

Most partners get it: There’s a direct relationship between the partner’s concern for the best interest of the client and partner success. As Gretchen Freeman-Cromar, VP of Client Services for the Oregon-based Dynamics VAR eSoftware Professionals, puts it: “We work to cultivate trust by demonstrating that we have a team of experts who want to partner with our clients to make the best use of technology, and not just treat them like a dollar sign.”

As partners look for ideas to refine services offerings to build profitability, a few best practices stand out as bringing significant value to the partner and customer. Read the full article…

The Microsoft Azure platform is here and the roll out of Cloud Computing for Microsoft Dynamics ERP is on the horizon. It seems logical when Dynamics ERP is available through Azure that our practice will no longer be reliant on a third party hosting solution for our clients who want their ERP solution from the cloud. I can’t help but feel that, in the long-term, we’re likely to see a serious change in the way Azure cloud services impacts relationships between resellers and SPLA partners. It’s obvious that Microsoft’s end goal is to help everyone better serve our customers. I doubt it will be the death knell of service provider partnerships. However, it does raise a few questions. We’ll be watching for answers to these questions and more from the market and from Microsoft:

• How will the role of the SPLA partners transform once Microsoft Dynamics ERP is available through Azure?
• What will the cost savings be for the customers?
• What changes will we see in the integration process for rolling out Microsoft Dynamics ERP in the cloud with Azure?

The launch of Dynamics ERP through Azure is slated to bring simple, flexible hosting solutions to the mainstream reseller. It’s touted that the flexibility and functionality of Azure, will enable us to add more horsepower with just a couple of clicks. We’ll also be able to manage the rest of our cloud computing service quickly and easily using the Azure control console.

Take for example, CoreMotives, a Microsoft partner offering marketing automation solutions for companies using Microsoft Dynamics CRM. As the company started to outgrow its server infrastructure, hosted by a third party, customers started experiencing processing delays. CoreMotives migrated its solution to the Azure platform to take advantage of scalable storage, processing power, and hosting by Microsoft. The company was able to increase its scalability, shortened its time-to-market, and improved the infrastructure reliability. Windows Azure serves as the development, service hosting, and service management environment for the Windows Azure platform. It provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage web applications on the Internet through Microsoft data centers.

I believe the Microsoft Azure platform coupled with the power of the Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions will transform our industry and give us the tools to serve our customers better with a more flexible, scalable, and secure solution for hosting ERP in the cloud. I for one can’t wait to see the results.

Jody Leoni is President of eSoftware Professionals – the oldest Microsoft Dynamics NAV ERP solution center in North America. Jody writes about best practices in inventory management, material requirements planning (MRP), top concerns facing food industry executives, as well as best practices in accounting software solutions on this blog and at ERP Software Blog.

To download information from eSoftware Professionals’ FTP server, please begin by accessing an FTP client such as FileZilla or FreeFTP. [This may require downloading FileZilla (a free software program) by going to the website www.filezilla-project.org]. If you need to install an FTP client, follow the Installing FTP client instructions below. If you already have an FTP client installed continue with Accessing the eSoftware FTP Site Manager instructions.

Accessing the eSoftware FTP Site Manager

• Open the FileZilla or other FTP dialog box by going to where you installed it and clicking on FileZilla or other FTP client name [You may see the FTP program in your Start menu or from All Programs as well].
• Enter files.esopro.com for the address or host.
• Enter your unique Username and Password provided to you by eSoftware Professionals.
• Click Quickconnect.
• Once you complete the steps for installing the FTP on your computer, you can create a desktop shortcut that will allow you to click on your FTP icon and you will be immediately set up to connect to our server with one easy step.

You now have access to our ftp site and can begin download procedures below.

Downloading a File via FTP

• You’ll see two columns in FileZilla. On the left is a listing of your local drive labeled: Local site and on the right is the FTP site labeled: Remote site
• Navigate to the folder you want to save the file to in the Local site by double-clicking the folders until you find the appropriate folder
• Click on the name of the folder and/or file you want to download from the right column, Remote site: /files.esopro.com/
  
• Right Click and select Download (if you have multiple files to transfer, select Add files to queue)
• From the Menu, Select Transfer, then Process Queue (or Ctrl-P) to complete the transfer

Installing an FTP Client

• Connect to www.filezilla-project.org
• Click Download FileZilla Client.
• Select FileZilla_3.0.9.1_win32-setup.exe (recommended)
• Program should begin downloading. You may need to click on the pop up bar on the top of the window to allow the program to download.
• Click Run twice
• Click I Agree
• For the next couple options you can click Next
• When you get to destination folder, make sure you put this download in the correct folder where you will be able to find it again and create a shortcut link, (if you so choose).
• Click next and then install.
• Click Finish.

Tip Tuesday: Microsoft Dynamics NAV Tip

If you have already asked yourself the question “Will our ERP system work with computers running Windows 7?”, then you’re probably ready for the next question:

What steps do I need to make before I add Windows 7 computers to the network?

Microsoft Dynamics Tips

As you know, Windows 7 is now the only operating system available for new laptops and computers. Most Dynamics NAV systems will need an upgrade to support Windows 7. To make them compatible, you’ll want to work with your Dynamics NAV partner at eSoftware to upgrade your system. Not to worry, our Dynamics NAV experts have created an Executable Upgrade that will help make it a smooth transition to Windows 7 support.

Here are the steps you’ll need to take for the upgrade.

1. Planning for the Upgrade
   1. Verify your NAV version and licensing.
      You will need NAV 4.0.3.6 or higher to support Windows 7.
      Note: The NAV executable version you can upgrade to will depend upon your database version and other add-ons.
   2. Create a list of the upgrade components on your system for example: Clients, NAS, Database Server, AE, Jet Reports, etc. (Work with your Dynamics NAV partner if needed)
   3. Verify the status of your support plan.
      You need a current support plan for upgrades.
   4. Determine whether you will need to make any other adjustments including:
      – Halting the sync server  prior to the upgrade
      – Is the existing server being upgraded?
      – Notify aidmatrix
      – NAV Licensing, etc.
2. Test Environment Upgrade
   Depending upon the hardware components you are upgrading, your test environment may include a new server or it may simply be one or more client machines. The hardware components you are upgrading will determine whether the test environment can be configured within your network or whether it must be configured internally by eSoftware.
   1. Prepare a recent Backup from your Production Server
   2. Obtain the new NAV executable version from eSoftware.
      – Restore to new executable version onto test environment (or restore to current executable version and reopen in a new version to convert)
   3. Test select process and verify database stability
   4. Create a Backup from the new executable version
3. Production Environment Upgrade
   1. Suspend any systems you identified in step 1.c.
   2. Install new executable files in production environment including client computers, server and all items identified in step 1.a.
   3. Upgrade the executables by restoring to the new executable version (or restore to current executable version and reopen in new version to convert)
   4. Test select process and verify database stability
   5. Restart any systems previously put on hold

We’ll be ready to assist when you’re ready to add new computers running Windows 7 to your Microsoft Dynamics NAV system. Contact your eSoftware Partner today at support@esopro.com.

Note: Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a 32 bit application. 64 bit Windows operation systems support both 32 bit and 64 bit applications. 32 bit applications are supported on 64 bit operating systems via the Windows on Windows (WOW) 32 bit compatibility mode.

Blog Directory

We’ll be watching the Senate and House and the Food Safety Regulations bill which includes stronger government oversight on food safety. The bill would require increased accountability from food companies. They would be required to write food safety plans, in addition to conducting routine food safety tests. It will be even more important for food processors to have fail-safe methods built-in to their quality control programs to reduce the risks of contamination and other safety issues.

Dickinson Frozen Foods was ahead of the curve in food safety when they included an improved Quality Control System in their ERP project last year. Their new Quality Control system now includes product traceability down to the lot level. Product recalls can be processed in minutes instead of hours. And the positive release and fail-safe Quality Control system has a much higher level of reliability and consistency. In fact, Brad Coleman, VP of Quality Assurance and Innovation, at Dickinson was proud to report recently that in the 10 months since implementation there were no incidents where a product shipped in error. The new food quality and food safety system is working flawlessly.

“Huge kudos to eSoftware Professionals for designing a new positive release Quality Assurance system, it helps us deliver the quality products that our customers depend on each and every day.” Brad Coleman.

Stay tuned for more information on the food safety regulation overhaul and other issues affecting food producers and food distributors. For more information on the Senate Bill check out the NY Times Article “Senate Passes Overhaul of Food Safety Regulations”.